Despite being filmed a decade apart, the two adaptations’ leading actors (Qin Junjie and Peng Yuchang) are only three years apart in actual age.
From the bro-duo directors Zhao Xiaoxi and Zhao Xiao’ou of Let’s Shake It comes the latest adaptation of manga The Prince of Tennis 网球少年. I’m guessing the script must be solid since the cast is quite impressive for an online drama, featuring Peng Yuchang (Our Shining Days), former fencer Dong Li, Song Yiren (Ever Night), Zhang Yijie (Untouchable Lovers), Xie Binbin (Love Through the Millennium), Liu Yongxi (Our Shining Days), and Zhu Zhiling (My Classmate from Far, Far Away ). Famed tennis player Li Na will also guest star. The series has already finished filming and hopefully will be online sometime this year.
I can’t think of any competitive sports-themed drama lately out of China, so I’m really hoping that there is at least one good one among the many, many sports-themed dramas coming soon. This is probably the best bet given the directors.
Trailer below:
Theme song by Hu Xia:
Various teams in the drama. Taking initial votes on the best-looking team:
This is the best thing in creation….just saying.
Hope this time they would follow the manga more closely than the old drama.
Ryoma in the old drama is so emotional and unstable that I found it hard to watch. Besides that, there are some unnecessary dramas like An using Momoshiro’s feelings, Kawamura’s father hospitalized due to Kawamura not wanting to quit tennis,Momoshiro yelling at Tezuka,…
The old drama also made important teams looks like they are just bystanders. Characters like Yuushi, Shishido, Sengoku,… all just appeared and disappeared in a flash with no lines or any personalities. The dynamics and relationship between many characters was written so differently that if you love them from the originals you would find it kind of uncomfortable.
OMG I love the side-by-side anime-live-action comparisons! Also the music. Also I trust this production bc of the directors and because I love PengPeng! I’ll admit sports-themed dramas are my guilty pleasure which also sucks because I’ve hated, HATED all the recent ones. The last one that moved me and left an impact that’s Chinese was Hu Ge’s soccer one. I think it was called Go! Goal! Fighting! or something. (non-Chinese, I really liked Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo)
I think they’re doing a Chinese remake of Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo.
I’ll admit I didn’t expect this to come ’round again. Don’t get me wrong, I was all over the comics 20 years ago, but every time PoT comes up again I’m mildly surprised at its staying power.