Wenxia

Choices, choices, so many choices every hour. I pretty much binge watched the first half because it was so thrilling and engaging, but by ep27 I can feel the drama taking its toll on my heart, as earlier choices weigh heavily on the present. No one has it easy that day in Changan. So much has already been sacrificed or lost ...and there are still so many hours to go.

After watching all these shows that use 'soulmates' (知己/zhiji) for the deep 'us against the world' and 'live and die together' bonds ...here we have a guy who used to read his poems to a horse and wants to avenge its death, cause he considered them soulmates... It's definitely the first for me hoping zhiji has no romantic connotationsXD
Btw Long Bo is one of the sexiest villains I've seen. So thrilling, this series;))

Them mentioning Hansel and Gretel with that huge fireplace (I mean fireplace?!) in the background, made me choke on my dinner:D Could've been hilarious, but wit was hard to come by in this series... My main impression: lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy writing on the crime solving side! They pretty much got a trump card mid series ...and did absolutely nothing with it to gain advantage! It's like the MLs were unable to think 2+ steps ahead or work out reliable plans. Wasn't one of them supposed to be some kind of notorious fixer? And he makes such ridiculous mistakes? The recaps in the final eps were also unnecessarily draggy and I personally would've preferred a more balanced ending, where they heal from what they'd lost and settle down with found family, instead of the megawatt candy that was served;p
Unfortunately, none of the elements in this series deserve a higher than average score - not the acting, none of the technical aspects, not the romance which felt disconnected from the plot...

I'm pretty sure I've read that was the originally scripted ending and that they had to add memories of xiao Lai to the one that aired, to be able to show Shang laoban running at all... But! I don't remember where I've seen it, so I edited my comment in case those were just rumours. I really don't mind open endings, but I agree they could've chosen flashbacks that fit the emotions better - not this 'life flashing before your eyes' style of edit, making people think someone was going to die... The 'gift' ending flashbacks, paired with the song lyrics, opera scenes and the title is so much more emotionally rewarding, whether it's true or not;))

Had a similar thought when he asked Qian Qiao for the water of Lethe. I was wildly cheering him on - Yes, drink it! Forget your creepy foster father! Give yourself a chance;)) I was very intrigued by his villainy persona at first, then yifu happened… and the puppy love eyes... and the possessiveness… so I started considerately zoning out to give them privacy;) I guess I can see myself sympathising with him more, if we got a backstory explaining how they got with this unique dynamic. Without it, I basically put them both as deserving each other:)

I also took a look at which ratings jumped during the glitch and I think yours is a fair guess:) If there's no bias, then why not show the user rating breakdown? I thought it was standard for sites like this. IMDb is so kind that they even calculate arithmetic mean and median themselves to show how unbiased they are;)).

Something reminded me today of the originally planned lake fight that didn't happen because of weather (I think?). First time I saw this I didn't care, cause I wasn't that invested. Now, I feel such a loss, that we'll never get to see that face to face at the end... I've been sighing at this video for 5 mins now;)) https://m.bilibili.com/video/BV1xh411Q7ys

Just a joke;) but it would def. save me time, cause I go there to check every drama I'm interested in anyway. As for why MDL ratings are what they are... I just put it as one of the unsolvable mysteries of the universe a while back and stopped thinking about it;))

Lol, let's petition MDL to link douban ratings for Chinese dramas. They give much better assessment of the dramas' quality.

Umm, why such an accusatory tone? I saw Gusu Bunny's post yesterday and personally didn't see anything in it that would warrant it… It was about opinions not facts, and everyone is entitled to their own. I haven't seen that interview where GJ talked about liuliangs, but I've watched at least 5 where he talked about his dream of getting rich and asking ZZH to make money together:D I mean, have you missed all those 'facai' memes? Let's not forget he was caught fibbing during interviews before;) The impression I got is that he's quite pragmatic and down-to-earth, and most probably will play to his strengths in the future. While talking about his university days, he easily admitted that others in the class had better acting skills, while his strong point were his looks… and he's not shy in using those;p I also think looking at the stats - 5 years in the industry, 8(?) main roles, ok douban ratings - that his story has been one of a relatively easy success.

As for ZZH, I have a lot of respect for his intelligence, so I'm sure he's already done a lot of thinking about what made his A-xu successful. I think he's in a perfect position to go wild and challenge himself with new types of roles. He seemed bitter about the level of scripts he was offered before, so I hope better scripts do find their way to him in the future. Hard to predict. I love everything about the 90's, so I'll definitely check out retro detective:)

I'm only on ep3 but need to vent a little... Why, oh why didn't they downsize, mute the colour or move that neon orange mango sign towards the corner??? It's such an eyesore and so distracting from the stunning visuals! And why are the subs so large? It's very difficult for me to read them at a glance, since I need to 'zoom' in and out constantly, which makes me lose chunks of dialogue. Small things I know, but they're like this constant annoying itch that makes me eye my sh1tlist thinking it needs a splash of colour:D

Anyway, I like the series so far. Interesting characters, good pacing and enough tension to keep me invested. Though, I had to suspend disbelief about xiao jingcha's actions in ep1... No radio, no backup, no gun... What was he hoping to do, throw... a tantrum at them?;) I guess, he's supposed to be the 'unpredictable factor' in the story... I applaud Lao Wei for his patience. I would've knocked him out for his own good early on;)

What do you think? Isn't this the beauty of open/hopeful endings? We can now imagine any future we want for them:)) But yes, I think he did and I think it makes sense, and it's what I choose to believe;)

No dying:) wishful thinking born illusion maybe? Or maybe Shang laoban is still running while they're shown waiting at the end? Open to your own interpretation;) Could you please mark this as spoiler so people don't get random heart attacks? The ending sequence is a bit confusing because, apparently, it was remade a lot due to censorship. There is a 'gift' ending posted by one of the screenwriters titled 'Xiao fengxian ran away with the general':)) You can watch it here with Chn subs: https://m.bilibili.com/video/BV1Uk4y1r7KP

Just finished - was expecting a frustrating ending but instead I'm grinning from ear to ear:) I really liked this series, it was both intriguing and entertaining. I've certainly seen more engaging spy thrillers, but there were (refreshingly) no blatant plot holes, so it's still a plus for me. The relationship in the center developed very naturally, with some memorable moments between the two MLs. If you like star crossed romances in a historical setting, definitely give this one a try! Once again thank you to the kind soul who shared the uncut version in the discussions section:))

...about what is the best way to let a girl know who is your significant other? Feed him the sweets she just made with her own hands, with your own hands! A little awkward, a lot funny;)

If you are hesitating whether to watch it... Don't:) This is such an enjoyable show! There are links posted in the recent discussions to the uncut version with great subs. I'm on ep10 laughing...

My bosom friend is deceased! Oh the feels, the feels:D I saw someone saying that this is Youku's old trailer from Feb. Could you believe they posted the whole thing without changing a word of these awful subs, not correcting ZZH's name, and not removing the screen that says 'only available at yk':D Is this still lazy or already incompetent… I feel so bad for yk, that they promoted this skeleton from their closet:D They've put so much effort into improving their subs later. Saw in the comments reply from N about ep37:"At the moment, there're 36 episodes available with us, and there's no further information about episode 37 availability. However, you can keep an eye at our official social media accounts for content news"

Big hug to whoever changed the description<3

LOL wouldn't letting people hear A-xu 200 times subbed as Zhouxu be very confusing to them? They could just put a short explanation of what a/lao indicate in brackets… I don't understand why they've ignored cultural context and relationships dynamic. Why is CL calling everyone Mr. XYZ?? This seriously messes with the family feels:( CL calling Lao Wen 'wen shu' was so sweet. Did the translators watch the series at all? If they saw that softest 'Lao wen' ever in the sunbathing scene, I think they'd facepalm at themselves:D

I already wrote a few days ago that I don't agree with that assumption:) https://mydramalist.com/59021-tian-ya-ke#comment-6236033 Of course, they've intentionally hid the ending in an mv. They've also made it part of the official playlist and tweeted for people to go watch it. Whatever the reason it's not on Netflix/Prime, this is still a huge improvement for me over having to comb through social media to get the intended/censored HE, like I had to do with other series.