whoissilmoy

because the father is biased toward Li Ni. When someone has a bad impression of you, it's difficult to change their minds, no matter how much you try to please them, and the father has always been duped by his sons' bad intentions. Unfortunately, he's just not a very smart man. He can't see that people are duping him.

There were a lot of good acting in this movie even among the supporting cast. Sun Jing, the rebel, and Crown Princess (consort Xiao) acting was excellent. The two had little screen time, yet still I can feel how complicated and complex their relationship and emotions are toward each other. Their acting was natural, subtle, yet had depth. When I watch them, I felt I could read their mind, feel their emotions. As stupid as the emperor was and as bad as the brothers were, I really enjoyed their acting. I found chemistry between the three of them. They were funny to watch.

if you are talking about LCF, you are not alone, I see a lot of similar comments. The actor might be overdramatic or maybe he wants to portray a mentally ill person which is how I see the character. Still, I think you are right, his acting may be the weakest among the cast. It's not natural enough. It's a bit forced.

I got used to Chinese dramas depict how deranged and demented a human being can get when they become crazed and obsessed, and then become evil, and only think of killing.

Li Ni said to Pei Yuan that his older brother is not very capable but the second brother is very crafty, so the older brother will listen to the younger brother (I need to find the scene where he says that). The brothers are not stupid like the father, as they can manipulate and scheme. Growing up, they were spoiled, pampered, proud and allowed to be bad and the bad behaviors are carried into adulthood.

In the review tab of MDL for WoL, there has been a string of negative reviews with low ratings in past two days that are OBVIOULSY BIASED and possibly haters. Future viewers, please do not be swayed by them and watch the movie for yourself. I picked out the evidence of biases they left in their reviews:
Rating 6.5 "Xu Kai can't act."
Rating 7.0 "Xu Kai has had a string of disappointments."
Rating 7.0 "I prefer Kunming Place", "the kiss scenes did not give me the tingles", and "female lead initiates the kiss". For some reason, some SOKP fans are obsessed with kissing.
Rating 7.0 "I got very angry watching it". The rater did not like that the emperor (Li Ni) does not pass the throne to his own son. Did he not understand the character?

I'm still on episode 21 but my impression so far of the new emperor is that he is not evil, but a pathetic, unintelligent, foolish, and cowardly man with zero common sense or wisdom, and is easily manipulated by his two sons (Li Ni's stepbrothers) and others. Also, he was never groomed to be heir to the throne. He obviously grew up in a sheltered, pampered, and luxurious life with no understanding of the world around him, and still act and think at a child's intellectual and emotional level. The father has ruined his two sons because all their lives, they fooled their father and got away with it. They're the ones always got Li Ni in trouble growing up and caused LI NI to have a bad reputation with his father and grandfather. Now, as adults, they are repeating the same behavior, but as sons of emperor, they have power to destroy more than Li Ni. This is how dynasties fall and another one rises up. The founder is usually smart, visionary, military and political acumen, strategic, ambitious, determined, and ruthless (does that sound like Cui Lin?) Later, after perhaps three generations, their heirs become less and less competent and causing the dynasty to decline.

This is an introspective movie. For me, every episode was necessary to fully understand the characters and their conflicts. If someone watches an introspective movie on the surface, they might miss the nuances and underlying themes that the movie is trying to convey. Introspective movies are often layered with symbolism and metaphors that require a deeper level of engagement and attention to detail to fully appreciate.

Don't skip any episodes so you will understand the plot and the characters. Every episode is well done and goes by fast.

Some people find Xu Kai portrayal of introverts especially Yang Hua in SHPH bland, but I thought he was great. It left me a deep impression of Yang Hua.

Xu Kai shot to international fame instantly overnight in Yanxi Palace (2018), while Bai Lu saw her star rise after she did The Legends (2019) and AMA (2019) alongside Xu Kai. AMA would not be the same without Xu Kai portray of Gu Yanzhen. Gu Yanzhen wouldn't even be the same character without Xu Kai. The movie would have turned out very differently. Bai Lu was great too. In real life, she is tom boyish, perfect for the role and she acted well. Both movies were about the female lead, so I think Bai Lu character was the main character and got more screen time than Xu Kai character. I'm afraid Xu Kai next two modern dramas are about the female leads, so he may not get as much screen time. I'm glad in WoL that he got a lot of screen time, either the same as Jing Tian or maybe more.

Zhou Dong Yu is a seasoned actress. I like her acting.
Same with the female lead in Once Upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain, excellent acting. I can't find the full episodes online, but I have seen enough that I feel it was one of Xu Kai's best performances.

I did some research on "wooden acting" and this topic goes as far back as 2007 when viewers start to become disappointed in the younger generation of actors and was a hot topic in 2017 among veteran actors. 2017 is when Xu Kai first entered the film industry with no experience so if people are going to label him wooden, they might as well label most of the young actors today. I do not compare him to the older veteran actors. I only compare him to his peers, and particularly those with similar background. The producer's goal is to make lots of money, so in some ways, it gave opportunity for young actors with no experience an opportunity to break into the industry, but at the same time, because they want to make money, they consider the most cost-effective way of making films rather than help actors grow. The production process limits or prevents young inexperienced actors, and even those with formal acting training to improve. Afterall, every year new and younger talents come along to replace the same old faces. I only started to watch Chinese dramas after I accidentally saw Xu Kai in Yanxi Palace, so that says he has a quality that I didn't see before among Chinese actors (actor include both male and female). I read that he appeals to international viewers. The more I think about it, I can see that. He has this on-screen presence, and his expressiveness is reminiscent of Western actors who are more expressive and less reserved than Chinese actors. Xu Kai is more action oriented, lively, engaging, passionate, charming, and of course, extremely handsome. He has a gaze that when you look at his face (esp. his eyes), you feel like you are looking into his soul. If he seems wooden sometimes, it is because the character he plays is a subdue character, Xu Kai expressions are natural and subtle, but mostly it seems to be norm of these Chinese productions that the director has the actors stand there and say their lines with little to no expressions, so it's not just Xu Kai, you see 'wooden' across the board, more so in costume than modern. It's exactly that kind of low expressions in delivering lines that turns me off, until I discovered Xu Kai, the king of expressions, when he is allowed to portray it. I hope he can eventually get serious roles because with his ability to express, he can showcase deep emotions in serious scenes. I hope he can do more serious scenes because we already know how funny, charismatic, and charming he can be on screen. He is only 28. It's better that he is patient for the right time. In the meantime, he should focus on himself.

SOKP rating just fell back from 8.9 to 8.8 and there is a discussion on their page speculating as to what happened which I found interesting. I'm not comparing movies. Please please please don't compare the two movies. I am only interested to understand how user ratings impact the overall rating. The mix of currently watching, completed, dropped, and verified which is not known so it is difficult to guess. The only change from yesterday to today for SOKP was that the completed fell back from 9.05 to 9.03 and that was enough impact to cause the overall rating to fall back from 8.9 to 8.8. However, it could go back up too as more ratings come in. As for WoL, the verified was for whatever reason stuck at 8.14 until last Tuesday, I finally saw it moving up a little bit every day and currently, it has moved up to 8.23, an improvement of .09. As long as the completed does not go down and it has not, and the verified goes up a little more, I think we can see the overall finally go up a notch to 8.6, perhaps next week? WoL daily changes in # user ratings is always less than daily changes in # of watchers which makes sense. Another movie, I won't mention, is just the opposite, which is odd, daily changes in # user ratings, on the average is 30% more than daily change in # watchers. However, the overall, it is not the case. WoL # users has increased from 10% to 15% of watchers since Nov.25. I think if people really enjoy this movie, they should be sure to rate it to increase the impact ot overall rating.

If you check off all the characteristics of Li Ni, Xu Kai portrayal of LI Ni was 100% spot on, just like he does on every character in his other movies.

I found a fair movie review that I like to share (sarankita.com) for those trying to decide if they want to invest time to watch WoL:
This is one of the best Chinese historical dramas I’ve watched this year. With the show pacing appropriately and the male lead having the most screen time, Wonderland of Love is a decent drama and there isn’t a boring moment here. For the plot that looks promising, it pays off according to reality. The story is that there was a kingdom called Da Yu which was ruled by the Li Family. The kingdom had three Great Generals: Sun Jing, Pei Xian, and Cui Yi. Sun Jing rebelled against the emperor and massacred the Royal Family, Pei Xian was loyal to the emperor, and Cui Yi was loyal to himself and his country but not to the emperor. Everyone has their own army. The story follows the emperor’s seventeenth grandson Li Ni (Xu Kai), who is by no means heir to the throne, and Cui Lin (Jing Tian), Cui Yi’s only daughter. Li Ni lost his mother right after his birth, was hated by his own father and grandfather because of his mother’s humble background and was exiled to the border to guard the country. Cui Lin was a lieutenant in the Cui Army who was known as ‘Lieutenant He’ and lost her mother when she was young in the war because her mother sacrificed herself while guarding the city with courage. The plot is amazing and met my expectations. The depiction and character development are very good here. Li Ni, also known as ‘Shiqi Lang’, is a smart, loyal, brave, and free-spirited man. He was a kind, warm-hearted, and emotional young man. He leads Zhen Xi’s army to quell Sun Jing’s rebellion and intends to make the world peaceful by passing the throne to the original heir. Not an ambitious person and never wanted to return to the palace, let alone become emperor. He just wants a peaceful life (because he never had a loving and peaceful family). His intelligence, abilities and war strategies are second to none. He loves Cui Lin with all his heart and wants to travel to Wonderland after marrying her. Meanwhile, Cui Lin also known as ‘Lieutenant He’ and A’Ying is a woman who is cunning, strong, arrogant, cruel but practical and warm-hearted. She is ambitious and wants to rule the kingdom if there is no one suitable to rule in the royal family. Her intelligence could be considered superior to Li Ni’s because she knew how to manipulate and take advantage of someone. When she lost her mother in the war, her motivation in life was to make the world peaceful by stabilizing the court and ending the suffering of the common people caused by constant war. Cui Lin is one of the best female characters I’ve seen in a drama so far. The only person who can match him is Li Ni and he loves her but wants her to assume the responsibility of the throne to create peace for the world. Two characters who may be toxic to fans are Liu Cheng Feng and Gu Wan Niang. Liu Cheng Feng is an orphan, raised by Cui Yi as his own son under the identity of Cui Lin (meaning he is a fake Cui Lin) to deceive the court.
Liu Cheng Feng grew up with Cui Lin and was obsessed with her. He turned into a poisonous person because he expected too much from Cui Lin. Meanwhile, Gu Wan Niang is an intelligent woman, who wants power and a strong husband, namely, Li Ni. I would admire her character if she loved Li Ni sincerely, but she is almost a toxic person who only wants her own good.
Other supporting characters like Xie Chang Er, Tao Zi, Lao Bao, and the people in the Zhenxi squad are good characters, not very interesting but good.
As for acting, Xu Kai is great as usual doing a wonderful job in portraying his character. I was also impressed by Jing Tian’s acting, and it was quite stunning.
Here, Xu Kai and Jing Tian have burning chemistry. Starting from flirting, arguing, their fights about support and love…
There are many sweet moments when you can’t help but feel butterflies in your stomach….and emotional moments when you can’t help but tear up looking at them.
The costumes and OST are good. I loved the costumes and armor of the main cast when they were in the army. The designers could also have done better in the other actors’ costumes.
The slight drawback here is that the story seems to be a little delayed in the middle, but it manages to pick up again after a few episodes and doesn’t drag on after that.
The thing I complain about is, that the makers made Cui Lin a weak and stupid woman when dealing with Liu Cheng Feng and her actions didn’t make sense even though she is a cunning person.
Is Wonderland of Love worth watching? hundred percent feasible. In terms of story, acting, cinematography, and all aspects of this drama, it exceeded my expectations.

Regarding the stupidest emperor there ever was in this fictional, fairytale kingdom; without whom, there would be no conflict or story to tell, fictional stories often use exaggeration and hyperbole to create a more engaging narrative, fictional characters are created to serve a specific purpose in the story. They may not always be perfect, but they are designed to help move the plot forward and create conflict. It’s also important to remember that the story is a work of fiction and is not meant to be taken too seriously. In WoL, Li Ni's father and brothers are comical characters in my view, and the acting was superb.

Xu Kai is a class act.

There will always be bad people who want to bring others down for whatever reason.

thank you for coming to WoL page to tell viewers to watch something else, so considerate of you!