Upcoming republican drama, Shanghai Picked Flowers (十里洋场拾年花), has quietly began filming with Peter Sheng Yi Lun as the sole leading male and Qin Hai Lu as one of the invited female stars (this is not what you think it is, LOL). The story remains vague so far as we only know the story is set in the glamorous 1920s Shanghai, following our male lead’s transformation from a rookie reporter to a full-grown news writer, detailing the interesting lives of the female stars he meets, starting with Miss Qin Hai Lu, and making rounds (every 3 episodes) to other female stars including Siqin Gaowa, Ma Su, Chen Zi Han, and etc.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Chinese producers ought to hire English proficient people to select appropriate English titles. Shanghai Picked Flowers could be mistaken for a horticultural documentary.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
LOL. Worse, I skimmed the article title at first and I thought it said Shanghai Pickled Flowers.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
No, I feel like flowers always represent women to me in these situations even in English literature like when they say English rose.And the picked suggests something sinister then in context. It’s more metaphorical andsubtle than an inappropriate title at.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
The stills are nice, but the character posters are SO GORGEOUS. Perfectly fit the era and are so flawless and artistic with that old-bold, extravagant-classy flair of republican-era China.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
It’s Ma Su again!!! Hahaha!! Yay!
It sounds like an interesting drama and the costumes look really nice too. But I am sceptical about Peter as the lead lol, he isn’t exactly the sorta guy you would link to good acting skills. He still looks the same old kinda face even as I see the stills. Hopefully he has improved, because looking at the other casts, they all have great acting skills and it would be a waste if the male lead isn’t up to it.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
For some reason I get the impression that we will see things from Peter’s character POV but the focus will be the ever-changing female leads and they’re the ones who will carry the show, kind of he’s just used as an agent to deliver their stories.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
I’m upset Peter sheng yilun keeps getting roles while I wait ages for crystal Zhang’s new stuff. He is so stiff! Pity, he was great in Princess Go Go with the slapstick humor.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Oooh this is going to be interesting. I’m assuming Qin Hailu’s Ruan Yu was inspired by Ruan Lingyu the silent film actress of that time since Li Zong Han’s Tang Jishan shares the exact same name as Ruan Lingyu’s second lover. Wonder how it will be presented under Peter’s hands.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Ugh Sheng Yi Lun in another lead role. Pass!
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
The actresses will have to carry the drama. It’s really beyond me how Peter Sheng Yi Lun gets any roles and leading roles at that! He is legit one of the worst actors I’ve ever seen. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout in the stills above and onscreen and it would make no difference.
If an actress with barely any acting experience, no training and the same lack of talent as this guy was given lead role after lead role in the same way as he has been there would be all kinds of malicious rumours about who she’s sleeping with or who her daddy is (look at the crap they say about poor Jing Tian!) but Sheng Yi Lun and his expressionless “acting” gets a pass because he’s good looking and has fangirls.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Maybe he is sleeping with high producing auntie ??? hehe. Never heard of the other actors besides Ma Su and Chen Zihan , this one look interesting.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Actually, he did have a malicious rumor tracing back to Go Princess Go. The rumor goes that he’s gay and he’s the partner of GPG’s director. GPG’s director is the son of famous novelist Hai Yan (the one who wrote Jade Goddess of Mercy, not Nirvana in Fire). Hence he has a lot of access to various people in the industry if that rumor is true. This rumor has been talked about since GPG days but there wasn’t much coverage of it in English since he’s nothing like Jing Tian (and girl no longer has to defend herself because her GOTD performance turned many skeptics into fans on weibo) and he’s still relatively unknown outside of China.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
I will add that I dislike writing about such gossips, hence coverage on AVV is minimum, as it is not gossip central. 🙂
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
@chasingpolaris: Oooohhhh… that is an interesting rumour
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
I was supposed to reply with my latest post to you but I don’t know what happened lol!
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Died a little inside when I saw Peter Sheng’s name attached to as male lead in yet another project.
Instead of more lead roles, what the guy needs is acting lessons. Someone needs to tell him that? Despite his lack of acting skills, didn’t mind him too much thanks to his amazing chemistry with Zhang Tian Ai and GPG but that’s how you make people dislike an actor…fast.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Now I’m curious. Why so much hate for this guy? I only saw him in GPG and he’s stiff as hell but he was used well, not playing a role outside his range. I guess fourth(?) leading role only after 2 years debut with not so stellar acting talent is a bit grating but. Only two of his dramas are out. And it’s not like he ‘ruin’ dramas with his bad acting, at least not in GPG. I mean I don’t see as much hate for Li Yi Feng or William Chan, at least not in this site, and they also keep getting lead roles despite their acting ability. Sorry that I drag two irrelevant names here just want to make an example.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Not really hate. I don’t hate Peter, but I find him super stiff and just don’t get his appeal. I’ve never seen GPG so I can’t comment, but he was really unbearable in Pretty Li Hui Zhen. Dilraba got some flack in that due to her character, but at least she had personality (and IMO was convincing and did her best with the role). Peter was really, as someone said above, replaceable by cardboard cutout. This hit a lot harder here than in GPG cuz the character itself was pretty bland and required the actor to bring the character to life and carry through. Instead he had little to no expression, physical or emotive, and had zero male-lead appeal either as a character or as part of an OTP.
On the other hand, while Li Yi Feng’s lows can get quite low, he’s more unstable than completely terrible. A lot of the comments here actually do call out a lot of his lack of acting, and generally are more concerned with how unreliable his skills can be, going from showing potential to just failing miserably. William admittedly is a pretty terrible actor, but IMO he has an onscreen charisma that, when given the right character like in Mystic Nine, can be well used, similar to what you said about Peter.
Also, I think the biggest factor here is undeniable bias (guilty as charged in my case too). While both LYF and William don’t have much in terms of acting chops, they’re very likable and charming in reality shows. They have a, while not huge, considerable presence in reality shows like in Happy Camp and stuff, and they are very much at ease and work the audience well there. People (I) love their onscreen personas and despite any failings in actually acting, I’m more likely to give them a chance and watch their works because I like how they seem “in person”. Peter has also appeared in reality shows like Happy Camp, more than once as well, but he’s much stiffer. Perhaps it’s personality, perhaps it’s shyness/awkwardness, but he seems to have no more personality in reality shows than he does in roles. It’s hard to root for the actor when you don’t even have a bias for him outside of characters since you don’t like his acting (a general “you”).
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
@ Julianne Lin: You articulated exactly how I feel about him.
I had to drop Pretty Li Hui Zhen because I couldn’t take his atrocious performance. It was like the cast were acting with an inanimate object in their scenes with him. I felt sorry for Dilraba in their scenes because she had to do all the acting and they had no chemistry at all.
Totally agreed with what you said about his lack of charisma. He lacks charisma onscreen and in real life as well. The other actors mentioned above are not great at acting but nowhere near as bad as Peter in my opinion and they both have a certain amount of charisma onscreen or hugely as individuals. But Peter is just as boring on variety and in interviews I’ve seen him in as he is when acting. You could have replaced him with a cardboard cutout on those shows too! I think it’s fair enough if variety isn’t your thing as not everyone has the personality for them but he should at least be good at his job aka acting abut he isn’t any good at that either.
20 thoughts on “Shanghai Picked Flowers led by Sheng Yi Lun, Qin Hai Lu”
Ugh I just hate this double standard. At least Jing Tian now has proven herself thanks to a great turn in Ban Shu. Sheng Yi Lun though, is nowhere near the impact Jing Tian has made. I’m even considering passing on Oh My General. Not even Sandra Ma can make me watch it, because if I have to skip every single scene with him in it I’d lose thread of the plot and then I’d go crazy!