The idol C-drama world appears to be in love with the Early Republic era right now. I almost need two hands to count how many C-dramas are filmed, filming, or on deck set during the time period right after the fall of the Qing dynasty plus a decade or so. It’s personally one of my fave period settings so I’m not complaining. There’s Lady and Liar with Hawick Lau and Tang Yan, Legend of Fragrance with Li Yi Feng and Tang Yan, The Cage of Love with Hawick Lau and Zheng Shuang, and now we get a second brand spanking new trailer for yet another Early Republic drama Cruel Romance starring Huang Xiaoming and Chen Qiao En. It’s based on a very lightweight 2001 romance novel by writer Nian Yi called Jing Xiu’s Destiny, and I actually enjoyed the novel and call it lightweight because it’s so short and really fluffy stuff that doesn’t develop most plot points in depth and just uses the canvas for to write an easy-to-love romance. Cruel Romance is slated for a Fall 2014 release which is good news since it looks totally up my alley.

The drama is going to be very different than the novel details starting from how the OTP meet to the greater conspiracy and danger in the drama revolving around the occupational Japanese forces stationed in Shanghai. The basic outline remains the same, Huang Xiaoming plays big shot gang leader Zhuo Zhen who falls for Chen Qiao En’s country girl come to the big city Rong Jing Xiu. Judging from the action-packed preview, the drama will amp up the patriotism and conflict as well as lots of kissing and passionate grabbing. Hubba hubba. I also love this third official poster from the drama, the first one had the OTP hugging though Jing Xiu was crying and the second one was a full cast poster with all the leads standing in a very dramatic pose. I’m surprised at how good Huang Xiaoming and Chen Qiao En look together and they are definitely shooting chemistry rays at each other in the new preview. Check it out below and add it to the watch list if it piques the interest.

This preview still has all the leads using their own voices but I don’t know if it’ll be dubbed when it airs. Huang Xiaoming has a great voice with a Qingdao accent that is nearly inflection-less while Chen Qiao En’s Taiwan Mandarin actually works here and she’s got great emotion in her line readings. It’ll be a shame to dub over these two.

Second preview for Cruel Romance: