Incompetent Competence

Truthfully, if I never read the book I probably would have stayed for the dialogue too. But since I did I kinda know what they're going to say and I don't feel like watching more than I have to~

Glad someone out there can understand my point :D

I never mentioned I wanted an older actor for the role, neither have I stated they're bad nor that they aren't acting. I'm just expressing the fact that in my honest opinion I feel like other people would be better. Also training does not need to be film school. There are many ways to train, especially when it comes to acting. Having a personal coach or acting lessons is an example. WYB never went to film school, yet he had acting lessons, therefore he had training. Also it is my bad that I assumed they had no training before (I did do my research, but not everything is on the internet), but in my opinion it's clearly obvious if they did, it wasn't much. And great, I fully support their appearances in dramas before, because guess what, experience is another form of training. But once again, if it's experience they're looking for, then casting them for a big drama with a huge fanbase like this may have been a risky choice. I never said it was an overall bad choice, it simply wouldn't have been my choice.
I feel like there's a misunderstanding here, I'm not hating on them, nor on you. I really like them actually, I just simply don't think they were right for this. Also, seniors in the industry have mainly praised them for their talent in music.

Also, just a tip for the future, calling someone a no body just because they aren't famous is super, super shallow and narrow minded. It puts you in the category of mindless followers, yknow, like attack dogs. I may not be famous, but I am a person, just stating my mind based on my experience. I'm a Canadian film and theatre student that's studied in China before and have been on stage since I was 4 for musical theatre and many different performances. My opinions and statements are based from what I've learned and experienced throughout the years, even though I am young. Although I usually don't pride myself, I know when I've achieved something that others have not. If I and the many others who are able to present, sing and dance on stage in front of audiences constantly without the fear of embarrassment are "nobodies", then who are people then? Who are considered "somebodies"?

Thank you for reading my ted talk :)

Yes they are very well respected, but that's for their respected talent field, which is music. They have so many skills when it comes to music, but I'll be honest here a lot of idols don't have a good track record when it comes to acting. It's not because they're bad at it, but it's because other people with actual training in theatre can do it so much better. I just feel that if they want to adapt a very well known book with a big fan base, they better make it good. Just take LuHan as an example. He dabbled in acting, but it got him more hate instead of acquiring a new fanbase. Z.Tao's another example. Though he found much more success, he's still a very controversial actor.
My point is that idols can do theatre, but unless they have proper training in between transitions, they can never be considered actors. The same goes for the opposition, actors can sing and dance, but unless they got proper training for stage presence, they can't be idols. A good example for both of these would be the cast of The Untamed. WYB was an idol with UNIQ, but he didn't really resurface into spotlight after the group disbanded, until he got training for acting. The secondary male leads of the Untamed are all mostly actors, but they're currently doing tours for their new boyband, The Untamed Boys (TUBS), but only after they got training. And even with training TUBS are still kinda rusty currently.

Oh wow, that kinda sucks that people hated him so much at the start. We gotta take into consideration though that young actors are... well.. young. Honestly, Arthur Chen did much better acting than the TFBoys did when they first started.

I agree with you with the over reacting at the start, but it does get much better imo. (And personally I would rather be able to laugh at trash over reacting than watch rocks attempt a conversation). I'm expecting better acting with TGR, but meh. If it doesn't then at least I'll just appreciate the visuals when the series goes on.

First 10 episode review:
1. The CGI in the series is honestly really good. It's around Ever Night level.
2. Although I do like the cast, I really don't think they casted the right people for this project. I know Roy and Nana have basically been child stars since like, 12, but imo "Idol actors" were a very risky choice... especially when it's based off a beloved novel.
3. The plot is interesting, but the the way the dialogue is being presented is so god damn boring. I skipped through A LOT because most of the cast just look like talking statues when delivering lines (that includes our leads). It's honestly not bad on it's own, but if you compare it with the currently airing Handsome Siblings, the characters in there are at least more interesting when delivering lines.
4. Music so far isn't anything memorable. It's good tho, just not like "goooood".
5. Overall meh for me. I recommend giving it a try, simply due to the plot and visuals, but expect wanting to skip A LOT, and I mean A LOT of dialogue.

I don't remember Arthur Chen being criticised, and I'm on Weibo a lot. I remembered he garnered much praise actually...

More Liu Hao Ran :D

Absolutely loved the first 2. Can't wait.

FINALLY.
They finally gave Hu Yi Tian's character something interesting to say lmao. Although his acting was a bit underwhelming and you can obviously see he didn't have much material to work with to Improve, at least he finally has plot.

As long as they keep going this direction (aka make Hua Wu Que as interesting and smart as Xiao Yu Er), then this will no doubt be worth a worth watching drama... even though it took a while to get there.

As the story progresses and episodes go by, I really can't express how much I love CZY/Yu'er and how much of a saving grace he is to the story and show. His acting has also gotten better. Of course he still needs some work, but it's much better than earlier episodes and imo, the improvement is quite obvious. And recently, Hei Zhi Zhu added on the list of good characters.

And I know people are getting sick of this, but with full sincerity I don't recommend watching this if you're tunnelling on Hu Yi Tian's character. As of midway through the series, his character really isn't worth much.

(then you should probably drop it. He really barely does anything through the whole drama except be an anti-hero sometimes.)

Happy Birthday

Holy damn what happened in the latest episodes, everything just hit at once ;---------;

So far I'm loving it amjshdfskjhdfjmshfawyf

(Still gonna say I miss Arthur Chen but hey, he's gonna star in something based off a BL so I'm damn darn excited lmao)

That's pretty much what I expected. Thanks for clearing it up. The latest episodes honestly just killed my soul when it came to HYT's character lmao.

*cough cough Handsome Siblings carry. Better than HYT cough*

His acting isn't "bad" per say, but he doesn't really even act. They didn't give him much material to work with.
In addition, his character is very frustrating to watch, since honestly, he's like... REALLY naive and (please don't hate me but this is true) dumb compared to the other lead.

Zhang Ruo Yun, Chen Ruo Xuan and even Wang Kai ended up having support or guest roles in this? Damn the budget must have been big.

And as the episodes go by, only one story line is worth watching, and thank god it's imo the better one out of the 2.

Ok but I can't be the only one who noticed right.... THE EVER NIGHT THEME IS IN THERE. The opening of the Ever Night opening song is played, simply with less instruments and more flute-y. I know this drama was delayed on it's release, but can composers really not come up with their own soundtracks?

Once again, no hate against Hu Yi Tian, but if you came here to watch him, then I don't recommend.

if you want more recommendations, not sure if you've seen all of these:
The Dark Lord
Legend of Zu
The Mystic Nine
Tientsin Mystic
Once Upon A Time There Was A Spirit Blade Mountain
Plough Department of Song Dynasty
L.O.R.D Critical World
Joy Of Life
Young Blood

Most of these recommendations or others I might suggest aren't very romance heavy, since it isn't really my genre.