Schoolyard romance The Chang’an Youth stars Wang Yuwen as an ordinary cook who cross-dresses as a man and enters the Shangyi Academy. Wu Xize, Liu Yichang, Qi Peixin and Xie Binbin costar. [Extended Synopsis]
The 24 episode drama releases 2 eps every Mon-Tues on Tencent/Mango TV.
The latest adaptation of sports manga The Prince of Tennis 奋斗吧，少年 (formerly 网球少年) begins airing today. As with most dramas airing this summer, there’s little new promotional material other than one set of photos. But I did take the time to match up the characters with the manga names this time so it’s easier to figure out who’s who.
The series by directing duo Zhao Xiaoxi and Zhao Xiao’ou (Let’s Shake It) airs two episodes a day every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesdays on Hunan TV / MGTV.
Trailer; More promotional materials; Cast on Happy Camp ; Ending theme by Hu Xia below:
Despite being filmed a decade apart, the two adaptations’ leading actors (Qin Junjie and Peng Yuchang) are only three years apart in actual age.
From the bro-duo directors Zhao Xiaoxi and Zhao Xiao’ou of Let’s Shake It comes the latest adaptation of manga The Prince of Tennis 网球少年. I’m guessing the script must be solid since the cast is quite impressive for an online drama, featuring Peng Yuchang (Our Shining Days), former fencer Dong Li, Song Yiren (Ever Night), Zhang Yijie (Untouchable Lovers), Xie Binbin (Love Through the Millennium), Liu Yongxi (Our Shining Days), and Zhu Zhiling (My Classmate from Far, Far Away ). Famed tennis player Li Na will also guest star. The series has already finished filming and hopefully will be online sometime this year.
I can’t think of any competitive sports-themed drama lately out of China, so I’m really hoping that there is at least one good one among the many, many sports-themed dramas coming soon. This is probably the best bet given the directors.
Trailer below:
How believable is Wang Yuwen’s crossdressing?
Wang Yuwen, Wu Xize, Xie Bingbing, Liu Yichang, and Qi Peixin become students at a Tang Dynasty academy in currently filming series The Chang’an Youth 长安少年行. Here’s the first set of character posters featuring their various outfits. The series is produced by Tencent Entertainment and directed by Chow Ka-Man (The Wife’s Lie).
Talented chef Shen Yiyi (Wang Yuwen) accidentally becomes a student at the Shangyi Academy in Chang’an. There, she befriends Yang Zi’an (Wu Xize), who is there undercover for the Emperor, sword master Dugu Muxue, youth Tang Jiuqi, , and Prince Li Xinyuan. The five all have their own secrets in this seemingly normal school. How will they reveal their true selves and feelings to each other?
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.
If anything, with four sets of character posters, drama needs to win the award for best character posters for a drama.
Another set of gorgeous posters for eeMedia’s musical drama and Hunan TV’s first air-as-you-film series, “Song of Vengeance/Journey to the Sing & War/Star Academy”. I love eeMedia’s visual design team N13 with all my heart but I wish the promotional posters and trailers actually gave us a glimpse of what the series is actually like. At least we have eye candy along the way?
Trailer below and more character posters of the cast, including veterans Huang Yida, Qin Lan, and Wang Yaoqing, as well as first-time drama leads Fu Mengni, Chai Biyun, Xie Binbin, and Ou Hao below the cut. The series airs this Sunday.
A game about music maybe is tiny, but the battle for pureness and faith is great …
After the weird Battle Royale-type posters, eeMedia/Hunan TV finally released posters more fitting of their first musical idol drama 唱战记! Designed by my favorite N13, the posters are bright and fun, and includes more garbling of English.
Since the series seem to have a new English name every time a new poster series is released (Song of Vengeance – > Journey to the Sing & War – > Star Academy/Music Idol Drama), I will just call it the eeMedia musical.
Character posters of the student stars Huang Yida, Fu Mengni, Chai Biyun, Ou Hao, and Xie Binbin below the cut.
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A lollipop makes everything better.
If you don’t succeed once, try again. Several years after two non-hit modern musicals, Hunan TV is not ready to give up. Their latest musical series, Song of Battle 唱战记, will be yet another musical. The school-based musical will include over 50 original songs as well as many covers from coproducer ee-Media, the company best known for its music. The series stars Wang Yaoqing as a teacher seeking revenge, Qin Lan as the friendly sidekick, and Huang Yida, Chai Biyun, Fu Mengni, Ou Hao, and Xie Binbin as the students.
The posters are surprisingly bleak, but the leaked stills seem to make this still an energetic musical drama. More posters below the cut.
