whoissilmoy

I'm sure you must be waiting breathlessly for the modern drama As Beautiful As You that just got license to air. I think it's coming out Nov or Dec this year. Xu Kai uses his own voice which will be a treat to hear his beautiful voice, but I think it's still dubbed but by him though. I noticed that some people make fun of Xu Kai because he is dubbed but why do they single him out? Dubbing is what they do. It saves time and money. Anyway, I've listened to enough Xu Ka videos to know his voice is distinctive, soothing, and poetic ring. I like the female lead he is paired with. She is sassy and spunky in many roles and is seasoned actress.
I hope he will have success with this movie.

I saw a video that included Snow Eagle Lord as one of the failures of 2023. I can understand some of the negative comments, but it is not a failure by any means. It is a movie that teaches you a lot about how to live your life (honor, loyalty, friendship, importance of family, perseverance, hard work, kindness, etc. so much more). However, I felt the protagonist connection to his Master and mother more than the female lead. Xu Kai worked very hard on that movie. I saw his interview he talked about the physical challenges (intense heat enough to fry a chicken, dust getting into the lungs, narrow spaces, etc) he faced doing the movie that could even harm him. The director put high expectations on him for the martial arts and used stunt or computer graphics on others, but he had to do most of it on his own. He worked very hard to master the spear wonderfully, but he is so humble, he thought he should have done better. Perhaps I'm biased since I like the actor, but I really find all his movies are good. When I think of each movie, I think of the character he portrayed.
Reading about his work on Snow Eagle Lord, I realized that audience may not know his efforts and the skills he had acquired with the spear and other weapons because 1. when they edit, they may not show all of him, so you don't know if it's really him. 2. they do slow motion. 3. he has to tone it down a) to avoid injury to others b) keeping it simple with fewer moves is easier for the audience 4. he actually got bloody with fight scenes. When you know more about how they make movies, you appreciate it more.

I love the rants here. so fun to read how different people view and react to the characters

have you not watched any other Chinese drama? this is normal. in fact, killing off every character is normal too.

i'm glad to know this. I had hoped for Xu Kai to do well.

I am so envious of you guys who are at episode 31.

I've only watched full episodes up to ep 14. So far, my perception of the two protagonists:
Li Ni: carefree, no ambition, dreamer, idealist, romanticist, visionary, upright, trustworthy, principled, honorable, ethical, passionate, highly intelligent, strategist (except when it comes to Ying, he is lost how to win her heart).
Li Ni is fun, has sense of humor, loyal to his army and his loyal friends, vulnerable and naive when blinded by his love for Ying or upholding justice, his only weakness is Ying, he cannot let go of her, she's taken over his heart, soul, and mind and is obsessed with her and willing to do anything for her and longs for her to be by his side. Li Ni had no mother, a father who hated him, brothers who bullied him, and was rejected by his grandfather the emperor. Along comes Ying. He never knew such peace and happiness to be with someone. She fills a void in his heart and makes him feel complete.
Ying: ambitious, realist, pragmatic, structured, practical, resourceful, cunning, unyielding, stubborn, confident. intelligent, strategist
Ying is boring (except to Li Ni), not romantic at all, grew up as boy, only loyal to her army, tough as any man, although she loves Li Ni but she is able to separate her goals and love for Li Ni, therefore, Li Ni is not a weakness for her; in fact, she sees him as leverage and takes advantage of him. Her goal in life has been shaped by loving mother and father who provided solid foundation. She lives by the motto "survive so I can save more people". Maybe her only weakness is the fake Cui Lin since they went through life and death together as kids and leaned on each other. She is very protective of him as her only sibling. She holds him close in her heart but only as a brother, but the love is very strong, maybe as strong as Li Ni love for her. She cannot detach him from her heart, yet she can detach Li Ni.
(pragmatic is someone who is willing to compromise in order to achieve desired outcome, take risks and make difficult decisions in order to achieve their goals).

Li Ni and Ying clash when it comes to their values. This conflict makes them rivals instead of lovers.

Ni Li: "No matter how you treat me, I will always like you in my heart."
Ying: "Today should be the happiest day of my life. Unfortunately, no matter how happy I am, this day will also pass."

I have noticed that there are Xu Kai haters and don't understand why anyone would hate this humble, down-to-earth, hard-working young man who is good to his parents. He is class act to me.

"The first generation makes it, the second generation spends it, and the third generation blows it" and so goes the dynasties

Example: Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (Li Yi), 13th son of Emperor Yianzong, was selected by the palace eunuchs as successor because he was deemed unintelligent. But when Li Yi met with the officials as crown prince, he was very intelligent but had been pretending.

Li Ni has military army. They will probably want to decimate his men to weakne him.

Li Ni can never have the life he wants.

because I'm still on episode 14! The teasers are not making me cry. I need to wait until I get to the brutal scenes, let's see what happens then. I will definitely write a post when I have reached episode 30. Since I'm taking in so many spoilers, will I still cry?

Li Ni will always be a threat to his brothers. Ying lives by the motto her mother left her which is to survive, then you can save more people. Ying sees that Li Ni has only one path to survive this life and save people and that path is the throne. All other paths will lead to his demise.

The same thing happened to Li Shimi founder of Tang dynasty. His older brother is already the crown prince but he is threatened so along with his younger brother, they plotted to kill him but instead they were the ones killed by Li Shimi. Kill or be killed. The brother crown prince even did bad stuff to Li Shimi's military to weaken him. I don't know if that is what happened in WoL but the point is that Li Ni has no choice but to grab power otherwise, he will be target and even if he doesn't care about his own life, who will protect the people from evil leaders? Ying sees Li Ni as the savior for the people. this is what her mother said to her before she died. survive, live, so you can save more people.

From the very beginning of the movie, we see that the Cui family intention to obtain power and influence over the throne in chaos was to protect the people from incompetent and corrupt leaders. In Ying's eyes, Li Ni is the only one who can do that. She's just simply living up to what her mother and father taught her... to survive and save people.

I supposed horrible events will happen to Li Ni to help him finally come to the same realization as her.

there are well written episode recaps at cdrama.wiki

Is WoL along the lines of Mr and Mrs Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)?

Mr and Mrs Smith

Xu Kai acting is subtle except when he does those screaming scenes where he lets it all out. I have to read English subtitle on bottom of the screen, then try to understand the meaning because sometimes the true meaning is lost in the translation. I can barely look at the actor faces to catch expressions. I will watch certain scenes stop and go by frame to catch the text and the expressions. That's how I came to realized Xu Kai has expressions that are natural and easy to miss. His face just naturally breaks out in expression accordingly.

Xu kai has a lot of potential to become a better and better actor. he has a bright future.

Ok poor me, I am only at episode 13. Xu Kai said the ratio of sweetness to bitterness is 3:7 with 3 for sweet and 7 for bitter.