So I’ve been following this news for a few weeks and there is something wrong if no one wants the role. Lol. Angelababy was originally signed on to the play the other female lead – or as I would like to call her, Sleeping Beauty aka Bi Yao. She’s Ghost King’s daughter and falls into a deep coma after saving our male lead (confirmed Li Yi Feng), paving the way for him to enter the dark side and become her dad’s right hand man, Gui Li (Ghost Tears). Now, Zhao Li Ying‘s name has been thrown into the mix for a few weeks already and I was confused too. But at the New Year Show for Hunan, Li Yi Feng claimed that he doesn’t know who would play Bi Yao (of course, dude is not even on filming set yet!) Then at the weibo awards, reporters asked Li Ying about the news and she said she’s not sure. So either she’s withholding information or her name is just used to hype up the drama.
Either way, I don’t want her to take on this drama. Take a break!
More stills Released Since Last Post:
Trying to be so ambitious with the amount of names in the cast. Sigh.
Vicky Liang Jing Xian.
Bai Xue.
Jiao Jun Yan.
Click on the posters to see bigger version.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
I don’t want LiYing here either. I have a feeling this is just going to be another fail like Legend of Zu. It’s just shaping up to be another idol drama. It’s hard for me NOT to think that, but honestly until he proves himself and his acting and his productions, I’m just gonna associate his name with idol drama. It seems like the only kind that he takes anyways.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
TBH after already been in Hua Qiangu and Legend of Zu, being in another so similar drama like this one wouldn’t be so good for Zhao Liying in terms of developing diversity in her roles. She’s already taken up so many drama roles and it’s more interesting to see her do stuff like Agent Rouge, etc. cuz at least those are different than the already very familiar roles she’s played (HQG + Zu). Also I agree with Kap that Zhao Liying should take a bit of a break (just for her health’s sake cuz she’s looking quite tired lately).
I like Li Yifeng cuz he’s a cute and charming bastard but while he’s got the looks and charm, he REALLY needs to brush up his acting. I won’t write him off just yet cuz he’s still got the upcoming Sparrow and stuff, but after the crazy success of Disguiser, it’ll be hard to top it with something so similar like Sparrow. Disguiser has the advantage of having gorgeous faces who can also act AWESOMELY and honestly, it’s gonna be damn hard to top Ming 3 brothers + Ming Big Sis, Wang Tianfeng, Wang Manchun, and Liang Zhongchun!
I’ll give Sparrow and this Zhuxian a go at least cuz it’s got Zhang Luyi in it as a main antagonist in both series. Zhang Luyi is a great actor and perhaps acting opposite him will influence Li Yifeng to step up his game. I mean, considering he started as a singer and didn’t come from any drama schools, LYF was decent in Ancient Sword and Fragrance (just majorly sucked in Lost Tomb). I haven’t seen his Mr. Six movie with Feng Xiaogang but apparently he’s improved a bit there.
I watched his Fall In Love Like a Star with Yang Mi and while the movie is universally panned I actually quite like it. If you watch that movie with the knowledge that it was made for fans (which it was – this movie exists because of fans wanting Susu + Qingxue to have a happy ending), you’ll probably quite enjoy it. Also the cinematography, costumes, and soundtrack were VERY nicely done … and the movie’s pretty funny sometimes too LOL
LYF himself responded in a very long interview to the criticisms of his acting, etc. and he actually answered quite reasonably that while he’s trying to improve, he knows his acting isn’t up to the level of “serious dramas”, so he can’t reject idol dramas because he’s not up to the point where he can change to take serious dramas only. Having watched many of his interviews before, the difference between his interviews now and back earlier in 2015 is quite dramatic. He seems more mellowed these days (whereas before he used to be all witty and teasing and stuff).
Similarly with Wang Kai, his interviews, etc. these days are much more subdued than before (WK was a lot more lively and straightforward back in Oct/Nov 2015 before all the epic hate and mud slinging scandals happened), although good news for WK cuz he just got his first product endorsement (360 smartphone) 🙂 He lost out on some potential endorsements due to the scandals and stuff but if the boy keeps up his awesome acting and serious work ethic, I predict he can go far 🙂 Also I need his dramas to air soon cuz I need to see him grace my screen, dammit.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
I actually miss WK’s bubbly self cuz he’s got a fun personality and it’s a shame to see him be so careful now with EVERYTHING he says and does. His straightforwardness was something I really liked about his interviews
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
Once again, you piqued my curiosity lol. What is this hate/mud slinging of Wang Kai you speak of? The dude is gorgeous and seems pretty chill
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
LOL nothing much apart from an organized smear campaign against WK as his popularity exploded after Disguiser and Nirvana aired. Basically because he’s gotten famous and is one of the rising stars of his production company, opposing companies and/or competitors want to cut him and his company down (so to speak … it doesn’t help that his production company won all the TV ratings and good word of mouth (i.e. $$$) and all the drama awards with several of their dramas – from popularity / People’s Choice type of awards to the prestigious Flying Apsara awards), so there was suddenly a lot of bad scandals about him in the entertainment news/media to try to give audiences and fans a bad impression of him and to cause internal strife within his production company, like conflicts with other actors, etc. (this is very common in China and pretty much happens to everyone who gets famous).
The difference with WK’s case was that it was/is particularly vicious and systematic because not only did the people behind the schemes buy off the media, they also influenced the fans of other celebrities to hate on WK. Hu Ge’s fans HATE (like absolutely hate) him, then Wallace Huo’s fans started hating on him, and now Jin Dong’s fans hate (really hate) him. This isn’t obvious unless you hang around the Chinese fan circles but if you mention WK to HG fans, Wallace H fans, or JD fans, then you can expect them to explode with hatred.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
WK’s boss is trying to use WK to spearhead his company’s campaign to get into the drama market for younger/general audiences, which is why all the hate and stuff keeps happening (it happens with all popular celebs – you’re not famous unless you get hated on, it’s what they say).
The production company WK’s part of used to make serious dramas only that targets older audiences, but it’s the younger and more general populace that makes money (see the success of idol dramas), so a few years ago, WK’s boss (producer Hou Hongliang) split from mothership Shanying to create his own production company Zhengwu Yangguang (like a sister company) with his 2 best mates (the directors Kong Sheng and Li Xue of Nirvana and Disguiser, All Quiet in Peking, etc.). He also brought with him the younger actors of Shanying like Wang Kai, Wang Ou, etc. Jin Dong is part of Shanying and a long time friend of the producer, and also became part of ZWYG, along with veterans like Liu Mintao, Liu Yijun, etc. who were also from Shanying but came over to round out the team.
Since the establishment of ZWYG, the boss has been buying the rights to novels, etc. and trying to get the original authors to be the scriptwriters to write up the drama versions for ZWYG to film. However, because their young cast doesn’t have the popularity to hold a drama on their own (their acting is superb but they just don’t have the popularity). Most people didn’t even know who WK was until Disguiser and Nirvana came along … they mostly knew him from his first role as a gay fashionista a long time ago so when he got cast as Prince Jingyan, WK was hated on SO MUCH, from Hu Ge fans who wanted HG’s bestie Yuan Hong to play the role and novel fans who thought that the “sissy dude” (his infamous first role) is an insult to the book and character.
It got to the point where WK actually cried (poor guy was struggling to control his tears but just couldn’t hold it back – the other ladies of the cast and his fans were awesome sistas who tried to comfort him and Liu Tao is totally awesome cuz she was totally chiming along with the fans in professing their love for him LOL) when asked about it during the interview after the Nirvana in Fire conference when the drama was gonna be aired (this was around maybe October, before his popularity exploded after the drama aired).
After his popularity exploded (from Disguiser + Nirvana), he was like the favorite media child for a while (late Oct to early Nov). But then bad scandals about him started appearing, culminating in an epic media/internet wide denouncement of his character (and morals, etc.) around late Nov/early Dec. But the WK fans really pulled through and proved that all the so-called bad scandals about WK were made up by the rumor mill (with pictorial proof and logic and everything), and people who’ve worked with WK over the years started speaking up in defense of his character, so the bad impression left on the general public gradually lessened.
While a lot of people believed the bad stuff, WK also won a lot of sympathy from general audiences (especially in the 30+ age bracket) who saw the smear campaign for what it was and in return gained WK a LOT (like HEAPS) of die-hard/true-love fans LOL
But yeah, watch his interviews, activities, etc. during the Oct/Nov period and you’ll notice how bubbly and lively Wang Kai is, and watch his interviews, etc. now and you’ll see a big difference in how much more subdued and careful he is with everything he says and does. His weibo of before was more honest/straightforward (WK is a well-known internet/weibo addict) but nowadays his posts much less frequently on his weibo and it consists of more drama/etc. news than his personal tidbits (which his weibo used to be FULL of before the epic hate started happening).
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
But yeah things are all good now and are only gonna get better for Wang Kai cuz he’s gained the recognition of the public and other people in the industry and his popularity rises (gaining new fans, etc.) everyday. Fashion magazines LOVE him and he’s been on the covers of like 20+ major mags now and he’s even gotten his first product endorsement as a spokesperson for a new 360 smartphone, plus he’s gotten several 1st male lead roles (no longer the “king of supporting roles” that haters like to laugh about) in upcoming dramas and even Jackie Chan got him to film a part in Jackie Chan’s new movie LOL
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
LOL I mean you know you’ve gotten famous when you get asked by Jackie Chan to be in his movie
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
Wow just.. Wow. Chinese entertainment circles are vicious. Thanks for the breakdown, that was informative lol seems like chinese actors get much less freedom of expression versus Hollywood. And it’s interesting that fans put so much more emphasis on an actor’s morals/past it seems.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
LOL HR is breaking bank here with all the big shots like TFboys and everything hahahahaha. Angelababy was long rumored to be Bi Yao but apparently not now (maybe HR couldn’t afford her salary LOL).
I had a quick check at their budget and apparently it’s pretty insane (280 million+ RMB). Like they hired award winning artists and designers for the CGI and costumes, props, designs, etc. and also got the famous Japanese composer Fujiwara Ikuro (who wrote the score for the Painted Skin movie) to be the soundtrack composer.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
LOL HR is pulling out all the stops with Sparrow and this Zhuxian as their main productions of 2016, especially with the epic fail that is Lost Tomb (LOL Li Yifeng still hasn’t lived down from the epic mess he made of Wu Xie … although I’d say the script screwed him over 50% and he himself screwed up the remaining 50%)
I’ll sit back and ready the popcorn to see what HR comes up with. I honestly don’t have high hopes given with the shit they pulled with Lost Tomb but goddammit I’m running out of dramas to watch and Shanying won’t have much dramas for us in 2016 cuz they need to film them first! *SIGH*
Ghost Blows Out the Lamp, the medical drama, and the snail drama will be filming this year. Also the Disguiser movie is in the works (the scriptwriter is busy writing the movie script and so far there’s gonna be a new character … Wang Manchun gets a brother?). Nirvana is getting ready for a sequel drama but they need to sort stuff out with Hu Ge first cuz so far he hasn’t actually agreed to take on either Disguiser or Nirvana 2 (although I bet good money that he will agree). Both Nirvana 2 and Disguiser movie won’t film till near end of 2016 so we’re in for a LONG wait *SIGH*
And FFS when will Ruby’s Chang Ge Xing actually air? I’ve been waiting for that drama since like 2013 dammit!
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
BTW has Legend of Zu actually finished airing? Cuz I keep hearing about it but it seems to have started airing a long time ago so shouldn’t it be finished by now?
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
Zu aired online “cut” and through VIP channel on qiyi first. It will hit mainstream tv broadcast in a week or so.
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
Oh I see 🙂
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
I’m still confused as to who (not the actress, but the character themselves) is the main girl… I haven’t read the book/novel or played the game, so I’m not clear on who is the main girl (and who I should be rooting for LOL). Is it Bi Yao or Lu Xue Qi?
16 thoughts on “Legend of Chusen’s sleeping beauty struggles to land actress”
Xue Qi is the main girl of the novel and also the one who has the happy ending with Xiaofan, but the drama may change and make Bi Yao as the main girl instead (–_–)|||