A round-up of a couple of my favorite stages since the last post. If you missed it, XDramaX also did a Sisters Who Make Waves round-up.
A Tim Burton film turned into a stage, Miss Freak is easily my favorite since River. The make-up and costumes, the stage, and the choreography are all perfectly on theme, as is the performance.
A round-up of eye-catching stage performances, mostly from stage competition We Are Blazing (it’s like mixed-gender Queendom) and 618 galas.
Tencent recently filmed a series of documentaries featuring celebrities raising awareness for non-profit causes. Wang Kai, Wang Junkai, Wang Yuan, Deng Lun, Rocket Girls, R1SE raised awareness for causes from reducing ocean pollution to building libraries in underserved communities. Each documentary also came with corporations matching donations by fans.
Wang Kai teaches you how to reduce plastic waste to reduce ocean pollution
Deng Enxi plays Fern, a skater who thwarts the suicide attempt by a fellow student.
Tackling difficult issues like depression and autism, youth sports drama Project S is an attempt to reinvent itself as a contender for quality youth drama by Wajijiwa, the Tencent subsidiary that manages Rocket Girls and R1SE. While their previous couple of dramas have lacked any logic and was carried solely by idol power, this one is rooted in a much more realistic story. The remake of the three-part Thai series is currently filming its last third and will be a Tencent exclusive.
Wajijiwa is ran by Long Danni, who produced Super Girls, My Hero, Meteor Garden, and Produce 101, so it’ll be interesting where she’s headed with this drama.
Skate Our Souls 极限17 滑魂 – Guo Zifan, Deng Enxi, and Caesar Chen Zexi of X-Fire
Boo, a student whose grades aren’t promising, comes from a strict family. However, he has a hidden problem. Boo has been suffering from depression for a long time, which resulted in self-harm. Moreover, he doesn’t eat or sleeps well. One day, he decides to commit suicide, but his plan was thwarted by a group of skaters, led by Simon and Fern, who influenced him to join their group of friends. Can Boo overcome depression and all his fears?
Palace intrigue series Legend of the Phoenix 凤弈 begins airing today. The series stars He Hongshan, Xu Zhengxi, and Cao Xiwen. Based on the plot summary, I’m really hoping we’ll see something close to a genuine friendship between He Hongshan and Cao Xiwen like the female leads of The Palace of Yanxi.
Watch the drama on Youtube here. Two episodes will be available every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Plot, stills, trailer 1, trailer 2; more trailers; theme song by Mimi Lee of Rocket Girls below:
Seriously Rocket Girls might have the best song quality for a Chinese girlband since S.H.E. and Twins? I don’t think they’ve had a bad group song yet, and a couple of their solo songs are really beautiful. This latest one probably has my favorite song-MV combination. Light is still my favorite song.
With four memorable songs, anti-bullying film Cry Me a Sad River 悲伤逆流成河 might have my favorite original song list for a film since Tiny Times.
Don’t Cry by Sunnee is sung from the viewpoint of one survivor of bullying to another. You can watch another version of the MV that shows victims of bullying taking off the names they were called.
“I’m sorry” takes seconds to say
but “It’s okay” may take forever
When I turn back to look at myself,
That light was “me” all along
The lyrics by Wu Tsing-Fong of Sodagreen for Rocket Girls’ third single Light (second from their EP) is heartfelt and shines with his unique combination of childhood wonder and empowerment, and the arrangement of the girls’ voices is stunning Someone said it reminded them of classic SHE songs and that’s how I feel.
Awaken-F’s summer photoshoot
Thanks to variety shoes Idol Producer and 101 , there’s once more popular boybands and girls outside of TF boys again. Here are some recent MV’s from some of the bigger ones, including Rocket Girls, NEXT, Awaken-F, Sing girlband, and a few solos from Nine Percent and M.I.C. boyband. .
On the girl group side, Chinese-styled EDM group released their latest single Night of Music 夜笙歌 with inspirations from Southeast China. I wish they would release a MV for “Accidentally Time-travelled to Ancient Times一不小心到古代” because that’s probably my favorite song from them after 寄明月.