A new C-drama has just started filming this weekend and its something I’m totally looking forward to. I wrote about the upcoming Lady and Liar (千金女贼) with C-actress Tang Yan last month when it was announced as the next project by successful drama producer Chen Yu Shan after the ratings busting run of her last drama King of Lan Ling with Feng Shao Feng, Ariel Lin, and Danial Chan. Both Feng Shao Feng and Danial were rumored to be in talks to playing the leading man in Lady and the Liar, and neither choice would have been bad. Perhaps Chen Yu Shan wanted to start afresh with a brand new cast and joining Tang Yan in the drama will be recently affianced HK-actor Hawick Lau (Sealed with a Kiss), Taiwan actor Tony Yang (Love Forward), and C-actress Yang Rong (The Swordsman). Chen Yu Shan definitely loves mixing it up with a cast from all three Chinese-speaking regions. She’s also left the Taiwan drama industry behind after Autumn’s Concerto and Material Queen, electing to work in China with a larger budget and more resources. Lady and the Liar will be filmed in Shanghai which is as authentic as it gets since the setting for the drama is 1930s Shanghai. I wrote about how the drama is based on a famous Japanese manga from the late 70s called Hakushaku Reijo by Hosokawa Chieko.

King of Lan Ling also borrowed heavily from Hosokawa’s most famous manga Oke no Monsho and it actually worked onscreen adapted to a drama setting. I’m not a fan of any of the four leads but none of them annoy me either so this one is all about the story IMO. Tang Tang plays Jiang Xin, an orphaned street performer who learns that she’s the long-lost daughter of a scion family in Tianjin. She gets on a ship to head home and encounters pick-pocket lady thief Du Xiao Han (Yang Rong) who uses a shipwreck opportunity to take Jiang Xin’s place as the long-lost daughter. Jiang Xin’s first love is blind doctor Sheng Jian Wen (Tony Yang) who is the son of the original head of the largest mob in Shanghai. Jian Wen’s best friend Bai Zheng Ji played by Hawick Lau is the current head of the Shanghai mob and he also falls for Jiang Xin. Bai Zheng Ji saves Jiang Xin after the shipwreck and when he learns she’s lost her memory, he pretends to be her fiancee and she believes him. Jiang Xin will slowly regain her memory and find her way back to her real family, despite Du Xiao Han’s repeated attempts to cling onto her stolen identity. Along the way, Jiang Xin will fall for Bai Zheng Ji for real. I’ve always loved the original manga and the Republican-era Shanghai time period is one of my absolute faves in dramas. Check out some early pics from the set as the cast and crew ease into filming with the drama scheduled to be released in late 2014.