Didi

totally not one sided. in fact i think shifu fell in love first and then selfishly keeps her by his side as his student (and the calamity thing) but really he fell in love first. only to reject her many times, torture her, abandon her, and ultimately kill her. He in my opinion is one of the most cruel male leads ever written, no matter how nice he appears.

And they cut out the scenes because China has really, really strict censorship laws. If you want to get around that, read the novels. They are essentially romance novels. Eternal Love, for example, and Pillow Book (it's sequel) have descriptive bedroom scenes. I don't know if Journey of Flower does but the early translations I read are very Lolita in that the female lead LOOKS like a kid because she stopped aging.

I think Journey of Flower had me more hooked. I didn't skip over anything and watched twice (so 3 times total) back to back. I think the biggest differences lay in the depiction of love: in eternal love, it is a heavily romanticized 'true love can over overcome any obstacle, even death' which they do extremely well. In eternal love, love has many forms, it is not always the ending that we want, nor does it necessarily follow any rules, it is a force all on its own that can't be stopped even if others find it inconvenient or scandalous; journey of flower focuses more on the conflict between worldly desires and duty/goals. Journey of flower also heavily explores themes of obsession and how they can destroy people, regret, and how a desire to do good can ultimately destroy lives. Eternal love leaves us feeling breathless and hopeful, that in spite of the worse odds we can still be with our true love. Journey of flower leaves us in tears (as was my case), as we see love presented as something sinful and shameful, something to be abhorred instead of embraced (unlike in eternal love)--which results in epic tragedy after tragedy.

Any missing scenes can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9uyB91eEI This is one of a few compilations (all generally the same) but I encourage you to wait until you get to the end of the series because then there won't be any spoilers--you would be seeing a lot of open mouth kissing and rolling around in bed in these scenes

try journey of flower

you can read pillow book online (i posted the link in a thread). and i can summarize like this: when Donghua is in love he gives fate and destiny a middle finger and just does as he pleases. because he's Donghua.

Alright so I just finished reading pillow back having (almost finished) 3M3WEPB because I knew enough spoilers to know what happened to DH and FJ and I couldn't wait (i have six episodes left in the show). OMG emotional roller coaster! It seems they aren't a popular fandom but they are my fave and all I can say is this: the pillow book is different but contains similar elements and it may difficult to film because they took some liberties with the story line but all i can say is this is the theme: Donghua is the most powerful god in existence because he can CHANGE DESTINY.

excellent work in eternal love. one of my favorite characters.

I am watching eternal love and only want to watch this because Gao Vengo is in it. Directors, please do the pillow book sequel!!

I think i saw ep 1 of scarlet heart but began watching it after i finished palace and the locked heart jade so it is 'on hold' if only bc i can't imagine the fem lead with anyone other than fourth prince....but scarlet heart is a bit more of a melodrama--thanks for the other recs btw :)

shifu is in it? must give it a try

Da Tang Fu Rong Yuan is the only thing that really turns up results if you perform a search, I can only find clips on youtube--please sub! Dramafever reports to have it but it is listed as 'unavailable' in the U.S.---please sub! i feel bad but i upped the rating even though i have yet to watch because whoever rated it as a 3 left no review--which seems unfair

i won't lie i did enjoy the younger female actress's role more than the older...she is still wonderful but i attribute that to how her character is written--she must be this kickass fighter and still retain her innocence in spite of all the slimy people she meets--a bit far fetched, if you ask me

is on youtube full eng sub

i predict she will hook up with the king because 1) Lord Hoon's daughter is very interested in the cop 2)Tae Hon's changed and 3)remember in like episode 1 or 2 when she predicted Lord Hoon's fortune and lied to him?? him,his family, and kids will die horrible deaths??? that's hamartia for ya

....so it looks like tae won never wanted revenge--he wanted his father's approval and love...kinda feel bad for him...but he is an adult who has to be held responsible for his actions although i feel empathy...unfortunately ok nyeon is like athena--unforgiving maybe because she already experienced the pain of her actions hurting others? (this is ep 26 btw)

i can't stop the comments...but lord yoon MAKES the show....i think tae won will be destroyed by revenge

20 flogs (is that how you say it?) and a slave??? but we know she will come out on top, she's an ex spy and probs descended from someone with power--and in spite of the comparisons with dong yi she won't keep forgiving the bad guys--something tells me she will get even.

episode 20 ending blew me away.

noooooooooooooooo! why can't she have both power and a hott lover?? she's more than capable! that aside, Korea was no different than most other nations--they had a strong tradition of marrying family members to keep the blood 'pure' we may frown upon it but her marrying the king would be more than acceptable in this period