It’s wild to think that C-actress Zhang Jing Yi built up such a strong resume without doing the most popular genre of C-dramas the period work. Whether wuxia or xianxia, the heightened stakes and swoony expanse of the period drama always helps young actresses breakout in the right now. But Zhang Jing Yi doesn’t need any breaking out so now she’s dipping toes into the period drama at last with word that she’s doing her first in the high profile drama Long Life Long Street (长街长). It’s adapted from the novel First Complementary Development Manual (首辅养成手册) and in earlier years was rumored to star Wallace Chung and Liu Shi Shi so that gives you an idea of the vibe the leads are going for.
This is super exciting news, because I loved that novel! Remains to be seen how much of the original storyline they’ll butcher in the transition to screen, though, especially given the heroine’s complex background (in the novel, she was the second lead’s wife who was killed by a jealous sister-in-law, and reincarnates in a different body as a pre-teen girl who is the yandere first lead’s tangmei/cousin-sister; naturally, they’re not actually blood-related).
As a sidenote, although I’m not a Chinese language speaker, I don’t thinks the novel title’s 首辅养成手册 translation as “First Complementary Development Manual” is correct. 首辅 shoufu is actually an ancient official title, of the head of the cabinet of ministers, so equivalent to what would be the prime minister in another dynasty’s political system. The male lead grows to become shoufu, so the novel’s title literally refers to his development/cultivation “manual”. The novel itself however is from the heroine’s pov, and naturally centered around her development.
She have strong resume both movies and drama. Lighter and princess raise her popularity even more. Its her first costume drama. Hopefully this will breakout. Dont know who will be the male leads…
Being Zhou Xun and Chen Kun protegee helps a lot
The script is rumoured to be so bad that none of the previously linked actresses wanted it.
i really enjoyed her acting and curious to see her in costume drama
I read that ZJY doesn’t want to do period dramas, she is leaning towards literary and real life dramas as seen by her previous works, but her agency wants her to take up this project. She landed in her first film before she was even signed by Chen Kun and Zhou Xun. Given that she is now under the direct care of Zhou Xun, I don’t think they will give her a poorly selected project.