caffeinatedDreams

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Japan relaxes royal succession rules - but ban on female emperors remains

The law now allows the adoption of male distant relatives aged over 15 back into the imperial family.

At least the female members can now keep their royal titles. In this day and age, they can only marry below their rank if they intend to marry at all.

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Who will follow in Hiroyuki Sanada's footsteps?

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plath

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I miss you, my Fujun and Furen. Please do another drama together soon. 🥰

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Yeobo??? Yoo In Na called Lee Dong Wook yeobo??? In casual conversation???

I.am.dead.

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I started watching Key To The Phoenix Heart yesterday but something about the leads doesn't seem to click with me. The male lead's looks like he's forcing the cold and ruthless look too much, while the female lead is annoying to me. I'm still trying to find their charm coz this drama seems to be quite hyped.

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I seem to be on a personal Ren Jialun CDrama-fest recently. Just finished with Fate Chooses You and currently watching Love & Crown, Love Of Nirvana and Burning Flames alternately.

So far, I find the dramas that he's topbilled quite interesting. I'm not exactly sure why. Anyway, as long as I enjoy them, I'll watch them. I prefer more seasoned actors like him than the younger idol types. More often than not, these idol actors lack the gravitas to pull off complex characters, especially those in positions of authority.

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It's finally coming out! I've missed seeing Liu Xueyi onscreen. I'm on the fence with Tan Songyun. Not a fan but not an anti-fan either. Saw her in The Sword and The Brocade and she was okay. I hope this drama is good though.

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Finally finished "Fate Chooses You" and the ending kind of left me confused.

Suddenly, there's a mysterious, white-haired man named Yuan Zhong (played by my other CDrama bias, Liu Xueyi) whom Xin Mei meets in her search for Lu Qianqiao. He speaks to her in riddles and talks of a fish that he's been trying to catch but lost because she disturbed him. His sudden appearance near the end of the finale is weird and anti-climactic because he seems to hint at a greater conspiracy behind everything that happened. From the looks of things, it's several layers of conspiracy. The Qinghong Sect was being used by the Tianyuan Sect who was being used by the Youhu Clan, who's led by Zhong Yuan. He was the one who gave Li Mofu the seed of the Jianmu Tree and manipulated him to grow it and re-establish the heavenly ladder. And it looks like he was doing it so he could find a certain goddess from the heavenly realms.

And then there is the appearance of another mysterious person called the Crazy Daoist, who seems to be some sort of seer who predicted all these incidents that affected the protagonists and the whole world. He was credited with the prophecy about the savior of the world who is one of the Heavenly Talents born on the 9th of September. This character wasn't explored much and seemed more of a convenient plot device.

Anyway, back to Yuan Zhong. He is said to be the common character that connects "Fate Chooses You" with another drama called "A Moment But Forever". Liu Xueyi essayed the same role in this drama. Viewers say that in order to make sense of what Yuan Zhong was saying in Fate Chooses You, one has to watch A Moment But Forever.

Hm. Maybe I will have to do that one of these days because Yuan Zhong looks quite interesting.

In any case, Fate Chooses You managed to hold my attention till the end. It also got me interested in watching other Ren Jialun dramas. I'm currently watching "Love & Crown" and "Love Of Nirvana". I hope they don't disappoint.

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It's so hot and humid! Even the air coming from the fan is hot. I feel like I'm melting every time I step away from the fan's radius.

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A nice interview with Ci Sha and Ren Min. With proper English subs too!

Ren Min looks like a teenager in her getup. Her face is so small and her features are so doll-like that she can really pass for a 15 to 18 year old girl, Gu Jinzhao's ages throughout the drama. Ci Sha, on the other hand, looks like his real-life age here. This is why I was amazed at how he managed to embody the character of Chen Yanyun and project a much older, mature man.

Seeing them like this makes me want to watch them in a modern drama in their next collaboration. They both said when they appeared in Hello Saturday that they would be happy to work together again. They even said they both want to play star-crossed lovers next.

Please no. I don't think I can take it if you don't end up together in your next drama.

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This scene is crazy! I wonder if Gu Jinzhao was really so naive due to having grown up in Tongzhou. Surely Grandmother Ji would have told her about how to behave especially among men. Of how young ladies like her should never allow themselves to be left alone with them, especially a man like Chen Yanyun.

To be left alone with a man was already taboo and could stain a young woman's name. But to be alone with a half-naked man and touching him, this would totally tear her reputation to shreds. Gu Jinzhao is of course doing it out of concern for Lord Chen and to show her gratitude to him for all the times he's come to her rescue. Still. If Grandmother Ji ever found out how her dearest granddaughter was behaving towards Lord Chen, she'd have an apoplectic fit.

No wonder Chen Yanyun looked like he was ready to jump out of his skin here. And no wonder he proposed to her so confidently later on. He and Jinzhao have indeed already been through a lot together, far more than should have been appropriate.

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If there's one thing that baffles me about C-ent, it's their ageism. I don't know why it even matters what year or decade an actor or actress was born when it comes to their work.

Reason why I said this is coz I saw a clip of Yang Zi winning the 31st Shanghai Festival Magnolia Awards for Best Actress. The caption had to mention something about her being the first "90's liner actress" to do so. I mean, whyyyy??? What's the relevance? If she did excellent work as the lead actress for her nominated project, it shouldn't matter what year she was born.

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Funny. I used to love Jane Austen novels when I was a kid and even read Pride & Prejudice and Emma several times. I bought sequel books written by fans, reimagined novels, etc. I watched the film adaptations of P&P and Emma .

However, now that there are so many versions and new adaptations of Austen works, I find myself sick of them.

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After rewatching this scene, I do understand why some viewers find Jinzhao's reaction towards Ye Xian's pain a bit over-the-top. She wasn't in love with him, so why did she practically faint after he ran off?

I'd like to think it's from shock. I doubt that anyone of them expected the extent of Ye Xian's reaction to the news of Jinzhao's impending marriage to Chen Yanyun. Jinzhao already had some idea of how he might react. He did try to whip her once before when he found out that she liked Chen Xuanqing. And his sister was afraid of how her little brother would take the news. She knew how emotionally unstable he was

But Ibguess being confronted with just how violently he reacted, Jinzhao's own reaction was a result of shock and fear. She was probably torn between wanting to pacify Ye Xian, at the same time fear that he might actually hurt her and the rest of the people in the room, not to mention that he might hurt himself as well.

It would have been great if Chen Yanyun had arrived at that moment. He would have slapped Ye Xian back to his senses.

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I want to go home. My brain feels like it's full of air and just bobbing up and down like a balloon inside my skull. I just want to sleep and eat and sleep again. Then maybe watch some TV, eat, then sleep again. I need a whole 3 days of bed rotting to recharge.

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Ci Sha and Ren Min are so cute in this BTS. In one of the most iconic scenes in ASM, the one where most viewers felt the sexual tension between their characters in full force, we find out that they kept breaking character.

Ci Sha's robe swish fail, almost knocking Ren Min backwards, and his subsequent laughter complete with shoulders shaking violently. Ren Min's scolding with her girlish voice and light slap.

The way they reacted to their NG was so far removed from the way their characters act onscreen in this scene. It's just so much fun to watch their BTS coz it underlines how skilled they are as actors. Once the camera rolls, they shed their real selves and transform into Chen Yanyun and Gu Jinzhao. And they stay in character until the director says "cut" or if they mess up their scenes. 🙂