ShortCircuit

Nobody thought to check up on Soo-Young yet, after she went missing in the DMZ, got abducted (as far as they know) by the original mutant, AND got a suspiciously-looking rash that reminds me of radioactive disease.

I mean, seriously, show? If SY turns out to be the link to the next season by turning into a child mutant, I'm going to smash things around here.

Edit: PS Also doggie. Don't you dare hurt the doggie, show.

It's a question of who, by now - YDJ's dad, YDJ himself or Lee Hyuk.

I'm glad LH's son turned up to be a good guy after all but he's heading into an active firing zone with no protection and weapons, what's this idiotic action?!

I guess it's either YDJ and SYR get infected too and we'll be moving into second season territory, or JMG kills LH in poetical justice and both die, the end. I don't see JMG turning back to anything human-like after 20 years...

Yup, people are going to die...

Touches, glances and smiles.... I am addicted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLLumzo__GA

There are so many good FMVs out there, for both the drama and the donghua, it's hard to choose from :)

I'm one of those impatient ones, lol. I binged CQL in a a week or so (because while I was obssessed with it, there was still work to be done, and sleep to be had unless I wanted to become a fierce corpse myself, lol), but I seriously could not have resisted waiting. So I am glad to have been able to binge-watch it, even if it meant not partaking in the general enjoyment over it.

Also, in these parts winter means snow, so watching it in the cold, with the snow falling, was an extra pleasure for me - my favourite scene is the one where WWX and LZ are in Cloud Recesses, in the Jingshi, and WWX acknowledges that having LZ as a soulmate throughout his troubled life was enough. That symbolic separation - he in the falling snow, LZ under the awning, and then joining him outside - I can't even begin to tell you how happy it made me. Beautiful scene, beautiful characters, I fell in love even more if that was possible at that time.

I am VERY aware that XZ is in no way at fault for the AO3 problem. As a matter a fact, I had read that the Chinese gov't cracked down on AO3 and there was a great ruckus about it, but I had no idea it involved XZ fans until later. Fan behaviour can be extreme at times, but I think this time they served as only a reason for the gov't to do something they probably intended to do for a long time and it was just very bad luck XZ was caught, innocently, in the crossfire. So I hope people get sane again - particularly as this year sure wasn't lacking in extremely serious problems - and leave off. I wish he was working on more dramas than what MDL is showing, and that he's just keeping it secret. It would be really too bad if he couldn't bank on his well-deserved glowing performance in CQL... *keeping fingers crossed it passes completely soon and he gets all the luck he deserves*

Actually, no, I'm not a newcomer to m/m. I've been watching anime, reading (and watching) yaoi, reading m/m Western-world novels, watching Thai BL dramas and whatnot, for a long time. I appreciate a lot of them, some of them not so much (some Thai dramas for example are pretty formulaic and don't stand on plot but on cute boys having some steamy scenes). But there are some gems from time to time - like SK "The King and the Clown" (that made me become a Lee Joon Gi fan instantly, lol), Thai "Theory of Love" (I know the two ML were established in the industry, but I first saw them there, and I really liked the way the story moved), and now also Thai "I told the Sunset About You", which depending on how they pull it through, might become a favourite too, and Japanese "30-year old Virgin Magic", which is also pretty cute :)

But none of them seriously compare with CQL. Not in terms of plot, of production values, of music, of fleshing out side charas, of chemistry between the leads and most of the crew... I couldn't believe there could be such a great full-length drama - and a Chinese one, to boot, so pretty much fully censored - to manage all these things basically perfectly and deliver on all promises. They couldn't have made it better if they were allowed to use the full novel, up to and including the sexier scenes. For my fujoshi soul, I'd have loved to see a kiss, but it is perfect as it is, without it, lol. The audio drama supplies all the steam I'd have wanted, too :D

As the time approaches, I am getting tense for "Immortality". I know the actors can do it, but I hope the script - and the rest of the production - delivers, too. I don't know when they started preparing, and if the producers wanted to ride the CQL wave, but I hope they took the proper time to block all things where they should be, and not make a rush out of it.

LYX was perfect in "Ashes of Love", wasn't he? I kind of didn't care about the main couple, after their stint in the human world, lol, and focused mainly on Run Yu's story. He's perfect for tragic roles, and strangely, for comedy too. Are you watching "Love is Sweet"? It started like a kind of trope-filled office romance but then they unleashed the LYX smile, lol, and there we went. Bai Lu is great as a counterpart, so I'm having a lot of fun watching them together.

As for CFY, I haven't even started "Legend of Awakening" - I'm still flowing with the "Ever Night" vibe, and I think he did a great job there. I couldn't keep with the second season, without him, because it didn't even feel similar (and about half the cast was changed, too). He could be MR, if given a good chance... Here's hoping nothing goes wrong.

But in the meantime... They have at least three dramas with XZ. We should have at least one of them air this year...

Pretty please with a cherry on top, Chinese drama TV stations! :D

This is my favourite one at this time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzdtZiuwChM

Have you seen it? :)

I looked at your watched-list and the ratings you gave them. Based on that, you're probably going to like TU.

What's the story about? Well, it's a romance, very subtle at times and completely in your face at other times, depending on how you choose to accept it. It's a tale of revenge and it's a tale about what family means, it's a story about friendship and sacrifice and redemption. It starts out like a friendly school-setting comedy and then quickly turns to tragedy - but it's so worth it to watch it to its eventual happy end.

I've watched a lot of Chinese dramas lately, from the newer batch, that is, and I can tell you this one stands out as the best of them all. There are a few aspects that might seem not up to what other dramas offer - maybe a few FX here and there - but none other can match it in terms of consistence of plot, development of characters, side-plots tied up and watcher's satisfaction. And some of the best characters I've ever seen in a drama.

As for production values - as I said, maybe a few of the FX might have been better, but they don't matter at all in context - it has beautiful cinematography and sets, great costumes, extraordinary and haunting music, perfect cast chemistry (not just the leads), and a certain tone of realism that I didn't find in other wuxia/xianxia dramas.

Give it a try, the sooner the better. If you make it past the few first episodes, where things are being set up, you'll go down the TU rabbit hole with the rest of us :)

Thank you, thank you so much for the links to the TLs! I have so many bookmarks for TLs and MTLs and Gdrive folders, lol, it's been a chore searching and remembering where I was before. And they're pretty long novels too. I have to read on my laptop, I can't make heads or tails of them on a phone screen, lol.

I know all about going down the rabbit hole with CQL, lol. I watched it this past December, after watching a FMV on YT completely randomly, and out of the blue I was forgoing sleep and holidays prep and whatnot, and only watching CQL. I am lucky I found it when it was already finished :D

But then... reading the novel, watching the donghua, watching the chibi donghua, following all FMVs and BTSs and CQL crack videos, and watching basically all I could get of WYB and XZ's past dramas, lol, even if they weren't leads... and then the AO3 thing happened, and I get stressed waiting for it to completely clear, and have XZ be recognized again for his talent.

As I said, it's been a (pretty long) while since a story and its charas caught me so completely. In fact, I don't quite remember when it happened before. I didn't even realize I needed an epic m/m love story and a tale of vengeance and redemption so badly, until I watched the series.

Which is why I have such hope for Immortality... Please be good, show! It all depends on the script and what they did with the story, but as I didn't finish the novel yet, I have no standards to judge them by and I am basically okay with random changes that enhance the tale. Just as long as they keep the spirit of it alive.

Aaaand it helps, IMHO, that LYX is so good-looking and I think if the script does him justice, he'll be great as CWN. I am even ready to grow to like Mo Ran, lol, though his beginning in the novel doesn't endear him to me. I said before, CFY's smirk fits MR's personality, he might be perfect for the role. I wonder if they'll dub over, too - I guess it's safer...

Can't wait for it!...

Song Ji Yang. Yes, he has a certain look - delicate but strong, beautiful poise. I really, really liked him. He could be a great Xie Lian, even if he's a bit young.

...Now you made me want the series to happen, and happen soon, lol.

They even let the freaking roosters in, LOL. And they put in the three bows (instead of two, as in the novel)! They're officially married, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

And oh, the part where the audio drama is voiced by the same voice actors is where we're reaching stratoshphere! I mean, hearing WWX tell LZ "I'll let you do anything you want to me, everyday, from now on", lol, and getting to "Everyday means everyday!" in LZ's own voice. I was floored.

I don't know how franchises work in China, but MXTX should be reigning queen in Wuxia/Xiaxia BL lit. And the crew & cast, for the drama, the audio drama, the donghua and the chibi donghua should get awards heaped on them - because it's all worth it lol.

You're right, I mixed up 2HA and HOB/TGCF (must be that plotline where the TGCF heroes visit the underworld or whatever it can be called, which reminded me of Shizun's time in a circle of hell (after the stairs bit). My bad! (you can't see me, but I'm being embarassed here, lol).

I read MXTX's SVSSS (because after TGMODC, how could I not?!) and I watched the ten eps of the donghua. They're ending the season at 10 right? And I was kind of disappointed because they never even got precisely to the part where SQQ throws LBH in the abyss. So... painfully... close to it! But not... :( It didn't grab me as hard as TGMODC, maybe because there are a few more problematic spins on that tale than I'm comfortable with, but the donghua was good despite the 3D animation (SQQ was simply beautiful, lol, a lot more than LBH :D) Then again... TGMODC set a very high standard.

I've yet to read MXTX's TGCF through, because the TL is kind of complicated to access. But I AM very invested in the story, even if Hua Cheng isn't much in view yet (he comes and goes, as is his habit.) Xie Lian, on the other hand, is a treasure and I can't wait to find out more about him. The part I loved best, so far, is him establishing his new temple out of a broken down house. I wanted to take him home, hug him and call him George LOL. He's way too cute. The donghua, despite being classically animated, somehow seems a bit flat to me. I think they've been stretching the Brides tale too long, and I fear they'll only put in bits of the novel in the first season, however long it is. But I have hope for it :)

MXTX sure loves her horror stuff, though, doesn't she?!... I am not much for horror, and if I thought there were a few too graphic tales in TGMODC, there's plenty more in the other two, too. Yeesh.

For 2HA, I'm also stuck in TL hell. I got as far as their escape from hell (?) because... the stairs. When I was trying to decide if I would read it, I accidentally happened on the stairs chapter. Shizun killed me, he just killed me. I don't quite like Mo Ran, he reminds me of Luo BingHe (maybe that's why I mixed the stories up, lol), but Shizun is the best. But for Shizun's story, I'll read it all, even if I have to go through lots of GDrive chapters and MTL chapters and whatnot.

Can't wait to see Luo YunXi playing Shizun, he's an incredibly beautiful man, and a good actor. Not certain yet about Chen FeiYu, but he was pretty good in Ever Night (didn't watch Legend of Awakening yet, and maybe I won't, just in case he's not good. I don't want to have too high or too low expectations for him). He seems to look the part - up to and including that dangerous smirk.

What I'm hoping for from Immortality is that they find that balance to portray a BL story and make it pass censorship, like TU/CQL did.

Though to be honest... Seriously, how DID they ever get it past the censors?! All those looks and touches, all that was missing were the actual declarations, and they weren't even needed in the end. And even the rest of the characters reacted to the relationship just as they would had it been in the open, lol.

Perfect. Just perfect. No wonder it only gets better on repeated watches, when you're able to catch the small details you might have missed, and go a-HA! over again. It's been a pretty long while since I've been so captivated in a story.

& @SuibianX: I was mentioned here in this discussion that seems to be turning towards a spat, and I just want to clarify one thing.

@ponnu: I did say WWX is clueless, in context of him being oblivious to LZ's obvious interest and pretty glaring jealousy from time to time. I did not say - or mean - that he's clueless in general, and I did actually argue that he is quite thoughtful and protecting other people at all times. I hope that settles that part of the topic.

Also, I myself was impressed with WYB's acting, as I already mentioned. I have seen him in dramas he made even younger, and you can tell that he's grown as an actor. He and XZ spark off each other and that makes the drama even better. I have rarely seen actors who have such a great chemistry. It just so happens that they're both male, that this is a thinly disguised BL story, and I - like many others, probably - kept wondering throughout, "how did they manage to squeeze THIS past the censors?!"

The drama betters the novel in terms of female characters, and yes they are few, but they are most important and you couldn't take any of them out and not miss them. I feel that's impressive in a drama that is mostly about men. My personal favourite is Madam Yu, whom I love and kind of hate with the same passion. I blame most of JC's shortcomings on her.

I also said before, all stories and their presentation are a matter of taste. If this one didn't impress you, then it didn't impress you. And just as you're intitled to your opinion, so are fans of the drama, be they hardcore or not :)

Not speaking for anyone else, but this drama is one of my personal favourites of all times, and I'm pretty sure there won't be anything soon to surpass it (well, I have yet to see "Immortality". But I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it.)

Who is WWX, literally? His father is a lower-rank Jiang Clan member, his mother is a Wanderer (no clan) - and to boot, she was rumoured to have gotten WWX through an amorous relationship with Jiang FengMian (it's obvious WWX doesn't believe it, but Madam Yu did and made his life harder because of it.) Despite having been ranked 4th before the Burial Mounds period, he has no actual political power - and when he needs it most, he doesn't even have much physical power. He can't fight everybody.

What CAN he practically do in order to convince ALL the clans (the Jins are the richest and most powerful, which is why they got elected as rulers over the other clans, which were in process of trying to rebuild; it has no relation to ethics and righteousness) that the Wen people are not all guilty?

He couldn't even convince JC, who, alongside him, owes them his life and sanity. And JC is his brother. The hatred ran so deep, that despite JC knowing WWX did right by the Wens, he could NOT be seen as agreeing to any of it, or risk becoming a pariah himself.

As for why he didn't look for WQ and WN before she came looking for help - he's not their keeper. He owed them, and paid back that debt in spades, but no one is required to keep track of people they owe debts too. WQ is pretty resourceful, he might have imagined she would do without him. And he had his own problems - the Sunshot Campaign was over, but Lotus Pier was still derelict, and he had no more power to actually help JC rebuild it as he had promised. Add to that his rift with LZ, the fact that people feared him but he had no more actual friends to turn to, AND he couldn't speak up against bad things happening around him, in order to protect JC, JYL and the promise of a future Jiang Clan revival...

He is an awesome, bounce-back scrappy fighter but not a god.

And it goes further to prove that he's actually pretty calculated when needs be - and can restrain himself for other people's sake. When he's risking life and limb, he does so by himself, and that's why he's a hero. When facing such adversity, most would cling to safety and family and comfort - WWX gets in alone and comes out a victor, even if his standing in the world is destroyed by it.

JGY did NOT guilt WWX into anything - nobody ever did. Except himself, in a memorable chapter close to the end of the novel, when he realizes what he has been doing to LZ in his second life. JGY was needling JC, and succeeding, because JC is an insecure person who (at that time) KNOWS the huge debt he owes WWX, while at the same time carrying a life-time envy and even hate for very good reasons (I mean, WWX did unintentionally kill off JZ and JYL and the whole Jiang Clan.)

Nobody respected WWX for his demonic powers either - but they did fear him a lot, and his Tyger Amulet most of all. The ones who were irked by his attitude were the Jins, but they aimed at replacing the Wens and didn't want any problem while doing it. The Jin leader is a scumbag, and his end well deserved, and Jin Zixuan aside, pretty much everybody around him were no better. WWX could not risk asking them politely anything - don't you remember, the Wen had burned down Cloud Recesses, where all the clans sent their sons to be educated for YEARS but the Jins, the only clan powerful enough to counter them, didn't raise a finger UNTIL the Lans and the Jiangs and the Nies already mounted up a resistance. Why would they have allowed WWX to save people who in their eyes are guilty of massacres, despite these particular Wens having no part in it? They - all of them, not just the Jin Clan - would have destroyed the Jiang Clan, nobody would have ever joined them again.

So WWX took it on himself to do the right thing and even pretended JC's actions did not influence him, so he - JC - could save face. He did it so that all the blame didn't taint the Jiang Clan, and never claimed any other way. Those who could see it for what it was, did, for the rest, he didn't care anyway.

There WAS no peaceful way... And he didn't have time to try and gain favour because WN was dying right then.

Err... no. Wei WuXian IS clueless. And he's actually pretty thoughtful considering his upbringing and age (except where it concerns romance and romantic feelings, where he's a wrecking ball).

Just consider - he takes every precaution to not involve anyone innocent in his misdeeds, he tries to shelter JC and JYL from anything dangerous, up to and including rumours, he shoulders all the responsibility for his choice on aiding the Wen Clan (WQ's side of them at least) exactly because he knows JC can't get involved, him being the leader of the Jiang Clan and having the duty of building back the clan. (I mean - WN saved JC from the Wen clan at great risk to himself, he and WQ sheltered the Jiang kids while the rest of the clan was actively hunting them down, WQ basically saved the rest of JC's life with the operation she did - I'm not saying what it is, because I can't tell how much you got from watching the drama and I don't want to spoil in case you want to re-watch.) JC is body-and-soul indebted to her and her brother, but he can't be acting to help them out. So WWX does it instead and won't even tell him so he's spared any side-tainting from it.

The MianMian thing is a joke - but before and after that, remember the medicine he saved particularly for LZ's wound, and keeping him company while LZ is mourning for his family and Cloud Recesses, and the care he's showing him in LZ's drunken bouts. The care he takes in trying to keep LZ from his problems in his second life, even ready to pretend to have tricked him in order to spare his reputation.

It's the small gestures that matter - and LZ has also plenty of them. And some grand gestures, too, lol.

It's an epic love story, what can I say. I like both of them, but WWX is my favourite - he's like mercury, always moving, always bright, addicting. They make the perfect opposites-attract kind of couple :)

Well, he's not the POV MC, so to speak. We watch the story unfold from WWX's POV, so most of what LZ does, thinks or feels is hidden (in the novel, too, except for the last few, more romantic-inclined, chapters. And the extras to the novel - there are a few chapters that shed a lot of light on WHY he did what he did as a teen or young man, and about his unspoken dedication to WWX even in his first life.)

And, I don't know if you caught on... but WWX is CLUELESS. Mind-blowing, face-palming, rage-inducting clueless, LOL. (Yes, even in the novel. That, "You like MianMian!" didn't happen in a vacuum, lol. And he's guilty of far worse acts in front of LZ's infatuation with him. )

The novel clarifies things a bit (I read it after watching the drama, but to be honest, I didn't need the extra explanations, it was pretty clear who loved whom better and longer but then again, I am used to tsundere characters.) As a tsundere charater, LZ is pretty obvious - and he does have a lot of things to do, and grows as a character immensely from the first flashback note to the last scene.

But, it's a thing of taste and / or personal inclination, honestly. I find LZ (as portrayed by WYB, or in the donghua, or in the novel) fascinating, though obviously WWX is the most interesting character there. But the drama does a better job at fleshing out side-charas than even the novel did - like Wen Qing, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YangLi, even Jin Zixuan. And I have a fascination with Ouyang Zizhen who is basically invisible in the novel, lol.

The novel is clearer than that. WWX's death happened 13 years ago, the first flashback is from 16 years ago, so all the rest of the story in the flashback took about 3 years to happen.

Why they changed it in the drama, I can't tell you. Maybe they were trying not to confuse people with different timelines (in the novel there are more than one flashback, the whole story in the past is told in more pieces while the present story is ongoing.) If you ever get interested in the donghua or the novel, they follow the novel timeline and might be clearer if you don't like the drama one. The donghua also involves a lot - and I mean, a LOT - more of the gore and blood things from the novel, though not all. Definitely includes the freaking undead attacking people (which aren't there all that much in the drama) and more gruesome deaths of certain villain characters. WWX is also greyer in the donghua (more similar to the novel, again) than the shiny hero he appears as in the drama. Still one of the best charas ever, though.

Personally, I prefer the drama timeline, because it packs a bigger punch than the pieced-timeline of the novel. I also am not much for gore and zombies and whatnot, so I also appreciated the lack of them in the drama too (love the donghua, but I'd rather see less horror stuff than more).

I read your review on TU - so sad you found WYB's portrayal of LZ so lacking. I wasn't convinced he could do it, in the beginning (particularly in the first two eps, before the flashback starts) but then I was amazed by his ability to show emotions through the smallest change in his eyes and face. Xiao Zhan's WWX was an ebulient, mischievous, ten-thousand-watt-smile character you CAN'T help but fall for, even when he's doing something bad, but LZ was the cool, distanced, quiet person so whenever he shows any hint of emotion, you know he is deeply affected. By then end of TU, I could "guess" his feelings from his microemotions, and felt he was always easy to read, if you knew how. We should make a Read-Lan-WangJi's-Emotions club and select Lan Xichen (Lan Huan) as club leader :D

I didn't catch that - she might have given him her name for various reasons, that made him not be too interested in his father (being told the father neglected/rejected him, for example, would play some games with a boy's mind if he grew up fatherless.) He knows his father was a soldier and nothing more, I think.

I'd rather not have any surprise dads involved in here, but after HDS' visit to mom's restaurant, I kind of expect it.

The NK child is SYR, the doctor confirmed it somewhere in ep 2 or 3.

YDJ might not be the son of any of the soldiers involved in the incident. And JMG beside, there was another wounded SK soldier that Lee Hyuk executed, I think he was carrying the phone/radio? In the recorded images, he's trying to crawl away after LH executes JMG and LH shoots him in the back too.

He's so under the radar, he might be YDJ's father, if any, lol.

Yes, YDJ said so... But it was kind of out of the blue. They've known for a while that the rabies mutated virus was canine-born and spread, and it didn't occur to them that the smell sensitivity might transfer. And the antidote syringes, too, that might have not worked but did (or did they?)

Problem is - for me - that if the virus that mutated and infected the NK deserter was the rabies virus, why would he not abhorr water too? It's one of the easiest to recognize signs of rabies in animals. But while he got sensitive to smells, he had no problem with water, even using it as an entry corridor into the village.

I'm hoping there's a good explanation, or at least a good try.