This is definitely one of the most bizarre bibimbap casting mashups I’ve ever come across. I can’t definitively say whether the end product will be good or bad, but my prediction is hot mess with tons of eye candy. Yoona of SNSD will be following in the footsteps of many of her Korean acting brethren and heading over to Mainland China to partake of the bigger pond of dramas and paychecks. She’s just been cast as the leading lady in the big budget historical drama Warrior God Zhao Zhi Long. She’s the second K-actress to headline a major Chinese period drama in recent days, earlier this year Kim Tae Hee filmed Wang Xi Zhi about the famed Chinese calligrapher.
The male contingent surrounding Yoona in this drama is pretty deep in pretty boys. Lin Geng Xin continues his meteoric rise and joins Yoona as the titular warrior god Zhao Zhi Long himself. Rounding out the expected love triangle is another Korean, Kim Jung Hoon will be playing Zhao Zhi Long’s rival on the battlefield, political scheming, and fighting for Yoona’s heart. As if there wasn’t enough already with those two, Li Yi Feng play’s Lin Geng Xin’s best friend and fellow warrior on the same side, Du Chun is famed consigliere Zhu Ge Liang, and Yan Kuan gets to play the juicy role of Liu Bei. Filming starts in January with a schedule August 2015 premiere date on Chinese television.
My mind tells me major trainwreck on the way but my superficial heart screams “you must watch, so much pretteh!”
Wow!Definitely didn’t realize how many pretty boys are involved until now. Zhao Yun is definitely my favorite character from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and knowing this universe of battle/war a little bit, I am not too worried for Yoona either. She just need to be a gorgeous eye candy. 🙂
Since she is going to be dubbed anyway, the voice actor is the person who is going to do most of the “acting.” I understand why the Chinese studios are casting Koreans (1)they are cheaper, (2)it jump starts China’s desire to play in the culture wars, by exporting their dramas like Kdramas have been able to do – their own hallyu wave so to speak.
What I don’t get is why the Korean companies are helping them. Yes, they love money, and the Japanese market is slowly shutting down on them, but for a people who like to to claim they are so different from the Chinese, even sometimes arguing about a shared heritage, why are they de-facto agreeing that their looks are essentially the same?
Only normal people claim that, Korean patriots. Big company executives have no pride or shame, they are just in it for money. And with Jp turning away from them,China is a logical next move.
It still feels somewhat recent when LGX starred in BBJX as 14th. I am surprised his star has risen to first lead’s already.
OMG….
This has major fail written all over it. How can she possibly connect with China’s historical character?
Its popular to do that now, it is Hunan Tv’s 2nd half mega drama so even if the drama sucks it may still do well.
Thanks for the response @rinodino. Just wondering, is the character she’s portraying important, well known and admired in China’s history? I have not seen any of Yoona’s dramas, but I take it the Chinese audience thinks she’s a terrific actress to be allowed a cross-over acting opportunity like this one….Do you know how well Kim Tae-Hee’s (?) historical drama did in China? My initial shock will wearing off…lol. Pop culture strikes again.
@mskololia
Cn audience never has any say in casting whatsoever, so this casting is more on Yoona’s marketability to perhaps the Intl audience more than her real talent, not saying she is horrible. Case in point, Michelle Chen as XiaoLongNu in the airing ROCH got the loudest outbrust of protests fr the audience ever in every aspects of her as misfit and still it is happening. To be terribly honest, I doubt the majority of remote controlling cn aunties and uncles have heard of KTH let alone Yoona.
KTH’s Cdrama has no airdate yet, no one is sure if any cdrama will see the daylight with the ever changing ironfist censoring policies dictating what genre is allowed to air or not as the wind blows.
The only truly successful crossover of a K actress has only been Choo YaHyun, the rest of the bigger Hallyu names Jang Nara, Chae Yim… etc never got true household recognition.
Thanks @mookie. I’m not that familiar with KTH either but remembered an article about her entering into the China too so this left me thinking that the SK casting calls are bankable to China’s producers. Well, I just started and am currently enjoying Damo Yao. The looks Hu Ge gives as Meng are faint-worthy.
my reaction was “NOOOOOOOOOOOO” when I saw the headlines. T_____T
So excited about this the production looks strong ,32 millusd budget ,,thats one of the most expensive drama ever
But only Lin Genxin, Kim Joon Hoon and Yoona are confirmed, the rest are prior rumors though
Yes! I’m happy
Interesting…that’s all I gotta say about that.
Btw, koala, have you seen the previews for new movie coming out called Blackhat with Tang Wei and Leehom Wang casted alongside Chris Hemsworth? Worth checking out i think!
ons word . too much pretyhh!!!!!
Imo LGX, LYF r both much more dashing young things in anything but period garbs and every rumored casting looks so out of character it will take lots of their best effort to convince anyone.
Watch Yoona get more popular than KSH and LMH in China, she already has huge fanbase there. Btw she looks gorgeous in that picture.
but… yoona beauty somewhat not parallel to the chinese beauty especially for period drama… and with overseas shooting, yoona don’t has much time to spend with lee seunggi before he enlist to army next year..
What a weird comment.
I wonder if they will broadcast the drama in the US. I can’t wait to see Yoona on screen and generally, I find historical dramas boring but it would be great to just see Yoona dressed and all pretty for the 16+ or whatever episodes! CAN’T WAIT!!!!
Woah..She will get to wear those beautiful costumes. I always love their fancy dresses and makeup. It will be dubbed anyway. So not much work for her. The power of SM though.. go ara headlining 2 to 3 movies..now yoona as lead in chinese drama..hmmm. SM obviously wants to expand its chinese market since jessica who had the most no of chinese fans is out of SNSD now.
which network will be broadcasting it?
If you have read Euny Hong’s The Birth of Korean Cool you will know that Chinese government officials had a meeting in the wake of You From Another Star trying to find out why China is unable to produce dramas of equal quality. Apparently, the answer they came up with is to simply start importing Korean talent! In my opinion dubbed foreign actors rarely work well. But we’ll see how it all works out.
IIRC it wasn’t about dramas of equal quality but rather of equal popularity. Two very different things. There are lots of quality Chinese dramas (the drama industry is huge so there are lots of duds as well) that are appreciated domestically but most of them don’t fit the mold of sparkly idol dramas peddling products with every frame AKA not the profitable variety.
Well, I can’t recall the exact quote from Hong’s book at the top of my head. But I do remember the passage as the Chinese government being concerned that Korean dramas are better made than domestic shows. Which would chime well with the current gold rush to attach Korean talent to Chinese productions. But maybe my memory is failing me.
I thought they wanted Crystal Liu for the role? Hmm…
Anyway, YK = YYK (now) would be the best looking Liu Bei ever lol.
Li Yifeng in a supporting role? I thought he was the IT boy in China right now, getting all the good projects.
that is way too many eye candies. Lin Geng Xin and Li Yi Feng, together?! Boy, I am gonna die watching this.
nice cast! im not a big fan of yoona though, she’s so lucky to be with all those hoties!
I understand the business aspect of why Korean actors are being cast, and why they would be willing to go to China, but I’m curious about Chinese viewers’ reactions. Are they pleased to see Hallyu actors in their own dramas? Or might they find it off-putting to see these actors take the place of Chinese ones, especially in roles of important Chinese historical figures? What do you think, Koala Unni?
Lucky Yoona gets to hang round my 14!!!
How well do they know each other’s languages? Do they need interpreters to chat?
It seems like it would be fun and frustrating.
And what is Kim Jung Hoon doing there in the mix?
Hope it’s good so it’ll get dubbed!!
One thing not to forget, starting jan2015 China no longer is able to broadcast any US, Korean or foreign drama without license on those media websites like youku. Seems like a series needs to be completed to be able to obtain a license. So, it makes sense to start importing stars. As for reaction, every star gets bashed in China anyway, especially if you are foreigner acting In a historical drama. It seems like her role is fictional so it will probably get even more bashing lol.
So far A lot of the bashing I see on weibo comes from people who have Korean idols on their DP anyway, especially from the ex member fans.
If anything, I find cnetz crazier than knetz. As for Yoona, she has her own popularity due to past dramas and also GG. I think she will do ok, but the dubbing will probably be bad anyway. Bashing is part of cramp culture, no bashing means no fame to them. Anyway, congrats to her and kth as both dramas will be on leading network prime time.
I like Yoona in her recent drama, but I rather the Chinese dramas have Chinese actors (personal preference).
….Zhao Zi Long
cant someone tell me synopsis this drama???
how about character yoona in this drama ??
and how about 2 men in this drama ???
eh, her face is not suited for historical c-drama