Secret of the Three Kingdoms is the latest project from screenwriter Chang Jiang (The Advisors Alliance), and stars Ma Tianyu (The Founding of an Army) as the last emperor of Eastern Han and Han Dongjun (Wu Xin: The Monster Killer II) as Sima Yi.
Wan Qian (Guilty of Mind) plays Liu Xie’s empress Fu Shou, who is later deposed and killed after Cao Cao’s men discover a letter to her father which urged him to conspire against warlord Cao Cao (Tse Kwanho), the de factor ruler of China.
Dong Jie (White Deer Plain) plays Tang Ying, wife of the former emperor, who was demoted to Prince of Hongnong after just 4 months on the throne. She’ll have a heart-wrenching love line with Sima Yi (Han Dongjun).
Dong Xuan (Wild Desert) plays Diaochan, an alluring woman who uses her charm and beauty to bring down Dong Zhuo and Lv Bu, two of the most powerful warlords at the time. Diaochan and Cao Cao’s adviser Guo Jia (Sunny Wang) were initially using each other to achieve their own political goals, though the relationship eventually turns romantic.
Liu Xie’s second empress Cao Jie and Cao Pi’s (Tan Jianci) wife Zhen Fu are played by relatively new actresses Wang Yuwen (Rush to the Dead Summer) and Wang Xiaomin (The Night) respectively.
The 40 episode dram is helmed by directors You Dazhi (Case on the Mekong River) and Zheng Weiwen (The Imperial Doctress).
Thank you for the good updated info. 40 episodes is a good length. I hope this will be one of the few watchable Ma Tianyu dramas. I tried to keep an open mind and watch Beauty Private Kitchen, but Ma Tianyu as a general may need a better director than BPK’s director. Zheng Shuang’s acting isn’t easy to watch either. I often prefer watching Wan Qian, Dong Xuan, Dong Jie vs the Liu Shishi Tang Yan Yang Mi Dilraba quartet, so I really hope that this will be a nice production. It’s tough to watch many C dramas if you don’t love the quartet since most c-fans love them and want to see them in many repetitively-plotted Mary Sue dramas.
Thank you for the info on the TBP on the other thread. I just looked up TBP film info. Disappointed to see FSF and Zhang Han in the cast. Any idea how the reputation of the TBP novel is among C-drama fans? All I know is it won Hugo award. My taste tends to be similar to well-rated Douban C-dramas (and the 2 of you. What a pleasant coincidence!)
The rumors are that the TBP film is in indefinite suspension because they ran out of funds to finish post-production, partly because it was poorly filmed.
Thank you for the rumors. I’m not surprised to hear. Its cast doesn’t seem so stellar. Sad if TBP suffers from the death-on-arrival type of fate though. C-fantasy and C-scifi haven’t had auspicious start? Novoland dramas weren’t great either.
There’s always Monster Hunt. Good animation, cute story, weird music, but overall a decent film.
MH was ok. I’m more interested in watching Tea Pets, but that only showed at the Seattle Film Fest. I didn’t see the point to Wallace Chung and his character in MH. Embarrassingly enough, I don’t remember anything of MH’s OST. MH plot has largely disappeared from my brain too at this point.
Thank you for your review of Let’s Shake It. That drama is much more entertaining than I had expected. I may not have checked it out if not for your review article. Previously they had An Yuexi doing the boring role of Qi Baicao, the boring, garden variety Mary Sue. An Yuexi was a more lively QB than Hu Bingqing’s, but QB is still a dull character.Tang Bao was a non-sensical character. Now finally AY has a drama that shows off some of her skills.
“I often prefer watching Wan Qian, Dong Xuan, Dong Jie vs the Liu Shishi Tang Yan Yang Mi Dilraba quartet, so I really hope that this will be a nice production. It’s tough to watch many C dramas if you don’t love the quartet since most c-fans love them and want to see them in many repetitively-plotted Mary Sue dramas.”
Lol I feel the same way. Although the quartet were considered popular actress but their acting skills if compared to some other less well-known actresses (Wan Qian, Chai Bi Yun…etc) are still short. And yes, it is kind of a pain for me since they dominated the small screens therefore less series to watch for me :P I don’t really like Ma Tianyu’s character in here so far (Mary Sue’s male version) plus his some of his acting hopefully it is because of the character he played. Really hope his character will become better as the series goes. I am currently in ep.12.
All I want for this drama right now is for Wang Xiaomin and Tan JIanci to sing a duet.