Who still believes in Douban and other drama scoring sites

Hi, Aglaea,

I agree with everything you said. Before I watched Asian dramas, I never read netizens' comments about dramas. I read comments of known critics like Roger Ebert but even then, I took their words with a grain of salt. I read movie/drama reviews just to have more information about them but I seldom take critics' advise. If I did, I would have missed out on my favorite movies of all time like The Sound of Music and Starwars which were heavily criticized. In fact, more often than not, I find movies and dramas suggested by famous critics to be not my cup of tea. I get the feeling that because it's their work and they have to meet certain quota or deadline, critics have gotten detached from the emotional side of what they're watching and have been focusing on the technical aspects like camera angles, filters, etc that hardly bother me coz I'm more focused on the story and characters.

I got into MDL when I  started watching Korean dramas coz i thought it was a good place where I can discuss the plots and laugh and cry over scenes, like watching dramas with friends. Never could I have imagine that some of these comment threads are filled with vipers and toxicity. Lke  you, when I don't like a drama, I just drop it quietly. Why spoil somebody else's fun? People have very different tastes in movies and dramas.

I tend to advocate for dramas that I feel are being unjustly criticized like this drama. Due to my work, I'm aware of the existence of the dark web and netizens paid to play dirty. I have actually been trying to move away from Asian dramas because of the toxicity. It's like a dog-eat-dog world. The only reason I can't completely break away from it is  Dylan Wang. I got drawn to him because he has been bullied since he started in showbiz, seemingly because he does not come from money and because he has no powerful backers. That's why most of his projects have been low-budget. He works very hard, he hardly sleeps. So whatever success he attains is mostly from his hard work. Yet he is getting a lot of hate that I understand come mostly from other actors' agents and fans who see him as competition. I really hope that there will come a time when his antis leave him alone.

Regarding The Knockout, it's the #1 drama in China for 2023. I've tried to watch it several times. One of these days I hope to finish watching it.

I guess my problem is that I take the world of movies and dramas seriously. I actually rate them according to how they move me. Of course, my rating is not purely based on emotions because if the production is of low quality, I would cringe at, say. the romantic parts, instead  of feeling swoony. Perhaps watching movies and dramas since childhood has given me enough intuition for what dramas deserve to grab my emotions. For example, when critics said Starwars provided weightless amusement, I knew it provided more because I got attached even to R2D2 and CP3O, not to mention feeling all swoony whenever Han Solo and Princess Leia bickered.

When a drama moves me, I give it all my emotional range, otherwise, I don't feel satisfied at the end. And I found that discussing dramas with others brings out the highest level of satisfaction I can get from watching them. There is no better way to enjoy a drama than discussing the details with like-minded people. And sometimes you get to understand characters better when you discuss your ideas with others. For example, in Only For Love, I sensed Shi Yan giving off Mr. Darcy vibes and another watcher said she felt the same. The fun of knowing another person is understanding a character in the same way you do is priceless. Another case, though it did not happen in OFL, but when I first watched the 1995 Pride and Prejudice series and was discussing it with a friend, when I mentioned Mr. Darcy diving into the lake, we both laughed. We both knew, without us saying anything, that it was an indulgent senseless scene placed there to titillate viewers. That scene has become a joke between us. She is now in Australia, I'm in the US but that scene immediately comes to mind and makes me smile whenever I get a note from her

With Asian dramas, however, discussing dramas in sites like mdl has become a double edged sword. You get the fun of discussing it with kindred spirits but you also get the aggravation of meeting reviewers who take pleasure in robbing every one else of a peaceful discussion. And once you get into sites like this, you can't avoid seeing the scores.

That was why I decided to retire from cdramas before OFL came along. Now, maybe, I'll semi-retire. I'll just watch the ones I've been waiting for like Legend of Shenli and Guardians of the Dafeng, instead of surfing Netflix, iQiyi, Viki and Youtube for cdramas that look interesting.

Thank you for your informative and sensible advice.

@Aglaea 

MyDramalist is a good source of information about Asian dramas. I usually come here to get the Chinese name and airing date.

Very useful advice - "don't feed the trolls" :)  I practiced that for a while here, but the negative reviewers seem to have gotten emboldended by the lack of push back until all you could see on the first page were negative reviews. So, now, those who like the drama push back when we can, though I usually just start a new post rather than engage with detractors since I noticed they don't try to understand what you're trying to say; they just want to malign the drama.

https://www.msn.com/zh-cn/news/other/2023%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%B3%E9%99%86%E5%89%A7-top10-%E6%98%9F%E8%90%BD%E5%87%9D%E6%88%90%E7%B3%96-%E7%AC%AC7-%E9%95%BF%E6%9C%88%E7%83%AC%E6%98%8E-%E7%AC%AC4-%E5%86%A0%E5%86%9B%E6%98%AF%E7%9C%9F%E7%9A%84%E5%A5%BD%E7%9C%8B/ar-AA1l70eN?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=629d22822bd9452c88ab08556beb9ffc&ei=3

Fireworks of My Heart chosen by Internet as no 2 the best CDrama 2023
This is also proof douban rating and all review that claimed they represent the public is the mafia that trying to extort money from the production but failed, therefore the hate review and douban "arranged" rating. This show public loves this drama