Skibbies

7.8, highest it was 8.1 i think? it's really good for modern romcom on douban.

While Tian Ya Ke is a small ip compared to other priest's novels, but she's still a high profile author, she can easily be top 3 when it comes to BL author, esp since she already had two popular adaptations (Legend of Fei and Guardian, they bombed in other aspects but they are certainly popular) So TYK was actually part of BL 101. I legit didn't know KaH existed till it came out, because it's I think original script? BL dramas actually work better if you don't use big name actors lol, because people are less likely to have certain image of you, i do think WoH's actors are smidge more well known, but that's just me.

Mango as a platform is about 1/2 of youku, 1/4 of iqiyi/wetv, and heavily relies on variety shows for subscriptions rather than dramas. Last year they got lot of members for a WILDLY popular variety show (jiejie) so that might have helped last year's dramas too. Republican dramas aren't as popular domestically either, but at least they are watched pretty frequently, while internationally you are lucky to get 1/10 to watch it. International audience's preference is historical >>> modern >>>>>>>> republican or something. With Immortality and Winner is King are likely delayed (rumour mill), BL fans will probably discover KaH, a lot of people like watching dramas when they finish subbing after all.

If you are up for it, another republican drama Winter Begonia might be right up your ally. Based on a BL novel, and the drama isn't really romance oriented since one of the ML has a wife (she exists in the novel too! it was an arranged marriage for a purpose), but the two ML share a bond I genuinely would call soulmate. The cinematography, writing, acting and editing were all top notch, so see if you can get into it :)

it's airing tomorrow so you won't be able to find it. there' Ace vs Ace next week too. This week they've been busy doing hour long interviews and promotion at various platforms which got livestreamed but I don't think those get eng subbed.

not blood related great grandson. it's convoluted.

Domestically, i'm pretty sure it's a mangotv issue. For a mangotv drama to be popular, you have to be exceptionally good and hit it off with large group of people, I only remember a timetravelling school drama that did last year. All the other popular dramas I know are either primtime hunan tv dramas or they broadcast on other platforms too. BL dramas, esp one set in republican times where things are painful and likely end badly, is niche amongst a niche. You can be undderrated gem without promotion, but you usually can't be wildly popular without promotion. I just looked on douban to see its score that came out fairly late, and it's not that good, esp if you consider BL dramas are rated smidge higher generally, so it's just not hitting cnetizens' palate.

it has happened before, usually from influx of ratings, esp from new accounts. even if it unlocks, i doubt it'll drop below 8 so good regardless.

As for Long Ballad, that's an expected score, I wouldn't be surprised to see it lower honestly. 6 is just really normal score for your average dramas lol.

there's no episodes today. it started airing last week on thursday, so it was thurs & fri, then there was a break, the regular schedule is mon - wed.

she's his manager, because he's a child actor so yeah everything goes through her. It doesn't mean he won't do kiss scenes, can we not extrapolate? It just explains why he hasn't had kiss scenes before? He hasn't really starred in romance dramas much.

She has non dubbed modern dramas I think? HK actors almost all speak cantonese, I know because every single time I'm distracted by their lip movements being totally off LOL.

If you don't practice your lines, you just get mocked endlessly by fandom lol. Also more importantly it's part of their job to do so? Saying the lines with the right diction and emotion is part of the performance and usually help everyone get into the scene.

Young Blood has what you are looking for with Changge, if you need something to fill in the time while wating for updates.

he was one of the few bright spots in unrequited love! a natural at comedy relief but really damn good at emotional scenes when it's needed too.

YES! Isn't it amazing! there were a lot of visual motifs that you could analyse too, which I don't see too often in dramas.

WKW's role in the new drama is producer, so idk if that means he sort of supervise the directing or they just put up his name for marketing purpose, maybe something in between too.

If you are talking about Huace, it's a big big biiiiig company with lot of subsidiaries. It has made plenty of successful and popular dramas before (most of the popular modern romance basically), the currently airing You Are My Hero is also Huace and it's definitely spending all its money worth, the script is fine, the acting is fine, the casting could be bit better but it worked out quite well.

If you are talking about tencent, well that's a platform and they themselves have two subsidiaries that's involved in dramas usually (they compete against each other), but tencent tend to get other production companies to actually make the drama, it's more involved with pre-production and marketing and such, but tencent IS known for dumping massive amount of money into ?????? what even is this? Anyways, they produce massive amount of dramas due to how they operate, there's projects that absolutely waste the suppose budget like LoF, but there's plenty that comes out fantastic on low budget. (My Heroic Husband is supposingly A rank by tencent, Xinli/New Classics Media made it, sold it to iqiyi and got S rank marketing and is the most popular drama this year so far)

You Are My Glory is a tencent drama, idk what other dramas the other production company has made but the drama is short and have a strong novel base and it's modern romance, little room to screw up. I think imperial College will be fine since it's a romcom, Zhao Lusi's new drama Who Rules the World is probably more worrying, because she's a miscast, and the novel is rather dated and difficult to adapt (it's the most mary sue and overpowered novel i've seen to be honest, it's fun but woof that's rough.) Or any of the other tencent big popular historical slated to air.

she's more like revived from the plant, naked would make sense, but that wouldn't fly in a drama, so they make do. maybe it's her clothes from before :P

Oh no, Ni Ni is even older, and yeah it wouldn't work with Wu Lei. Wu Lei was last min replacement which is kind of rough. Definitely wish there's less of mismatch (face looking-wise, it's not even age, Wu Lei having baby face and child actor image definitely didn't help though.)

I saw suggestion of Jiang Yiyi if you keep Wu Lei, not sure who to match with Dilireba but there's plenty of actors that'd be far less jarring.

I know they took pay cuts but it still sound too little to me since that amounts to 50mil? i was thinking 70 or 80mil. oh well *shrug* just found budget interesting since I saw fair amount drama budgets recently and they are all way higher than I thought. I saw 100mil for Marry Me, and the lead actors aren't that much more well known than this drama's.

the other productions have that high budget because they are tencent projects, it likes to dump massive amount of money into projects, and they are all S rank, so that's why they have more money invested, they thought the ip/production have more potential.

BUT I would also like to mention that the budget is a rumour budget (from someone that guesstimate it on bilibili? or they saw the rumour and mentioned, idk). and it's just way too low even for low budget dramas, woolong nuts also added supposingly 20mil, there's no way this could be filmed with 30mil, 50mil is a real stretch too. Financial statements (for companies that are listed on stock market) have budgets for other dramas, the lowest I saw recently was 70mil for 24 ep historical, but there's other that's around 100mil. Young Blood's director (42 ep historical) mentioned theirs was about 90mil (in house mangotv production). Also A rank Youku drama Rattan (30 ep), which is modern fantasy with lot of on location shooting was rumoured to be 90mil. So I'd think it's more likely to be around that amount.

someone on weibo showed how much they reused certain scenes by changing the lighting and filming at certain angle for it to be most cost effective, which is very clever.

it just depend on who they hire. I recently watched a drama with spectacular directing and cameraworks, but I don't think it has subs (it's Advisor Alliance's director). Rattan/Goodbye My Princess' director left an impression on me, largely for all the pretty scenery and how gorgeous he end up making the female lead, he has pacing problems though (but that might not be entirely controlled by him, could be scriptwriter or investor issue).

Movie directors also tend to be more into the art, since they have time and money to do so usually (or passion). Some drama productions (directors, scriptwriter, actor) can feel like they are just doing the thing for quick buck, even those that take it seriously can fall into a routine.

pretty much? it's a good way for the less well known actors get exposure. storm eye is a jaywalk co-production though, as are many of the dramas they star in, someone told me this is first outside drama dilireba did? but i'm not familiar with all her dramas.