Tangren (Chinese Paladin + Chinese Paladin 3) has kind of been in a slump recently, but I still hope for the best for all their dramas. Their latest xianxia drama Linglong 玲珑 released its first trailers and I have mixed feelings. The CGI and sets look solid, but the lighting is horrible. Yuan Hong’s acting is a standout. I’ll have to see more to decide how I feel about the chemistry between the two young leads, Zhao Jinmai and Lin Yi.
The trailer seems not bad, but the CGI feels so “Tangren” xD
My feeling is this drama is almost all filmed indoors with minimal props and sets as place holders while green screens and CGI create all the scenery, looks and details. That is, even the fancy furniture, decors and buildings are CGI. Emulating convincing natural outdoor light seems to be more often a failure.
Don’t think Tencent has a “watch only his/her” scenes like Youku. Otherwise I’ll just watch Yuan Hong and enough of the rest to get a coherent story, knowing full well that cdramas are not always coherent.
Lol I was expecting the lighting to be like new legend of the white snake whitewash, so the trailer kind of exceeded my expectations. I really like the details in the building sets, idk about the actors and story enough, feels standard.
*though not enough
It seems like they’re trying to go for natural lighting in the scenes. But this type of lighting works better for historical dramas where there’s minimal CGI and would make the background scenes more vibrant. For fantasy xianxia, the producers should have gone for a darker movie lighting as it would be a better fit and would make the drama a more immersive visual experience for viewers.