Youku Period C-drama Legend of Zang Hai Wraps Highly Successful Run and Douban Ratings Open with 7.1
The fun and good drama filled month of May 2025 is over and to start off June the biggest hit of that month Legend of Zang Hai has just ended its run. If you’re waiting to marathon now is the fine as all episodes are out. It set a new heat index record on its own platform with 10,400 on Youku and also topped all the major buzz indices from drama to Xiao Zhan and his character Zang Hai. From all accounts this drama remained consistent and also the more serious and darker tone delivered on the narrative depth and complexities. Its opening Douban ratings are 7.1 and anything over 7 is fine with period dramas though it remains to be seen if it goes a bit higher in the coming days. This drama is probably Xiao Zhan’s biggest hit second to The Untamed and may even have the same legs as that drama and The Youth Memories which has been re-broadcast multiple times on various regional terrestrial channels.
I will take the IMDb page of the C dramas with a large pinch of salt from now on. Interstingly the IMDb rating of this drama is 8.9 (till this moment). On this basis it has almost stood next to “The lord of the rings” triology! Ironically its rating at MDL is 8.6 which is lower than that of the IMDb’s (unprecedented). Basically I don’t take MDL’s rating seriously but it seems IMDb’s has also lost its credibility as well and turned into a joke. To make it worse the statistical distribution of this drama’s rating is completely polarized and limited to two extreme values with it being given either 1~2 or 9~10 (few people had given it 2 while saying quote “it is really gooooood”). Anyways, happy for those who enjoyed it but definitely not my cup of tea since I had to throw my logic out the window to bear watching it.
Did you complete it after all? I will re-start watching from eps 5 from next week.
I resumed watching it from ep. 17 but couldn’t get pass ep. 24. The story had many loopholes and illogical plot lines from the beginning but it kept getting worse IMO. The character development/arc wasn’t in a better shape so I dropped it again. I never expected it to be this disappointing taking the director’s good background into acount. I hope you keep watching it and see for yourself.
@Gelar
It has “plotholes” only if you haven’t been paying attention or you are dumb. Or of course just another butthurt anti.
@Gelar Believe me, they closed most of the loopholes in the later episodes. Each episode is packed with so much info so you will miss the complete picture if you missed any of it. This drama is far more logical than most other fantasy genre cdramas out there. We have to take into account that the main character is adapted from a minor character in The Lost Tomb/Daomu Biji series. That series contains fantasy story elements which the production team has to retain some of those elements while making logical explanations that can pass the broadcasting authorities’ censorship. I’ll say it did a very good job doing so, Daomu Biji C-fans were very understanding and happy with how those story elements were included into LOZH while people who didn’t read Daomu Biji see those elements as more grounded in reality.
@Lilith I have left a comment explaining all the loopholes in detail but unfortunately it hasn’t got viewed till now and trust me those loopholes have nothing to do with the episodes I haven’t watched. As I said I am happy others including you enjoyed it.
@Lilith “fantasy genere”? That is exactly the problem to categorize sth both as fantasy and historical at the same time (which is combining two contradictoris). Those are two different genres with two different world buildings. Each genere builds up different expectation within the viewer. This drama is called historical and once they want to makes sense of pseudo scientific analogies it becomes a fantasy. And I remeber reading an article about this drama (at qq news I geuss) that had said apart from the characters the drama is historically accurate (how come?). Moreover, fantasay isn’t an easy genre to write and is way more complicated than historical writing. A fantasy needs a strong world building, a world which has its own rules and logic. You just can’t slap viewers with any bizarre theory and expect them to accept it since it is a fantasy (or at least I don’t) while calling it the best historical drama ever.
Regarding the censorship, I do feel sorry for those have to work with such restrictions but I just can’t overlook the illogical reasons they give (or have to substitute the original material with) because of such an excuse. Can you accept a Wuxia drama which suddenly jumps to a scene from other realms and turns in to Xianxia? That’s how I think but obviously don’t want to force the others to think this way.
@Lilith regarding the loopholes (Ugh I had written it but it just didn’t get viewed and now have to rewrite it) (spoiler)
It had loopholes from the beginning. That masked man had suspicion written all over his face, he pretended he came to help but didn’t brought any reinforcements to fight the assassins, he said he was a friend of ZH’s father but didn’t look for the bodies to give them a proper burial. Moreover, if he truly was a friend why did he hide his face and identity? It was pretty obvious he lies and turned out to be the main villain (so predictable and cliche). On the other hand the duke who supposed to be an experienced general acted like an amateur theif in ZH’s house. Instead of keeping the wife and daughter as hostages and keep them alive as a leverage to interrogate ZH’s father he killed them impatiently and clumsily (not starting with checking the pockets of ZH’s father “after” his death). If shifus were that advanced to perform such an advanced plastic surgery why leaving the back wound untreated and exposed like an Achilles heel. Intead of devising a plan for revenge, ZH has one word in his mind: revenge. As prepared as he should be ZH comes to the capital as clueless as the script writer and counts on heavens and a series of fortunate events to succeed. And that toxic plant growing on the grave or bones getting deformed because of a poison is way too surrealistic. And the 2nd son decides to eradicate his family on that basis, ZH formed an alliance (or he didn’t?) in a blink of an eye. That’s how easily a scheming person trusts his archenemy’s son. Even the duke and the enuch who supposedly are extra careful and sly (surviving their opponents) get allergic to investing and don’t spy on ZH who is suspicious for all the intents and purposes. And duke dismisses his wife’s suspicion and throws himself to fire to save ZH (why?).
@Gelar Maybe I didn’t word myself well, I meant the original Daomu Biji series has fantasy elements, since LOZH’s main character is adapted from a minor character in DMBJ series, the drama retains some of the fantasy elements while giving realistic explanations for them, for example the Ghost Seal and Ghost Soldiers.
I personally have no problems with Wuxia dramas upgrading to Xianxia though, I think I have come across stories where the main character starts off in the mortal realm and then discovers there’s other realms by a sudden fate. But that’s just my two cents, I totally can understand why some people don’t like it.
As for the poisonous seeds, I don’t claim to be an expert, but google tells me seeds can germinate as long as there’s moisture and there are seedlings that can live for very long without sunlight.
@Gelarm, LOL. The beginning reference of the widespread tale in the article was just a writing technique for clickbait. It did not negate what was delivered in the paragraphs later on. The key point is what the biology professor said and what supported the claim. Do you have trouble getting to the bottom line from that read? LOL. You decided to ignore the claim from a serious academic researcher in the biology and soil science. Then give me scientific evidence of your own that what was found out on dead animal bodies can’t be logically deduced to human bodies !!! Both human and wild creatures are defined as animals anyway distinguished from other living things in terms of cell structures. There are reasons why most of the life science experiments are performed on animals first before clinical trials are performed on human bodies. I guess you did not do well in high school biology. LOL.
Interesting, you didn’t complete the drama, didn’t like the drama but yet complained about the high drama rating score on imdb for those who had actually enjoyed the drama and gave it high ratings. The IMDb score was actually higher at 9.5 but have been down rated to the current 8.8 score ever since antis found out about the high imdb score. Douban is a joke, a fanwar platform that no one takes seriously since they take bribes to maliciously lower scores or inflate fake high ratings. However, Douyin is full of passersby and the current drama score is 9.7. Food for thought there.
Also since China has a higher authority over their Chinese history and historical political dramas, and the majority of Chinese viewers and passersby have nothing buut high effusive praises for Zhz, I’ll take Chinese passersby positive comments, reviews and analyses over yours. International viewers, go check our xhs and douyin if you don’t believe me. Zhz has taken over China by storm. Its all there in the tv ratings, platform popularity and playback volumes.
Could you please explain to me how a toxic plant can grow from the buried body like it happened on the top of the grave of duke’s wife? I am really curious about it.
I am perfectly aware how hyped it is in China but in case you would be old enough you may remeber the “Twilight saga” and how popular it became around the world and secured its place in top 10 global. box office for weeks. So what? Was it a masterpiece? No it was a pure nonsense. I am not saying this to compare this drama to Twilight but to remind you popularity isn’t equal to high quality.
Ok if you believe it deserves to be scored 9.5 at imdb and stand above a true masterpiece of all time “The Shawshank Redemption” (don’t get misled by the name, it isn’t Chinese) it makes it obvious that our taste is millions miles away.
@Gelar ZH explained in the drama that some of the seeds from the poison plants were not fully digested in Shen Wan’s decomposed body. Because her body was just hastily put into a cheap wood coffin with poor burial, the seeds were able to sprout and grow up to the top of the burial mound. The logic is all there if you actually paid attention to the drama instead of hate watching. Zhz is not an idol drama that can quickly be consumed but requires critical thinking and attention to details. For you to attack IMDb rating says a lot about your attitude towards the drama, especially bringing in two Western movies to justified your hate. It’s ok if it’s not your taste but no need to disparage the drama because you don’t understand the characters or the plot.
@Moocy the seeds remained within the body? Have you passed biology in highschool? This is making fun of science! I did pay attention to what he said but it seems it was you who haven’t payed attention to what you heard. FYI the acid of our stomach is HCl which extremely powerful and has a ph between 1 and 2. Moreover, things we eat either get absorbed or excreted. Nothing can remain within our bowels. Even if hypotheticaly accept that the seeds survived the digestive system how could they sprout taking the depth if a grave into acount (or the body left on the ground)? I am afraid you haven’t planted anything either. This is what I call illogical.
I don’t care wether a drama is western, eastern, northern or southern. I watch for quality. FYI imdb is not mdl which is excreted to the Asian products. Rating a drama at imdb invites you to comapre it with other international products especially if they have received such a high score.
*FYI imdb is not mdl which is ‘restricted’ to Asian products*.
Leaving a comment at this site with its technical issues is way to hard.
@Gelar, I’m here to refute your fallacy. Please refer to LifeSicence.com for a simple answer to your doubt that is similar to the question “can seeds in a dead person’s stomach really sprout into trees?”
The answer is yes, according to Jay Noller, a professor of College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University.
It did happen to dead animals per evidence found in academic research done by a plant and soil biologist as referenced above, unless you insist a human isn’t an animal LMAO. One doesn’t need high school biology to be convinced of that possibility though. Although I took College Biology and Grad School-level Cell Biology, I still did a bit search online before commenting to confirm it is what it is. Google is your best friend LOL, let alone AI search is relatively mature up to this point in the development. Unfortunately, you skipped those simple steps of just a few clicks away, and it seemed your overconfidence (or hubris may I say) prevented you from taking very simple steps to nullify your false belief before you dismissed Legend of Zanghai and mocked fans of LoZH. Perhaps your bias against XZ and his dramas was so strong to a point that you are making fun of science, blind to scientific truth LOL. Nonetheless, you mock those who are actually correct failing high school biology. It’s a bit embarrassing! LOL
@Somebody you didn’t even care to read the article you posted it says in the beginning of it:
But, like many fantastical tales, key elements of this story appear to be false — at least according to several news outlets.
Moreover, animals dont get buried under the ground. Who said this website is credible. It just has published an interview with someone. Has this article been published by Elsevier or a trustworthy publisher?
Gemini response:
While the idea of seeds sprouting from a buried body is a popular myth, it’s unlikely to happen in reality. Seeds require specific conditions for germination, and the environment within a decaying corpse is not conducive to that process.
Here’s a more detailed explanation:
Conditions for Seed Germination:
Moisture:
Seeds need a certain level of moisture to germinate. While a decaying body contains water, it’s not distributed in a way that’s ideal for germination.
Temperature:
Seeds need a specific temperature range to germinate. The internal temperature of a corpse is likely to fluctuate and be outside of the optimal range for most seeds.
Nutrients:
Seeds need access to nutrients in the soil. While a corpse decomposes, it’s not a rich source of readily available nutrients that plants can easily absorb.
Light (for some species):
Many seeds need light to germinate. A buried body in a coffin or grave is in a completely dark environment.
Microorganisms:
A decaying body is filled with microorganisms, some of which can be harmful to seeds.
Factors Against Seed Growth in a Corpse:
Space:
Human tissue is densely packed, and there isn’t enough space for a plant to grow its roots and develop.
Compression:
A corpse in a coffin or grave is likely to be compressed, which would hinder plant growth.
Digestion:
If seeds are swallowed before death, they are likely to be digested by the stomach and intestines, preventing them from germinating.
Environmental conditions:
A coffin or grave is a closed environment with limited airflow and a high concentration of carbon dioxide, which would be detrimental to seed growth.
In summary, while the idea of a plant growing from a dead body is an interesting concept, the biological and environmental conditions simply don’t support it
That article that somebody has mentioned has a way different story. It was about an ambiguity about the growing fig trees from a dead body in a cave which is proven to be wrong. Even those unproven claims by that professor (never said proven through observance or experiments) is about dead animals decomposing “ON the GROUND” not the buried bodies. The devil is in the details. As I shared it everyone can read the AI response (which I had chacked way before)
@Gelar lol many people here have provided plausible explanations, even scientific explanations, on how and why the seeds can grow on the burial mound. But you’ve covering your ears and stubbornly saying everyone is wrong and only you are right. Thank you for exposing yourself as a hater when presented with logical reasonings.
What are you talking about? What hater? Didn’t you read the AI response I shared? If you doubt my response go and check whatever AI platform you like. What stubbornness? Why are you making it personal? I don’t care about the drama/fan/antifans but I can not accept people spreading misinformation/disinformation and don’t see the necessity to accept them. If you think I am wrong just proove the AI (Gemini) response I shared is wrong.
@Gelar, when you quoted Gemini, did you ever check the sources of the AI search results which could be misleading many times, as Wiki not considered credible sources of serious research. As someone being exposed to AI development on a daily basis in my profession and collaborate with colleagues having more expertise in AI, I advise you to check the sources of those summaries returned from Gemini. To convince people in your debate, you also have to provide the original sources of your information, not the simple quotations from AI search.
You went on Google AI since I suggested it. But obviously you’re still miles away from understanding how to utilize AI effectively and correctly. LOL. Ok, AI search is mature from my perspective as an experienced pro with similar skills. But it may not be as mature as ordinary Google search yet for general public.
Why all xz fans always accused those who dislike or maybe has some critique of his dramas as his anti?
@Anastasia Repeating the same reply to you here since you left a bunch of similar comments about XZ at the same time.
The fact that you automatically labeled people who defended the drama as his fans already speaks volumes. To you, anyone who praise or defend the drama must be his fans.
By the way, Douban has just released a new campaign today to “counter malicious low ratings”. Further proof that the platform knows that it has lost credibility in China, hence they need to initiate some form of campaign to save its reputation.
The mDL ratings have become ridiculous. Every drama is somehow above 8 and people just giving out 10s left right centre. For me a 10 is like once a year kind of a hit. I’m wondering if it has something to do with new viewers being introduced to Kdrama and Cdrama and finding it all great Without having the classics as a comparison.
I agree. Ironically, some of the pre 2015 c or k dramas have much more realistic ratings and despite of their better quality stand far below the new dramas. I think this is more of a new algorithm in ratings and how biased the voters have become.
The drama isn’t illogical at all, it’s full of details and all of elements lead audience into be obsessed and it’s one of the element which make this drama the biggest hit of this year, completely exploding outside the circle.
As director Zheng Xialong said in a today interview “the aesthetic needs of the audience can only be satisfied if they have an ideological background and can think after reading the works. Art works can bring fresh feelings to the audience by talking about the complex diversity of human nature, human heart and life in an all-round way.”
So maybe you just like to watch easy stuffs which don’t require brain at all, which is in your rights, but at least don’t badmouth serious works! As other people respect who watch idol dramas, you should learn the same respect!
Chinese audience is in awe , many of them haven’t watched long drama for years
Gelar, as a gastrointestinal doctor, I can tell you that the toxic plant growing outside actually makes sense medically. Our gastrointestinal system carries big items into our large bowel all the time, when they are too big to be dissolved by the gastric acid during their transit time in the stomach. That’s why kids will poop out the coins and the little toys they swallow all the time. You will see watermelon and some nut seeds in your poop too when you eat a lot of them.
ZH mentioned in the show that the seed seep out of the coffin as the body decompose and turned into liquid. Liquifying is indeed the natural process of body decay. It makes sense that the liquid will then carry the undigested seed with it and seep through the coffin.
Just want to explain this medically and help you understand the logic behind this particular situation.
@SY for heavens sake how could you spread misinformation/disinformation this easily and you call yourself a doctor. I perfectly now the things we eat would get excreted through stool. If childeren swallow coin or little toys they get stucked in their gullet and they may choke to death it never gets to their stomach in the first place. Putting that big flaw in your analogy aside, coins or toys are made of metal and plastic they don’t get affected by our digestive system while seeds get fermented by the bacterias in our bowels. Moreover, the things one has eaten before death get decomposed as the body decomposes. So they won’t get the chance to flow through a coffin along the liquid (this is insane). Please what year it is? Those who ironically doubt a seed can sprout through a buried body, go and ask it from AI (Gemini, ChatGPT, etc) and see the answer for yourself. I have already did so can’t fool me.
To this point, I’m pretty sure this ignoramus @Gelar continued her gibberish saga to unwittingly expose her hubris being a thick head. LOL.
It’s not hard to just admit own lack of knowledge and therefore misinterpretation of the plot. It only takes a bit genuine humility to resolve mortification. Instead, embarrassment continues. LOL
@Gelar I don’t know if this comment with make it, but if you want to talk about science behind the digestion. There are few reasons why seeds won’t get digested by human body : hard outer coat, high fibre contents cause it harder for digestive system to break them down, presence of phytic acid in some also prevent body from absorbing them, and also poor digestion may also results from one’s underlying medical conditions which Zang Hai did point out, as the lady body becoming sicker, some of the seed may not be digested in her final days. That’s why sometimes you can see presence of undigested seeds like chilli seeds in human’s stool.
First of all you keep saying “may” it isn’t a solid reasoning. So chillis may grow from a burried body? Even if those seeds aren’t digested have they remained intact to sprout? Aren’t those poisonous seeds need to get cooked/heated/boiled to extract a poison from it and then feed that to the dukes’s wife? If the seeds didn’t get digested and remained intact in the digestive system how could they make her poisoned in the first place? Of course our body doesn’t have the enzymes to break the fiber within the food we take but the bacteria within our bowels can consume them and that’s why keeping a healthy diet is advised. Moreover, as you said they get excreted with stool they dont get stuck in our stomach. Back to the point, How can a seed sprout from the depth of a grave without being put into a soil directly. Moreover, any seed being buried deeper than 10 cm won’t sprout. How deep is the grave? 10 cm? This is surrealism this isn’t science.
And even if she just died after takig the seeds and died right away, those seeds get rotten within the corpse (what a disgusting subject to talk about) but they rot with corpse they can’t sprout. To keep a seed intact they should be kept in a dry place they won’t survive moisture.
@Gelar, but in the drama Zang Hai said, the lady is buried shabbily with hastily made wood coffin that has broken down badly over time causing the corpse liquid that carried the seeds to seep out and it is buried shallowly. You keep talking about seed cannot be undigested, cannot sprout from a liquefying corpse, need to be dried first cannot absorb moisture. I don’t understand, as some others has also explained to you that it can and drama has also touched upon the subject lightly you still claimed it’s a major illogical loopholes that you cannot accept at all. You want a factually correct science drama or something? Because that seems a bit pushing it to want to ask for a detailed A-Z explanation just for one particular scene. And this drama is a historical costume drama with main theme is revenge/machiavellian. It’s not fantasy hence the world building is straightforward because it just involve 2 neighboring countries Great Yong and Dongxia. The fantasy you talk about is just 1 small elements, the zombie thingy right? In the last 2 ep they explained how it’s not actually zombies, it’s toxin that caused the soldier to turn to what they are and, mostly in the cave it’s just hallucination of seeing those zombie armies. And if after that you want the drama to explain instead about what kind of toxins that can cause such things so on so forth. Then I guess this drama is just not for you, it can never satisfy you, there’s plenty of other dramas you can find that can actually caters to your logic.
I read there is story for Season 2… Is it true? I dislike cliffhanger.
Don’t worry. It isn’t a cliffhanger.
All ratings of Legend of Zang can’t be trusted because it’s rated by anybody. With the toxic fan circle in Chinese entertainment industry, hater will rate 1 out of 10 and once fans see the 1s, they rate it 10 out of 10. So now it depends on how many haters and how many fan and neutral viewers.
People asked for a second season so there are some talkings, but nothing more.
Anyway the serie has a complete independent ending which close the whole circle of the story, no cliffhanger at all 😄
Xiao zhan is my favorite actor 🤩 and I am really happy for this new upcoming drama 🤩 I’m waiting for this drama when will drama come so my rating for this drama 10/10 plzzz this drama dubbed in Hindi plzzz z 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I’m really big fan of Xiao zhan 😍😍😍😍
I think it deserves higher I give it a 9 stars. It was a fun ride. Favorite episodes are 8 and 9, 27 and 28 as well as 38 and 40. Never seen a satisfying cdrama ending recently thank goodness the director and writer of this drama truly exceeded my expectations.
Deserves a 9.1
Deserve a 8 for me. It’s not a NIF level, but it’s more than 7.
The ending is satisfying. No need for 2nd season.
LOL. Why do you reference NiF in comparison? Orange is absolutely not apple. LoZH and NiF are two very different dramas although both are related to revenge genre. Every movie lover knows it’s ignorant to just randomly compare two films in the same genre, e.g., Star War vs. Avatar. How could you compare LoZH with NiF only to downgrade the former given that they have very different approaches to plot and character development? Antis criticize that LoZH have many plot holes. As much as I like NiF, strictly speaking, there were also quite a few plot holes and weakness in NiF that I couldn’t dismiss either. The romance line in NiF was close to nothing LOL. Nonetheless, fans of NiF praised NiF to the moon while dissing LoZH to the dump cuz they bitched about zero chemistry between XZ and ZJY for example in LoZH. lmao. So hypocritical with double standards!
That being said, I wouldn’t say that NiF was inferior to LoZH cuz they were both unique in their own ways or just cuz XZ is my fave while Hu Ge isn’t.
You’re entitled to your opinion. But per your history of unfavorable opinion about XZ in the past, I can’t help questioning your higher but nonetheless underhanded rating of the drama that was meant to let down XZ. If you think LoZH deserves 8, higher than the Douban rating, you don’t need to degrade it simultaneously by an unfavorable comparison with another drama at the same time. It sounded bitterness overload. LOL
Why are u angry he/she mentionned of NIF. He/she said without judgement. For many of us NIF is masterpiece. And i watch it as natural viewers and not a fan of any of them. But nif higlighted all actors not just the ml. Just keep sharing the goodness of LOZY
Why xh fans always so defensive. It is so disturbing to read.
I give it a 9.5, it’s very intriguing and Xao Zhan always give a good performance in his role, I love it!!
I enjoy some revenge story even there is some plotholes, But I enjoy it if the acting is good, it add layers to the series. without it, the layers of the writing will be not shown due to the actor limitation and the director which is unable to display on screen. I love when my revenge drama is character driven and not plot driven and forget about the character, and I will forgive so many convenient plot.
But in this, there is nothing against Xiao Zhan since I know him just recently LOL (excuse me I’m a kdrama watcher not cdrama, sorry for my ignorant) I watched it due to buzz in this website and mydramalist and I love my revenge drama, but his acting doesn’t elevate the narrative to become good. And I just watching it feeling bored.
Don’t worry, many think Xiao Zhan acting is very good, and currently the most popular drama in china, everyone praising his acting.
Maybe this drama not for you, you can go back go korean dramas
It honestly makes me feel a little sad for Xiao Zhan.
Every time he releases a new project, the ratings are either extremely high or unfairly low. Somehow, the conversation always circles back to his fandom, not the actual work itself.
I’ve watched a few of his dramas since The Untamed, and in my opinion, he has grown so much as an actor…more depth, more range,etc. From the way directors and colleagues speak about him, he seems genuinely hardworking and respectful of the craft.
But the moment his work gains traction, people immediately say, “It’s just his fans hyping it up.” They forget that a large fanbase also comes with a large anti-fanbase, and that constant push and pull distorts public perception.
Honestly, just watch the drama and decide for yourself. And if you don’t like it, that’s okay too. Maybe it’s just not your cup of tea.
Just sharing my two cents here. ✌️
Your comment ií the most intelligent ine I’ve read here so far. It’s objective and unbiased.
When it comes to Xiao Zhan’s works no rating can be reliable. He has one of the largest and most dedicated fan and anti fan bases of all celebrities in China. Any raring is distorted.
From what the former and current colleagues said about him, he seems to have it all, talent, work hard, kindness, intelligence in the way he understands the characters. I’ll never understand why he has so many antis.
Regarding LOZH, I loved it. The cinematography is beautiful, the acting is too notch especially Xiao Zhan as he had to convey every feeling with his eyes as he doesn’t voice out anything. His acting was so delicate and subtle. Truly the best in this role. The plot is brain twisting. You think you guessed who did what but then it turned out all your guesses were wrong. You’re constantly caught by surprise.
The romance is very lightly shown, and is sy it serves the plot well.
The emotions in episode 38 are overwhelming. Even if you knew it was gonna happen, the filming and acting made it really poignant.
Lastly, I love how they decided to throw all the gender stereotypes to the bin.
I’d give it >9/10 just because I never give 10 to anything.
For those who said there were plot holes and decided to drop it, don’t you know that by dropping it half way you will never know the plot holes were intended to deceive you and there was no actual plot hole had you watched til the end.
I agree. He’s one of the actors that I think gets an unfair evaluation because of fans and antis. It’s really just better to watch his works and judge for yourself.
It deserves more than 8.5 for me, the acting and plot is great, and everything is tied up well in the ending.
It should at least get a 8.5 imo. Douban cleared many legitimate 5 stars reviews while clearing none of the 1 star ones. The rating scores at imdb and mdl are more in line with what LOZH should get.
This drama not only has tight pacing with logic and good acting, it closed like 99% of any seemingly plot holes.
Cheng Yi fans were caught twice planning mass downrating of the drama. Of course all of that was documented and sent to the production.
It’s kind of funny. He is desperate to work with Zheng Xiaolong and then this happens. Not that he had any chance in the first place but it’s funny how they made sure if it.
Douban deleted a whole bunch of 5 stars while leaving those 1 stars. That’s what happens when the production refuses to pay them protection money. But why would they? It’s slowly turning into an irrelevant place and the drama itself is a hit with a huge word of mouth. Why bother giving a few coins to pathetic losers whose credibility just went further down the drain.
My rating is 9.99. Love it
Unfortunately douban has been leaded by dirty money since years, this score was premade and paid by competitors to smear the drama and try to destroy its explosive effect. Even before the airing, there was already a public db scoring which was circulating online. At the end, the big explosion saved the drama and instead of 6 it took 7, which is not bad but still unfair for such a good drama.
In my opinion the minimal score should be between 8.5-9, and i see all other rating platforms reflect my opinion.
It’s indeed the best cdrama in the last decade 👍
Every day i hope cent will clean up from this dirty environment, but everyday i’m just disappointed
Amazing drama! Plot really consistent and fully of details, fast pace and never boring! Cinematography is a visual feast, i love how the drama naturally features also other visual arts like opera, animation, shadows and so on. Some scenes are really artistically top notch, and i’m sure future dramas will copy a lot from lozh 🤣
All cast is really good and all characters are 3d, also the secondary characters are well depicted and impressive (damn, i loved the queen of Dongxia!)
It was a pleasure being lead by Zang Hai through his adventures and his growth. Xiao Zhan’s performance is really impressive, and certain scenes were really goosebumps. For sure his best and most incisive work till now!
Douban score isn’t fair at all, but nowadays everyone knows how that dirty platform works and i’m shocked there are still people who give it some relevance. Personally i rated it 9 points.
I wasn’t so invested in a serie since GOT first seasons 🤩 really a great work!
Douban is irreparably. Awesome drama, one of the best in the past decade probably
The best drama for me, XZ did very well as Zanghai, his acting improved a lot.
Who said you hate the drama or you hate Xiao Zhan or you pretend to watch to dislike his acting or hate him?
Please don’t be so jobless, and enjoy stuffs that you like, the drama still a hit and loved by many people whether some of you like it or not.
If you love LoZH/XZ and don’t want to read anything critical about the drama/him or are offended by such opinions, you should skip my comment. Also skip if it’s too long for your liking.
Just sharing my personal opinion, not trying to change anyone else’s, also not interested in debating/bickering over differing opinions. To each his own.
*****
For the phenomenal hit that LoZH purports to be, the reviews are incredibly polarized instead of leaning toward mostly positive. I don’t attribute this to a simple fan versus anti-fan divide because that argument makes for a convenient excuse that can be applied to any popular actor, thereby eliminating the need to scrutinize the actual value of their works. I’m not surprised by the initial rating of 7.1 on Douban, which isn’t bad but also isn’t exceptionally good for this kind of production.
Fans are already calling Douban out on the low rating. In their eyes, only a rating of at least 8 but preferably 9, could be justifiably credible. Fans who really enjoy the drama are fully swept up in the LoZH craze, energized by reports of impressive and record-breaking statistics and endless hot topics. They want wholeheartedly for the drama and XZ to succeed in every way. I can’t help but think that the marketing overload, the widespread and exaggerated promotion and discussion surrounding LoZH, lead to inflated expectations as well as marketing fatigue and a negative perception of the drama due to the overexposure.
As mentioned, the reviews are incredibly polarized. Much of the criticism regarding the weak narrative logic, a sloppy script that erodes the plot tension supposedly involving wits and schemes, lackluster character creation, and green/superficial acting have been deflected or trivialized. For example, the complaints about XZ’s blank expression: Zang Hai has been trained to keep his face calm even if his heart is in turmoil, LoZH takes a different approach where vengeance doesn’t need to be dark and full of angst, etc. Although being unhappy with things or sad with oneself does not necessarily mean having a dull and sullen expression, having a blank expression can barely be considered a kind of sophistication. Through subtle and nuanced acting, an actor should convey the intense pathos of the character’s forbearance and arduous journey to seek revenge and justice.
It eventually became clear that even if the story and acting were truly mediocre at best, failure was not an option for this drama, for the sake of the platform and XZ. The drama was overhyped and excessively marketed, reaching unprecedented levels of daily hot topics on Weibo, sometimes for topics completely irrelevant to the drama or pure clickbait. At one point, LoZH being a global hit was actually trending on Weibo. As the saying goes, fake it till you make it. And in this case, LoZH made it commercially but not necessarily critically.
For the sake of the platform:
In recent years, Youku has been lagging behind its competitors, iQiyi and Tencent, in the online streaming market, in terms of active user subscriptions, quality content/hits, and overall revenue.
LoZH relied on acclaimed television director Zheng Xiaolong to bring critical appeal, top traffic star XZ to bring commercial appeal, and name-dropped Nirvana in Fire to create additional interest and anticipation. On a side note, despite being touted as the director’s return to the historical costume drama genre after ten years, he is only one-half of the directing team. There are even rumors that he was not involved in 100% of the filming process, only lending his name to the production as a favor to his friend’s son, co-director Cao Yiwen. If this is true, it would at least help explain why LoZH doesn’t live up to the director’s reputation when compared to his previous works.
An explosive ratings broadcast for LoZH brings revenue to Youku in the form of advertising, brand collaboration, investment promotion, etc. In fact, Youku’s single quarter operating profit increased by more than 50% year-on-year, becoming a key to the platform’s turnaround.
For the sake of XZ:
XZ had a less than impressive start to 2025 with the film, Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, which underperformed both critically and commercially despite being adapted from a famous IP and helmed by acclaimed film director Tsui Hark. On the tails of that disappointing project, LoZH can not fail otherwise 2025 for XZ will be very similar to what 2024 was for Yang Mi. Yang Mi’s performances were critically panned in a string of unsuccessful dramas and film (In the Name of the Brother, Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact, Nothing Can’t Be Undone by a Hotpot).
More importantly, it has been six years since XZ’s 2019 breakout hit, The Untamed. He hasn’t had another drama matching the level of that success. In an industry that churns out traffic stars by the dozen, you need to have more than one hit from six years ago to firmly maintain top status. Resting on your laurels is simply not enough – you need to hone your acting skills and build a solid collection of works to attract and retain an audience beyond your core fan base.
XZ is also at an important career crossroads. He is approaching his mid-30s, an age to transition to more serious roles to become an established actor and discard the traffic star moniker which is neither an esteemed nor professional title. Many peer actors have had multiple critical/commercial successes, received acting accolades or award nominations, and/or have won awards. Peer actor is not based solely on age but also on public perception of comparable factors such as skill level, experience, popularity, fame, industry status, etc. Specific names won’t be mentioned to avoid inciting unnecessary fan wars.
A historical costume drama directed by an acclaimed veteran director with multiple classic hits credited to him serve as an ideal vehicle to achieve a transformative hit. After all, The Untamed was a BL drama, a genre that has been banned in China. Meanwhile, historical costume dramas (especially those with political intrigue) are beloved in China and highly regarded as a challenging and serious genre.
Although XZ challenged himself in a genre that he hasn’t tried before and improved through his own dedication and under the guidance of Director Zheng, there is definitely still room for further improvement. Associating LoZH with Nirvana in Fire was a disservice to the drama. The overwhelming consensus is that LoZH fell short of reaching Nirvana in Fire greatness in both storytelling and character creation; Nirvana in Fire is simply out of LoZH’s league.
The association caused LoZH not to be viewed as a stand-alone drama as the audience was constantly comparing the two dramas and using Nirvana in Fire as the benchmark to measure LoZH’s success. Strategically associating with renowned works can create interest and anticipation but it’s also a double-edged sword when the same effect isn’t delivered. XZ’s next drama Spying is also name-dropping The Disguiser and it remains to be seen what that association will do for Spying when it airs. I’m not sure that marketing needs necessitate such gimmicks.
Bundling Zheng Xiaolong and XZ and combining that with overhype and excessive marketing created a commercial success for LoZH. However, commercial success isn’t synonymous with critical success. Achieving the former doesn’t grant the latter. I believe the fair criticisms that LoZH received are valid and probably contributed to its initial rating of 7.1 on Douban, although the rating can still improve. LoZH suspected of being scored low maliciously is already trending on Weibo but XZ isn’t the only popular actor with many fans and just as many anti-fans. Any popular actor could make the same claim about a Douban rating being sabotaged. Had the Douban rating been high, fans would have rejoiced and celebrated LoZH’s feat. Now that the rating is lower than they had expected or hoped for, Douban is being written off as unreliable. Nirvana in Fire has a rating of 9.4 so it’s improbable that LoZH will come close to or exceed 9.0. If you look at the Douban rating, the 7.1 didn’t come from 1-star ratings. The drama received mostly 3 and 4-star ratings, then 5-star ratings; 1 and 2-star ratings actually make up a very small portion of the distribution. It’s possible that the wider audience just didn’t think LoZH was as outstanding as fans thought it was. In any case, after the dust settles, the audience will have a clearer picture of what place LoZH will have among the timeless classics.
Dramas are already facing a decline in regard to creativity, innovation, and quality scripts/acting. They need to be promoted properly but should succeed on their own merit. Excessive marketing influence trends, investments, and public sentiment, and distorts reality with noise. The audience should also be respected. They are more than capable of watching a drama and evaluating it on their own. Hopefully this is not the new trend in drama marketing. Glorification and basking in complacency will hinder continuous improvement.
What’s the point honey, you just like same as person pretending to be passersby but looking at your long love letter it’s very judgmental, you are not different from xz antis out there.
I enjoyed your sharing. Thanks
Aww, poor pressed Xiao Zhan anti.
Keep crying in your sad corner. It’s a major hit of a drama, with absolute majority of positive reviews, awe for Xiao Zhan acting and the rest of the crew.
You can write fifty more idiotic essays where your bitterness shines through and Zanghai will still be a major success.
You appeared very desperate. LOL.
**** Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own conceit.****
Thank you for your post. It is a good read.
Of course *you* are answering an anti and thanking her.
Pressed hater always, then you dare open your mouth here after years of your garbage.
Whatever @Lmao..
Six marketing companies for a single drama is excessive no matter how you look at it… Any drama that relies on good quality will naturally go a word of mouth route instead of choosing a fabricated marketing hype. Excessive marketing only exposes a lack of confidence.
your very long essay is just your way of saying you don’t like xiao zhan at all. that’s it.
testing..
always antis just disgusting,rats dumb jobless indeed,cry hard,cry more, loser pathetic,low class
I’m rewatching LoZH. I found I missed a lot of details and hints on the first watch. This experience is similar to how I felt about the Untamed.
The top 3 dramas on my fav list (in chronological order) is Nirvana in Fire, the Untamed, and now adding LoZH. I love them cuz these three dramas all have their own unique story lines and artistry in depth. Also, the lead actors (Hu Ge and Xiao Zhan) are both charismatic with very strong presence and nuanced presentation of their characters. They will become classics in the Cdrama history and people will talk much about the characters with the actors’ names tagged along cuz one can’t think about any other actors in place of their roles.
It’s dumbfounding LoZH is compared with NiF. These are two very different series with unique story telling not resembling each other. NiF had mostly court politics. LoZH, however, had a plot fundamentally built from fantasy elements, albeit playing with court politics in a large extent later on, but eventually circled back to put a closure referencing fantasy too. Comparing them is like comparing orange to apple. I’ve never seen XZ’s fans name drop NiF for marketing purposes as certain gibberish whined about. Why should they? LoZH doesn’t need other dramas to get popular LOL. XZ’s name is enough LOL. As a matter of fact, name dropping NiF is always associated with those who seemed to have certain ill intention and agenda to downgrade and diss LoZH.
It’s pretty obvious to me, the people who kept finding non-existent faults with LOZH here all have posted positive comments for Mysterious Lotus Casebook and The Journey of Legend previously.
@Gelar, I feel sorry for you that have been so insistent on something you do not have knowledge of. LOL. A simple question: are you a researcher working in the field of biology, plant biology or animal biology, or a medical doctor, or a physiologist something like that? Given how you mocked ppl failing high school biology, I guess you are not anything close to. LOL. Then just get off of your high horse and don’t diss the drama for the purpose of hating someone. I had been refraining from giving you a taste that you won’t like nonetheless you are continually leaving that bad taste in fans’ mouths. But to this point, I don’t think I need to hold back curtesy.
There have been so many comments with supports refuting your dubious challenge to plants growing out of a buried dead body. Now, you’re obviously fighting your huge ego that’s actually just another face of a low self esteem. It’s totally fine to admit mistakes and misunderstanding, nothing to be ashamed of. But you seem to have trouble submitting yourself to facts cuz your ego deceives you from being honest.
I recalled you made similar petty comments attacking those who did not enjoy Queen of Tears too. At this point, I believe it’s your personality instead of anything in the name of critical thinking that prevents you from rationally critiquing dramas.
There’s a reason why LoZH is a huge hit in and outside China. A lot more than ordinary numbers of viewers like the drama. I have never seen so many male viewers coming out praising XZ’s dramas except for the Untamed and LoZH. Nor have I ever seen so many non-fans (you believe or not) recommending XZ’s dramas except for the Untamed and LoZH. As a fan of XZ, I watched all his dramas. I have to be honest even as much as I like The Youth Memories, the Untamed and LoZH have been the only two dramas that trigger phenomenal zealous discussions and recommendations online, which TYM is far from being on par.
热播剧集《藏海传》累计正片播放量已超15.85亿，登上当前2025古装剧累计正片播放量排行第一
(Per Sina Finance news, LoZH viewership has exceded 1.58 billion views, topping 2025 costume dramas.)
Once you set aside your prejudice (at best and hate at worst) against the lead actor, you would be able to critique the drama rationally and more objectively. It’s fine to be a dedicated fan of someone else. It’s not recommendable to be rabid, i.e., refusing to accept the popularity nor rave reviews of your fave’s rival actors.
I don’t get C drama land. Isn’t success or failure of a drama more related to the directing team and script writer rather than a cast?
I Haven’t watched queen of tears. So basically haven’t left a comment about it.
I haven’t watched many c dramas and the majority of them are period dramas mostly pre 2020. I have always admired the beaty of their culture and history. But now that I have watched the attitude of the so called “fans” unfortunately I have faced and discovered an unpleasant aspect of c dramaland which is realy disappointing and scary. And from now on an unpleasant element is added to the picture I had in my mind. Now I have a better understanding of the “toxic environment”.
Anyways, feel free to crucify me it’s a free world but let me remind you such actions used to be practiced in medieval ages.
Ok. I might be wrong with my memory about Queen of Tears. My bad if I can locate those comments from you. But you did join a cohort of rabid Kdrama fans to have a pile-on over those who disagree with them. Even so, it doesn’t negate the fact that you deliberately downgrade LoZH, ridiculing the drama as if you’ve got irrefutable support for your opinion, while it’s all just your own personal preference and hatred towards the drama. LOL.
Nah, you got called on your garbage anti opinions and now you are crying after you got exposed.
It’s hilarious.
Are you talking about normal drama maybe but if related to xz
If it’s failure it’s gonna be on xiaozhan
If it’s success it’s because of fans being data fraud and overhyped the drama
I guess being top actor not gonna give him any favor especially with super critical viewers like you
I was initially indifferent to any negative comments associating other actors such as Cheng Yi et al about Xiao Zhan’s dramas. But after a bit of digging in Reddit Cdrama sub where all kinds of negative comments about XZ have been made randomly here and there, explicitly or underhanded, I found a good track records from those naysayers. LOL. Here’s a summary of the types of naysayors of XZ and his dramas. In short, these suspicious antis are associated with a couple of groups:
Fans of Cheng Yi/Mysterious Lotus Casebook
Fans of Hu Ge/Nirvana in Fire
Fans of Zhang Ruoyun/Joy of Life
Fans of Wang Yibo/identifying themselves as CP shippers of the Untamed while raving about WYB but dissing XZ most of the time. I have to admit I despise this group the most cuz their idol’s fame was completely built on co-worker’s iconic acting and explosive popularity.
Fans of Dylan Wang/Love Between Fairy and Devil
Fans of Liu Yuning/Prisoner of Beauty
Why do we oftentimes read polarized reviews about XZ’s dramas, no exception for LoZH either even the drama receives rave reviews in China? Go figure out. The above list may enlighten fans with some plausible explanations.
Oops I forgot another group of antis who did show quite a bit of history with XZ’s fans too:
Fans of Luo Yunxi !
One particular fans of LYX even posted and started a thread in Reddit sub asking about “brutally honest” opinion about LoZH not as a fan or as a hater (JOKE LOL) in crappy English (I guess she’s someone from China). As expected, the thread is full of vitriol and negativity about the drama. This OP, a LYX fan obviously, specifically dissed XZ’s acting and discredited LoZH, even though she only watched fewer than 15 eps. LOL.
It’s an interesting phenomenon. If I don’t like an actor, I just don’t follow his dramas. I won’t watch it in order to taunt the actor later on. That’s kinda pathetic. We are supposed to watch a drama to entertain ourselves, not to suffer from it LOL. Rather, there are many Asian drama fans who deliberately watch dramas to hate and get triggered. LOL.
Xz fans attacked CY upcoming drama and poured oil because they were afraid of competition, they mocked Lyn looks, downvoted Nirvana in Fire on Douban and stepped on Hu Ge. So can you really blame those fandoms for fighting back?
Are you sure XZ’s fans did all this, specifically downvoting Nirvana in Fire on Douban? LOL you’re almighty to know how all the huge rating statistics are manipulated and who manipulated the numbers!!!!???? 🙄🙄🙄 Such admirable skills! I’m not even sure as an experienced actuary, and you’re flaunting as if you knew it well!!
As to those people attacking LoZH and XZ, the track records of those aforementioned anti crushes are all there available online for me to check up and verify where these negativity and vitriol were coming from.
Did I mention names of other actors? Nope cuz it is what it is, and those names are the ones I have verified per their history of comments on social media that are trackable. I haven’t found other actors’ fans joining the negative campaign against LoZH so far. Perhaps I should go back and search again if I were someone without real life LMAO.
Exactly who’s afraid of competition? Director Zheng Ziaolong and the production team picked Xiao Zhan as the ML of LoZH, not your fav. That has said enough. No competition at all! LOL.
Does XZ have to be responsible for LYN’s looks? It’s a fact that LYN doesn’t look attractive to many fans regardless of whether XZ’s drama is airing or not. LMAO. Why the heck do XZ’s fans have to worry about LYN’s looks and mock him as if he would certainly look uglier than he already is through words of mouth? Funny! Besides, the viewership of LoZH tops all the dramas airing at the same time, beating the Prisoner of Beauty by miles (with daily views literally double that of PoB). What is XZ’s fans exactly concerned about? It’s more plausible LYN’s fans are bitter about their fave’s top hot index was taken over by XZ the minute LoZH was uploaded, and hence the attack on LoZH.
All I’ve read on social media was that Hu Ge’s fans deliberately dissed LoZH as something not up to par with Nirvana in Fire. XZ’s fans did not tag Hu Ge or his drama to elevate the name of LoZH. Why should they LOL given that XZ’s current popularity has already exceeded HG’s ? LoZH doesn’t need any other actor’s name for marketing purpose!!! Rather, Hu Ge’s rabid fans deliberately compare LoZH with NiF to downgrade the former.
Surely, antis should expect a tooth for a tooth. Drama fans are no saints!!! If you leave a bad taste in fans’ mouths, you should expect them to make you foam in the mouth as a return. Lol that’s fair. Not ready for a fight but rabidly engaged in a negative campaign against the drama of their beloved actor, no surprise you’d invite insult back on you that you sowed earlier.
Love this drama! Great story, great acting. Deserving of the 7.1 rating or higher. You can tell no expensed was spared. More of these, please.
I think the rating is okay for the drama.
It would have been better if the real third baddie was introduced early on. Since ZH met 8th youngmaster multiple times through Antu. The romance line was forced. It would have survived without this element. The big bad eunuch was so hard to kill. Hahaha.
I have finally watched this drama… reaching the end soon. My thoughts on my experience, with my limited literacy skills, I cannot fully express my thoughts. But I will still want to add my 2pence. I likely offend some members but it is not my intention to offend.
Likely due to age, years of drama watching in my over 50yrs, I find this drama not as exciting as I expected. It is not the cast nor the story. It is the filming and production style. I noticed with recent years, Chinese drama have changed their production style. Likely due to cut budget, restriction on no. of eps. Each eps are filmed closed up, shorten scene, rare use of wide angle camera.
There are limited characters development and sets are so fake.. Scene that can be filmed outdoors are now done in fake sets or use of CGI. Each scene is like a short video clip on tiktok. I suspects it could be because current viewers have shorter attention span, they dont want a drama to be slowly blossoming. Due to this,I rarely get time to form attachments to many characters.
In Legend of Zang Hai, the only few factor that still makes me want to continue the drama is due to lead actor, afew good veteran actors and how Zang Hai take revenge. But after watching this drama, there is nothing that will make me want to go back and rewatch again and again. It is a one off or maybe twice rewatch.
Xiao Zhan is a good actor, as Zang Hai, I can see him getting better at handling his character toward later eps. In the early eps, he was not as natural.
Zhang Jingyi is a good supporting role actress…but she cannot carry a strong and amazing character like Xiang AnTu, she lacks the screen presence, elegances of a princess and sharpness as a top fighter.
Overall, I do enjoy this drama. But definitely not a wow for me due to production style. This is my own issue and I will have to adapt to current market adjustments. The story itself is interesting and I am glad Xiao Zhan have a good project to film. Look forward to more good work from him.
Not sure if it will be your cup of tea, but The Litchi Road is excellent. It’s basically by the Longest Day in Chang’an team, and it’s got great characters, realistically gritty, real sets and outside shooting, and has a surprising sprinkle of humor.
Yes!! I watched ep 1 and enjoyed it. Will definitely be watching it. Totally unexpected. Thanks, good to know someone else is watching it too.
Hi @HL, I read your review but couldn’t understand the part regarding the filming and production style, hope you can clarify my doubts? You said each ep is filmed closed up with shorten scene(?) and rare use of wide angle camera? I’m not sure what shorten scene refers to, hope you can elaborate on it, but I have to disagree with you regarding the lack of wide angle camera, there were so many beautiful long/wide shots showing the burial grounds, tombs, mansions and the streets. The only C-drama which I’ve ever seen having too many closeup shots is Fan Bingbing’s The Empress of China and that was due to censorship on the overexposure of chest areas.
Character development wise, I think the production team made them more subdued as the story is focused on Zang Hai’s revenge and uncovering of the truth, the audience are meant to follow the events unfolding from Zang Hai’s point of view. As for sets, I wouldn’t say all of them look fake. There are many solid sets which look real (royal tombs, palace, mansions, Zhen tower, the streets etc), it’s only the last few episodes where it’s obvious they CGed the mountains and field backgrounds, and this is quite common for ALL C-dramas, the dramas which you previously enjoyed such as Lost You Forever and Flourished Peony also have such CG issues.
I can see your comment now @lilith, I really want to express my thoughts better but my Eng literacy skills are not good. I am sorry. I have to say, it does get better after the 10ep.. pass the 10ep, the scene gets better, the sets for the house is good. It is just the filming style changing in recent years. It is not just this drama. Even Untamed when it was filmed, it was so much better. It was always filmed at distance to draw viewers into each scene and its set. Now they use more close up techniques like they do in adverts etc. I have noticed this only in last few years… CGi is a new technique used in many dramas now, I may not like it but I know I need to adapt as it is used in may new dramas. As I say this does get better in later eps…
As you mentioned Lost You Forever and Flourish Peony, I have to take your word for it…. to be honest, I have not finished the both dramas.
Lost you Forever: I could not engage with a couple of the main support casts and dropped the drama at ep3…cannot go on. Even my interest in YangZi, could not make to go on.
Flourish Peony: It is 2 parts, I will start watching when Part 2 is completed. I dont like cliffhangers at all. Unfinished dramas are just not for me. With Part 2 is aired. I will the start watching.
@HL Oh I think I remembered wrong for Lost You Forever since it’s quite a while ago, but I’m pretty sure you had said you enjoyed Part 1 of Flourished Peony and looking forward to Part 2. Good news for you though, Flourished Peony Part 2 should be airing in the next couple of months.
@Lilith,You are right. Flourishing Peony, I did enjoy the few eps I watched until I heard it has Part2 then I stopped. It too have similar CG issues but I just need to get my head round this.
Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed Legend of Zang Hai too…but not one of my top dramas due to production style. I am super happy to see Xiao Zhan, I cannot stop looking at his beautifully shaped eyes…
“Zhan Zhan’s eyes are really beautiful and rare. Eye shaped like a magpie has a head, wings and a tail. The lines around the eyes are perfectly curved, like drawing with a brush. Long eyelashes And black and brown eyes exposed to sunlight are beautiful. Very beautiful.”
Missing comments. I cannot see the reply to my post. Sorry. I keep having problems on this site.
testing
Thanks for sharing..
I wonder how bad are dramas xz fans usually watch to make them think this drama deserves a score better than 7? The plot is a solid 6 if we are being generous
It’s quite absurd to see fans saying this drama got downvoted by haters and that 5 star ratings got cleaned while 1 star ratings didn’t. It’s more likely the other way around. The % of 1 star ratings isn’t high at all, the score got brought down by 3 star ratings and everyone knows that 3 stars are given by passerby-s. So whose fault it is, passerby-s for being objective and not sugar coating?
the storyline is stupid and weird. the ml acting is good so those another cast. the ending is a little bit rush and lacking at some point and please, the fl is kinda cringe! she cannot delivered the emotions she needs to portray but i still watch this drama cause she is cute, but yup, this is over hype tho we cannot blame as the cast are well known in china, its just the storyline ghadddd.
Lmao at the antis above, you guys are late to the party. Anyone who’s familiar with C-ent knows that 3 stars are the new “in” ratings for antis to give on Douban because it’s more believable than 1 and 2 stars while dragging scores down to 5.0-6.4 when the common consensus is at least 8.0 for good dramas.
It’s also funny to see the same people dragging LOZH down for so-called flaws while praising other dramas which actually contain those flaws.
@Koala Is your site having issues again? Why did the posted date for this article change to 9 June? Or did you deliberately repost it so that it lines side by side with WYB’s article?
Look @ this comments. Wow. What a traffic.
Douban has just released a new campaign today to “counter malicious low ratings”, this is proof that the platform knows that it has lost credibility in China, hence they need to initiate some form of campaign to save its reputation.
https://wx4.sinaimg.cn/mw690/008vETgYly1i3y96wupd0j30qo0x6102.jpg
If that’s true, it’s only proof that it’s countering reviews that tamper with the truth. Not that it actually lost credibility. Just strengthening its credibility even more. And posting a dead link won’t save this dreadful drama or its talentless actor.
Why would an organization need to spend money on campaigns to strengthen credibility if it has not lost any? You think organizations just woke up one day and say “Yeah let’s waste some money on things that we don’t need.” 🤣
Do you know what naysayers are? They’re like you. Attack the system if some pathetic actor didn’t score high enough. Douban needs to protect itself from you and people like you.
I’m not a fan of XZ and my fave is blah blah blah but I’ll go to an old article of his to try and serve him justice. 😂
Why don’t you ask @Anastasia why she still post about XZ on these old articles first? Oh you won’t, because your aim is just to attack people who defend XZ. Btw, my fave today is XZ so I decided to defend him today.
Let me use your rhetoric. Who’s @Anastasia? Are you “stalking” her? But I only “stalk” you. 🙄
Scroll up, diverting the topic doesn’t negate the fact that she posted on these old articles first. By the way, I don’t stalk people using multiple names like you do 😘
You were the first to divert by bringing @Anastasia into the conversation. 😂
And I wouldn’t know if you stalk others using multiple names. No one would. 😂
You asked why I’ll go to an old article of XZ to try and serve him justice first, so I gave you my reason which is Anastasia’s comments. How is that diverting when I’m answering your question?
And you’re wrong, Koala would know if someone stalks using multiple names. 🤭
I’m not wrong. I wasn’t counting Koala. She owns this site and obviously would know so it’s a moot point to include her.
Oh sure~ Backtracking as you always did whenever you lost. 😂
Look up backtracking in the dictionary so you know what it means when you use the word. And I never asked you why you’re going to an old article of XZ to try and serve him justice. I stated that. Not a question at all. Stop lying so that you can write what you want to, just like about me losing.
Backtrack
/ˈbaktrak/
verb
gerund or present participle: backtracking
Reverse one’s previous position or opinion.
First you claimed no one would know if you stalk others using multiple names, then as soon as I pointed out Koala would, you reversed and pretended you excluded her. Or do you prefer the words “giving excuses”? 🤣
Here you go lying again. I said I wouldn’t know if you used multiple names and I don’t include Koala because she owns the site so it’s a moot point. Go look up liar on the dictionary. Oh wait, you don’t need to do that. You just need to look in the mirror.
Excuses~ 😂
Do you know what naysayers are? They’re like you. Attack the system if some pathetic actor didn’t score high enough. Douban needs to protect itself from you and people like you.
Why would Douban need to protect itself if it was credible enough in the first place? Because it wasn’t credible. So many people have said Douban ratings are not credible anymore, but here you are, jumping out to defend it because you like the low ratings it gave for the drama of the actor you hate.
But you’re doing the same. Blasting Douban for the low ratings it gave the drama of the actor your like, at least today you like him. 😂
How is it the same when it’s true the drama gets much higher ratings on other rating platforms? I showed proof of Douban initiating a campaign to save its credibility, where is your proof that Douban is still credible?
You call the dead links you shared proof of what? Your stupidity or your lies?
If you want to read someone say things the way they are, @Everybody’s post above is 💯 and that’s why an unbiased fan like @HL can thank her for a good read.
For anyone who’s still confused about Douban…
If the loser XZ’s next drama Spying scores a rating high enough for them to be satisfied, then Douban’s campaign succeeded and Douban isn’t a joke anymore. If Spying scores a rating too low for them to be satisfied, then Douban’s campaign failed, the loser didn’t pay Douban the protection fee, and Douban remains a joke.
Just keep switching things up to fit the narrative you want. 😂
The fact that you called XZ loser is clear enough to unbiased people that you are his anti. 🤣 I hope you’re being paid for this because defending an organization for free to hate on a celebrity is just pathetic.
Here goes the lame comeback about getting paid. If antis get paid, then fans are even more. Hate is free but don’t you have to earn love? 😂
Awww…you have to earn love? I guess that’s why you turned out this way, so filled with hatred… 😢
It only gets lamer. 😂
😘
🙈 😂
Call me a hater but you’ll still take the cake for being filled with hatred. In the course of arguing over trivial things, you have no qualms about repeatedly bringing up one person’s learning disability to mock another person. Ultimate low.
https://koalasplayground.com/2025/07/13/youth-romance-c-drama-our-generation-with-zhao-jin-mai-and-zhang-ling-he-to-premiere-on-july-14th-on-youku/
Here we go, you’re dragging in past articles again when you can’t refute me. 😂
Repeatedly bringing learning disability up? Find me an article where I brought it up other than this one. I brought it up ONCE because @HL is open about it multiple times here and she obviously didn’t take it to heart. YOU are the one who kept bringing it up whenever you can’t refute my points. Tsk tsk tsk.
I already refuted you. Stop changing the narrative to console yourself.
@Misha, just as by passer, I have to say. It was me who brought up my disability to explain my typing errors and sometimes unorganised comments. Lilith and I may not always agree on some points. But I know she is not using my disability to attack me.
But I do read comments of those that take time to write them, regardless what my own opinions are, I am very open minded. Frankly, I really dont know enough to engage in deeper conversations.
I never thought this post will have so many new comments. Happy Weekend members!!!
This posted below. Not sure why it’s like this…
@HL, I also don’t think she was attacking you but I do think it is poor taste to bring it up to attack someone else nevertheless. It’s the weekend where I am too so I’m just going to sign off this thread especially when all she’s posting is dead links. Happy weekend!
@HL We are good, I don’t take it to heart too when we disagree on some things. We just move on and chat about the next topic when new articles came up. @Misha here loves to drag in old articles and harp about the past whenever she loses the current argument, pretty shameful of her to keep dragging you in.
I’m not dragging in old articles and harping about the past. You said I was filled with hatred and I’m simply showing you where you proved yourself that you’re filled with hatred. You brought up someone’s learning disability twice to attack another person yet you’re calling me shameful. Anyone can go check that linked thread. It’s not me who’s shameful. It’s you who’s shameless. And again, writing that I’m losing the current argument to console yourself when you’re sharing dead links to support your argument.
THAT’S dragging in old articles and harping on the past. 😂 Are you sure I’m attacking another person instead of you in your alternative name? In case you haven’t realize, there’s hardly anyone else here who likes dragging in old articles and posting links them as much as you do. Yes, you are shameless for dragging @HL in multiple times in multiple articles already, under multiple names with no guts to admit it too. The links aren’t dead btw, you just aren’t using the right browser to view them. 🤣
Looks like one reply got stuck so I’ll post again.
THAT’S dragging in old articles and harping about the past. Are you sure I was attacking another person instead of you? There’s hardly anyone here dragging in old articles and posting their links except for you and @dramalover, you can change your name but you cannot hide your writing style. It’s shameful how you kept bringing learning disability up multiple times in multiple articles under multiple names. Btw the links I posted aren’t dead, you just weren’t using the right browser to view them.
You were the first to divert by bringing @Anastasia into the conversation. 😂
And I wouldn’t know if you stalk others using multiple names. No one would. 😂
Lol quit double posting 🤣
I already refuted you. Stop changing the narrative to console yourself.
@HL, I also don’t think she was attacking you but I do think it is poor taste to bring it up to attack someone else nevertheless. It’s the weekend where I am too so I’m just going to sign off this thread especially when all she’s posting is dead links. Happy weekend!
XZ might not suck as much if his fans actually gave a damn about him instead of spending their time attacking and slandering other actors and actresses like someone recently pointed out under this post https://koalasplayground.com/2025/07/28/the-immortal-ascension-with-yang-yang-premieres-to-strong-first-reviews-and-heat-index/#comment-972300.
He must be doing something wrong for someone with what they like to brag about as having a massive fandom. How is it possible that your massive fandom cannot outnumber the haters? It happens to literally no other celebrity in China or worldwide. 😂
Maybe XZ fans are relying too much on him being one of the rumored faves among four male celebrities in Li Aiqing’s harem? But that man has already been sentenced to death so unless XZ finds another sugar daddy…
Oh, and by the way, I wouldn’t have known about Li Aiqing if @Lilith didn’t bring him up to slander Wang Yibo here https://koalasplayground.com/2025/07/02/c-actor-hu-yi-tian-in-news-as-his-fans-upset-that-he-hasnt-been-on-a-film-set-in-over-two-years/.
Maybe it’s a desperate fandom mentality to slander others because XZ is so hopelessly untalented and incompetent. 😂
Thank you for exposing your desperation and spreading the word to get more sane logical people to realize that Li Aiqing only sponsored Born To Fly and One And Only, which are WYB’s movies. 😂
No need to thank me. You’re the one who exposed XZ. No one knew what you were talking about in that thread and even @HL went to look and said she saw a name other than WYB that was linked to Li Aiqing. Pretty sure she’s referring to XZ without naming him. You’re “good” with her like you said above, so I’ll let you confirm that yourself if you need to. Plus you’re the only insane and illogical person who’d say Hu Yi Tian not working is big enough news to cover up a s*x scandal supposedly involving WYB.
No no no, you probably hasn’t realize it yet but you did me a great favor to spread the word about WYB and Li Aiqing around. After all, sane and logical people will agree with my points upon knowing that Li Aiqing’s name is connected only to Born To Fly and One And Only movies, none for other celebrities. It’s even more obvious when WYB hasn’t been able to film any dramas or movies since then while XZ films one project after another.
Let me summarize things up. Douban has just released a new campaign today to “counter malicious low ratings”, which is proof that the platform knows it has lost credibility in China so they are initiating some form of campaign to save its reputation.
https://wx4.sinaimg.cn/mw690/008vETgYly1i3y96wupd0j30qo0x6102.jpg
XZ anti @Misha is here trying her best to defend Douban’s credibility because she likes the Douban score for the drama of the actor she hates.
Lol, quit posting the same dead link again. XZ is your fave today and this is the best you can do? 😂
Thank you for acknowledging that I have no single favorite celebrity and that they switch anytime. My fave has switched to Xu Kai now so can you call me a Xu Kai fan instead?
Didn’t acknowledge anything. Just repeated what you said above. You said your fave today is XZ. Now you’re saying it’s Xu Kai. This is what’s called backtracking. For someone who loves to argue and is obsessed with winning, you’re a black hole of logic and common sense. To answer you question, no, I can’t call you a Xu Kai fan instead but I can call you stupid. It’s fits you best and doesn’t need to change from day to day or within the same day.
I’ve already said my fave switches all the time, where’s the backtracking? You just don’t want my fave to be anyone other than XZ 🤣 Look into the mirror yourself, you’re arguing with me and obsessed with winning. You backtrack on your words and drag in the past and old articles whenever you cannot refute my points.
https://weibo.com/p/230958type%3D1%26q%3D%25E8%25B1%2586%25E7%2593%25A3%25E5%25AF%25B9%25E6%258A%2597%25E6%2581%25B6%25E6%2584%258F%25E6%2589%2593%25E5%2588%2586
Alternative link since someone requested for it.
https://m.weibo.cn/p/230958type=1&q=%E8%B1%86%E7%93%A3%E5%AF%B9%E6%8A%97%E6%81%B6%E6%84%8F%E6%89%93%E5%88%86?jumpfrom=weibocom
May require a weibo account to view them though.
Two dead links up above already. And now two links to Weibo that may require a Weibo account to view. Genius. Well, I have a Weibo account and can access the links. For those who don’t have access, these two links don’t actually take you to a Weibo post from any particular account – person or organization. They take you to AI answers from someone’s AI search on Weibo.
This is what @Lilith calls proof of Douban’s new campaign. The poor people who don’t have a Weibo account and mistakenly believes what she posts as the truth. Yikes!
Lol at you trying to fool those without Weibo account, this link goes to the weibo search term #豆瓣对抗恶意打分# where one can see everyone talking about that Douban’s campaign.
I’m trying to fool people without Weibo?! Lol at you trying to fool people with Weibo!
Tsk tsk tsk look at your desperation 😂
The 7.1 rating that LOZH received on Douban is an aggregate value and an unequivocal indicator of what the general audience thinks that the drama deserved.
It does not matter what fans say because Douban is neither irrelevant nor a joke in China. The Douban ratings don’t determine what gets watched. They don’t necessarily correlate with overall popularity either. However, they’re often used by industry professionals to gauge a production’s reputation. The 1-5 star rating quickly conveys a general sense of quality or satisfaction and is a simple, standardized way to compare different works.
Fans should stop trying to spin the narrative about Douban in order to protect their idols. It’s futile and it’s foolish. It can’t be one way when a rating is low and another way when it’s high. They’re making themselves sound even more inconsistent and unreliable than what they accuse Douban of being.
LOZH’s Douban page where you can see the ratings distribution: https://m.douban.com/movie/subject/27181010/
The link below is an article from June 2025 when the Douban rating for LOZH was released. It mentions fans making a fuss, how Douban ratings are regulated, how Douban eliminates the interference of water armies, how Douban compares to Maoyan and IMDb, etc.
也谈《藏海传》豆瓣开分7.1，粉丝别闹了，平台已经很给面子了
https://m.sohu.com/a/902866599_122172416/?pvid=000115_3w_a
Here are some articles talking about the credibility of Douban ratings and reviews being questioned.
https://www.chinanews.com.cn/yl/2021/12-09/9625551.shtml
https://www.pingwest.com/a/254790
https://m.mp.oeeee.com/a/BAAFRD000020211216634505.html
Another article on Douban’s credibility.
https://www.time-weekly.com/post/287951
And some articles here mentioned that the current Douban evaluation system consists of text reviews and unknown “expert opinions”, meaning it’s still prone to manipulation. Someone above had talked about how 3 stars reviews are the new “in” thing to drag down ratings on Douban, guess that was developed due to the system change?
https://news.bjd.com.cn/2023/05/30/10447694.shtml
https://xueyuan.yixiaoer.cn/article/15840
I live in the present and will go with the article from 2025 instead of a bunch of outdated articles. 😂
I can’t speak for anyone else but I live in the present and will go with the article from 2025 instead of a bunch of outdated articles. 🤣
Of course @Misha will skip my 2025 article because it doesn’t suit her narrative 🤣 Claims she lives in the present yet still dismissed the links that latest Weibo search term #豆瓣对抗恶意打分＃.
This thread is reeking with her smell of desperation. I’ll leave so @Lilith can go wash up. 🤣
@Misha You better truly leave, loser LOL 😂
Recap:
For anyone unable to see the image I posted like @Misha, you can search up #豆瓣对抗恶意打分# on Weibo and find the same image of the campaign poster which I had posted. These posts were all posted on August 1st, 2025 which are the latest updates. You will also find many people discussing about Douban and its lost credibility there.
I wanted to see for myself what @Lilith wrote in order to verify the information she had shared about Douban recently releasing a new campaign to counter malicious low ratings instead of only relying on the lengthy exchange between her and @Misha. I am fluent in Chinese and follow C-ent news and have not heard of this so I wanted to check it out.
The original two links ending in .jpg that @Lilith shared both give me a 403 Forbidden message. The next two Weibo links lead me to AI and other random search results with very little discussion. All four links could be malfunctioning…not sure.
Among the six additional links that @Lilith shared, the first three articles are published in 2021, the time-weekly.com article did not load for me, and the last two articles are published in 2023. I was expecting more recent articles but these are dated from 2-4 years ago so I only did a quick read as this information isn’t time relevant anymore.
@Lilith recommended searching #豆瓣对抗恶意打分# on Weibo and I did that. I did see the poster that she had mentioned but the first hit and the one I saw with the most comments at 287 (at the time I saw it) also says (图不是豆瓣官方的，是有几家粉丝提出可以这样做) literally translated to (The picture is not official from Douban, but was suggested by several fans). The link with the poster image and that disclaimer is here and you don’t need a Weibo account to access it: https://weibo.com/7414093193/5194803609865898
As a last effort, I searched online for 豆瓣对抗恶意打分 to find any recent news or developments on Douban launching such a campaign and it didn’t yield any results either.
For those who are genuinely interested in this discussion, I had posted this above but will repost it again below…
The 7.1 rating that LOZH received on Douban is an aggregate value and an unequivocal indicator of what the general audience thinks that the drama deserved.
It does not matter what fans say because Douban is neither irrelevant nor a joke in China. The Douban ratings don’t determine what gets watched. They don’t necessarily correlate with overall popularity either. However, they’re often used by industry professionals to gauge a production’s reputation. The 1-5 star rating quickly conveys a general sense of quality or satisfaction and is a simple, standardized way to compare different works.
Fans should stop trying to spin the narrative about Douban in order to protect their idols. It’s futile and it’s foolish. It can’t be one way when a rating is low and another way when it’s high. They’re making themselves sound even more inconsistent and unreliable than what they accuse Douban of being.
LOZH’s Douban page where you can see the ratings distribution:
https://m.douban.com/movie/subject/27181010/
The link below is an article from June 2025 when the Douban rating for LOZH was released. It mentions fans making a fuss, how Douban ratings are regulated, how Douban eliminates the interference of water armies, how Douban compares to Maoyan and IMDb, etc.
也谈《藏海传》豆瓣开分7.1,粉丝别闹了,平台已经很给面子了
https://m.sohu.com/a/902866599_122172416/?
pvid=000115_3w_a
P.S. I checked again to be sure and the links still work and you can translate the article if you cannot read Chinese.
One person claiming the campaign is not real, sure. 😂 Are you going to “take over” @Misha’s job of replying to me under this name after she declared she’ll leave?
I can also list the countless of users in that search term all talking about how they don’t trust Douban, which supports my point that Douban has lost credibility and become a joke in China. Here are some comments with their translations:
“它自己捏分该怎么处理呢？How to deal with it if it pinches the points by itself?”
“问题是它自己也没管别人打多少分，直接自己捏分啊 The problem is that it doesn’t care how many points others give, it just makes its own points.”
“随意捏分，公信力全无，倒闭吧 Randomly manipulate scores, no credibility, go bankrupt”
“有啥用？就是直接废掉， 他会自己捏分，还可以花钱预制分，跟你看不看有啥关系？那么多活人平台打的分岂不是更有说服力，谁还看他 What’s the point? It’s just useless. He can make his own scores, and he can also spend money to pre-make scores. What does it matter whether you watch it or not? Aren’t the scores given by so many living people on the platform more convincing? Who would still watch him?”
“不咋样，豆瓣从内部就烂了，分数照样随便捏这种操作捂嘴而已。没有监督机制，哪里来的公信力。 Not good, Douban is rotten from the inside, the scores are still manipulated at will. Without a supervision mechanism, where is the credibility?”
“没什么看法，因为无论怎么修改都并不相信豆瓣评分都做到真正的公平公正，从开头高喊“对抗恶意评分”就感觉十分幽默，谁喊也轮不到你喊啊 I don’t have any opinion, because no matter how it is revised, I don’t believe that Douban ratings are truly fair and just. It feels very humorous to shout “fight against malicious ratings” from the beginning. It’s not your turn to shout.”
“确实，真有这魄力，那些真正的明显的恶意评分还有r骂的短评怎么没看处理掉呢？Indeed, if you have the guts to do that, why don’t you deal with those truly obvious malicious ratings and abusive short comments?”
If this is not credibility lost, I don’t know what is.
To anyone passing through here and reading this thread, I stand by I wrote, in particular, the part about checking out the links provided to verify the information being shared about Douban. I truthfully reported in detail what that process entailed for me. The comments and links are permanently posted here and everyone is able to do their own verification.
To say that Douban has been criticized and questioned by some is one thing. To say it has lost credibility and has become a joke in China is another thing. It has lost credibility based on a few hundred comments, a few thousand comments, a few million comments online? Keep in mind that China has a population of over a billion people.
When many people who had used the platform are questioning about its credibility, its credibility is lost. If you insists on having say over half a billion comments questioning the credibility as the requirement for lost credibility, then those food companies which had cases of unhygienic or poisonous food also didn’t have their credibility lost because there were less than half a billion comments questioning them online.
I’m aware of the penchant for endless arguments on this site and I don’t wish to engage in that behavior. I will only say this and leave it at this.
Food companies that make unhygienic and poisonous food… I find that to be an unparalleled comparison. The likely scenario is that consumers become ill, it makes the news, there is a class action lawsuit, and there will legal and financial ramifications. It won’t be simply about the food companies losing credibility because of online comments. As for Douban, I wasn’t saying that there needs to be over half a billion comments. If you reread what I wrote, I was saying that the comments online cannot simply be taken as the voice of the majority.
Ok, please do leave it at this then.
Directors and production companies had also sued Douban for their malicious ratings before and made the news, so what I’ve made was an apt comparison.
To anyone passing through here and reading this thread, there is certainly a lot going on in the comments under this article. Koala posted the article to share that LOZH wrapped its run and received a 7.1 Douban rating. To that end and to stay on topic with the original article, I want to recap the most important points in my original post.
The Douban ratings don’t determine what gets watched. They don’t necessarily correlate with overall popularity either. However, they’re often used to gauge a production’s reputation. The 1-5 star rating quickly conveys a general sense of quality or satisfaction and is a simple, standardized way to compare different works.
The 7.1 rating that LOZH received on Douban is an aggregate value and an unequivocal indicator of what the general audience thinks that the drama deserved.
LOZH’s Douban page where you can see the ratings distribution: https://m.douban.com/movie/subject/27181010/
The link below is an article from June 2025 when the Douban rating for LOZH was released. It mentions fans making a fuss, how Douban ratings are regulated, how Douban eliminates the interference of water armies, how Douban compares to Maoyan and IMDb, etc.
也谈《藏海传》豆瓣开分7.1,粉丝别闹了,平台已经很给面子了
https://m.sohu.com/a/902866599_122172416/
What a traffic. I never expected an older article to have so many new comments. I just finished this drama after a friend recommended it and would give it a 3-3.5 out of 5 stars. It opened with a 7.1 and is still at 7.1 but I agree with Koala that anything above a 7 is okay for period dramas.
The article <> that someone stared above is an interesting read.
Oops, the title didn’t show up… 也谈《藏海传》豆瓣开分7.1，粉丝别闹了，平台已经很给面子了. And I meant shared, not stared. Lol.
I’m not a Xiao Zhan fan, but wow Xiao Zhan is truly the king of traffic. I can read Chinese and agreed with Lilith, people have already lost trust in Douban these days, even on Douban app itself you can find many users talking about how Douban’s scores are manipulated. Finished watching Legend of Zang Hai yesterday and I personally think it deserves an 8 out of 10.
Definitely a lot of comments here, so much fighting about the plot holes and then Douban lol. I find people tend to question things especially when they don’t agree with them. Some people are saying the 7.1 is an inflated score, some people are saying it’s deflated. The drama production should sue if it is manipulated to be lower. Either way, until a new rating platform replaces Douban, I guess it what it is…
As long as there are rabid fans and haters, just grab popcorn. 😂
Liu Yu Ning is also a king of traffic. 😂
https://koalasplayground.com/2025/07/26/director-guo-jing-mings-next-c-drama-inferno-of-wings-reportedly-in-talks-with-liu-yu-ning-and-dai-lu-wa-as-the-leads/#comment-972918
@Samantha It does seem like he is. There’s many names here which were hardly seen in other articles.
@Gina, it’s naive to think that the production will sue Douban. You gave the drama a 3-3.5 out of 5 stars after watching it. There are other audiences who will have a similar opinion. Since you read the article I shared, you’ll know that Douban has its own ratings rule to eliminate troll army interference (https://m.sohu.com/a/902866599_122172416/).
Here is a 2015 movie that sued Douban for its 2.1 rating. The case even went to trial in 2018. The producers sued the platform for “faulty and irregular rating.” In response, Douban said it did not block out or exclude any ratings of the movie on its website. It also stated that it is not responsible for the movie’s low score — such a score was the result of users, and not the website itself.
http://thechinaproject.com/2018/08/29/director-of-worst-movie-on-douban-sues-review-website-for-rating/
Nothing much changed from the lawsuit. It’s now 2025 and the rating is still hovering at a 2.2 rating: https://movie.douban.com/subject/26322774//
There was a comment about Douban being sued before and I was only saying the production should sue if the rating is manipulated to be lower, not saying that that was actually the case. I wouldn’t even know how that would work anyway but if it didn’t work in the past, like I said, I guess it is what it is then.
The rating I gave was based on my personal enjoyment. To be honest, I mindlessly watched the drama because it was recommended to me and I finally got around to it. I didn’t pay enough attention to be analyzing it like some of the people here. I thought it was boring and it didn’t have any rewatch value for me. I agree with the person who said that the acting of the two leads was only okay and the production style didn’t have a wow factor.
Forget about Douban and whether the drama was good or not. I read a lot of the comments above and people here can’t even agree on whether the drama made any sense. They’re all arguing about plot holes and poor character development. Anyway, I don’t see what the big deal about the 7.1 rating is. It’s just a number, and it’s not even that horrible. C-netz are just a hard bunch to please. They complain about anything and everything.
The Douban rating of 7.1 only reflects what the general audience thinks that the drama deserved. Here is a rare English review of LOZH, written by a freelancer/literary critic for The Los Angeles Post. Excerpt from the review: In summary, The Legend of Zang Hai is not a failure of acting, but rather a result of inadequate script development, superficial character motivations, and an overdependence on coincidence and forced twists.
https://lapost.us/?p=73218#:~:text=In%20summary%2C%20The%20Legend%20of,on%20coincidence%20and%20forced%20twists.
There could be more people than you think sharing this opinion, which would naturally lead to the 7.1 rating. It’s actually not a horrible rating. Fans are just upset because they loved the drama so much and don’t think it’s good enough.
Director Zheng Xiaolong said himself:
“If I were choosing the script myself, I personally wouldn’t have chosen this film; it’s not my cup of tea,” Zheng Xiaolong, the director of “Legend of the Canghai,” said at a seminar on the series. Accustomed to grounded storytelling, Zheng Xiaolong prefers realistic dramas.
https://www.jfdaily.com/staticsg/wap/newsDetail?id=927613
Even if it’s not what he usually prefers, if it’s an innovative and solid script, wouldn’t it still pique his interest to try something new and creative? It just makes me wonder even more about the rumor mentioned above that he lent his name to this production as a favor to his son’s friend, Cao Yiwen, who is the co-director.
Lol some people claimed they will “leave it at this”, yet they still post again when someone contradicts their statement of Douban being credible. 🤣 Rather than using American news where they obviously will put down a Chinese drama that’s highly regarded by the Chinese government, we should look at the Chinese articles below which stated that Douban’s rating system now uses text reviews and unknown expert opinions. This means that the system is no longer transparent as people can’t be flipping through hundreds of thousands of reviews to verify whether the score matches, plus there’s always the expert opinions which the public doesn’t get to know.
https://news.bjd.com.cn/2023/05/30/10447694.shtml
https://xueyuan.yixiaoer.cn/article/15840
Although I don’t get the correlation between Zheng Xiaolong preferring realistic dramas and LOZH being successful or it’s score of 7.1, we can see both him and Cao Yiwen directing the scenes from the drama’s BTS, both together and individually. You can’t say he’s lending his name when he did participate in the production. Zheng Xiaolong is over 70yo, we should be glad that he mentors and imparts his knowledge to a “disciple”.
Chinese news praising LOZH, note how they use IMDb score instead of Douban? 😂
https://www.scmp.com/culture/article/3316205/palace-intrigue-conquers-global-screens-are-c-dramas-chinas-new-soft-power
https://english.news.cn/20250619/dee893d0be994940a5dbf13210c89c98/c.html
And for information, almost all C-dramas have multiple directors nowadays. But we don’t see the same people claiming the most senior director in those dramas are lending their names. I wonder why 🤭
“Leaving it at this” was in reference specifically to my exchange with only one commenter in order to avoid arguing endlessly.
As long as Koala has not archived this article and closed off the comments section, everyone is free to post, just as everyone is doing.
Ne Zha 2 from earlier this year received a number of positive reviews from the foreign press, including American press so it’s not true that American news will obviously put down Chinese dramas or films. They have no reason to do that.
If we read the news, the articles should be time relevant and this is why the links I choose to share are all dated this year and not dated year(s) ago. The only link I shared that was dated years ago was about Douban being sued in 2018. That was news from 2018 so the article would obviously be dated 2018.
As for director Zheng Xiaolong’s comment about the script of LOZH, it was posted as a separate comment on its own. There is no mention that it’s correlated to LOZH being successful or its Douban rating. A commenter above had shared the rumor that Zheng Xiaolong was not 100% involved in the filming process and had lent his name as a favor. Of course he would still need to participate in the production, even if not at 100%, in order to be listed as a co-director.
Negative reviews and news about Ne Zha 2 from foreign press:
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/ne-zha-2-review-energetic-chinese-sequel-is-the-highest-grossing-animated-film-of-all-time/5202798.article
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-ne-zha-2-patriotism-netizen-debate-4944701
Negative reviews and news about Ne Zha 2 from foreign press:
https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/ne-zha-2-review-energetic-chinese-sequel-is-the-highest-grossing-animated-film-of-all-time/5202798.article
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-ne-zha-2-patriotism-netizen-debate-4944701
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ne-zha-2-review-chinese-233919258.html?guccounter=1
Ne Zha 2 was briefly mentioned as an example of a Chinese production that, in my exact words above, received a number of positive reviews from the foreign press. It was to show that foreign press, including American press, will not just obviously put down Chinese dramas and films because there is no reason for them to do that. I didn’t say Ne Zha 2 received only positive reviews and actually, almost no drama or film does, whether the domestic or foreign press is involved. Therefore, negative reviews of Ne Zha 2 from foreign press really prove nothing. I won’t share links of positive reviews from foreign press for Ne Zha 2. That’s digressing too far from the topic of this article which revolves around LOZH and its Douban rating. Anyone who is curious can go look for themselves.
As for Chinese news published in English, they are intended for the English speaking and reading audience. They will naturally reference IMDb ratings instead of Douban ratings because IMDb is more relevant to the English speaking and reading audience.
Koala publishes her blog in English and some of her visitors are not even Chinese, yet she usually shares the Douban rating for a drama when it becomes available. I’ve actually never seen her share an IMDb rating for a drama. Why? Most likely because these dramas are Chinese domestic productions, regulated by Chinese authorities, and of course Douban, the Chinese rating system, will be most relevant.
Look at the contradictions. First saying news intended for the English speaking and reading audience naturally reference IMDb scores because it’s more relevant to English speaking and reading audience, yet Koala still references Douban scores despite her site also being more relevant to English speaking and reading audience. I’m not claiming Koala shouldn’t post Douban ratings though, she’s not an official news site.
My point is official news site are using IMDb scores for LOZH. Why? Because they also find Douban scores not credible enough 😁
And Sam is still replying to me despite claiming to “leave it at this”. Maybe he or she will stop replying and then another “new” person will pop up to reply my comments here. 😇
Anyway my point for Ne Zha 2 is that the so-called rare English review of LOZH is the same as negative English reviews for Ne Zha 2. That the one negative English review of LOZH proved nothing.
I hope by now people can see the double standards certain people imposed onto LOZH and XZ.
There is no contradiction. The Chinese news published in English, intended for English speaking and reading audience, therefore naturally referencing IMDb which is more relevant to English speaking and reading audience … this was addressing the two English articles shared above from South China Morning Post and Xinhua, happily noting that they used IMDb score instead of Douban. Official news sites in the Chinese language are not using IMDb. The ones using IMDb is published in English, not in Chinese.
Bringing Koala up was to illustrate that even though her site is in English and she has non-Chinese visitors, she still finds the Douban ratings relevant. Otherwise she would not report on them. Everyone knows that this site is her personal blog and not an official news site. She’s been candid about that but you can also just take a look at the site name, layout, content – it’s quite obvious.
The rare English review of LOZH wasn’t supposed to be proof of anything. All I said was that there could be more people than you think sharing that opinion. Even if double standards have been imposed on LOZH and XZ… that would not have been gleaned from any of my comments.
If anyone scrolls up, they can see that I was the one first directly replied to under my post. After that, I made a comment to @Gina and the same person came back to reply to me passive aggressively. The fact that “leave it at this” has been brought up twice out of context just shows that this person is not comfortable with my posts and just wants me to stop posting. Unfortunately this is Koala’s site and unless they start their own site, nothing can be done about people having the right to post comments.
At this point, if it’s not me, it would still probably be a new name replying. Most of the people who originally commented above have moved on to other articles and other things. I don’t see them circling back to this post. Not everyone is still here for a second or third or nth round. And it seems like I’m the new target because @Misha left.
Looking at someone’s comments throughout this thread and their interaction with others, I have a better understanding. I can see challenging and questioning of other people’s comments and opinions, some suspicion of Koala changing article dates, a history of passive aggressiveness or outright belligerence coupled with sarcasm with other users here and on other articles, wanting to silence others, suspicion of other people’s user names, etc. The best solution for all of these issues is just to start their own website where they will have total control over everything. What gets published, who gets to comment, what opinions are allowed and what comments will get posted can all be screened and filtered.
It is contradictory because her site is intended for the English speaking and reading audience as well. If she’s using Douban scores, then why don’t South China Morning Post and Xinhua use Douban score too when LOZH is a Chinese domestic production?
Because they don’t find the Douban score for LOZH credible either.
That English review doesn’t say much. Given the review’s “international” status, international rating sites like IMDb and MDL both had the score of 8.6 out of 10 for LOZH as of current. Other Chinese rating sites like Maoyan also had the score of 8.3 as of current. It’s only Douban giving it 7.1.
SCMP and Xinhua are official news media and are publishing their articles in English. They will direct their English readers to an English rating system such as IMDb, not a Chinese rating system like Douban. That isn’t an indication that they find Douban not credible but you keep pushing that conclusion, so it’s fine if you want to think that way because it’s convenient.
Koala’s personal blog is also published in English but many of her readers are also Chinese. Plus, her articles have a comments section. People who aren’t familiar with Douban have the chance to ask in the comments section. Most of her readers are familiar with Douban, IMDb, MDL, etc. You can see all of those rating systems mentioned above. MDL is really a worthless mention though, as many also pointed out.
The English review in The LA Post doesn’t say much but what should it say? All I did was provide it as an example of a different opinion about LOZH, one that shows that LOZH did not receive unanimous praise because no drama does. Criticisms also exist and could contribute to the drama’s 7.1 rating. Just because you don’t agree with and don’t want to accept the 7.1 rating, you don’t have to make it all about Douban not being credible.
Do you have the stats showing this site has many Chinese readers? I can also claim that many of SCMP and Xinhua’s readers are Chinese, since English speakers tend to get their news via non-China-affliated news sites. If MDL is worthless, then Douban is just as worthless, since many also pointed out that Douban is not credible. See how contradictory you are? You insisted the people who claimed Douban is not credible are all sour fans, yet you yourself also claimed another rating site MDL as worthless. Are you sour that many people think LOZH deserves a higher Douban score? I have been saying Douban scores are not credible way before LOZH, so don’t pin me as not agreeing with just this 7.1 score.
Someone who posts dead links, outdated links, and links to false information should not be asking for stats. It doesn’t make sense to ask me for stats when you have not provided any yourself on the claims you’ve made. That’s a double standard.
MDL is worthless because no official media would actually reference that rating system. Official media in Chinese still reference Douban ratings. So Douban actually isn’t worthless like MDL. There’s no contradiction.
Those links aren’t dead, you just weren’t using the right browser, I still can view them just fine. Outdated or not, they are still proof that Douban is not credible. And tell me what is false information, every thing I’ve posted matched what I’ve stated. Don’t digress just because you couldn’t provide the Chinese readers stats to support your claim.
Here is an online publication which references MDL rating system:
https://readysteadycut.com/2023/10/19/best-medical-korean-dramas/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
And again, for someone who claimed to “leave it as this”, you sure kept replying. Looks like what I’ve said came true, you took over from Misha, didn’t you? Same pattern of behavior as Misha too. 😂
I said official media. Since you don’t understand the meaning of that, I’ll explain it to you. Official media typically refers to news organizations that are part of the mainstream media. This includes major television networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC; cable news channels like CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC; and established newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. The online publication you listed isn’t official media. It doesn’t matter that it references MDL.
Testing to see comments
You read my verification of your claims and links. In fact, you replied to it. If anyone scrolls up, they can see the first direct reply was from you to me. It’s still up there so you can reread it to answer your own question about the false information. I don’t have to repeat myself. You’ve conveniently ignored many of your flaws while attacking others.
I’ll address why I’m still replying to you since you seem stuck on that. I initially ignored you and posted a new comment but you also followed me there and directly replied to me again. So I replied to you and said I would “leave it at that” with you on that one issue to avoid endless arguments. Then I made a comment to @Gina and you also replied, not directly to my post, but passive aggressively in a new post. You’ve brought up what I wrote about“leaving it at that” several times now, but completely out of context. You obviously don’t like what I post and my comments make you uncomfortable because they threaten the validity of your claims and provide others with food for thought. Otherwise, why keep on taking that phrase out of context as an attempt to try and silence me? “Leaving it at that” on one issue means to you that I’m not allowed to ever post again here? It doesn’t work like that.
I would’ve never interacted with you if you didn’t keep looking for me. But it’s not too late to ignore you. Just don’t contradict yourself by first seeking me out, then trying to silence me, then still engaging me, then complaining about me replying. If I ignore you now, the next thing is I couldn’t answer your questions so I left. You’re equally as predictable as you make everyone else to be. Anything to make it sound like you’re winning. It’s the best self-consolation. And even if it’s not me, it would probably be a new name responding to you, like you said. After all, most of the people who commented above have moved on to other articles and things in life. I don’t see the older names circling back here for their 2nd, 3rd, nth round. You’re the only one here from the beginning and still camped out here for eternity but that’s your choice. And I’ve been your target ever since @Misha left. You must’ve suffered a lot from her and redirecting all the resentment towards me.
After reading all the comments above and looking at the links other people shared about you, I have a much better understanding of you. You’re either challenging, questioning, arguing with other commenters or you’re suspecting Koala and new names. It’s not exclusive to this thread as you’ve exhibited the same behavior in the other linked threads that were shared. You’re either passive aggressive and sarcastic or downright belligerent and insulting. I’ve seen a number of your exchanges with other commenters. Everyone eventually gets worn out by you and leaves you alone to rant on by yourself. It’s important for you to keep posting regardless of content. As long as you get the last post, you equate that to getting the last word and you’ve been smug with that false sense of victory.
You should create your own website. You can choose what news to post, who gets to comment, what kind of comments and opinions are allowed – you’ll feel a lot better when you have the complete control that you’re not getting here. Until you are capable of creating your own site, you’ll have to resign to continuing here. If you can’t get Koala’s attention or response, just do what you’ve been doing – chase and provoke others to get your cheap thrills.
I obviously interested you enough for you to engage me and continue this tirade, but stop obsessing with me once and for all. You’ve already left a very lengthy and useful (to you and those like you) narrative about Douban here to recycle for future use. Douban being a joke is perfect logic for the biased and twisted. If it’s a low rating for the drama/actor you like, it’s a joke. If it’s a high rating for the drama/actor you dislike, it’s also a joke.
And 3, 2, 1… it’s the countdown to your reply because it’s the only way you know. Continue to find your sense of existence here.
Lmao quit making up your own definitions. Always narrowing your definitions once I pulled up proofs to counter your claims. Ready Steady Cut is a registered media company and that makes it an official media company.
Since you can call MDL worthless, people are free to call Douban worthless or not credible as well.
Lol you added me in your comment first so I’m entitled to reply to you, no? Then you continued replying to my comments in a passive-aggressive way in new posts. I didn’t directly reply to you either until you did so.
I have never contradicted myself, I’m not the one claiming that I will “leave it at this” and then going back on my words.
And lmao, you even talk like Misha and some of the previous names used. You all always end up calling me names when you lose and claim that I always have to win/get the last word,. Come on, you also want the last word that’s why you kept replying to me and got frustrated. You don’t see older names circling back because they all reply me under new names, they can change their names but they can’t hide their manner of speech.
How do you know I don’t have my own website lol? I have my own website and I’m still free to post here. And you’re wrong, I maintain Douban is a joke even if it has high ratings for the dramas I like. 😊
Douban just released an official announcement regarding bot accounts 🤭 Further proof supporting my points.
https://www.douban.com/note/874942173/?_i=4574502EA2PGL1
Let’s take another look at what Weibo users say in the search term for this.
https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E8%B1%86%E7%93%A3%E5%8F%91%E5%85%AC%E5%91%8A%E4%BA%86%23
我一点也不想看到豆瓣又出了什么措施防止恶意打分，我只想看到豆瓣倒闭的消息 I don’t want to see any new measures taken by Douban to prevent malicious ratings. I just want to see the news of Douban’s closure.
不是……谁现在还信豆瓣啊…… No… who still believes in Douban now…
一会锁分一会开的这个事情呢？作为一个影视评论平台，还能在开分之后直接锁分？然后默默帮别人清理1🌟？ What about the issue of locking and unlocking the score? As a film and television review platform, can you lock the score directly after opening it? And then quietly help others clean up 1🌟?
豆瓣终于进一步处理养号和刷数据发无营养评论的行为了。现在总能看到老电影被水军随意打低分，还有AI生成的评论，不求彻底解决，只希望以后能改善吧 Douban has finally taken some action to deal with the behavior of raising accounts and swiping data to post meaningless comments. Now I can always see old movies being arbitrarily low-rated by water armies, and AI-generated comments. I don’t ask for a complete solution, but I just hope it can be improved in the future.
I’m a diehard XFX since 2019 and one of my friends in China is a XZ station sister. I have to speak up for him. XFX’s watch and support him in all of his works. We don’t need Douban, IMDb, or any other platform to tell us what rating his works deserve. Of course there are XZ haters here defending Douban. What’s worse is the fake XZ supporters saying Douban is a joke so that people can easily point their fingers at XFX’s for being sour. XZ’s classic is The Untamed and that got a 7.7 on Douban. For those who don’t know, it wasn’t an S+ drama starring a bunch of A-listers at that time so a 7.7 is really good. But of course the fake XZ supporters will call Douban a joke because they’re trying to take that away from him too. And I don’t care that LOZH got a 7.1. To me, no one will ever beat Wei Wu Xian, not even Zang Hai.