Like all C-dramas nowadays, the bigger the hit the more likely there is criticism, blowback, and nitpicking. I try to cover it even if I like the drama, this year the ones I liked My Journey to You, and Till the End of the Moon had plenty of naysayers, and the ones I didn’t The Longest Promise, Legend of Anle, Scent of Time, Love You Seven Times, and Only for Love had its share of directed complaints for various issues. Currently airing A Journey to Love with Liu Shi Shi and Liu Yu Ning is considered a hit already thanks to viewership and online buzz but the online chatter is pretty split between positive and negative. The two biggest complaints are that male lead Liu Yu Ning is not good looking, and there are memes with AI face swapping other male leads into his popular character Ning Yuan Zhou.
The second major complaint is that the male lead has more screen time than the female lead despite Liu Shi Shi being top billed over Liu Yu Ning, and fans are upset that’s the reason his male lead is much more than popular than her female lead. I’m watching this drama and I do not notice the screen time differential but I am insanely obsessed with male lead Ning Yuan Zhou simply because he’s the swashbuckling with a single love conviction with a side of bromance character that’s the quintessential wuxia male lead. C-ent insiders are saying its Liu Yu Ning’s anti-fans and water armies stirring up the waves against him. Liu Shi Shi apparently may have responded to the criticism on the second point with a Weibo post that Ru Yi, her character, knows exactly what she is a doing ala she knew what this drama script was and is fine with it.
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I'm sure the people complaining and crying over over these issues are not watching the drama at all
I did not notice yet the problems mentioned in the article
26 episodes released so far and each one with more or less 48 minutes of duration
There is time for everyone to shine when the scripts makes it happen
Are you sure? LOL. I'm pretty sure Cdrama fans are oftentimes overconfident of their ideas of what's going on. I'm currently following the drama and found some criticism not unreasonable although I'm still watching it since the overall cast has better than average acting.
Nitizens are blindly jealous!! This is by far one of 2023 best Cdramas!! And the male lead is killing his character... they really have nothing to complain about
@Laboosh, that's your personal preference at best and you can't speak for everyone. LYN's acting is natural and he recited lines with ease. That's good. But he's not charismatic to the point like some memorable roles played by irreplaceable actors in other hit dramas, e.g., Hu Ge in Nirvana in Fire and Xiao Zhan in The Untamed. I wrote a long a$$ essay to share my opinion about this drama and the acting. My opinion is fair and square.
Nobody is jealous of LYN since he's done a solid job. LOL. Too bad Koala somehow blocked my comment to let it sit in the closet. I'm too lazy to repeat the same lengthy speech again. LOL. That's fine. This is just entertainment. My comment here is not like an executive summary that I definitely have to make sure it's released. LOL
@Somebody Xiao Zhan is average in The Untamed, that's my personal opinion. You saying Liu Yu Ning is not charismatic enough is also your personal opinion, so why you are acting like your words are the absolute truth? 😅
@Camila, then why did you even bother to reply to me? We just agree to disagree. LOL. I continue to like XZ and consider him a great talent in acting. And you continue to fangirl your LYN. Who cares? When did I say my personal opinion is the truth of universe as you implied? Other than my God, nothing is worth my worship. You're just butthurt cos I prefer Xiao Zhan and Hu Ge to your idol. That's why you couldn't help responding to me with a joke. LOL
@Somebody Liu Yuning is far from being my idol, I hardly tolerate him in this drama, so your assumption is incorrect. You have to be fragile to throw accusations just because I touched a weak point based on the facts regarding your responses lol. It's not a matter of saying ignore comments because by doing so, you're implying that debates shouldn't exist and thus you would have avoided responding to me lol, but you did. And it's not a joke, I just used your same logic, but even you don't know what you write lol. Your own words betray you. You don't even realize you want to impose your opinion (or is this another "Somebody"?). If I responded more analytically you wouldn't stand it and would just end up writing that I'm jealous because my favorite (the one you made up in your head) isn't on Hu Ge and Xiao Zhan's level and you would have started mentioning how popular he is. It is typical of fans who fall into blind spots. It's actually funny because I love all of Xiao Zhan's performances except in The Untamed. Lol!
@Camila, LOL. You're not aware of your tone driving me to being sarcastic in return. If you've read all my responses to other commenters, it's no brainer to figure out how I responded depends on how ppl reacted to my comments and you're not on a nice side. I'm not a nice person. I usually eye for eye to online strangers depending on their tones and attitudes. You have no bearing in my real life. Therefore, I don't have to taking into account what I say may hurt your ego and make you butthurt. I'm usually just very blunt to get straight with the points on SM. You don't like Xiao Zhan. I got it!!! Your point is to dismiss him. That's why you had to particularly address how he's an average actor even this blog was about LYN. LOL. My compliment of XZ obviously made you extremely uneasy and therefore you had to in particular dismiss him. LOL. Why not Hu Ge? That's why I said you sounded so bitter and butthurt since Xiao Zhan is so popular and successful in his acting career and you obviously feel very uneasy about that. LOL. So, stop gaslighting me as if you were a better and more rational drama fan since you're not. Both you and I are no more than keyboard hugus that just happened to find a common avenue to lash out our points and sometimes rant. Chill!
Yeah, I'm up to episode 10 and so far both leads are delivering great to me, don't let all these offscreen drama affect you. I personally agree with the comments that Liu Yuning is lacking in visuals and posture, and is kind of green tea, but his acting as Ning Yuanzhou is convincing enough to me and I'll watch any drama that's good as long as the lead actors/actresses didn't commit heinous crimes.
From what I've understood so far, this offscreen drama is due to the power battle between iQiyi and Linmon Media where both wanted to push different actors, with Linmon wanting to push Liu Yuning.
@somebody what are you talking about? Your lengthy comment is not blocked at all And for sure not by Ms Koala. Just scroll down! There it is!!! December 10, 2023 at 2:41 PM ( => 2 diffrent comments at the same time. did you copy and paste? )
I don't know the technical issues with the host to this website, but if you would READ this site CAREFULLY, you would have known by now (since you are commenting a lot. on this article alone 11 times already), that there are always some comments by diffrent persons which are not showing immediately. Hence some double postings. It happened to me too.
So, why just randomly accuse that your comment was specifically targeted? When it's simply a technical issue that happens here every now and than to all of us.
Seriously, stay calm and don't make false accusations out of anger.
LOL. It did not show up after days later with my repetitive whining. One of my other comments were also deleted shortly after it was posted first but showed up again after my protest. The time stamps only show when I made the comments but do not show when they were posted. I guess Koala might be mad at my opinion about his obsession of NYZ. LMAO. That's fine. I like apple but others prefer orange to apple. No problem with that. Oh I'm not accusing her. She's my favorite drama blogger. Otherwise I wouldn't bother to contribute visiting traffic to her site. LOL. I was making those protests to perhaps get attention from her. And it might be working that way too. LOL. I made way more comments about this post cos this drama is one of very very very few C dramas that I stick to watch from ep to ep without fast forwarding. I'm invested in this drama a lot.
Therefore, I'm more motivated to talk about it. Does it make sense?
Considering that Liu Yuning's next drama is with Linmon, its not surprising that they want to push him to ensure that their next project is a hit as well. LYN is a decent actor with a nice voice, but his visuals arent my type. Even Ning Yuanzhou's awesome characterization won't make me like him.
First time I'm hearing that people actually count screen time. Wow.
LSS is awesome here and LYN is standing his ground as NYZ opposite her. And yes NYZ is hot. Not to everyone but his NYZ is hot enough to get so much buzz.
Everyone just watch whatever floats their boat.
I've seen fans count minutes of screentime in survival shows, so I'm not surprised some crazy obsessed person would count the screen time of a drama. This is just pettiness at its finest down to the second.
Just wow!
If the drama have flopped, they would have blame it on LYN. But since it became so popular and his NYZ is so hot and buzz worthy, they have to complain about something else.
Some other actors might be better and look better but did they play NYZ? No, so that a moot point. LYN did and his NYZ is popular. He deserves credit for that.
Also, I'm glad this is an original script. I see how it can get worse if there's a source material to compare with.
LSS is more costly then Liu Yuniang. and They are grooming Liu Yuniang. What is so surprising. Creating fanwars for nothing. Some of these fans are just allowing themselves to eat right into the hands of troublemakers.
Is this even an issue,c neitzen needs to complain about every little thing lol. Is this some kind of entertainment for them too. 🤔 Any has I said before watch what interests u. It their opinions, it doesn't have to affect u .
AGREE!!!
Well yeah. He is famous for being one that takes over his coworkers screen time. He has done this numerous times and it's why ZLS fans didn't want him.
He can't act, he looks like a rat but he has the most important thing in cent - money backing him. His raw photos are awful so let's see how long he holds on.
If your fave takes on a project with him, my sympathies because that won't go well.
Jeez,do u even hear ur self, it just a drama people. And I have seen his pics a lot, n is not has awful has u make it sound. What makes u think the picture u saw is not the edited one, because I know anti - fans like to edit stars pics to make them look ugly when they r not . I get that he doesn't have that pretty boy look,I find him striking n have a unique look in historical garment. A Look to spice up the male leads in c ent a little , a good difference in my opinion.
AGREE!!!
Agree
Nonsense. How is he stealing others' time? Hiding them from the camera?
Actually that's one of the biggest problems in cent. Not talking about LYN here but it always goes more or less the same.
So for example, the most famous recent issue was that jiejie romance with Xiao Zhan. The hockey couple was signed as very small parts. He is a Xinli actor though and he was cast in jol2 and they wanted to promote him so they expanded his role way beyond what was in the initial script that was signed, without the knowledge of the main leads, counting on XZ name to carry the drama. This is why his story was huge and basically separate from the actual drama and why XZ studio had to say it will protect the actor better in the future.
This same Xinli team did that same thing in another drama from earlier this year, except the actor used to carry the nugu was Jin Dong.
It's a well known practice in cent where the producer or the actor's agency uses capital to force smaller roles to suddenly expand, often significantly, beyond the initial signed scripts, at the expense of other roles and by using others to carry the actors they want to promote.
How is he not? Do you even know what is going on?
Screwing over LSS because he got to film additional stuff that wasn't in the initial script to enhance his importance. The drama is purposefully undermining her interpretation of her character by publicly opposing her, all to promote him. Purposefully using blur on her face to indicate that scene was shot by a double to cause her trouble by implying she doesn't film her own stunts, even though LSS actually did shoot that scene.
The most popular ship is LSS and CHS but they deleted CHS on purpose from promotion because of this.
Your precious Liu Yuning is on record saying idol dramas don't need acting and just need looks and now that cnetz have finally had enough of his shit, he is trying to cover for himself.
Well he stepped on the wrong actress this time because she is a well loved and established name and he is nothing but an untalented influencer pushed by the capital.
@Lmfao, I'm indeed more impressed by CHS (LSS' pupil? I guess) than by LYN. I think that young actor emoted pretty convincingly and his character isn't even unlikable although that's an obsessed nut. LOL. I just checked Weibo and found a hot search regarding the production team calling CHS a "maniac" on their official website, which caused ruckus and protests to inundate the official account. LMAO. Why the heck would the production team mock a main actor of its own cast? That's a blooper. LMAO
@Somebody
It's because his and LSS (their characters really) CP is the most popular and that doesn't suit the production because they are desperate to push LYN and they counted on using LSS for that through shipping. So they have been removing the kid from everything and are now attacking him openly.
They have also attacked LSS, when she gave her opinion about her character, the drama account publicly started contradicting her but she wouldn't back down. She is getting all the accolades about the acting (she and Alen) so I guess that doesn't suit them either.
The fans are just done with both the drama team and Lyn.
@Lmfao, aw please share more about the popular CP. I'm rarely interested in shippers. But this one sounds intriguing. Really? I also feel the chemistry between the pupil and the teacher interesting to watch although it's designed to be one obsessed unrequited love. LOL. That young actor can act ! Along with the princess actress, he and Alen Fang are most appealing to me in terms of acting. Of course I don't have qualms about LSS. She is the queen!
His background sounds like he came from the bottom up, so maybe you just don’t like underdogs rising? 🤷🏻♂️
if u don't like then don't watch no one force u to watch ...there are thousands of people who like him and support him ..why can't u just leave him alone
This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard about him so far. Stealing others screen time? Lol
Is he the director?
Is he the script writer?
Did he produce the drama?
What kind of stupid accusations are these. How old are you?
Go watch your handsome male actors who can’t act to save their lives. Stop judging people’s looks with your toxic beauty standards. The funny thing is the ugliest people call other people ugly. The man isn’t even ugly. He looks great. He doesn’t have to be pretty. He’s handsome and manly.
I find both leads amazing and on an equal footing. Miss Koala is right, Ning Yuanzhou is the quintessential wuxia character and he's doing great. As for his looks, in the drama Ren Ruyi (FL) wants to get him to be the father of her child "because he's tall and good at martial arts". That is the role description. Although, to me he is hot enough too.
Wow!!! I'm enjoying the main male lead and the female plus the other actors. He may not have the pretty boy look that people are claiming to say, but he is far from ugly and he acts very well. I'm glad to see him with a ML role and looking forward to continue seeing his growth.
Are you sure? LOL. I'm pretty sure Cdrama fans are oftentimes overconfident of their ideas of what's going on. I'm currently following the drama and found some criticism not unreasonable although I'm still watching it since the overall cast has better than average acting.
Ppl have such a wide range of preference of drama and acting. Just to the opposite of Koala's taste, I dislike Till the End of the Moon to the bone cos of scrawny looks of the ML plus the FL wasn't likable and My Journey to You thanks to slow and lackluster plot development for the first few episodes. While there're tons of criticism of The Longest Promise as usual for EACH of Xiao Zhan's dramas since naysayers have always been lurking to wish full his drama to flop since The Untamed, it's the only costume C drama I got to finish so far since Love Like the Galaxy (without fast forwarding and I even skipped some scenes of LLTG). It's all fine cos the showbiz should be just like a normally thriving market to have a great variety of products to satisfy all needs from different customers. We just agree to disagree.
I binged A Journey to Love to ep 24. So, I think I'm in a justified position to critique this drama fair and square. For me, it was a solid drama so far. But I don't think this would be one drama like Nirvana in Fire and The Untamed or quite a few K dramas that I would feel a lost after finishing watching nor would I feel like re-watching again. It's one drama that's good enough to kill time but not to the point that I'd rave about it to the moon. The best part of this drama is the casting that's pretty solid with decent acting from each main actor. That being said, I'm most impressed by the young actress who played the little princess followed by the actor who played the former pupil of Liu Shi Shi's character. As to Liu Yu Ning, he's ok with natural expressions and delivering his lines with ease, but not to the point mesmerizing. It's easy to be likable with a perfectly written character without any major flaws which is the case of LYN in this drama. The hero is nothing but a warm and caring CEO type in antient costume. LOL. An actor is charismatic only when he's versatile and can nail different types of characters across various genres. I haven't seen that yet in LYN's acting so far, nor the perfect hero he played in AJtL appears as magnetic as Wei Wu Xian in The Untamed or Mei Changsu in NiF. That being said, I attribute the lack of nuanced complexity in LYN's character to writer's weakness in fleshing out a more interesting personality. The writer wrote an intriguing heroine and LSS slays it. She also wrote a more complicated character of the little princess and that young actress has showcased her great acting talent to make it convincing and interesting for viewers like me to want more screen time from her. But she did not do justice for LYN's character to be charismatic enough to be regarded as a memorable hero and him, as an irreplaceable actor like XZ for WWX or Hu Ge for Mei Changsu. I can randomly name other male lead roles that outshine LYN's character in this drama, e.g., the two I've already mentioned above, Fan Xian in Joy of Life I (although I skipped those cringe-worthy flirting arcs between FX and other supporting actresses LOL), Dongfang Qingcang in Love between Fairy and Devil (that I dropped bcos of FL's voice LOL), and even Tantai Jin in Till the End of the Moon (although I hate his scrawny looks but not his acting there). LYN's character in AJtL is likable cos it's somehow an unattainable version of perfect boyfriend in all women's daydream. LMAO.
I've recently just realized that the same writer also scripted A Dream of Splendor. I dropped ADoS midway through. Although Crystal Liu and Chen Xiao are great actors but the plot had too much unnecessary focus on the love lines between the OTP that were overdone and weakened the intensity of the storylines that could have been more subtly intriguing. The same writer exhibits the same traits of weakness in AJtL too. That's the reason why I consider this drama a solid play so far but not to the point, memorable!
BTW, although LYN's Vlinkage hot index has been on top each day, it's still not to the levels of other more popular actors in the industry when they had dramas on air. Therefore, his fans should not overstate his current popularity even this drama has been doing pretty well. I still believe in certain measures of popularity indices supported by certain data companies, which are, relatively speaking, closer to reality than fans' objective feelings.
Lol, I agree LYN's character is written like a perfect fantasy, that of a rare, unicorn-like man, defender of microaggressions against women, refuses s*x without love, strong and protective etc it's directly targetted at women, hard not to cheer for such a character.lol
I think Xiao Zhan is perceived as charismatic in The Untamed because his co-stars were bad at acting. He was fine, but that's it for me. I'm not impressed or touched. His facial expressiones are off in certain scenes. Just my personal take, not an hater/anti.
It's fine to your critique about anything of a drama including acting. We have different tastes and we just agree to disagree at this point. You don't find XZ's acting mesmerizing as much as I find LYN's acting in AJtL ok but forgettable. The only two actors that I consider iconic and irreplaceable for their roles are Hu Ge in Nirvana in Fire and Xiao Zhan in The Untamed. Not just many ordinary fans, but C-ent industry insiders including director Chen Kaige also acknowledged that publicly. Other actors including LYN have yet to get this level of recognition.
@Somebody I also don't find Liu Yuning acting to be particulary great. He is just an adecuate actor. Speaking of Chen Kaige, there is a supposedly prestigious Chinese list that has mentioned memorable characters in C-dramas, including Hu Ge's in Nirvana in Fire, but I don't remember what it was called, although I'm sure there were liuliangs on the list.
There are actors who would have the "luck" to play interesting characters whose writing comes from the novels in the first place. But for me an actor/actress stands out when they can make a generic/conventional character look complex and leave me with imagination when I finish watching the episodes. Ni Ni in Parallel World is a great example. Opposed to her, Meng Zi Yi's character was the best written in the original source, with a wide range of emotions but her acting was bad and her character passed indifferent.
It depends on the charisma and acting range. I think he played Wei Wuxian without adding his own layers, I know there are changes because of censorship logically, but it didn't let me imagination as I expected.
@Mayo, it's fine to have your opinion and critique about anything to do with drama as long as there's no harassment and bully like many other online imbeciles here in this thread. I always appreciate discussions from many different perspectives. I have no comments about the said actresses you mentioned since I've not watched any or many of their dramas. As to Xiao Zhan, his WWX was the one bringing me back to Cdrama. Before then, I had been a Kdrama and 2nd gen Kpopper for a while. I was totally invested in Cdrama in 2022 because of him after watching OoL and The Untamed. I personally love XZ's acting in The Untamed. Nirvana in Fire and The Untamed are also the only two Cdramas that I consider the epics in their own genres and deserve my compliments. Many international fans agree with me and that has been reflected in many international (English) drama forums/rating sites including IMDB and Reddit. You can dislike XZ and not be impressed by him as WWX. That's fine. But equally I'm not shy of telling you that XZ is the one and only one actor in the world that I stan even I like many other actors including many Kdrama actors. Nobody can ever change my mind unless I see XZ going downhill and flop myself. LOL. Thank you for your opinions, nonetheless.