The long shelved Republican era suspense and romance drama The Hypnosis of Love which is adapted from the novel 南烟斋笔录, literal translation Records of the Southern Mist House, has gotten a Chinese title change to 一曲三笙 which translates to One Song, Three Lives. The drama was filmed in 2016 and ready by 2017 but never got a scheduled airing and in 2019 second male lead Zhao Li Xin was cancelled by C-ent completely after he randomly posted on his SNS a commentary about Japanese forces which occupied China in the Republic era not burning and looting the Imperial Palace and that not being the action of so-called occupiers/oppressors. I’m not sure what crack he was smoking but in Mainland China one NEVER makes any even remotely positive/explanatory/analytical statement about the Japanese occupation of China that in any way has the connation of whitewashing.

Anyhoo, after that this drama appeared to never see the light of day but a few months ago it quietly changed its title and reportedly has submitted a new permit application cutting the episodes from 68 to 53. C-netizens think it’s either that the production has spent money on a new second male lead to AI graft his face on the cancelled actor or that the role of the second male lead will simply be excised in full hence the 15-episode worth of screen time cuts. Either way, the second male lead actor is out in one way or another and hopefully with that this moody piece with leads Crystal Liu and Jin Bo Ran may actually grace our small screens in the near future.