any_anka

They speak Mandarin in the series, I don't think I've heard even one sentence in Cantonese and I'm at ep 12.
I think the person above was simply explaining why Chinese series usually are dubbed, e.i. because of how many different dialects there are in China and actors coming from different provinces often have very distinct heavy accents even if they speak Mandarin.

I don't really think that's the case.
His original mission is to simply deliver the immune to wherever he's supposed to deliver him. The immune needs to be alive. I assume preferably healthy. It would actually be way safer if he just tied Lin Zai up and dragged him all the way to his destination.

The way they're travelling now it's super inefficient and dangerous. Lin Zai already tried to escape twice and also got them into trouble because of his naive nature.

And about him caring less about Lin Zai in the first episodes, I think it's just natural. They barely knew each other. The more time they spent together, the more attached they became.

Besides, you can clearly see that before kidnapping Lin Zai, A Lie was struggling with guilt because of what he was about to do. So I don't think his feelings now are some part of a mysterious masterplan to trick LZ.

There was no official announcement. The actors said s2 will happen and mentioned the filming would start soon.
Casting for new characters is underway too.
But if you're talking abt actual official announcement - there was none.

Yep, exactly.

Ignore the analytical side of you, who would listen to her ;)

Hmm... personally I feel there's still plenty of interactions though (?). Episodes 1 and 2 are probably the ones where I could still agree with you, but starting with ep 3 there's plenty of interactions already... And even if they don't interact, they think of one another to some extent.
Of course, since the whole premise of the show is that one is a student and the other one is a gangster, their worlds usually don't collide naturally (like, they're not classmates or office mates) + Liuyi has his own stuff he needs to deal with. As Effie said, romance is more woven into the story. Personally, I think it made the story and the relationship development more natural.
Anyway, you said that you reached ep 5. I don't know if it means you have watched it already or you just finished ep 4. However, let me just tell you that eps 5, 6, 7 and 8 have some of their most entertaining, heart-fluttering (but also often ridiculous, but in the best way possible) interactions. So, while I was hooked by the end of ep 2 and completely infatuated with the series at ep 3, I'd still advice against dropping it - since you've already come this far, you might enjoy what's coming next.

But yeah, to be fair, a lot of the hype comes from their outside of the drama activities. They have one of a kind chemistry (if I were the one to judge) and they promote a lot too.

Having said so, similar to Effie, I think that both Chusan/Liuyi and Changxi/Yanzhao should get more hype than they already do 😋

I was scrolling through the list, ready to go on a rant in the comments, until I saw my girl Ruyi in the 9th position 😌
Still, the order better be random, cause what do you mean she's 9th?!

OMG, please no, not the product placement! 😨
Just the thought of the artistic beauty s1 gave us interrupted by an ode to a bread makes my blood run cold... Please no, no, no...

But as for selling the third CP. Theoretically they don't really need to give them a lot of screen time. Look at Matthew and Mingbo. They really didn't have much screen time at all and they're doing pretty well as a ship, having their own fanmeets etc.

I also feel bad about Xiao Ma's original actor. I havent read the novel so I honestly couldn't care less if he wasn't a spitting image of what was described in there. I really liked his character in the drama. He was such a delightful comic relief.

Still, I can't help but think that if fans could be more normal about an actor having a gf and still enjoy his pairing and chemistry with the other person as part of a performance, maybe this wouldn't have happened.

How the company allegedly treated him... well, that's a different story... 🙄

I can't believe it's been so long...
Now even the second release of all episodes on YouTube has come to an end... 😔

I feel it's so irresponsible to raise my BL standards so high to the point that I can't enjoy any new BL series now and then make me wait months and months for the next season 😒

That's a correct impression :)
Matthew did speak Cantonese in the series (I think he was still dubbed later by someone else, but as you're saying he was delivering his lines in Cantonese). Yanzhao spoke Cantonese a bit too (I think it was in one of the scenes in the last episode), but in general he mostly spoke Mandarin.

But like... literally no one speaks "Simplified Chinese".
It refers to simplified characters (as opposed to traditional ones, used in HK *and* Taiwan, where people still speak Mandarin). So like, those tiktok folks aren't just wrong, they're wrong wrong 😅

I don't know how many people speak Canto in Guangzhou, but He Yanzhao (Liuyi/Lukyat from SCD) still can speak it 😌

Don't we all... 😌

Well... xz talked about s2 today again (no new info about schedule, just talking how it probably won't be as innocent as s1). But they keep talking about it like it's an almost certain thing, so... I guess I'm adding to that hope buil-up ;)

Haha, yes, they're the same person 😋

I understood your English, no worries!
I was just a bit confused, cause I was like "did he look so different in the office setting? did I misunderstand this part?" 😅

He didn't disappear though? I am not sure if I understood you correctly, but I will answer what I understood you were asking for.
Jason is Lu Guangming (Luk Kwong Ming in Cantonese). The police officer whose brother got killed and who's out for revenge. So he didn't really disappear... I think he wanted to get closer to Chusan (Chosam) to understand his relationship with Liuyi (Luk Yat, still getting used to Cantonese names, because the subs I had were just using Mandarin ones), hence why he wen "undercover" as Jason.

I think some of them were definitely due to budget limitations. Like, e.g., the cars I mentioned. It might've been too expensive indeed to get an actual car from HK with a steering wheel on the right side.
But others... like take those LCD screens in the hospital, for example. They could've just simply removed them from the desk. It would've taken them 5 minutes top. They didn't even need to replace them with any vintage-looking computer screen, since I don't even know if in the 80s and early 90s hospital files were widely digitalised, I think it was still mostly paper.
But anyway, while I am nitpicking, I loved the drama despite those historical inaccuracies. I loved the story, the acting and - above all - the cinematography.
It's just fun to spot those things.

Last time I saw Jeff was in KP, he looked fine back then, would never assume he'd feel the need to change anything.
On the other hand, the pressure on good looks is so high in the ent. industry, it's understandable people who are constantly judged by their appearance to an absurd degree are trying different ways to make themselves adhere more to an industry "standard".
Which is also why I always appreciate that when watching Japanese dramas I can't even tell what's "the standard", people just look so... different.

Having said that, I actually have no problem with stage artists (like Jeff, since he is a musician) wearing heavy make-up. Even if it's "remaking" their face. If it's part of a performance/stage image etc. then why not?

Now as for CBL and cdramas in general, other than skin tone, I am bothered by the heavy filters put over actors' faces. The kind that completely masks their skin texture and make the entire face turn into a one big blur with no wrinkle in sight. But I do feel like in the most recent productions, they eased up a bit on this obsession with "perfection" (which to me didn't even look perfect at all, as it looked more uncanny than anything else).

I don't remember a kpop era with men in skirts 😅(granted, I probably have not watched a kpop video in the last 3 years or so). I do remember crop tops era though 😋Of course fashion-wise any era would've been ruled by Taemin anyway... 😌

Your inclusivity is... commendable... 😉
I had to google most of those guys though, since I had know idea how they look like 😅
Aside from Xiuning and the DH guy that is. I mean, I also know Jeff and I do remember he is a pretty good singer.
I feel like Xuning is probably everybody's type to some extent 😉

Japan and Taiwan don't whitewash their actors usually.
Personally I thought Hsu Kai (from Kiseki: Dear to Me) looked super good in that drama (I actually didn't like the drama itself 😋).

That depends what you consider "news". An official announcement? No, none. But it hasn't been a complete radio silence either.
There have been some rumours circulating, but the most reliable info we were told is that filming should start in the next two months. The source of that info were Xixi and Zhao themselves during a livestream about a week or two ago.
Some of the filming will take place in Thailand.

The cast alone makes me really wanna watch this!