Me too. AS is such a unforgettable character. He is way on the top of my top 5 male drama characters.
Ashile Sun is definitely unforgettable. I doubt AS would be this charismatic if Leo hadn't breathe life into the character so perfectly well.
I simply can't imagine another actor playing this role. Although Leo wasn't the production team's first choice, I sure am glad as hell that the first choice actor didn't work out.
Rewatching random episodes and I gotta say in episode 1, the cuju ball, Changge kicked Sun’s ass in that game!…
She sure did! I can't get over how amazing the choreography is for the game.
Over and over, she just outwitted him - from stepping on his shoulder as boosting leverage to get to the ball first, evading his block nicely, purposely knocking him over to her team's advantage, to hand-signaling to her two teammates to block him.
What makes the winning outcome of this game so fantastic is that we ALL know he's been beaten by a girl which he didn't know yet, so that we can all look forward to the moment when her gender is revealed to him, and THAT makes the realization so much more impactful to his psyche - that he's been bested by a female.
The Long Ballad drama series is sooooooo impressively magnificent that I'm compelled to create a MDL account to join in the discussion. I first came across the series on Youtube while looking for new Chinese dramas to watch. The first episode got me hooked with the cuju game. It totally reminded me of Harry Potter quidditch. The directing/cinematography for the game alone was such high-quality, the field sparring was so entertaining with arial moves, and the sound/music was paired appropriately to create a sense of suspense and mood -- like when the ML first walked onto field and the angle of the moving camera capturing the ML/MF exchanging side glances. The second scene that got me totally intrigue with this drama (all in episode 1) was when after the game, the ML walked behind the Ashile Tribe envoy, entered a room with us seeing the ML closing the door, and turned around to face each other, and the envoy went on one knee to greet the ML as tegin. The introduction of the ML was just too mysteriously cool while the intro of the MF was nicely matched with wow-ness for having the upper hand over the ML in the cuju game.
When I found out that the director also directed Ashes of Love, I knew that TLB couldn't be that bad. I've watched a lot of Chinese dramas, but never a complete series of any of the 4 main leads individually; although I've watched some episodes here and there of Dilireba and Rosy (Dating in the Kitchen - but I was there for Lin Yu Shen) separately. I do remember Leo Wu's character in Nirvana in Fire, but didn't realized he's the ML in TLB until later. I'm now up to episode 37-sub, and 42 raw, and I am blown away by Leo's fantastic performance and the out-of-this-world flaming chemistry between Ah Sun and Changge. Yes, the script is great, the music is enchanting, the directing is top-notch, the costume is beautiful, but I strongly feel that had it not been for Leo Wu's and Dilireba's outstanding performance in connecting their characters on screen, we wouldn't be this crazy over TLB. Since I wasn't a fan of any of the 4 main casts prior to watching this drama , I feel that my judgement is more neutral/impartial. They are all award winning actors (with the exception of Liu Yu Ning who just came onto the acting scene), so obviously they can act; However, to me, I feel that Leo's performance is what makes TLB so captivating and memorable to us.
There's just so much to praise about this drama. But this post is getting long, so I'll just end it here.
I'm very glad that there's an active platform for us to share and discuss this wonderful epic drama with sheer delight!
I simply can't imagine another actor playing this role. Although Leo wasn't the production team's first choice, I sure am glad as hell that the first choice actor didn't work out.
Over and over, she just outwitted him - from stepping on his shoulder as boosting leverage to get to the ball first, evading his block nicely, purposely knocking him over to her team's advantage, to hand-signaling to her two teammates to block him.
What makes the winning outcome of this game so fantastic is that we ALL know he's been beaten by a girl which he didn't know yet, so that we can all look forward to the moment when her gender is revealed to him, and THAT makes the realization so much more impactful to his psyche - that he's been bested by a female.
When I found out that the director also directed Ashes of Love, I knew that TLB couldn't be that bad. I've watched a lot of Chinese dramas, but never a complete series of any of the 4 main leads individually; although I've watched some episodes here and there of Dilireba and Rosy (Dating in the Kitchen - but I was there for Lin Yu Shen) separately. I do remember Leo Wu's character in Nirvana in Fire, but didn't realized he's the ML in TLB until later. I'm now up to episode 37-sub, and 42 raw, and I am blown away by Leo's fantastic performance and the out-of-this-world flaming chemistry between Ah Sun and Changge. Yes, the script is great, the music is enchanting, the directing is top-notch, the costume is beautiful, but I strongly feel that had it not been for Leo Wu's and Dilireba's outstanding performance in connecting their characters on screen, we wouldn't be this crazy over TLB. Since I wasn't a fan of any of the 4 main casts prior to watching this drama , I feel that my judgement is more neutral/impartial. They are all award winning actors (with the exception of Liu Yu Ning who just came onto the acting scene), so obviously they can act; However, to me, I feel that Leo's performance is what makes TLB so captivating and memorable to us.
There's just so much to praise about this drama. But this post is getting long, so I'll just end it here.
I'm very glad that there's an active platform for us to share and discuss this wonderful epic drama with sheer delight!