[Mainland Chinese Web Drama 2020] Three Lives Three Worlds The Pillow Book 三生三世枕上书

[jimmylyne]

@redfoxprincess @chubby^green^ @Sisca_TVXQ

You guys are so entertainingly hilarious..Love all the posts..

@ForgottenSoulx20bil views?? finger-crossed for that and also a good/high rating.

 

@redfoxprincess

Ye Hua's hair??..Lol..it's remind me one of your old post....about...your husband says that Vengo's beard(in TMOPB) look like armpit hair or even worse hair from further down.....LMAO!!

P:S  Awwww..your son is so super cute!...adorable!

[ForgottenSoulx]

2 hours ago, jimmylyne said:

@redfoxprincess @chubby^green^ @Sisca_TVXQ

You guys are so entertainingly hilarious..Love all the posts..

@ForgottenSoulx20bil views?? finger-crossed for that and also a good/high rating.

 

@redfoxprincess

Ye Hua's tranny hair?? cringeworthy ..Lol..it's remind me one of your old post....about...your husband says that Vengo's beard(in TMOPB) look like armpit hair or even worse hair from further down.....LMAO!!

P:S  Awwww..your son is so super cute!...adorable!

I think it's possible this drama is incredibly hyped. 

[Lena Lu]

I agree with @chubby^green^! Mark Chao is the better Ye Hua, only because he’s a much better actor though. Yang Yang makes me love him anyway though just because he’s so darn pretty. I think he could’ve played an awesome Donghua because it’s sinilar to Xiao Nai from Love O2O, but the chemistry between Weiguang and Dilreba is too good!! As a fellow wearer of only black and sometimes looking like a swamp monster, I loved Mark’s costuming, crow outfit included. I want that coat LOL. What I didn’t like was his final episode outfit with the flowers. WTF man. Anyway, I love Yang Yang as much as the next person and he was perfect in Love O2O, but I felt that when he acts, he tries to maintain his prettiness so sometimes he doesn’t emote as much as I would like. He’s very good at the playful, flirty, cooler than everyone character, but I didn’t like his portrayal of an angsty Ye Hua. Also the movie was just all over the place in terms of plot so there’s also that. I like Mark’s ugly crying a lot, but didn’t love the hair down scenes. I think he actually looked better as Mo Yuan, but he portrayed such raw emotions as Ye Hua so I loved him anyway. 

 

Also not to be a downer, but the word “tranny” is very derogatory and hurtful to marginalized groups of people. I think we should avoid using it if possible as there are other words we can use that aren’t slurs. 

[aryamine]

Aww. Love all the gifs. Is it weird that I think the one with red actually looks like Reba?

Regarding acting, I'm not worried at all. They already acted Eternal Love together and it was perfect. Vengo has to explore different personalities though, since he's playing more than just DongHua but let's have a little faith.

[ftmhling]

19 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

 

Really ? I thought they are perfect as Ye hua and Bai qian, my friend refuse to accept Mark as Ye hua because he's not as handsome as Yang yang LOL

 

@ftmhling

I bought them directly at malaysia or if you prefer online you could try ebay/yesasia. For books I think you better buy from Periplus, amazon's shipping cost is too expensive 

Btw, I accidently bought original Eternal love Dvd twice, if you're interested PM me ok ? 

 

Thanks. Pm’ed you:)

[jimmylyne]

6 hours ago, aryamine said:

Aww. Love all the gifs. Is it weird that I think the one with red actually looks like Reba?

Regarding acting, I'm not worried at all. They already acted Eternal Love together and it was perfect. Vengo has to explore different personalities though, since he's playing more than just DongHua but let's have a little faith.

The one with red IS actually Fengjiu/Reba..

 

I believe in GuangRe(Vengo/Reba)..they will do well.

 

We already know how perfectly great they're together..

[chubby^green^]

 

siming and fengjiu lor hahaha

i dunno what is this all about aside from dilraba looking nice and i almost didnt recognize siming (i need to learn his real name and stop calling him siming, hahaha)

not as unrecognizable as he is from "pretty lee hui zen" though

 

ah i want them to start promoting pillow book already (do webdrama get to do promotion too?)

but then again

its not like i can understand anything they talk but would be nice to see them all interact

hahaha

[redfoxprincess]

20 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

LOL I'm also a chinese descendant who was born and grew up in Indonesia and cant speak chinese, can you ?

In my era (I sound so old LOL) on several forums if you get the 'Top post' you have to share some goodies LOL. Its not a written rules or something, just something to make the page pretty I guess ? 

I was obsessed with hong kong and taiwanese dramas most of my life, and more recently, chinese dramas. My family was traditional. So yes, fluent in speaking cantonese and mandarin. Reading is not so good though, and writing is abysmal haha. I have tried to read 10MPB & The Pillow Book in chinese, but only could manage to understand it because i read it in english first.  Thanks for explaining the top post thingy ~ i will keep it in mind!

 

20 hours ago, jimmylyne said:

@redfoxprincess @chubby^green^ @Sisca_TVXQ

You guys are so entertainingly hilarious..Love all the posts..

 

@redfoxprincess

..Lol..it's remind me one of your old post....about...your husband says that Vengo's beard(in TMOPB) look like armpit hair or even worse hair from further down.....LMAO!!

P:S  Awwww..your son is so super cute!...adorable!

I look forward to your posts too! Love your sense of humour and how familiar you are with the details of the book! Yes... vengo’s beard... i couldn’t believe how different he looked as Dong Hua and the beardy Emperor! 

 

Haha thankyou - my cutie boy knows he’s cute and gets away with everything... 

 

12 hours ago, Lena Lu said:

I agree with @chubby^green^! Mark Chao is the better Ye Hua, only because he’s a much better actor though. Yang Yang makes me love him anyway though just because he’s so darn pretty. I think he could’ve played an awesome Donghua because it’s sinilar to Xiao Nai from Love O2O, but the chemistry between Weiguang and Dilreba is too good!! As a fellow wearer of only black and sometimes looking like a swamp monster, I loved Mark’s costuming, crow outfit included. I want that coat LOL. What I didn’t like was his final episode outfit with the flowers. WTF man. Anyway, I love Yang Yang as much as the next person and he was perfect in Love O2O, but I felt that when he acts, he tries to maintain his prettiness so sometimes he doesn’t emote as much as I would like. He’s very good at the playful, flirty, cooler than everyone character, but I didn’t like his portrayal of an angsty Ye Hua. Also the movie was just all over the place in terms of plot so there’s also that. I like Mark’s ugly crying a lot, but didn’t love the hair down scenes. I think he actually looked better as Mo Yuan, but he portrayed such raw emotions as Ye Hua so I loved him anyway. 

 

Also not to be a downer, but the word “tranny” is very derogatory and hurtful to marginalized groups of people. I think we should avoid using it if possible as there are other words we can use that aren’t slurs. 

Oh i LOVED SEXY shifu Mo Yuan!!!  Sigh... but Ye Hua... no thanks.  I know i know... i’m nuts... how can the same person give me such different feeeeeels?!?!

 

YES YES, that’s exactly my thoughts! Xiao Nai from Love O2O is modern-day Dong Hua! That’s why i couldn’t help but imagine him as Dong Hua. His game character outfit just needed white hair and voila! I’m all for my pretty boy Yang Yang, he’s my eye candy...  So i’m very ok with him maintaining his prettiness! 

 

Mark’s acting felt overblown for me, especially considering how reserved the book described Ye Hua to be. But i know many appreciated his acting and portrayal of emotions. I felt he was a bit too theatrical for my liking, and maybe that’s why i liked Mo Yuan - oh, and his topknot!

 

Thanks for the kind reminder about my choice of term. I’m sorry if i offended or hurt anyone here. I meant no malice. I merely meant that Mark Chao’s long wig, when let down, made him look like a drag queen. Here in Australia, the term ‘tranny’ is mostly used interchangeably by the drag queen community and probably isn’t as sensitive as it is in other parts of the world - we love our drag queens. ‘Trans’ is more commonly used by the LGBTQIA community in general. I guess it’s all just part of life here, and i’m from Sydney - the home of Mardi Gras - and we are proud. 

[chubby^green^]

15 hours ago, Lena Lu said:

I agree with @chubby^green^! Mark Chao is the better Ye Hua, only because he’s a much better actor though.

yes, i actually find myself in tune with ye hua and responded with his display of emotion as ye hua, cant say much about mo yuan since he is quite stoic hahaha

that's why i think i adore mark chao's portray of ye hua, he nails the emotion part quite well

and aso i dont think his crying ugly, i find it very heartbreaking

 

15 hours ago, Lena Lu said:

As a fellow wearer of only black and sometimes looking like a swamp monster, I loved Mark’s costuming, crow outfit included. I want that coat LOL.

i like his attire as well

suited his somber mood in the drama

still think it looks like swamp monster since it sorta engulfed ye hua whole most of the time, and that guy is quite big himself hahaha

 

and i'm also sorry about the word 'tranny'

i dont think much about it before and was focused so much on his hair that i may overlooked how bad that word is

 

and i still find him and that gorgeous hair of his is sexy especially when he is bed

lor hahaha

 

7 hours ago, jimmylyne said:

I believe in GuangRe(Vengo/Reba)..they will do well.

We already know how perfectly great they're together..

i have faith in both of them too

they look great together and their chemistry together is amazing

even before they were dongfeng, they already felt perfect together

 

anyway any news abut the movie version of pillow book

i dont think i will be watching

i am quite loyal with my characters and since this is my chosen dongfeng kinda hard to have anyone else playing that part

but still

i am curious about whom will play dongeng in movie

 

maybe the movie donghua will look like 23 hahaha

 

23 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

And Dong Hua’s supposed to look only 23. Vengo does portray a more mature Dong Hua but i like him too.

i dunno whether it is being influenced by watching vengo as donghua 

but i cant see donghua with the face of 23 years old hahaha

seems lacking in term of life experience that donghua had if he is too young in look and features

even when i read the book, i always felt even though donghua is young, he would still be brimming with life experiences and his devoid of emotion and i dunno how 23 year old would express that and still looking very young

so older donghua like in 26 above would be better for me than young donghua

weird i know

it's probably just me hahaha

[redfoxprincess]

1 hour ago, chubby^green^ said:

so older donghua like in 26 above would be better for me than young donghua

weird i know

it's probably just me hahaha

Yes, i get what you mean.  However, Yang Yang is 26, but Vengo is 35 and sometimes i feel he looks even older than that... i also read the book without the influence of Eternal Love’s Vengo in mind. I kind of imagined a bit of a Twilight vampire situation (hehe @jimmylyne) so young face but old soul. 

 

1 hour ago, chubby^green^ said:

anyway any news abut the movie version of pillow book

i dont think i will be watching

i am quite loyal with my characters and since this is my chosen dongfeng kinda hard to have anyone else playing that part

Really? You’ve written it off already without knowing anything about it?  Not going to even give it a chance? I’m passionate about the story and characters, not necessarily the celebrity actors. So i’m really looking forward to the film version too and seeing their take on it. It is still our beloved DongFeng.  All adaptations are unique so there’s more to look forward to if you keep your options open.

[Sisca_TVXQ]

5 hours ago, chubby^green^ said:

i dunno whether it is being influenced by watching vengo as donghua 

but i cant see donghua with the face of 23 years old hahaha

seems lacking in term of life experience that donghua had if he is too young in look and features

even when i read the book, i always felt even though donghua is young, he would still be brimming with life experiences and his devoid of emotion and i dunno how 23 year old would express that and still looking very young

so older donghua like in 26 above would be better for me than young donghua

weird i know

it's probably just me hahaha

 

Nope, I think so too, not because of Vengo but maybe I have a thing for older men LOL

I found Mo yuan sexier than Ye hua 

 

And from novel description Dong hua is really tall and maybe looks different from the the other immortals, like a different species if that make sense  

So thats why I think Vengo is perfect, he is tall, and did not look chinese

Someone did mention about vic ? I dont think he could pass for Dong hua, first he is not very tall, and his face is to soft for me (Its his jawline I think)

And for Yang yang, I think he's too pretty to be Dong hua LOL and too young, I agree with @chubby^green^ young actors would seems lacking in life experiences...

[redfoxprincess]

11 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

but maybe I have a thing for older men LOL

& I’m a cradle-snatcher... 

 

11 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

Someone did mention about vic ? I dont think he could pass for Dong hua, first he is not very tall, and his face is to soft for me (Its his jawline I think)

Ok, in his defense, Vic is 180cm. That’s pretty tall for a chinese man, and that’s Mark Chao and Yang Yang’s height too. It’s just that our man Vengo is 191cm - he is not of this world!  And that’s one of many things that makes Vengo a ‘cut above the rest’ (pun intended) to be Dong Hua. Btw Vic has put on weight. He was so skinny and therefore a lot more chiselled around the jawline back in his heyday almost 2 decades ago (Meteor Garden, God Mars).

[jimmylyne]

12 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

Nope, I think so too, not because of Vengo but maybe I have a thing for older men LOL

I found Mo yuan sexier than Ye hua 

At first when I watched TMOPB I thought it's was a love story between Bai Qian and Mo Yan ( l didn't read TMOPB book so I didn't know) so i was a little disappointed a bit that her fate was not with Mo Yan..but after that surprisingly I also like Ye Hua too.

 

@redfoxprincess cradle - snatcher?? My hubby was 4 yrs younger than me..does it mean I'm also a cradle snatcher lol.

 

Vengo 191cm 36yrs old . Reba 169cm 27yrs old(9 yrs different - I like their age gap tho). Their height difference was perfect and their attractiveness/beauty is perfect/matched.

Without a doubts. Vengo/Reba is a our perfect DongFeng ( pun intended).

[chubby^green^]

20 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

Yes, i get what you mean.  However, Yang Yang is 26, but Vengo is 35 and sometimes i feel he looks even older than that... i also read the book without the influence of Eternal Love’s Vengo in mind. I kind of imagined a bit of a Twilight vampire situation (hehe @jimmylyne) so young face but old soul. 

ah he is that old already

well not old as in old...

i mean he is at that age already wow

hahaha

 

no comment on twilight

 

20 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

Really? You’ve written it off already without knowing anything about it?  Not going to even give it a chance?

i'm the type that choose my actress first before i choose my drama

has been like that for my whole life , no matter what genre i always have one fav actress that i will follow to the end and i watched every single one of it, chinese, taiwanese, hokkien, hongkong (for sure, i grow up with tvb and atv dramas), thailand and many more

but i will wait for now and who knows maybe the casts would be to my liking 

but seeing how people keep saying once upon a time butchered the novel as in the story being compacted too much (not the casts)

i am a lil apprehensive about pillow book the movie too

since i enjoy a lil too much every bits of the book and to have it being chopped and skewed left and right wont be nice i think

 

16 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

Nope, I think so too, not because of Vengo but maybe I have a thing for older men LOL

I found Mo yuan sexier than Ye hua 

yup, the same

i prefered the chiseled aged face rather than the pretty youthful face

hahaha

 

16 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

Someone did mention about vic ?

that would be me i think

and when i mention vic i didnt think about his look or his height

his way of acting is always to act with his face and seeing how donghua usually doesn't say much only his face tells a thousand stories that's why i thought of vic, he is good at expressing emotion through his eyes and facial features

and also the fact i seriously dunno much about chinese actors hence my option is rather limited hahaha

 

6 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

Ok, in his defense, Vic is 180cm. That’s pretty tall for a chinese man, and that’s Mark Chao and Yang Yang’s height too. It’s just that our man Vengo is 191cm - he is not of this world! 

i was about to say that vic is not that short, actually he is not short

just that our vengo is too tall, well actually he is tall hahaha

but damn 191 cm, like seriously

thank god dilraba is quite tall too

so they look good together

 

16 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

I agree with @chubby^green^ young actors would seems lacking in life experiences...

they need to go through a few heavenly trials first to come to at least bits of donghua's grace and charisma

hahaha

[redfoxprincess]

7 hours ago, chubby^green^ said:

but seeing how people keep saying once upon a time butchered the novel as in the story being compacted too much (not the casts)

Hmm, I think they did a pretty good job, considering it’s an artistic film adaption with its own interpretation of the story, which means it wouldn’t have been reasonable anyway to expect that they flesh out the whole story like a drama, albeit in 1 hour & 40 minutes. In many ways, I thought the film was better than the drama - it felt a lot less soapy, its cinematography, CGI & SFX was amazing, the entire cast was truer to the book’s descriptions, Ah Li was super cute & chubby, and the simplified storyline made a lot of people’s wishes come true by:

Spoiler

1. Removing Li Jing so that Ye Hua is Bai Qian’s first love

2. Making Mo Yuan & Ye Hua the same person (not twins)

While it’s perfectly fine to have preferences, I think many of the ways people compare the drama & the film, then bash the film because they expect it to be like the drama rather than appreciating it for what it is, is not really fair. I hope you get to watch the film some time and enjoy it for what it is, because it’s really beautiful. Its storytelling wasn’t great because it left many people confused, but I also think that people didn’t really try to understand how it wanted to differentiate itself. The interesting consensus is that people who didn’t know the story before watching the film actually had no problem understanding it. It’s the people who expect it to be just like the drama who couldn’t interpret and appreciate it with a fresh and unbiased mind.

[Sisca_TVXQ]

52 minutes ago, redfoxprincess said:

 

  Hide contents

1. Removing Li Jing so that Ye Hua is Bai Qian’s first love

2. Making Mo Yuan & Ye Hua the same person (not twins)

 

 

Yes the CGI is really good, and the customes is beautiful (except zhe yan's LOL) maybe because the budget is bigger.

1. Li jing is awesome at the start, but after that he keep brooding and everytime he's on screen its always 'Si yin...Si yin...' He's more annoying than Feng jiu (on Drama)

2. Ooh so that means I'm not confused about the ending, they really make them the same person...

I watched the movie first but because my friend already told me before about Bai qian and Ye hua, that why the ending confused me...

 

Yes IMO the drama is to draggy, no need to flesh out the villain's character too much, I thought Su jin have too much screen time 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2019 by Sisca_TVXQ

[redfoxprincess]

22 minutes ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

 

Yes the CGI is really good, and the customes is beautiful (except zhe yan's LOL) maybe because the budget is bigger.

1. Yes, Li jing is awesome at the start, but after that he keep brooding and everytime he's on screen its always 'Si yin...Si yin...' He's more annoying than Feng jiu (on Drama)

2. Ooh so that means I'm not confused about the ending, they really make them the same person...

I watched the movie first but because my friend already told me before about Bai qian and Ye hua, that why the ending confused me...

 

Yes IMO the drama is to draggy, no need to flesh out the villain's character too much, I thought Su jin have too much screen time 

I read the books first, then watched the film, then watched the drama. Yes, I thought no. 2 was a good and clever change, but unfortunately it could have been better executed so that people weren’t so confused. I totally agree that the drama dragged - especially the extended Li Jing/Xuan Nu/dead baby and the older brother plot which I felt was boring and unnecessary. While Zhi Lan & Yan Zhi were cute, their story also dragged. And 100% agree Su Jin had too much air time, especially in the first arc when they extended the plot to say she was useful in pacifying the Elders, went travelling with Ye Hua, and even went to war against the mermaid clan (LOL does she even know how to wield a weapon?! Ridiculous!) - again, I felt it was so boring, unnecessary and overinflated her importance. Really the best thing to come out of the drama was the visuals and chemistry created by Reba & Vengo, setting them up to be the perfect REAL FJ & DH in this upcoming drama... 

[chubby^green^]

i guess for now my main focus is pillow book

even though it hasnt been aired yet

let's just stick to one for now

hahaha

2 hours ago, Sisca_TVXQ said:

Yes IMO the drama is to draggy, no need to flesh out the villain's character too much, I thought Su jin have too much screen time 

that's is worrying for me too even for pillow book drama

as i said before i dont mind watching only dongfeng for the majority drama's screentime

what if they give jiheng more screen time and making her or at least try to make her more likeable or something

that would be so annoying

sighs

 

2 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

Really the best thing to come out of the drama was the visuals and chemistry created by Reba & Vengo, setting them up to be the perfect REAL FJ & DH in this upcoming drama... 

this i have to 100% agree

the best outcome from the drama is their chemistry and visual

hahaha

 

i like the idea of ye hua being bai qian's first love instead of lijing, though i dont mind if her first love is  not ye hua

is not the first that matter its the last one hahaha

but i dont think i like the idea of ye hua and mo yuan being the same person

then again i didnt watch the movie maybe it is better that way for the movie

 

 

 

[Lena Lu]

On 1/8/2019 at 10:48 PM, redfoxprincess said:

Oh i LOVED SEXY shifu Mo Yuan!!!  Sigh... but Ye Hua... no thanks.  I know i know... i’m nuts... how can the same person give me such different feeeeeels?!?!

 

YES YES, that’s exactly my thoughts! Xiao Nai from Love O2O is modern-day Dong Hua! That’s why i couldn’t help but imagine him as Dong Hua. His game character outfit just needed white hair and voila! I’m all for my pretty boy Yang Yang, he’s my eye candy...  So i’m very ok with him maintaining his prettiness! 

 

Mark’s acting felt overblown for me, especially considering how reserved the book described Ye Hua to be. But i know many appreciated his acting and portrayal of emotions. I felt he was a bit too theatrical for my liking, and maybe that’s why i liked Mo Yuan - oh, and his topknot!

 

Thanks for the kind reminder about my choice of term. I’m sorry if i offended or hurt anyone here. I meant no malice. I merely meant that Mark Chao’s long wig, when let down, made him look like a drag queen. Here in Australia, the term ‘tranny’ is mostly used interchangeably by the drag queen community and probably isn’t as sensitive as it is in other parts of the world - we love our drag queens. ‘Trans’ is more commonly used by the LGBTQIA community in general. I guess it’s all just part of life here, and i’m from Sydney - the home of Mardi Gras - and we are proud. 

 

I see your point about Mark’s Ye Hua, but it’s endearing to me. Granted, I watched half the drama first, and then read the books to know the ending before finishing the drama so I already had Mark in my mind as Ye Hua. He is dramatic, but he didn’t feel cheesy to me. The scenes felt really raw and powerful due to his pivotal emotional scenes. I think he still showed that he was reserved in scenes outside of Bai Qian. 

 

Also loved Mo Yuan! I fall in love with him every time. I do like Mo Yuan’s stoicness more, but with how much censorship drama Bai Qian got with her casual sexual advances, if Ye Hua wasn’t portrayed as more forward, it would’ve taken them 200 episodes to be together. 

 

As far as the word “tranny,” my reason for pointing it out is because it’s different from the word “trans,” at least in the US. Tranny is a derogatory version of trans and is only used as a slur in the US. Also, using the word trans / tranny as an adjective to describe “ugly cross dresser” was more what I wanted to highlight as problematic. Thank you so much for respectfully responding to my concerns though. I was really worried about offending people, but I’m a huge advocate for LGBT+ issues so I just wanted to bring attention to word usage. 

 

On 1/9/2019 at 1:53 AM, chubby^green^ said:

yes, i actually find myself in tune with ye hua and responded with his display of emotion as ye hua, cant say much about mo yuan since he is quite stoic hahaha

that's why i think i adore mark chao's portray of ye hua, he nails the emotion part quite well

and aso i dont think his crying ugly, i find it very heartbreaking

 

i like his attire as well

suited his somber mood in the drama

still think it looks like swamp monster since it sorta engulfed ye hua whole most of the time, and that guy is quite big himself hahaha

 

and i'm also sorry about the word 'tranny'

i dont think much about it before and was focused so much on his hair that i may overlooked how bad that word is

 

and i still find him and that gorgeous hair of his is sexy especially when he is bed

lor hahaha

 

i have faith in both of them too

they look great together and their chemistry together is amazing

even before they were dongfeng, they already felt perfect together

 

I like an actor that can ugly cry genuinely. It resonated with me as well! His costuming is a bit swamp monster, but I like that LOL. Still want that crow cape. But also, I work in fashion so I like that kind of wild, avant garde design. I will also admit that his hair down was U G L Y, but I just wanted to point out that we shouldn’t make terms referring to groups of people be synonymous with “ugly.” Though, I can get over my aversion to his hair when he’s in bed. HAHA. I much prefer my drama men in top knots though so Mo Yuan is dreamyyyyyy. 

 

3 hours ago, redfoxprincess said:

Hmm, I think they did a pretty good job, considering it’s an artistic film adaption with its own interpretation of the story, which means it wouldn’t have been reasonable anyway to expect that they flesh out the whole story like a drama, albeit in 1 hour & 40 minutes. In many ways, I thought the film was better than the drama - it felt a lot less soapy, its cinematography, CGI & SFX was amazing, the entire cast was truer to the book’s descriptions, Ah Li was super cute & chubby, and the simplified storyline made a lot of people’s wishes come true by:

  Reveal hidden contents

1. Removing Li Jing so that Ye Hua is Bai Qian’s first love

2. Making Mo Yuan & Ye Hua the same person (not twins)

While it’s perfectly fine to have preferences, I think many of the ways people compare the drama & the film, then bash the film because they expect it to be like the drama rather than appreciating it for what it is, is not really fair. I hope you get to watch the film some time and enjoy it for what it is, because it’s really beautiful. Its storytelling wasn’t great because it left many people confused, but I also think that people didn’t really try to understand how it wanted to differentiate itself. The interesting consensus is that people who didn’t know the story before watching the film actually had no problem understanding it. It’s the people who expect it to be just like the drama who couldn’t interpret and appreciate it with a fresh and unbiased mind.

 

I don’t like it when a film is based off a source media and then change everything about it. It didn’t have to be like the drama, but I felt that too many main things were changed from the books. 

 

Spoiler

I did like the plot point of Moyuan and YeHua being the same person because I love both. It’s a total win-win situation and an original twist to the “three lives” aspect of the story. 

 

I think the CGI and costuming is superb, though it was almost too fantasy-like for my personal tastes. Movies typically have better CGI because they’re so short so they can afford more intensive CGI work so I won’t hold the CGI against the drama. I think I will go rewatch the movie sometime this week to see if my opinions have changed. Maybe I’ll like it more now! My one critique is how short it is. Even 20 minutes would’ve made it better with just a bit more depth. Most movies in the US are longer than 2 hours with way less world building required. 

[redfoxprincess]

5 hours ago, Lena Lu said:

I don’t like it when a film is based off a source media and then change everything about it. It didn’t have to be like the drama, but I felt that too many main things were changed from the books. 

I actually felt the film, despite being so short, captured the feel and essence of the books a lot more, and the characters were more true to character, both visually and personality-wise. And accordingly, i felt it was the drama that tried to change things up way too much and added way too much.

 

5 hours ago, Lena Lu said:

Also, using the word trans / tranny as an adjective to describe “ugly cross dresser” was more what I wanted to highlight as problematic.

...

I will also admit that his hair down was U G L Y, but I just wanted to point out that we shouldn’t make terms referring to groups of people be synonymous with “ugly.”

First things first, i did NOT use the word ‘tranny’ to describe ‘ugly cross dresser’. How did you jump to this and how/why are cross-dressers ugly? I used the word ‘tranny’ (in the ‘drag queen’ sense) to describe Ye Hua’s wig. I said I laughed at his hair. I said his crying face was ugly. So i didn’t say it before, but i’ll say it now: his hair was ugly too. I’ve said it many times and i’ll happily say it again: I think the way they styled Mark Chao as Ye Hua in Eternal Love was in every way UGLY from head to toe - hair, robes, underwear, swamp monster jacket - ALL UGLY. In behind-the-scenes footage, even the (female) director kept laughing and telling him he looked too ugly to be Ye Hua! But Yang Mi said she loved his wig!

 

I hate getting overly politically correct though, for the very reason that this has already highlighted: terms are used differently in different countries and cultures. The term ‘tranny’ originated here in Sydney, Australia, and you can read more about it here and here, but i was using it in the more recent ‘drag queen’/‘Tranny Bingo’ sense. So while ‘tranny’ is offensive in your mind because of its usage and connotations in the US, all i thought was ‘he looks like a drag queen’. Yes, i thought Ye Hua’s hair down was ugly. But i also think men in drag are downright ugly. I don’t consider ‘drag queens’ to be a ‘group of people’ but rather a ‘style’ - a style/look/fashion expression for entertainment purposes that i happen to think is ugly (entertaining, but ugly). Since you work in fashion, surely, you must find some fashion ugly and some not, right? It’s got absolutely NOTHING to do with LGBTQIA. In fact, transgender persons would be the first to want to distinguish themselves from drag queen entertainers.

 

I also want to speak up for those who are not on the same page with LGBT+ issues - it’s absolutely okay to have a different opinion, and it’s absolutely okay to laugh at the fact that Ye Hua looked like a drag queen.

 

Considering perhaps many of you are in Asian countries, maybe you didn’t think of drag queens, but you thought of the ‘ladyboy’ entertainers in Thailand - that, to me, is also a very iconic ‘look’ for entertainment purposes, and I see no problem with thinking that is ugly either. Or maybe you think Thai ladyboys are gorgeous (I certainly do and boy am I envious - pun intended), but Ye Hua with ladyboy hair - not so much! There’s something about his really, really long, straight, rigid, obvious, fake-as wig that is so incredibly unsettling, that distinctly reminds me of the kind of over-the-top (pun intended) fake-as wigs drag queens and ladyboys use, that looks so particularly terrible on Mark Chao in combination with all his terrible Eternal Love costumes, especially that final scene’s peach blossom robe!  Funnily enough, when Mo Yuan woke up and was wearing that same wig with a simple white robe, i thought he looked... sexy...  So what is it??? Maybe his beard balanced it out?! Yang Yang had his hair down in that Divine Fungal Grass Monster fight scene and i thought his long, flowing, windswept hair (wig) looked amazing! And his pretty face was as smooth and clean-shaven as a baby’s bum!

 

Hypothetically speaking, I don’t think it even makes any sense to call trans persons (transgender, transexual, transvestite) - as a supposed group of people - ‘ugly’, when their looks are as diverse as their gender identities, and I’m not sure there’s any aesthetic commonality that distinguishes them or can be used to generalise their appearances. I have a transgender cousin. Born female, he now looks just like any other balding, overweight middle-aged blokey bloke. So what?

 

But I digress... I will say no more. Back to DH & FJ!  Dare i say, i actually thought Vengo’s white wig in Eternal Love was rigid and boring. It was exactly like Liang Song’s hair but in white. It was a far cry from how I imagined those beautiful flowing silver tresses when reading the book and looking at the official pictorial album art. I am so thankful to see what looks to be a huge improvement in his white wig in the upcoming drama.