xmag

"Bionic life" was an amazing sci-fi drama with a scary SWL. He wa the "good guy" but still an abrasive and even dangerous sometimes character. "Seven relics" was good too, but he had the misfortune of being paired with a FL actress who just freezes in romance scenes and refuses kissing scenes. She is great otherwice in other dramas but she should never play in romance dramas.

And of course, there was "Go ahead". So so far, for me, at least 3 great dramas with very good acting.

Time travel. As ever.

A phobia is a valid fear. I'm french. Considering what has been happening in my country those last years, you bet I have a reasonable phobia. Ask the british about the grooming gangs and their "phobia".

Christians who are upset as just as nuts as muslims who are upset. Keep your religion private. Like sex. I don't need to see it.

I'm a catholic.

Pakistan STOLE the knowledge, it didn't create an atomic bomb, a pakistanese scientist working in the Netherlands stole everything he needed to create a bomb.

Yeah, 2-3 countries. I'm european, french. Believe me, we have our share of muslims in my country, enough to know that this community is the only one (wherever it goes) to not integrate and try to force ITS culture and religion on the countries they migrate to.

We all know what happened with the grooming gangs in the UK. Or the thousands rapes and sexual agressions in Cologne in 2016. The terrorists attacks. Everywhere in Europe now, schools, train stations, malls, churches are protected by the army and guess what? It's not to protect from the jews. Or the Christians. Or the buddhists. Or the atheists. Nope, it's from the "you know what" community.

A famous saying all around the world about you: "Offended by everything, ashamed of nothing, entitled to everything, responsible for nothing".

Know Islam, no peace. No Islam, know peace.

Snort, you make me laugh with your women. A european woman was raped in SA and when she reported the rape to the police, she was thrown in jail because "she had had sexual intercourse while not being married".

Women in Afghanistan, what a joy. Women in Iran, what a joy. Women in pleny of african countries, what a joy.

And please, if Iran had the atomic bomb, it would have used it already. Just because americans were more intelligent than muslim scientists and created the atomic bomb first, means that muslim leaders wouldn't have used it if they had been the first to create it.

I wasn't offended by the american show Lucifer showing his love story with Chloe. It was fiction. Some humans are just insane and don't even know it, when they rant like lunatics about their religion. Religion stays at home or in church/mosque/synagogue, leave people alone. Life is already tough on Earth, no need to destroy what brings joy, aka dramas and music and movies and books.

Don't watch. Jeez, you complain about your religion, while having no problem with insulting and complaining about another culture. South Korea can make dramas about christianity, buddhism or Islam, they don't answer to you or me (christian).

Yeah, yeah, we know how you or your buddies act when your religion is criticized. Priests beheaded, teachers beheaded, people enjoying music kalashnikoved.... in non muslim countries and non muslim cultures.

Just give us a break from you, nutjobs. In your country, do whatever you want. NOn muslim countries with THEIR LAWS, THEIR CULTURE, can do whatever they want and to hell with your feelings.

For those who are watching, why do you think the ML's friend is trying to kill him? I mean, he is a scientist interested in time travel and parallel universes. I don't remember seeing him in the past, although after episode 7, I wonder if he was the one who killed off the two leads with a single arrow.

He also collects ancient weapons and said at one point it was soon time to go back or something like that.

The FL seems to have seen him somewhere, in this life or is she remembering a past life where he was present?

I watch time travel dramas because they are my favorite genre and I'm so used to it that I don't mind or care. I know what the writers intended and that what was the "official ending" was the "censorship ending".

And considering that every modern time travel drama lately (the last one being "Fell on you" or something like that) ended up the same way, I know that the writers have very little room to explain the ending a bit better (like the characters meeting, discussing the TT, their feelings, readapting to real life), as if thewriters have to tick very specific cases where the ending is concerned.

That's good enough for me.

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Well, if censorship forbade the airing of episode 24, it was either airing the 23 episodes, or not airing the drama at all and therefore everyone involved in the production (and the investors) losing a lot of money.

It's still show-business, after all. Half of it is business.

SOOY has 23 episodes instead of 24, like 99% of the modern rom-coms. There's something strange, here. Almost as if an entire episode is missing.

I mean:

- 1 : the ML goes back to a reality where his best friend is dead, while a few minutes ago in his coma-dream, he was alive, how does he deal with that?

- 2 : The FL goes back to a reality where she didn't work hard in school, where she didn't save her parents from poverty, where her brother is a loser and where the SFL is still a mean girl and an enemy while she found redemption in her coma-dream. How does she deal with that? How does she mourn that coma-dream life, how does she re-adapt to reality?

- 3 : The mean guy who had sabotaged her project in the first episode, leading her to quit her job, doesn't suffer any consequences, how fair is that???

4 - The 23rd episode (and the final one "officially") ends up on ... the SML and SFL. How ? can someone explain to me how is it possible that the last image of taht drama is this couple which, I'm sure, 95% of the audience disliked?

- 5: I'm sure I have forgotten other points which don't make sense with this abrupt ending.

It really feels like there was a 24th episode (as is the norm with modern rom-coms) dealing with the aftermath and solving those issues I mentioned. But that this 24th episode was scrapped. Probably because of censorship. And that last episode would have made the drama so much better, making sense of all this adventure.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Like romance. But there's still an audience for that genre.

That's how it is with time-travel C-drama. You have to get used to the fact that because of time-travels bans in chinese dramas, writers have to use the same loophole: coma, traveling into a novel, a movie, a comic book, a dream... that's what I call the censorship ending.

I always take that censorship ending as the fake one: aka the one imposed on the writers and not the one they intended.

It makes watching time-travel C-dramas so much easier this way.

"Also, it was very odd to have the series end on the second lead couple..."

My theory and I'm sticking to it: if it ends so abruptly and strangely on the second lead couple, it's because there was a 24th episode which didn't pass censorship.

That's the only thing that makes sense, for me. Because those short rom-coms always have 24 episodes and this one has 23.

True, Chen Jing Ke has 5 dramas next and I noticed that none of them are costum dramas but 2 are romance dramas and 3 are thriller dramas. I don't think it's bad for his career.

For Song Wei Long and Zhang Ling He, yeah, I noticed that when they started, they had a normal weight and now that they shoot a lot of costum dramas, they look like they are starving. Long has shot The bionic Life and Seven Relics, which lean more towards sci-fi/paranormal stuff with minimal romance so that could be a good move for when he is in his middle 30's.

Some actors are naturally lean; no problem with that. It's just that it's hard to believe them when they play roles which require a specific body type and weight and height.

Ahh, no thanks, not a Arthur Chen fan. Yeah, I also prefer actors who are less thin. For the actor of SOOY, there was a scene where he was drenched because of the rain and his clothes were sticking to his body. He was normal looking, at least for me. Same with the shower scene (in that drama and another, Dear Mr Hermitage, if I remember well).

I have the same issue about actors playing soldiers. One of the first dramas I remember watching was "You are my hero", with Ma Si Chun and Bai Jing Ting. I really loved the story but for real, the actress had more meat on her bones than the actor!

For real! He was this super soldier and his waist was so thin! There was another scene where he was eating with the FL. You could see fake broad shoulders, he wore a padded tee-shirt. Except that a few scenes later, he was gym training with the other soldiers and he was wearing a normal tee-shirt and you could see how frail he was, with shoulders as narrrow as his waist.

Just for that, I have troubles rewatching the drama because it takes me out of the story. It's really a drama where I wished an actor like Johnny Huang, Jin Bo Ran, Chen Jin Ke, or Yang Shi Ze (although I wonder if he has thyroid problems because depending on dramas, I have seen him looking like a skeleton or a bit fat, kind of like the actor who plays MacGee in NCIS) had been casted.

I think some actors, while very thin, can play soldiers in dramas if they train, like Song Wei Long or Zhang Ling He because if you watch their debut dramas, they were less thin and they had large shoulders.

Same feeling here. I started with Kdramas but now, I mostly watch Cdramas.

My favorite genre is light rom-com but also paranormal rom-com like SOOY. But lately, I have watched costumes dramas, mostly investigation dramas, I like this genre. I'm not into the martial arts/demons stuff or political dramas.

Still, there are enough Cdramas to fill that need, thank god because as you said, Kdramas have changed those last years. I think the last one I watched and loved was "Lovely runner". It's like Kdramas target more the international (especially american) audience and I can see it.

Sure, some dramas have more complex storylines and characters but we can have that in american series. I just wish that Kdramas had kept their romantic or light youth dramas. It's sad that I maybe watch only one Kdrama a year, now. As I said, "Lovely runner" (last year) and "Business proposal" (and that was... I'm not sure 2023?).

Yeah, not many Kdramas keep my attention, contrary to Cdramas. Just this year, I have watched SOOY, Fall on You, The wanted detective, The Coroner's diary, ADWAD, EVerlasting longing and Seven relics... and last year Blossom, Derailment, Tibetan Sea flower and the two Strange tales of Tang dynasty.

Yeah, it's sad that for those costum dramas, the actors have to starve themselves. Personally, I prefer actors with a bit more meat. Like the main lead in SOOY. He is more normal looking for a man.