Latest / Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews / One and Only | Full C-drama Review / Ep. 106

Transcript

One and Only | Full C-drama Review / Ep. 106 · Daebak K-Rambles Podcast: K-drama Reviews

• 0:19
  I'm Jessica and this is Taifa K Rambles where a couple of
• 0:22
  friends review Korean dramas. Except today, Today we are going
• 0:26
  to review a Chinese drama, AC drama and I have Liliana from
• 0:32
  Tea and so do Asian drama podcast, My bestie, My drama
• 0:36
  trio bestie. It's 2/3 of the drama trio on
• 0:39
  today. Liliana, how are you?
• 0:42
  I am very good. Thank you.
• 0:43
  Very excited to talk about this one.
• 0:45
  It's been a hot minute since I, you know, talked about it, but
• 0:51
  I'm very excited to be here today.
• 0:54
  Thank you so much for saying yes to covering one and only.
• 0:59
  This is a Chinese drama that literally came to me because of
• 1:03
  you, because of your recommendation.
• 1:05
  It has been several years now that we have known each other
• 1:08
  and we have exchanged lots of recommendations between us
• 1:11
  because we know our tastes very well.
• 1:13
  And you have told me time and time again that I should watch
• 1:17
  one and only it is very, very angsty and that I would love it.
• 1:21
  And I'm here to say all of these things are true.
• 1:24
  Like this recommendation is a hot recommendation.
• 1:27
  Definitely, you know, cosine on it.
• 1:29
  And yes, I absolutely did love all of the angst and one and
• 1:33
  only it also toe me up. It is very, very tragic.
• 1:39
  So if that's not your speed, probably don't watch one and
• 1:43
  only. But how have you been?
• 1:46
  What have you been watching lately?
• 1:47
  If you want to recommend anything?
• 1:49
  And we were talking at length about the BTS comeback and how
• 1:54
  we're both excited to go see BTS this year, and that you've been
• 1:58
  making friendship bracelets as freebies for your London show
• 2:01
  that you're going to. What have you been watching?
• 2:05
  What's going on? I mean, you know, a pursuit of
• 2:09
  Jade, everybody and their mother is watching this show right now.
• 2:13
  And if you aren't, you absolutely should because
• 2:18
  goodness, it is a feast for the eyes in terms of cinematography.
• 2:23
  It's just so well shot. But also everybody just looks so
• 2:28
  good in this. And like this director, I feel
• 2:32
  like, you know, you look at somebody and you think he's
• 2:35
  really good looking, but then a director looks at somebody, puts
• 2:40
  them in front of the camera and he's like you're like, Oh my
• 2:43
  God, he's even better looking. Yeah, that's what I feel like
• 2:48
  this director has done, specially to Zhang Wing her.
• 2:51
  He's looking incredible. I mean, I don't even, I don't
• 2:56
  want to say too much because I don't want to spoil anything.
• 2:58
  I know you're about to press play on it, but I love it.
• 3:02
  But also, the men are great. But I have the biggest crush on
• 3:07
  the female lead on Tian Shi Wei, the biggest crush.
• 3:10
  She is just so courageous and so strong, both emotionally and
• 3:17
  physically. It's just like she's the best of
• 3:20
  both worlds. And I oh, yeah, I love her.
• 3:25
  So I think that procedure is probably, yeah.
• 3:29
  Yeah, I'm looking forward to pressing play.
• 3:31
  I am going to download as many episodes as as I can because in
• 3:34
  the next week I will be going on a big family vacation to Alaska.
• 3:40
  And so by the time you listen to this episode, I will be in
• 3:43
  negative temperatures. As I've stated many times on the
• 3:46
  show, I'm from Florida and so we're really scared of shitless
• 3:50
  of going to the interior of Alaska in March.
• 3:53
  We are looking to see the Aurora borealis, the Northern Lights.
• 3:57
  We have never seen that, obviously from Florida.
• 4:01
  So a lot of things I see activities that we have planned
• 4:04
  and that's what I will be doing when this episode drops.
• 4:08
  And I think going back to Pursuit of Jade, I will be
• 4:13
  watching it and then hopefully appearing on your podcast to
• 4:16
  chat through it and fan girl, hopefully, because I haven't
• 4:20
  seen it. Like I can't say for sure how I
• 4:22
  feel about it, but I am pretty sure that I will love it.
• 4:26
  So before we get into one and only if this is your first time
• 4:30
  listening, please go ahead and subscribe on your favorite
• 4:32
  podcast app or on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcast and many
• 4:36
  more. And if you like us, please give
• 4:38
  us a five star review on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
• 4:41
  Come check us out on social media to stay up to date on the
• 4:43
  latest episodes and reviews. You can find us on Instagram and
• 4:46
  TikTok at Debakpai DAEBAKPOD. And if you're a fan, please
• 4:52
  consider becoming a patron. It's such a great way for you to
• 4:54
  get involved, ensure your support.
• 4:56
  You can check out the page on patreon.com/tabakpod and shout
• 5:00
  out to my patrons, Curtis, Bale, Alana, Lorna, Sammy, Julia,
• 5:04
  number one, Caitlin, Tanmayi, Mataladelphia, Maria, Sarah,
• 5:07
  Pam, Julia #2, Nadira, Matthew, Lauda, Christine, and KB thank
• 5:13
  you guys for supporting the show.
• 5:15
  All right, so we're going to get into one and only as I said at
• 5:18
  the top. And here is your first spoiler
• 5:20
  warning because as is tradition on the Tabak podcast, Tabak K
• 5:25
  Rambles does not do a non spoiler and then a spoiler
• 5:29
  section for Chinese drama reviews.
• 5:31
  Maybe this is wrong, but this is an assumption that I have that
• 5:35
  if you're pressing play on a Chinese drama review, you've
• 5:38
  probably watched the C drama. So I think the bar for entry is
• 5:43
  a little higher for such episodes.
• 5:46
  And so we're going to get right into spoilers.
• 5:49
  There's not going to be a delineation here between non
• 5:52
  spoiler and spoiler. This is your big, big spoiler
• 5:55
  warning. All right, so I'm going to read
• 5:57
  the synopsis for one and only and get into a little bit of the
• 6:01
  cast and then boom, we're just going to get into it.
• 6:04
  I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready to go.
• 6:07
  When and Only follows the tragic love story of loyal general Zhou
• 6:11
  Sheng Chen and noblewoman Sui Shi Yi.
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  Raised by the emperor but devoted to protecting the realm,
• 6:18
  Zua Sheng Chen commands great respect yet lives under strict
• 6:21
  political expectations. Sui Shi Yi long promise to the
• 6:25
  Crown Prince, grows up within the constraints of court duty
• 6:29
  and family alliances. When shifting palace politics
• 6:32
  alters her engagement, she is sent to study under Sheng Chen
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  at his manner. To ease tensions between their
• 6:38
  powerful families as teacher and disciple, the two develop a
• 6:42
  quiet but profound bond, yet their feelings remain
• 6:45
  constrained by loyalty, duty, and the dangerous power
• 6:48
  struggles surrounding the throne, setting the stage for a
• 6:51
  deeply emotional and ultimately tragic romance.
• 6:56
  Like I said, if that's not your speed, probably don't watch the
• 6:58
  show. But this T drama was adapted
• 7:02
  from the novel One Life 1 Incarnation Beautiful Bones by
• 7:05
  Mole Bao Faye Bao and it aired originally in August 2021.
• 7:10
  It's 24 episodes long and I believe that there is this is
• 7:15
  basically a prequel or Part 1 to the two-part story of one Life 1
• 7:20
  incarnation Beautiful Bones. Basically Part 2 of this is
• 7:24
  forever and ever. Do you want to like, talk about
• 7:27
  like the lore behind these? Yeah.
• 7:30
  So basically in the novels, the historical part doesn't exist.
• 7:36
  It's a very, very short part of the original novel.
• 7:41
  So Forever and Ever, where Forever and Ever starts is where
• 7:46
  the book actually begins, right? And our main character, Shi Yi,
• 7:52
  she actually remembers her past life.
• 7:55
  So that is why when you start Forever and Ever, she
• 7:59
  automatically recognizes something in our male lead and
• 8:03
  she connects with him very, very quickly because she remembers
• 8:06
  her past life, right? But because censorship doesn't
• 8:10
  allow for reincarnation in their stories, they basically brought
• 8:16
  in so MO Bao Fay Bao, who wrote the original novel, also was a
• 8:21
  screenwriter for these. And the way she decided to adapt
• 8:24
  to the story was to split it basically and to create for one
• 8:30
  and only as the historical part. So we were able to get to know
• 8:33
  the characters in their historical part as opposed to
• 8:37
  getting to know those characters through she's memories.
• 8:41
  And then in Forever and Ever the way they've done it is actually
• 8:45
  really, really, really beautiful is they've done little things to
• 8:49
  connect to the two stories. So, for example, right at the
• 8:53
  beginning of Forever and Ever, the first scene is she is a
• 8:58
  dubber, so she dubs dramas, and the first scene is she's dubbing
• 9:03
  the last scene of One and Only. And like, that's how they kind
• 9:08
  of connect little things. There's lots of little things.
• 9:12
  Throughout Forever and Ever, there is a shout back to, you
• 9:15
  know, One and Only. But I don't think they could
• 9:19
  have done it unless they had gotten the author who knows the
• 9:23
  book so well and who knows the characters so well to be able to
• 9:26
  adapt it in this way. But yeah, that is kind of like
• 9:31
  the law behind it in the original book.
• 9:33
  It is only such a small part is that she remembers their past
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  lives, but they kind of had to adapt it into something slightly
• 9:42
  different for. Yeah, yeah.
• 9:45
  OK. But it worked out because
• 9:47
  otherwise we wouldn't, I think. So this this was one of those
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  cases where you actually end up getting something really, really
• 9:54
  good because you wouldn't have gotten the historical part,
• 9:57
  which is actually really well done.
• 10:00
  So. So.
• 10:00
  Yeah. I agree.
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  I think there's something special that you know, within
• 10:05
  the constraints of the censorship roles and no
• 10:07
  reincarnation stories, this screenwriter slash novelist or
• 10:13
  whatever, MO Bao Fay Bao did an an impressive job here adapting
• 10:18
  her own work for this new medium.
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  She has also written Go Go Squid, the Flame's daughter.
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  These are see dramas and Scarlet Heart from 2011, which there is
• 10:29
  a big drama trailer review over on T and Soju that we did and we
• 10:34
  loved it. We loved that story.
• 10:36
  Have you watched other mobile FIBAO stories?
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  I've watched. So much of her stuff, like if
• 10:43
  it's a mobile FIBAO I tend to keep an eye on and so because
• 10:48
  she was the original creator for things like a midst a snowstorm
• 10:52
  of love, Love me, Love my voice rode home.
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  So she is known for doing these novels that are very like almost
• 11:00
  quiet and the male leads tend to be fairly green all the time.
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  So I tend to actually enjoy her work, whether it's her as a
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  screenwriter or whether it's her works getting adapted onto the
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  screen. So yes, I've watched quite a lot
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  from her. You know, I just, I tend to
• 11:19
  enjoy whatever she puts out. So, yeah.
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  All right. So that's a name to look out for
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  if you are in See Drama Land. You like this, this show you
• 11:28
  like forever and ever, you like Scarlet Heart, whatever you
• 11:30
  might want to dip into more from Mobile Fabal.
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  The director for one and only is Guohu and he's directed.
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  I I don't know everything he's directed going from recent to
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  older works. A dream within a dream from
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  2025, Only for Love, 2023 Tiger and Crane, Mysterious Lotus
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  casebook, which I know there is a review for on the T and so
• 11:54
  dewpod I was supposed to be on that.
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  I did not. It did not drive with me.
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  It's kind of like a Gustia story that is a little more heavy on
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  criminal crime of the week type deal, investigation,
• 12:07
  investigations. And that's just not my speed.
• 12:09
  So I tend not to gravitate toward those stories.
• 12:12
  So I bowed out of that one Immortal Samsara from 20/22 he
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  directed, which I just watched this year in January.
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  I absolutely adore Immortal Samsara.
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  It's really high up on my best Sanchez list.
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  Top best of list love and destiny.
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  He directed from 2019 also very very good.
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  Chencha lost love in times from 2017 which I did not enjoy.
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  That's I would not recommend that one, but the only.
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  One, yeah, and. Then of course, eternal love
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  slash 10 miles of Peach blossoms from 2017, which that is I think
• 12:49
  the very first official drama trail review over on tune Soju.
• 12:52
  If you want to listen to U.S. chat about 10 miles.
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  It's amazing, amazing shows listed for this director.
• 12:58
  Guohu, how do you feel about this director?
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  Well. Let me put it this way, I've
• 13:02
  watched everything on this list except Lost to Love in Time.
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  That's the only one that I haven't watched.
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  And I mean you're. You're welcome to watch it.
• 13:14
  It's just not it does not compare to the other shows.
• 13:19
  Yeah. Yeah, it's just one that has
• 13:22
  never really cooled for me. But I And The thing is, I like
• 13:26
  this director. I like the way he directs
• 13:29
  things. I think he has a good variety.
• 13:32
  Only for love. Like it is what it is.
• 13:35
  There is a I I've reviewed it with Carol and Carol and I had a
• 13:40
  fun time reviewing that one you kind of ripped into.
• 13:42
  It I remember listening we did episode we did like they
• 13:45
  freaking hated this show. The thing is, I think it's
• 13:49
  because the chemistry was really good and there was a lot they
• 13:51
  could have done with that show and they didn't.
• 13:55
  But it wasn't the the point that I was going.
• 13:58
  It wasn't necessarily the directors fault.
• 14:01
  It was definitely a writing problem for that show.
• 14:04
  But yeah, I I've watched a lot from him.
• 14:07
  A dream within a dream from last year was I, I liked that drama.
• 14:12
  It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but I I enjoyed what
• 14:15
  they did with it. And yeah, I think he's a really
• 14:17
  good director, yeah. All right, so let's get into
• 14:20
  this cast really quick. We have by Lou as we she the
• 14:25
  female lead. She has been in so many shows,
• 14:29
  her breakout role, untouchable lovers.
• 14:31
  She's been in the Legends from 2019, Arsenal Military Academy,
• 14:34
  Love is Sweet, obviously the sequel to One and Only, which is
• 14:38
  forever and ever only for Love from 20 to 23.
• 14:41
  So she's worked with the director again.
• 14:43
  Story of Kuning Palace. I love that show.
• 14:46
  Till the End of the Moon. There is a giant two-part review
• 14:50
  of Till the End of the Moon with the drama trio that is like our
• 14:53
  basically meet and greet episode where we got together for the
• 14:57
  first time. We really hit it off so you can
• 15:00
  scroll back in your podcast feed and listen to the Till the End
• 15:02
  of the moon episode. She's been in moonlight Mystique
• 15:04
  Northward Feud unveiled Jade Wind from this year just.
• 15:09
  Finished airing. Yeah.
• 15:10
  Yeah. Yeah, I know you love Bailu, and
• 15:13
  I'm sure that if anyone has listened to T and Soldier, they
• 15:15
  know that you love Bailu. Everybody knows at this point.
• 15:19
  Let me just put it this way. I have watched every single show
• 15:22
  that you just mentioned on that list.
• 15:24
  There is a few of hers that I have not watched or that I have
• 15:29
  dropped because I people just automatically assume that
• 15:34
  because I love by Lou, I'll watch anything that she's in and
• 15:38
  that's not the case. Like I will check something out
• 15:42
  if she's in it, but I will not stick around if I'm not enjoying
• 15:45
  like the show. But I have always loved her.
• 15:49
  I think she can really pull her punches when it comes to doing
• 15:53
  emotional scenes and emotional work.
• 15:56
  But in general, I just love it. She's very funny.
• 16:01
  And, you know, I feel like she has this kind of quality that
• 16:05
  draws you in. There's a couple of actresses
• 16:07
  that really can do this. You know, Zalushi is another
• 16:11
  type of actress that just really, really draw you in.
• 16:15
  And I feel like Bailout is definitely Dutch.
• 16:18
  So yeah, I have actually thinking about it.
• 16:20
  I think I've reviewed most of these on teams SO as well.
• 16:25
  Yeah. So if you're looking for some
• 16:27
  more bailout dramas or reviews on them, definitely check out T
• 16:30
  and Soju's feed because it's it's probably there.
• 16:33
  Yeah. Probably.
• 16:34
  It's probably. There her Co star is Renja Lun
• 16:38
  AKA Alan Wren and he plays Zhou Sheng Chen, the male lead.
• 16:43
  And this is actually my very first drama of his.
• 16:47
  I had never seen Alan Wren before.
• 16:48
  Yeah, yeah. Caitlin's favorite Like he's one
• 16:51
  of Caitlin's ultimate favorite. I.
• 16:54
  Know I know Caitlin is the only missing member from drama trio
• 16:59
  and Caitlin from no sleep for dramas has been on Tabak so many
• 17:02
  times and she will be on for season 7 as well.
• 17:06
  She loves Alan Wren like Caitlin loves Alan Wren.
• 17:09
  She ran. I feel horrible.
• 17:11
  I like I haven't seen anything until now.
• 17:13
  So he's been in Destiny of the Whitesnake under the power,
• 17:16
  obviously the sequel to one and only Forever and ever, the Blue
• 17:19
  Whisper, love of Nirvana, the Demon Hunters romance from last
• 17:24
  year, 2025. He's been in a bunch of stuff.
• 17:28
  And I'm assuming you really like Alan Wren, Like.
• 17:31
  Him, I don't necessarily vibe with all of his dramas, let's
• 17:35
  put it that way. I think like, so I watched him.
• 17:38
  The first time I think I watched him was The Destiny of
• 17:40
  Whitesnake, and I liked that drama, but I also watched that a
• 17:45
  really long time ago. It'd be interesting to go back
• 17:48
  and see if I actually did like it as much nowadays.
• 17:52
  I tried under the Power, couldn't really get into it.
• 17:56
  Dropped. Love of Nirvana dropped the
• 17:59
  Hunt, the Demon Hunters romance, so I feel like the problem isn't
• 18:04
  him because I feel like he's capable and he's a good actor.
• 18:08
  I just don't necessarily vibe with his drama choices or his
• 18:12
  team's drama choices a lot of the time he's been in.
• 18:16
  A lot of stuff. And I was looking through his
• 18:18
  MDL and you know how they have the MDL ratings, which are
• 18:21
  usually super inflated, like everything's an 8 or 9 or 10 or
• 18:25
  whatever. Some of his dramas are like 6.3,
• 18:29
  like 7.2. And I'm like, whoa, that's
• 18:32
  really low for MDL standards. Which means I just don't think
• 18:36
  he's found a rhythm for choosing his scripts.
• 18:40
  Or maybe he's not being offered the scripts that are good for
• 18:43
  him and his his, again, judging from this one drama that I've
• 18:48
  seen him in, I'm like, I don't know.
• 18:50
  He's got it. Like he's got that starboard.
• 18:52
  I think he's he's, I don't know. I feel bad that it seems like he
• 18:56
  hasn't really followed up. I also.
• 18:58
  Think, I also think so Dan was a couple of years back.
• 19:03
  I don't even scandal the case anymore.
• 19:05
  I don't it's not necessarily a scandal at all.
• 19:08
  So the way he started, he kind of stumbled into acting because
• 19:12
  he was a professional athlete and then he was a.
• 19:15
  Professional ping pong player, Table tennis player is what I
• 19:18
  read and I was like in the year of Marty Supreme at the Oscars.
• 19:22
  I can't believe Alan Wren quit table tennis, professional table
• 19:27
  tennis, because of an injury. I was like, whoa, yeah.
• 19:30
  Yeah, yeah, sorry. And The thing is, by the time he
• 19:33
  got into acting, he was mad. And you know, he has his whole
• 19:37
  family and whatnot. And from what I gather, a lot of
• 19:41
  his earlier jobs don't have like any kissing scenes or anything
• 19:46
  like that. Now, the rumor was always that
• 19:50
  it was a clause in his contracts that he didn't want to do
• 19:54
  kissing scenes. Whether that's true or not, only
• 19:57
  him and the people who signed the contracts exactly like, I
• 20:02
  don't know. So that does mean that.
• 20:06
  If it was a more romance based role, I mean, can you kind of
• 20:11
  hold drama without a kiss scene? Yeah.
• 20:13
  Yeah, yeah. Probably not going to vibe as
• 20:16
  well. I don't think that's the case
• 20:17
  anymore because obviously he does have kissing scenes, but he
• 20:20
  doesn't have that many like they they are fairly limited, kind of
• 20:26
  a rare. Occurrence, I guess, Yeah, with.
• 20:28
  This which maybe makes them more special, Maybe not, but maybe,
• 20:32
  yeah. Scarcity.
• 20:34
  I don't know. But yeah, I do think he is a
• 20:37
  good actor. Like his eyes convey a lot and I
• 20:40
  think he's good at like the micro presence.
• 20:43
  About him? Yes, yes.
• 20:46
  So I don't know. I don't know why, you know, he
• 20:50
  hasn't quite Alan. Wren pick up the pace if you're
• 20:53
  by some for some reason listening.
• 20:56
  All right. The last person that we'll talk
• 20:58
  about is the second male lead, which completely surprised me
• 21:01
  because I basically went in blind for one and only I only
• 21:04
  did not know. He was in this did.
• 21:06
  Not know that he was in this. I mean technically I've gone
• 21:09
  over his filmography before and I've seen it listed.
• 21:13
  Did I know pressing play on episode one of one and only that
• 21:16
  he was in and it never crossed my mind, never crossed my mind.
• 21:19
  So Wang Xing Yu plays Liu Zijing and he's a second male lead and
• 21:26
  we have covered one of his dramas before on the podcast
• 21:29
  feed. It is the double, which I think
• 21:32
  a lot of people really enjoyed that episode.
• 21:34
  It was like 4 of us on there. It was Drama Trio plus Naz from
• 21:38
  the Smooth Diaries podcast. So we had a lot of fun covering
• 21:41
  that. He's also been in a midst of
• 21:44
  Snowstorm of Love, which is a mobile FIBAO project.
• 21:48
  Recently in 2025, he had a big year with three dramas, Perfect
• 21:52
  Match, which I just saw like in the last couple of months, The
• 21:57
  Wanted Detective and Shadow Detective.
• 22:00
  And then he is also kicking off 2026 really strong with Unveiled
• 22:03
  Jade Wind and Love in Red Dust. So, you know, busy guy, but he's
• 22:09
  been in a lot of stuff. I mentioned Story of Kooning
• 22:11
  Palace. He was also the second male lead
• 22:14
  in Story of Kooning with by Lou, just the female lead of this
• 22:17
  show as well. Scent of Time.
• 22:19
  He's been in first love. I think the first time I saw him
• 22:22
  was Delicacies Destiny. Yeah.
• 22:25
  I think, I don't know. I think I've must have seen him
• 22:27
  before. I like, I've been following him
• 22:29
  around for a while. Yeah, I've been seeing him
• 22:33
  because he's not been acting that long.
• 22:35
  And he started acting in 2024, and he's very.
• 22:38
  Young as well Very. Young.
• 22:40
  He's very young. He's only 24.
• 22:42
  He's Oh my God, 4 right now. He is indeed 20/24/24.
• 22:47
  So yeah, I have been following him since yeah, since one and
• 22:52
  only so 2021 kind of time. But the joke was always that
• 22:59
  third time's the charm because he's acted in three projects
• 23:03
  with by Lou and he's never because they they are from the
• 23:08
  same company, so they are often found in same projects.
• 23:12
  But it was a running joke, like this man can never catch a break
• 23:15
  when it comes to buy low, and then you know, unveiled jade
• 23:18
  wind came along, and he finally made it male lead status.
• 23:23
  Yes, I like him and this drama. I mean as I said this is no non
• 23:31
  spoiler section in this episode so I'm going to get going.
• 23:34
  OK this is your last spoiler warning.
• 23:37
  I was enraged by his character in One and Only.
• 23:42
  I literally was like Oh my God, do I hate this actor?
• 23:46
  Do I hate this guy? No, because I was pissed.
• 23:50
  Yeah, completely. Pissed over all of his antics.
• 23:54
  He was so so manipulative and oh God, even after she showed
• 24:02
  absolutely no interest, she was so cold toward him.
• 24:05
  Basically told him to his face, I don't want to marry you.
• 24:07
  I have no interest in joining the palace and marrying in He
• 24:11
  was like, anyway, I want her please bestow this marriage.
• 24:16
  And and it got so far. I was so shocked that it went so
• 24:20
  far with this guy. And then he really didn't wise
• 24:23
  up and was so like, he had her painting the portrait of her in
• 24:29
  his room, and he basically grew up pining after her.
• 24:34
  And I was like, oh, my God. Oh, my God.
• 24:37
  It's all kind of wrong. It's all kind of wrong.
• 24:40
  I think at one point he even says, why can't she just, like,
• 24:43
  stay still and do what I want? Yeah.
• 24:45
  Yeah, well, I think he's because he's expecting her to be the
• 24:48
  painting, be the painting. She's not like she's a human.
• 24:53
  She has feelings and thoughts and you know, yeah, I think a
• 25:00
  lot of people, if they've never watched Wang Shingu in one and
• 25:04
  only, I don't think they quite know what he's capable of
• 25:08
  because a lot of people discovered him in the double
• 25:11
  right as Dukes. Dukes.
• 25:13
  That's where a lot of people discovered Wanching Yu, and he's
• 25:19
  great in that. I'm not taking it away.
• 25:21
  He's great. I don't want to take away from
• 25:24
  the double and all of the other like protagonist, good guy or
• 25:29
  even, you know, Morley Gray characters that he's done, but
• 25:32
  this. Is all red like this Is red
• 25:35
  he's. Awful.
• 25:36
  Like it goes, it goes. Like, I don't think actually, I
• 25:40
  think it might even cross territory into like, dog, dog.
• 25:44
  Awful. Yeah, No, because he plays such
• 25:47
  a bad character. And The thing is, he doesn't
• 25:50
  start that way. Like he doesn't start that way.
• 25:54
  So people kind of go in and they think, oh, you know, especially
• 26:00
  if they're doing a tore back and if they've seen other roles of
• 26:04
  him and they kind of go back, right.
• 26:06
  And well, this is what happened to me exactly.
• 26:10
  And they're like, they see him come across your screen and you
• 26:13
  expect him to be the good guy because that's what you're used
• 26:16
  to, right? You're used to him playing good
• 26:19
  guys and then it and smart. Guys as well.
• 26:22
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know.
• 26:24
  People that kind of like pick up what others are putting down and
• 26:27
  really die, adjust and that is not what this guy does he like.
• 26:32
  Plows. Through her every want and need.
• 26:36
  And it almost oh God, it reminded me of the second male
• 26:40
  leaf from ashes of love. Oh.
• 26:41
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like the same.
• 26:43
  Thing like they have all of these, like you empathize with
• 26:46
  them. They grew up in difficult
• 26:48
  circumstances, maybe abuse like in this case and one and only as
• 26:52
  a study partner or something like that.
• 26:55
  You know, basically if there's any punishment to be doled out
• 26:58
  for the Crown Prince, he would get it.
• 27:01
  Dude, it doesn't matter. Like at the end of the day,
• 27:04
  you're like, wow, he still went like fully in the wrong
• 27:08
  direction. Oh yeah.
• 27:09
  Yeah, like he, he does not appreciate what he had.
• 27:15
  And The thing is, and he feels entitled.
• 27:18
  Yeah, he does. To her, to it.
• 27:20
  Yeah. And.
• 27:21
  Eventually, like to the throne and really enticed by power, he
• 27:25
  was. I think he was so lonely as
• 27:29
  well. Yeah, that he thought at.
• 27:31
  Least I have her to look forward.
• 27:33
  To yeah, that was the only thing that was kept going because
• 27:35
  like, to him, that was his. She was his, right?
• 27:40
  And she was only his, and nothing was going to change
• 27:44
  that. And that's not the case because
• 27:48
  it's like she was never yours to begin with.
• 27:50
  Like she did not. When she didn't like just bow to
• 27:53
  his every whim, you know, want to be touched like on the hands
• 27:57
  and stuff like that because he's constantly like trying to hold
• 27:59
  her hand and she's like, get off of me.
• 28:03
  He was shocked every time. Like 10 out of 10 times he was
• 28:06
  like, what the fuck? What?
• 28:08
  She doesn't want me blown away, Blown away by her just not
• 28:14
  acquiescing to him or softening at all to him.
• 28:20
  And this is when she has no beef with him at all.
• 28:22
  Like she doesn't even know. She just doesn't want to marry.
• 28:25
  She just. Doesn't want him.
• 28:26
  Yeah, like. Like not so well, is it?
• 28:30
  That crazy? It's not that crazy, actually.
• 28:34
  No, no. And I think also it's because
• 28:38
  she starts off as a mute person. Yeah.
• 28:42
  So yeah, yeah, he probably just expected kind of like this Meek,
• 28:46
  mute. Yeah, girl, he wants her to be.
• 28:49
  Submissive. He wants her to be subservient
• 28:52
  to him, not. Her and that's.
• 28:55
  Not her. It might.
• 28:56
  Have been her before she went to the before.
• 29:00
  She met Mansion. Our guy.
• 29:02
  But it's like that's not the case afterwards.
• 29:04
  Yeah, yeah, OK. So I know we got off on like a
• 29:09
  weird foot because we started talking about the second male
• 29:10
  beef right away, but he was the last cast member that we chatted
• 29:13
  about. But yeah, this story is, I guess
• 29:17
  I'll go first on like what I thought because I know what you
• 29:21
  what you think. You loved it and you recommended
• 29:23
  it to me. So gosh, I went into this
• 29:28
  thinking it's probably not going to end well because of what I
• 29:31
  had heard because there's a Part 2 forever and ever that kind of
• 29:36
  gives you that happy ending that you're looking for.
• 29:38
  I was like, OK, so this is going to be like ending in flames.
• 29:42
  And what I didn't expect was that from episode 1, there is a
• 29:48
  pervasive, persistent sense of dread and misery in the show.
• 29:55
  And sometimes, like I was expecting it, but I didn't
• 29:58
  expect that it was an immediate, oh, this is a melodrama from
• 30:03
  Jump. There was no, you didn't see
• 30:06
  anything here kind of magic trick happening where later on
• 30:11
  you're surprised by the carnage and the way that it ends.
• 30:14
  No, from Jump, you know this is not going to end well.
• 30:20
  Yeah, they. Like to keep you there.
• 30:21
  Like they like to keep you in that anxious state.
• 30:24
  Yes. All shy, yeah.
• 30:26
  Yeah. And I mean, in episode, I think
• 30:29
  it's episode one, our male lead goes back to the capital to
• 30:34
  mourn his older brother who died, the emperor who died, and
• 30:39
  he makes this vow of celibacy and he says, I'm not going to
• 30:42
  marry anybody. I'm not going to have any kids.
• 30:44
  And I was like, that's famous. Last word famous.
• 30:47
  Last word, famous fucking last words.
• 30:52
  This is going to go so sideways. And I think I was having a lot
• 30:57
  of, I don't think I was having issues, but I was like, wow, I
• 31:01
  can't believe this is only 24 episodes because it felt like it
• 31:06
  should have been 50 episodes, 40 episodes, You know what I'm
• 31:10
  saying? Like there's something about it.
• 31:13
  It's not that I wanted 40 episodes.
• 31:14
  I'm like, this feels like they're cutting so much out of
• 31:17
  it. This is a very condensed
• 31:19
  timeline. It's got to be like 10 plus
• 31:22
  years, maybe 15 years of time happening in 24 episodes.
• 31:27
  And you feel it. You feel that they're booking it
• 31:31
  through this show at the same freaking time, that this is a
• 31:36
  really condensed timeline. Large swaths of time being
• 31:39
  skipped over between scenes. It's a slow burn.
• 31:43
  It is. It's a slow burn romance.
• 31:46
  I mean, is it? Even a slow.
• 31:49
  God. Like snails?
• 31:52
  Yes, it's even worse than Love like the Galaxy because I don't
• 31:55
  think you get the payoff here. There is no pay off.
• 32:00
  Like what's your what do you define as pay off?
• 32:03
  Like they finally kiss, they finally sleep together, they get
• 32:07
  married, they have kids. What is your pay off?
• 32:09
  You will not get it at all in this show.
• 32:12
  Nothing. You don't.
• 32:13
  Get it? Nothing.
• 32:14
  Not even a kiss. No, not even a kiss.
• 32:19
  Which I I could have gone with at least one kiss, but the name
• 32:23
  of the game here is restraint. Glances.
• 32:28
  It's all in the eyes. It's only has intense gazes,
• 32:33
  things left unsaid. Sad, mournful eyes all the time
• 32:38
  with the sad looks, the tension, Tension.
• 32:42
  So much tension you could cut up with a knife.
• 32:44
  It's another character. The tension is another character
• 32:46
  in this. Yeah.
• 32:49
  There's a song lyric at which I watch this on Vicky, and Vicky
• 32:53
  blessedly translates all of the Chinese music and songs in this
• 32:58
  OST. And one song lyric from jump,
• 33:01
  the song lyric that I was like, oh God, it says it seems you and
• 33:05
  I are not destined. Sounds about right.
• 33:12
  To exasperate this romance, if you can call it that, people are
• 33:16
  constantly thinking that they're engaged or married, constantly
• 33:21
  thinking constantly that they're together.
• 33:24
  And depending on the situation, they might like, refute it and
• 33:27
  say like, Oh no, she's not my wife.
• 33:29
  Oh no, we're not together. But more often than not, they're
• 33:32
  just like gagged and they don't correct anybody.
• 33:36
  Yeah, that's that's where they're at.
• 33:38
  And I think also it's because that builds on the tension of
• 33:43
  what? Yes.
• 33:45
  Because The thing is, this man is supposed to be a hard
• 33:48
  general's heart of stone. Nothing touches him, and yet she
• 33:54
  glances his way and this man just melts into a puddle, right?
• 34:00
  He is so whipped for her. Immediately.
• 34:04
  Yeah, immediately. And I'm sure there's people out
• 34:08
  there that read into the age gap between them.
• 34:11
  They're probably less than 10 years apart, like maybe 8 years
• 34:15
  apart or something. He he loves her immediately.
• 34:19
  Like when she shows up to be his disciple and she's she's maybe a
• 34:23
  child. They make it seem like by Lou is
• 34:26
  a child. She's.
• 34:27
  Supposed to be, she's supposed to be very, very young.
• 34:30
  Maybe a young teenager. 141415 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 34:36
  He loves her immediately. Like, sorry, like he does.
• 34:40
  He's really invested in her disability of being mute.
• 34:45
  It's a psychosomatic. So she went through a trauma of
• 34:49
  losing her father and her mother getting a divorce out of nowhere
• 34:53
  to kind of separate the scandal that happened with the father's
• 34:57
  family, pissing off the Empress or whatever, and she fell mute
• 35:02
  immediately. She never recovered from her
• 35:04
  father leaving. And he is like, OK, I need to
• 35:08
  learn like sign language, like, I need to figure out how it can
• 35:11
  help her, how it can make her happy.
• 35:13
  All the green flag wonderful things that he does for her from
• 35:17
  the pomegranates that he inundates her with.
• 35:20
  She showed mild interest in loving pomegranates.
• 35:23
  And he's like, OK, now you've got.
• 35:24
  Some big give me like. 3000 Pomegranates.
• 35:26
  It comes back in. Yeah.
• 35:28
  It comes back in forever and ever because he just immediately
• 35:31
  knows that that's her favorite fruit.
• 35:33
  And he feeds her pomegranates all the time.
• 35:37
  And you're not going to watch forever and ever anyways.
• 35:40
  But she does eventually, like, get pregnant in there and, like,
• 35:43
  all she craves is pomegranate seeds.
• 35:45
  And he's like, searching everywhere for the pomegranate
• 35:48
  seeds. So it's kind of like comes back
• 35:51
  around. It's like all of those little
• 35:53
  things that come back around to kind of link everything
• 35:57
  together. So.
• 35:58
  Right. Yeah.
• 35:58
  And you? Talked about his character of
• 36:00
  the the male leads character and how he's this like fierce
• 36:05
  general but he's so upstanding of a man of a person but he's so
• 36:10
  utterly lonely he. Is because and The thing is it's
• 36:14
  self-made loneliness because he wanted so badly to not get
• 36:21
  involved in court politics and to not make himself a target or
• 36:27
  to not make himself a threat. Yeah, a threat that he was like,
• 36:31
  I won't have any family because then I won't have any heirs with
• 36:34
  any claim to the throne or anything like that.
• 36:38
  From the moment he says that, his family is the people that
• 36:43
  kind of surround him every day on the battlefield.
• 36:46
  And the recurring theme is that whenever he leaves for battle,
• 36:52
  they have been taught never to look back.
• 36:55
  Because if you look back, you will be afraid of dying on the
• 37:00
  field. Like if you don't look back, you
• 37:02
  don't have anything to return to, then you won't, you don't
• 37:05
  have any attachments. So you know he never looks back
• 37:11
  and she is always there looking at him and he never looks back.
• 37:16
  And I. Thought that they would have it
• 37:18
  by the end that he would look back at her he.
• 37:20
  Never does. Yeah.
• 37:22
  He never looks back and I think that is very specific because I
• 37:26
  think if he looked back he wouldn't have been able to
• 37:30
  leave. He would if he had seen her
• 37:32
  there, he wouldn't have been able to leave.
• 37:35
  And I think that's the reason why they have him never look
• 37:39
  back whenever he leaves for war or a campaign or something.
• 37:45
  But I think that he takes that sentiment very, very seriously
• 37:50
  to not have those attachments so that he can be the great general
• 37:55
  that everybody needs. And like he do look back
• 37:59
  throughout the drama. And one specific scene is that
• 38:01
  they say, oh, he's he was on the field very, very young.
• 38:06
  And you do you see him as a child?
• 38:09
  Like what? 13 or something, yes. 1314
• 38:12
  leading campaigns and winning and it's like if it's inbred
• 38:17
  into you that early on you are not going to want to form
• 38:23
  attachments yeah yeah and she just sneaks her way in she.
• 38:28
  Does she's. I mean, it's all so brutal, but
• 38:32
  he's fierce in battle. His army is invincible.
• 38:34
  And yeah, he denies his royal lineage, changes his last name,
• 38:39
  you know, all of this privilege, denies riches and women.
• 38:42
  And he has this reputation, right?
• 38:44
  This like perfect, carefully curated reputation that he built
• 38:48
  over all of these years. Even other warriors who want to
• 38:51
  join his ranks, which it's a famous like basically Royal Army
• 38:55
  that he leads. They're invincible.
• 38:57
  They don't lose and they want to join his ranks, but they they
• 39:01
  don't do it for pragmatic reasons because there's no
• 39:04
  rewards, no benefits. Even the court is not giving
• 39:07
  them the proper rewards or riches or bonuses, what have
• 39:11
  you, when they win battles because of the precarious
• 39:14
  political situation of him leading the army.
• 39:16
  So it's like they don't even get rewarded properly.
• 39:18
  There's no benefits here. Can you imagine getting a job
• 39:21
  and then he don't get the benefits?
• 39:22
  No, like that's why people are like, I'm not going to join his
• 39:25
  army. Exactly, and The thing is, I
• 39:28
  think it's all comes down to realistically speaking, right?
• 39:33
  If he wanted to take the throne it would have been incredibly
• 39:38
  easy for him to do so. Yes, because he has a lot of
• 39:43
  support on his side. Not only does he lead one of the
• 39:46
  best RV's out there who will very much follow him anywhere,
• 39:53
  and that is very clear, they're so.
• 39:56
  Honourable. But even towards the end, and I
• 39:59
  don't know if we can talk about it right now, but.
• 40:03
  Do you want to save something for later?
• 40:05
  No. I don't know.
• 40:07
  I don't know if we can get because it's like it's one of
• 40:09
  the biggest spoilers. I don't know who I keep going,
• 40:13
  just say. It it's fine.
• 40:14
  So basically. When he dies or when they're
• 40:16
  killing him off, right, all of the ministers are like willing
• 40:21
  to die with him. And that is loyalty that cannot
• 40:26
  be bought, right? That is loyalty that goes down
• 40:30
  to their bones. So I think he could have easily
• 40:36
  taken the throne if he wanted to and we wouldn't be here because
• 40:41
  he would have just been able to marry.
• 40:43
  We hear it and have a completely different storyline.
• 40:45
  Right, right. But he's just too good for that,
• 40:48
  isn't he was never interested in the throne.
• 40:51
  That's the thing. That's the.
• 40:52
  Thing that I think was kind of unique about this show and I've
• 40:55
  watched, you know, quite a few C dramas where there's generals
• 40:59
  and things like that. Even though the K drama Goblin
• 41:01
  like the back story has to do with the very same dynamics of
• 41:05
  there's a very successful general who has a lot of public
• 41:07
  support and he's related to the Empress so he could just come in
• 41:12
  and take over at any point. This guy, I've never seen, a
• 41:16
  general who literally does everything possible not to catch
• 41:21
  that smoke, does not want anything to do with taking over
• 41:26
  the throne, of leading everybody from the emperor position, of
• 41:31
  attaining status, of attaining riches.
• 41:34
  Doesn't even compute to him to go through all of this hassle
• 41:38
  and trouble and do this to get her right, to even attain the
• 41:44
  power to change the vow that he made and renege on it just to be
• 41:50
  with her. He's so bound by duty and it
• 41:55
  never happens like you think, oh, he's going to change, he's
• 41:59
  going to rebel and he never does.
• 42:03
  He never does. No, does not.
• 42:05
  Want that one? No, no.
• 42:08
  And I think that's unique. Yeah, that is unique because
• 42:11
  normally being in the position that he is, you would expect him
• 42:16
  to be like, so this, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to make sure
• 42:22
  that I can marry her. But that is never the case.
• 42:28
  Every year on her birthday, he gifts her military victories
• 42:32
  like a scroll of seals from conquered generals.
• 42:35
  And it took me half the show to be like, Oh my God.
• 42:39
  Each year for her birthday, he gifts her another year of peace.
• 42:43
  That's what he's do you know what it?
• 42:45
  Is to get the gift of peace from a man who literally can change
• 42:50
  history. Yeah.
• 42:52
  And I think it makes it so much more special because he could
• 42:55
  give her anything. Anything like, Yeah, He's he's
• 42:58
  he's not poor. He's not poor, let's put it that
• 43:01
  way. He doesn't lack for money or
• 43:03
  anything like that. But he gives her the only thing
• 43:07
  that he thinks she will appreciate.
• 43:09
  Valuable. Yeah.
• 43:11
  And. All that, all that he's been
• 43:13
  working toward, it's his. It's his job.
• 43:15
  His only job. Yeah, yeah.
• 43:16
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's his life mission, isn't it?
• 43:19
  But he's just handing over to her and he.
• 43:22
  Gives her like all of this, everything that he's conquered,
• 43:25
  everything that he's achieved, he just gives it to her.
• 43:27
  And I'm like one thing that I found interesting and I was
• 43:33
  reminded by the title of the original novel, One Life 1
• 43:37
  incarnation, Beautiful Bones is the concept of having beautiful
• 43:40
  bones because she mentions it a few times in the show.
• 43:42
  And I'm like, what is up with the bones situation?
• 43:45
  Like why is everyone sort of intimidated by his bones?
• 43:50
  My interpretation is that it's like what he has inside, that
• 43:55
  his character and his essence, his his bones, something you
• 43:58
  can't see from the outside, are so great and perfect.
• 44:05
  It's what you need in a leader that people are intimidated by
• 44:09
  it. Yeah, I'm sure I googled this at
• 44:13
  the time. Oh, did you?
• 44:14
  OK, I not. Remember what it was.
• 44:18
  But yeah, I think it's it's also to do with a structure, I
• 44:23
  believe, but I can't remember what it said.
• 44:28
  Oh, that's going to bug me if you want to.
• 44:30
  Look it up. You can, I guess, Yeah.
• 44:32
  So. Google is saying, oh, see, there
• 44:36
  is a proverb behind it, I thought.
• 44:38
  But Google is saying refers to the core premise of the story
• 44:41
  and its source. Yeah, we get that.
• 44:43
  And then it says the proverb. The story is built around the
• 44:46
  idea that those with skin do not have bones, suggesting that
• 44:50
  while many people have beautiful outward appearances, the skin
• 44:54
  few possess truly beautiful bones representing noble
• 44:58
  character, soul and integrity. See, I knew there was more to
• 45:02
  it. I was like, I'm sure there's
• 45:04
  like something that goes with the language.
• 45:06
  I'm on it then and that's what it is.
• 45:08
  I'm right? On it.
• 45:10
  So he's like, beautiful. In and out.
• 45:13
  It's basically that. It's in and out situation.
• 45:16
  Yeah, beautiful. I love it.
• 45:18
  I love all of that. Even though it was like, kind of
• 45:21
  weird in the moment when she was like, his bones.
• 45:24
  And I'm like, buddy, what? Yeah.
• 45:26
  And that. Leads to like the dispolest and
• 45:29
  yet most intimate touch of her touching his nose.
• 45:32
  Get out, get out. Yeah.
• 45:35
  Do you have moments that just like live on after you've
• 45:38
  watched the show? I think you said before we get
• 45:40
  on, you've watched it like 3 times.
• 45:42
  Yes, this was my third so I initially watched it while it
• 45:46
  was on air and it was 5. Years ago, yes.
• 45:50
  Watching this on air was devastating, devastating.
• 45:55
  And then I re watched it because I wanted to review it on TN Soju
• 46:01
  and I kind of like skipped around a bit and re watched it
• 46:03
  that way. But this time I was like, it's
• 46:06
  been long enough, like I'm going to fully rewatched it.
• 46:09
  So I fully rewatched it. This scene that will stand out
• 46:14
  to me is by Lou's last scene. That will always be my stand out
• 46:20
  scene. Like I can tell you everything
• 46:23
  that happens in that scene. Well, talk.
• 46:25
  Me through it. I I mean I just watched it like
• 46:27
  several hours, sorry. But basically she, it's just the
• 46:33
  way she talks and the monologue inside.
• 46:36
  So everything has gone to crap. Everything's gone to.
• 46:40
  Shit. Yeah absolutely.
• 46:42
  Shit, most of the people she grew up with at his mansion are
• 46:47
  dead or gone or dispersed like she or.
• 46:52
  Labeled as rebels and so labeled.
• 46:54
  As rebels on the run, Yeah, she is being forced to marry
• 46:58
  somebody who basically killed the man she loved.
• 47:02
  Because because our second male lead, Wang Shing you aligned
• 47:06
  with an enemy of the state to conspire against our upstanding
• 47:12
  male lead and kills him, throws the entire country into
• 47:16
  disarray, opens it up to foreign attacks.
• 47:22
  All. To get her, yeah.
• 47:24
  All to. Get power to get her Sod.
• 47:27
  The peace that the male lead has been working right, it's like.
• 47:31
  All for not, it's just all down the drain.
• 47:34
  And I think it's not just that he killed him, it's the way that
• 47:40
  he the way that. He did it, which we can talk
• 47:42
  about that after the scene, I guess, yeah.
• 47:43
  So you're talking about, so she basically, first of all, he
• 47:48
  locks her away in a palace room so that she is not able to know
• 47:54
  that. An extreme house arrest.
• 47:57
  Yeah, that's what Jen's dead. Like, she does not know until
• 48:03
  her mother finally comes in, manages to come in and tell her.
• 48:08
  Like the acting in that scene alone, do you know I'm jumping
• 48:12
  about. But do you know that in that
• 48:13
  scene, in that specific scene where she finds out that he's
• 48:18
  dead, she cries. Bailu had to do that scene a
• 48:22
  couple of times and then the director had to send her home
• 48:24
  because she was so inconsolable, she could not get out of her
• 48:31
  head. And that scene.
• 48:32
  And it's also well known that this is one of the shows that
• 48:36
  Bailu cries the most. So she said she was very
• 48:40
  emotionally drained after filming One and Only, but she
• 48:46
  finds out, he said through. It's silent wailing, like just
• 48:49
  to sit on that silent. Person it's.
• 48:52
  Silent, wailing and she. Looks like she's screaming.
• 48:56
  She. Yeah, because, yeah, after all
• 48:58
  this and putting her under house arrest and cutting her off from
• 49:02
  everybody that she's ever known, she's completely isolated in the
• 49:05
  palace and she goes mute again, which a huge deal for this
• 49:12
  character who had grown so much and had started talking again.
• 49:16
  Like, you know, basically reconciled with her trauma from
• 49:20
  losing her father, and now she lost the love of her life in her
• 49:26
  morning. I mean, it's a wonderful,
• 49:30
  impressive scene from by Lou that it looks like she's
• 49:33
  screaming and she's not. Yeah.
• 49:35
  And she gets that letter from him, written in his own blood.
• 49:41
  And he writes in that letter. I write the quote down.
• 49:46
  I never failed. Oh.
• 49:48
  I have it here. Throughout my life, I did not
• 49:50
  let the world down. Well, down only 11.
• 49:54
  Yeah, she. Yeah, her nickname was 11 or
• 49:56
  whatever, but she. It's because she is like similar
• 50:00
  sounding. The characters are similar
• 50:02
  sounding to 11 in Chinese. So all of that she finds out,
• 50:07
  they come up with a plan to get her away from the now emperor
• 50:12
  and she is like I don't want anyone else to die So what does
• 50:17
  she do? And this.
• 50:19
  Is not explicitly stated, no. No, she tells nobody.
• 50:23
  She tells nobody because they're.
• 50:25
  All different parties are coming to her and they're like.
• 50:28
  We're going to save you, Stand. Here, leave through this door,
• 50:31
  blah blah blah, so you can escape.
• 50:33
  So and so we'll be we'll see you in the South or whatever.
• 50:36
  They're trying to help her abscond from the palace.
• 50:40
  And she's in her Red Wedding dress and she starts going to a
• 50:46
  tower and people are like, oh, she's just going up there to
• 50:49
  kind of like, say hello to the people as the noble concubine.
• 50:54
  And, you know, that's not the case at all.
• 50:57
  There's one person that knows exactly what she's going to do.
• 51:00
  And he bows down and he says, I will accompany you on your last
• 51:04
  journey because he knows what she's going to do.
• 51:08
  And she starts climbing and she starts taking one ring off and
• 51:12
  the other ring and you know the hair ornaments.
• 51:15
  And as she does, she is monologuing.
• 51:20
  And I didn't do the whole thing, but I did the core part that I
• 51:24
  think is the most important part.
• 51:26
  And she says she is just 11 from the Nan Chan Mansion.
• 51:31
  Zhou Chong Chen, I'm here to marry you.
• 51:33
  If there is another life, come to marry me first.
• 51:37
  Do you agree? I will take your silence as
• 51:39
  agreement. She says that line and she jumps
• 51:43
  off the tower. It's snowing, which is very
• 51:47
  special to them. It's always snowed in a lot of
• 51:50
  their moments. And she's in this vibrant red
• 51:53
  and she crashes obviously onto a snow covered floor and there's
• 51:59
  this aerial shock of by Lou in this vibrant red across this
• 52:04
  white snow and it is just visually stunning.
• 52:09
  It's stunning because it's like she and also you have the
• 52:14
  emperor like trying to catch her and she slips through his
• 52:17
  fingers just like she has been doing the whole show.
• 52:20
  Yeah. The.
• 52:21
  Entire show and it's like dude, she would rather die than marry
• 52:28
  you. That's how much she doesn't want
• 52:31
  to marry. Don't.
• 52:32
  Have a shot buddy. No.
• 52:35
  This, I think is one of the most, and I always say it is a
• 52:41
  beautifully deaf I know we're talking about.
• 52:44
  Always. Like exactly.
• 52:46
  But people are like, how can you call that?
• 52:48
  But it is it is a it is it is a beautifully tragic scene, but it
• 52:55
  is still a beautiful scene nonetheless.
• 52:57
  From the acting, the utter look on her face of peace as she goes
• 53:02
  to her death, It is it just conveys so much.
• 53:07
  So regardless, even if I hadn't watched the show in three years,
• 53:13
  you know that scene you to somebody who has watched the
• 53:18
  show, you just have to say buy lose red dress scene and
• 53:21
  everybody knows, everybody knows what you're talking about
• 53:26
  because it's so incredibly tragic and beautiful.
• 53:30
  And again, this is the scene, the first scene in forever and
• 53:34
  ever. This is the scene that by Lou is
• 53:37
  narrating or dubbing over and out.
• 53:40
  It. Is it is.
• 53:42
  And it's just yeah, yeah, I. Love this scene.
• 53:46
  There's nothing I can say to bring it down, critique it,
• 53:49
  whatever. It's perfect.
• 53:51
  And I mean, I'm when did you know she was going to commit
• 53:56
  suicide? I think I knew like immediately
• 53:59
  like when when the show started like in the 1st 5 or 6 episodes
• 54:04
  I was like if he dies she'll die.
• 54:07
  If she dies, he will die like no.
• 54:09
  Doubt in my mind, this was only going to go one of two ways,
• 54:13
  right? He was going to rebel and like
• 54:16
  take her away and they were going to find a way to marry.
• 54:20
  That's the way you would expect the show to go, right?
• 54:24
  That's the expectation. And a lot of people who had read
• 54:29
  the novel, they knew that there was a tragic ending to that
• 54:32
  specific part of the plot line. But because the story had been
• 54:37
  changed so much to be done into a full 24 episodes, people were
• 54:43
  like, we don't really know how Mobile Fable was going to adapt
• 54:48
  it and how she's going to decide to use her own characters
• 54:52
  because truly, she has the power to do so.
• 54:55
  It is her work. It is her own characters.
• 54:57
  Nobody knows them better than she does.
• 55:00
  So she could have gone in a million different directions,
• 55:03
  right? And I think a lot of people were
• 55:05
  expecting him to kind of stand up and take her away or
• 55:10
  whatever. But I think the signs were
• 55:13
  always there, the writing. Was always on the.
• 55:16
  Wall to me, always there that these two were going to die like
• 55:21
  it was going to be tragic regardless, yes.
• 55:23
  And I think there's even, even if you're coming up on this
• 55:27
  ending, like episodes 2324, and you're like, maybe something is
• 55:32
  going to happen to make it a happy ending, or maybe she'll
• 55:36
  live on or something. No, there's also signs there
• 55:40
  because even when they start the execution, his execution, she
• 55:45
  feels the weight of it. She feels some type of way about
• 55:49
  it. She gets really sick.
• 55:51
  She feels stifled and panicked. She's writhing in pain seemingly
• 55:55
  at the same time that they are killing him.
• 55:58
  And so they have this like, cosmic connection, right?
• 56:01
  They're bringing that up already when he dies and she is told
• 56:06
  that he is gone. That scene of her silent wailing
• 56:09
  the the morning, which is so visceral of a reaction.
• 56:15
  Like how do you expect her to live on?
• 56:17
  And then after that, when she's burning all of the gifts, like
• 56:20
  all of the scrolls of victories that he has gifted her over the
• 56:23
  10 plus years that they've known each other, that's also a sign
• 56:27
  she burns the letter that he left her written in his own
• 56:31
  blood. She does.
• 56:33
  She doesn't want to. Leave any of that behind.
• 56:36
  She doesn't want to share. That's hers and hers alone.
• 56:39
  So I think that's her saying goodbye to whatever they had so
• 56:44
  that she can go and meet him in the next life.
• 56:47
  Yeah, I found it quite powerful that she, even though she knows
• 56:52
  going into this whole grand wedding ceremony that begins
• 56:55
  with her exhibiting in front of the people and her supporters
• 56:59
  like her clan or whatever, she knew that she wasn't going to go
• 57:03
  through with this wedding. She knew that she was also
• 57:05
  wasn't going to try and escape. She didn't want anybody else,
• 57:09
  Yeah. She was like, we're done.
• 57:11
  She goes up the city gate and it's just so important that I
• 57:16
  think this is her wedding day and she's wearing the, you know,
• 57:20
  the red gown, these beautiful vibrant red robes like you were
• 57:24
  talking about. And I think I lost it when she
• 57:29
  says I'm here to marry you. Yeah.
• 57:32
  And. I lost it.
• 57:35
  Yeah, yeah, That scene hit just as hard the third time around.
• 57:39
  It did the first time around, I'm not going to lie.
• 57:42
  And also, doesn't it remind you of a little nod until the end of
• 57:47
  the movie absolutely jumps off? This is what everybody kept
• 57:52
  saying and I kept saying this and she's friends on the floor.
• 57:55
  Yeah. Yeah, and I was like, I can't
• 57:57
  say it because I don't want to spoil for One and Only, but it's
• 58:00
  like it's literally a nod to the scene of her jumping, I think.
• 58:04
  So too that. Tower, but yeah, it's it's an
• 58:07
  iconic scene regardless. I know it's a suicide scene, but
• 58:10
  look guys, it is a beautiful scene.
• 58:14
  Part of the. Genre, I'm afraid, yeah.
• 58:17
  Do we want to quickly talk about his execution?
• 58:19
  Which I was in shock that they didn't quite show it all.
• 58:22
  It was just sort of implied they're just.
• 58:24
  So glasses and I thought it was death.
• 58:27
  By 1000 cuts. Yeah, yeah.
• 58:29
  And The thing is that is quite specific that they did it that
• 58:34
  way because it is one of the most, what's the word that I'm
• 58:38
  looking for? One of the most shameful, the
• 58:42
  deaths that you can give to somebody because the body is
• 58:46
  supposed to be, you know, something, yes, sacred,
• 58:49
  something that your parents gifted.
• 58:50
  You're not supposed to harm it and to have it slashed that way
• 58:54
  so many times. It's meant to be one of the most
• 58:57
  shameful ways to die. That's why when she finds out
• 59:01
  and when a lot of people, like when one of his disciples, they
• 59:05
  come to collect the body and she finds out the way he died, she
• 59:09
  just falls on the floor. It's because it's not not only
• 59:12
  that he's dead, that's already a big blow, but it's the way they
• 59:16
  did it. It's the way they shamed him
• 59:18
  like this big Great War hero and they shamed him by slashing his
• 59:24
  body up and control. You know they said it.
• 59:27
  Lasted 6 hours. Yeah yeah, I wouldn't fucking
• 59:31
  marry that guy either. Like you know what I'm saying?
• 59:32
  Like. What made?
• 59:34
  You think what the audacity that you have to think that you can
• 59:40
  still marry her after that? Oh, no, absolutely not.
• 59:43
  But. It does lead to the scene where
• 59:47
  Wang Shingu's character goes afterwards and his white
• 59:52
  clothes, because he's it's exactly the same thing that they
• 59:55
  did in Ashes of Love, where they put him in white and apparently
• 59:58
  he's very angelic, but he's anything but.
• 1:00:01
  And he goes into that room and he sees the blood on his hands
• 1:00:05
  and he just starts to laugh. But you can see it's like.
• 1:00:09
  I was going to bring the scene up, yes.
• 1:00:13
  Because he. Wants to almost like it's he
• 1:00:16
  wants to cry, but he doesn't. So he like he becomes, you know,
• 1:00:21
  this manic laughter. It was.
• 1:00:23
  A strange scene, especially because I think everything else
• 1:00:27
  in the show is pretty simple and easy to understand and not
• 1:00:30
  really up for that much interpretation.
• 1:00:32
  This scene, I was like, oh, they're doing something here
• 1:00:35
  because the second male lead comes into this room.
• 1:00:39
  Like you said, initially, if this is a post execution, right
• 1:00:43
  after the execution and right after all of these loyal
• 1:00:45
  ministers, probably hundreds of ministers decided to mourn him
• 1:00:49
  and die with him. Yeah.
• 1:00:51
  That's loyalty, right? A Mass.
• 1:00:54
  Culling that just happened in the the court and he seems
• 1:00:57
  panicked and traumatized by the scene, the scene that just
• 1:01:02
  happened. He sees all this blood kind of
• 1:01:05
  splattered on his white robes, like you said, light colored
• 1:01:08
  robes. And he starts wiping it away
• 1:01:10
  with his hands, almost like, you know, he's scared of what just
• 1:01:14
  happened. He get it off me.
• 1:01:16
  And then he stops and sees the literal blood on his hands,
• 1:01:20
  which is obviously very on the nose.
• 1:01:22
  There's blood on his hands and he starts maniacally smiling and
• 1:01:26
  laughing and sniffing the blood on his hands as his eyes roll
• 1:01:30
  back in his head, almost like he's getting off on this.
• 1:01:35
  He's accepting it, isn't he, because he thinks that's power.
• 1:01:38
  I was. Like, what the fuck is going on?
• 1:01:41
  I was like, did he go insane for a minute?
• 1:01:43
  Or, you know, is it like this journey, this descent into not
• 1:01:48
  just madness, but like you said, he's happy that it happened,
• 1:01:53
  that he's just eliminated his greatest threat, not just
• 1:01:57
  politically but romantically, Yeah.
• 1:02:00
  Because he'd be there's, there's no.
• 1:02:02
  Right, you'd be. Dumb not to see those two are
• 1:02:05
  completely in love. Like, yeah.
• 1:02:07
  You're, you're insane if you think that there's nothing
• 1:02:09
  happening between them. Yeah.
• 1:02:11
  Yeah. I thought that was a very
• 1:02:13
  interesting scene to put in. I think it's his acceptance of
• 1:02:19
  what he's done and the role he played in it.
• 1:02:23
  And I think it's so basically the point of no return for him.
• 1:02:28
  I mean, he's done bad stuff before, but really there's no
• 1:02:32
  coming back from this. And he him accepting.
• 1:02:37
  I think it's like he thinks this is the ultimate power, power
• 1:02:42
  over life and death almost that he's been given.
• 1:02:46
  The thing is, at the end of the day, he is a puppet in the hands
• 1:02:50
  of the other guy, and he comes to realize that a little bit too
• 1:02:54
  late. But he does come to realize that
• 1:02:55
  he's literally just a puppet. Same crap he was having 20
• 1:03:01
  episodes a guy. It's just a different puppet
• 1:03:04
  master up there pulling his string, isn't it?
• 1:03:07
  Absolutely. And what I found most, I guess,
• 1:03:11
  crazy about the whole situation, is that he is sick.
• 1:03:15
  The doctors have given him three years to live.
• 1:03:17
  And this is before he pulls all of this shit.
• 1:03:20
  In the last couple of episodes, I was like, but you're dying,
• 1:03:25
  like all this, let it go, but you're dying.
• 1:03:28
  So I'm like your terminal. And he's still pulling all this
• 1:03:32
  bullshit. It's just there's such futility
• 1:03:36
  in it. It's shocking that he would go
• 1:03:39
  through the trouble of becoming emperor and he is on borrowed
• 1:03:44
  time, three years at most to live.
• 1:03:47
  I think he. Just wanted that power, He.
• 1:03:49
  And The thing is, he wants power above anything else.
• 1:03:53
  He wants her. He doesn't love her.
• 1:03:55
  He's obsessed with. No.
• 1:03:56
  He's evacuated. Big difference.
• 1:03:58
  Yeah. Infatuated.
• 1:04:00
  Yeah. And he'll do anything.
• 1:04:02
  He thinks once he's emperor, he can do whatever the heck he
• 1:04:06
  wants. And she will be his.
• 1:04:09
  And he'll be able to command her to be his.
• 1:04:13
  That was never going to work out.
• 1:04:15
  Yeah. Are there other scenes that just
• 1:04:18
  wrecked you? The.
• 1:04:19
  Scene where she wants to visit a specific temple, temple palace
• 1:04:26
  that's been closed off. And then she asks him to write
• 1:04:30
  something and she says, oh, can you write Chen, which is his,
• 1:04:36
  you know, surname? And he doesn't.
• 1:04:38
  He writes Shu Yi. And then we come back to that
• 1:04:41
  room after they're both gone and after they're both dead.
• 1:04:45
  And you know, her name is still written in the dust, which you
• 1:04:49
  know, it wouldn't be because dust would collect.
• 1:04:51
  It's still right. It's the.
• 1:04:56
  Yeah. So, yeah, scenes like that, just
• 1:05:00
  to her saying goodbye to him over and over again.
• 1:05:04
  Blessed. Oh my God, what else have I
• 1:05:07
  written down in my notes? Oh, Episode 14, there's a very
• 1:05:13
  specific line that I love about him.
• 1:05:16
  It's him admitting he wants her without him admitting he wants
• 1:05:20
  her. And it's to me, that's what it
• 1:05:21
  comes across because he says I'm not a hero.
• 1:05:24
  I'm also selfish. I also have things I want but
• 1:05:28
  cannot do. And he says this line to her.
• 1:05:31
  And, you know, to me, that is him very much saying you're the
• 1:05:35
  thing I want and I cannot have. So yeah, I adored, adored that
• 1:05:43
  scene. And then in episode 16, Oh yeah.
• 1:05:48
  That is that is her bidding farewell.
• 1:05:52
  And she says a disciple, she bids farewell to Shufu.
• 1:05:57
  And it's basically they do a flashback to when she first
• 1:06:00
  arrives and you know, she's paying her respects to him for
• 1:06:05
  the very, very first time. So you know, I, I love.
• 1:06:11
  There's a lot of scenes when I think the second senior sister
• 1:06:15
  died and she got impaled in the big fight.
• 1:06:18
  For Sien, I was like. Like it.
• 1:06:20
  God, heartbreaking because damn, there's so many things together.
• 1:06:25
  Then we're going to be together. Her and the older cousin.
• 1:06:29
  The sweet older cousin, he had gotten divorced.
• 1:06:33
  It was a whole heartbreaking thing that he even had to get
• 1:06:35
  married in the 1st place to this fucking spoiled brat of a
• 1:06:39
  Princess. And they get divorced and they
• 1:06:43
  could have made it. This was this one stung.
• 1:06:47
  This one stung for sure because I could see the finish line for
• 1:06:50
  them. Yeah and she dies.
• 1:06:53
  Oh God. And then?
• 1:06:54
  He gives up his clan's name to become Junior Prince so that he
• 1:07:01
  can take over. Yeah, the Army.
• 1:07:04
  Eventual. What's happened and basically
• 1:07:07
  avenge it when? The mom and the aunt.
• 1:07:10
  I think this is in one of the episodes 11 through 17, I can't
• 1:07:15
  remember which one. I was taking notes in chunks of
• 1:07:17
  episodes. The mom and the aunt of the
• 1:07:20
  sweet family go to the western state to pick her up for her
• 1:07:23
  wedding and she doesn't know that why they're there.
• 1:07:25
  Oh yeah. Yeah.
• 1:07:26
  And she had sent them this letter.
• 1:07:27
  She sent the mom this letter saying like my wish is to remain
• 1:07:32
  unmarried and stay in Western state close to him living in his
• 1:07:35
  household and just compile classics and and books and be
• 1:07:39
  like a glorified librarian of the time, which is, you know,
• 1:07:42
  just to be closer to him. It's.
• 1:07:45
  A sweet life too, right? Sweet life as.
• 1:07:47
  Well, this scene of her and the mom I think was really powerful
• 1:07:52
  as well. Where she knows that she can't
• 1:07:56
  get out of this, the second engagement with the same guy,
• 1:08:00
  the same second male lead. And she says, I can't even
• 1:08:03
  convince myself, you know? She says she's thought of
• 1:08:07
  countless words to convince her mom to let her stay unmarried,
• 1:08:10
  living abroad in this guy's household.
• 1:08:14
  And she's like, I can't even convince myself.
• 1:08:16
  Like there's no good reason if I stay, this is I still have to do
• 1:08:20
  this. I got of duty, still have to get
• 1:08:23
  married out of duty and the mom says I've been through this pain
• 1:08:27
  talking about divorcing the husband that she loved and you
• 1:08:30
  know, sending him away. He was sick as well.
• 1:08:32
  So he died like it's terrible. She talks about how the brother,
• 1:08:36
  which is the cousin that I was we were talking about earlier.
• 1:08:39
  He knows this pain as well of not being with your loved one,
• 1:08:42
  this anguish and that she would have done the mom would have
• 1:08:46
  done everything possible to let her settle with any general that
• 1:08:50
  she happened to fall in love with out there.
• 1:08:53
  But, and I quote, the only impossibility is the man in your
• 1:08:57
  heart. Yeah.
• 1:08:59
  Yeah, she had to go and fall in love with the one guy she never
• 1:09:03
  have. Yeah, she says.
• 1:09:08
  Our girl says, I never had any wild thoughts.
• 1:09:11
  I truly just want to be by his side and stay by his side every
• 1:09:14
  day. That's enough.
• 1:09:15
  And of course she's saying this through like tears and they pan
• 1:09:19
  outside. He has overheard everything,
• 1:09:22
  this entire conversation. And again, he's just like shell
• 1:09:25
  shocked. He can't do anything.
• 1:09:26
  He can't go in and comfort her. There's all this duty and
• 1:09:30
  propriety and everything. This is like a mountain between
• 1:09:33
  them the entire show. But especially after she gets
• 1:09:37
  that second death sentence basically to go marry into the
• 1:09:41
  royal family. It's just all downhill it.
• 1:09:45
  Is it is it's horrible. It is.
• 1:09:48
  I will say if you want a little bit of healing, just go on
• 1:09:54
  YouTube and search up Oh is there.
• 1:09:57
  Like a supercut there. Probably is, but I'm thinking
• 1:10:00
  about one specific scene which again, I haven't watched forever
• 1:10:03
  and ever in years, but this is the scene that my head goes
• 1:10:07
  straight to and it is Shi Yi and Zhu Chong Chen so they have the
• 1:10:13
  same names. Oh, really?
• 1:10:15
  Rain. A rain scene.
• 1:10:18
  Trust me, you won't go wrong. It'll heal your heart and give
• 1:10:23
  you a little bit of closure, OK? I'll definitely look it up
• 1:10:27
  because I honestly don't know if I want to sit here and watch
• 1:10:32
  just a lovey dovey modern day romance.
• 1:10:36
  It's not and. They're not exactly right.
• 1:10:39
  They're. Not exactly the same.
• 1:10:40
  You know, that's my thing with all of these dramas that try and
• 1:10:45
  not just do this exact thing where it's one work that was
• 1:10:48
  split up and due to censorship and all this stuff.
• 1:10:52
  But like even what's 1 in the K drama Goblin, the second
• 1:10:56
  pairing, it's very tragic. They don't end up together.
• 1:10:59
  Whatever. If they did another drama, those
• 1:11:02
  two actors touch your heart, which is kind of they're not the
• 1:11:05
  same characters. Yes, I saw.
• 1:11:06
  Yes, I did watch Touch Your Heart.
• 1:11:08
  It's the. Same effect, right?
• 1:11:10
  People that are heartbroken over this other tragic romance that
• 1:11:14
  they had are going to get some sort of happy ending with that
• 1:11:18
  in a modern day romance. But my thing is, it's not the
• 1:11:22
  same characters. Yeah.
• 1:11:25
  It's not. The same, it's not going to hit
• 1:11:29
  the same because it's a totally different timeline, totally
• 1:11:32
  different characters, they. Have very similar personalities
• 1:11:37
  and forever and ever. Like you can see the general and
• 1:11:39
  she well, she, she's called she again in this one.
• 1:11:43
  Like they have the exact same names, you know, same name, same
• 1:11:47
  everything. And so she's a voice actress.
• 1:11:52
  She dubs dramas and whatnot, and the story just follows that.
• 1:11:57
  They meet at an airport and they kind of instantly connect.
• 1:12:02
  And if you just watch forever and ever, you'll never
• 1:12:06
  understand and you'll be like, this is like insta love and
• 1:12:09
  whatever it isn't. They connect because there is
• 1:12:12
  something there. Like they feel drawn to each
• 1:12:16
  other and it's kind of like that, you know, reincarnation,
• 1:12:19
  that kind of life coming back together.
• 1:12:22
  And he's basically like an archaic architects, I think.
• 1:12:26
  I think he does old, he wants to like he does traditional
• 1:12:31
  craftsmanship. So you see a lot of old houses
• 1:12:35
  like you did back in one and only and things like that.
• 1:12:40
  And they kind of come together. There's a lot of family drama,
• 1:12:45
  which is not going to be for everybody.
• 1:12:47
  And also I do think it did not need to be 30 episodes, let's
• 1:12:51
  put it that way. Wait.
• 1:12:53
  Forever and Ever IS3030 episodes, yeah.
• 1:13:00
  It doesn't need it. It doesn't.
• 1:13:01
  It's already. Upsetting me.
• 1:13:02
  It's upsetting me. Because if anything needed 30.
• 1:13:06
  Episodes. It was this one what?
• 1:13:08
  And only a lot of stuff was told in flashback.
• 1:13:12
  Like they were like, I can't believe this, you know?
• 1:13:14
  And then they show a flashback scene that you've never seen
• 1:13:17
  before, brand new scene. Yeah, it was very till.
• 1:13:20
  The end of the moon in that in that result where it's like I
• 1:13:24
  haven't seen this this is very choppy but I mean in this case
• 1:13:28
  there wasn't I guess that they were cutting down to fit it was
• 1:13:32
  mandate then yeah, no, no. So this some of that did feel
• 1:13:38
  quirky, jerky, but if anything needed 30 episodes.
• 1:13:42
  Girl, who is this one? Not just the modern day one.
• 1:13:45
  Just go. Look at some edits.
• 1:13:47
  There's really, really good scenes.
• 1:13:49
  There's really good scenes from Forever and Ever.
• 1:13:51
  Really good scenes. And like, like I said, lots and
• 1:13:55
  lots of little things that connect one show to the other.
• 1:14:00
  Even like the nose touch. She does that a lot to him in
• 1:14:04
  Forever and Ever. Do you know what I was?
• 1:14:06
  I nicknamed it in my notes as I just want to take another look
• 1:14:09
  at you because of Star is Born with Bradley Cooper and Lady
• 1:14:15
  Gaga because they do that in the yeah.
• 1:14:18
  Yeah, yeah, that. Movie I just want to take
• 1:14:21
  another look at it cuz she goes like this one on her nose, runs
• 1:14:24
  her finger down her nose. I'm never gonna be able to Unsee
• 1:14:27
  that. That's what I'm gonna think of
• 1:14:29
  it now. She.
• 1:14:32
  Does it a couple of times She. Does to him.
• 1:14:35
  And it. Does come back.
• 1:14:37
  Like I said, just go look at some edits.
• 1:14:40
  You'll be absolutely fine. I don't think right as rain.
• 1:14:43
  Yeah, I don't think a lot of people.
• 1:14:45
  The thing is, I liked Forever and Ever well enough there.
• 1:14:51
  Would be nothing without one and only, I'm sure.
• 1:14:53
  Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:55
  I don't think, I mean, I still would have.
• 1:14:57
  Can't stand on its own. It can.
• 1:14:59
  But I think like lots of people ask, oh, do I have to watch one
• 1:15:03
  and only to watch forever and ever because they don't like
• 1:15:06
  historicals or they don't like, you know, tragedy they don't
• 1:15:11
  like. I don't want to inflict that
• 1:15:13
  upon themselves. And I always say you can watch
• 1:15:18
  forever and ever. I just don't think it hits you
• 1:15:22
  or impacts as much if you haven't watched One and Only
• 1:15:26
  because, like I said, there's so many little things that connect
• 1:15:30
  the stories together. There's even later on, she gets
• 1:15:34
  sick in Forever and Ever and she kind of like has this fever
• 1:15:37
  dream and she kind of remembers some of the things that she did
• 1:15:43
  that what happened in One and Only and she kind of like has
• 1:15:46
  dreams about it. That's how they fit put that
• 1:15:50
  storyline in a little bit. But yeah, I think it was just
• 1:15:54
  cleverly done the way they linked the two shows together.
• 1:15:58
  But yeah, it's all the things that we wanted them to do in one
• 1:16:02
  and only, but they couldn't. And they have all the freedom to
• 1:16:05
  do in Forever and ever. And also they get together
• 1:16:08
  within like the 1st 10 episodes. They're together and like almost
• 1:16:12
  going to get married. Like that's what she wanted, she
• 1:16:16
  said There is another life. Come to marry me first.
• 1:16:20
  He does and he does. I'm sure he does.
• 1:16:23
  He does. So yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 1:16:27
  I mean, everything else in my notes is kind of like very, very
• 1:16:30
  specific things that happened in the plot that I just didn't want
• 1:16:32
  to forget, but not necessarily fodder to talk about
• 1:16:37
  necessarily. Yeah, No, I thought it was
• 1:16:40
  beautiful it. Is it is beautiful drama.
• 1:16:43
  I don't intend to read what I don't want to go back to the
• 1:16:46
  tragedy against. So I was like you do you know
• 1:16:48
  what? Knowing what's coming, does it
• 1:16:50
  help? It doesn't help.
• 1:16:55
  That's hysterical. Hey, I totally forgot to do this
• 1:16:58
  towards the beginning of the show, but what would you rate
• 1:17:02
  the show out of five Soji bottles?
• 1:17:04
  Or I guess you can do teacups is.
• 1:17:11
  This one of my 5 teacups. I don't know.
• 1:17:15
  The thing is, I love it. I do really.
• 1:17:19
  Also, first of all, it was a bit jarring for me.
• 1:17:24
  I know by Lou's voice very well. Oh it's very much he does in one
• 1:17:29
  and only that was a bit jarring, but it is.
• 1:17:32
  It is one of my 5 teacups because I didn't score it.
• 1:17:37
  Yeah, I. Loved it.
• 1:17:38
  I loved it. I didn't feel kind of
• 1:17:40
  shortchanged maybe that there is no technical romantic payoff,
• 1:17:45
  that there's no kissing. I like didn't feel that at all.
• 1:17:49
  And I will say about by Lou, is it Yes, I've heard her dubbed by
• 1:17:54
  somebody else or herself in later shows.
• 1:17:57
  However, her performance in this, at first, I was like, oh,
• 1:18:01
  it's by Lou, I love by Lou, whatever.
• 1:18:04
  And I was immediately lost immersed in her character here.
• 1:18:09
  She really took on this different persona and I didn't
• 1:18:15
  see by Lou, if that makes any sense.
• 1:18:18
  Yeah. Yeah, I she has the ability to
• 1:18:21
  do that, though, doesn't She has very much the ability to kind of
• 1:18:24
  lose herself in her roles and I always loved that about her.
• 1:18:31
  I do. I would say this is a really
• 1:18:33
  good show to cut your teeth on for a historical, however, I'm
• 1:18:38
  not sure it's very. It's so sad.
• 1:18:42
  It's so unbearably sad, which I love.
• 1:18:45
  Like, that's obviously the point of this show.
• 1:18:48
  That was what Moo Bao Fabao intended when she wrote of a
• 1:18:53
  tragic back story for these characters in her novel and then
• 1:18:57
  circled back to do a full season of a adaptation.
• 1:19:02
  She was like, this is always going to be tragic.
• 1:19:04
  Completely. It was.
• 1:19:05
  Always. Yeah, it was always.
• 1:19:07
  Going to end badly, but it was still beautiful it.
• 1:19:10
  Was it was I? I loved it beginning to end.
• 1:19:14
  I truly did. Even with all the tragedy, I
• 1:19:16
  still loved it a lot. Yeah.
• 1:19:19
  And I was checking because I've been going through a lot of my
• 1:19:24
  like my drama list and just my ratings and like actually I've
• 1:19:30
  been down grading. Oh no, A.
• 1:19:33
  Few dramas and that's why I wanted to double check, but I
• 1:19:36
  was like, I'm pretty sure I haven't.
• 1:19:38
  Because now that I've rewatched it, I think it still stands.
• 1:19:42
  Yeah, it still holds up. So yeah, my, my 5 teacups are
• 1:19:46
  dwindling down I think a lot nowadays.
• 1:19:51
  I think I'm just becoming way more.
• 1:19:53
  I think I've just becoming way more harsher.
• 1:19:55
  And also the oldest, the older shows, I'm like, OK, I love
• 1:20:01
  that. And I rated it so highly back
• 1:20:03
  then. Do I remember any of it?
• 1:20:05
  I really don't. And then if that's the case,
• 1:20:10
  should it still be a 5T cup if it doesn't hold up?
• 1:20:15
  And I don't have great recollections of it, and I don't
• 1:20:17
  really have. So that's why I've been going
• 1:20:20
  through my list and like, yeah, you know, yeah.
• 1:20:24
  Before we get out of here, if anyone wants to watch more by
• 1:20:27
  Liu or Alan Wren shows or watching you shows, what would
• 1:20:32
  be your top Rex for these actors?
• 1:20:36
  But by Lou, I think till the end of the Moon is a really, really
• 1:20:42
  good role of hers. I really did love now I loved
• 1:20:48
  unveiled Jade Wind, but it's not going to be for everybody.
• 1:20:51
  It is a very it's not a romance. It's not a romance exactly.
• 1:20:55
  It's very much a back burner. And she plays a very, very
• 1:20:58
  different character. She's very grey as a character.
• 1:21:02
  She's very cold, very stoic. So she plays the classic male
• 1:21:06
  lead, let's put it that way. And but it is, I think it's the
• 1:21:10
  signal of the start of her changing courses in her career.
• 1:21:17
  I think Northwards is a really good show.
• 1:21:21
  Like she went full on very short hair braces for a lot of the
• 1:21:28
  show. So it is a completely different
• 1:21:31
  look to her. Gotcha.
• 1:21:33
  So yeah, I think those are all, I mean, story of Kooning Palace.
• 1:21:36
  Oh, I. Love story of Kooning I.
• 1:21:38
  Love story of Kooning Palace. It is amazing.
• 1:21:42
  But yeah, for her Alan Wren, I think we need Caitlin, Yeah.
• 1:21:49
  Because I've. Dropped most of his show and The
• 1:21:53
  thing is Destiny of Whitesnake, I watched it so long ago that I
• 1:21:59
  don't think it's one of those. Can you even recommend it?
• 1:22:04
  So yeah, wenching you the double, obviously.
• 1:22:09
  I think that's one of his best jobs.
• 1:22:12
  If you want to see him with by Lou and Veil Jade Winch.
• 1:22:18
  Right. But yeah.
• 1:22:19
  I think the double has been one of his best works.
• 1:22:24
  Really juicy role. See the really difference it is,
• 1:22:26
  it is a really, really juicy role.
• 1:22:27
  Even if he is not like he's the male lead, but that show is all
• 1:22:31
  about the female lead. Like that is the female lead
• 1:22:35
  show. And then if you want to see him
• 1:22:38
  in a modern, then amidst a snowstorm of love not going to
• 1:22:42
  be for everybody he is. He is a main role, but I'm like
• 1:22:47
  he is. A main role, but he doesn't
• 1:22:49
  really like he's there. He plays the cousin to the
• 1:22:52
  female lead, so he's there, He is there.
• 1:22:57
  Lots of things happen. He has, but I don't think he has
• 1:23:00
  that that much screen time to really consider him a main role
• 1:23:05
  in that one because that's with Woo Lay and Woo Lay definitely
• 1:23:09
  Woo Lay takes the screen, but that show is always vibes and no
• 1:23:17
  plot. Like, don't go in expecting plot
• 1:23:20
  because that's not what you're going to get.
• 1:23:24
  All right, well, those are some great wrecks, so definitely
• 1:23:27
  check those out if you haven't already and you want to see more
• 1:23:30
  from these actors in this cast because it is a really strong
• 1:23:33
  cast, I will say. All right, thank you so much,
• 1:23:36
  Liliano. I appreciate you taking the time
• 1:23:38
  to rewatch for the third time. One and only And where can
• 1:23:44
  people find you online? So you can find me on Tea and
• 1:23:49
  Soju pod, all one word and on TikTok, Instagram threads.
• 1:23:53
  I think we're on Threads as well.
• 1:23:55
  And yeah. And then if you'd like to listen
• 1:23:57
  to the podcast, it's Tea and Soju podcast and that's on
• 1:24:01
  Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you can get podcasts
• 1:24:04
  from. Lovely.
• 1:24:06
  Yes, very soon we will be doing a tea tasting for your discord
• 1:24:13
  which we all got sent tea and I am not a tea drinker so this
• 1:24:18
  will be very interesting. I'm very intrigued by the entire
• 1:24:21
  process of tasting these things from I.
• 1:24:25
  I'm not quite sure where the tea is from.
• 1:24:27
  Is it from China mostly? Chinese tea, Yeah, it's mostly
• 1:24:31
  Chinese. It's loose leaf.
• 1:24:32
  I haven't actually. Yeah, it's loose leaf tea.
• 1:24:35
  We have some poo are tea in there, which I'm very excited.
• 1:24:39
  And poo are is really good for like aiding a lot of people
• 1:24:42
  drink it after food because it's supposed to help you with
• 1:24:45
  digestion. Have to be good and stuff.
• 1:24:48
  So yeah. So that's.
• 1:24:50
  Always a tea I always have on hand, but yeah, we have a
• 1:24:54
  really, really good silver needle, which is kind of like a
• 1:24:56
  green tea. So we have really good teas.
• 1:24:59
  It's exciting. I'm very excited.
• 1:25:01
  I'm very excited. It's excited to do this with.
• 1:25:03
  Everybody else too like have an experience.
• 1:25:06
  So we got that coming up. When you listen to this I will
• 1:25:09
  be in some cold negative temps but feel free to reach out to
• 1:25:14
  either one of us to chat one and only.
• 1:25:16
  And of course Liliana has way more Rex for C dramas.
• 1:25:20
  I have Rex, but you really do have Rex, so.
• 1:25:23
  Definitely hit a few. Watched a.
• 1:25:25
  Few. Just a couple.
• 1:25:26
  Yeah. Anyway, that's it.
• 1:25:29
  That's our show. I'm Jessica and this has been
• 1:25:32
  the Tiba K Rambles podcast.