themarchioness

Aw man, catching up on the comments here is making me reenergized to get back into Shen Li. I totally fell off the bandwagon after "War of Faith." Shen Li has felt soooo draggy in comparison, but maybe I just need to get through this middle part that I'm in as it sounds like a lot of excitement is yet to come!

Haha, you sound like me! That's what I normally say about me and xianxias. In fact, I've only been able to watch 2 other xianxias prior to this one, but I agree, even with my limited experience in the xianxia genre, Legend of Shen Li is done very well. The fact that it makes sense is probably what helps me to get over my "allergy" to watch this one!

@UnniSara & @abs-oluteM, I'm enjoying the drama quite a bit! I entered this drama with a bundle of nerves. I'd been feeling like it was set up to fail with all the expectations riding on it and with each round of promotional material released, it seemed like there was something for people to nitpick over - whether it was the color of the poster, concerns over CGI, or trailers themselves. But I have to say, now that I'm actually watching the drama, I'm relieved at how it's all come together. It's really quite well done! The acting is great, the story is interesting (and I've heard from book lovers that the drama is doing a good job of interpreting the book), and the production value is good. I was surprised by the amount of humor in the first few eps. I found myself laughing quite a bit! The CGI Phoenix (that everyone keeps calling a chicken, much to its indignation) is hilarious. I've never wanted to a lead character to remain as an animal as much as I have with, "Cluck. cluck," but that would also be a waste of ZLY's talents. Anyway, I say for anyone on the fence, to definitely give this drama a chance! From what I can tell skimming online comments it seems like the reception has been positive all around - phew! Here is also a first impressions review from Dramapanda: https://dramapanda.com/2024/03/first-impressions-legend-of-shen-li-ratings-princess-agents.html

And I bet South Wind Knows took care of that soon enough! Right?? Haha. Topic 10: What is a trope that should be banned? The one where it is belatedly revealed in a drama that the leads actually knew each other in childhood. It was cute enough the first time couple of times that trope was used, but then it became like a "thing" and suddenly it was en vogue to have a story where towards the end, it would somewhere be revealed - Surprise! You actually crossed paths much earlier than you thought. I actually still don't mind this trope when it is central to the plot, but a lot of times, these days, you'll have a drama where the leads meet in their adult life, go through a perfectly fine story to get to the end of the drama, and so when that end "twist" is added, it just feels extraneous. If it doesn't add anything to the story or their relationship, I think a drama is better off leaving it out. It doesn't make it any cuter, meaningful, or whatnot. If anything, it just joins a host of other dramas who've done the same. Another thing that makes my eyes twitch in dramas, those second leads who cannot get it through their thick heads that the leads are just not that into them and then feel soooooo offended when the other lead is chosen over them. This may not be a trope so much as a character type, but if possible, I would like to abolish these types of characters, lol! I get it. They're often serve a purpose to the storyline so we probably can't get rid of them all, but it is too painful listening to their whines and reasoning!!! It always makes me want to shake the screen and try and reason with them. For example, I hate the logic of, "But I've known him/her longer." Well, so what? Love isn't a first come, first served sort of thing! If anything, it just serves as further proof that you weren't meant to be if you couldn't have made the other person yours in all that time you've had together already. Similarly, the complaint, "But I love him/her!" Again, so what? Does that mean they have to love you back just because you have chosen to bestow your favors upon them? No! Love doesn't work like that. I want to tell these types of characters: Stop being childish, have more dignity and self-love! The only thing you're doing is making yourself look ridiculous!

Topic 7: What drama had the best family/squad? Urgh... so many! LOL. I really liked the squad of firemen in Fireworks of My Heart (and if y'all are going to ask a question about best bromance, I'll go ahead now and award that to Yang Yang and Zhang Bin Bin). There was such comradery and brotherhood, you could really tell how these men were each other's family as they lived and worked away from their own. I also felt a lot of appreciation towards the ML's aunt/uncle/cousin in Fireworks of My Heart, as they provided love and support for him and the FL, who otherwise had crappy nuclear families. I also really loved the group of friends in When I Fly Towards You and the entire village (especially the courtyard where the FL resided) in Meet Yourself - although most of the families in both those dramas were pretty great too (here's looking at you Zhang Lu Rang's parents... learn from the others!). Topic 8: A drama you wished you didn't watch I hope I don't offend anyone by naming Forbidden Flower, but nope! That was nonsensical drivel. It should've been named Ode to Jerry Yan instead. I also didn't love South Wind Knows My Mood (see reasons above) or Hidden Love (sorry, I know I am offending some with that one...) but at least the latter two, I was able to watch through to the end. I had to do quite a bit of fast forwarding to get through Forbidden Flower, and it wasn't even that long of a drama to begin with! Topic 9: A doomed romance that you were shipping anyway Of the 2023 dramas that I watched, I really can't think of any! So I'll cheat and name A Little Mood for Love, which is a 2021 drama that I watched in 2023 because of my newfound admiration for Zhou Yi Ran (as previously mentioned ;)). In this drama, the FL had a younger sister who was smart, kind, an absolutely lovely person... but with absolutely horrible taste in men! At the beginning of the drama, she divorced her husband who was a Momma's boy and a total slug - I'm not sure he even had a proper job, so good riddance to him. But then she allowed herself to be swept away by this younger guy who she found charming and attentive, but was really a walking red flag of obsessive and mean. Through all this, she had by her side her best friend from life who'd she known since college (and who was also the ML's best friend/coworker)... except she had no interest in him. Which was heartbreaking because he was SUCH a good guy and had been pining after her since college already. I'm still hoping given the way the drama ended their story line that maybe one day, once the sister has moved past her current heartbreak, she'll wake up to finally see the great guy she's always had standing before her and give him a chance. They would be really cute and sweet, and that's the ending I imagine for them.

I hear ya! Sigh... and this is why I normally stay away from xianxias because the likelihood of these kinds of ending is all too high.

Topic 4: Your favorite relationship in a drama. That's a hard one given how many dramas I loved this past year, but since I recently completed Wonderland of Love, I'll highlight the main couple from that drama. I really loved their characters - strong, smart, independent, and with vision - and how they worked so well together. I also thought Xu Kai and Jing Tian had amazing chemistry. It made for a really fun, exhilarating watch! For a non-romantic relationship, I thought I'd highlight the sisters from The Starry Love. Twins and princesses, the female lead is the younger one who was born under an inauspicious sign and kept hidden and under a lock and key as a result. She's the "devil" twin. The second female lead is the older twin who was raised with gentleness and light, and got to enjoy all the benefits that come from being a member of the royal family. She's the "angel" twin. Despite the differences in the way they were treated and raised, what stood out to me was how close they still were anyway. It would have been easy for one twin to feel jealous and resentful, while the other one spoiled and presumptuous, but that wasn't the case. The older twin felt bad for her younger sister, and the younger twin appreciated the efforts that her sister went through to help her out at times, so they were super close and ultimately, their fates remained intertwined to the end. Topic 5: What drama did not meet expectations? Hands down Only for Love... as a fan of the book, I was really looking forward to a drama bringing it to life. In the book, the female lead was a quirky combination of professional, capable of work and a bit of a klutz and cuckoo when it came to her personal life, and I thought Bai Lu was the perfect casting choice for that role. If there was anyone who could pull off both sides of that character, I felt strongly it could be her. But in the end, I don't know why, but the drama just fell really flat in that regard. The book is funny, but the drama... just made it all feel random. The perfect example of that is the scene where the FL "looks" for the ML in the armrest of the car. The drama leaves out the thoughts that lead up to that moment and all the thoughts that follow after she realizes the ML has caught her in the end, and in the end, it was just weird. One of my friends who hasn't read the book told me she didn't understand the point of that scene and it was "random," but it's actually my favorite scene from the book!! The drama was also dragged down by all the filler stuff with the extra couples and business matters, whereas the book is more straightforward and focused primarily on the main couple. As for the ML and its casting of Dylan Wang... I have to say, the minute that decision was announced I didn't like it. I didn't think he had the gravitas to pull of the role, and in the end, that's the only part of this drama that lived up to expectations (unfortunately). Dylan looked like he was playing dress-up in his CEO role and the voice... well, as others have mentioned, he really should've been dubbed. Oh well. For another drama that didn't live up to expectations, I wasn't going to mention it, but then I saw @SilverMoonTea bring it up and so I felt compelled to weigh in. She's absolutely right! South Wind Knows My Mood wasn't just bad, it was super bad. And I totally watched it to its end just so I would feel qualified to say that, and because apparently I can't look away from train wrecks of dramas. LOL. Like @SilverMoonTea said, the ML gets sick/injured a countless number of times and it was mostly for the sake of layering drama upon drama, and I hate when scripts do that. As an example of what I'm talking about, there's a scene where both are in Germany and the FL gets assaulted one afternoon. Because she defends herself by whacking a beer bottle over the assaulter, she's the one who ends up in jail. When she points out to the policeman that she was the one who was assaulted, the policeman tells her that the other guy shared a different story and because he looked worse off, they were going with his story. He then told her that if she wanted to prove her innocence, she'd have to come up with her own evidence and she was like, "But how am I supposed to do that when you've locked me up in prison?" I have to say, I have a lot of problems with the way the criminal justice system was portrayed in Germany... it's so lacking in logic. At the very least, the police would've locked them both up and they definitely would've done their own investigation! But the scriptwriters seemed to presume its viewers would all be stupid and decided to write their story this way, and it was all for the purpose of getting the male lead involved. Specifically, it was his housekeeper who learned of the female lead being locked up in prison and so she went to the male lead to tell him about that and suggest that they help the female lead. The male lead only responded with an, "Okay," and sent the housekeeper away and pretended that he didn't care (because at the time, he'd been trying to push the female lead away due to his illness and the fact that he was stuck in a wheelchair and couldn't use his legs). But not even a minute after the housekeeper left his office, he rolled his wheelchair into action and made it to the stairwell until he realized he'd have to go it alone since no one else was around and of course, ended up tumbling down the stairwell as a result. Which... again, so stupid! Why'd he send the housekeeper away if he was going to help the female lead? Or why not at least call her back? Instead, the scriptwriters must've felt that if they wrote the script this way, we would feel his sincerity as well as the depths of his real devotion to the female lead. Unfortunately, it just left me feeling like the entire drama was a pile of nonsense! Okay, rant over, LOL. Topic 6: Who was the best Appa and/or Omma? I scoured my list of dramas watched in 2023 and it was pretty slim pickings. If pressed, I would have to say the twins' dad in The Starry Love. In the beginning, I hated him because I found him cruel and heartless the way he'd raised the female lead all because she'd been born under an unlucky star. But it turned out that wasn't the case, that he's secretly been loving on her from afar, and it was a really emotional moment when the female lead learned how her father actually felt about her and he got to finally express how he felt about his daughter. In The Love that You Give Me, the main characters were the parents, and they were pretty great ones at that. And if we're talking about important adult figures generally, the male lead's granny in Meet Yourself can't be overlooked. She is the sweetest and has the best relationships with her two grandsons and the female lead. She's the granny we would all love to have!

Was there a drama you watched this year where you went in not knowing much and ended up really liking it? At the risk of sounding like a one note, When I Fly Towards You and The Love You Give Me were both two dramas that I knew nothing about when I started them. I suppose technically I knew Wang Zi Qi (male lead of TLYGM) from "Imperial Coroner", but I didn't walk away with the strongest impression of him from that drama (it wasn't my cup of tea, personal taste sort of thing). I watched both WIFTY and TLYGM because their respective streaming platforms kept pushing them onto my newsfeed. The little video clips soon caught my attention and I decided to give them a try. I'm so glad I did because both dramas, at the time I was watching them, brought me so much joy each day. I was also introduced to actors/actresses who I now keep an eye out for and recognize. They were a real treat in 2023. (And @Tofu, if you now like Zhou Yi Ran too (those dimples!!), give "You Are Desire" a try. The first half is great. The second half... people have their complaints. I fully admit that, but I loved all of it. I found the characters interesting and complex, and the story meatier than WIFTY which is like cotton candy fluff. And that's not to say that cotton candy fluff doesn't have its value; it does. We all need a light and easy, breezy watch sometimes. But YAD just tugged at my emotions more, if that makes any sense. Just make sure to also watch the special episode, if you do. Otherwise, the drama will feel really incomplete.) There is always a drama that you passed on initially, but watching later, you wished you had watched sooner. Perhaps because you would have found more people to discuss the drama with, watching in real time. Or just because it would have taken you that much sooner to your happy place. Most of the dramas I watched this year were currently airing ones, but I did watch a handful of older dramas, and if I had to pick the best among them it would be The Day of Becoming You - which is about the leader of a boyband and an entertainment reporter who fall in love after their lives keep intersecting because their bodies keep swapping. I'm pretty sure this one blew me by when it aired because the body-swapping bit sounded so hokey. Little did I know, it would be the very thing I needed in my life! It was hysterical. And both Liang Jie and Steven Zhang were so good in in their roles as the other person. I wondered if they studied each other as part of their preparations for this drama because they had each other down to their mannerisms. Steven Zhang, especially, impressed me with his acting and so I was thoroughly entertained. If you're looking for something fun, light, and quirky, I'd definitely give it a try.

I had quite a few dramas that I enjoyed in 2023! The ones I'd definitely highlight are: 1) Meet Yourself. This drama may not have had a fast-paced plot, but it wasn't meant to. Instead, it was about getting to know people's stories, watching them build relationships, and learning from them. The script was beautifully written. I genuinely enjoyed watching the female lead heal from the tragedy in her life and shift her focus from big city-living to remote Yunnan village-living. I also was captivated by the male lead's efforts to improve his hometown for the betterment of all and all the stories within that village. Whether it was one of the village children who roamed around freely in a pack, or one of the gossiping/cantankerous grands, I was invested in each character and inspired, amused, and entertained by all their stories - they had such experiences and perspectives to offer, it truly made for an interesting watch! 2) When I Fly Towards You. This drama was an unexpected sleeper hit from the summer. Adapted from a book authored by the same author who gave us "Hidden Love," I actually preferred this drama. At first, it seemed like it was going to be another one of those high school dramas where the "dumb" girl chases after the "smart, but cold" boy, but it wasn't! The female lead might not have had the best grades in all subjects, but she definitely had her strengths. Similarly, the male lead had his strengths, but he also had his weaknesses (which left him lacking in confidence). He also wasn't "cold," but rather introverted, quiet, and shy. In essence, what one person lacked, the other made up for, and what resulted was one of the healthiest relationships I've ever experienced and enjoyed in an Asian drama. It's also incredibly sweet, cute, and adorable. Each episode left me with a happy, sappy smile on my face and feeling like the world was a brighter place, and it wasn't just the main couple that I loved, but all their friends too. Truly, this is a sugary drama that shouldn't be missed! This drama also introduced me to Zhou Yi Ran (the actor, not the actress). Technically not my first drama with him, but WIFTY was the one where he grabbed my attention. His filmography led me to You Are Desire, which I'll also name as an honorable mention because I really, really loved it (and his character there). 3) Wonderland of Love. I'm still watching this one, but it has been my jam and more these past few weeks. I love everything about it - the story, the action, the characters, the everything! It's a historical piece and the male lead plays the unfavored grandson of a fallen emperor. He reluctanctly takes up the cause to restore his family to the throne and in doing so, runs into the female lead who leads an opposing army. Although hers is not the one that revolted against the emperor, she (and her family) also don't believe there's anyone capable in the royal family - until she meets the male lead - which is how their army gets involved. Although the two armies work in tandem against the one that revolted, they're still technically on opposite sides too, so it's a little bit like Romeo and Juliet at times. But the leads have great chemistry, I love watching them flirt and outwit each other, and the story is just interesting and fun! I highly recommend it. Other honorable mentions from 2023 include Fireworks of My Heart and The Love You Give Me.

I agree with you on preferring Johnny's chemistry with Li Qin more. But I also think My Dear Guardian was much more about the romance whereas in Bright Eyes, the focus of the story was... everywhere. LOL

@abs-oluteM I finished the drama.... and all I can say about the ending is, I'm going with the belief that he came to the concert late and so that's why he had to sit separately. :P

I had to go off the grid for several weeks, but I picked the drama up again last night to finish... currently on Ep 31 (I think). All I remember is the FL was in another fire (building blast!). I said it before, I'll say it again... I would never hang out with her. She's too dangerous to be around! LOL

did they release a fast track for the ending? I’m off the grid for the next few weeks so haven’t been keeping up. He did hate some valid points but his execution left a lot to be desired and you could see how because of it, the fire station was falling apart and becoming worse. As a leader, he should’ve recognized that himself but instead he dug in, blamed others, and for that, I found him problematic. Drove me downright nuts! Lol. But bringing back LLX as the instructor was a great move and I’m assuming it’s the marriage of both that will make the fire station return to its former glory and be even better on top. When I left off watching a few days ago, we were already heading in that direction with LMY starting to grow some empathy and the beginnings of a clue. 😝

Yes! I also love whenever he helps her with her uniform. There's something so charming about that action; it's very sweet. You'll really love 15 and 16, if you haven't already watched them by now. I have only two words to say: Ring Toss! Omg, that celebrity actor has been the WORST. Every time he appeared I would mentally scream, "Just get off my screen already!" Hopefully he won't be back now, but I worry we've not seen the last of him. Especially given how concerned everyone was about taking him down. That's one thing I like about Nan Chu. Although she's currently in the Ent-circle, she's not originally from the Ent-circle nor is it her true desire, so I like how she resists playing by its rules and just does her own thing. Rooting for her! Third time! LOL. That girl has been in a fire three times now. If I was friends with her, I'd stay far, far away from her... fire seems to follow her around...

Haha, yes! Yes it does! I'm now on Ep 12, I think? Hard to find time to watch but I stayed up late last night to sneak in an extra. Those stolen looks are everything (especially when everyone was watching the first ep of their reality show together.) I'd agree with this. You can definitely see how they are getting to know each other through living/working together. I'm still eager for her to figure out it was he who saved her all those years ago, though! My friend just told me that Ep 15 and 16 live up to the expectation of their teasers - we have something to look forward to, haha!