If 欢乐颂 has anything to do with human joy needs glorifying with ode, perhaps just me, I’d rather writhe in my choice of misery…
…by writhing I mean a kissy romp with WangK, then dumping him after over some card game making smuggy excuse of being a shouty player with obvious flagging of needing anger management therapy, which I would throw him a spa giftcard as I kick him out claiming I dunno how much is in it just go chill urself and card only haz 2000yen, let him embarrassingly fish for cash nikkid at spa for the merit of the spa ladies and guys into WKK.
I have never felt this hopeless and depressed watching a drama, this bright insta-summer filtered OTT upbeat music playing often trauma, with too rude wakening of the flagrant sexism in CN society, so ubiquitous nobody even realize to call it out, moreover the tone of the dramamakers are playing an ode of praise to that joy of being the dominating sex it seeps into every fiber of existence and is the acknowledged way of life. I have to call this drama dirge to yoj
By now I know the ShanYing Uncle dramamakers/tptb too well, read: SY trendy is shrewd meticulously fabricated glossy layers of fancy ‘quality’ gorgeous masterful worthy wrappings: a promising cast, acting jobs commendable overall, production value impressive in C dramaland…looks good, aftertaste poop, w a covert ball of dump at core SY should have patent by now being so masterful at churning out. I have skimmed the novel, by some buffoon faking it, hustling to write about realistic slice of life professional womanhood he/she knows shallowly chauvinistically little about <- most probably exactly the reason why this appeals to the SYUncles to adapt as some charity case for the womanfolks. Source material is absolutely wretched, SY shows me no hope it will suddenly wake up from its hustling frenzy of money making hits. I prepped myself to enjoy this solely for the acting, a layer of the much promoted tight beautiful SY drama wrappings, who could deny being wowed by JIANG! XIN! and here also by Wang ZiWen and Yang Zi, as cherries to the cake. If Liu Tao manages to make me shut all my jabs at her acting for real in yet again a miscast imho, the merrier, good that I did not bet on that ever. Rounding up the young lady quintet, Qiao Yin is the newbie pleasant young actress under the management of ShanYing, her bit role in NiF is very safe from all my dissing of that pretentious period princetoad, her character in Joy is harmless and levelheaded and she just needs to do a decent job channeling that and viola, the exposure. There are all the uncles who can act as accessories who had turned me a fangirl in at least one most worthy past work each. Just ask WangK to wear scrubs and smiles as he pours his gorgeous eyes into his OTP, Miss Wang’s Qudiva (I’m coining), who has tried and true chemistry with him in the past as work buddies, the fangirls will be more than hormonal and free effective teaser for their next upcoming ‘SY trendy’. Safe investment of sure returns, so much win, no?! How splendid, like while I enjoy all the unconditional sweetness from pet puppy, I still have to clean poop when it haz nonstop explosive diarrhea.
My watch kicks off shocking me in a new way: how exact it is spot on at my expectation. I know how flawed, and exaggeratedly so the characters could be, did not frustrate me per expectation. All the cringe bombs of the SY uncles attempting elements of trendy and failing spectacularly, right there, without aware are so predictable, quite amusing to smirk at. The music cues are as laughably horrible, passe and often distuned from the emotion of scene whenever they overdo, yup, their take on ‘cool’. I literally caught them playing comedic music while the character is wincing in inner angst. The most right on tone bit they used was a few notes stolen from Long Vacation, a 21 year old jdorama. The songs on the OST are all sang by the actresses/actors themselves, and I am torn between asking SY to stop this practice because other than JiangXin’s emotive if imperfect crooning, everyone else sounds bland and amateur, but OTOH the songs are awful why bother. That narrating grandpa voiceover is annoyingly redundant, not exactly redundant as often it is a preachy disconnect like an odd uncle trying to be cool inserting his bizarre dissection on shoujo fluff watching along unwelcomed, only from the minds knowing shit about women would obviously hold the opinion the audience, mostly female they bet on, are all bimbos incapable of own thoughts and interpretations which would vary from theirs, blasphemy. We will miss every brilliant(NOT!) progression they designed unless spelled out stately like some public ed announcement, in their eyes the actresses are never trusted to convey exact emotion of scene they require, but to us way more congruent than their narration is trying to fool us on. I do not recall much if any narration of the much serious denser Battle of Changsha, nor any of SY’s past well done dudefests. Take Yang Shou/杨烁, playing the other suitor hitting on Liu Tao’s AnDi at first sight, he has a famously manly baritone, but beyond overdoing it, comes off sleazy ‘I am too smexy for my everything, incl woman’. I am embarrassed for the actor in his hammy and very bad taste closeted gay clothes. Good that I had the memory of him brilliant in a brotherhood SY drama about 4, 5 guys: 生死线 , quite a bookend heaven vs hell representing what SY can do: high quality human drama with depth about brotherhood juxtaposed against this moneymaking revealing of their own rotten ignorant condescending personal pov on sisterhood.
Of course there is nothing wrong with producers, dramamakers having a point of view, and expressing it blatantly through the work. It is more than welcomed, adding another intriguing layer to the experience. Just so happened their read on the contemporary CN society is so putrid, bigoted and discriminating against the poor, the female, the poor AND female and condoning such bigotry, glorifying all things rotten as shiny beacon of city savvy brilliance, the same trait, action, words spoken by a male character most often rich and successful is considered wise, savvy, honorable and another yardstick is encouraged to be used by these male characters to severely berating, degrading the ladies, our gender is not equal to them, of coz we all know too well living it, but tyvm for thumbing it up with all the not too silent likes and pats and hearts permeating the entire drama, we are never worthy of human respect unless we fit into their mold of what they want us to be perfect 21stCentury stepford wives with an astonishing career, their message …that is what most revolting about this drama. IT is not the content, the characters, the plot, per se, it is the social commentary of what the producers are revealing, knowingly or not… even sadder is I suspect they are ignorant what is empowering woman in modern society has nothing to sing joy to as they did portray here realistically, critically judging womanhood on everything under the sun, looks, education, upbringing, what they do with their own body, their family,, woman can only earn regards as a pseudo human being if they are an AnDi or a QuDiva, with more male stereotypes than what is associated with female, shocking even to the males themselves, thus deserving nods like they shower generously on other men if they meet ALL elitest criteria, if one less, the woman is again dispensable object dumped on curb forgotten existed, such deplorable double standard fr their absolute domineering gender vantage point.
Let me and you chill and lower our bps with a beautiful fanmade girlmance of all the ladies to Prisoner of Love:
Even in lighter harmless moment of drama, where the ladies just bond and are caring friends, nothing offensive, nothing really genius either but these SY uncles are not letting us off hammering they are doing a most generous charity case of gifting us this girl power lady drama, BOW WOMEN, branching out and catering to our wants, gathering a bunch of ranging from harmless, well-liked (LiuTao, Qiao Yan) to promising natural full of potential(YangZi) to dependably competent (Wang Zi Wen) to THE best of any actor her age bracket Miss JiangXin, give them all substantial screen time and all the emoting to show their worth. Let the men be dreamiest perfect accessories according to THEIR dictation, as shallowly essayed as 2D ciphers. Yet truth is, never have I seen a more male brownnosing sexism pandering in plain view. Jin Dong’s Tan is a cameo I know but he is shown doing nothing but sit and stand and be handsome breathing in air and breathing out the most gentle advice but when I cover his face is mostly meaningless CO2, patronizing commands controlling EVERYTHING over a grown woman platonic my foot friend, AnDi, this most competent CFO at 31 years young, STILL HAZ to wow everyone first and foremost screaming out her drop dead prettiness repeatedly every other scene. No, she can not be truly perfect, she has to be forcibly stuffed into the typical Cold Prince Guy1 mold of being extremely socially incompetent because she is an orphan, where on earth is that a scientifically proven cause and effect!? ‘can’t be physically touched’ is her psychosis, how male-servicing for some purity virginal obsession. Her romance with her online almost boyfriend is so awkwardly uncomfortable to watch, cringeworthy is too mild a word.
As my opinion still stand strong, LiuTao is a very hardworking household name, very limited actress, lacking combustible chemistry with her costars I have seen, unable to break her own gentile matronly typecast shell, or more damningly, these male producers never desire her to, Miss LT has perhaps earned her clout in the industry by her own competent good wife persona and how much it punctuates all her characters, all I have seen is she is playing versions of herself, or ideas she imposed on a character. Her line reading is timid and muddled as if she throat is filled w cotton candy and her characterization is thus at a disadvantage superficially not screaming an impression of decisive crispness off bat. It does not help it is obvious she is trying to convey asocial but coming across as monotonous with her emoting without a proper arsenal of acting chop. As someone pathologically out of touch of all things ‘feminine’, too cool to care about the stigma a CFO driving one Porsche after another out of male boss’ garage immediately labeled a mistress obvious on that fact alone by the rich spoiled princess character…yet when push comes to shove, inserting progress in romance desperate, she is this subservient girlfriend worshiping someone she has just met except being online friends of a year, as ‘idol’ she said out loud, listening to every meanest judgmental bitching he has over EVERY female close in her quarters, in her life and she takes his every distortion imo, disparaging BS just after some briefest meeting with the lady, showing such a horrible read of him to me as being nasty yet the producers are actually saying this shows attractive worldly wisdom our wisest AnDi agrees without processing he is this smartest most gentle soul, some god of social skills. WTF. YET, she shrivels and cringes like us all whenever creepy pushy ‘dreamboat’ boyfriend she has proposed marriage to tries at skinship… excuse being she cant tolerate any physical touching while next afternoon she went to a SPA being massaged all over by a girl masseuse. Hmmm, are the SY uncles trying to insert a fantasy she is a lesbian?!?!
Zu Feng, fine fine actor, please watch him in All Quiet in Peking or an even better work 潜伏/Lurk instead. In Peking, he slayed ALL there, ALL. His character WeiWei is the main cause of my vomiting at ZuFeng’s otherwise unoffensive face. His regard on JX’s Fan ShengMei, calling her names just a pretentious shade nicer than an extremely useless materialistic whore was based upon spending a day with her and her suitor not meeting a crucial criteria of being rich and hiding that fact fr her. Why doesn’t Fan have every right to have criteria of what she desires in HER mate?! Who asks someone who is not living her life his judgment huh?! Just because she wants financial security on top of love that does not make her gold digger in the straight sense, she is not extorting money under the pretense of romance, she genuinely wants to fall in true love with a guy with no financial burdens, but hitting 30, per society cruelly dictates, ‘beggars’ and no choosers and she compromise, the glory of JX is she laid bricks of logic for her character prior her Fan must have been that naive love conquers all innocent young QiuYingYing once, that’s why she insists there are mistakes to be lived through by nobody but a girl to learn life’s lessons growing into, compromising as a practical woman. It is exactly these discriminating judgmental sentencing she wants nothing of no more, think about her dazzling feminine looks that would give all the sleazy male ideas unrightfully she is part of the feast to be enjoyed and consumed whenever she sits down a business dinner, sth the goody2shoes pure smart likable hireable uppermiddle class QuanQuan has to deal with with much less frequency. Do not tell me it is not because Quan’s physical harmlessness that is giving her biased merits in both AnDi and Qudiva’s eyes, they did not really observe her at work to throw such high praises as an office newbie, same token they have nothing substantial to shrug off Fan as incompetent indecisive at work. If Fan is rich or born to a rich blood daddy, she would be on Uncle WeiWei’s good side as shrewd and smart and has focus, goals like how befuddled to me he is impressed w Qudiva off bat… still he hollers he is entitled to instill fear in Qudiva just to keep her under his control. If Fan is damned a sinner because of being materialistic, is WeiWei any less?! When AnDi asks him why he loves her so, he spills out honestly, as if gifting her a compliment because he is a visual animal and she is very pretty. Superficial beauty has nothing to do with the person within, almost same line of thought as financial success’ correlation to inner beauty but i would argue it takes some inner qualities perhaps desirable to many to build own’s wealth. I do not see a demarcation where one is cute and fine to impose upon your mate and the other the lowest denomination of human existence. To illustrate his smarts and sensitive caring, we have him calling a psych MD friend spilling AnDi’s very private phobia of intimacy over the phone right after the problem arising and will provide more confidential info as he pokes more so his friend can properly diagnose and treat HER, her involvement in HER own mental health?! Consent?! Rights?! Never crosses his mind. AnDi is frankly just an unrealistic doll, existing in figment of imagination of sexist bigots. Raised in US, ColumbiaU educated, climbing corporate ladder swiftly, successfully yet her debilitating phobia does not hinder her at all, nor alert such a genius competent woman to acquire help?! how why?! Am I safe to assume, tis all because she is ‘so pretty’ for someone this competent at work thus she advances smoothly?! And she is not smart enough to seek professional help all these years in US nor flagging Tan her closest most caring buddy mentor all these years because?! She broke down devastated when she finds her long lost younger brother because he is mentally challenged and to feed in the social ignorant stigma towards mental health she is breaking down solely because she is scared she must inherit that mental gene as well, all the leisure for fabricated angst about HER and insert the most generous caring of WeiWei when she just find long lost only blood kin, her lifelong ‘dream’. My last straw on the camel’s back, my grossest Guy1 I have seen in WeiWei is when the cutest not smartest thing YangZi’s Qiu, nicked lil wormy, asks him genuinely for work advice running a business, and as soon as he is done, he rolls his eyes and smirks how impossibly inhumanly dumb and waste of (his) time and she is doomed in failure. He is a self-made man with his admitted failures in the past, bankrupcy bla, all I see is lil wormy seems way more advance than him at same point in life other than he is supposedly smart and male. Y turn me into seriously plotting murders of unworthy fictional douches faking as dreamboats?!
WangK’s character is not much better, he hops on bed easily but is again so discerning towards his fling over her not being well read, does not know her Shakespeare nor interested in classical music concert and thus not as smart as him. Oh he likes to listen to classical music and read his Keigo Higashino in his spare time. How civilized. 😐 Well, fyi uncle WW, squarely as civilized as any dorama fiend once 14 year old fangirl of Nodame and Masaharu Fukuyama. None of her lacking was a turnoff when you initiated the kiss then spent the night romping in her bed. As soon as he nitpicks her shortcomings he just LEFT and breakup without even a word, not a proper SMS, nothing. Not even much of any anguish nor lament of disappointment, he goes straight to some male bonding fun all smiles and joking over mutton is some rat meat over meat skewers. What invincible appetite for a guy who just decides on breaking up a hot romance he is seen twirling and smooching in public earlier the day. As if he is just throwing away used, soiled underwear. And Nobody gives him a flack, WeiWei is like his spokeperson worm in tummy, almost fanboying his every fart, AnDi blames the girl, her fast friend more as WW preaches. And writer/producer/drama did not even see the need to criticize any of it, the ‘voice of reason’ Mr Weiwei still regards WangK’s sleazy doc as so erudite and sophisticated. Qudiva haz to apologize to allpowerfulWW because he is some 22th floor harem running seer, begs for his ‘wisest’ advice to plead doc back and he tells her to be subservient, do everything she can to be subservient, please Doc’s fine civilized taste but do not attempt on books nor music, that’s too above her. WHATTHEFUCK.
This is my friend.
Jiang!Xin! is again perfection, and saving my sanity there is HD cut of her scenes. She is more praiseworthy here than usual because this is the most magnificent holding my emotions hostage elevating CRAP caliber ever. I am up to date at e32, which I honestly experienced for the first time I have caustic acid, puke creeping up my throat from the disgusting undertone of every scene every minute and I am otherwise very healthy gut-wise. In a super gross added plot twist for drama, Fan ShengMei is stuffed in the cheapest looking red lace number a size too tight, overused jazz music to overdo her vavavoom sensuality, in a scene she is whoring herself, and this is too much telling of what the rotten minds behind the scene producing this drama I could care and I have they are making me quit J!X! while she is owning me. I often tear up before her character allows herself to cry, I did not cry because I witness her Fan SM crying, she is so glorious in portraying every minute emotion her character is going through every split nuance my soul connects with her char’s every fiber and feel and emote her emotions myself for her character in sync. A most transcending finest acting watching experience this is. Latest episodes have those disgusting SY uncles inserting scenes of her truly using her body out of silly pride, refusing help fr AnDi AND breakup friendship furious at AD just because she is tactless poking. A female character is not even allowed to care and help out a friend spontaneously, but it must be calculated, dissected, managed by a male first and weighing if it is worthy or may harm self and let that be the litmus. WW did not even accompany his now fiancee AnDi to a seedy nightclub to ‘save’ Fan, and from that gif above, it is Fan vending off sleazy advance without a hesitation…yet this all is buildup of advancing friendship between two women ran down rotten drain fast. All the female character constructs are dispensable, as this is peruse crudely to justify every demeaning labels those rich characters had puked on her. As traumatizing this has become i watched and rewatched her in one woman show wandering at train station showcasing what hopelessness, lost and despair are. None is a joyful enjoyable human emotion to sit through but it is real and it echoes my feelings watching this dreadful sickening abyss. Scene does drag on too long, and no lines, yet i could have watched an episode of her Fan and cry along because she makes every mundane predictable scene extraordinary wonderful a treat.
Young ladies, it is none of my business some of you enjoy this drama on some/many levels but never just sit there munch on popcorn while dramamaking men r brainwashing us with sexist abuse with motto of drama being, if you are poor and a woman, just be contented you are born and alive, no amount of working hard will get you anywhere unless you care to be called too dumb to exist or a too materialistic whoring gold digger. That is a message, a lesson I never wished ever existed in the day and age me, any woman coexists along with her male counterparts.
mookie 
Sorry you had to watch that -.- I don’t find K-drama’s, TW-drama’s,…particular empowering for women either, but C-drama’s usually take the cake for raising my blood pressure into dangerous heights, especially the trendies one…Do you think Chinese women and girls in China are also super tired of those icky stereotypes in drama’s? -.- Are they even watching them? Or they mostly watched by Aunties and Uncles?
Super tired is too mild what they feel because these icky stereotypes are not just in dramas but they are truly living in most blatant sexism in such a rapidly rising in affluence society. I have heard and read a lot of disgusted anger over Ode to Joy because it is one thing to essay these injustices, but the producers are propagating and glorifying such horrors. There is no moral critical gauge but singing praises this is the ‘advancement’ of our society so suck it up women. A C actress centric trendy is rare to come by and almost all the actresses are doing a fine to amazing jobs despite yucky construct and plot, I know quite a lot of young C ladies watching Ode to support and appreciate the actresses yet spitting blood and rage of everything else rotten with drama and thus society.
PRC is a place I could never see myself living without popping veins everyday. As standard of living improves, it seems like more blatant sexism r surfacing just because they can. Take the offing of the one-child policy, I have a personal young professional friend, a successful working Mom with a 3yo daughter, constantly passive aggressively pressured by BOTH her MiL and her own Mother on having a second child, most preferably a son, out loud and her husband does not speak a word against the coercion. Even for these very rich stars in showbiz, the proportion of them having a second or third child after having daughters are alarming wayyy higher than if their only child is a son. I digress.
Yeah, stereotypes in dramas def also lives in real world too -.- Even here, in West-Europe, boys assume that real life girls act and feel the same as in tv and movies -.- I also know a lot of Chinese women who finds it super hard to get their voice heard in corporate offices and business deals -.- And omg, stories about Chinese MiL,… I’m sorry about your friend too! In all, I don’t think I can imagine myself living in PRC either, although I must confess, I love traveling there. I’m glad women in China are speaking their minds about the female portrayals on tv though, gives me hope we might see a time where girls and women does not have to ask for men’s advice ( or you know, get punished for not listening to their advice), crave for their attention and love and basically exist for their sake on Chinese tv.
The C ladies I know online are very progressive and openminded to tolerate my povs. Still I have heard from them laments appreciating the one child policy, which involves state ‘enforced’/forced abortions, we all are aware. Without such ironfist, they would not be given the opportunities they had in life, and those depressing stories trickling down that their Moms were pressured by their older gen to abort as soon as the gender of fetus was known, they are only born after a few more abortions thus fear of unable to carry child, give me chills down my bone, let alone theirs.
Social media is truly a Godsent though, without which there truly may not be an outlet to commiserate. What is so depressing in a CN young female’s existence is: on the superficial, this gen is enjoying a much progressed environment with exponentially more resources, materialistic, opportunities whatnots, yet all the traditional gender roles slapped on a female had to be fulfilled or else everyone around is free to judge and pile on the scrutiny. An allegory being they are still on a confining gender leash, just longer now, allowing unheard of tastes of civil liberty, individuality, freedom but at the end of the day, there is still the invisible leash. Once in a while there would be such rude wake up calls to cut them back to size to the feudal rural sexist country CN has been frankly most of the 3000+ years. There was a recent CCTV docu glorifying a female teacher in a rural village, she is around 40 years old, had grown children already….she was a victim of human trafficking, kidnapped while she was 19 years old, raped, tortured, held captive, bought by her now husband family from her captors, trapped in the village, and years went by she settled into being the only teacher of the village. Commentary/lesson should be STOP human trafficking/kidnapping, punish all those involve in the crime, we are talking a show on government run channels, nope. The message is how heartwarming the woman has turned an ‘unfortunate’ event into such empowering service to community, and dedication to her family as a mother and wife and part of her village her home, lets give her a literal medal of good citizen. How is this not blatantly condoning this practice of kidnapping women and forced them into sexual slavery in marriage without consent?! All the young ladies I know was in utter rage and rants for days in social media but nothing is changed other than anger vented. Kidnappers, rapist, men are ‘understood’ given blind pardons for their hardship in finding a wife in rural China, still, and once children are born, the stability of the family overrules horrifying crimes against women…well guess what, they also aborted all those female fetuses and cant blame the migration of capable females to the cities for jobs. And just these last weeks, today actually I read one, we still have literary award winning renown male writers gushing out the misery of menfolks in countryside ‘robbed’ of their women, sideballing the practice of ‘redistributing resources’ of females should continue so these single males stuck in poor farming villages won’t ‘extinct’.
OTOH I have come across quite a mass of young ladies who are as judgmental as society, men, these producers towards these fictional female characters, I have also heard too often it’s sad to believe but exact scenarios in drama had happened in their RL and they condone the domineering, male povs perhaps because there really was not a matter of choice in action. Society is as such, males, gov r constantly promoting such injustices they are so apathetic ignorant to even realize as injustices, why fight a futile fight.
Okay, the way they portrayed the life of the poor lady is horrible! -.- I often disagree with female status and rights in China with my mum and granny. My mum and aunties never felt inferior to their brothers because my grandma and especially my grandpa made sure that they were loved and treated equally. Yet, if I see the bigger picture…The sexism is so, so prevalent and intense, I mean, sure China has two thirds of the female self made billionaires and stuff but on a day to day basis, for the majority of the female population, it’s freaking depressing. I know technology and economy grows and change faster than cultural values and views etc but it doesn’t mean all the sexism and classism shouldn’t be tackled on. It kind of makes me sad to hear that grandmas ‘learnt’ to love their granddaughters, instead of being happy to become grandma ( while my mum felt super happy and relieved to only have daughters, me and my lil sister) and so and on. It’s scary to think that girls are being kidnapped/ raped/tortured/ wedded without the government doing much and when the girls manage to escape back to their family…It’s almost like they are blamed for being kidnapped and ‘soiled’ and blablah. I can’t stand C-trendies because marital rape? it’s what husband and wife do, right? ( It makes me wanna scream) and then I realised, that kind of thing must happen irl too… I still remember a story on a Chinese news site, about a rural girl marrying a rich 50 something man in order to provide for her family. She was being described as a whoring gold digger, her family disowned her etc, even though she still send money to her parents and no insulting word about the way older dude who married her! She was my age and back then, I wasn’t even 20. Still, I’m optimistic. They are so many smart, educated, capable women out there China, China will HAVE to change . BTW, I like your opinions ;).
I tried and couldn’t take it the level of 脑残 in every character… Worst is that a lot of the views in the show are expressed by people every day in real life I swear I have seen/heard personally from someone somewhere in China. Ladies deserve so much better.
Exactly. I watched this as twisted sociology experiment poking into those bigoted minds of SYUncles where sexism = girlpower… at least we are worth them making us ‘powerful’ in making them powerful in objectifying, abuse and stepping all over.
I dun need my dramas to be strictly escapism, but this reminds me almost of trauma as a young thing watching the ‘harmonized’ CCTV news of 8 9 6 4 massacre how bloodshed can be painted as fluff.
Thanks for the link to JX HD scenes!! I really love JX here but am not sure if I will continue with OTJ.
Every ep i get so shouty w it yet i click on. It is not addictive, and it is getting grosser, but then knowing what’s shown is bizarrely realistic, even the pov of the producers, it is eyeopening. Have to see to believe such a sad depressing world 4 women in CN under all that gloss
When will they stop pairing my darling Yuanni with questionably skilled/looking actresses and pair him with Jiang Xin again ? 😦
Well, the boy iz to blame as well, preoccupied w dating/ getting married and my gut is saying his taste lvl is exactly these v plastic pretentious actresses and they could be real plus to him in picking a project working against them, i dunno anymore.
And frankly he did not perform his best against the most Amazing JiangXin, imo she absolutely overshadow him in HXY even though they have chemistry… he needs to brush up his skills or else he is not worthy 4 a J!X! honestly.
I totally agree. While Yuan Hong had good chemistry with Jiang Xin, her acting was levels above his in every scene so at the end of the day his character just came across as a 渣男 not worthy of Jiang Xin’s awesome Song Ning. I like Yuan Hong and he’s gorgeous in ancient garb, but his acting is not quite there yet and he needs to work a bit harder to make his acting skills match his good looks LOL 😀
Still I miss this couple 😦 . That’s true he is blinded by lurve and cute he is in lurve but still at odd that he is a homewrecker ( girl had just time to divorce and get together with him… hum)
? He needs to focuse more on talent and his crafy
Yeah, they look soooo gorgeous tog, lookswise Loverboy is the only one JX has matched w i thought totally wont let the other down… perhaps other than JinDong.
All i can hope is 4 him to settle down and his wife really can stop all her rl dramaz and they have tonnes of children and live happily ever after so he can focus on work and no tabloid distraction… but lol like some meanie redbeans i also cant stop hoping they get it over with, then get a clean divorce wo any mess and move on.
My dear friend, I’m SO GLAD I’m not the only one who hates this series! I thought I was shouting to the heavens in vain because I was so viscerally offended from the get-go and dropped this cesspool of rotting sexist/elitist/classist bullshit not even within 8 episodes. Not even my love for the magnificent Jiang Xin can keep me watching this series. I can’t watch without my blood pressure rising, so didn’t even get to see Wang Kai show up, which is just as well since apparently his character is an asshole and I wanna keep my good feelings for WK intact.
There is SO MUCH misogyny and classism in this fucking piece of shit (novel + drama) that it boggles the mind that Shanying are making a second season of this shit. What a waste of a great cast. Shanying got lucky with Nirvana in Fire and Disguiser and think that any piece of shit they make will have audiences flocking to them by the millions… Is there even a plot in this drama? Even as a slice-of-life story it fails because there’s so little substance (apart from offensive sexist/classist bullshit) and just goes nowhere. Considerig that Nirvana and Disguiser had great female characters, it’s even more unforgivable for Shanying to spout this shit. They’re really showing their sexists asses with this drama. So disappointed.
The voice-overs narrating the inner minds of the women are so annoying, condescending as fuck, take me straight out of the scene. FFS these actresses can act and show us their inner minds with their emoting/acting – no need for the intrusive voice-overs to dictate to us what the characters are feeling. Show and don’t tell – isn’t that the most BASIC tenet of good storytelling?
Also, the male leads in this series are so miscast. These male leads are great actors but they don’t quite fit the character, nor they have romantic chemistry with our female leads. Especially with Jin Dong and Zu Feng – these guys are wonderful actors but they don’t really fit the characters (based on book description and story) and they have ZERO chemistry with Liu Tao which is another big no-no.
Before dropping the drama I looked up some of the novel in advance and OMG it’s even worse than I thought. The author is fucking sexist and classist and I can’t understand why shit like this sold many copies. It’s a Goddamn waste of the paper it’s printed on and I shed some tears for the poor trees that died for this fucking piece of shit novel to get published *wipes tear*.
The bullshit tenets that the novel tries to spout as “philosophy of life” are these (at least that’s the impression I got anyway):
1. Poor people, no matter how hard they work, will always be stuck at the lower stations in life, with no happiness or blessed life whatsoever and nothing they do will change their social status. Their dreams are moot because they are poor and therefore nothing they do matters in the end.
2. People who are lucky because they are born rich will always win in life and have everything they want and everything they don’t have yet will eventually fall at their feet. Life will hand their dreams to them on a silver platter because they are born at a higher station in life.
3. Rich/elite people can be complete assholes and still win at life, and people who are beneath them (i.e. poor people) will just have to shut up and put up with their selfishness, bullying, etc. because rich people are entitled to do what they want and get what they want.
Apart from how some of the women characters are too bland and stereotypical to identify with, there seems to be an underlying theme that the way to “solve” their miserable lives is to find a nice man, which I really have issues with. Why doesn’t the story show these women try to improve their lives instead of wallowing in misery? Why doesn’t the story show us how these women try to work hard for themselves and better themselves? There’s no logic in many of these women’s actions. Some people say this is realistic of Chinese modern society – well if that’s true, then I NEVER want to live there because I’ll go mad!
This entire fucking novel reeks of classism and social prejudice and the author’s entire worldview (that perpetuates through what she’s trying to preach in the novel) is so classist, elitist, and problematic that everything about her warped “truth” of life is insulting and offensive on every level. Screw this novel and screw the script, I’m outta here and done wasting my time with this bullshit. I commend you for actually watching so many episodes and following this series because if it were me, my blood pressure would’ve been way too high from all the stress and revulsion at the disgusting ideals this fucking novel/drama perpetuates as “truth”.
TBH after the shit that was Love Me If You Dare, I’m starting to feel wary of putting too much faith in Shanying productions. After this Ode to Joy trainwreck (what an insult to Beethoven’s beautiful piece of music – this fucking mess doesn’t deserve to bear that title), Shanying is gonna have a spot on my shitlist (like Tangren and 于媽).
TBH out of everyone I only liked Jiang Xin the best because she’s just so exquisite in everything she does. She is such a talented and nuanced actress that she is the only spot of light in this cesspit of eternal darkness. Her character Fan Jie is the only one I liked because she made me feel for her character. Qiao Yin’s Guanguan is decent, Liu Tao’s Andi is too aloof and stereotyped for me to identify with, Yang Zi can act but her Qiu Yingying is annoying, and Wang Ziwen just pisses me off full stop with her screeching and her character is the worst sort of stuck up, spoiled, backstabbing bitch of a bully that I hate the most in life that I’m gonna stay away from anything she’s in from now on. I didn’t see any sort of brilliant acting from her and so I’m afraid she’s left too much of a bad impression on me for me to watch her in future works. If Wang Ziwen is the lead for that new Snail drama (from the author of that awful LMIYD … fuck man, what is with Shanying and shitty source material … it’s like after Nirvana and Disguiser and All Quiet in Peking they have run out of anything with substance) that Shanying is filming, then adios, adieu, and goodbye – not even my love for Wang Kai can make me sit through a whole drama with her as lead.
I mean really, while Nirvana is one of the more decent Cdramas in a long time, it’s not as God-like as it’s made out to be. The REAL awesomeness that is 《三國》， 無論劇情、演技、製作、拍攝、打斗場面等都能吊打或甩《琅琊榜》100條街。可能因為我最近在看《三國》。。。突然覺得OMG這劇好看過《琅琊榜》很多。我很小的時候看過《三國》，但因為我中文程度太渣大部份都看不懂（雖然現在都很渣但起碼我明白了大部份劇情和對白），所以現在我看得是津津有味。我看過《琅琊榜》兩次，但第三次就沒興趣看，可能因為節奏太慢而且沒什麼打戲。論計謀，比起《三國》，《琅琊榜》有點小兒科，而整個故事梅長蘇都到處開掛。作者把梅長蘇寫成了神人（basically孔明2.0），但他卻沒孔明的真實感，還有曹操、周瑜、司馬懿等人的計謀都可以跟孔明拼，不像《琅琊榜》裡面一直都是梅長蘇輕易地擊敗了所有對手。
Wow that was a really long comment hahahaha 😀
LOL sorry bout the swearing, I haven’t been this pissed off by a Cdrama for a very long time 😛
We need to 滴血認親 pronto, I suspect we are long lost sthsth. XDD
IF I havent jumped around the novel taking in bits I can relatively tolerate, IF I did not know of the SYUncles RL scummy sexist deeds towards the young female writer of Battle of Changsha too well, IF I did not lose all hope in them (as my opinion of NiF u know is nothing more than an egomaniac glossy package of MEHH) I would be swearing exactly like you, but I got myself as many immune shots I could and just focus on enjoying the acting…which JX alone is the best job by ANY C actor last few years here in a character so cliched the poor cinderella in any dogblood C contemporary for the damas I would have lost interest right away…if not for her.
And given nothing is not within my expectation, I watched on like some peeping tom into that bigoted minds I have been suspecting full well of the makers of drama. I just did not expect they are THIS apathetic and ignorant and stupid towards airing to the world how rotten and bigoted they are obviously thinking this is nothing but some fluffy chickflick. IF they read any of our rants towards how jerky they come across, I bet they would be taken by utmost surprise and so befuddled as to where this is all from coz…yup the most depressing part is isnt this what’s happening in RL. IT is. But that does not make it FINE to essay and condone it as sth uplifting. I actually is smirking at SARFT and the now so pompous SY so unaware of what nastiness of CN society that had revealed to the world unknowingly. IT is eyeopening for me each ep how absurd the grossness can pile on AND knowing this actually is realistic the accepted social norm way of life there.
I can tolerate WZW here though, it would be more palatable for you and me IF she toned down the screechy and she does overplay a few scenes BUT this is also an actress being very authentic and precise to the character construct she is given. She has combustible, shameless chemistry with WKK. Further down the line she manages to instill some humanity towards such a shallowly written brazenbitchy tohu. OF course she is no JiangXin, world is only allowed ONE JiangXin in a thousand year and we are lucky. But blame the writing, the character, not the actress. She has been dependably competent last 10+ years I things I have followed her and broke my heart, took me captive by her characters a few times.
LOL you are not alone, you are one of the very few 難得的知音人 that I can 訴苦 to haha 🙂
OK now I gotta know, what did those SY people do the writer of Changsha? I haven’t watched that series so I don’t know any of the news about it…
You hit the point right on the money – the fact that this bigoted discriminatory bullshit is being touted/marketed as “inspiration / empowering for women” is what makes me spitting mad. EVERYTHING about this drama, from the blatant to the subtle, is condescending and disrespectful to women. The bigotry, sexism, and classism underscores every moment of the drama and I find it so repulsive I can’t stomach a moment more; not even the magnificent Jiang Xin who I love very dearly can make me watch this drama in full. （您的強大之心，在下佩服！） I might, however, find some time to watch that HD cut of hers just so I can bask in her fabulousness as Fan Jie. When I dropped the drama I was hoping that someone would be kind enough to make a cut JUST of Jiang Xin and voila, someone actually did it 🙂
TBH I’m so disappointed (and on some level disgusted) by the SY uncles that all good feelings I had for them after Nirvana and Disguiser have evaporated. 他們這樣表露無遺地歧視女性。。。這不是作大死的節奏嗎。But most likely they don’t care anyway cuz didn’t Love Me If You Dare and this 欢乐颂 have good ratings? So who cares as long as the masses lap it up and they make money, right?
PD侯 was basically verbally abusing the writer 却却，demeaning her constantly throughout tge production as worthless and hopeless a writer w no talent threatening to fire her, take out her namein credits as writer WHEN she is the writer of the original novel and the scriptwriter of the adapt, there were numerous instances the SYuncles pay no respect to her writing, changing it on the fly adding in dramatics wo her consent she had to fight hard battles, just because she is a writer mostly on historical documentory nonfiction w no fame, they stepped all over her, she was scolded upon, threatened by not getting paid… to keep the historical authenticity. SYuncles swore to never work w her, and I recall not not sure they didn’t pay her full wages… their loss… all the writers they hired r truly worthless talentless. she vented the stress to almost depression after drama aired at weibo u can read under her acct 编剧却却
My good feelings w them were all loss since NiF then LoveDare, nth more to lose so the watch is just a matter of confirmation…if they wanna air out they r bigoted aholes I am not looking away fr the evidence.
Late reply is late, but GODDAMN that disgusting bullying from Shanying and blatant sexism is enough to put them on my shitlist for life. That poor author! I hope she’s all right. SY had no right to treat her like that – they didn’t even give her the basic courtesy and respect! Holy shit if I was a successful author I’d steer WAY CLEAR of SY because I wouldn’t want to be in that poor woman’s shoes! 😦
Yup. I was sooo heartbroken then reading about it kinda live at her weibo and all those jabs fr 侯. Shouldve sensed the disappointments to come. They did not do one respectable drama since Battle of ChangSha… forever the best work WH will ever do.
Well, there really is quite a sad handful of writers who could heck care about a living and turn down adaptation deals. Even the best known popular writers, ladies esp had to stoop… let alone an unknown. I cant name much female scriptwriter of a Cdrama i truly liked last couple years and 却却 is the only one i can fish… but she is still an unknown and no foreseeable career. It is a big boy’s club alright but some tact and human decency so i dun have to know and be disgusted.
As for Wang Ziwen, LOL I can’t say anymore because I didn’t watch far enough in the series to see her act with Wang Kai, but I’ll take your word for it about chemistry (didn’t they already work together before and are friends? If so then they should have good 默契). LOL maybe she shouldn’t have taken up this annoying character cuz wouldn’t it just make her 拉黑?
And I seriously want to cut and paste your insightful criticism on NiF/MCS and post it to my Mother and MiL, who are still hopeless fanaunties of all things HG and MCS is this perfect perfection if I ask them to draw God/Jesus, it would be HG as MCS.
NiF is just a very very simpliest story it lacks all the depth and intrigue for me too black and white. All the strategic prowess of MCS and gang seems like sandbox childplay to me and all the antagonists are dull as rocks. Other than it is pretty enough to look at (but the lighting is not perfect, nor the taste in ladies’ outfits), easily digestible without all the unsavory warts we usu have to tolerate these days does not make it masterpiece just by not falling into the usual culprits of dramafail.
LOL my mom was like your mom and MiL with Nirvana and MCS but I made her see the light and re-watch 三國 with me haha 🙂 Now she’s like “Damn and I thought Nirvana was good … this is so much better”, etc.
Thing is, the actors who played Xie Yu and Jinghuan/Prince Yu are so much better actors than Hu Ge yet HG is the one who gets all the best actor accolades, etc. He was decent as MCS but he ain’t got nothin’ on the true veterans and any of the main guys in 三國 can 吊打 HG’s 演技, especially the guys who play Cao Cao / Kongming / Zhou Yu / Lu Su / Sima Yi / Sun Quan / etc.
At the end of the day, Nirvana is just 披著正劇皮的古偶. I mean, it’s pretty good for a 古偶 but it ain’t got nothin’ on the true 大型歷史正劇 that Nirvana masquerades itself as.
Wordwordword and what breaks me is the SYuncles shamelessly proclaiming promoting NiF as the best 良心正劇，and they HAD produced great quality dramas w heart all these year and i put all my faith in them at least w that self aware discerning eye. They shouldnt be ever on the lvl of delulu yuma/ TR…yet. If only they r honest w what NiF is a not headdesky decent mindless period idolfluff, my bloodspitting wouldve been just disappointment.
Now you know how I feel when I read people calling this butchered kversion drama of city hunter good… sigh
What drama r u talking about dearie?! U mean K City Hunter w LMH?! Well, i dun think that team behind had ever done half the truly quality stuff this team did for so long thus their whoring out 4 money making shiteous hit was my devastation… not just on the letdown but i had loss my only lifesaving last straw of dependable quality Cdrama production company… there r now zilch.
Yes kdrama city hunter. Everytime I type CH to watch the anime I see bunch of this shitty drama videos on first page. Eww ! The original is forever linked to this shit. Why ??? 😥
I did have thoughts on giving this a go but then I read a ranty post very similar to yours and decided to give the drama a wide perth.
Oh but now that I am looking at it as some docu-drama hidden camera recording what CN sexism/classism/discrimination could be. It is the most eye-opening thing I have to see to believe. Just dun take it as any form of entertainment. But what the most renowned, ‘best of industry’ is proud to gloat about.
I watched the drama with the same mindset as you. As a fan of Jiang Xin, I find the portray of Fang Shengmei cruel and totally unfair. A lot of elements of the drama are very story-like and not very realistic. The ending of the drama cooled me down and I ended up loving the girls. Sorry to hear it was a bad drama for you 😦
oh JiangXIN!!! I do not regret braving this for her, even if I literally want to puke often. XDDD
I do like some elements of the drama, and I find my grounds to watch it quite inquisitively: poking into what these SY male producers misogynistic/bigoted mind. It is still a very annoying drama for me and not at all well done in too many elements though under the glossiness.
Yeah 🙂 Another Jiang Xin fan :)) The execution of this drama was definitely very sloppy, I wonder if it is because of the production team or the original writer :p
Oh both. It is truly eye opening reading what the writer mustve thought as world building of glossy metropolitan folks but come across as bigotted grossness wo aware.
These producers have been doing nth but serious family/ war dramas, this is so beyond their capabilities but w a hit like Nirvana in Fire and the hot $$$ to be snatched in industry, they lost sight.