Following along with the casting and filming of the upcoming period C-drama King of Lan Ling since the very beginning has made the wait feel interminable. So either I have prodigious patience I wasn’t aware of or time just flew by this past year because the drama is finally premiering on Wednesday August 14th on four major networks in China (Dongfang, Shenzhen, Zhejiang, and Yunnan). This will be the first time leading lady Ariel Lin is dubbing her own voice for a C-drama. In both The Little Fairy and Legend of the Condor Heroes 2006, she was dubbed over and I really didn’t like the dubber they chose for her in either of those dramas. Rumor is that all the main leads will not be dubbed in this drama, which will be hilarious because we have Feng Shao Feng with his Shanghai tone, Daniel Chan with his Cantonese twang, Ariel with her Taiwanese Mandarin, Zhai Tian Ling with his Shandong accent, and George Hu who grew up in the US and freaking learned Mandarin after he returned to Taiwan as an actor.
When I say no dubbing that’s actually not completely accurate, all the actors had to go back to the studio to record their own lines again and it will be dubbed over, but it will just be their own voices rather than a professional dubber. I think it’s amusing that even Feng Shao Feng’s fangirls wanted him dubbed with the dude who was his voice in Jade Palace Lock Heart. Below are some of the latest OTP stills of Ariel’s Yang Xue Wu and Feng Shao Feng’s Gao Chang Gong, plus the three leads attending the press conference this week for the junket. The media hounded Feng Shao Feng for netizens skewering him for not being handsome enough to play the first historical flower boy in recorded Chinese history, and I love his answer was that he can’t change his looks but he tried to bring out the fierce aura of the King of Lan Ling. His real life C-actress girlfriend Ni Ni was along for the junket and the media loves a good high profile love story so that help give them other stuff to write about. I’ve been waiting for this drama for so long it better be good or else heads will roll.
Latest preview for King of Lan Ling:
[youtube id=”Nj7WiSReeNw” w=”650″ h=”450″]
Oh gosh darn I’m so excited!! Ariel!!
Really? They are all dubbing over their own voices?! Yay!! Well, it’s strange in a period piece for sure but I guess I’ll like it better than the professional dubbers. Daniel’s mandarin leaves a lot to be desired. LOL Voices rarely distract me. It distracts me more in modern dramas. I think it only distracts when it’s just poorly done… whether the voices just don’t match up quite right to the acting.
I have to agree if this is not good, heads will roll. I have been waiting forever too. Time flies.
Thanks for making it easy for me to keep up with the news.
LOL, I’m lovin’ all the different accents. ^__^
This better be good!
OMG it’s finally out!!! Have been waiting for this for so long too. Esp that it’s been a long time since I last watched Ariel Lin in a periodic drama. She was awesome as Qi Gong Zhu with Hu Ge ^_^
Hi! Kind of new here and not familiar enough with Cdramas. Could someone please explain what does “dubbing their own voices” means?. I’m not familiar with the term. I don’t know it is because English is my Second language. Anyway, I love Ariel Lin. I don’t think I have ever watched a Wuxia? drama.
Dubbing is when the lines that the actors say are re-recorded in a soundroom as opposed to using the sound footage that was gathered during the actual filming process. It’s widely used in China and most dramas are dubbed. It really is only viable for the china drama industry as all dramas need to be completely pre-filmed whereas it’s an extra step that doesn’t work out in a live shoot situation.
Most commonly actors do not dub their own voices. There are specific voice actors who instead do the dubbing for the actors on screen. This is why it’s going to be really cool in this drama to hear the voices of the actors themselves instead of the voice that where chosen for them which sometimes don’t really match with the way an actor looks. It’s also kinda weird though with all the different accents going on as Koala mentioned.
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain.
Finally! Feels like we’ve been waiting forever. Really hope it’ll be as good or better than it looks 😀 I doubt anything can top Ariel’s turn as Rong’er in LOCH ’08 for me, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.
Can’t wait! This is so exciting!
YESSS!!!
I always wonder why C-actors don’t change their accents for the dramas like the English-language actors. It’s both amusing and disconcerting to hear differing accents in a drama. I actually think George Hu’s accent isn’t that bad, I feel that Vanness & Wilbur have worse accents. :/
Not everyone can do it. Imitating accents is tricking to get right. I winced hearing Brad Pitt’s Southern accent.
Yeah, it’s strange, because I definitely KNOW it’s possible. My father is a perfect example, because he can speak Hunanese when talking to his mother or brothers, but when he talks to my mom, he speaks in Taiwanese-style Mandarin.
Of course, he DOES do it without really thinking about it which is kind of funny to listen to since he’ll sometimes switch who he’s talking to mid-talking and then his accent also switches.
So, it definitely IS possible. I just wonder with all the dubbing that happens whether it’s considered worthwhile for a Chinese actor to learn enough to sound good in another accent….
So excited – I will probably watch this raw and then wait for subtitles. It looks amazing, hope it doesn’t disappoint.
I so wanted to watch this too. I’m currently watching Good Doctor, Two Weeks, and I Summon You Gold.
Oh my gosh can’t wait to watch it!!! Where can I watch it?
I’m partly glad that they’ll dub over their own voice, it’ll be quite interesting to hear the different accents…but at least, some of the characters come from different places, so there’s the quite lame reason for explaining the multiple accents 😛
I’ve always wondered why C-dramas always dubbed their own series because it’s quite annoying. I completely understand why they have to dubbed it over when I visited HengDian…lol with that many tourists and onlookers observing around, I’m not so sure if they can get a clean sound recording…I don’t mind the period c-dramas being dubbed though, but the modern c-dramas, I just find it quite unnecessary…
Ahhhhhh~ please let someone from viki sub this!!!
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the whole dubbing thing. It always feels like the people on the screen aren’t really talking. I hate it.
Yeah…..I’ve been waiting forever for this to air. Love Ariel and all the casts, so happy. 🙂
i always knew there voices were dubbed, but im curious as to why the actors and actresses would need to dub over their own voice? whats wrong with the voice from live filming?
yup i’m actually looking forward to this one too since you’ve been posting it on your blog.. hopefully it will be good even if there’s funky dubbing.. I’ve learned to watch and listen past the terrible voices. HAHAHA.
But I thought I heard dubbed over voices in the trailers and sneak peeks?
Does anyone know the airing schedule? Will it air everyday? How many episodes a day?
Ya lo espero con ansias (spanish)
i love the cast..recap please…
Just saw ep. 1 and recognized Ariel’s voice, soooo nice that it’s her own voice and NOT that random annoying dubbed voice by Ms. X, but somehow sounded different from her regular Taiwan dramas… Maybe she was more concerned with how she spoke. George Hu sounded almost like a real McCoy the Beijing-kind… Cute… Got to throw some of that roll-your-tongue movements in, right George…
OH NOOOO… Just found out on Baidu George’s voice was dubbed by someone called 陳浩… Huge disappointment. Guess his American Chinese accent doesn’t cut the mustard. BOOHOO… But Ariel is her real voice, so proud of Ariel…
I thought so, George’s voice sounded not like his, so it really wasn’t his. I am so bad at recognizing voices. That made me wonder if FSF voice is his own, because I do remember him having a very weird mandarin, well his shanghainese dialect, I guess. So does anyone know if this is his real voice? Well like he just try hard to speak normal mandarin or did he got dubbed?
I like it too, that it is Ariel’s realy voice, but I think it’s quite funny, it seems like she tries hard to speak her lines more in adequate mandarin but sometimes when she speaks fast, one can hear her her taiwanese-mandarin.
Where did you watched KoL?? Please let me know! I also wanna watch this.
Watched the first few episodes, and it’s already draggyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! And seriously, as much as people didn’t want actors/actress to be dubbed, this is an example that it SHOULD be dubbed by professionals. It sounded terrible with the constant different tones of the actors/actress voices. And I’m sorry, Ariel and FSF does NOT have chemistry!
And FSF does not suit the role of the most GEORGEOUS king to go to battle…he is BUTT ugly!
Let’s be kind now, now… FSF is not someone to swoon over but he is not butt ugly, not my type though… His voice is dubbed by a professional as well as George’s. Can NEVER get into C-dramas and C-movies because of dubbing… You may find the different tones annoying, but we find it refreshing.
FSF is not uly!!! He might not be the most handsome general he is supposed to be, but I think he does his role well. Besides it is hard to define beauty, you don’t really know what beauty standard there is in ancient time, I doubt that they will consider a man who is as beautiful as a woman, beautiful, as in ancient standard of beauty. But nevermind, discussing over this topic is quite meaningless, since everyone has another definition of beauty.
I like it that some of them are not dubbed, it’s sad that not everyone is not dubbed, at least we get to hear Ariel’s real voice, I do remember her dubbed voice in TWFX and LOCH was quite annoying, just too high and too squeeky…
And I actually don’t find it draggy at all, it moves pretty fast, I thought it would take some time with Daniel Chan’s part until he is uncovered as the King of Zhou, but it does make sense, a king shouldn’t be missing that long, that would be quite unrealistic. Nevermind, everyone has their own tast. I personally love the drama already, perhaps it does make a difference that most of the actors are my favorites as well 🙂
Even though I prefer actors’ real voices, I find that in period dramas, dubbing has a better effect.
FSF’s real voice wouldn’t really suit his character, I like the dubbed voice. Daniel Chan- can’t really have his real voice either- not to say that it’s not good in real life, a canto-accented mandarin style really won’t do.
I like Ariel’s real voice in this drama, although I didn’t mind her dubbed in Legend of Condor Heroes either.
Will you recap this drama?
And does anyone know where I can watch this eng sub?
Thanks in advance.
The Prince (not King, since he was conferred a princedom/principality and not a kingdom) of Lanling is definitely not the first flower boy in recorded Chinese history…I can name at least 5 off the top of my head who precede him.
The first episode was exciting, and the quality is astounding. I can only hope the rest of the drama lives up to its hype.
ahhhh!!!! love it!!! can’t wait to watch it!! which i already watched the first couple episodes and OMG!! can’t wait for more!! but i dont know what days its airing on though??
The drama airs 7 days a week, 3 episodes each day, which is awesome. I started watching it, and it’s quite amazing, cinematography is excellent! It’s getting quite popular in China…people are saying 3 eps a day isn’t enough!
cinematography is great? Hmmmmm…considering most everything was CGI.
Anyone know how many days per week the show in the tv. 2 episode perday?
I think it is mon-fri, 3 eps and sat-sun 2 eps
everyone can watch it here in viki…http://www.viki.com/tv/7894c-lanling-wang-recruiting-staff ….n if everyone is kind enough..please help sub for the ones who doesn’t know the language…
I’ve watched up to ep 22 and it is very good! Well, when I say watch, I mean sort of skim over because I don’t have time to watch everything 😛
I think Lan Ling Wang won’t die…. or, if he does, like some people are saying that the future king (his cousin) will give him poison to drink, Lan Ling Wang will resurrect. I have seem some clips online and there is some evidence which point to this being the case….
He is not dead at that point, but they will both die in the end. Very sad ending.
Yeah, saw a plot sypnosis on a different site (I love spoilers!!!). It was in chinese, but I managed to make sense out of the garble from Google Translate 😛
I’m not going to mention spoilers on here, but according to the source, some deaths were confirmed, some weren’t mentioned, so there still might be people alive by the end of this war!
But nonetheless, it is still a sad ending, I agree.
Don’t know why these people complain. I think the actor actually brought out the character quite well. If they don’t like it, just don’t watch it.
Having the main actors dubb their lines is very good. I don’t like them using professionals, it just reduces the effect when you have to imagine what the actors’ real voice sounds like!