China’s film market growing in size means that you now have enough money to hire famous crew. While I normally would rather these jobs go to rising Chinese artists, so that the industry can actually build up talent, who can say no to Patricia Field? She’s the stylist for Sex and the City, Devil Wears Prada, etc. She flew from New York to Beijing in order to be a consultant for the movie, Du Lala’s Promotion, an adaptation of a very popular novel in China, and the much publicized directorial comeback of actress-director-screenwriter Xu Jinglei.
While Xu Jinglei has had nominations and awards for her films, she would also fit into that ever-increasing group of indie Chinese directors turning commercial; by today’s standards her past three directorial efforts were lower budget so I have no idea what to expect if she tackles this. Her warm-up exercise before directing this, the MV for Supergirls 2009 was pretty, but it was also rather boring. Xu Jinglei is a decent actress but she seems a bit too old for a role about a girl’s first job.
This casting decision isn’t the only one being questioned. People wondered why Taiwanese American hip hop artist Stanley Huang was casted as the male lead, a Beijinger in the original novel. Xu Jinglei said that she wouldn’t be following in the book exactly, raising curiosity, and that the boyfriend character was changed to an ABC. I like Stanley Huang…but together, they are going to be one tall, lanky couple. The rest of the cast also boasts an array of tall, skinny actors from all over…Karen Mok from Hong Kong, Pace Wu from Taiwan, and mainland China’s model turned actors, Li Ai and Song Ning.
L-R Stanley Huang, Patricia Field, Xu Jinglei, Pace Wu, Li Ai, Song Ning
Adding to the high-profileness of this project are the bigshots from various fashion magazines in China, such as the editors from Harper’s Bazaar, Comsopolitan, and Hong. Various people from the fashion world may guest in the film. With Sophie’s Revenge teaming up with Elle for their posters (in my opinion a bad move) this type of partnership between movies and magazines is become a trend.
Too bad eeMedia isn’t willing to shell out big bucks just yet for their tv series…they should have gotten Abigail Lorick as a consultant for Meteor Shower.
@jomango
It’s not just China. Film is one of the most risky mediums to undertake. If you fail, you can potentially lose millions and millions.
Therefore it is common in the Greater China region to cast people from mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan together in a film, in order to ensure the greatest market possible.
Hong Kong for example, uses a lot of mainland and Taiwan actresses.
Taiwan doesn’t have mainlanders in their film because they had a law against it, for political reasons (under Chen Shui-bian they didn’t want closer ties with mainland) so that’s an exception.
mixed feelings
although i think this could really improve relationships between mainland and taiwan, but is might give people the impression that mainland cannot make a descent drama/movie without hk or taiwans help. Nothing against non-mainland actors, but not a lot of people are aware that China can now make really good dramas,,,,,
and they could have let the taiwanese person play anyone else but why get rid of the 100% beijing guy?
@cfensi
the rape was in Neverflowers in Neverland. and since they managed to film that…it should be fine.
and afterall, even RoCH had a “rape” scene.”
What about the rape and killing though? Is that going to be a problem?
@julie
Think Devil Wears Prada meets Gossip Girl, and you get the main plot of Tiny Times.
Tiny Times is about four collge girlfriends, their various careers and families, and their relationships with six very hot guys.
Did anyone read tiny times? Can someone tell me what it’s about?
They said if it does well there will be.
Meteor Garden 2 was sort of different. It was almost doomed to fail. Meteor Garden 1 was largely good because it followed the manga to the letter, and then Meteor Garden 2 came when they didn’t have the entire manga finished, so they made up stuff.
Since this story “made up” and if the scriptwriter had it planned from the beginning to leave an opening for a sequel, then it might not be so bad. Hopefully.
There’s seriously going to be a sequel to meteor shower?
I’m kind of scared, sequels mostly are horrible, I hated meteor garden 2
What’s the plot for tiny times? I heard that’s it’s good but I’ve never read it before
I am really, really excited to see what Long Danni has planned after Meteor Shower.
I mean, Hunan TV’s always been great, but Long Danni has a grand plan to build up Chinese idol dramas and I’m rather intrigued at a concentrated effort at that, rather than one or two here and there as has been the case with Hunan TV before. There is a plan, a goal, and a really smart woman at the helm, and the idea of it all just goes right along with my interest in trends in entertainment.
@cfensi
from the MS interviews, that seems to be the case.
that’ll be really crappy. sequels in general are crappy.
but Tiny Times will pretty much have to be really extravagant, as opposed to the fake extravagance of this.
@A.
Supposedly Tiny Times is going to be the next drama by Hunan…someone said something to that affect? But I’m afraid they’re going to make a sequel to Meteor Shower first.
@ idarklight
Wait wait, wait. Pause. Did you say they’re making Tiny Times into a drama? Is this forreals or is it just like a rumor?
You know how I told you about how my friend got to see the Super Girls MV get filmed? I was always a little puzzled about how and why he got to see it [and I never bothered to ask him about it]. Well, I figured it out recently after I connected the dots, well, more like after I found out that Xu Jinglei was the director of the MV.
Xu Jinglei is like his mom’s cousin or something like that. And that’s how he got to witness it all. [And I knew this all along, why didn’t I connect the dots?!?!]
To this I say – lucky [blank]. LOL.
You know, Xu Jinglei has always been a favorite for me. It’s because she’s multi-talented. Not only is she quite an actress, but it’s also the fact that she branches into other things. She’s like a “cai nv” in my opinion. I love multi-talented people – well more like I really like people that are like “cai nv”, which is also why I have too many interests in too many things for my own good.
ugh at the cast choices…..
They should really get Abigail Lorick for Tiny Times. Sorry Meteor Shower, but I want you to succeed just because then they’ll make Tiny Times…that and an array of other reasons, of course.
Well, I’m kidding really. There’s no way they could have gotten Lorick even if they wanted because of their Meterbowne product placement.
The uniforms are too, supplied by Metersbowne. If you stop the video where Yuxun stands in front of Aliceton University, you’ll see on her emblem the word “Metersbowne”.
Slightly related to this, Song Ning, who is in Du Lala’s promotion recently modeled for them, along with some others:
http://missangelababy.blogspot.com/2009/07/angelababy-for-metersbowne.html
“should’ve gotten Abigail Lorick as a consultant for Meteor Shower”
I wish they did, but the clothes aren’t that bad…it’s just idk…plain?
But i do like the dresses