C-Drama Law #4: The Law of Cliff ImmunityNo protagonist, love interest, or fan-favorite character shall perish…
You forgot
- fall almost all the way down before hitting some tree branch to hang from or some rock nest to grab onto before either landing or being rescued (PoJ had that part too, besides the TWO river landings from a cliff LOL, both survived by the characters).
Also point 2 should allow for amnesia and/or blindness, so they don't recognise their saviours.
Physics doesn't allow anyone to die by falling off a cliff in cdramas. And the corolary is that - if there's no body, there's no death. Them's the rules.
Now she's got 2 confirmed phantoms/personalities in her head. As we have seen so far, she's not just merely imagining…
Yup, she got (at least) two splinters of personality that others seem to be aware of - I mean, Captain Li knew about the maid and didn't act surprised. If the maid died in the past 3 years since he went to work as head guard for the Ye family, he might think there's something wrong with Ye Li - but I think she DID have that separate personality for a long time. The maid has the same bites and fears monkeys too, it might be something traumatic that caused little Ye Li's personality to splinter and make up a maid who is similar to her, in order to survive her fears.
I have a few questions about the plot, please help me find them. 1. Who exactly is captain Li? Her senior from…
From the drama only - 1. Cpt Li is from Lishan but also worked for years for the Ye family, preparing for her to return. They obviously have planned for a long time about what they would do when she gets free from the mountain. She did promise things to the Prince who died, Mo XiuYao's brother. 2. Mostly everybody who left Lishan and was off the mountains 8 years ago are dead. Very few survived hidden, and the painter was one who suffered from being related to the Academy even if for a very short time. She's thinking back to all the others. 3. I don't think they're all dead, but some of them might be. I mean, look at all those letters she's "sending" to the box. It might mean there's nobody to receive them. But at the same time, the Academy is still sealed, so there might not be any reasonable way in or out without too much danger. 4. IMHO she saved herself by imagining she's her Master Zhu and doing what he would've done were he there. Her imaginary maid also is just in her mind - Cpt. Li obviously knows about at least this figment of her imagination, he didn't seem surprised. I think she might have a few either imaginary friends to help in stressful moments, or her mind splintered. What's happening around her is real, though. People are acting outside her own influence sphere, like the Dowager's personal friend doing things - she wouldn't have imagined THAT.
Is there a drama with couple dynamics like wei ying (cheerful and kind) and Lan Zhan (cold and stoic). Or maybe…
Cheerful and sweet/kind plus cold-eyed tsundere love interest is a trope in hetero romance dramas. Exhibit 1: Pursuit of Jade. Exhibit 2: Ashes of Love (we could go on and on and on.)
Now, a DANMEI drama is hard to find in the first place, let alone one that plays on the same dynamic. You'd be a lot more lucky if looking at novels, since not a lot of danmei got dramas before the Chinese censorship tightened the screw on their release. (Because if they ever released 2ha, TU would have had some competition.)
Do you want/need danmei novels recs? 'Cause those are abundant. Starting with the original Mo Dao Zu Shi :D
After just ep1 ('cause no time) - wow. This woman is so beautiful. She's played marrying princesses or not-noble characters so many times, she's still amazing and different each and every time. I think I'm in love.
I liked the introduction. I think this is going to be the second big cdrama hit of the year. I was afraid there won't be a lot of BGM music ('cause it wasn't, in the first family scenes) but I can get quite attached to the chant-like OST they've been playing.
I really really hope this delivers on the premise of the opening ep. Can't wait for a biting-your-nails-waiting airing drama again!
PS I like the kiddie brothers so much, too!! Her own step-bro is so cute and smart, and her husband's lil' bro, too! (I hope I got the relationship right). I want to see more of them, smart cookie kids are the best in cdramas!
Yeah, I'm probably not watching it at the right time for me, but it fell a bit flat at the end.
The solving of the wish's side effects went kind of unexplained , just POOF! Wishing Star GODS!! and that was that. And what did blonde guy mean that A'Hong was his beast? Like, what the hell is he referencing so hard?
Also out of the blue, Li WanZhe wants to leave his mom lil' shop and go be a deep-sea working crew (like, he's a bit lazy isn't he? And knowing marine stuff doesn't work like that, you just read a few books and rote-learn them and that's it, you're hired. I get it he wants to be next to Hama-chan, but Hama-chan is supposedly an experienced fisherman if nothing else, while LWZ's experience is restricted to how many times he rode the ferry to the main island and back.)
The sex scenes still hit all the wrong notes for me, though they did do learn a bit about lighting. But they were mostly meh. IDC if it was your cup of tea, it definitely wasn't mine.
The only character I actually care about, other than the trippy manhua writer, is the blonde POOF!! God. It's like they - the God and his "beast" - just decided this little island out of nowhere is their domain and people should suffer for being silly once in their lifetime and pretending they were actually asking for their lives to be completely disrupted and never put back again. Like WHY?! What's the purpose?! To teach HXY that... wishes?!.... have consequences?!
I WISH FOR A BILLION DOLLARS, BLONDE GOD GUY!! GIVE IT HERE!
Pah!
I seriously wanted to like this one a lot more than I ended up liking it. Particularly after that 9th ep. That one was the best of the drama, IMHO. Too bad the rest was deus-ex-machina-ed in, literally.
Journey With You isn't half-bad. It's a rebirth story, unfinished yet. While not the same emotional hit as TU,…
What @Arthenha says is true, the main ship is het, supposedly (and it does hit now and then), but the true enemies-to-(almost)lovers is between the two MLs. And THEN there's the (not quite lovers) friends-to-enemies bromance (yes the jilted ex is SO jealous of the current love interest LOL, it's clear even if you look at it from the Moon). It's a BL shipper's perfect drama. EVERYTHING goes.
And each and every one of them is a dream-come-true-walking-the-Earth handsome or beautiful. They look like this (no spoilers, just beauty) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F76_ovLgOOM (this clip hides the perfection that is Li Lun, You'll see).
IMHO there are FLs, and my favourite is the Pei SiJing character, but TBH there's more of a sismance than a het romance LOL.
Guys helpp. Recommend me something that I can watch. I loved untamed so much. I finished its novel too. 😭
Journey With You isn't half-bad. It's a rebirth story, unfinished yet. While not the same emotional hit as TU, they're not hiding what it's about. https://mydramalist.com/809412-journey-with-you
Also ongoing and NOT BL, though it's Thai, LOL, - Wu. It's kind of an amazing paranormal story, I didn't even anticipate I'd like it so much. Don't expect BL, I'm saying it again - but it doesn't really need it. There's a lot of chemistry there anyway. https://mydramalist.com/780122-wu
Still not danmei, but sooooo much danmei-coded, LOL, do not miss Fangs of Fortune. Like, seriously. Don't miss this one. It's a smörgåsbord of beautiful people. And then the plot and music and special effects hit. https://mydramalist.com/755301-the-story-of-mystics
Love for Love's Sake is an honest KBL, and it delivers. It's seriously one of the well-made actual series they've done, worth a watch. And the cast are so cute :) https://mydramalist.com/753495-love-supremacy-zone
From the top Thai BL dramas that don't show up on your watched list, I'd recc
My Stand-In (based on Professional Body Double, actually a Chinese danmei novel, modern - you'll love to hate the ML and love on the MC with the rest of us, LOL) https://mydramalist.com/759431-my-stand-in
Top Form - the MC is SO CUTE it hurts. And the story isn't bad either. They're both older actors, and it shows, they have experience and can act. The story is based on a Japanese yaoi manga, so no fear it develops strangely LOL. https://mydramalist.com/780990-top-form
Reset (there's a Chinese drama, too, with BJT, of the same name, but it's definitely not BL. Still, if you stumble upon the Chinese Reset, don't skip it, it's one of the best time paradox/rewind dramas out there). The Thai drama is about rebirth/revenge and the leads' chemistry is off the charts. I'd have loved it more if I wasn't so jealous LOL. https://mydramalist.com/781658-reset
STILL. If you're craving actual DANMEI, other than donghuas, there are plenty more beautiful novels (that aren't yet adapted to drama, sadly). Like there's a long list of greatest danmei that's ever been translated. OTHER than MDZS (TU), there are
1. Ballad of Sword and Wine (Qiang Jin Jiu) by Tang Jiu Qing. This is IMHO the best enemies to lovers story ever. Also the sluttiest little viper MC ever. I love this guy. He could torture me to death any day. Highly recommended. 2. The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha/hyx) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat. This is the bloodiest dogblood twisted danmei that was ever written. There's even a drama ALREADY FILMED but forever shelved probably, because Chinese censors hate us, that's why. (And the leads would have been Luo YunXi and Chen FeiYu, can you FEEL that pain?! T_T) Anyway. Everybody needs to hurt with the rest of us. Read this book. It won't disappoint. 3. The Scum-Villain's Self-Saving System by MXTX (author of MDZS). Because it's HILARIOUS. I mean roll-dead-still-laughing-funny. And the ML is a crybaby LOL. There's a first season of the donghua for this one, still hilarious you can try to see if you like it.
And then, rolling-of-the-top-of-my-head (sorry, I read a lot), Heaven Official's Blessing (there's also two seasons of the donghua for this), Copper Coins (dragons!!), Rebirth of a Movie Star (one of my favourite rebirth novels), There's Something Wrong With the Chief (little madmen and little assassins go together LOL), Sa Ye / Running Free (beautiful coming-of-age danmei), A Certain Someone (this because there's already a drama covering the first half of the novel - The On1y One), How to Survive as a Villain, Dinghai Fusheng (there's a donghua for this one, too), Golden Terrace (another enemies-to-lovers), Married Thrice to Salted Fish (this will take your heart, wring it well and then cut it in a million pieces, but it's a HEA, like most danmei, so don't worry LOL), and so on, and so forth. I could go on for hours hahaha~
Anyway, hoping this long rant gave you a direction for a bit. Though fair warning - there's nothing in dramaland (or not yet) to overpass TU.
Can i pick your brain on something please? So i am currently on episode 4 and Mr Lu has powers but the immortals…
He didn't come back to life, he didn't die. The marriage blood-tie with Xin Mei helped him survive the lingchi.
He doesn't see colours, can't taste anything much, doesn't feel pain, etc - that is the curse of the War Demon race. They were supposed to get rid of it after a thousand years but the Gods left and the bridge to heaven was destroyed so they remained like that. They tried to raise the bridge again to reach the Divine Realms and lift the curse and it needed a lot of lives spent - that's the war back then everyone is referencing, and why mortals and cultivators alike hate War Demons.
LQQ found another way to get rid of the curse and is taking his time to go through all the changes in order to become mortal and gain all the things he's missing - seeing in colour among them.
I totally did not see the ROKA Saja Boys' version of Soda Pop but this time about riceballs coming. And they even recruited SeokHo, LOL. That was amazing (and sounded good, too).
Next time do the ROKA Saja Boys' version of Your Idol. The eerie female-voiced war chant theme that totally doesn't sound lifted from the trailer of Dune 3 or The Odyssey or something would be a good intro LOL.
3 
But man, is Rose so pretty. I'd turn for bi her any day. And she has such a great personality too. They should legalise polymarriages too.
- fall almost all the way down before hitting some tree branch to hang from or some rock nest to grab onto before either landing or being rescued (PoJ had that part too, besides the TWO river landings from a cliff LOL, both survived by the characters).
Also point 2 should allow for amnesia and/or blindness, so they don't recognise their saviours.
Physics doesn't allow anyone to die by falling off a cliff in cdramas. And the corolary is that - if there's no body, there's no death. Them's the rules.
1. Cpt Li is from Lishan but also worked for years for the Ye family, preparing for her to return. They obviously have planned for a long time about what they would do when she gets free from the mountain. She did promise things to the Prince who died, Mo XiuYao's brother.
2. Mostly everybody who left Lishan and was off the mountains 8 years ago are dead. Very few survived hidden, and the painter was one who suffered from being related to the Academy even if for a very short time. She's thinking back to all the others.
3. I don't think they're all dead, but some of them might be. I mean, look at all those letters she's "sending" to the box. It might mean there's nobody to receive them. But at the same time, the Academy is still sealed, so there might not be any reasonable way in or out without too much danger.
4. IMHO she saved herself by imagining she's her Master Zhu and doing what he would've done were he there. Her imaginary maid also is just in her mind - Cpt. Li obviously knows about at least this figment of her imagination, he didn't seem surprised. I think she might have a few either imaginary friends to help in stressful moments, or her mind splintered. What's happening around her is real, though. People are acting outside her own influence sphere, like the Dowager's personal friend doing things - she wouldn't have imagined THAT.
Exhibit 1: Pursuit of Jade.
Exhibit 2: Ashes of Love
(we could go on and on and on.)
Now, a DANMEI drama is hard to find in the first place, let alone one that plays on the same dynamic. You'd be a lot more lucky if looking at novels, since not a lot of danmei got dramas before the Chinese censorship tightened the screw on their release. (Because if they ever released 2ha, TU would have had some competition.)
Do you want/need danmei novels recs? 'Cause those are abundant. Starting with the original Mo Dao Zu Shi :D
Niran: No I'm not, eat your veggies.
Pete: Tsundere, tsundere, tsundere.
Niran: GRRRRR
Pete: See? You're being tsundere again.
These guys. I can't even
That guy with the phosphorus, LOL, ~greetings from the Lishan Academy~ hahaha, let him know who to snitch to Meng Po on :D
EVERY time she calls him "Mo XiuYao" I'm hearing "Mo XuanYu". Am I the only one? It keeps throwing me for a loop, hahaha~
I liked the introduction. I think this is going to be the second big cdrama hit of the year. I was afraid there won't be a lot of BGM music ('cause it wasn't, in the first family scenes) but I can get quite attached to the chant-like OST they've been playing.
I really really hope this delivers on the premise of the opening ep. Can't wait for a biting-your-nails-waiting airing drama again!
PS I like the kiddie brothers so much, too!! Her own step-bro is so cute and smart, and her husband's lil' bro, too! (I hope I got the relationship right). I want to see more of them, smart cookie kids are the best in cdramas!
Also out of the blue, Li WanZhe wants to leave his mom lil' shop and go be a deep-sea working crew (like, he's a bit lazy isn't he? And knowing marine stuff doesn't work like that, you just read a few books and rote-learn them and that's it, you're hired. I get it he wants to be next to Hama-chan, but Hama-chan is supposedly an experienced fisherman if nothing else, while LWZ's experience is restricted to how many times he rode the ferry to the main island and back.)
The sex scenes still hit all the wrong notes for me, though they did do learn a bit about lighting. But they were mostly meh. IDC if it was your cup of tea, it definitely wasn't mine.
The only character I actually care about, other than the trippy manhua writer, is the blonde POOF!! God. It's like they - the God and his "beast" - just decided this little island out of nowhere is their domain and people should suffer for being silly once in their lifetime and pretending they were actually asking for their lives to be completely disrupted and never put back again. Like WHY?! What's the purpose?! To teach HXY that... wishes?!.... have consequences?!
I WISH FOR A BILLION DOLLARS, BLONDE GOD GUY!! GIVE IT HERE!
Pah!
I seriously wanted to like this one a lot more than I ended up liking it. Particularly after that 9th ep. That one was the best of the drama, IMHO. Too bad the rest was deus-ex-machina-ed in, literally.
They're freaking hilarious, starving from not eating (anything but rice) for a day. A single day.
YDH, channeling Jack Sparrow: BUT THE CHICKEN BREAST?! WHERE'S MY CHICKEN BREAST!?
And each and every one of them is a dream-come-true-walking-the-Earth handsome or beautiful. They look like this (no spoilers, just beauty) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F76_ovLgOOM (this clip hides the perfection that is Li Lun, You'll see).
IMHO there are FLs, and my favourite is the Pei SiJing character, but TBH there's more of a sismance than a het romance LOL.
So yeah, do dive right in :D
https://mydramalist.com/809412-journey-with-you
Also ongoing and NOT BL, though it's Thai, LOL, - Wu. It's kind of an amazing paranormal story, I didn't even anticipate I'd like it so much. Don't expect BL, I'm saying it again - but it doesn't really need it. There's a lot of chemistry there anyway.
https://mydramalist.com/780122-wu
Still not danmei, but sooooo much danmei-coded, LOL, do not miss Fangs of Fortune. Like, seriously. Don't miss this one. It's a smörgåsbord of beautiful people. And then the plot and music and special effects hit.
https://mydramalist.com/755301-the-story-of-mystics
Love for Love's Sake is an honest KBL, and it delivers. It's seriously one of the well-made actual series they've done, worth a watch. And the cast are so cute :)
https://mydramalist.com/753495-love-supremacy-zone
From the top Thai BL dramas that don't show up on your watched list, I'd recc
My Stand-In (based on Professional Body Double, actually a Chinese danmei novel, modern - you'll love to hate the ML and love on the MC with the rest of us, LOL)
https://mydramalist.com/759431-my-stand-in
Top Form - the MC is SO CUTE it hurts. And the story isn't bad either. They're both older actors, and it shows, they have experience and can act. The story is based on a Japanese yaoi manga, so no fear it develops strangely LOL.
https://mydramalist.com/780990-top-form
Reset (there's a Chinese drama, too, with BJT, of the same name, but it's definitely not BL. Still, if you stumble upon the Chinese Reset, don't skip it, it's one of the best time paradox/rewind dramas out there). The Thai drama is about rebirth/revenge and the leads' chemistry is off the charts. I'd have loved it more if I wasn't so jealous LOL.
https://mydramalist.com/781658-reset
STILL. If you're craving actual DANMEI, other than donghuas, there are plenty more beautiful novels (that aren't yet adapted to drama, sadly). Like there's a long list of greatest danmei that's ever been translated. OTHER than MDZS (TU), there are
1. Ballad of Sword and Wine (Qiang Jin Jiu) by Tang Jiu Qing. This is IMHO the best enemies to lovers story ever. Also the sluttiest little viper MC ever. I love this guy. He could torture me to death any day. Highly recommended.
2. The Husky and his White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha/hyx) by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat. This is the bloodiest dogblood twisted danmei that was ever written. There's even a drama ALREADY FILMED but forever shelved probably, because Chinese censors hate us, that's why. (And the leads would have been Luo YunXi and Chen FeiYu, can you FEEL that pain?! T_T) Anyway. Everybody needs to hurt with the rest of us. Read this book. It won't disappoint.
3. The Scum-Villain's Self-Saving System by MXTX (author of MDZS). Because it's HILARIOUS. I mean roll-dead-still-laughing-funny. And the ML is a crybaby LOL. There's a first season of the donghua for this one, still hilarious you can try to see if you like it.
And then, rolling-of-the-top-of-my-head (sorry, I read a lot), Heaven Official's Blessing (there's also two seasons of the donghua for this), Copper Coins (dragons!!), Rebirth of a Movie Star (one of my favourite rebirth novels), There's Something Wrong With the Chief (little madmen and little assassins go together LOL), Sa Ye / Running Free (beautiful coming-of-age danmei), A Certain Someone (this because there's already a drama covering the first half of the novel - The On1y One), How to Survive as a Villain, Dinghai Fusheng (there's a donghua for this one, too), Golden Terrace (another enemies-to-lovers), Married Thrice to Salted Fish (this will take your heart, wring it well and then cut it in a million pieces, but it's a HEA, like most danmei, so don't worry LOL), and so on, and so forth. I could go on for hours hahaha~
Anyway, hoping this long rant gave you a direction for a bit. Though fair warning - there's nothing in dramaland (or not yet) to overpass TU.
He doesn't see colours, can't taste anything much, doesn't feel pain, etc - that is the curse of the War Demon race. They were supposed to get rid of it after a thousand years but the Gods left and the bridge to heaven was destroyed so they remained like that. They tried to raise the bridge again to reach the Divine Realms and lift the curse and it needed a lot of lives spent - that's the war back then everyone is referencing, and why mortals and cultivators alike hate War Demons.
LQQ found another way to get rid of the curse and is taking his time to go through all the changes in order to become mortal and gain all the things he's missing - seeing in colour among them.
Next time do the ROKA Saja Boys' version of Your Idol. The eerie female-voiced war chant theme that totally doesn't sound lifted from the trailer of Dune 3 or The Odyssey or something would be a good intro LOL.
:D