We Are All Alone 怪你过分美丽 stars Qin Lan (The Brightest Star in the Sky) as Mo Xiangwan, a talent agent who opens a new agency and rebuilds her career from scratch. Gao Yixiang (Legend of the Ancient Sword) costars as lawyer Mo Bei, and if the show follows the novel, he is also the man she had a one-night stand with and the father of her son Feifei.
I didn’t actually watch Secret of the Three Kingdoms, but Wan Qian‘s Fu Shou is so pretty I just had to include her in my post.
It’s that time of year again, when I collect all my thoughts on the dramas I watched over the past year. I vowed to watch many of the shows in the discarded list because they starred my favourites, conveniently forgetting that good actors cannot always elevate the quality of a drama.
On the other hand, dramas that weren’t initially on my radar ended up becoming the shows I was most invested in, probably because I had zero expectations going in. What are your thoughts on this year’s drama offerings?
Collection of Cfensi’s past reviews can be found here.
**Spoilers ahead, do proceed with caution.
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.
Streaming website iQiyi recently released trailers and news for a slew of upcoming shows that will either air exclusively on the site as web dramas or on national networks next year. Which shows are you looking forward to most?
The Story of Yanxi Palace features Consort Ling (Wu Jinyan) as the main character, and revolves around her rise to the top of the harem. Nie Yuan plays the Qianlong Emperor, and Qin Lan, Charmaine Sheh, Wang Yuanke and Zhang Jiani play the main consorts. The 70 episode drama airs tonight, and will release 2 episodes on iQiyi and Youtube every Thursday to Sunday. VIP members get an 8 episode head start.
Update Aug 6th: Thanks to the show’s popularity, iQiyi will now release two episodes every day except Monday.
Extended Synopsis | First teaser
First it was Gong vs. Bu Bu Jing Xin, then Gong II vs. Legend of Zhen Huan, and now this time it’s Yanxi Gonglue vs. Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace. Yu Zheng may have toned down on the bright colours, but his lawsuit with Qiong Yao doesn’t seem to have killed off his bad habits of plagiarism.
Yao Chen’s shoot for this week’s round up is in drastic contrast to the cheery pink of her last one; this time, she’s got a black dress that looks like it came from the Hunger Games. Qin Lan wears red and white summer dresses with silver earrings, while Li Yixuan goes for a colder white feather look. It’s probably summer in Arendelle; Yao Beina‘s (she sang Let it Go for the Chinese movie version of Frozen) cover for Marie Claire certainly agrees. Qi Wei pulls off high collars in what I hope wasn’t boiling hot weather, and Amber Kuo rounds off the photoshoot with a breezy looking skirt. Look below the cut for more stills. Continue reading
Model Zhang Xinyuan wows again with her new photoshoot, in which she goes for an Ophelia (the Pre-Ralphaelite painting) theme with numerous pale blue hydrangeas. She’s followed by Gao Yuanyuan, who’s draped with sweaters of the same color (winter in Australia, after all…) Meanwhile, Qin Lan goes for clear cut black and white business clothing, and Zhang Zilin wants you to “stay cool” on Marie Claire’s cover. Look below the cut for more pictures! Continue reading
Wang Luodan in her bridal getup for Cosmo Bride could have her cake…and stand on it; doesn’t she look perfect as a figurine, with those colorful balloons? No groom to accompany her in this shoot, but her sister cameos in a white dress. Meanwhile, Wallace Chung and JIa Qing promote their new drama together in wedding style. Qin Lan dons white and silver jewelry, but she’s definitely the only lady here who’s shooting with a jungle as a background. Eva Huang Shenyi is the last bride in this round-up, glamorous white sparkly silver heels (has she met anyone from the stars recently…?) Continue reading
Honey, I shrunk the actors!
The eeMedia musical may be way too slow for a weekly series, but it does have the best posters. I wish eeMedia would get better scriptwriters because all their recent series have such dull scripts, which is unfortunate when they actually have good music and high production values.