Category: Drama

Promo Round-Up: Winter Begonia

Posted On By XDramasX3 Comments
Not only is Winter Begonia a rare Yu Zheng drama to not use dubbing, but Yin Zheng and co. will do much of their own singing of the opera parts.

Starring Huang Xiaoming and Yin Zheng, bromance + peking opera drama Winter Begonia will begin releasing episodes on iQiyi tonight. Charmaine Sheh costars as Huang Xiaoming’s jealous wife.

An accompanying show will tell the story behind each of the Peking Opera pieces in the show. It’ll be hosted by Peking Opera artist Wang Peiyu, who is perfect for this. She did a podcast doing something similar and it was entertaining and informative even for the casual listener.

Teaser ; Peking Opera special ; Character Posters ; Stills; Stills 2

Theme song by Lu Hu, with opera parts by Yin Zheng and Huang Xiaoming
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Category: Drama

Winter Begonia releases character posters

Posted On By idarklight2 Comments
Me looking at the sky when I learned all the March dramas I wanted aren’t airing yet

Republican era bromance drama Winter Begonia, which still has no release date, has released a set of character poster and a video of the shooting session with Huang Shengyi and Huang Xiaoming looking like they’re going out on a hunt together. I just need this drama to air now so I have something to watch.

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Category: Drama

Huang Xiaoming, Yin Zheng’s Winter Begonia releases beautiful teaser

Posted On By idarklight8 Comments
“Others like my performance, he understands me as a person”

Everything is perfect in the trailer for the tragically beautiful drama Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红.  Yin Zheng stars as a Peking Opera star in Republican Era China while Huang Xiaoming plays his soulmate in this bromance drama about their love for each other, for a dying art, and for the world around them.

Thanks to my love-hate-relationship with Zhang Yunlei, I finally understood the Republican era craze for Chinese opera stars, so even the fan-cam of this trailer released a while ago made me tear up. Plus, Zhang Yunlei and Yang Jiulang are like the definition of an irl bromance that’s as close you can get to romantic love without actually being one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqKNHj9nCg0
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Category: Drama

First looks at Tang Yan, Shawn Dou’s Liao Dynasty drama

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Tang Yan as the Liao Empress

Tang Yan and Shawn Dou look amazing in the first stills of their latest drama together, The Legend of Xiao Chuo 燕云台.The drama follows the life of Liao dynasty empress Xiao Yanyan (Tang Yan), her advisor (Shawn Dou) and emperor (Jing Chao). The drama recently concluded filming and is expected to air late 2020. [Extended Synopsis]

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Category: Drama

Huang Xiaoming, Yin Zheng sing and romance in new Winter Begonia stills

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For a borderline boylove drama, I can’t believe we don’t even have a photo of the two male leads together yet. Huang Xiaoming looks at the top of his game , though.

Peking opera-themed Republican drama Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红 released its first full set of still today while announcing the full cast.   The Yu Zheng-produced series stars Huang Xiaoming, Yin Zheng, Charmaine Sheh , Tan Jianci,  Merxat,  Ma Su,  Bai Bing, Du Chun, Huang Shengyi, Liu Min. Gao Yu’er, Chi Shuai, and Tang Zeng.

Yin Zheng continues his obsession with beiing Leslie Cheung 2.0

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Category: Drama

Huang Xiaoming, Yin Zheng star in boy love Peking Opera adaptation

Posted On By idarklight4 Comments

Yin Zheng and Huang Xiaoming play a pair of starcrossed lovers (?) in the latest drama by Yu Zheng.

Producer Yu Zheng makes his foray in adapating boylove novels with Winter Begonia 鬓边不是海棠红, a Peking opera romance period piece no doubt inspired by Goodbye, My Concubine. Although the series will be written by  the author of the original novel, it’s uncertain how shippy the drama will actually be.  The series stars Huang Xiaoming, Yin Zheng, Charmaine Sheh , Merxat,  and Liu Min.

Set in the 1930’s, the series follows displaced Peking Opera performer Shang Xirui (Yin Zheng) as he moves to Beijing to remake his name.    In his quest to   make a name for himself and reinvent Peking Opera, he captures the eyes of Cheng Fengtai (Huang Xiaoming), a businessman who becomes enthralled by the world of opera.  With the help of Cheng Fengtai,  Shang Xirui is able to rebuild his old opera troupe and train a group of new talents.  When the Japanese army takes of Beijing in 1937, the two must struggle between preserving the art that they love and the city that they love.

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Category: Drama

The Story of Yanxi Palace is the most googled show of the year on Earth

Posted On By idarklightcomment

All hail the Emperor.

Despite a large portion its audience using Baidu, The Story of Yanxi Palace 延禧攻略 is the most googled show of the year all over the globe. The tv series was the only Chinese name to make it on any of the lists on Google’s Top Searches of the Year released today.

The show has shot to fame its stars Wu Jinyan and Xu Kai, and re-launched  the careers of Nie Yuan, Qin Lan,  Charmaine Sheh, and most importantly producer Yu Zheng. After a successful online run, it received successful runs on TV in the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.  You can watch the hit show English subbed on Viki and Chinese subbed on Youtube.