Oh my God, what is this abomination? How are these my Trash Man and Ji Man?!?!?
How dare they take the single best het web novel I have ever read and turn it into this cheap, candy tinted mess?!?!?
Also, what utter miscasting! I am very fond of Ding Yuxi (loved him in Tiger and Rose, excited to watch him in Seven Lifetimes) but he’s utterly miscast as ice-cold, pragmatic’ Machiavellian aristocrat who gets rid of three emperors and has his own child aborted and concubines killed for terrifying realpolitik reasons. And I suppose Peng Xiaoran is somewhat better but she still has the wrong vibe as even colder than Trash Man, terrifyingly smart, completely detached Ji Man. That novel is so good in its very very slow burn rapprochement of two terrifying sharks - and the joy of watching a master manipulator, a genuine period man with those attitudes towards women, gradually fall for Ji Man’s competence, her ruthlessness, her calmness and her utter indifference to him, and risk everything for her as she remains uncaring for the longest time is unreal. But this pastel sugary nonsense that takes out all the darkness, the complexity and everything that made it good - ugh.
Btw, if I were casting, I’d cast Chen Kun, beautiful and icy and still, as Trash Man and Zhang Ziyi as Ji Man.
NO NO NO! Everything is wrong here. Just make it an original work at this point, don’t drag down Trash Man and Ji Man’s good name.
Totally agree with you re Chen Kun as Trash Man. Or even Jeremy Tsui. I love ZZY in anything period so I’m on board with that. I think even Zhao Liying could work since she’s no stranger to playing unfeeling and overly pragmatic heroines who have hot men simp at their feet.
