Fan Bingbing, in 1/260 of the outfits she has for this series, demonstrating that literacy really is the key to changing your social status.
If you were rich and gorgeous, what else would you do other than pour 300 million RMB (other than investing in 75 more Dad? movies) onto a series with 260 costumes so you can cosplaying the last Empress reagent of China (the latest one being you, of course)? Fan Bingbing certainly did. Although the spending for her upcoming series series, The Empress of China 武则天, might be a little over extravagant, I’m certainly not complaining given how pretty these stills are.
More stills below, where she’s gorgeous even in peasant outfits!
Also I was wondering, are the costumes accurate? I mean I was quite surprised with all the skin showed by the cleavage.
In any drama there’s going to be some degree of artistic license being taken. They aren’t completely off in terms of costuming like some dramas end up being but they aren’t exactly cut-outs of ancient artifacts and paintings either…
As we were discussing above, the Tang dynasty is famous to the general Chinese public for having the most revealing clothes from among all the other Chinese dynasties but cleavage-showing wasn’t exactly prevalent. It was present but based off of what we have, it probably wasn’t too common. Therefore, the costumes are probably more of the “in the correct direction but liberties are certainly being taken” kind of direction… especially with some of the hair and stuff… some of the styles that I’ve seen, not from these pictures but elsewhere, are very exaggerated.
So very pretty.. If I didn’t plan to watch, only for the number of costumes I would ^^
I assume they haven’t finished filming this drama?
Nope, they just started filming a week before we posted the first post about it.
Aww the wait for it will be very long then! X__X
WOW 260 COSTUMES!?!?! *W* I am looking forward to this drama already, haha!
I didn’t actually even notice the cleavage until you guys mentioned it, so I wasn’t as distracted.
Either way, I like the costumes a lot so far. I love the colors and patterns in the first dress, which imo is pretty authentic and much less jarring than to the “Korean-styled” color palettes used in recent historical dramas (most prominently in Lu Zhen and the upcoming Lanling series).
That’s so true. We do need to thank the color schemes.
Wow. certainly not complaining. I’d always have room for more costume eye-candy galore. Pretty costumeeees *v*
However… her boobs a little overdone to say the least. eh. I think it’s taking away from the gorgeousness of the costumes and on the verge of turning this into a “hey come watch for her boobs” drama. Totally not the point of historical dramas. ugh. Less cleavage please, I want to see more cloth than boob. >>
I guess you have to attract the emperor somehow… XD
LOL i suppose that’s true haha
I just watched the Proud Twins last week-ish. /Fan Bingbing hasn’t aged in almost 10 years./
Loving her peasant costume. Since this was towards the beginning of the Tang dynasty, I don’t think they were all-out “voluptuous fullness” yet? The Tang dynasty has a large variety of costume…
That is true so they do have some wiggle room.
I’m pretty sure I posted these links before, but I’m going to again, because they’re cute.
http://cdn.duitang.com/uploads/item/201311/24/20131124045039_fWaVF.jpeg
http://cdn.duitang.com/uploads/item/201311/24/20131124045314_4iKU8.jpeg
Although this one is my faaavorite.
http://img4.duitang.com/uploads/item/201211/05/20121105050106_nyVmk.jpeg
I really hope her husband doesn’t get a wimpy mustache to show him aging :<
In drama-land, I don’t think there’s much hope for dropping the wimpy mustache… XD
Neither has Jimmy Lin, and his version of that book is even earlier! These people.
The women in this WuZeTian version reveal too much cleavage. It’s as inelegant and unnatural looking as those overexposed heaving bosoms in Curse of the Golden Flower. Tang Dynasty ladies did wear low cut dresses, but surely not push-up bras.
That is true… but Tang dynasty clothing has a reputation for being the most revealing so… I guess they decided to go all the way? XD
That aside, you do have to admit that the “heaving bosoms” do help make up for the body type of modern actresses and help better mimic the… erm… “voluminous” look which was popular during this time…
None of the ladies depicted in Tang Dynasty paintings, murals and sculptures were quite as bosomy and deeply cleavaged as those in the mentioned productions. Nor were actresses in past Tang Dynasty films. Zhang Yimou started the buxom trend in Curse of Golden Flower when he told the designer to follow the example of French court dresses. The results were eye-popping, distracting from the film, to say the least.
It’s not as common as the film makes it out to be, but such styles definitely exist.
Tang dynasty figurine with plenty of bosom and cleavage:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/18e1a99001866b2842d7dad15e43ae0c/tumblr_n1jccjvFhy1s7eywyo1_250.jpg
Not to be insulting or anything but I really think she looks better in the peasant garb than in all the other palace garb… Fan Bingbing is so interesting-looking by herself that adding more sometimes just seems too excessive. The peasant-garb preserves a naturalness to it that the other costumes just seem to lack at the moment… I’m starting to think I simply don’t like Fan Bingbing with her hair tied up too much. She looked awesome in the movie Wheat when her hair was let loose but when it’s tied up, it seems to come off wrong more often than not for me. DX
I saw the peasant garb outfit and thought that since this IS Wu Zetian, is this supposed to be for the convent scenes?
I think that’s the photo she looks best in, too, but the retouching was too obvious for my likings … My least favorite is the blue/white dress,mostly because her hair is a mess there.
Wouldn’t she have her hair shaved off in the convent, though?
You would think so… but hair does take time to grow… and there’s historical debate about whether she actually shaved her head or if she even entered a convent… and also for the sake of elaborate hairstyles… again, hair takes time to grow. Hair length is pretty malleable in dramas but you have to take into account how much the audience believe this is credible. (Well… I guess there is historical evidence of use of wigs but… drama protagonists just don’t go there!!)
I think they’ll probably do the convent since everybody is so familiar with it happening… but they might try to pull a ZHZ with the going to the temple but not shaving and simply “tucking your hair under a cap” or something…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian#Consigned_to_the_convent
btw, by blue/white dress did you mean the one with all the silver and violet danglies in her hair? That one was just O_O. Her hair looks like it’s shaped into a heart and all the silver embellishments were just too much.
I mean… according to here, Wu Zetian’s family was relatively well-off so the only way I can see her wearing “peasant” garb would be at the monastery…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Zetian#Birth_and_background
I think the shape was alright but there was too much going on and they were clashing.
I think the Yin Tao version used a head wig (?) thing to make her look bald. I think that’s pretty common and easily done for dramas as long as it’s only for part of the show. Also, I feel like she’s been bald in a movie before.
ewww… bald head wigs…. I never liked those since if you have any hair whatsoever, you end up looking like a human-cone head crossover…
I really hope they just have the nuns wear caps of some sort and have her wear one as well with her hair tucked underneath… :/
I have no idea if this is relevant, but I remember attending a lecture by a scholar on a Japanese nun who said that tonsure in those days didn’t necessarily involve being bald, but could just be cutting off a bit of hair (several inches?).
Her costumes are so pretty, by the way.
Does seem to make sense and seem to be a reasonable assumption under certain circumstances… especially since the Japanese borrowed heavily from this era…