Can we agree that Yang Mi has really good taste? Dilireba and Gao Weiguang, two members of the gorgeous new Yang Mi workshop, were recently featured by NetEase in a cute Chinese Valentine’s Day photoshoot.
Dilireba is a current Shanghai Drama Academy student while Gao Weiguang is a Central Drama graduate.The two are most well-known in currently airing series Ancient Sword and co-star in Yang Mi-produced Micro Times. Dilireba will also be one of the episode leads for Yu Zheng’s upcoming The Making of a Beauty, and is set to star in Yu Zheng’s modern movie, 逆光之恋.
This face deserves to be above the cut.
They do their job well
And also agood much
I just realized that Dilireba is that girl on those Ancient Sword posters that I’ve always thought had the strangest face, like one who has had way too many plastic surgeries. Somehow she managed to look normal in these pictures. Maybe the photographer for Ancient Sword needs to be fired.
Personally I think it might have been the hair. I think she’s absolutely gorgeous, but I hated her heavy bangs.
These two together are really visually appealing. Best looking two, as far as personal taste goes, out of the Ancient Sword cast.
Ancient Sword has made like, every male character my new bias (how did they pay for so many leading females and good looking guys?). Gao Weiguang is so attractive ^^;
Dilireba looks better here than in Ancient Sword. They both look kind of mixed though (even if that’s not what they actually are…)
Also, I’m curious – do different schools produce actors with different styles? I hear/read Central Academy and Shanghai a lot…
okay so there’s the 3 most famous universities that provides a Bachelor’s Degree in Acting: Central Drama, Shanghai Drama, and Beijing Film
Central Drama is more orientated toward professional drama. The school generate actual actors/actresses that are better at acting, and students can perform live-action theatrical works as well as act in motion pictures.
Beijing Film is more geared toward producing celebrities, the students tends to usually act in motion pictures only. Apparently Beijing Film academy provides courses that teaches student how to deal with publicity and interpersonal relationships in the industry, while Central Drama mostly focuses only on the art of acting
Shanghai Drama is a school in between Beijing Film and Central Drama. To be really honest this school isn’t known for famous celebrities, out of all the A-listers only Li Bingbing graduated from Shanghai Drama, Hu Ge and Yuan Hong are the other well-known graduates. Honestly not much is known about the school because there’s not a lot of famous alumnis from this school.
To add to that, Central Drama is geared towards theatric arts, and that includes plays, Peking opera, operas, stage arts, etc. The actors that come from Central Drama tend to be casted in more serious works like revolutionary era dramas, historical dramas, and modern social dramas, etc, and very few are casted (or willing to partake) in the more popular trendies.
Shanghai Drama actually has quite a long list of alumni, including Lu Yi (currently on 2nd season of Dad, Where are we going), Tong Da Wei, He Lei, Liao Fan (the recent winner of Silver Bear for best actor in Berlin), Feng Shaofeng, and among the more trendy drama crowd, Jiang Jingfu, Hu Ge, Yuan Hong, Lin Gengxin, or basically your regular TangRen casts. Apparently SD focuses more on the individualistic development of their students. =/
Beijing Film focuses more on cinematic arts, so it’s got stronger programs in production, direction, cinematography, and sound design, etc. In the past, it’s known more for producing greater directors, like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.
There was a great episode on Happy Camp awhile back that introduced the 3 different schools, and apparently Central Drama has a reputation of being pedantic and stuck-up, Beijing Film as rebellious and innovative, and Shanghai as their own happy bubble.
I agree most of what the two says. In general, my feel is that Central is the one school that really cares about your acting. In general everyone from Central has solid acting background. They tend to discourage their students from acting on TV while in school, and often encourage students to do stage-acting instead of going for the celeb route because they think only stage-acting is true acting ((hence the pedantic and stuck-up reputation). One other thing is that they are so much better at line-reading than the other two schools. However, their acting can be a bit over for TV because they’re more used to the stage. They also tend not to always be super good-looking.
Beijing focuses a bit more on how you look on screen. The girls especially are almost all really pretty, and the guys are a mix. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of Beijing graduates/students who can’t act at all (seriously, Gulinazha…). Also, as much as I love her, Zheng Shuang still can’t act. I think Beijing students tend to have the best connections, though, because Beijing also has the best directing, filmography, and other movie-related programs by a long run.
Shanghai Drama I think has a mix? They have some good actors (i.e. those working in the Shanghai Theatre like Guo Jingfei), but for the most part the baseline is lower than Central. For example, Yu Zheng said that even after graduating in acting from Shanghai Drama, he couldn’t say lines in front of a camera without shaking. They do tend to have the best-looking males, though.
Each school also have specialties. For example, Shanghai has the only Kunqu program. Central Drama has xiaopin/xiangsheng program. Beijing has filmography.
There are cases that break those stereotypes though. I was surprised to learn that Zhang Han and Tang Yan graduated from Central, since their performances resonate more with styles from BJ/F or SH/D. I guess they are not so bad compared with the rest of the actors/actresses in the trendy drama crowd.
Guo Jingfei totally breaks my previous impression of SH/D’s pretty guys who can’t act (starting from Lu Yi and to the TangRen ensemble). He’s probably my favorite younger actor in China at the moment, although his shade of yellow foundation in the Death Notice made him even more visually unappealing.
Yeah, Guo Jingfei and his cohort of Shanghai Theatre people definitely surprised me (in a good way). He’s not that young, though, because he’s only a few years younger than Lu Yi. He just haven’t been popular for as long because he’s mostly focused on theatre. Now that he’s bigger, I hope he and Lu Yi will do a double-lead soon. I ship them in a non-sexual way.
Tang Yan is a perfect fit for idol dramas, though, and not so good in more serious stuff. I feel like Central people actually tend to be slightly more awkward in idol dramas because idol dramas are all about being natural. Zhang Han kind of shifts around, but you can tell Zhang Han is totally a Central guy if you watch his favorite drama 等待绽放. Everything about the personality of his character and his portrayal just screams Central stereotype. I believe all four leads of the show are also from Central.
haha. I consider all actors younger than 40-ish to be “young-青年”, since my favorite Chinese actors are Ge You and Chen Baoguo, and some of the older folks. I was also to surprised to learn that another one of my favorite younger actors, Zhu Yawen, is from Beijing Film. I’d thought he would be from Central Drama.
Did you know Guo Jingfei and Lu Yi are brothers-in-laws? I didn’t know until recently when there was news of Guo Jingfei and his wife with Bei-er on her birthday. The Death Notice I felt was like a giant cameo for the Shanghai Theatre, which was great because they can really act (although a few had way too many plastic surgeries).
Now that you mention it, it does seem that Central actors are not a good fit for the trendy idol dramas, like Yu Mama and Tangren works. I grew up watching the “serious idol” dramas like 奋斗 and 血色浪漫, which definitely suit Central actors more. I actually found the acting in the trendies to be more exaggerated than the more serious works for some reason, but it might just have been due to the ridiculous plot-lines.
But Chen Xiao is from Central. XD I think good idol drama acting is usually just acting like yourself. Hence why a lot of people are perfectly fine in idol dramas but can’t do more serious acting. I don’t think that Yu Zheng/Tangren are what I typically first think of when I hear “idol drama”, though, because both tend to still require a bit more acting than most “idol dramas” because they still require a different type of acting. Like Yan Kuan or Liu Shishi would work perfectly fine in a Yu Zheng drama, but some of their modern idol dramas are super awkward.
I watched an interview with Guo Jingfei and Bao Li, and they said that Bao Lei controls all the earnings from both Guo Jingfei and Lu Yi. Hahaha.
Have you seen the new Guo Jingfei-Qian Fang drama? It was really fun to watch, and they make such a cute pair.
Really? I remember that he was actually good before Yu Zheng got hold of him, but Yu is the one who catapulted him to stardom. I tend to think of current idol dramas as productions that primarily focuses on appearances and the overall package, as well dramatize to sell and create hype, often at the cost of coherent narrative and character development, which fits most, if not all, Yu Zheng productions and the majority of Tang Ren works.
Based on Dad2, I can see that side of Bao Lei. haha. They are such a cute family.
I tried a couple of episodes. Guo Jingfei/Qian Fang is such a classic pairing. In one interview I remember him being confused between several of Qian’s characters, since they would run a couple of different productions at the same time. The drama itself feels like an attempt to recreate Cyrano Dating Agency, but the narrative itself doesn’t have enough hook. I find Qian as a college graduate hard to believe, but at least she’s cute. Guo Jingfei with Zhu Yuchen though is fantastic. hehe
My first and biggest impression of Qian Fang is still her as a middle-schooler back in 2004, so I have no issues with believing her as a college student. XD Have you seen them in Romeo & Zhu Yingtai? So cute.
Did you see her first in a play? I don’t even remember her in 恰同学少年，and that was one of first dramas. Was she 杨开慧，Mao’s future wife? I remember the young girl kind of looked like her.
I wish I could see them in that play. I haven’t been in China often in recent years, and I also wish I could see 开心麻花 group perform live as well.
That’s the drama I’m talking about. Qian Fang was super adorable in it.
Hunan TV actually did a play series where they broadcasted Romeo & Zhu Yingtai among other popular plays, so you can find it on the Internet.
lol i don’t wanna sound racially insensitive but they are both Uyghur right? I’ve actually been wondering about that for a long time lololol
Thanks for the explanation! Definitely going to be watching for that now…
I think Gao Weiguang is Han Chinese?
haha. I don’t think that’s racist. I thought that myself. I just checked Baidu, and apparently the girl is Uyghur, but the guy is Han Chinese.