Daydreaminblue

oh my god I've been waiting SO LONG for this 😭😭😭😭😭😭

it's finally here, let's gooooooo 🩷🩷🩷🩷

Not a single visual break in this drama 🙏🏻😭

unfortunately not herself 🤧

OMG the OST is sooooooo good, I can't wait for it to drop on Spotify ✨

Ever since I watched The Glory, I realized Chen Duling is absolutely perfect for this kind of role and I became a fan. Before that, she always went a bit unnoticed to me in those beautiful, gentle, tragic maiden-type characters, but seeing her here (and in her recent lead performances) really changed the way I see her as an actress. 🩷

And Zhou Yiran… I’m genuinely so happy to see him getting this kind of spotlight. My boy is shining 😭 The fight choreography has been so good too, it’s making everything even more satisfying to watch.

10/10 so far. ✨

I'm missing this drama so much. I've already added the best songs from it to my C-drama playlist, and it's bonkers how hooked I am 🤧👌🏻

I strongly recommend you The Story of Ming Lan, a classic of the genre! I've rewatched many many times. Story of Ming Lan is probably one of the biggest inspirations for many of these female-centered historical dramas with noble family intrigue, concubine schemes, and court politics. It has the same atmosphere of surviving complicated family dynamics while slowly getting involved in larger political power struggles. Both Ming Lan and Gu Ting Ye’s (FL and ML) families are full of internal conflict, manipulation, and succession issues, very similar to A Splendid Match. Apart from this there are others who have similar vibes and stories
Glory
The Glory (I know, similar names but one is with Chen Duling and another is with Gulinazha)
Blossom
Love Like the Galaxy (my favorite drama of all time)
Blossoms in Adversity
The Double
Perfect Match
Destined
The Sword and the Brocade
A Dream of Splendor (doesn't have many family intrigues but it's female centered and revolves around social ascension and social power dynamics)

The books have some subtle romantic tension between them, but not enough to make it a romance-focused story. I don’t think the drama will get a romance tag either, though they may keep those hints from the novel.

I wonder too, maybe just styling I guess? Since this is before A Moment But Forever and he has been through a lot, maybe I've missed some phase of his. or I'm just overthinking :D

Li Mei Shan is very young in Fate Chooses You and thousands of years old in A Moment But Forever, which already suggests an absurd passage of time between the two stories.

At the end of Fate Chooses You, Yuan Zhong (Liu Xue Yi) is searching for his goddess without even truly knowing what she looks like. Meanwhile, in A Moment But Forever, Yuan Zhong seems to have already encountered Ji Tanyin/Wushuang (Tiffany Tang) multiple times in the past, I've only watched once so forgive me if I'm mistaken (I believe one of those encounters happened while she was trapped in ice and he was still in the form of a young fox, and another when he was already a young man and she appeared before him wearing a veil). On top of that, by the end of A Moment But Forever, the two of them have already been in a relationship together, while Yuan Zhong remains waiting for her return.

Fu Jiu Yun (Zhen Ye Cheng), who appears across all three dramas, seemingly reaches his definitive conclusion in Love of Thousand Years (with Zhao Lusi. I've watched twice, it's an awesome drama 🩷), so my assumption is that this story takes place after the other two dramas.

A possible attempt to organize chronologically the three drama adaptations of the stories written by the same author that take place within the same universe:

1. Fate Chooses You (Lu Qiao Qiao and Xin Mei)
2. A Moment But Forever (Yuan Zhong and Ji Tayin/goddess Wushuang)
3. Love of Thousand Years (Fu Jiu Yun and Qin Chuan)



Spoilers below:

But you mentioned it was a trend, so I got curious and interested. I’d really love some recommendations with a stronger FL and a weaker ML, if you don’t mind.

But in most dramas, men are always the stronger ones. in LBTG the female lead is more powerful and suddenly it becomes “boring” for a certain audience. If you have a list of dramas where the male lead is actually weaker (since it's a trend in your opinion), I’d genuinely love to see it, I find that kind of dynamic out of the norm really interesting.

I was so happy when the goddess Wushuang (from A Moment But Forever) was mentioned, because I know this drama is connected to it, (also with Love of Thousand Years), especially with all the talk about humanity evolving through craftsmanship and innovation (artisans and such), and the rivalry between cultivators and human ingenuity with the limits of what mortal artisans and creators could produce or discover (mainly explored in A Moment But Forever).
I know the stories are connected, but I haven’t read any of the novels. Could someone tell me more about how they interact? This is probably set after ABF, since we'll have a guest role by Liu Xueyi as Yuan Zhong 🥹

She’s actually had plenty of exposure as a female lead, especially in modern romcoms (not minidramas, but also not S-tier productions). I remember one with Z. Tao (My Precious), where she played a kind veterinarian, it was the first time I saw her in that type of role. She was also the villain in The Legend of Fu Yao, which was the first drama where I noticed her. She’s led several suspense and Republican dramas as well so I think it’s less about exposure and more about not landing a breakout hit, basically a matter of luck maybe? I’ve liked her in every role I’ve seen, even as the crazy obsessive villain in MLC 😄😄😄

haters

I was literally thinking earlier today about how satisfied Guo Jingming must be, creating a story where he just progressively smashes our hearts with a hammer over and over again.
And somehow I still have this innocent, slightly unhinged hope that this will be his first drama with a happy ending 🫠

Director Guo Jingming is very consistent with his own visual style, which draws heavily from traditional Chinese iconography. In his previous drama, Fangs of Fortune, he used the Classic of Mountains and Seas as a reference, which is one of the main sources of Chinese mythology. Since I can see many similar yaoguai (mythical creatures, often shapeshifting spirits) and deities in Veil of Shadows, I think this text could be really helpful for understanding the genre. Given your background in mythology, it would probably be a very interesting read for you.😊
You can easily find it in English because it's such an important and widely studied text. It's usually published as The Classic of Mountains and Seas (or Shan Hai Jing), and there are several translations available.

This feels less like criticism of the drama and more like personal projection about women...