The Long Ballad / Princess Changge 长歌行 [2021]

[NiteWalker]

new poster release for Reba

 

 

 

[Tofu]

A'Sun and Changge are cute too! 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COcFxgsI2XR/?igshid=1vcc2em72wg9p

 

A'Sun trying to be smooth by indirectly asking when Changge will marry him. 

 

 

[abs-oluteM]

8 minutes ago, Tofu said:

A'Sun and Changge are cute too! 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COcFxgsI2XR/?igshid=1vcc2em72wg9p

 

A'Sun trying to be smooth by indirectly asking when Changge will marry him. 

 

 

That was smooth indeed...I adore Sun.

But right now I am eps 38 where Sun just got shot by the arrow ....maybe this way CG will fully embrace her feelings for him. 

[Maya]

Plenty of eps for me to catch up, but I think I can finish all this week. Now about to start Ep14. Young A'dou is a good child actor. Hope he continues acting without getting self conscious as he grows older. 

[Tofu]

10 hours ago, abs-oluteM said:

But right now I am eps 38 where Sun just got shot by the arrow ....maybe this way CG will fully embrace her feelings for him. 

I haven't watched episode 36 onward with English subs yet. I'm a horrible at watching this drama. I watch ahead without subs, read recaps of what happened, and watch clips with English subs. By the time I watch the episode with the subtitles, I already know what happened. 

 

8 hours ago, MayanEcho said:

Young A'dou is a good child actor. Hope he continues acting without getting self conscious as he grows older. 

Same here! I think he did a wonderful job and I can definitely feel the emotions he was trying to evoke when he sacrificed himself. 

 

 

[NiteWalker]

You guys are done and i just think i might just pick this one up hahahhaa.....these two stills actually convince me

 

 

 

[Maya]

I must say, the young cast members of this drama are very good! They can give some older actors a run of their money in acting.

 

Still binge watching, now at ep29. I think I can finish the rest in 2 more days. Until now, I haven't been bored in any scenes or episodes yet. 

Edited May 5, 2021 by MayanEcho

[abs-oluteM]

My Ge Sun heart was very happy with all the developments in eps 39 and 40 - though it  took Sun to almost die for Changge to verbally express how much Sun meant to her. The deal is pretty much sealed where their love line is concerned. I love that she brought Sun to her mother's memorial place - that is a big step for Changge. And I am guessing that her Uncle who had loved her mum ( and her all along) may not have killed her mother. 

 

But I have one complaint though .... ...what sort of 1st kiss is this???

Lmao! Should I laugh or cry? Does Wu Lei have a clause for no kissing in his contract or something? 

[Tofu]

9 hours ago, NiteWalker said:

You guys are done and i just think i might just pick this one up hahahhaa.....these two stills actually convince me

WAH?! All the other pictures that we posted before didn't convince you?! 

 

9 hours ago, MayanEcho said:

I must say, the young cast members of this drama are very good! They can give some older actors a run of their money in acting.

I agreed! I think out of the main cast, Dilireba is the oldest one and Wu Lei is the youngest one -- funny how they are the main couple. But I think the two child actors that played A'Dou and Xiao Wu were really good too! 

 

1 hour ago, abs-oluteM said:

Does Wu Lei have a clause for no kissing in his contract or something? 

I don't think so. I think it's because there are no kissing scenes in the manhua yet so they were probably paying respect to that? I don't think Wu Lei is like Xiao Bai who lasted 7 years without any onscreen kiss scenes. 

 

Leyan/Hao Du scenes from ep43-49 with English subs.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COe3mpHo-qd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COdTbjRoqmM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COcm4XtIJYE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CObdejBq55s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

A'Sun/Changge scenes from ep43-49 with English subs.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COcFxgsI2XR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COcdXr6orlS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COciUk1oFZE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

The uncle clarifies what happened to Changge's mom to her. 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/COfKNuIIx5s/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

 

I haven't watched episode 36-42 with subs yet. I'll binge through it today because I'm trying to avoid Oh! Master. 

 

 

[Maya]

The mounts of Tu Kashe and Khan must be Arabian horses. 😅

[abs-oluteM]

Ep 41 & 42

I have to say that Le Yan's arc has been pretty good. From a very sheltered princess , she's grown so much and I loved how she plucked up the courage and stood up for herself at the imperial court.  And more impressive was how she refused WSY's help to fight on her behalf knowing that he only treated her as his sister. Honestly , I was just dying for Hao Du to go on the ring and fight for his girl. I am glad that his father gave him that little talk to go do that - to win all the way. Knowing how filial a son HD is , it was necessary for him to hear that from his father.

 

And even after HD won, you could tell he was so hesitant at expressing his feelings for Le yan because he felt unworthy. But I am glad that Le Yan made him come to terms with those feelings. At the end of the day  I agree that LeYan deserves to be married to someone who will love and treasure her. And oh , have never seen Hao Du smile as much as he did. They make such a cute couple. 

 

 

[Maya]

5 hours ago, abs-oluteM said:

Honestly , I was just dying for Hao Du to go on the ring and fight for his girl. I am glad that his father gave him that little talk to go do that - to win all the way. Knowing how filial a son HD is , it was necessary for him to hear that from his father.

 

I actually teared up when he was fighting. Normally not the kind of scene that will get me, but it did.

 

And gosh, applause too for his support team. That look of so much surprise when he showed up, and maintaining the disbelief as they watch is hard to act IMO. The two child actors didn't disappoint!

 

I'm done watching until ep49. The most notable and powerful for me are the scenes when Sun's adoptive mother chose to die and what happened afterwards, when A'dou was killed, and LOL, when Hao Du gave that watermelon smile. There are many more, small ones, that are memorable their own right.

Edited May 6, 2021 by MayanEcho

[NiteWalker]

new poster for 'The Long Ballad' the VIP had finish it run however not for normal users 

 

 

 

[Tofu]

@abs-oluteM - I think Hao Du even hesitated when he saw Wei Shuyu stop by during his fight with She'er. When Hao Du saw him, he lost his concentration and that's how She'er was able to land punches on him. I agreed with you on your comment about Leyan's storyline and even how Hao Du plays into all of this too. At first, I wasn't so sure what to make of them, but towards the middle when we saw more of them, I really started to enjoy watching their scenes. I love watching Leyan grow into a brave and promising Princess. I also like that by being around her, Hao Du is able to lessen the pressure he put on himself. 

 

@MayanEcho - Catching up with the drama after us and finishing up before all of us. Haha!! I'm up to episode 42. I watched some of the clips for episodes 43-49 but I wanted to wait to understand so I stopped. I'll get to binge through the entire series this week! 

 

New poster of Changge. =)

[Maya]

52 minutes ago, Tofu said:

Catching up with the drama after us and finishing up before all of us. Haha!!

 

Ahahaha, I wanted to know how much of Mandarin I understand now by watching the raw eps. Uh, 3-4 words out of 10 words? Hahaha! I'll watch again the last 7 eps when the subs are up, to make sure I got it right. 😅

Edited May 10, 2021 by MayanEcho

[NiteWalker]

new stills for tonight airing

 

 

 

[Haoyan]

15 hours ago, Tofu said:

@abs-oluteM - I think Hao Du even hesitated when he saw Wei Shuyu stop by during his fight with She'er. When Hao Du saw him, he lost his concentration and that's how She'er was able to land punches on him. I agreed with you on your comment about Leyan's storyline and even how Hao Du plays into all of this too. At first, I wasn't so sure what to make of them, but towards the middle when we saw more of them, I really started to enjoy watching their scenes. I love watching Leyan grow into a brave and promising Princess. I also like that by being around her, Hao Du is able to lessen the pressure he put on himself. 

 

 

Why do I feel like a proud mama whenever I read glowing comments on Leyan and Haodu haha  but honestly, thank you for this! 

I have finished all eps and must say that although the plot and story could have been better written here and there it's still a much needed change from the romance-heavy dramas and provides a platform where the actors can feel challenged and step out of their comfort zone. I hope all four leads will walk out of this drama with meatier roles in meatier stories awaiting them. Their performance (esp. Reba's, Wu Lei's and Lusi's) has all ranged from nicely surprising to phenomenal (I'm especially impressed by WL - he's still so young but he pulls off that maturity very convincingly) and I really can't wait to see them grow and advance further as actors. I feel that Alen Fang is shortchanged in this: the writing for his character sucks and there's not much he can do to change it, so I hope he will land a role that is more deserving of his talent and can catapult him later. I'm a newly converted fan of Liu Yuning but if I'm being brutally honest there are still a few scenes at the beginning of the drama where he still seems a bit green, but my 1m9-tall baby boy has said in a recent interview that he has finally found his passion in acting and wants to treat it with utmost care because he treasures the opportunity. He says for that reason he will not take on main roles until he has bettered his craft, so I'll be happy watching him making gradual improvements. I think the opportunity to join this production and work alongside seasoned and professional actors like Reba and Wulei will be valuable for him in the future.

[abs-oluteM]

@Haoyan I think Liu Yu Ning did pretty well...I liked him as Hao Du - the change that he went through took some time but it felt organic and believable. For a one-track minded soldier who was trained to serve king & nation , and be filial to his father , it was sweet to see how love changed him. LeYan "humanised" him. For someone like me who was quite indifferent to their arcs at first , I came to enjoy their romance and it did bring some nice relief to all the politics and also the slow as tortoise romance of Ge Sun. 

Am I the only one not done with this drama ...ahahah just got off ep 43 & 44...I have to say I felt quite bad for Shi Er.....poor guy who just wants love and attention all his life finds out his sweet mum was actually such a schemer. But at least there's character development for him. And Ge Sun - will they ever have a normal marriage or romance for that matter...I am resigned to the fact that it won't be .LOL!

[Maya]

More posters 🙂

 

 

[Sakurafairy]

Omg! My most favorite C-drama as of this time. Everytime I'm seeing Leo Wu my heart is fluterring. A big fan of Leo Wu and Dilramat. The two look so beautiful together. 

[NiteWalker]

26 minutes ago, Sakurafairy said:

Omg! My most favorite C-drama as of this time. Everytime I'm seeing Leo Wu my heart is fluterring. A big fan of Leo Wu and Dilramat. The two look so beautiful together. 

 

Leo grow up beautifully 

[Tofu]

@Haoyan -- That's pretty great of Liu Yuning to recognize that. I think often times we see actors/actresses take on main lead roles before they are ready. I understand that popularity plays a role in it but I really think it's important for rookie actors/actresses to start off with smaller roles so they can learn from their seniors. 

 

On 5/10/2021 at 3:02 PM, Haoyan said:

I feel that Alen Fang is shortchanged in this: the writing for his character sucks and there's not much he can do to change it, so I hope he will land a role that is more deserving of his talent and can catapult him later.

I know, I agreed! I was pretty empathetic towards him by the end of this drama because Wei Shuyu was written so poorly, someone who lacked confidence. Fang Yi Lun is set to play a supporting role in Xiao Zhan's new drama, Jade Bone Ballad, so hopefully his character will be a lot better in that drama. 

 

13 hours ago, abs-oluteM said:

Am I the only one not done with this drama ...ahahah just got off ep 43 & 44

Technically, I'm not done either but, also, I am.  I watched the drama without subs already and now I just need to finish them with subs. Don't ask me how I managed to fit time to watch this entire drama with and without subs. 

 

48 minutes ago, Sakurafairy said:

Omg! My most favorite C-drama as of this time. Everytime I'm seeing Leo Wu my heart is fluterring. A big fan of Leo Wu and Dilramat. The two look so beautiful together. 

Thanks for joining us!! I just wrote that I watched this drama with and without subs so that just shows how much I loved it too. I would say that Wu Lei's Ashile Sun is definitely one of my top 10 favorite male leads that I've watched in the last few years. Wu Lei did a wonderful job and never once did I feel like Dilireba outdo him in acting -- they were pretty much on par with each other.  

 

I really happy that @40somethingahjumma convinced me to watch this drama sooner because I was going to wait until a bit later to start. I had a great time chatting with everyone about it. Hopefully everyone that joined us specifically for The Long Ballad will join us in other drama threads as well!! 

[40somethingahjumma]

When you've all finished watching The Long Ballad, I suggest you turn your attention to The Imperial Coroner  which is in my view super good and for a crime buff like myself, has things that I love more than TLB. 

 

Without giving too much away, The Long Ballad had a good run overall. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the final act because it seemed rather overcrowded and then the war sort of happened and then it was all over. I was happy to see Li Jing again but there wasn't a lot of him when he was supposedly instrumental in taking down the eastern turkic khaganate. In some ways I still feel that there are too many characters and the show wanted to give them all a nice send-off. The Changge and Friends show at the end didn't exactly excite me but for how they achieved it, it was okay. Better than most third acts that I've seen coming out of the C drama production line.

 

I think I knew when I first started watching this that I was really in it for the leads. And that really hit home in the final act when every man, woman and dog made an appearance. I suppose for a 49 episode drama we had to have a truckload of characters with their own arcs that really had nothing to do with the main storyline. I now think I would have preferred a shorter drama with more political intrigue and less rom com. I remained fairly indifferent to Leyan and Hao Du's romance pretty much to the end though I can see its broad appeal as it obviously falls along familiar romantic tropes. Individually they have their place.

 

For me, however, I preferred the unconventional female and male leads as they fit better into the big picture of war and peace.amo The first 38 or 39 episodes were really good and even though I didn't think much of Yicheng as any kind of great strategist, she did give the leads a run for their money. She had time on her side to plant people where she could and exact her revenge against the Ashile clan and Tang. The contrast between her and Changge was made plain by Changge herself. It dawns on Changge that she could have become another Yicheng. She was full of vengeance and was ready to start a war to assassinate her uncle but thankfully her experiences gave her broader perspective on the horrors of conflict between nations. It's the common people that suffers in the end.

 

Sun remained true to himself in everything he did. He protected his men, his country and his woman. Both he and Changge both acknowledge that even though creating and maintaining alliances would be difficult, it was worth the effort. Both put their lives on the line to ensure that there would be some kind of truce at least among the various parties. I'm glad that She'er turned out to be a not so bad boy and that all he wanted was to enjoy life in the steppes with his nearest and dearest. He ends up being a pitiful creature who though loses much, can look forward to a new start being his own man and setting his own trajectory.

 

My other favourite character would have to be Li Shimin or Emperor Taizong. I really enjoyed what this actor brought to the table by humanizing this great figure of Chinese history. He is a great father figure for the young people and yet an obvious leader of men who acted wisely. It is terrible that he had to retaliate against his own brother and nephews in the way that he did but that's the stuff history. And Changge's reaction to her mother's death is exactly why the notion of pulling the grass by the roots was practiced in those days.

 

Not a bad show and worth the watch. Don't know if it unseats You Are My Hero as C drama of the year for me but I am really a sucker for intelligent, strong romantic leads with complementary skills sets.  Glad to see Wu Lei in this and he did well even in the romantic scenes. I can't wait to see what else is in store for him because he has so much potential as a male lead. Dilraba was particularly good and seemed very comfortable in the role. All the actors did well and I would definitely like to see Alen Fang in a better role because I really do like him and the writing did him few favours. He certainly has the potential to be a male lead.

[abs-oluteM]

I cannot believe that Viu only released up to eps 48 and is just going to release eps 49 next week????

 

I am already up to speed...overall I really enjoyed the drama but I do have one complain...there wasn't enough of Sun! The last few episodes were so focussed on YiCheng / Khatun and a host of so many characters that I missed seeing Ge Sun together. And Sun just feels under-utlised. Wu Lei is excellent as Sun - I am still amazed he is only 21 but already has such screen presence. I supposed years of honing his craft as a child actor really shows. Any good Wu lei drama I should check out? (one where he is the lead/ main cast)

 

Sun remains my favourite character in this show - what I love best about him was that he was always level-headed and had great respect for Changge. I just feel in those times , it was rare for men to be supportive of someone who had Changge's temperament. I love Changge's courage but she was also sometimes reckless, but he never wanted her to be someone else but herself. One of my favourite scenes of Sun in last few episodes was when he was with LiMin ( the king ) and he turned down the offer to live peacefully in ChangAn. Despite loving Changge , he also knew he could not betray his nation and his people - and he knew Changge to would never want that of him. 

 

Another arc that I quite enjoyed was the somewhat complex relationship between Changge and LiMin. I am glad that they finally made peace. It was clear from mid-drama that he didn't kill her mother but he decided not to reveal this to Changge ( or perhaps CG never gave him the chance to) because in some ways it would spare CG the pain of knowing her mother took her own life. Li Min didn't seem like a terrible king to me. I somewhat understood why he had to kill her father - CG's father would have killed him - one of those kill or be killed type of situation. 

 

Anyway, I don't know how the drama will wrap up for eps 49. But I was just amused that this drama had no proper kisses from both the main couples. LOL...I know it is not that kind of drama but hey it would have been nice ...

edit - I see subs are available on the dark side...let me finish this. 

 

[abs-oluteM]

Yes , I am done. The romance was never front & centre, but all things considered their love for each other was strong. I guess they would never be the usual couple - it didn't matter where they lived cause at the end of the day, it is home as long as they are together. 
(ahahah they paid tribute to being the parakeet couple here!)