C-ent Reportedly Planning First Dual Female Lead Period Drama Starring Yang Zi and Li Qin as the Gender Swapped Counterpart to Two Male Lead Dramas Like Word of Honor and The Untamed
So this could either be a big hit or a hot mess, but more from the fandom side then the drama actually being bad. C-ent is reporting a big potential casting news this week, the first ever dual female lead big budget period drama. The two leads are reportedly going to be Yang Zi and Li Qin, and together each have over two dozen dramas under their respective belts, and been the lead in them since the mid-2015 time period. The drama is adapted from the novel Mei Shi (媚世 literal translation is Alluring Life) and is intended to be the female equivalent of hit dual male lead dramas like The Untamed and Word of Honor that lifted those male leads to new popularity levels. The male leads in discussion are Wang Yibo and Tan Jian Ci. If this does happen, and a big IF, I can see the fandom of these two super popular liulang actresses fighting over name rank, scenes, dialogues, and costumes. It’s sure to generate media attention good or bad.
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Who cares about fanwars when you have two megastar actresses in the same frame. Wishing this would give way to more A-list female stars being cast opposite each other. I’d love to see Zhou Dongyu and Ni Ni in a movie or drama together. Imagine the star power and acting badassery.
Off topic but does anyone know what happened to actress Kim So Hyun? Girl just disappeared never to be heard from. Saw on twitter her agency is getting dissolved is it true? She was on a high but now she’s nowhere.
This. Yes what happened to her? Even Koala wiped out KSH completely from her blog. No mention of her in the last 6 months anywhere. She doesn’t update her socmed either and her agency is useless. Someone said she retired guess it’s true.
@petuniaee her agency website has shutdown so it’s true they dissolved it. Studio Dragon/CJENM didn’t renew the contract so everyone left. Let’s see what happens next.
Everyone left? So even Jun Ji Hyun? Sorry, it’s my first time hearing about this
She is a student maybe she wanted to focused on her studies after the double shooting of her last drama.
I didn’t know for her agency. I thought every people were happy because there were big names in this agency.
She has been on a break from school since 2020 so she’s not busy with that and in Jan she had said she’ll be back soon but that never happened. The agency must have blocked all her activities for some reason and now they’ve shut down because JJH left and like someone said Studio Dragon didn’t bother renewing the contract. Honestly KSH has the worst luck when it comes to agencies with both E&T and CD getting shut down. She has the most untapped potential out of all her peers but her agencies keep messing with her career. Her being the youngest Baeksang nominee for Best Actress is a huge achievement and should have been capitalized on but mismanagement as usual has hurt her career once more. Maybe one day KSH will finally find that one agency that treats her right and makes sure she achieves her peak and gives her tons of promotions. Hopefully this has just been a minor setback and won’t demotivate her from acting.
@Petuniaee @Smooth
Damn, didn’t know about that. Must be quite messy behind the scenes. That explain her lack of visibility these days. Wish she didn’t leave Sidus, say what you want about that agency but they know how to handle a star if they like him/her. Hopefully she can come back soon and regain her in-demand rising young star status. Her agency be wasting her potential, especially with such a big global fanbase she has. Sigh
So what’s going to happen to her? Anyone has an idea? I mean, she just signed the CD contract. Will that mean she has to wait for it to expire before she can take on new projects? I don’t know how these things work.
But anyway, I think she should transfer to Soop, everyone is thriving there. Or to a small agency that can devote all their promotional efforts to her, like with Han So Hee and her small agency promoting her like crazy. KSH is beautiful and talented, she shouldn’t be wasting away in some crappy agency. Anyone can explain to me possible scenarios?
If her agency dissolved she would be immediately released from the contract it can be assumed. Poor girl she must be suffering nonstop but nobody not Knetz or Kmedia or the GP cares about her prolonged absence and disappearance from public life. I’ve always felt this but about KSH that she never really received love domestically. Not that she isn’t popular but with the amount of works and efforts she puts in the returns have always been minuscule in comparison. Like TTON should have been a massive hot domestically but it barely had any impact and instead EY walked away with all the popularity. Same with LA only SK gained from it while KSH and JG went unappreciated. Same with RWTMR again even though she did gain praise for acting and for her professionalism it’s still NIW who’s thriving from the drama. Even for her acting KSH should have gotten a lot more appreciation than she did considering how heavy the character was and the weak plotting for her character in many parts. She hard carried every bit of the character and most of the drama but the returns were not proportional to her efforts. It feels like the industry and audience has a negative bias against her and it’s hurtful to see. The constant tragedy with her agencies makes me wonder if she’ll ever comeback to the acting world or will she quit everything and become a regular person? It’s already 15 months since her last drama yet there doesn’t seems to any chance of her comeback. She has no endorsements, no drama offers and it’s been 7 years since she was last offered a movie. Unless there is a miracle I don’t see much hope for her future.
@heartsy I’m sorry but while I agree with some of what you said, I disagree about her not receiving love domestically. She was constantly topping lists from most beautiful lists to most talented young actresses lists, which are voted by korean public themselves. If korean public doesn’t love her, she wouldn’t be voted on those lists. I think it’s really just a case of poor management. Notice how she has tons of endorsements when she was in sidus because, as the other comment pointed out, sidus knows how to manage their stars granted they like you, and KSH seemed to be one of their more favored stars. Song Kang and NIW thriving right now just means they are in agencies that are great at promoting their stars. And it’s natural that Song Kang emerged as the breakout star of Love Alarm, because Netflix seems to have a preference for male actors and so they promote male actors of their shows better than their female counterparts. Look at how Noah Centineo got all the promotion during All the boys I’ve loved before, when the lead actress got nothing. Even during Nevertheless, Han So Hee was less promoted by Netflix compared to Song Kang. That’s not a proof of korean public not loving KSH, it just means Netflix promotes male actors more. TTON was also very popular and talked about during its run. And everyone knows how KBS didn’t do sh*t to promote RWTMR, so it’s already expected that it won’t be very popular.
So overall, I don’t think it’s KSH lacking love from korean public (remember, korean people have a soft spot for child actors and actresses), but just a case of bad management and lack of luck with projects and agencies. She was literally everywhere when she was in sidus, and that can happen again if she lucks out in her next choice of agency
@JustMyOpinion So I agree with some of your points but to say KSH has been topping lists in Korea is false. It rarely happens and till date she hasn’t made to the Forbes Power Celebrity list or Gallup for that matter. She never even tops the buzz rankings when her dramas air its always her male leads that rank higher than her. I’m saying this as a long time KSH fan but I agree with @Heartsy her popularity in Korea is low and whatever popularity she does have is due to her former child actress status or else she would have been forgotten already. Its similar to SSK and GA they are still popular and in demand but not even close to the level of A list popularity that PSH and PBY have. I agree its all due to agency mismanagement but 14 years into her career if she still hasn’t been able to find an agency that cares enough about her then there is a problem. Sidus was not a good agency for her otherwise she would not have left without even a thank you to her former agency in her year end awards speech at MBC. The agency exploited her and let her be hated on excessively without a care for her mental health. They always paired her up with much older actors or gave her really badly written scripts like Ruler which made her lose her self confidence. I also don’t agree with the argument that Netflix only favors their male leads when HSH and SK gained the same amount of love for Nevertheless as did KDM and CWS for OBS. It is true TTON was popular but it is also true it had very mediocre ratings and KBS always disrespects KSH by giving her dramas poor promotions and there is also the fact that they never gave her the excellence award for WAYS 2015 when she out acted every single person who won an award that night just because her drama had low ratings. Best new actress is not the only acting award she should have won that day. There is no news of any agency seeking her out at present and there also the fact that none of her endorsements ever promote her. Hanyul did nothing for her in terms of promotions and BL was even worse. Pelicana, Skono and Samsung Securities ended their contracts with her the minute she left Sidus which means they had no loyalty or preference for her. The only brand that stuck with her for years was SOUP which paid her dirt poor fees. Three times she achieved a breakthrough but not once did her career take off. If she is lucky she will have one magazine appearance a year, luxury brands don’t want her nor has she ever been invited to their shows. Literally the most C list celebs and rookies are also being picked up by luxury brands but KSH is nowhere on their radar. Which miracle agency does she need to build her career like other A list stars? I frankly don’t think it will ever happen and even if she does finally announce a comeback it will be yet another mediocre drama with low ratings and zero promotions from either the channel or her agency. She will once again disappear once the drama ends and people will forget she even existed. Of course the male lead will go on to attain new heights in his career and become extremely popular. I’m sad that such a promising actress has been neglected by the industry and continues to be invisible to the larger audience.
@Camreon I agree she’s not topping lists now, that’s why I used the word “was”, but in her peak, she definitely did. I could link those articles of her winning korean polls at that time, but I couldn’t find those articles now as those are in hangul, I only see them posted by KSH fan accounts. She was even second to Lee Young Ae in that “who looks the best in a hanbok” poll or something, just to give an example.
She was also given plenty of nicknames throughout the years such as Nation’s Little Sister, Queen of Child Actors, Goddess of Historical Dramas, Hallyu Fairy, etc.
She is more famous internationally, tho, I agree with that.
Anyway, I don’t disagree that Sidus was bad for her mental health, they milked the heck out of the KSH-KYJ so-called “rivalry”, but I’m just talking about how they promoted her, and almost all KSH fans can agree she was well-promoted by that agency, to the point that fans of other actresses are accusing sidus of favoritism towards KSH. Her endorsements that time also included international brands such as Domino’s and Samsung. Sidus was strategic about placing her in projects, they made sure that she’s well-exposed, but not too exposed, hence not just giving her lead roles but also memorable cameo roles.
But anyway, regardless of our disagreements, I think we all can agree she needs to find a better agency, and soon. K-ent is super competitive with new faces popping up every day. The it girls and it boys we see now can be very much irrelevant next year.
She’s still young tho, and in the proper hands, she can definitely make a successful comeback. I don’t know, I just don’t like making assumptions about someone’s career being over already. If some older actors can have a career resurgence, I don’t see why she can’t, especially as she’s so young. It IS a very frustrating situation tho. As a fan, I just hope she’s okay and taking care of herself 😞 She seems to be the type to get disheartened easily, like during Ruler era. I hope she has a good support system.
@Camreon I agree she’s not topping lists now, that’s why I used the word “was”, but in her peak, she definitely did. I could link those articles of her winning korean polls at that time, but I couldn’t find those articles now as those are in hangul, I only see them posted by KSH fan accounts. She was even second to Lee Young Ae in that “who looks the best in a hanbok” poll or something, just to give an example.
She was also given plenty of nicknames throughout the years such as Nation’s Little Sister, Queen of Child Actors, Goddess of Historical Dramas, Hallyu Fairy, etc.
She is more famous internationally, tho, I agree with that.
Anyway, I don’t disagree that Sidus was bad for her mental health, they milked the heck out of the KSH-YJ so-called “rivalry”, but I’m just talking about how they promoted her, and almost all KSH fans can agree she was well-promoted by that agency, to the point that fans of other actresses are accusing sidus of favoritism towards KSH. Her endorsements that time also included international brands such as Domino’s and Samsung. Sidus was strategic about placing her in projects, they made sure that she’s well-exposed, but not too exposed, hence not just giving her lead roles but also memorable cameo roles.
But anyway, regardless of our disagreements, I think we all can agree she needs to find a better agency, and soon. K-ent is super competitive with new faces popping up every day. The it girls and it boys we see now can be very much irrelevant next year.
She’s still young tho, and in the proper hands, she can definitely make a successful comeback. I don’t know, I just don’t like making assumptions about someone’s career being over already. If some older actors can have a career resurgence, I don’t see why she can’t, especially as she’s so young. It IS a very frustrating situation tho. As a fan, I just hope she’s okay and taking care of herself 😞 She seems to be the type to get disheartened easily, like during Ruler era. I hope she has a good support system.
@erwin sorry couldn’t be of help. I literally have no idea what’s going to happen now, but we just gotta support her no matter what. soop would be a good choice tho, maybe namoo too
Wow okay I’m getting some very bleak replies here lol. I think you all have good points. Guess we’ll just have to wait. Thanks @heartsy for answering my question regarding contracts. Korea should really appreciate their talents more. This sucks because I only just started watching korean dramas and she’s my first crush/favorite actress and now it seems like I need to prepare myself for the worst? But @justmyopinion is also right that she’s still young so let’s just see what will happen. Glad to know she can be released from her contract anyway
This is an interesting discussion and strongly agree that KSH seems to be the type that gets easily demotivated and also that the industry doesn’t seem to favor her much. It’s true Sidus gave her lots of promotions at one point but also agree that they manipulated her and what’s worse is despite all the promotions she still doesn’t have any lasting impact nor was she able to gain many cfs without them. It’s been over 3 years since she last got a new cf and 5 years since she left sidus. It’s also sad that in the 5 years she’s already on her 3rd agency but she isn’t thriving in dramas, movies or cfs. I agree it’s too early to write anyone off but also KSH has constantly been met with disappointments in her career I don’t think she’ll be motivated enough to comeback ever again. I don’t think trending stars become irrelevant after a short time. SK has been trending for 3 years now and is yet to peak. It’s not that the attention span of people has reduced but there is more and more competition than there was before and the entertainment world is flooded with new faces every month instead of every few years. I’m more worried KSH doesn’t want to be an actress or celebrity anymore. I’m also worried she isn’t getting offered any scripts. Even her last drama was offered to her 2 years ago and at the last minute. After TTON she hasn’t really gotten offered anything per se.
i wonder where is lydia the insider now. i wish she is here to tell us about this issue. maybe she knows something. even tho her news information sometimes are incorrect, but most of the time it was correct.
Sayaris is right, everyone. Go to 143_sohyun on instagram, there’s a post there that So Hyun was spotted at Hanyang university. So it’s true that she’s busy at school, after all. Of course, CD being dissolved is a factor, but her being busy at uni is also true
I though fanwar in Ktown is bad (mostly only to relating to idol dating and switching to acting), but “boy oh boy” is it horrible in C-town. You can’t even ship very popular OTP, Can’t even list one star first over other w/out explaining the reason behind it, … ect. If a drama does well, it’s always because of their bias and if it’s bad it’s because of something else. These fanwar/rumors were so bad their own government had to stop in. The stars are now hold responsible if they don’t do anything to deescalate the issue w/ their fans.
C-town imported fandom management skills from K-town, but C-town doesn’t have the same infrastructure (idol groups, music shows, music awards etc) as K-town, so these got tagged onto actors and actresses fandoms instead.
The thing with shipping in C-town is that a shipping fandom is almost always professionally managed, could be initiated by both sides or by one side only, for profits. If you join a RPS ship that’s initiated by both sides, then you can ship happily until one side decides to terminate the collaboration because they no longer profit from being associated with the other party. If you join a RPS ship that’s initiated by one side only, then it’s an unfortunate thing because you’re basically exploiting the other party without their consent. The general consensus about shipping in C-town is that you can ship drama characters, but not RPS.
Where do you get these rumours? This has zero credible source to back it up. The most recent talk has still got Yang Zi in a drama related to aerospace engineering.
This sounds this sounds 100 times better than aerospace engineering.
Li Qin is very pretty but I never liked her since that reality show “We Are In Love”.
Already popular and established actors would be crazy to take on a same-sex cp drama after what happened to ZZH. If the drama gets popular you get accused of being a pro-Japanese and the next day all your works get taken down and removed from all platforms and your career is over.