tsuyoi_hikari

It was such a whirlwind journey. So much twist and turns in the last 3 episodes. I hope you enjoy the ride. This drama is certainly one of my favorites of the year together with Joy of Life 2. The scripts and the layers of it is simply amazing! :D

I always confuse when I see such comment tbh since he is one of the actors in Cdramas who actually picked variety of roles to play -- cold, bubbly, socially awkward, naïve, charismatic, sarcastic, arrogant, ruthless -- you name it, he's done it all.

Even if you only watch few of his dramas, you can at least see the different since the kind of cold & aloof that Lu Yi from Under the Power emits are ruthless and menacing totally opposite from Zhousheng Chen from One & Only where he is aloof, yet gentle and very charismatic. Even when he become jaded as Chang Yi in The Blue Whisper, the aloofness wasn't anything like Lu Yi or Zhousheng Chen -- Chang Yi is more like revengeful and scorned. It is a completely different portrayal despite all the 3 characters are the same which is 'cold and aloof'.

And for an example the smirk, those iconic Lu Yi's smirk is nowhere to be found in his other roles despite is also very sarcastic as Xu Xuan in Destiny of White Snake.

What are her accomplishments that they didnt put in the drama? I thought they put a lot and she was kick-ass as a character.

One of my fave strong female leads in the past years would be Ji Yunhe from The Blue Whisper. I love how she achieved her high status based on her own efforts without any birth secrets and her character never being reduced to damsel in distress in the whole drama despite spending half of the drama being sick. She equally save the ML many times and stay true to her principle and goals right until the end. She is flawed and made mistakes and we can see she is learning from the mistakes and never repeating them again.

I love how the whole drama did this role reversal when usually the ML is the protector but here, it is the opposite. And the most amazing thing about her is that she spent the whole of her life being imprisoned yet she is the most free character in the whole drama -- they can confine her but they will never being able to stop her from doing what she wants. Truly admirable. For me, this is how you wrote a strong female character.

9/10 - Beautiful and such a touching movie. Lol I watched this during my long flight and ended up crying on the plane -- it is so embarrassing! 😂 It such a bad move to watch heartbreaking movies on the plane.

What happened? Did anything happened in the movie?

'Even if this love disappears from the world tonight'

Lol I watched this during my long flight and ended up crying on the plane -- it is so embarrassing! 😂 It such a bad move to watch heartbreaking movies on the plane.

9/10 - What an amazing, beautiful movie! This is how you shot a satisfying ending -- took time, there is surprising elements also scenes that touched you at the same time. I always love Japanese movies/dramas ending. They are indeed the best. Rarely disappoint.

What a great list. I have watched quite many of them to my surprise. :D

Those dramas in that era is simply amazing, raw and dark. I still have some of them in my hard disk. I wonder why they dont make this kind of dramas anymore.

Will do!

BTW, it is such an old drama. Where do you watch it? And what is the reason that made you want to watch this drama suddenly?

I know! I always know. Its almost like most viewers here are allergic to well written scripts when it is without romance. Some dramas that objectively very well written always get abysmal ratings like this. I just cant wrap up my mind around it lol.

lol really enjoying this drama since I find the intrigue pretty well written. Coming to MDL to see the ratings and wasnt disappoint lol. All dramas without romance will have this kind of awful ratings.

There is absolutely no problem with this short dramas since it caters to different type of audiences. I just said it might give wrong impression to unsuspecting viewers who thought that Cdramas are 'trashy' like this.

In Cdramas reddit, there will always posts asking why Cdramas are low quality, cheap or is Chinese like this (toxic MLs, abusive relationship, etc). Then this week, the mods have to write a long post asking them to stop generalizing since what they saw is only 3% of the industry. And also ask them to start watching quality Cdramas instead.

There is a problem since new viewers sometimes thought this is the normal Cdramas when it is not. Since when you go to certain sites, there will be people who asked why Cdramas are low quality with terrible writing. It turned out they are watching these mini/micro dramas or low quality idol dramas.

That is why even with MDL which is known to be generous with their ratings, these mini dramas usually score little low (mostly below 8) than normal dramas as there is indeed different in quality esp in the writing department,

I actually did enjoy some of these such as A Familiar Stranger which I thought is pretty good script wise.

I felt the opposite lol. I still think 2021 is his best year when he acted in One & Only and Forever & Ever since you can really see his range as an actor. His micro-expressions in One & Only is one of the best I've seen in Cdramas in recent years -- very subtle, so restrained yet it gave off so much feelings. While his socially awkward portrayal of Zhousheng Chen in Forever & Ever is just fantastic. :D I still think its my fave performance of his to date since he captures those awkward vibes to a T -- the way he constantly licked his lips, touch his tights, shy expressions, etc -- that its almost hilarious to watch him lol.

Then he did the naive merman in The Blue Whisper which one of the most refreshing child-like portrayal from a ML that I've seen in Cdramas. The vibe he gave at that time is like an innocent child even with the way he smiles -- that is why I really felt extra bad for his character in the drama. Plus, he never overdid the naivety thus it wasnt annoying to watch his character since the writer totally understand that naive/innocent doesnt mean stupid/dumb which I really appreciate.

After that, he did Twilight -- which I felt probably a character most close to his real life personality. Those bubbly and happy characteristics that Shan Shan has is a delight to see since he usually are known to play cold and aloof characters in his dramas.

Then recently in Burning Flames, I cant see a trace of his other characters in Wu Geng -- again, a new character from him. Wu Geng wasnt aloof or bubbly but just in between. He didnt bring the same mannerisms, smile or smirks from his other roles. He received tons of hate when he dubbed himself in Thousand Years for You but when he dubbed himself in Burning Flames, the reception is pretty good as he no longer monotone. Even his haters cant shade his line delivery aside from criticizing his soft voice which is his natural voice.

He is actually one of the C-actors I most enjoy watching tbh. First for the variety of roles his chose and second the fact that he picked excellent scripts. The fact that Twilight is a flop last year (lol) but the depth that the script possessed truly impressed me. I hope he continue picking this kind of scripts in the future.

The quality of writing and production values are way way different.

But if unsuspecting viewers watch these dramas, they will think all Cdramas are trashy like this lol.

Yes, due to censorship, they cant make her remember so they have to play around with that. In the novel, she never hesitate as she knew he is her Zhousheng Chen right away at the airport. It was an emotional scenes if you did read the novel.

One & Only literally perfect in term of acting, directing & writing. So, I actually really highly recommend that drama to everyone.

I wrote love details in Forever & Ever if you want to read them after you finished both of the dramas: https://mydramalist.com/discussions/love-your-bones-forever/100175-love-details-in-forever-ever
-> Many people usually look the drama from the surface thus missing some important details in the story.

You will understand the drama 100% without any problem at all. But I always said if you want to experience Forever & Ever to the fullest, you need to watch One & Only first. This is because, it made many of the scenes feel more emotional and with depth and you kind of understand Shiyi's eagerness in everything that she did. And when the first time she said 'I love you' to Zhousheng Chen, it will hit you differently since you know how long she waited to say that words to him. But still, the drama is very fantastic even as a stand alone. :D

''I just keep an open mind for everything else and stay optimistic.''

Yeah, me too!