Holy shit I did NOT see Lord Phoenixโs identity reveal coming - I anticipated Minister Gao or Agent An from the Intelligence Services but never in a million years Wu You Jue
I do have to admit that with how much hype this drama got, it did drag for a while in the middle for me for quite some time. The budget is clearly immense and it does make the immersive feel that much greater, similar to Ruyiโs Royal Love in the Palace in that regard
Also, the maltreatment of Liu Ran leading up to the latter-middle part of the drama was just hard to watch imo. The reasoning of protection as well as not wanting to let her become too attached to a relationship that isnโt mutual is very understanding from his perspective but it just felt bad every time their scenes would come up. At least it wasnโt as bad as the secondary leads of Novoland: Pearl Eclipse. Another thing is the nagging of Liu Ranโs character. She understandably wants to make every effort to support her husband and win his heart but I donโt think Iโve ever heard a word repeated so many times in a drama before. I felt like if I heard โErlangโ thrice followed up but being blatantly ignored one more time, I was honestly just going to start skipping the scenes. I loved Song Yiโs character as Fan Ruo Ruo in Joy of Life but the use of her characterโs persistence to further emphasize Baili Hong Yiโs dynamic character couldโve been done better imo. It felt a lot better once Hong Yi started to show even slight care for her though
I'm enjoying Luoyang so far. Very good lead performances, great sets, and an above-average plotline (a few logical leaps here and there, but nothing too distracting). It's similar in concept but not in execution to Longest Day in Chang'an - Chang'an, to me, was a realistic political and social drama in the form of a thriller, while Luoyang is more of a straight-up, character-driven thriller with a well-constructed historical setting. I'm happy with how Luoyang has developed each of the leads, building out enough personality to understand their basic motivations and interactions. And the overall tone seems right - while serious, it's not too heavy and allows some room for lighter moments, but they never seem goofy or out of place.
I also like the pacing. The drama doesn't waste a lot of time cleaning up loose ends, and if something mysterious is introduced, there's generally at least some progress made on explaining it before too long.
If you've been watching too, what do you think so far?
"LuoYang" is an ancient Chinese suspense drama that is being serialized. In this play, the ancient Chinese buildings are very magnificent, and the costumes are very beautiful! The plot of the TV series is also very attractive! I highly recommend friends who like to watch Chinese dramas to watch it on iQiyi North America!
2 episodes in and nothing has been set up, but things keep happening at a rapid pace ... a whole set of characters has been thrown at me but their motivations or anything are just not revealed to us ... the show wants me to understand the stakes are high but I just don't feel it because I didn't have time to get to know and care about the characters ...
Does this show get better or is it an endless stream of now this, now this, now this, now this ... ?
I'm watching Luoyang, which I love! One thing bothered me though. I would read Hongyi on the subtitles, but they would say Erlang. I wondered why and have found the answer at the link below.
His official name is Baili Hongyi. However, since he's the second brother (er = 2) they call him Erlang.
https://hinative.com/en-US/questions/20714940
Hi all,
I have finally finished Luoyang and it was probably the most intriguing drama I have watched this year, which is crazy because it's almost 2022. Anyhow, I have some thoughts on it and I need to get it all out lol
First off, the scenery and world-building of this drama are 10/10. I love the lights, the buildings, the costumes. So much detail (and money) was spent on this drama and it is obvious right from the first scene. Every building that the characters enter, from the restaurants to the mansions are immaculate. I expect nothing less from an end-of-year drama.
Secondly, the character's are not one dimensional. I appreciate the thought put into each character and how all of them display a dynamic range of emotion >!except Balli Hongyi, but I will get to that later.!<. All main/important characters have a reason for their actions and an over-all purpose that does not seem out of place within the drama itself.
The story was fast-paced, especially for a C-drama, and left no filler time or weird gaps in action. Sometimes, I even wished the action would slow down so I could mentally catch up to what was happening on screen.
This drama checked off so many boxes in my personal "makes a top drama" category, but there are also some flaws that I see as I end this story that leave me feeling a bit..... unresolved.
SPOILERS AHEAD (seriously mega-spoilers lol)
>!Liu Ran is a main character whose only attributes are fawning over her husband and getting mad at her brother. Her brother's only attribute was fawning over Peipei and getting angry/drunk. I would have loved to see her do some bad-ass fighting or scheming herself, but alas. Also, it is never shown that she is remorseful that her own brother essentially killed her best friend.!<
>!The fact that Gao Bingzhu's sister Tan is never actually found leads me to believe that there will be a second season, or at least a followup in the future. Also, we never know what becomes of Ruo'An or the others involved with the Four Season Clan. I am more than happy if a second season/followup happens and this as it leads me to my third point..... !<
>!I hate that Wu Siyue dies in such a "cheap" way! I know it is classic dramaland ending, but come onnnnnnn! So much build up of any amazing character only to result in dying while protecting her awful brother?! And poor Gao Bingzhu is left alone after finding the one person that makes him stay alive?! And then his only friends leave him
... keep reading on reddit โกVoicing my evolved opinions now that I've watched Luoyang through episode 31. I'm still sold on this drama, despite a few obvious flaws that many have pointed out. I think the basic framework of the drama (the mystery/thriller plotline) is very strong, and the progression of clues and discoveries has been logical and engaging. Coupled with generally strong lead performances (I'm impressed with all three and especially by Huang Xuan, who is fantastic) it makes for a very watchable and fun drama. Basically, if you take out everything else that the drama tries to be, and just consider it as a standalone mystery drama with a high production value, it's high-grade entertainment.
Another thing that I think is underrated is the "slice of life" aspect that shines forth in some of the subplots. The urban sets (mansions, restaurants, riverwalks, palace, etc.) are exceptionally well-done and whenever the drama delves into presenting historical context (cuisine, domestic life, etc.) it comes off as highly authentic, like there's real substance to what's being shown. Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true with the more down-to-earth settings - the "Unwelcome Well" especially seems oddly stylized, like not a place where oppressed folks would actually have lived in the Tang dynasty. Same goes for some of the homes where the seedier characters live - like I doubt a sinister monk-slash-secret agent, living on his own, would have an immaculately maintained mansion. The characterization of the non-elite characters in the drama, on the other hand, is a hidden gem. The Baili family butler, "Mr. Unsightly," and the >!original 16th Night are very well-acted, !<and if you watch carefully, you can pick up on some intriguing subtext from how the actors respond to the wackier goings-on among the aristocratic characters.>! The Baili butler's reaction to Liu Ran slapping her brother in the most recent episode is a memorable example of this. So is the seemingly intentional incongruity when Shen Fei gets slashed and all the elites ignore him, and are hugging it out wondering how one another are doing.!<
My biggest gripe with the drama is its inconsistency. You have a solid plot and leads, but then you also have these frustrating digressions into promising subplots that then taper off or just completely disappear, and resurface at weird times. For example, the empress' nephew is introduced as an important side character (what with his affair with the empress' aide) and then
... keep reading on reddit โก
My wife and I have been really enjoying this series so far. Viewers might recognize this is another Tang era Ma Boyong story, similar in vein to 2017's "The Longest Day in Chang'an". While I also greatly enjoyed "Longest Day", that show did suffer from some plot changes from the original novel to comply with somewhat ambiguous censorship requirements, and many of the character names of historical figures clearly had to be redubbed in post-production. That's not the case with "Luoyang", since the script was written with the censorship requirements in mind ahead of time. However, it's still a fun exercise to try and match some of the major characters with their historical counterparts. Here are my conclusions.
The Empress - Wu Zhao. This one is obvious, since how many other empresses regnant have there been in Chinese history? The writers also didn't even bother inventing a name for her, since at any given time the number of people who can refer to the emperor by name is countable on one hand (and that number get smaller as the emperor gets older).
Crown Prince Li Dun - Li Xian. In the show, the Crown Prince is described as a former emperor who was deposed, exiled, then recalled to the capital. This matches Li Xian's experience. It then follows that Crown Princess Du is the future Empress Wei, and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Li Lu (Princess Yongchuan) is Li Guo'er.
Wu Shenxing, Prince Jin - Wu Sansi. This one is also pretty obvious, from the character's name. The character was referred to as Wu Sanyu in early promotional materials, and if you look at the characters ไธๆ (sansi) vs ๆ ่ก (shenxing), their literal meanings are very similar.
Yang Huan - Shangguan Wan'er. The historical Shangguan Wan'er was Empress Wu's secretary and close confidant, a role similarly played by Yang Huan in the show. Her interactions with Prince Jin in EP13 are also a nod to Shangguan Wan'er's alleged affair with Wu Sansi despite being a consort of Li Xian.
Li Yichen, Prince Dongchuan - Li Longji. This one is a bit of a stretch, since Li Longji would've been less than 20 years old during the events of the show. But
... keep reading on reddit โกI hope this is an okay question to ask. Since the first episode, any of the fighters that were about to be compromised ended up biting on something or committing suicide in some way by mouth. I can't find any information on it and my google searches are bound to be getting more and more concerning.
Is there anyone that knows if this is actually something that used to happen in ancient days, or just something fabricated for a little on-screen magic?
I promise this is a purely academic question. I've just been wondering about it for 11 episodes. It's not explained at all.
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I am really liking LuoYang - the setting, the time period and the mystery aspect of it. Is there any danmei with all or some of LuoYang's elements in it ? Prefer historical and non-fantasy elements...
I especially like the dynamics of Lord Chu/An Baitan (as of ep 30) - if any danmei has that kind of a setting, please do share.
Thanks !
