ShortCircuit

Theirs is a strange relationship. I mean, it makes sense for WWX and YanLi to call him Jiang Cheng or A-Cheng, but Jiang Cheng almost never calls WWX as Wei Ying either (at least I don't remember him calling him by his private name, LOL). YanLi, too, she only calls him A-Xian. I guess since he's adopted and basically martial siblings with them, they feel they have to respect him a bit more, as much as Lan XiChen does toward LWJ (he always calls him WangJi, too, never Zhan).

As for why everyone ELSE calls Jiang Cheng as Jiang Cheng... I assumed that was his actual courtesy name, LOL, and WanYin his private name.

Now that I think about it, LWJ always tries NOT to use any of Jiang Cheng's names, LOL, he's mostly calling him Jiang Lord or Master, and only once he calls him Jiang WanYin (on the rock where WWX falls from). Which makes me wonder why everybody else who were not family thought it would be okay, them being overly friendly with his name, and if that also played a part in his feeling of inferiority towards WWX.

Dammit, at the end of 16th, they set up five red flags all at once, with that scene about the future. Now they're all marked for maybe-not-making-it.

... I read that as Record of Lodoss War. Yes I'm that old.

I've only watched her in Namib, she was completely emotionless. I was not impressed. The plot was also a mess, but that's another thing - acting skill shouldn't rely on good plots (and the younger cast did what they could even with the bad script).

I guess people are allowed duds in their careers, but this was the drama before Mantis, so I guess I should also be allowed to wonder if I want to spend my time on it. The source is pretty strong, though, and with a good writer and director this could also be good. I just don't know if I want to invest time in it, that's all, based on my own previous experience with the cast.

ETA Your comment made me go look, the writer for this kdrama adaptation of The Mantis ONLY wrote movies before (I hope they have the skills to write a longer form and keep the plot together) and the director doesn't have much experience with dramas either. She DID direct Black Out, that is one of the better kdramas I've watched lately, so I'll give HER the benefit of the doubt. Still, I'll wait to see initial impressions before deciding.

For such a smart guy, Xiao BeiMing keeps getting ahead of himself, deciding who the killer is, taking action and then oops my bad he discovers things aren't as simple as he thought. Sooner or later he's going to get someone killed. Zhuge KongYun might be a bit slower, but that also means he's not as rash as XBM.

I hoped XBM would have learned to pace himself and THINK twice before making a move, but I guess that's who he is and he can't change it.

Anyway - 9 eps in, this is GREAT so far!

It totally KILLED me they filmed most of ep 8 (General Huo's home) in the same set as the Lan Clan of Cloud Recesses (that room with the guardian lanterns is freaking iconic, and the General "destroyed" one of the lanterns. I know they probably had a copy of it there but still... LOL). That distracted me a bit.

Anyway, I REALLY REALLY hope already Xiao BeiMing and Zhuge KongYun get to be friends, they have an amazing relationship (or at least ZKY does, he's so obsessed with XBM LOL).

They're also colour-coded, all the clans wear different colours, they're easily told apart once you notice (Lan - light blue, Wen - red, Jin - gold, Jiang - dark blue/purple, etc). Except for WWX, he wears black usually (but with a hint of red because it's striking and everything about WWX stands out anyway LOL).

Thank you :) but I'm not an expert, this is basically info gathered since watching TU (and reading the novel and then reading A LOT of danmei novels, most of them involving xianxia and/or wuxia), and then getting into a lot of cdramas, even if not danmei-based, LOL. The naming-rules are basically the same in most wuxia/xianxia, it just takes a bit of watching more dramas of this genre and it gets clearer :) (And I too had no idea about most wuxia tropes before TU got me into it LOL.)

For TU, there is a discussion forum above that's been here since before I even joined MDL, I think there are even topics on characters and other things. There's also a wiki (very detailed, as this is one, if not THE most talked-about danmei of them all) but it's also a bit spoilery.

https://modao-zushi.fandom.com/wiki/Grandmaster_of_Demonic_Cultivation_Wiki

(Be warned again that while there are many nice pieces of info, there are also spoilers, lots of them.)

But if you have anything to ask, there is ALWAYS someone in here ready to answer your questions :) I think even if there are not necessarily new comments daily, the fans still stick around (myself included). I hope you'll be one of us after watching the drama (and maybe also getting into all the rest of the adaptations :D)

Which reminds me they keep translating "Da Ge" as "Boss" and it annoys me no end, LOL. I mean, Big Bro just doesn't have the same energy and implies they're a lot more close than just a boss and an underling.

On 6th now, this is great so far.

Trust those who watched it. Nobody fusses THAT much with an adaptation that stays at least partly true to the original, but then... some adaptations only borrow the title of the original and run away with their own ideas.

I finished first ep because it was so short LOL (it's about half an hour long, at most, if you take out the OP/ED).

Anyway, the bro could become a general because he has underlings who will do the hard work for him. He doesn't need to be a great fighter or maybe he'll pretend he got a big wound and can't get his sword up anymore (ha!), so he'll be spared actual combat and come back to Court for his ~merits or something.

The father really doesn't make any sense. It's like he pretended so hard for all her life that she was actually a boy that he forgot she's not and so had her sent to the army (even got her a Master who I don't know what was doing on that lake on that particular day on that particular spot to save her from drowning after being cut through with a sword and falling at a 50 degrees angle from a tall mountain (physics be damned, who's that Newton guy anyway?). I said in a previous comment he must be schizophrenic - maybe he imagined all the time her brother was the one in the army doing stuff. I didn't realise she actually HAD a real brother, I thought he was an imposter her father got duped into believing was his son or poisoned into being crazy to believe it. But I've read comments and it appears in the book there actually is a brother who comes back and personally kills the FL.

Anyway, if 30 minutes give so many tropes (like I could remember another scene from another drama for most of the important scenes in this one, LOL - seen it all before...) yet fails to make any logical sense... I don't really have much hope for it.

Adaptation...

Like what they did to ORV? LOL.

I'll take your point and raise another - so her father FORCED her to grow up as a male (speaking like one, moving like one, getting in the army etc) and THEN out of the blue he's like - LOL nevermind, go back to being a woman BECAUSE WE AS A FAMILY ALWAYS HAVE RESPECTED CONFUCIANISM and a woman's place is in bed/kitchen/being pretty for her man.

I was dumbstruck. It makes ZERO sense for him to switch so fast. At this point I'm like wait - she's a man, why does she have FEMALE dresses around? Who taught her to do makeup? Why is she suddenly moving like a woman in the temple?!

I know people say novel readers don't like this - I didn't read this novel, and I don't intend to... but the start of the drama makes no sense. I don't mind lower budget, but at least they should've picked a logical thread and stuck with it...

To me, it felt like they put a lot of effort in the death scene of his father then they were either forced to do major cuts or clean up the storyline a lot, but didn't want to renounce that scene (and it did look kind of good).

But then they still messed it up with the way they re-filmed (probably, it looks like a reshoot) the interraction between FL and ML. I'm not an expert TBH but still it doesn't look good. Yet, they DO interract, and he does see her as she's presenting - smaller body, fem/androginous voice (she called out to his father), and he's not dumb... is he?

So no, I think that's something either the writer or the editor messed up. And then the Curt scene doesn't add up to that at all. I know it's all exposition and they wanted to get it done in the first ep to move on to the major plot from the second ep, but it's sloppy and definitely not something to be expected from a drama promoted as an alternative to Mulan. (I know it's based on a novel, and I know it has nothing to do with Mulan except the woman-in-the-army thing, but I didn't do the promos).

Actually, that's not a plot hole. They were respecting Confucianism (even ML gives her a lecture on the "keeping safe the body your parents gave you") and so they weren't cutting their hair, boys or girls. I don't know if they kept it as long as cdramas always show it (where it looks way too gorgeous on women OR men all the time, like they're filming haircare commercials LOL), but it WAS a thing for a very long time.

The last he saw her it was a few days/weeks past, when his father died. There's no rational explanation for her growing half a meter taller (basically looking OVER ML LOL), getting twice as big shoulders AND getting a manly voice in that time.

It would have made sense if he hadn't seen her since they were teens. But he actually did.

That was her bodyguard that the brother paid, I think.

The Untamed (2019). ML is reborn. That drama is a hurricane, it put c-ent on the world map like none of the previous hits had done before (there were a few hits - maybe the other one OP is thinking of is "Scarlet Heart".) But then TU is also danmei, big no-no. I don't think it's the rebirth they got mad about.

There doesn't seem to be a ban on rebirth though - "Blossom" aired late last year and the FL is also clearly reborn. I think it's just an excuse to make a drama "fresh" and change it a bit from the novel, if it's based on a novel. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I don't think it works in this one.

The FL in "Blossom" was reborn. The drama aired in December '24. I don't think there's an actual ban on rebirth stories.

I do NOT get it - so her father FORCED her to live as a boy then even go in the army and become a freaking general, then one day he suddenly gets a wanted son out of nowhere and she's supposed to ~respect Confucianism~ and become a girl?!

Like how in hell does that make sense?!

And her mother was in for about 2 minutes, doing basically nothing, the whole family servants' corps KNEW she was a woman and nobody EVER figured it out in the wide world?!

Even the Court scene didn't make any sense - so the ML grew up in the army with the "real" General Feihong and KNOWS her stature and her voice and all, but when a person who's a lot taller and definitely doesn't sound the same appears to bear testimony in Court... his only reaction is to feel betrayed "The General" didn't tell the truth?!

She never ever would pass as a man, mask or not, let's be serious. She doesn't even sport "pretend" muscles to wield that kind of weapons, and in the temple she's suddenly delicate and composed as a young girl (yeah, LOL, she kicks a branch aside, that's manly okay).

So yeah... I'm seriously not convinced. I don't know what went on with the production team and the writing, but the rest of the tech aspects do not impress either.

PS So there's a novel and she's supposed to be reborn after her new sudden bro has her killed?! Why didn't they just use a different actress for the first ep and have the FL come into the ~new~ body?! That could have explained away a lot of inconsistencies.