[Mainland Chinese Drama 2019] Joy of Life 庆余年

[skibbies]

13 hours ago, BreezeC said:

Anyone know how many episodes are in season 1?

iqiyi says 46 episodes which isn't too bad after all the 60 ep epics. 

[Lbpg]

On 2/10/2019 at 8:14 AM, epinklyn said:

Another Mao Ni adaptation! Cant wait! 

 

I came into it expecting something totally different than what I saw in ep1. After reading Nightfall, I thought Joy of Life would be in a similar (read: more serious) vein, but the comedy surprised me. It shares a bit of the whole "man from another world/time" theme with Nightfall, but definitely executed much more clearly - Ever Night had little to no references, though I can't wait to see if the recurring reference to Hey Jude comes up in season 2.

 

Regardless, enjoying it for what it is, curious to see if the tone is maintained throughout. Earlier previews led me to believe this would be a heavy drama, but then this international preview is a total 180 from it:

 

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4443186824906673#&video

 

On 11/25/2019 at 10:56 PM, epinklyn said:

Yeayy finally!! Hopefully they will air it on youtube!

 

Yep, it's already subbed and available there:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[frostflower14]

 

This scene really reminded me of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon! I guess it demonstrates how badass Wu Zhu really is. The drama didn’t show how he got back up from the cliff though.

 

 

Just finished watching ep 5-6. It was cool to see Fan Xian defend his brother against the son of a high ranking official, even though his brother just tried to beat him up.Fan Xian also defended his brother when their father unjustly punished him for fighting with the officials son because he suspected it was a set up to pit Fan Xian against the Crown Prince. In reality, it really was a set up, but one  enacted by the Crown Prince himself to smear Fan Xian’s reputation.

 

Turns out Fan Siche really likes money because their father is the Vice Minister of Finance.

[bluehibiscus]

6 hours ago, Lbpg said:

Regardless, enjoying it for what it is, curious to see if the tone is maintained throughout. Earlier previews led me to believe this would be a heavy drama, but then this international preview is a total 180 from it:

 

 

I find it interesting that they don’t use Joy of Life in the poster or the trailer but the hanyu pinyin Qing Yu Nian.

 

So far, the plot is quite lighthearted and funny but I expect it will get heavy later on. It’s rather odd of the ML to want to keep the chicken wing. Does he know how to preserve it?

[Lbpg]

1 minute ago, bluehibiscus said:

 

I find it interesting that they don’t use Joy of Life in the poster or the trailer but the hanyu pinyin Qing Yu Nian.

 

They also didn't sub any of the dialogue into English, but also used pinyin. It almost looks like a joke, but my Chinese friend that shared it with me seems to think it's legit. It definitely matches the tone of episode 1, which continues to be baffling to me. 

[frostflower14]

Can someone explain why the Vice Minister of Finance has control of the Red Robed Knights? Unless he also has a role in the Overwatch Department /assassin network/intelligence agency?

 

I haven’t finished reading the original novel yet, but my guess is that the drama changed the plot a little and the Emperor is Fan Xian’s biological father. So the Red Robed Knights were sent by him.

 

 

[tothestars]

Sigh... They delete all the videos on the official channel, ans also the engsub ones... But there are still raw videos rise from the falls up to ep 8.

 

Oh well I guess i have to wait for viki or netflix for the engsub, dont want to lose anything because i dont understand what they said... 

 

While waiting for the engsub, maybe i should read the novel first yeah?

[tothestars]

18 hours ago, Lbpg said:

I came into it expecting something totally different than what I saw in ep1. After reading Nightfall, I thought Joy of Life would be in a similar (read: more serious) vein, but the comedy surprised me. It shares a bit of the whole "man from another world/time" theme with Nightfall, but definitely executed much more clearly - Ever Night had little to no references, though I can't wait to see if the recurring reference to Hey Jude comes up in season 2.

 

So the novel is longer than Ever Night? They planned for 3 season wow.

[skibbies]

1 hour ago, epinklyn said:

 

So the novel is longer than Ever Night? They planned for 3 season wow.

smidge longer. 3.74 (Ever Night) & 3.81mil characters. It's average length for Qidian novels. Most of the long male protag novels haven't adapted super well into dramas. Mhm oh Minglan is 1.37mil and Fuyao is 1.34mil characters so length wise is pretty good. Probably less draggy too if they keep 45ish ep per season. 

 

Like @Lbpg, this was lot lighthearted than what I expected from an epic. That's fine though, it's far easier to get into comparatively, and I say that as someone who likes serious heavy drama. I really like how they wrote the beginning, since modern values is vital for this story. Liking all the jokes and most of the characters so far, they are all adorable. The novel IS serious but a lot of the name gags and obviously references are from the book, so the drama team purposely played up the comedy I think? (I haven't read the book, it's so loooong. so this is just what I gathered) 

[Lbpg]

2 hours ago, epinklyn said:

 

 

Never mind, I misunderstood 

[Lbpg]

2 hours ago, epinklyn said:

Sigh... They delete all the videos on the official channel, ans also the engsub ones... But there are still raw videos rise from the falls up to ep 8.

 

Oh well I guess i have to wait for viki or netflix for the engsub, dont want to lose anything because i dont understand what they said... 

 

While waiting for the engsub, maybe i should read the novel first yeah?

 

The link I posted in the spoiler above still works, though they only have the first two episodes subbed. 

 

Highly recommend reading anything Mao Ni. I thoroughly enjoyed Nightfall, and from the reviews this one should be good. The story starts quite differently from the drama but the premise is similar enough. 

[bluehibiscus]

11 hours ago, epinklyn said:

Sigh... They delete all the videos on the official channel, ans also the engsub ones... But there are still raw videos rise from the falls up to ep 8.

 

 

They didn’t delete the videos but changed the region access rights. Some company probably bought the rights for your region so the videos are not available to you.

[caranita]

12 hours ago, epinklyn said:

Sigh... They delete all the videos on the official channel, ans also the engsub ones... But there are still raw videos rise from the falls up to ep 8.

 

Oh well I guess i have to wait for viki or netflix for the engsub, dont want to lose anything because i dont understand what they said... 

 

While waiting for the engsub, maybe i should read the novel first yeah?

 

The link also doesn't work for me either, @epinklyn, but I found another one: 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

I hope that one works for you!

 

 

 

 

[tothestars]

11 hours ago, bluehibiscus said:

They didn’t delete the videos but changed the region access rights. Some company probably bought the rights for your region so the videos are not available to you

 

Ah you are right, i didnt notice the reason before LOL, thx a lot! I will use vpn hahaha

 

10 hours ago, caranita said:

hope that one works for you!

 

Still the same, region access right sigh... Vpn to rescue!!!

 

21 hours ago, skibbies said:

smidge longer. 3.74 (Ever Night) & 3.81mil characters. It's average length for Qidian novels. Most of the long male protag novels haven't adapted super well into dramas. Mhm oh Minglan is 1.37mil and Fuyao is 1.34mil characters so length wise is pretty good. Probably less draggy too if they keep 45ish ep per season. 

 

Wat is 3.74, 3.81, 1.34 mil character? I really love Minglan! 

[Lunkera]

@epinklyn It's the number chinese characters(letters) in the novel. Joy of Life / Story of Minglan /Ever Night are all based on the web novels

[Lbpg]

1 hour ago, epinklyn said:

 

Ah you are right, i didnt notice the reason before LOL, thx a lot! I will use vpn hahaha

 

 

Still the same, region access right sigh... Vpn to rescue!!!

 

 

Wat is 3.74, 3.81, 1.34 mil character? I really love Minglan! 

 

And just for context, the 3.74 mil characters translated to 1118 chapters in English, at roughly 8-9 pages per chapter for normal-ish print size. Originally I think it was 7 parts, something like that, and s1 of Ever Night roughly covered through chapter 485ish, so little less than half. 

 

Honestly that novel bulked up the character count through so much repetition, like they bulk up episode counts with innumerable flashback scenes. Same approach. 

 

I'm glad you could sort out the access to the videos, I hadn't thought of regional restrictions, oops 

[bluehibiscus]

On 11/27/2019 at 10:39 AM, BreezeC said:

Anyone know how many episodes are in season 1?

 

46

[purplefall94]

Does anyone find the props and cinematography here familiar? It feels as if the story being told is in the same world as Minglan's. 

[jewelsc]

Sometimes the music sound played behind this drama is a bit too modern especially the comedic part.. Kinda throw me off abit.

[jongski]

@angelangie Is this suppose to be something light or funny? I honesty don't know the novel.. chinese novels.  The way I choose what cdrama I watch is if I like the story and if actor is able to deliver.

 

Currently watching. I though I'm getting a heavy filled dark serious historical drama. It's light actually. To be fair I've just started episode 1 but.. man that slap from the kid.. that's comedy. The kid actor as Fan Xian character is funny smart.