So the good news is that not a lot was expected of this C-drama but it’s still getting majorly hammered right now. Blossoms in Adversity has premiered for less than a week and it’s been rough out of the gate. The ridiculous story with the child female lead in episode 1 climbing the boat rigging to start the drama probably foreshadowed what was to come. Zhang Jing Yi is getting criticized for her stiff acting but acknowledgment she looks very pretty in period costume. Hu Yi Tian is getting the double whammy of complaints on his acting AND his looks, normally it’s one or the others. You have good actors viewers think are ugly (Liu Yu Ning comes to mind) and actors considered bad at acting viewers find good looking (Gong Jun, Xu Kai), but here Hu Yu Tian is just getting butchered in online feedback. It doesn’t help that the director went overboard on the filters so some viewers couldn’t even recognize Hu Yi Tian at first glance. I think this drama will do okay for Youku to recoup some costs since it wasn’t a big budget but goodness it’s a hot mess apparently. Only good feedback is the female empowerment storyline and when the ladies of the house are working on stuff together to make money.
Really?? this is the only drama I am enjoying right now, I don’t care ab the actors, not really interested in any of them but the drama is pretty good, I see it as a family drama rather than women empowerment like it has been promoted, I am loving it so far, nothing to watch right now beside this drama
Oh dear…wasn’t go to watch anyway. But good to know I am not missing out. I think reading the book may be better, this drama may spoil the enjoyment.
Look at the author pitting LYN, GJ and XK fans together. Lol always tryna start something with shady article contents.
Now fight pressed fangirls. C’mon defend your gege~
Those 3 actors get constant work and their fans are more mature. No need to stir up any fan wars here. LOL. HYT looks so bad in costume drama, his long face… smh… and he can never act.
Also not a fan of HYT, the only drama of his I know is A love so beautiful and I don’t like it. Mainly because the plot was so old school but his wod acting did contribute
I’ve been following this drama and it’s not that bad, it’s so far like a slice of life story and will be more intense as it goes on I feel. I didn’t find ZJY to be stiff and HYT is not ugly. He maybe is not as handsome as Gong Jun but he is a model that became an actor. And he looks better in modern drama. (Of course, his character is another story.) I’m not a fan of either but just being objective. And so far I feel there is chemistry between the two. I feel filter wise, Legend of Shen Li by far wins.
Yes…try YOU COMPLETE ME…nice drama..beautiful leads
I tried it and I think ZJY is all right and the plot is actually pretty good. Biggest problem is the ML who unfortunately yes, is bad but from the three episodes I saw I could watch anyway. I will go back once it is over to binge because I really like the story and as I said, I have no problem with Zhang Jingyi.
I like the synopsis overall but both leads are godawful. I dont care so much about visuals but the acting is 💀 I can accept if the looks are not up to par but someone acting like a cardboard is where I draw a line.
I am out.
Havnt watch and didnt plan too. I always tot HYT’s face doesnt suit historical dramas. ZJY is a vy pretty vase, i get that from her last 2 dramas. I dont find LYN ugly, nor particularly attractive. Calling him ugly is kind of unfounded.
To Hu Yi Tian’s defense, it’s very easy to have a “horse face” for men in costume dramas. Somehow the styling makes them look like they have a very big and long face. Look at Wang An Yu who has the same issue but looks so fine in modern dramas. They should just stick to doing modern dramas. Why bother filming costume dramas that uglify themselves and bring them mockery and hate comments?
I’m not sure how bad the pummeling is in China about the acting but I did hear that Hu Yi Tian’s diction is being praised there for clarity etc. In mydramalist, the international viewers seem to be mostly loving it (overall drama).
As for me, I’m not familiar with HYT before this and I somewhat understand the initial grumblings but his character is meant to be reserved and a couple of episodes down the road, I’m fine with him already—I can even distinguish between his microexpressions of happy, annoyed, surprised. Ultimately, I really like the story and the layered characterizations. The main couple feels very natural and I’m eagerly waiting for new episodes.
Right, my thought exactly. The character HYT is playing is just this. Furthermore we don’t know the requirements of the director. May be he wanted the character to be like that. As for his microexpressions I also can destinguish between them.
Dont listen to chinese reviewer, they just make a good review if the production team pay them, otherwise they will make bad review. If you like the story then enjoy…dont be influenced by what so called chinese netizen, the worst in the world equal with Korean Netizen (who can make their idol breakup)
that gong jun comment was so uncalled for lmao in fact mentioning all those actors as “examples” were
Hu Yitian’s karma for what he said about Shen Yue. In all seriousness, he really should stick to modern/republic dramas, because these wigs do him no favors. I heard from Cnets that his lines/enunciation are better than hers, so at least there’s that on his side.
Oh you’re right, now I remember. He should quit acting, not only quit acting as ML. He deserves to get banned from the industry forever. Ugly as he is, but doesn’t even have any talent. I was willing to tolerate if he can at least know his place and play supporting roles, but nope, plus his ugly heart he can go on the black list.
The Bible says “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, which means that we are only allowed to cast a stone if we have never made a mistake.
In Buddhism, there are parallels to this in karma. It is understood as the law of cause and effect. Every action has a consequence. Good actions create joy and happiness, while bad actions create suffering and problems. It also means that every transgression falls back on the person who caused it.
The bottom line is that we should preferably not say anything against a person, otherwise it will also fall back on us. Cause and effect – you have now behaved in the same way because you have spoken ill of someone… Even if out of understandable anger.
It seems that none of us make any mistakes in life or make statements that are wrong…
And if we say or do something wrong, it will haunt us for all eternity. If that were the case, we would all be chased by disaster…
Beauty is always in the eye of the observer. What you may find beautiful, others may find ugly and vice versa. Accordingly, no statement should be made about beauty, because that is always a subjective opinion.
Regarding the casting process: we don’t know how and why he was chosen for the role. If you want to blame someone, it should be the crew and not the actor. The casting process is the responsibility of the casting director, who selects an actor for a role according to certain criteria. We don’t know them either. It’s their job to find the right person for the role. They could have rejected him if he didn’t fulfil the criteria. Apparently he did, otherwise he certainly wouldn’t have got the lead role.
I will never understand why the actor is blamed in such situations, even though he is not responsible for choosing the actors. We also don’t know whether his agency in the background is forcing him to accept certain roles. The most recent example of this from the C-drama environment is the actor Xu Zheng Xi, who announced his retirement because his agency apparently regularly forced him to take on certain roles that he didn’t want.
Sometimes there is more hidden under the surface than the naked eye can see and we all learn from our mistakes. After all, we all make mistakes and say things that are fundamentally wrong or reprehensible, the important thing in such situations is to learn from them and not repeat them.
Gosh I remember that whole scandal. The way he shattered those shippers hearts with his mean comments about Shen Yue.
Anyhow I might watch this for the female empowerment and ladies working together angle.
Zhang Jingyi is indeed pretty, and I don’t see anything wrong with her acting. I hope she acts in more costume dramas. Her next one is with Xiao Zhan but I don’t think she’ll have much screentime since it looks like a male centric drama. Hu Yitian initially turned me off, but his acting is passable the longer you watched on. But his ugly curly hair styling needs to go. Anyway this drama is not for everyone. If you enjoyed slice of life / family dramas like Story of Minglan and New Life Begins, you’ll like this one too. But if you don’t it’ll be boring for you.
How did he not get cancelled for his sex scandal? What is this Hu Yi Tian’s background? China seems very forgiving towards male celebs
Watched the 1st episode. Thought the ML looks weird. Didn’t quite like the FL’s acting. Not really stiff but wasnt good for me. So i dropped it as there are quite a few good dramas going on now. So decided to chase Zhaoliying, Wangyibo and Renjialun’s drama instead… Gong jun and Xikai, no offense but got to agree with u. Haha
I don’t think ZLY will ever allow better actresses make it, always using water armies to attack them of bad acting in bulk.
Imagine talking about better acting and using Wang Yibo who actually went viral for his horrible acting this time.
ZJY is an Oscar worthy actress compared to that disaster.
@Lol
Compare your horrible acting skills against Oscar worthy people? Yeah, that’s ZLY’s style. She has no skills but always make herself go viral and make comparisons when she can’t even do her own standing-up or walking and kneeling scenes. I haven’t seen WYB shameless enough to do that but since he’s so close with her, I think he might move towards ZLY’s style soon.
I don’t think ZJY is beautiful like people say, she’s beautiful for the fact that she looks so natural, like Zheng He Hui Zi. They are not drop dead beauties, but look very good and have very good acting skills. Enough for others to be jealous of them.
@Dokie
Reading comprehension seems beyond you. Or maybe your English in general.
Lmao Yibo not shameless. I cannot stop laughing, thank you so much for a fantastic joke, I will have to tell this one around. Ahahahaha
Nice drama. ML and FL are good actors.Good and bad comments will benefit the show. Each of us has the right to continue or to stop watching.
I have very positive impression about ZJY from Lighter & Princess. But I couldn’t finish any other dramas of hers thanks to crappy writing. HYT has never caught my attention except for his towering height. LOL. Given that all the slice of life dramas are trivially boring, e.g., Stories of Minglan and New Life Begins, this one isn’t even worth a check.
I went and watched the show for myself and I am here to report that c-netizen are insane. This is show is lovely. Hu Yi Tian is a good actor and zhang jing yi is very natural in this. Listen, this is not “the story of ming lan” but it is very watchable. Hu Yi Tian doing action is very good. He needs to do more shows with fighting scenes. I can’t make chinese people give up their obsession with having only 1 type of face in all their dramas. This is something that will eventually progress as they become more aware that acting is not about the best looking person having all the roles in everything all the damn time. lol.
If I could change something about this show is the cinematography. Everything looks watched out. I know that, again, goes back to the Youku’s obsession with whiteness. Everything has to be white to the point of them being devoid of personality, but I hope that too will change as people in China discover that “white” is not the only color on the color spectrum, and actor looking so pale on screen is not a good look.
I am rooting for this show. I hope it succeed. If nothing else to give the people who call Yi Yi tian ugly a heart attack. lol
Those that said ZJY’s acting is stiff are probably antis hehe. I seldom watch Cdramas more so historical but I’m certainly enjoying this one. Chinese anti fans are the one ruining the promotion of any Chinese films that’s why popularity-wise they can never compete with Kdramas
You are a worst reviewer, this is one of the best C drama, Zhang Jingyi nailed her role. Ppl don’t be misleaded by this article