Seems like Sun Li isn’t afraid of being typecast just yet.
The success story about Qing Dynasty’s richest female merchant is titled Nothing Gold Can Stay 那年花开月正圆, and stars Sun Li as the main protagonist Zhou Ying. The female-centric story should be familiar territory for the actress, who was most recently a powerful Empress Dowager in Legend of Miyue.
Zhou Ying is sold to the powerful Shen family by her foster father, yet successfully escapes by sneaking into merchant Wu Ping’s palanquin. The Wu family agreed to take her in after witnessing her remarkable business acumen. Chen Xiao (Three Heroes and Five Gallants) plays the pampered young master Shen Xingyi, and later Zhou Ying’s love interest.
Wu Ping’s death leaves his family and business in disarray, and Zhou Ying is determined to turnaround their fortune by investing in a cloth factory in Shaanxi. Her hard work is sacrificed when the conservative faction overpowers the reformists leading the Self-Strengthening Movement, and has to build everything from scratch after being released from prison. After much struggle, Zhou Ying ultimately establishes a business empire, and also lends the government a helping hand after it signed the Boxer Protocol.
This will be director Ding Hei’s (The Qin Empire 2 & 3) second collaboration with both actors and scripwriter Su Xiaoyuan (Embrace the Stars of the Moon). Nothing Gold Can Stay will start filming by the end of the month, and is aiming to air sometime next year.
That Frost poem always makes me think of the Outsiders; isn’t that silly? Still, it’s not a Legend, so decided points for that!