Xu Kai and Jing Tian in First Stills for Tang Dynasty Romance Drama Wonderland of Love
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C-actor Xu Kai is in much need of a hit and if everyone is still talking about 2018 drama Story of Yanxi Palace them yep. Ancient Love Poetry with Zhou Dong Yu was just mediocre, started off bad but did get its legs in the second half. And the currently airing Republican era detective drama Lost in the Kunlun Mountains has gotten universal panning, with a 4.2 on Douban and even Xu Kai fans have stopped trying to defend it, and to his credit the biggest problem in that drama is female lead Zhong Chu Xi and the ridiculous story changes from the novel to the screen. Other dramas on deck for him this year to air may be modern drama She and Her Perfect Husband with Yang Mi and xianxia drama Snow Eagle Lord with Gulinezha, but I’m way more interested in Wonderland of Love (乐游原 Le You Yuan) with Jing Tian. The drama script is by famed writed Fei Wo Si Cun, not adapted from one of her many novels but she’s the scriptwriter for this drama. It appears to be a Tang dynasty series from Xu Kai’s name of Li Yi as the royal grandson and also from the court lady costumes. The drama finished filming in June 2022 and I see this more of a 2023 drama but the stills are out and I’m amused by how messy Xu Kai’s hair looks but how that makes him cuter and also that a bunch of people from Love Like the Galaxy like 3rd Prince, 33’s mom, and Wang Yan Ji moved over here haha. Though actress Shi Shi who played Wang Yan Ji and also recently graduated to male lead Liu Yu Ning are making guest appearances in Wonderland of Love.
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Love Between Fairy and Devil scored a 7.7 on Douban, Koala please do a feature on them if you are willing to set aside your prejudices. I don’t think it is fair to put down the drama in your previous posts because you prefer Love Like the Galaxy. Many people who refused to watch the drama at first are praising the scriptwriting, acting, director, because this is a production house that has a lot of xianxia shows lined up like Love You Seven Times and Fox Matchmaker
Huh? Why should she? Because it currently has a 7.7 and because you like it? That’s fine and dandy; BUT It’s her personal blog. She has the option to like a show or not be a fan. That’s freedom of choice. She does not need to cater to you and your fandom. Enjoy your show doll. No one is telling you what to do, what you can and cannot like. Give the same respect to others and each to their own.
Really? I stopped watching it at ep 25.
Probably bcuz this genre isn’t really my cup of tea and tired watching a drama when the fl described as dumb, innocent and cute. Nevertheless, so many people love it and it’s all about preference.
Good for them. Not a fan of both leads but i like them in their bts.
7.7 is good. Will this score change? Or it’s the final score?
Average score will continue to change. It may go up or down. I watched a few episodes then FF a few episodes. I did like the drinking in a painting scene. However, there were enough cringe worthy/I am rolling my eyes moments that I ultimately dropped it. My choice. I just choose to not invest in more time on it.
7.7 is the initial score during its run, usually fans will vote toward the final week or after the last episode so the rating will go up unless the ending is so bad it enrages reviewers. LLTG’s rating went up despite many netizens complaining about the pacing and plot of the 2nd half that led to people quitting it, so LBFD has potential to go up a few decimals too. Douban ratings change over the months and years depending on reviews, Douban is not one critic’s opinion.
why are y’all always harping on her about posting what you want to see? she’ll post what she wants to post, implying doing that is somehow being prejudiced is ridiculous. there’s plenty of coverage elsewhere so you can engage there.
Of course she can write what she wants, but people are also entitled to call her out for stating untruths. She claimed Cnetizens said the acting in LBFD is too forced, but I hang on Douban group threads and read reviews and there’s nothing of that sort at all on 国产剧组 or 戏精组， nobody says the acting is forced and are in fact praising the ML for a rare likeable portrayal of an alpha male that is not greasy and the FL’s main criticism is that she does not get powerful until later.
I think Koala deliberately mentioned LBFD in a negative way just to boost her own favourite LLTG, becaue in the comments when people asked her to review LBFD or denied that the acting was forced, LLTG fans ganged up on those commentors. LLTG is a wealthier production with 2 extremely popular leads in Zhao Lu Si and Wu Lei and it got recognised by the CCP/CCTV, people will behave in mean ways to beat down other dramas that are competing in the same airing period so it is quite amazing LBFD got a higher score than many other summer break dramas this year, with no anticipation, and announced only 3 days before airing like Koala complained about. By all reckoning it shouldn’t get a better score than LLTG but it did.
@Jo
Lmao, Douban groups related to entertainment are filled with professional fans and water. Fans also make accounts there to control threads and reviews related to their idols. And fyi, 国产剧小组 even disallowed the use of LBFD keyword. And it’s true that LBFD both leads’ acting are subpar, it’s the script, plot, and male lead’s voice actor that saved the drama.
@4ever
I don’t think LBFAD needed to be saved as a drama unlike say Immortal Samsara which is hard to watch even if you like the actors. LBFAD’s soundtrack, plot, directing, writing, special effects, and even the costumes are better than most other xianxias, the theme songs are doing well in terms of charting. I would say the actors are serviceable for the roles they play because xianxia actors who are too old do not look very celestial. Given that they are young actors under 30 they are doing well, even those popular traffic actors like Xiao Zhan, Chen Xing Xu, Cheng Yi use voice actors in Untamed, Love and Redemption, Immortal Samsara and Eastern Palace.
FYI names of airing dramas are always banned on 国产剧 so their fans do not flood the group and discuss the drama on their own forum. Although the airing period is a lot shorter and the drama doesn’t star any top traffic actors like Yangzi or Lusi, LBFD has more fans on its Douban forum than Immortal Samsara and Love like the Galaxy.
@Jo
You got to be kidding about the costumes and special effects, they look like they belong to dramas aimed at kids. The drama is saved by its script and plot, and the male lead by his voice actor. I have no idea who Chen Xing Xu is but Xiao Zhan and Cheng Yi can act.
@mimi Love Between Fairy and Devil is so bad Netflix just bought it for international broadcast. Doesn’t matter if you guys dont like it despite the 7.7 rating, the world will watch it now lol. In any case the drama is good not because it stars any liuliangs like Lusi, Wu Lei, Yang Zi, it is full of foreshadowing and does not waste a scene Chinese netizens can analyse details like a bracelet tightening discreetly, a character doing something because another character mentioned it in passing episodes ago, a statue closing its eyes after someone arrived. The point is barely a scene is wasted because it is less than 40 episodes and does not “inject water” to inflate the episodes for advertisement money like other Part 1 Part 2 dramas which cast expensive liuliangs. More dramas should keep it short, if Kdramas are 16 episodes Cdramas should learn to stop “injecting water” to drag a plot. Wonder if Netflix will buy Love like the Galaxy but for me as far as historical/palace idol dramas go it is on the childish side and there are many better ones like 鹤丽华亭，步步惊心，知否，梦华录，庆余年， 东宫，甄嬛传，Rise of Phoenixes, Yanxi palace. LLTG commits the same logical flaw as Yanxi where the fl has palace plot armour and can do anything to shame royals and be forgiven or saved, but has even more plot holes: the king behaves like a feverish cp fanboy unlike how a real king behaves in normal historical dramas, and the queen favors a random lady in waiting who bullies her kids unlike how a real queen behaves. Queens are forced by their families to push their kids to gain power even if they don’t like their kids. Even the FL mother favors a niece more than her own daughter who she left behind as a baby which makes zero sense. In Chinese we call it 为虐而虐，they just make the mother behave illogically to make the viewer pity the FL, the part where she calls her daughter useless in front of the royals is so awkward and illogical no mother would shame their own child publically for no good reason in Chinese culture where face is everything.
I am not interested in it no matter the ratings.
Ms Koala has written up plenty of dramas I don’t watch and I have no issues reading about it.
If you’re watching it then why need her to write about it? Just watch it.
People start their blogs to write about things that interests them. I don’t understand others who force or try to guilt others towards their taste.
Just move on. Plenty of dramas out there.
Why don’t you start your own blog?
The 7.7 Douban score doesn’t matter to me but Douban scores obviously matter a whole lot to Koala given that she made 2 posts about LLTG getting a 7.4 then a 7.6 and mentioned Xukai’s Kunlun drama getting a 4.3.
I wouldn’t mention it except for the fact that before LBFD aired and one of the LLTG Douban rating posts, Koala put down the acting in LBFD despite claiming to have passed on watching LBFD. It is terribly biased to criticise something before watching, even her valued Douban userbase is raving over the drama although most did not expect much at all due to Dylan, Esther, and the drama only being lower budget S-tier not S+ like LLTG or Immortal Samsara. If I have to use an ironic analogy, the drama LBFD is like the poorer, unfavoured daughter Chen Shaoshang who is judged to be of worse quality by naysayers and bullied by critics who haven’t watched it but criticise it incessantly. I was a doubter of LBFD too, and only picked it up because Immortal Samsara and LLTG took eons to refresh. All I can say is, initially on Bilibili many vloggers were ready to jump on Dylan’s acting and make parody videos, but even the top influencers like Avenue X, 哇妹 and Low君 who all criticised Miss The Dragon ended up writing effusive over the top praise for LBFD after watching 10+ episodes. Koala needs to stop shading LBFD, she’s behaving like those mean girls who bully Chen Shaoshang just because she comes from lesser means. LBFD is high quality even if it cost a third or half of LLTG and Immortal Samsara.
You’re right about LBFaD. We should appreciate when we get good dramas. It’s for the collective good lol. But I think rn, it has proven many people wrong already. I skipped on watching it too, because the plot didn’t intrigue me but boy was I wrong. It has easily become the only xanxia I’ll recommend to others in full faith because it not only is a good xanxia but an overall good drama. Doesn’t matter even if you’re not a fan of the genre, you’ll like it.
As far as Koala is concerned so yeah I was irked by her statement in the last post mentioning LBFaD too because at that there was no criticism for the actors rather praise. So either she was referring to older articles, didn’t do her research well or maybe was throwing shade. But I still think writing or not writing about the show is totally her choice. She isn’t watching, may not be interested in talking about it at all too. But the show no longer needs any approval either. It’s performing very well. The team and actors are rightly reaping its success, so a post here would really not change anything, anymore. Misinformation though is always wrong.
You got me at ‘top influencers like Avenuex’ 😂 that lady, as much as she denied it is another yxh in international side. Yxh praise and condemn depends on those who paid them to do marketing. Rarely they will genuinely put their own personal thought in it. Douban…well it have become a place where fandoms praise and fights depend on where your circle is. If you are hanging around LBFD like group of course all you will heard are praises, even people from there will also quote/share good things ‘passer-by’ say about LBFD. But if you walk past that group and look around a bit more, well LBFD as much as it’s the hottest summer xianxia with out of circle WHD as their fans claim, it’s all blown up marketing. It has its good point for sure, but it all depends on taste. If you like it good, doesn’t mean millions other people outside will. And miss koala here is most definitely talking about her own personal preference because this is indeed her personal blog. I also had a good laugh+wtf moment reading her article because it seems to me, she acts like she an “ex c-ent” trying to chatter about c-ent again with her knowledge from way back in early 2010s days because c-ent nowadays is not like what she knew(better said source) from the past. Because most of her gushing over LLTG success is also blown up marketing from goose with lots of 🌊 data. But well it’s her blog. We can offer different side of opinion for her, but never have the right to push her to write what we want.
what does 🌊 data mean? c-ent has its own lingo and it’s difficult for a newbie fan like me to navigate the waters. marketing will always highlight the good things and try to capitalize on them. in this day and age, there is no such thing as organic success, and it seems, this is even more true for c-ent where people can buy hot searches. very interesting overall.
@mimi 🌊 data = water data. Means fake data injected by bots
@Lilychii thanks for explaining. what’s a good measure for success if manufactured data is so prevalent? how are lbfad and lltg actually doing?
it’s like @Jo has hijacked this post about Wonderland of Love.
Complaining about her drama not giving the right spotlight and while stealing the spotlight of another upcoming drama.
Nobody is taking about WoL.
I just recently rejoined cdramas. I don’t know what changed, that I like them now. And this time I’ll stick around.
I loved City of Streamer. Jing Tian was fantastic in it. Graceful and nuanced. Even, if I’m indifferent to Xu Kai, I’ll watch it for JT. And 33’s mom (Zeng Li). Lol that actress is great, too.
Exactly, there are tons of good c-dramas that Ms Koala did not post about, did anyone else complain like Jo did?
I geared more towards c-dramas than k-dramas nowadays too. Maybe it’s because I’m catching up on the good c-dramas that have aired in the past few years which I didn’t watch back then.
If you like Jing Tian, try watching Rattan, she’s great in it. The thing about Xu Kai is that his acting is somewhat methodical. I’ve only ever like two of his dramas, Yanxi Palace (he’s just the 2nd ML here) and Falling Into Your Smile. I’m more eager towards She and Her Perfect Husband with him and Yang Mi.
Thank you for your recommendation. I’ve put Rattan on my to-watch-list.
I’ve watched a lot of K-drama since 2000 when I first discovered it but only seen Yanxi (in 2018) and started c-drama around March this year. Any other recommendations bc I’ve mostly watched XuKai’s drama.
I have to agree with @Koala about Lost in the Kunlun Mountains. I gave up on it and I consider myself a good enough Xu Kai fan. Hopefully, this will be better. I’m also waiting for his drama with Yang Mi.
I found this blog because I Googled the LBFD drama and Koala made a post on LBFD in early August complaining about how it was released suddenly and saying that she wouldn’t watch it no matter what. I have no interest in her blog or reviews, I just find it very funny that LBFD is now a breakout Chinese drama in terms of view count despite people like this blog owner having a very arrogant dismissive attidude before it even aired.
No one will miss you if you just shut up. Making comment on another drama not related to this post is totally disrespectful. READ again, this post is about XK and JT’s drama. Nothing about LBFD.
You sound like a broken record, repeating the same thing over and over. You say you weren’t one of their fans but the persistence with which you’re pursuing this sure says otherwise. As others have stated, this is her blog. She can write about whatever dramas she wants. You’ve said your piece. Just stop already.
Bruh. ALP WAS and IS amazing. What was your rating based on? Cause you shallow asf if your ratings was based on ZDY’s looks. A lot of ppl didn’t like the series or couldn’t watch it cause of her “face”, which goes to show how shallow ppl are. LOL. It’s plain as day to see that companies tactics are to get “pretty” faces to act when they can’t. If great acting isn’t your cup of tea, just say it. A lot of ppl watch dramas JUST for the faces. And honestly there isn’t a lot of great acting in these recent years of tv dramas. I’m tired of seeing Xu Kai be typecasted as the dumb/naive ML when he has shown he could be more, aka Bai Jue. I have zero hopes for any FLs because they are typecasted to be mostly always annoying and super dumb. But in all honesty, they really aren’t coming out with any good series. It’s the same story but different actors. It’s honestly 2022, and companies still going with the same tropes.
I’ve watched a lot of K-drama since 2000 when I first discovered it but only seen Yanxi (in 2018) and started c-drama around March this year. Any other recommendations bc I’ve mostly watched XuKai’s drama.