Beanie level: Errand boy

Something for Halloween, first Chinese horror movie.

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“Ashes of Love” is overhyped imho, yes, you get talented leads and few good episodes to hook you up but then have to wait 40+ episodes for any development.

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    It could’ve been so much better.

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      Yeah, there was huge potential for that show but it has so many issues really, the writing and production being the biggest one.

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    SPOILERS
    I kind of agree, I did feel frustrated during the middle and I might have skipped through the scenes of the demon princess and her boyfriend but I still really enjoyed the show, it has some really spectacular moments, I think the sequence with Deng Lun dying at the wedding was the best part of the show. Thought Ashes of Love was my first Chinese fantasy drama so it got away with using some of the tropes too and felt new.

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    I’m guilty of raving about it all the time, doing multiple re-watches of it, and I do consider it as one of my top Chinese dramas but when it comes down to it, you’re right, the plot isn’t something new, but what captured me (and still does even after so many rewatchings) is the acting and the chemistry, not just between Deng Lun and Yang Zi (who have known each other and have been friends off-camera for 10+ years) but between the entire younger cast 🙂

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      Oh yes, the young cast was really good (they saved the drama for me), the seniors didn’t impress me so much. What was really funny for me, that despite having really, but really great chemistry the kisses between Deng Lun and Yang Zi were Park Shin Hye level of awkward, I couldn’t help but laugh.
      And in the end it wasn’t about not liking the drama, because I liked a lot of it a lot, but I wonder if such a lengthy dramas with poor plot are worth time spent on them.

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    I personally loved Ashes of Love and have already watched it twice 😅 It’s one of my favorite cdramas. It does have its issues but I still loved it (just like how The Untamed had its issues, it’s still my favorite one).

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    I loved the journey of ashes of love but it definitely wasnt rewatchable cause after the mortal realm arc everything felt so slow and the lack of male lead scenes started to piss me off cause I wanted more moments with them. Don’t get me wrong Runyu had amazing development, I just wish that was also given to Xufeng and Jin Mi’s relationship. Their reuniting with the demon wedding will forever be underwhelming to me

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    The writer focused so much on the second lead and developed his character really well but at the expense of the leads’ (Phoenix in particular) screen time & character development. The book is much better than the drama version.

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Yay!!! At this year\’s Noble, well deserved, I love Olga Tokarczuk\’s books!

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    I haven’t read her yet. What do you recommend starting with?

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      I like her earlier novels the best : “Primeval and Other Times”, “House of Day, House of Night” and I would recommend them for starters, she has a very specific style, rather slow paced and meditative but not long winded.

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I\’m not Chinese youth but I\’m guilty of this habit too, and funnily enough even with increased speed I\’m not missing any of subtitles be it Chinese or Korean drama, pacing is real issue here.
https://supchina.com/2019/09/30/extreme-binge-watching-chinas-youth-are-streaming-at-accelerated-speeds-to-save-time/

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    I understand why they do this but it alters the viewing experience depending on the type of drama. If it should be watched carefully and a lot of attention went into directing, writing and acting, it’s a pity for the staff.

    I wonder who decide on episodes length. As for the episode numbers, the merrier there are, the more they get money. Starting Kdramas was hard for me since one hour was really long, especially for dramas who didn’t have enough content even for the standard length and episodes number. Cdramas have too many episodes. I don’t watch a lot because of that. They should adapt to the new kind of viewers who will prefer shorter episodes and/or lesser episodes for a drama. It will be a benefit for the writing since writers will have to learn to be more focused (hopefully!) on the most important parts.

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      I think it depends on drama, there are ones that I speeded up and enjoyed more that way and ones that it wasn’t needed at all. But if it’s a trend it’s not a problem with a viewers but with dramas, as I wrote earlier, I need subtitles, and with most speeded up dramas there isn’t any problem with reading them at all, it’s very telling.

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        Yeah, if you (and I) have no problem reading subs when episodes are sped up, they need to re-think their directing and writing. I just can’t understand how they can expect people to watch Cdramas with so many episodes.

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    I have that habit as well. Most of kdramas are even more enjoyable that way, because even on speed 1,5 you don’t see the difference. Most of the time I’m watching a drama in the night so by not being noisy I’m watching it without sound. It’s a long time I’ve enjoyed a drama without speed button and with a sound and I like Nokdu for now. I don’t have any spare time, but this one is en exemption.

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    lots of people do this!!! with everything loool im guilty too. ur absolutely right about pacing although i should be a purist about it lmao

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    While I consider the FF button to be essential–especially for bloated Chinese dramas—I hadn’t considered watching at higher speeds. I’ve done it for audio books, though. Like damn fool, the only way I could finish The Time Traveler’s Wife in time for my book club was to listen at 2-3x speed. Which is hilarious for sex scenes. I don’t think the author envisioned readers/listeners cracking up at the sound of a chipmunk voice narrating the sexy bits.

    I agree 100% that respect goes both ways with content. The primary purpose of broadcast and web TV is to make money. But audiences want well-constructed stories. I’m glad hear there’s pushback on overly long Chinese dramas. I think Japan’s 10-12 number is just right because Kdramas are beginning to feel like a stretch at 16 not to mention 20+.

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They killed an Igutu in Vagabond (ep.3) 😀

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Promo song for The Longest Day in Chang’an
Pretty things to look at and listen to for Friday.

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The Longest Day in Chang’an poster by Three To Media studio
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Hits you right in aesthetics 😉
The Longest Day in Chang’an
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Just how awsome this posters are The Longest Day in Chang’an
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Love The Longest Day in Chang’an OST eerily beautiful and lyrics use Li Bi poems.

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    AWESOME! Thanks for the reminder! I need to get back to this show. I love love the colours, the intricate details and all.

    For decades, I have never been pleased with the display of Chinese aesthetics on tv/movies. Very few dramas and shows can bring out the beauty of traditional art. Most were gaudy and of poor taste.

    Now that Chinese productions are booming, their sets, costumes, props and cinematography are visual delights! I am also a sucker for traditional music re-arranged or selected to suit modern tastes.

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    I saw one ost mv before, it looks so beautiful , will watch it but have other dramas to finish before that ^^’

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I remember that someone posted links to characters charts and further supplementary reading on The Longest Day in Chang\’an but I can’t find it now when I finally get sucked into the show, help?

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    See comments of @tsutsuloo

    http://www.dramabeans.com/2019/08/team-dramabeans-what-were-watching-167/#comment-3499912

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      That’s the comment I was looking for, thank you so much!!!

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    Around which episode did you get hooked? I left it at ep 5

    I’m not sure if the show didn’t work for me or I was just too distracted and this one needed a lot of attention. I felt it wasn’t one of those which I could just FF.

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      Around 3-4, but I had to rewacht the first episodes because when I started I was too distracted by Untamed, then Legends and AMA 😀 Now when I cleared out all bingeable dramas, I could give my attention to this show and fully appreciate it, but I think it’s really a drama where one needs to fully concentrate on watching because it is so rich in details.

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        I think so too. I wish there were recaps somewhere so that I could just read up the first few episodes instead of rewatching. This is one drama which recap would help immensely! Maybe I am just not good at shows where things are more complex – like I would never be able to understand Arthdal Chronicles.

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          I don’t regret rewatching the first episodes it show me how much I miss out not paying attention the first time due to how fast pacing this show is, Arthdal is not even comparable.

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            If I want to invest brain work, I need to know if it would pay off. I cannot stand convoluted plots just for the sake of it.

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            @outofthisworld, I think it’s worth it, the first 3-4 eps are important because they introduce a lot of characters and this drama is not like Korean ones, it’s moving so fast and don’t bother to remind us where we met the character before, lol. As far as the plot goes, it’s pretty straightforward political thriller that some compare to “24”, and cinematography and attention to historical details are exquisite, and as a cherry on top it has remarkable female characters, what more viewers could ask for 🙂

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True crime but drama related after all so many of them were inspired by Hwaseong serial murders.
The killer was identified but statue of limitation already passed unfortunately:
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190918000889

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    At least he’s currently in jail.

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    Makes me want to watch Signal again. I’m glad they’ve finally found a suspect, but the whole statute of limitations thing is unfortunate.

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      It must be awful for the families to know that he’ll never face any legal consequences for that murders, good that amended that law, shame that it took so long.

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Me, when someone ask me about my bias.

https://wooyoungbby.tumblr.com/post/187413766838/then-shen-tingbai-is-yours-i-cant-steal

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AMA 31-32: Dying at Shen\’s friend \”I don\’t know about them gays, but if anyone would have a shot at \”ruining\” this young man it better be my best friend\”.

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    Pffftttt…….that was hilarious! I am not there yet but just jumped in and looked. I never expected Gu to openly pursue Xie and confess his love in front of all the guys.

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      And he has such a reputation that everyone assumed that this is another prank that this little shit pulled on his long suffering roommate.

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    AMA????

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I found my new crack cdrama ARSENAL MILITARY ACADEMY, cute as hell but costumes give me major headache.

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Today photo on @wishfultoki wall reminded me of one of my favourite song from one of my favourite movie.

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I give up on BLOODY ROMANCE, heroine character it to frustrating, like she was developed for different drama genre.

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    That bad huh? I don’t understand why people were raving about the show or they just ignored her.

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      Like they took Candy girl from Korean rom coms and put her into this gore land but nothing she faced, can change her pure and cheerful character :]

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      I liked the drama but I do agree I hated her in the beginning. I kept being annoyed with here actions and complaining to my mom. Bad things happened because she wanted to be the good girl. Which is all well and fine but she is an ASSASSIN! Not killing as an assassin doesnt fly. Thankfully she does snap out of that and become better as the drama progresses.

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        I’m dropped it at ep. 12, I have no patience to wait for her to grow a spine and too many dramas on my watchlist to waste time on something that irritate me that much. What I find the worst is that she has no back up plan or solution, she just make stupid decisions and one of the guys to clean up her messes or save her, and then she is her usual cheerful self in the den of assassins, and people claim she is clever, and fast learner, but we never see this.

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Just started “Billion Dollar Whale” about 1mdb scandal and Jho Low. Easy read, crazy story and connection to kpop through PSY and YG.
Have You read any good non fiction lately?

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    What is non-fiction? 😆

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    ha ha.. this is what i was talking about today

    Me more interested in Goldman sachs, bear and stearns, rothschild and all these i banks

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    fun trivia..
    with that stolen 1mdb, they financed wolf of the wall street..

    steal money, make a film on stealing money, and earn more money, and win an oscar for it.. how awesome is that!

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    I’ve just started ‘Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma’ built. But right off the bat, I have issues with the way the writer is glorifying Ma. It’s sounding a bit like blind worship. But it’s just the start, so let’s see where it goes.

    I’ll look up the book you posted about. ^^

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Who knew that the day will come when I\’ll applaud Chinese censors:
http://www.dramapanda.com/2019/09/nrta-considers-capping-episode-count-to.html

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    This seems both good and bad to me. There are definitely dramas out there that should never have been as long as they are (The Legends a prime example) but then there are other dramas that I think worked perfectly well with the longer episodes (Like Story of Yanxi Palace at 70 episodes). When a drama is done well I like that they are longer running, but I can definitely see their reasoning. There are a lot of cdramas that I start losing interest in at about halfway or towards the end because of being dragged out unnecessarily. If they do reduce the episode count it will definitely require smarter writing.

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      I loved Yanxi Palace but if they would cut the episodes it wouldn’t hurt the show that much in my opinion, thye wanted to tell the story that went through decades but didn’t change the actors or even aged them through make up or special effects and it was confusing at the end, no way Xu Kai would pass as 50yrs old man 😉

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I\’m bitter that Victoria prepared whole \”v-10th anniversary\” video and thanked SM more than once but didn\’t bother to mention f(x) or members, one would think she debuted as a solo artist.

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