Wow @nessa, @joanna @reply1988. Somehow I'd conflated the two incidents into one legal case. Until this post I did not understand that XZ actually was involved in two legal cases of this magnitude, and before he was 33. In my next life, I want to be a lawyer working at the law firm that won his business, because this is a big deal when you think about it.

If you all know somebody out there looking for a good PhD thesis, this second case (which is of course related to the first because how could it not?) would make for a great case study in how social media influences the history around us. This is a relative newcomer to entertainment challenging the social order of things, from endorsements to social media wrongdoing, while still trying to live in that world. I can't imagine what this has cost him, in cash and in angst. Proud of him and thankful to you @nessa for laying it out in this post so I could understand better what the implications are for this court case. This doesn't just benefit XZ, it benefits all media figures and especially entertainment media figures, in China and Asia and beyond. Good job XZ, for sticking with the hard part and plowing ahead under adversity. The upshot will be more freedom of choice for XZ -- but honestly, more entertainment figures will benefit from this than XZ and they know it.

And now I better understand why Wang Yi Bo annoys you, @nessa.

Sorry to ask, but would it be possible to get some links to any public information on the court decision? TY in advance.

Currently up to episode 9. My overwhelming feeling at the moment is one of whiplash. Every time I meet someone, they die. Not just the bad guys. The incidental nice people die too. I mean, that person who was caught in the Feng Shui sweep, with the kid- I thought ' great, a nice small character who is indebted and will provide necessary support at some time in the future' Nup, dead.
I was suspicious of the masked man the moment we met him- after all, noone would know about homemade tunnel system unless they had already been monitoring the house/making enquiries.
Have we met the masked man unmasked yet? I don't think I have, because as noted everyone dies. Masked man is not Duke Pin Jing, as the Duke is straight forward, not someone to make such a complex revenge strategy. Not either of the teachers, they have both been on screen with him at the same time. (And one of the teachers now of course, dead!)
Have just met the 'chubby' former disciple of his Father. This is not going to end well is it? Do they betray him for their own ends, or are they connected to the major bad guys? Do they die as well?

@anne18
Forgot the tag, again 🙃

Miss Korea is one of my most favorite dramas ever, with some of my most favorite characters ever, and my top favorite secondary couple.
I should however give a heads up that it stars the late Lee Sun Kyun, if that would mar your enjoyment of the drama.

Legend of Zheng Hai Obligatory squee reference: I like complex narratives. Spoilers in the comments @nessa

Haha, @midnight then I was surprisingly right for a person who sucks at following fashion.
That premise sounds good! Thanks for telling me about the drama. I'll try watching it.

This looks like a spoof... Or an AI image... Or a photoshopped meme!

I am waiting to see if this will be funny or just have hints of fun mixed in between large swirls of disappointment.

I like low level no brainer dramas during study season and with this releasing in autumn when it’s going to be wet, dull and unnecessarily massive spider season that’s all I need to keep me going. So if it fails at that one job the key word will be BITTER.

This writer is one of my favorites and consistently excellent in tackling topics like time travel and parallel worlds. Her only story that started very well and descended into chaos was W -- and even then, I suspect it isn't her fault cos she has apparently produced stacks and stacks of research and script that never made it into the final drama. Her world-building was complex and coherent but unfortunately has suffered so much truncation that viewers are perplexed

The moral that I take away from this cautionary tale is: poverty is a bitch, please don't be poor.

This week's rife with stories of characters who's driven into a corner, or tussling between two evils or hard places simply because of a lack of money -- whether it be the mobster parents, the youngest nurse sister, our songstress FL, or even our resident stalker TH in his younger days.

Like I said in www, the script did Tae-hoon dirty. He started off as such an intriguing and layered character. Then the EVIL switch was flipped and he went straight to the Dark Side -- with no calibration or convincing character motivation.

@anne18

No, you are very correct! The story of Miss Korea is about a small cosmetics company in 1997 on the brink of bankruptcy, trying to introduce lip gloss, and slowly taking over the dark lipstick trend of the time.

Almost certainly not but I have to admit that this is a fun hypothesis.

It's like watching of cover of a Harlequin "historic" book.

With so many goof PD, I hope this drama will be less cringey than this teaser.

Let's wait for Kangie together!

Haha.. No, @midnight I haven't watched Miss Korea. Am I inaccurate about the trend of glossy lips in dramas? I think I might be 😂. Maybe, I said that from my vague remembrance of fashion in Bollywood movies that I was watching as a kid in the 2000s.

@joanna
Yes 💯!!!! “Vindication” is the perfect way to describe it!

He’d already experienced some hardship in his career prior to this incident— he made a career change at age 24 an went on a singing competition show and made his entertainment career debut at age 25 but ended up it’d a really discriminatory and ageist CEO at the management he signed with as a result of the show, and later chose to sue said CEO because she was actively hindering him from getting gigs, but ended up losing the lawsuit and had an out-of-court settlement instead— so it’s not that this cyber-bullying incident was his very first time experiencing the dark sides of showbiz, but it definitely was the more evil of the 2 evils he had to endure.
So as a fan, it hasn’t always been the greatest, either, seeing him go through all of these things, but as these experiences have made him stronger, it has also helped to prove that as his fan, I have made the right choice in becoming his fan, of being a fan of such a good person 😊

@reply1988
Haha yes Mother Bean!! It truly has been a long time coming 🥹 This will definitely be the thing that will stay on my mind for the next while ♥️

This will be your squee of the year as it’s been a long time coming. Such a shame that it took so long and took such a toil on family and friends. So sad to hear about Xiao Zhan‘s grandfather, nothing will make up for him not living to see this fantastic outcome for his grandson.

I hope Xiao Zhan can finally relax and rejoice knowing he has truly been vindicated.