Ruby Lin, back as an empress of the Han dynasty.
Guess what? Ruby Lin is historically entitled to a Mary-Sue character in her latest drama, “Realm of Love – The Long Ballad”* 秀丽江山 长歌行 with Yuan Hong. For her character, Yin Lihua, was historically noted to be beautiful, demure, sweet, gentle, humble, modest…everything that would make her the paragon of virtue. As a little background information, Liu Xiu (Yuan Hong) fell in love with Yin Lihua the moment he laid eyes on her, commenting that his ideal job would be as a chamberlain of the imperial insignia, and the ideal wife would be Yin Lihua. He actually ended up becoming the founder of the Eastern Han dynasty, reinstating the House of Liu as the imperial family after Wang Mang had usurped the throne in 9 AD.
Also joining the cast is Kenny Kwan who plays Yin LIhua’s childhood friend and Liu XIu’s trusted general Deng Yu. Mao Zijun (he was the young Han Wudi in Schemes of a Beauty), and iPartment’s Li Jiahang are also part of the cast. The drama is adapted from a book of the same name. 
On a sidenote, Wang Yuanke looks just like Yuan Shanshan in the above photo.
She does. I did a double-take when I first saw her picture…
*blink* *blink* ….. Oh… my god!! My eyes don’t sting!!…. *snickers*
I haven’t read the book but apparently, Ruby Lin’s character can also kick ass in here?… can anybody confirm that…? Might be interesting to see her attempt that… (emphasis on the attempt)
I’m more interested in how Re Yizha will do. Haven’t seen her since she played Ning Pin in ZHZ… She’s in that upcoming Di Ren Jie drama too but she seems to be more of an evil side-character in there.
In the novel, I think she timetravelled and so yes? But tbh, I feel like Ruby Lin picks super Mary Sue characters, so even though she “kicks ass” by description, I don’t think any of them are particularly strong characters mentally.
On the bright side, there are only two attractive men vying for her attention. The rest are her brothers!
…It seems all I do is complain. I /am/ insanely excited for this, though some of that might just because it’s Han dynasty. (<Very strongly biased).
I feel like that’s what I’ve been getting more and more cynical … T_T but I really wish she could pick roles with better character development, especially given that her dramas tend to be well-produced and filled with eyecandy. Plus, she has the resources to promote them, so why not produce something good?
Despite Mingdao being my least favorite of all the new actor-turned-producers, he’s so far the only one who haven’t just stuck themselves in a Mary Sue or male equivalent role. Hawick Lau, Peter Ho, Ruby Lin, Feng Shaofeng, and soon-to-be Tang Yan have all gone that route…
Well… it sells…. >:( sigh…. if only I could read Chinese better… still got work to do in that department… :/
Speak of the devil… pictures are being uploaded to spcnet now… I see her in full body armor and… gigantic paper wings?!?… WHAT THE @#$#@#$#!! Girl, you expecting to fly in THOSE?!?
I’ve kinda already given up on Ruby Lin playing more colorful roles… without falling flat… sorry to say… but sometimes she does try to venture out but her acting just came across as stiff to me… not really enough to get me into it or convince me. I guess her acting abilities are a bit limited. Actually, I think she might be happiest playing “Mary Sue.” Some of her most well-done roles take place in those parameters. Sad parameters but they’re there.
I give her points for trying but I think she has too much working against her. Her face is a bit too innocent. I guess the camera and makeup loving you too much has the downside of making your attempts at evil that much harder since, well, you look like you can’t hurt a fly… not won’t… just can’t… If you want to succeed, you have to go full-blown and overload like Jiang Xin did with Hua Fei with contemptuous glares and fire-spitting hatred and all.
“On the bright side, there are only two attractive men vying for her attention. The rest are her brothers!”
OH HO HO HO!!! NEVER be too sure about this, jjss08. This is drama-land. NEVER BE TOO SURE ABOUT THIS!! The modern Mary Sue of Mary Sues always has family issues bordering on incest, the kind that never actually cross the line and get interesting but just kinda keep prodding you there at the border. I hate those. There’s WAY too many “pleasantly friend-zoned to create more screen time” relationships in today’s dramas… almost enough to make me favor over-the-top, devious, bitchtastic, evil sibilings… not by much… but meh… at least evil siblings are understandable sometimes. pleasantly friend-zoned just leaves you there… and all of us wondering if stupid is going to get over his one-sided love or become evil… and we never get the answer until the drama’s about to end!!
Of course!!! The Han dynasty is AWESOME!!!! They should do more dramas about it instead of the Tang… especially since…
a. We don’t have a full-blown Tang-dynasty-esque palace to do those dramas in yet
b. Tang dynasty garb keeps coming off really tacky looking *whines*. I guess they’re made for a certain body type and you can’t mess with that too much. Skinny and Tang dynasty robes just stop looking right after you start getting used to they flow-y prettiness and start looking into historical artifacts and comparing.
c. Might as well be brutal. Tang dynasty body type isn’t in vogue now. We do have to follow modern tastes to some extent.
d. We have a full-blown Han-dynasty-looking palace. WHY THE @#$#@ AREN’T WE USING IT MORE OFTEN!! Instead, we try to pass it off as a backdrop for other dynasties!?! >:(
e. The Han dynasty just has this composed and demure look to it that is really appealing… BUT YU ZHENG’S BRIGHT COLORS KEEP MESSING IT UP!!! ARGH!!! Mei Ren Xin Ji was…. meh…. Fine, I’ll give it to ya… but BEAUTIES OF THE EMPEROR?!?…. sad…. saaaaad panda….
f. I could keep going… I’ll just shut up now and stop…
But the Tang dynasty has a more interesting environment to set the story on. There’s a lot more freedom and trade, and lots of interesting female characters who aren’t just known for being “virtuous” or for ruining a man’s career…
Speaking of Tang, did anyone hear that they think they found Shangguan Wan’er’s tomb?!
That’s true… but I think way too many production teams get too excited once they find out they’re handling a Tang-era drama, with it being seen as the height of Chinese civilization and all, and the whole thing kinda crashes and burns…
I mean, out of all the dramas coming out recently, it seems that the Tang dynasty always ends up with the short end of the leash. The Qing dynasty is glorious and overdone since we know the most and the Han dynasty is acceptable but I haven’t really found a Tang dynasty drama that I can stomach yet… or maybe I just keep running into bad examples for that era… -_-;;
Journey to the West = Best Tang-dynast drama ever! XD Have you seen Romance of Sui-Tang (Yan Kuan-Zhang Han version)? It’s pretty good, although the costume design for the girls are bleh.
Got me on that one… -_-;; Journey to the West is Tang dynasty… Maybe I’ll try this version if I run out of things to watch later… I ended up trying to stuff down and stomach Sui Tang Ying Xiong when that came out (because I was in desperate need of a period drama) and became so nauseated I really couldn’t find the heart to try this version. Still waiting for the mental scars to clear…
I would understand your hate of Tang dynasty dramas if you’ve been watching stuff from that terrible company … their stuff is so bad and so long. I don’t understand how Hunan TV brought and aired three of their Tang dramas, and are buying a sequel to Sui Tang Ying Xiong… Their scripts are horrible, and the production isn’t much better.
8D Shangguan Wan’er’s tomb, link?
I love the Tang dynasty~ Han is my favorite, but if I were to travel back in time, I’d want to land in the Tang dynasty. They’d be much more accepting of me…xD
Ditto on th women and diversity~ Also, the Tang dynasty has /gorgeous/ clothing – tons of variety <3
http://ww3.sinaimg.cn/large/4bb92757jw6ddrv4ts447j.jpg (…So prettttyyy~)
Also, Detective Dee?
OMG they found her bones!!!
http://www.weibo.com/3010420480/A8MNrp3S8
Don’t have a weibo… I wonder how complete it is. Didn’t they find Cao Cao’s tomb a while back but all they got was the top of the skull?
The lastest news from the Shaanxi museum is that no coffins were found. T_T but some reports say some remains are found?
Well… she was executed so I’d be surprised if she got a burial in line with her status… Maybe this is one of the tombs they were preparing for her death or some sort of posthumous acknowledgement…
And here’s the more “official” article. They’re having a press conference later. I’m not going to lie, actually teared up when I read about it.
http://africa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-09/10/content_16958635.htm
Ooooh! <3 I can't wait to see what art they find from this.
It’s pretty… but for me, the feel is still a little off… I guess we have to have curvier actresses for me to be satisfied.
Han Dynasty beauty emphasized being slender and that’s most in line with today’s tastes. On the other hand, the Tang dynasty ideals of beauty are largely lost in dramas… Maybe actresses should go on a burger binge before starring in the Tang dynasty… -_-;;
And yes, Detective Dee was Tang dynasty. I guess I’m losing ground.
I guess my main problem is that we’ve captured the feel for the Qing and Han dynasties, for the most part, in dramas but the Tang dynasty is still a sore spot. I still can’t really let myself go and half-believe it is the Tang dynasty when I’m watching.
Guess my point is we still lack the buildings and backgrounds to play the Tang dynasty successfully and something needs to be done whether in costuming (making more volume and flow and room for the imagination) or by the actresses themselves to help convince me…
I wonder what kind of character Ning Pin will be in this drama..
It’s probably going to happen eventually but I SOOO don’t want to see her become some flat, one-sided, love-sick stereotype or something to that sort… :(
She will play Dong Rou, a concubine to Li Jiahang’s General Feng Yi.
ruby doesn’t age!!!!!!!
Which is a good thing, because Liu Xiu/Yuan Hong is supposed to be older than her.
She does… comparing pictures she does… just not in a way that the camera and makeup hates…
Lots of eye candy: handsome guys in gorgeous Han clothing. The gals are lovely too.