C-drama Adaptation of Heirs Reportedly Lands Main Cast Led by Yu Xiao Tong and Choi Si Won
Acclaimed C-director Li Shao Hong‘s planned C-adaptation of the popular K-drama Heirs has been getting lots of attention in the last two months and for good reason. Heirs was hella popular in China and continued to build Lee Min Ho‘s popularity as well as vaulted Kim Woo Bin from unknown in the Chinese market to suddenly a buzzy new face. Rumors have abounded about who was going to get cast in the drama which pretty much is rubber stamped to garner ratings regardless of quality or lack thereof. This weekend came the first credible leaks about the casting so everyone simmer down and let’s get to it. Male lead Kim Tan is reportedly Yu Xiao Tong who I last saw when he looked 12 years old even though he was already a teenager. He’s a relative newbie but got a huge breakthrough role playing one of the most well known characters in Chinese literary classics Jia Bao Yu in the latest drama adaptation of one of the Four Classics Dream of the Red Chamber back in 2010. He’s 20 years old now so as least it’s not a stretch to play a teen. Female lead Cha Eun Sang may be Kan Qing Zi who is getting a lot of face time in the popular C-drama Shining Days. Director Li has reportedly landed Super Junior‘s Choi Si Won to play Choi Young Do and Kim Hee Sun to play Kim Tan’s mom. Jiang Mong Jie, who co-starred with Yu Xiao Tong in Dream of the Red Chamber playing female lead Lin Dai Yu, will be playing Lee Bo Na, while Prince (Wang Zi) is joining the cast not as Kim Tan but playing Yoon Chan Young. Super tall hot daddy du jour Zhang Liang (from the popular C-version of Daddy Where Are We Going?) will be playing Kim Won. The drama is slated to start filming shortly with a location shoot in Beihai, Guangxi province. That’s all I’ve got for now folks. So far I don’t want to spork my eyes out but it is a weird and random assortment of folks to mush together.
Original flavor Heirs.
Yu Xiao Tong as Kim Tan.
Kan Qing Zi as Cha Eun Sang.
Choi Si Won as Choi Young Do. Kim Hee Sun as Kim Tan’s mom. By, the way, if Kim Hee Sun really plays Kim Tan’s mom, then she would be playing the mom to the character Lee Min Ho played, thus making all the Oedipal comments from viewers about Faith and their noona-dongsaeng pairing completely true. XD
Jiang Mong Jie as Lee Bo Na.
Zhang Liang as Kim Won.
Prince (Wang Zi) as Yoon Chan Young.
Oh no…. Kim Tan ㅜㅜㅜ
It’s rare but sometimes remakes are better… ‘Cause in most cases it all comes down to “interpretation.”
One can only hope, it’s liked equally by those that enjoyed the original.
I dont know w/ mainland-C remakes, but Taiwan seems better on adaptations and remakes.
Haha that C-Kim Tan is soo ugliest compared to Lee Min Ho!!
Si won shud be the male lead
That is so true. This drama screams pretty and handsome people. Hearing that Siwon oppa might play Choi Young Do is weird. Him playing second male lead is weird. Comparisation is totally nothing alike. People are going to compare Lee min ho with that unknown star. I just think its totally weird…. still in a bit of shock that Siwon oppa is probably acting in this!
I can see Siwon doing the part, even tho’ I think he’s too old. I’m disappointed that he’s probably playing another role where they dub in his Chinese (he can speak it). I don’t watch anything with dubbed in voices. If it’s true, as he says, that he is serious about his acting career, why would he do this? Can’t be the money.
Umm…
These people scare me. Lol!! Hopefully, it’s just a dream.
Lee bo na seems to be perfectly casted.
Chanyoung too. Pretty face.
Had to lol at your kim hee sun comment.
I don’t think i’ll ever really understand the magic behind the popularity of heirs. I mean, the formula for crack drama was all there, it just all feels like a huge letdown because it didn’t even end up being crack-level that BOF/You’re Beautiful was yet SO many people gobbled it up the same way. We all know BOF was bad but we still watched with fascination. It was popcorn entertainment. For heirs, all that hype that amounted to alot of brooding/moping around dragged out conflicts that ran in circles.. no dam feels.
Heirs will be the first k-drama that had so much potential (star studded cast, highschool setting, famed writer, lots of money investment) yet failed to even move me. Those times i felt something was when I decided to forget about the characters in that world and just watched an actor’s performance — sad that it had to amount to that.
Yu Xiao Tong as Kim Tan? I majorly “What-ed”. That is a strange casting for sure for sure. Siwon has the eyes to pull off a Choi Young Do. Prince I guess could maybe do a decent job as Chan Young, but I doubt he will be Kang Min Hyuk level. And I have already established that no one can do Lee Bo Na the way Krystal did. Major doubts about C-Heirs, but I guess we will have to wait and see.
What if… they don’t follow Kim Eun Sook’s story and then went off on a tangent? They’d lose some lines like what she gave to Bo Na or Eun Sang’s mom, but Heirs had sooome potential of being a fun show, more than what we got.
Not following the Kim Eun Sook story and going off tangent would be a vast improvement IMO.
Hah! C-Kim Tan is getting an early start on ugly sweaters.
I can see myself watching the first episode out of morbid curiousity. Who knows maybe this version will actually be good.
LOL!!!!
hahaha you cracked me up with your comment!
The male lead looks like a middle schooler (and fugly to boot) and the female lead looks fully grown up. WTF.
Once again SM and their dirty power lol…Siwon is a failure who continues getting roles thinking he is actually popular…
He is popular though. God forbid SM actually do their job properly and get him acting gigs when all he wants to do is act. Crazy, right?
I’m not even a fan of him but c’mon. He’s not even playing the lead.
Haha, LoL! spot on Siwon!
I’m not even his fan but have you seen King of Dramas? He was really good there.
I got through two episodes of The Heirs but stopped once heroine started crying for tenth time. I made it through several snarky recaps though. Considering my standards, I think this Heirs has a great chance of being better then the last Heirs. Though Woo Bin was super cute in it.
Everytime i see Siwon together with Jacky Chan i feel like he sucks up to him to much and i want to punch his horse face. Donghae is better looking than him in Suju as well.
When I heard Siwon and Heirs together…I thought WHAT?!…then I heard he was playing Young Do…and thought WTH??? He looks a bit to old to play a high school student and this time around it looks like they cast actors who look similar in age to high schoolers. I’m not entirely sure he can pull of the bad boy character that Kim Won Bin perfected in Heirs. If Siwon took any role in Heirs I thought it would be the role of Kim Tan’s older brother Kim Won.
Kim Hee Sun as Choi Si Won’s mother??!!!!LOL FOREVER…I didn;t even think Kim Sung Ryung looked old enough to play Lee Min Ho’ mom….that is the funniest thing I have ever heard in a while…why is Choi Si Won even doing this? Don’t get me wrong, I love him in zany roles like in King of Dramas but there’s a brand of crazy second lead that Kim Woo Bin does really well that I dont think Si Won can capture, he plays goofy or adorable better….also I would have thought that SM wouldn’t have him go for second lead roles anymore
This completely blows my mind. That anyone would want to remake that not-exactly-a-story. Where nothing ever happens and nobody really changes. Where choices are made randomly, accidentally, then, it’s over and they all live happily except that one poor guy left alone with his lead-lined crown crushing him into his desk chair.
There are so many other stories out there. I’m just so bla-doched and faboozled.
Oh no, Si Won. NO. I’ve seen his mean face. Choi Si Won cannot do mean. Therefore, he’s not a good choice for Young Do.
Honestly, they cannot get a better person that Kim Woo Bin to be Choi Young Do. He’s the reason I watched Heirs dutifully every week.
If by some miracle Kim Woo Bin reprises his role as Young Do, I will definitely watch this.
Otherwise, no.
I guess SM just couldn’t keep away from Heirs lol. Krystal, Heechul, and now Si Won. Its gonna be really hard to buy him as a high schooler, unless the adaptation actually takes the characters out of high school and into university. I’ve seen a number of TW and C-dramas that have used time skips to better effect as an important part of the overall storyline, unlike in K-dramas where they are last minute fails.
really? Siwon as a second male lead?? That seems strange to me…
Anyways, isn’t director Li Shao Hong currently filming Cocoon Town Romance (starring Victoria and Jiang Jing Fu)? I heard they are filming until March. How is she going to film two dramas at once??
Wow I find it interesting that there’s a lot of aggression towards Siwon. Don’t get me wrong I kind of don’t want him to play the role of Young Do not because I don’t think he’ll do well, it’s just that I rather he not get involved with this wierd drama that practically killed my love for LMH and PSH who otherwise were my favourites PSH more than LMH because I had a girl crush since the melos she did with Lee Wan. Heirs was such a wierd drama to me because I couldn’t really care about anybody in it, not Kim Tan, not the girl, not the hot but dangerous youngdo and certainly not the brother who was played by Gumiho Daddy. It was an all around snore fest that left me wandering why it was even written besides just having a lot of product placement and getting a lot of money?
Oh my, so far the cast seems terrible. I might be wrong…but if Siwon is going to be there, wouldn’t that mean horrible subbing voices again? Tsk tsk..so far the only remake I like was “Beautiful You” & “Hana Kimi”…the rest I have nothing much to say…