Find Yourself took a pretty main cast in Song Qian x Song Weilong x Wang Yaoqing and stuffed them into a story that mixed the worst parts of a syrupy sweet romantic fantasy with a frustrating and unimaginative love triangle.
(more…)Promo Round-up: Miss Truth
Tang Dynasty mystery romance Miss Truth revolves around a medical examiner (Zhou Jieqiong) who unravels several murder mysteries with the help of a minister (Li Chengbin).
The 36 episode drama releases 2 eps every Wed to Fri on Youku.
25 Under 25: Zheng Yecheng
A series for some of my favorite up-and-rising young artists. Most of them aren’t big enough to have fancy photo shoots, but they’re cute. Feel free to leave a comment if you want some featured.
Zheng Yecheng 郑业成 (born in 1993) was definitely the highlight of O2O for me. His sheepish smile is contagious, and their side-plot is probably one of my favorite side-romances in a while.
Since then, he’s starred in a number of quirky romances, including my favorite rom-com so far this year, Let’s Shake It. He’s not a phenomenal actor, but his youthful cuteness is enough for him to pull off most of his roles so far. Plus, his martial arts training could give him a leg up for wuxia roles.
He’s currently filming Fantastical Nights in the Tang Dynasty 盛唐幻夜, an ancient series with Wu Qian.
Pre-school classmates married: Zhou Fang, Liu Chang
Actress Zhou Fang ( Lovebirds 戏点鸳鸯 aka one of the cutest cdramas of all times) recently got married to director Liu Chang (With You 最好的我们), and their love story is as cute as any idol drama. The two went to pre-school together, dated once in middle school, once in high school, and then one last time in college that resulted in marriage. Here’s her story loosely translated.
Yes, I married the boy who’s been in my life for 24 years.
I met Liu Chang in middle school.
Scrawny, around my height.
Every afternoon, we took the k54 bus home.
Before he got off at his stop every day, we would exchange a letter that we wrote each other.
We’ve kept every one of those letters to this day.
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Review: Brotherhood of Blades II: The Infernal Battlefield
Promotional theme song: Deep love is as subdued as you by Zhou Shen (still on repeat in my playlist)
Aptly titled The Infernal Battlefield, the second instalment of the Brotherhood of Blades film series brings together a talented cast of actors in one of the best wuxia epics in recent years. The story formula hasn’t really changed since the first movie, but it’s worth watching for the cinematography and action choreography alone. Minor spoilers ahead.
Sinology Sunday: Tangren recreates artifacts for Three Kingdoms drama
Were you impressed at how gorgeous the new Tangren outfits for its upcoming Three Kingdoms drama. Yours truly happen to be currently in a Chu dynasty phase and immediately recognized them as strangely anachronistic. In fact, half of the patterns for their character posters came directly from the same tomb, the famous No. 1 Chu Tomb of Jiangling Mashan 江陵马山一号楚墓, dated about five centuries before the story’s time.
So, in honor of our beloved Tangren that seems to try each time to be slightly more historically accurate (albeit via the laziest way possible), here’s a a look at some of the patterns of Chu.
Song Yi as The Black Widow in the Disguiser
Deadly and seductive yet sweet and innocent at the same time, Song Yi 宋轶’s character won over the audience with her charm and beauty in The Disguiser. Nicknamed The Black Widow for killing her husband on their wedding night, Yu Manli was pardoned from a death sentence in exchange for becoming a secret agent. She is paired with Hu Ge‘s character in her missions and the two become life-and-death partners. Alas, his love is too idealistic and has no room for a girl from the streets like her.
The Central Drama Academy graduate recently signed under fellow alumni Zhang Han‘s workshop and will be collaborating with him in upcoming drama The Legendary Tycoon 传奇大亨 about the Shaw Brothers. I also highly recommend the second part of The Lovebirds series , for which she plays a female lead in the second part.
Photo cr: xueqingdaren@Weibo
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New Dream of the Red Chamber Cast in Versace
These photos feature the very young cast dressed in Versace for the upcoming New Dream of the Red Chamber series, for a piece called “Dreams in Versace” featured in iLook magazine. Those especially invited to participate in this photoshoot were Yang Yang (18 yrs) as Older Baoyu, Yu Xiaotong as Younger Baoyu (14), Li Qin as Young Baochai (18), Bai Bing as Older Baochai (22), and Jiang Mengjie as Lin Daiyu (19). Also in this photoshoot are Zhang Di as Jia Yingchun and Kang Qinzi as She Yue. In blue on the bottom is Yang Mi as Qing Wen, Baoyu’s servant. Below the cut are thumbnails from the rest of this shoot and some of my favorites.