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[sleepy-subtitles]

Zhang Linghe was at the lab where my sister works yesterday. I came home from work and she goes "do you know this guy?" And shows me a picture and I was like, "yeah he's in some dramas I like."

"He was at the lab today."

!!!!! Insanity.

[xiakeponz]

I first saw this on xhs and I just _:(´ཀ`」∠): Cheng Lei you can't just do that 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳

[lunarriviera]

dear dmbj fandom, don't say i never gave you anything. this joke will be funny to approximately ten people but ngl, everytime i see it i laugh my whole entire face off. making it was the best possible use of my birthday this year, so i invite you to obtain a sticker or t-shirt off red/bub/ble (or, for a lower-quality but cheaper shirt, tee/pub/lic).

also, i gave you the tiniest markup allowed, because i love you. as the obnoxious drinks machine says in hitchhiker's guide, share and enjoy! (ETA please be aware that the tall mug distorts the graphic, and they won't let me change/fix it. but the regular-degular mug is fine!)

[aceinthetrap]

@呼葱觅姜

[aceinthetrap]

@呼葱觅蒜

[sleepy-subtitles]

oh this is delightful

[natahjikio]

Sun Zhen Ni as Mu Xuan Ling

The Blossoming Love (2025)

[yingtan]

I must bring you out of this hell.

Fu Ling & Chong Zhao MOONLIGHT MYSTIQUE 白月梵星 (2025)

[kdram-chjh]

Cdrama: Heart of Loyalty (2021)

Li hong yi _ 李宏毅的苏醉

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cppil1LWfSU

[dingyuxi]

DING YUXI as Mu Sheng The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus 永夜星河 (2024)

[dingyuxi]

Lin Yun 林允 Studio Update

[yingtan]

I wish I could always protect my sister.

FANGS OF FORTUNE 大梦归离, 2024

[itagakimizuki]

FANGS OF FORTUNE 大梦归离 (2024) ep. 24

[lansjue]

Thank you for turning my dark night into dawn.

FANGS OF FORTUNE 大梦归离 dir.  Edward Guo, Luo Luo, Wei Nan, 2024.

[xiakeponz]

for modern AU fics - what chinese media did diaspora consume?

making this post because some of us in the diaspora server were having a chat about what Chinese media "Diaspora Chinese" watched in the 90's - 2000's (and even sooner than that) while not having access to satellite chinese media or streaming services - this is in the context of writing modern AU fics based off Chinese media/novels (so your main character's grandpa or uncle is not, in fact, watching an episode of Friends or Shortland Street or something as flavour text because sorry what the hell-)

We generally watched a lot of stuff on VCDs, including bootlegged and non-bootlegged movies, shows, anime/donghua. My household had a whole VCD album of this, and a lot of VCDs (even if they were pirated editions) would have a fancy hardcover box with a magnetic clasp and some artwork representing the show on it.

All of this is Mandarin - so not TVB stuff, because I'm from Northern China and I don't know any cantonese - but Canto friends, please feel free to add to the list! This is mostly stuff my parents liked to watch, or I liked to watch with them, with the exception of a few which I mainly watched with friends/cousins when I was maybe twelve years old onwards. This is a pretty personal list, meant to give people general idea of a possible "ballpark" of sorts, and by no means exhaustive.

Now, for the list of shows which I can confirm I had or someone I know had on VCD or some kind of offline media format lol (I'll try add release year stamps and links to the EN wikipedia where possible):

Period dramas (mostly Qing Dynasty stuff):

Huan Zhu Gege 还珠格格 (1998, April-) This is a classic, so many memes come from this show; hugely popular series, basically cemented Zhang Tie Lin's face as the face of the Qing Emperor for about a decade. Tie Chi Tong Ya Ji Xiao Lan 铁齿铜牙纪晓岚 (2002-2010) - I loved this show as a kid and watched all four seasons on repeat with family... The "trio" in this show are well known and loved.

Amazing Detective Di Ren Jie / 神探狄仁杰 (2004) A very popular and addictive show. Ok now the Big Four:

Romance of 3 kingdoms 1994 / 三国演义 (1994) - a classic that has had many remakes, my older cousin would play this on repeat...

Hong Lou Meng/红楼梦 （1987） - another classic with many remakes, but I think the most recognised by the public one is the 1987 one.

Journey to the West / 西游记 live action (1986) - I think the 1986 version of the live action is the most recognised one. *Shui Hu Zhuan / 水浒传 (1998) - I am not too familliar with the live action of this one in my household tbh bc my mum doesn't like it lol (she keeps saying it's too depressing) but I'm sure it's up there with the rest of the big four, if anyone has an opinion on this one please let me know!

Modern setting shows:

My dad loved all the Sun Honglei (孙红雷 - actor name) stuff, iirc it was a lot of MinGuo period espionage stuff, your shanghai 1920's sxc aesthetic. This actor has been around since 1999? Qian Fu （潜伏）was very famous, and Ren Jian Zheng Dao Shi Cang Sang （人间正道是沧桑）。 These were around '08 and '09.

Chuang Guan Dong - 闯关东 (2008) (Baidu link, sorry - couldn't get an EN wikipedia one). This show was huge when it was airing, everyone was watching it. I was pretty young but even I watched it and got invested ... and I thought it was such an "old person" show at the time lmao. Xiao Bing Zhang Ga / 小兵张嘎 （2004） (sorry, again Baidu link) - yo, anti-japanese war movies set between 1937-1945 were crazy popular - this is one of them and was very popular):

Donghua/Anime (all the stuff kid me watched and some which I didn't but were popular):

喜羊羊与灰太狼 (2005-) Calabash Brothers / 葫芦兄弟 （1986-1987） Black Cat Detective / Hei Mao Jing Zhang 黑猫警长 （1984-2010） Lan Mao Tao Qi 3000 Wen 蓝蓝猫淘气3000问 AKA 蓝猫 (blue cat) (October 1999 - Present) Legend of Ne Zha 哪吒传奇 (2003) Journey to the West/Xi You Ji 西游记 This was truly the Donghua I grew up on, the OP song and ED song are classic bangers all kids know. Slam Dunk/ 灌篮高手 - People truly watched a lot of anime that may or may not have been terribly dubbed into mando (possibly canto too). Late 80s and 90s kids were all over this, and Dragon Ball.

Taiwanese Dramas:

This is mid-late 2000's, I would be remiss to not talk about the Taiwanese dramas of this era. Mike He, Rainie Yang, Wu Zun (amongst many, many others) were huge. Stuff like Dou Niu Yao Bu Yao, it started with a kiss, Hua Yang Shao Nv (Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi) were all pretty popular. Not sure if these shows all hold up in 2023, but boy were they popular at the time.

Note about CNY:

For CNY, people would try to tune into 春节联欢晚会 (the CCTV official CNY show) at that One Friend Who Had China Satellite TV's house. Zhao Ben Shan / 赵本山 was a comedy staple, and the show would often feature people from the music industry to perform. Eventually these people became more and more relevant to my gen and Jay Chou etc started appearing.

Last but not least Xian Jiaaaan 仙剑:

In 2005 I was all over 仙剑奇侠传 (Chinese Paladin), based off the video game. This show was crazy popular and probably sent me and a whole lot of other kids into Xianxia / Wuxia hell (and Hu Ge hell, and later I came back to love Liu Yifei). Thank you. The OST is a true banger.

[dragongirlg-fics]

For Taiwanese dramas I'd like to list the two biggest ones I can remember - these went viral in my Chinese diaspora community in the US before viral was a term! These were both in Taiwanese Mandarin.

Meteor Garden (2001) aka 流星花園

Meteor Garden is an idol drama starring Barbie Hsu and the boy band F4. This was the first live-action adaptation of the Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers, about a girl who enrolls in an elite high school and encounters a gang of wealthy bullies called F4. (Yes, they did that.) If Boys Over Flowers sounds familiar, that's because there's been a live-action Japanese adaptation (2005-2007 TV series with a 2008 movie), South Korean adaptation (2009), mainland China adaptation (2018, also titled Meteor Garden), and a Thai adaptation (2021). Taiwan did it first, though. 🇹🇼

The Prince Who Turns Into A Frog (2005) aka 王子變青蛙

Another idol drama starring Ming Dao and Joe Chen. Joe Chen (female lead) stars as a poor young hustler who accidentally hits a wealthy hotel heir (Ming Dao) with her car, which causes him to lose his memory. Angst, identity shenanigans, love triangles, social class issues, amnesia, long drawn-out montages with sad pop ballads... This one had it all! And if you'd like to enjoy it in it's campy glory, it's currently streaming on Netflix (at least in the US).

I'd like to add that the VCD struggle was so real. Also, I watched a lot of media dubbed in Mandarin - especially things from Hong Kong - and I never realized that they were originally in Cantonese till much later!

TY for the original post, Ponz! Looking forward to more additions ❤️

[la-muerta]

I didn’t even have VCDs in my time, it was rental VCRs ^^; I remember watching a lot of Jin Yong adaptations, and in my time it was the ones where Tony Leung and Andy Lau were still super young, filmed in the 1980s. You could get the OSTs on cassette tape too, my older sister bought all of them. 

[fwoopersongs]

Adjacently related to what I share here, so I thought I’d reply on this blog! We had cable TV, which was where I watched all the TVB drama in my childhood - only my grandmothers had it in their rooms, so I watched with my popo on weekdays after school and also on weekends when she went to stay with my cousins. They had re-runs of the dramas from weekdays on weekends, except marathon style, so you can catch up on missed episodes maybe LOL

On regular TV, we had one or two channels for each target audience group and for the two Chinese channels, there would be dramas at certain timeslots daily. I usually watched with my parents in the evening at dinnertime and before bedtime. If we liked the drama a lot, we’d look for VCDs locally. I have no idea if they were bootleg or not xD One of my go-to shops is still around - I see outlets in malls and central-ish locations!

These are the dramas I remember from the mid 1990s to the 2000s. 

Wikipedia (w), Youtube (y)

TVB (Hong Kong) Dramas

To a certain degree, all my impressions of mythology, wuxia and historical settings came from this period... the modern dramas also influenced me to take a path in my studies that I didn’t end up pursuing as a career, but it was very fun while it lasted anyway. Also! I wasn't the only one. Met friends in school who told me they had the very same source of inspiration!

(Notice how most of them have fairly normal English names? xD Gosh, those were the days...)

Mythology / Fantasy

西游记 (1996) Journey to the West (w) (y)

西游记贰  (1998) Journey to the West II  (w) (y)

封神榜 (2001) Gods of Honor (w) (y) - Investiture of the Gods adaptation

缱绻仙凡间 (2003) In the Realm of Fancy (w) (y) - The amazing twist at the end has me crying every time. If you do give it a try, don’t spoil yourself on wikipedia (I am SO amused and amazed and delighted by that entry, because it means someone loves it enough to write that much on an obscure drama in another language hahaha) 

人龙传说 (2006) Dragon Love (w) (y) -  Shenanigans between a dragon and an aspiring dragon slayer \o/ I loved this drama so much.

Wuxia

笑傲江湖 (1996) State of Divinity (w) (y)

云海玉弓缘 (2003) Lofty Waters Verdant Bow (w) (y)

大唐双龙传 Twin of Brothers (w) (y) - Adapted from the novel of the same name. I cannot remember any of the plot, but I heard the first line of the opening theme song while looking for another drama one day, and was like WAIT A SEC -

Timetravel 寻秦记 (2001) A Step Into The Past (w) (y) - THE Timetravel back to ancient times drama, based on the novel of the same name

九五至尊 (2003) King of Yesterday and Tomorrow (w) (y) - Yongzhen Emperor goes forward in time with his would-be assassin, another fav!

隔世追兇 (2004) To Get Unstuck in Time (w) (y) - Crime solving across time! (technically no time travelling though) I found this one again when I watched the kdrama Signal and was like !!!!!!!! apparently they were inspired by the same movie.

Historical

洗冤录 (1999) Witness to a Prosecution (w) (y) - My coroner-led crime investigation competence kink had to have come from somewhere right?

酒是故乡醇  (2001) Country Spirit (w) (y) - This drama is its title. There will always be a space for it in my heart. Perfect encapsulation in the Eng title too! (Though it may not be obvious in first glance)

金枝欲孽 (2004) War and Beauty (w) (y) - The Empress Dowager of palace drama, I see shadows of it in so many others of this genre. Only noticed the cool wordplay in the original title after I got re-interested in Chinese things and shoutout to the genius who thought of combining 金枝玉叶 (people of nobility or delicate natures) + 欲 (desire) + 孽 (sin)

Modern

妙手仁心 (1998) Healing Hands (w) (y) - simply iconic

勇探实录 (2001) Law Enforcers (w) (y) - Got distracted watching a bit of this while digging it up (theme song unforgettable!!!!), and it is so weird but I still feel comfortable with this style of acting and script.

争分夺秒 (2004) Split Second (w) (y) - Police vs. Triads & moles on both sides. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that the character who has stayed rent free in my head for nearly 20 years is... (friends who know my taste can probably guess lmao)

法证先锋 (2006) Forensic Heroes (w) (y) - Probably just as iconic as Healing Hands xD

Taiwanese Dramas

Fantasy

第8号当铺 (2003) The Pawnshop NO.8 (w) (y) - Absolute top fav of all time. What a concept. Excellent execution.

Period

小宝与康熙 (2000) Duke of Mount Deer (w) (y)

Modern

情定愛琴海 (2004) Love of the Aegean Sea (w) (y) - Original tragic fav. My mom was obsessed. I think we watched it at least 4 times. ~ ni shi wo de yi di lei ~

綠光森林 (2005) Green Forest, My Home (w) (y) - I remember watching this because at certain angles, the male lead looked like Ming Dao. Bad time to have this realization, but Huang Xuan has elevated Ming Dao vibes !!!!!! ...Is this why I like him???? LMAO.

白色巨塔 (2006) The Hospital (w) (y) - I'm not sure how well recieved this drama was, but when I think of hospital drama... it's this one. (And maybe the Korean Good Doctor xD)

愛情魔髮師 (2006) The Magicians of Love (w) (y) - On a lighter note... this is a super fun childhood fav. Hairstylist shenanigans with good acting and a lighthearted script.

Mainland Chinese Drama

Adaptations of Jinyong's Novels

倚天屠龙记 2003 The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber (w) (y)

天龙八部 (2003) Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (w) (y) - I don't need to say anything. This version is iconic enough! (Also featuring Liu Tao as A'Zhu xD)

射雕英雄传 (2003) The Legend of the Condor Heroes (w) (y)

神雕侠侣 (2006) The Return of the Condor Heroes (w) (y) - by the same director… gods, Liu Yifei is just so iconic in this era of Jinyong adaptations T_T

射雕英雄传 (2008) The Legend of the Condor Heroes (w) (y) - I would say this one is the most idol drama-y out of all of them, but gosh am I soft for this version.

鹿鼎记 (2008) Royal Tramp (w) (y) - I was once dubious, but this production won me over. The ending song OMG.

Period Fantasy / Supernatural / Mythology

赤子乘龙 (2005) The Dragon Heroes (w) (b)

天外飞仙 (2006) The Little Fairy (w) (y) - Led by Hu Ge and Ariel Lin! Two years later, they co-stared again in a Condor Heroes adaptation. Iconic opening song!

聊斋奇女子 (2007) The Fairies of Liaozhai (w) (y) - Beautifully made. I'm thinking of rewatching now that I do know my way around poetry a little better haha.

Of course Chinese Paladin as Ponz mentioned deserves a place here!

Historical

These are the ones I remember:

Princess Returning Pearl ofc also as mentioned by Ponz

少年包青天II (2000) Young Justice Bao (w) (y) 少年包青天II (2001) Young Justice Bao 2 (w) (y) - I finally solved the mystery of why he seemed to have two different faces LMAO there were multiple seasons!!!!

大汉天子 (2005) The Emperor in Han Dynasty (w) (y) - ending song that makes me cry.

刁蛮公主 (2005) My Bratty Princess (w) (y) - not based on real history, but quite cute xD

清宫风云 (2006) Heroic Legend of the Chin Dynasty (w) (y) - LOVE the opening song

[renewedmotionforjudgment]

This is dating me, but did anyone watch Prime Minister Liu Luoguo? Looking back, my grandparents have no business allowing a 6 year old to watch it, but I was obsessed.

But also Huan Zhu Ge Ge 3 broke me. I watched the first two series as a child in mainland and the third as a preteen in the US and like … my preteen brain was not ready to comprehend harem drama between Xiao Yan Zi and Zhi Hua.

I feel like my parents watched 大汉天子 when I was supposed to be doing homework and I’ve snuck a few episodes but never watched the whole thing.

I had a journey to the west comic and I think there was a series? That I watched? After school back in mainland.

But Huan Zhu Ge Ge. That was an era.

[guzhuangheaven]

Oh my god Prime Minister Liu Luoguo - I think that was literally the first Chinese drama that I retained concrete memories of until this day. I still occasionally have the theme song stuck in my head.

And let's be real I've spent too many years writing out all five stages of grief regarding HZGG3.

[wohdaily]

*boops*

[sombredancer]

How to be a more interesting character than the Main Hero (Pt.4)

Shangjue and his fiancée

Shangjue has an interesting yet complicated relationship not only with his didi, but also with his fiancée, who happens to be an assassin. The girl aims him from the beginning and plays a cruel game to win his attention, because her mission is to get the secret weapon of Gong clan (the Sutra), to which Shangjue has an access. She is a liar and he knows it, so he decides to choose her as his bride in order to keep his enemy even closer than his friend. So, in the beginning they both play their roles. But Shangjue has a critical vulnerability: he looks like Mr. Danger, but inside of him is a heart of silk. It`s not that hard to tear it apart if you can sneak beneath his ribs.

Their relationship unfolds in an interesting way: an assassin tries hard to find a tiny crack in Shangjue’s nutshell and to guess his thoughts by doing some stuff (cooking meal he doesn`t like, planting flowers he doesn`t want to be planted and bringing havoc into his well-ordered world), and he ends up kinda liking it. He badly needs someone who will dig into his inner core and find there what he truly wants, because he thinks of himself just as of a function and barely knows his own desires. The blankness of his residence is like one of a service apartment – everything is only for work, nothing is for soul.

But bit by bit she learns more about him and finds out that he is not that person she thought he is. At the beginning of the story she says to the female lead that Shangjue likes no one but himself. But in reality, he hardly likes himself either. There is no «himself» at all. There is a sharp saber against clan`s enemies, a legendary martial artist who brings wealth and prosperity to his clan, a wise father figure for didi but there isn`t a man who is called Gong Shangjue. Her thought of Shangjue as of someone who doesn`t love anyone beautifully echoes with herself. Her tutor said that she loves only herself, but at the end of the story she ends up feeling something (not love, but not nothing at least) towards said tutor and Shangjue as well.

Bay flowers are Shangjue's favorite. Btw, their conversation about these flowers is very eloquent, too. An assassin says that Shangjue's favorite bay flowers mean something dangerous yet beautiful and bewitching. Just like her by his side. And he says that they represent victory and prosperity, which are his goals as a Gong clan member (but maybe not what his heart truly wants).

Paying the last respect for the tutor. While an assassin is toying with Shangjue, he is toying with her. He always pulls her closer and immediately pushes her away, gives her approval of her actions and the next moment punishes her for the same actions. He knows that she is dangerous and got closer to him on purpose, but he ends up liking her anyway.

Along his toying with her, nevertheless, he treats her as his real future wife and indulges her to change something chaotically in his realm of order in front of his servants and, I suppose, starts believing himself that she will be his wife.

Meanwhile, an assassin uses the knowledge she received very skillfully: she learns about death of Shangjue’s mother and talks about her mom in order to worm her path out into his shell, later she uses the information given her by Yuanzhi (about Gong clan above everything for Shangjue) to make Shangjue believe she knows his heart.

It looked like he would kiss her. But he didn't.

Their conversation in this scene is heartbreaking: she tells him, that the Main Hero puts Gong clan in danger because he knows there is an assassin in the residence and does nothing about it, and Shangjue has got no evidence that could help to catch her red handed. And by the time she is speaking Shangjue already knows - it is HIM who knows that an assassin is by his side and voluntary puts his clan in danger (and, as we know, will proceed to do it till the end of the story). When Shangjue catches his fiancée as a suspect, his moral trial begins.

Watching the drama for the first time, I was very surprised that he did almost nothing to interrogate her (pushing at the wound can't be considered as a torture). His duty is to expose and to kill a Wufeng assassin, but he ends up eagerly believing any lie his fiancée tells him because he likes her and WANTS to believe her. Then he is about to touch her but doesn't dare to do so, and it's a significant sign, too. He hadn't problems with touching Yuanzhi (at least, when they were younger), so, I suppose, this lack of touching between Shangjue and his fiancée represents his inner struggle. He wants to be tender with her because he likes her, but tenderness is a weakness and shouldn`t be shown to an enemy.

Speaking of intimacy and touching, a lack of it between them is so palpable that I felt very uncomfortable when, a few episodes later, that pool sex scene happened. Many people didn`t understand either, have they banged or not, because even them touching each other is already something unbelievable in this drama. I spent a lot of time thinking about how they banged considering Shangjue’s problems with touching her and allowing her to touch him 😁😁😁.

Btw, this scene is definitely a sex scene. In China there is a very strict censorship in terms of a lot of things, including queere-relationship and sex, but there is also a lot of ways to show it without actually showing something (but even the fact that they were NAKED together in one pool told me everything, as long as in other dramas people had to have sex being dressed in three layers of hanfu). I`m not that deep into Chinese culture, but I have read in comments that the strange phrase of Shangjue «These buds will bloom soon, then you will know if I like you like this (her less obedient and more ambitious self)» refers to a Chinese idiom about a loss of virginity (so if it’s true, Shangjue deliberately invited her to have sex with him if she wanted to know if he liked her and that’s why she came to him without undergarments in the dead of night). The lanterns in the water of a pool refer to the unity of male Yang and female Yin energies (and we could see them in the scene of their first «date», btw). He loosened her hair in the pool: manipulations with girl’s hair it`s something that only husband is allowed do (that’s why you often can see in dramas that a male lead gifts his lover a hairpin or a comb). After everything’s happened, he hovers his cup above a saucer, which means «want to repeat». However, I couldn`t find any proof of these meanings because it seems like Chinese internet doesn`t cross English-speaking one at all and I respectively don`t understand Mandarin. So, if you know something else about it, feel free to correct me in comments. Btw, I`m sure, Yuanzhi's constant speaking about tea in front of Shangguan Qian refers to some kind of idiom, too, but I couldn`t find any information about it. UPD: my fellow @randomingoftherandomness says that it has something to do with a Chinese slang phrase 綠茶婊 (green tea bitch) - "a person who tries to look innocent being in fact calculating".

During the «torture» scene an assassin asks if Shangjue can spare her life and he says «no», because his duty is not to show mercy to Gong clan enemies. This scene echoes with the end of the story, when she asks him again to spare her life and he says he will if she gives him back the Sutra. And he really lets her go, which is strictly opposite to his mission of protecting Gong clan, because she knows everything about their inner residences and Gong clan members, and, what is the most important, the secret of the Sutra. But Shangjue wants to let her leave because she is the first thing he wants for himself, the first longing of a person, not of a function. Only by opposition between his duty and his heart he could find out who the real he is. Letting her go is very VERY irrational decision, but, unlike for the Main Hero, who stole his assassin‘s heart by his incompatible with life naivety, for Shangjue it is a natural point of his character development: being restricted from all his human wishes for a decade, when he gets the opportunity to fulfil them, he gets off his leash and does it fully. Very human behavior, btw.

I was very surprised seeing that Shangjue’s fiancée had time during this mess to change her clothes. Later I understood that she did it on purpose: she had more chances to survive if Shangjue would recall his feelings for her because this pink dress was a gift from him. In their final scene together he says that he would let her go if she gives him the Sutra back, it means she doesn't need to pretend to be pregnant in order to save her life, as soon as Shangjue always keeps his promises. But he lets her know that he doesn't count her as someone from Gong clan (and as his fiancée as well) anymore, and maybe that’s why she says that she bears a child and formulates it's so as if it's a new member of Gong clan, not just a fruit of their passion, because Gong clan does matter for him and his own personality doesn`t (and, btw, remembering the fertility problems, children are very valued in the clan). But I don't understand why preserving of her bond to Gong clan is so important to her. Yes, she couldn't go back to Wufeng because her information caused its collapse but she couldn't stay with the man she just tried to wipe out as well. Maybe her only hope was that she could keep the Sutra as a clan member (a mother of a Gong child), but Shangjue snatched it back. Her story have had some curtain development but kinda not till the final point so I would like to see how their relationship would move further. It is crystal clear by this last scene of them together that Shangjue catastrophically and fully lost to his assassin. When I have watched the drama for the first time I was sure she would use his soft spot on her to kill him, especially when she put his sword down and came to him very closely. At the very end of the story it seems that Shangjue believed everything she said to him in this last conversation, because her information about Wufeng’s boss is spreaded across the Martial World by the Main Hero, which means Shangjue shared it with him.

Azaleas mean "I belong to you forever".

Back in the story, when didi takes the assassin to Shangjue`s residence, he says that the most vulnerable and unpredictable thing is a human heart and that people often don`t want to know the truth. The story itself proves him right: it’s true in terms of Yuanzhi self, whose heart can be and is hurt only by Shangjue, even if his sworn brother doesn`t have a clue about the inner processes that are going on inside didi’s head; it`s also true in terms of an assassin, so far as she starts seeing a handsome man instead of her victim; and, of course, it’s true for Shangjue as well: he deliberately deceives himself believing the assassin isn`t assassin just to have an opportunity to be with her.

It was a pure pleasure to feel for these characters and to watch their stories unfold and I definitely would recommend this drama for watching.

[cannibal-sarracenian]

"Alright, time to see what this animated poetry movie is like-

Oh jesus christ"

[cannibal-sarracenian]

To elaborate outside of initial tags:

So this is from 30,000 Miles From Chang’an, which is a 2 hours 47 minutes(!!?) long Chinese animated film that is basically an actually legitimate historical epic and historical biopic (think Gladiator & Amadeus) made into animation, and also passionate tribute to classical art and culture, similar to something like Miss Hokusai or Millennium Actress.

I heard it was decent before, but was not expecting it to be This Ambitious. The Criminally Underrated Champ of 2023 Animation