It’s going to be hard to top the collective audience outrage that erupted this week over the ending of the popular summer C-drama Diamond Lover. The drama starring Rain, Tang Yan, and Luo Jin has been doing gangbuster ratings since it premiered in late July, running for over 60 episodes and keeping the local audiences hooked all the way. The happy feel good train came to an abrupt halt a few days ago with the out-of-left-field ending that is dominating all news articles about this drama, and has left the drama baidu bar teeming with furious and appalled fans.
I watched two episodes and that was enough for me, I dislike bullied fat girl loses weight and lives her Cinderella fantasy stories and this one is as cloying as it comes, to no fault of Tang Tang or Rain in their acting or chemistry which was fine. I can’t say the drama is terrible, but it is overly sleek and stuffed to the gills with PPL to make The Time I Loved You look like an indie production. But hearing about the ending had me rolling on the floor laughing at the chutzpah of the producers. Really? To avoid spoilers I’ll discuss it after the jump.
For 60-plus episodes, Diamond Lover was all about Tang Yan’s leading lady in love with Rain’s cold chaebol character and melting his heart with her sincere ways. You know the drill. They fall in love, date, run into obstacles, but eventually overcome it all. Just as things are about to reach an expected conclusion, the ending had her rejecting Rain and accepting the marriage proposal of the second male lead played by Luo Jin, who had been the best friend to her through the entire drama but never got anywhere until abruptly he wins the girl just like that.
So Diamond Lover now joins the pantheon of dramas with WTF endings, as well as the few dramas where the second male lead gets the girl. But in this case no one wanted Luo Jin to get the girl and Rain was the fan favorite all the way. Ahahahahaha, at least Rain got to cash his astronomical paycheck for this drama so he shouldn’t feel bad. And if there was any Rain drama where the second male lead should have gotten the girl, it had to be My Lovely Girl and not this drama. At least Luo Jin being the second male lead and not another actor soothes some ruffled feathers since he’s one of Tang Tang’s former leading men and who reportedly dated her while they did Agent X together.
Behind the scenes chatter actually explains how this trainwreck all went down. Apparently Rain was only booked to film a 40 episode drama and he did just that. But afterwards the production asked the screenwriter to add 20 more episodes to the count but Rain wasn’t available to film so only the rest of the cast filmed those scenes which ended up being interspersed through the final arc of the drama, which also accounts for why Rain’s character was barely seen in the final episodes.
The production also filmed a second ending during that added shoot so that they could have the choice on which ending to run, the one where Tang Tang ends up with Rain, or the one where she picks her longtime best friend played by Luo Jin. In the end, the production claimed that the message they wanted to send with the drama is not Cinderella storybook ending but a real life one where the girl wakes up from her fairy tale dream and in real life picks the guy who has always been by her side. That’s why they went with the reversal and aired the ending where Tang Tang picks her best friend and not the ideal too perfect male lead.
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Bwahaha!
yea, well, thanks for the spoilers, I don't have to watch that now, I was getting curious. tho I wonder about that PPL if this one made The Time I Loved You looked like an indie production, lol!
The director's cut has been redone with a new ending.
Wow, what a bummer, that ending sucks, I am so disappointed. Changing the ending like that, best friends should never get the girl in this case
stuffed to the gills? ^^
I lasted for like 5 episodes. But the storyline and characters were so over the top.... I could not stand Rain's character. And liked the second male lead a lot. Was going to go back and finish the drama, but I don't know... Way too long of a drama!!!
I live in the USA and I loved Diamond Lover and it's on our netflix but we didn't have 60 episodes like they said but I love Rain and I loved the ending they did on Netflix in the USA. Why are you so hard towards Rain? ? If I had a way to send you the link in this cmmt about his true life story you might be a lot more different about Rain cause his life has been a battle since he was around 11 years old after his father's business went bankrupt and he at that Yong age had to take on being the man of the family while his father was in Brazil trying to find a job to send money to his family and while this is all going on Rain's Mother was a really bad diabetic and was not able to afford her insulin and everything kept getting worse and he's fault and scratched his way up for everything he's got so please go to Pinterest and find his life story and biography cause then ull figure out for yourself how much Rain has suffered and remember God doesn't like ugly.
USA only had 24 episodes
UK only has 24 episodes as well!? I was confused reading the reviews and can’t find another season so the ending must have been changed for uk and US Netflix
I actually loved the ending. Luo Jin is much deserving to have the girl. It is what I called reality. I qould do the same if I were her.
HAHA omg I'd be so frustrated if I followed that drama diligently. This reminds me of the True Blood ending in the book where the main female character just abruptly went with the second lead despite all the pinning and drama she had with the main character. In shoujo this reminds me of Hirunaka no ryuusei ending a little too.
HnR disappointed me so much... I still get mad thinking about it, daytime shooting star? haha nope!
Realistic ending is a good idea but not when the whole drama works towards a different ending (which seems like what happened here).
LOL~ I thought it was pretty obvious starting from half thru the manga course, the tide have turned to the second lead. I mean it was pretty straight-forward how the story continue tackling the issue of the main girl with 2nd lead while the first guy just make 'honor' appearance every now and then. -_- well, not that I care because the 2nd lead is obviously much cooler and tsundere.
B-but, I loved the ending to Hirunaka No Ryuusei! For once, the heroine isn't blind and picked the right person! It was not out-of-nowhere, either.
I agree with you, I thought that the other person took too long to confess his true feelings and by then the heroine have already moved on...that's real life for you....
Agree.. Its time to be realistic. Pick someone who really care for u just because thats the real u and not someone who just see your outer appearance. Or maybe i said this because i like second male lead so much. ??
This is escapism drama at its finest...nobody has time for that reality nonsense at the very end *smh*
Glad I'm not the only one who wasn't watching it
"reality nonsense" LOL! I agree!
I don't watch the drama, can't find the sub and when i try to skim the first two episodes, just like you said i'm kinda turn off of the premise. How good was the rating though? 10-20%? I can't find it on chinese wiki.
Anyway, I don't get how what the pd thinking. They have shoot two kind of ending so it's not like they didn'nt have any choice. The most obvious choice is the main lead pairing, on top of that like you said netizens have go to the main lead ship so why choose to pissed them off like that? Is it because the pd upset with Rain decision to not extend. Anyway why Rain can't continue though, the paycheck was huge and he doesn't seem to have any activity in Korea? No album or drama? Hollywood project?
In China, a good rating for dramas is around 1%. It can be called a success if it's over 2% or near 2%.
That's because there are like 50 chanels on TV and usually more than 10 dramas running on the same time on the same day.
I prefer the female lead to end up with the second male lead bcs in the earlier episodes the main male lead treated her very badly.
I never like to watch the female lead chasing after the male lead. It's more fun watching 2,3 or 4 male leads chasing after the main female lead e.g. in the korean drama Empress Ki the 2 male leads were fighting over her and she was a strong woman. In fact 4 men liked her but one Tal Tal kept his feeling under wraps. When you watch him taking risks to help her you know. The other one Tanggishi was cruel to her bcs he could not get her so the others must not have her too. Typical of a small-hearted man as compared to the magnanimous Tal Tal.
I must be one of the few who stopped watching the drama cause I wanted her to end up with the second lead. He was always there for her. That's unconditional love. Just saying. So. I will prob pick it back up. :)
I agree. Go for it!
Pity I just watched this just now . I wanted to give up after 5 epis but the 2nd male lead made me stay . I just loved this guy. Happy they ended together. I like Rain but lei Yiming was the best guy here.
Same here. It kind of saddened me that after all her bestfriend did to her she still has her love for the lead man. Now, I wish they showed the rest of the episodes here in Canada and I would love to finished it. ???
I must agree to that. Besides Luon Jin and Tang Yan has a strong chemistry not to mention that the two were dating
I was so disappointed that L couldn't win the heart of Krystal in My Lovely Girl. It was the only interessant and exciting thing in the drama. Rain and Krystal had no chemistry... But I don't think the actors were at fault...it was juste the story who wasn't good.
They had plenty of chemistry to me. You should qualify your statement with "to me".
It's China. The script was supervised and approved before shooting by the appropriate authorities. I can see a foreigner being confused about this story...but the Chinese fans? Don't they know their own country?
What is this even supposed to mean? That Chinese audiences should know to expect what in their eyes constitutes an inane plot twist?
It means that even though the owner of this blog treats crazy news from chinese entertainment industry like any other crazy news from western entertainment industries....the chinese industry does not follow western rules. Just like the whole society, their TV, stage and movie productions are heavily controlled by the state (read: party). If something goes one way and then suddenly changes it's likely because that was "suggested" by the appropriate authorities.
My cynicism stops short at the party insisting that the second lead get the girl... I was under the impression that drama makers merely submitted synopses rather than full scripts but I might be wrong.
Caution: Rant ahead.
This drama was honestly horrible. If anyone was planning to watch: please don't. I question the integrity, morals, and sanity of most of the characters, even when judging them by crazy drama standards. The female lead starts going after the male lead while she's under the impression that he's dating the second female lead, who is the female lead's good friend. Then, the female lead is in mad luuuurve with and gets together with the male lead, but is possessive of the second lead/jealous when he's with the 2nd female lead, and also keeps taking advantage of his kindness to her. On the other hand, the male lead is in a relationship with the female lead but keeps being in contact with his ex even though she is literally psychotic and murderous, and lets her live in his house after she gets amnesia. Also, the second male lead is in love with the female lead but agrees to a relationship with the second female lead, which isn't that horrible, but constantly lies to her that he doesn't even know the female lead (keep in mind that all three of then are friends). Of the four mains, 2nd female lead is the only one who doesn't have since sort of borderline-unfaithfulness going on.
Don't even let me get started on the rest of Tang Yan's character. I have never seen a female lead so hatred by the netizens, and I have never agreed so much. For one, her entire dilemma, and almost all the conflict in the story, comes from the fact that she simply refuses to admit to Rain that she had plastic surgery. TO SAVE HER LIFE. BECAUSE HER FACE AND BODY GOT RUINED BY A CAR ACCIDENT. WHAT is embarrassing or unspeakable about that? Girl, your lack of logic.
She's also the typical drama lead who is always innocent and 100% always the victim. Even when she's in the wrong. This girl literally kicked the second male lead out of his own house because of her own dumb and selfish reasons.
Not going to lie, this terrible character and the actor's performance here actually made me dislike TY (or at least firmly put her on my never-watch list). She literally had 3 expressions the entire drama: overly-wide and cheesy (and a bit plastic/stiff) smile, innocent look, and sad (and guilt-tripping) face. This girl CANNOT act. At least not in this drama.
Honestly the only (and I do mean ONLY) redeeming feature about this whole mess of a drama was the 2nd female lead, who is adorable and loyal to friends and the greatest drama character I have seen in a long while. Also, her actress, Dilireba is gorgeous and has such a multitude of hilarious expressions that it almost covered up the stink of this drama. Thank god she didn't end up with the 2nd male lead who didn't appreciate her, and the scriptwriter let her have someone who actually adored her because she is the most lovable character in this dump.
:-) From your description, it sounds like this drama took a more traditional narrative about sweet, funny woman and told it from the POV of the evil second lead (who pretends to be her best friend, all the while stealing whatever guy happens to be interested in her.) And then stretched the story out WAY too long! :-P
Close, except I really do think TY's character means well. She just fails completely at translating that into her actions. That, and Dilireba's character is pretty different from your typical drama heroine/Candy type. Instead, she is hilariously vain, but in a way that almost seems like she's poking fun at herself. Like she's totally overdoing it, and she's not actually thaat vain, but at the same time, she thinks she's totally awesome. She's also a dork that loves to giggle to herself/at her own jokes. Also she is the most amazing drunk. (If you can't tell, I really do adore her a lot. If you ever feel like experiencing this otherwise-horrible drama, I recommend you try watching the Dilireba cut or go look at gifs. The drunk scene was pure gold.)
And yes, the story definitely got stretched out too long. It had 2 parts/seasons to it. For no reason at all, because it still aired all at once, so I don't understand why they made it "season 1" and "season 2"?? It was so long that: the evil little brother was shown to be terrible and then had a redemption arc and then became a terrible person again and also had a romance (better love story than the main story, by the way); and the 2nd female lead had time to realistically (time-frame-wise) develop a relationship with another guy after the first half being all about developing her relationship with the 2nd male lead; and the evil ex-girlfriend had time to torture the female lead before getting amnesia, having a coma for a decent chunk of time, wake up and be sweet and cute, and then become evil and murderous again.
I watched this show for purely superficial reasons and had to finish just so I could see how it ended.
I agree with your assessment of the lead female. I'm not a fan nor a hater of Tang Yan but she's also been added to my 'do not watch because she is pretty only' list.
I hated everyone in this drama besides 2nd female lead who I think is more likable because she was a better actress and the character for all her short commings was never really mean or caused much damage due to her stupidity or selfisness.
I hates second female who do the stupid thing.and over acting. I did not see her lovable any more.
I followed the lovely girl(Dilireba's character)'s story recap on weibo without checking out the show. There are tens of thousand who just did the same as I did
That is basically what I did too! Her character kept popping up on the top 10 list of relevant topics, so I decided to check it out and fell in love. Instead of sticking to gifs, I did end up watching portions of the show though (I gave watching the full version a try, but quickly gave up and switched to fast-forwarding about 90% of each episode to look for Gao Wen's scenes).
holy wow, sounds terrible and something that would piss me off. i knew it was good to avoid this drama though when i tried a couple eps and it gave me unpleasant feelings. the female lead sounds like your typical crazy 2nd fem lead though and the 2nd fem lead sounds like the 1st lead and someone i would hope to actually be the 1st lead. i ate female leads that are bad, i mean characterization wise. which she seems to be the case along with the male lead as well. everything seems so unlikable
i fortunately skipped this and am watching ice and fire of youth which im loving, along with office girls and divorce lawyer and finished best get going,sort of i watched the rest raw lol.better character by a miles, story, chemistry and acting i have to say.
I disagree this opinion very strongly.I believed that you miss the real point in this drama. Hope the other watchers have a chance to watch by themselves. I quite hate the second female, she show stupid and over acting ,boring too much chase the guy shamed on her. Terrible character. I can't believe ,some people like this woman style.
yes...agree with u..terrible..bad character of the female lead..