Yu Zheng’s borderline girl-love miniseries Couple of Mirrors stars Zhang Nan and Sun Yihan in the leading roles, and will premiere on Bilibili in a couple of hours. The danmaku site is region-restricted though, and there’s no news yet about legal viewing options outside of Mainland China. [Extended synopsis]
Starring Bai Lu, Jin Chen and Lamu Yangzi as sisters-in-law under one roof, female ensemble comedy Song of Youth just started streaming on Youku. The drama will release 2 episodes every Monday to Wednesday. Episode 1 on Youtube below:
Well isn’t this an entertaining way to end 2020. Popular author / screenwriter / director Guo Jingming‘s second novel Never-flower in Never-dream was found by the court to have plagiarised Zhuang Yu’s In and Out of the Circle in 2003, yet has never admitted or apologised for plagiarism until today. Guo published a Weibo post at 12am describing it as an “unhealable wound” he was “loathe to face”.
Guo Jingming had offered to pay Zhuang Yu all the royalties he earned from selling Never-flower in Never-dream or alternatively if she didn’t accept his offer, he would donate all his profit to charity.
Season 4 of I Am An Actor features Zhang Ziyi, Yu Zheng and director Derek Tsang (Soul Mate, Better Days) as the main judges, and actors Zhang Songwen (The Bad Kids), Hao Lei (Sheep Without A Shepherd) and Li Chengru (who is known for being too honest on Tencent’s acting show) as the coaches. To be honest, I’m more interested in the drama and constructive criticism that will be coming from the judge’s corner. Out of the 33 contestants, I’ll be watching out for the talented Liu Duanduan (Joy of Life) and Li Meng (The Bad Kids).
The variety show premieres tonight.
Produced by Yu Zheng, Royal Feast 尚食 stars Wu Jinyan as Yao Zijin, an ordinary girl who joins the royal kitchen as a palace maid, and eventually works her way up the ladder to become head chef.
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Song of Youth stars Bai Lu, Jin Chen and Lamu Yangzi as sisters-in-law who seem to have the upper hand when it comes to married life. [Extended Synopsis]
Four high-profile BL-adapted dramas will be in production by the end of the year, though Yu Zheng is bucking the trend (to be fair, he’s already had a go at it with Winter Begonia) and planning to awe us with 12 episode womance drama Couple of Mirrors 双镜.
Song of Youth 玉楼春 is Yu Zheng’s latest period drama, a comedy starring Bai Lu, Jin Chen, Yang Rong, Huang Xinyao, Zheng Qiuhong, Lamuyangzi, Qiao Xin, and Wen Zhengrong. Their male love interests will be Wang Yizhe, Hao Lei, Chang Long, Zhou Lu, Zhu Zhiling, and Zheng Kai. According to Yu Zheng, the drama’s main focus will be fast-paced humor, but will include elements of traditional arts like pipa, guqin, dance, flower arrangement, the art of and fragrances and the like. It’ll also include actors from acting competition Real Actor.
This is Yu Zheng’s first attempt at comedy since Cosmetology High in 2014, which was not that well received (although idarklight enjoyed it).
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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.
The first episode of Real Actor 演技派 is all about the fundamentals of acting, and runs through the auditions and evaluations of 30 up-and-coming actors in just over 2 hours. The scenarios Zhang Songwen gives the actors does a great job of revealing their strengths and weaknesses as they are forced to perform on the spot.
Francis Ng doesn’t mince his words but his honest opinions are definitely a breath of fresh air. Yu Zheng will probably have more to do in future episodes, as the final twelve actors will be competing for roles in his variety show-drama Royal Kitchen in the Qing Dynasty 紫禁城里的小食光.