- #1
it makes it sound like Zhou Yuhe died in the drama, but actually his then-boyfriend tried to kill him in a house fire but he caught on and turned it into a mu*der su*cide instead.
[collapse]It seems like ZY has a messy relationship history which just seems unnecessarily complicated. Timeline below to gather my thoughts.SpoilerAge 18 - debut?
Age 19 - dating CA, bad relationship, had to give up his resources for him bc same manager
Age 20 - from c43, seems to be when JC started to pursue ZY, but not yet dating
Age 22 - started dating JC? (C1 ZY mentions he's been following him since he was 22)
Age 31-34 - first fire, when JC tried to kill him off (15 years before c1 age)
Age 46-49 - c1 age, which seems way too old for movie emperor JC (c2 ZY mentions his "true age" was late 40s)
Honestly my biggest beef with this plot is that JC, who apparently despised ZY, spent at least 9 years (!!!) dating him before trying to kill him, and then spent another 15 years (!!!) still dating him! That's way too much dedication to someone you hate, just break up after like the first year! Hot damn, this dumb as*hole deserves burning to death!
[collapse]I initially thought the premise of the plot wasn't that great because while the technical details are pretty extensive and well explained, the relationship with the different aspects of the industry (actor - director - staff - company - investor- etc) seems somewhat imbalanced and unrealistic. However, it's actually really well written with a lot of emphasis on acting as an actual occupation. The focus is less on the shooting itself, like in usual entertainment industry novels, but instead is more about the background and aftermath of filming. The description of the first audition was very well done and you can actually get a sense of "wow, this is pretty good acting!" (unlike other stories where it's sh*t like "He laid down on the bed prop on the stage- amazing! The other actors didn't even notice the bed!"), but the author tends to just go on and on when praising ZY's acting. It does pay off later on though, when ZY 'aura' and great acting comes back to bite him in the ass when trying to take a serious literary role. On that note, I think it's great how even though it seems like things always go well for ZY, the good always ends up leading to some kind of backlash that ZY will then have to work hard to overcome again.The characters are all pretty well written, they're not completely 2D. ZY makes me think of really well-done protagonist in a villainess/villainess transmigration manga. He's no pure hearted youth, he's shrewd and a little bullheaded, serious and studious but also has a hidden passion (most visible in the mu*der su*cide in c1 and his love for his friends (or rather, 1 friend and 1 future bf). While he starts off very skilled, he's still shown actively maintaining his skills and there's a surprising amount of character growth moments. He doesn't always have the upper hand, and sometimes he gets stuck but he strives to get through it because he doesn't want to repeat his first life of missed chances.ML is somewhat interesting but bland. When he's onscreen, I think he and ZY are cute couple goals, but as soon as he goes away I lose interest. I despise JC (the bf from c1), but I think his and ZY's relationship is more compelling and has a lot of room for tension and growth. Lowkey I'd be interested in a lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers AU with those two.The writing is surprisingly really good at keeping track of small details, like the date and timeline. It was confusing at first, and the dating timeline still frustrates me a bit, but the events actually line up pretty well. The timeline is mentioned fairly often- the interview where someone reminds ZY that he's currently 19 and a recent graduate; the year going from 2014 to 2015; the mentions of stuff like "the so and so back in this year was like this", like mentioning how 2014 era CP fans were less toxic and more casual than now because back then it was more likely to just not be real; etc. Very nice touches.This part is for TL issues, which I try not to affect my ratings but I still want to include:SpoilerThe TL is good enough, but really in need of an editor. It's still readable, it just bothers me. For example, in the early chapters a series introduced as "Spy 2" was suddenly changed to "Intelligence 2", and since the TL note was at the end I spent the entire chapter confused. Later on, there's a section where it's listing things and the numbering isn't formatted uniformly (It's done as "1. (2) Third"). There's the whole "cultivation IP TLed as fairy chivalry" thing which sounds like a literal translation of some kind of term (from the description of the show, pretty sure it was probably wuxia or something). It's small things, but they can really take you out of the moment.
[collapse]I MTLed after c97 and realized MTL is actually really bad, I can understand the story itself but the plot of the movies are beyond me.