I hope this drama gets a real English title soon because calling it Tibetan Sea Opera just frustrates the geography nerd in me. The drama is reportedly announcing official casting soon but the lead will be Xiao Zhan with lesser known Sun Yi as the female lead and Li Hong Yi (the other dude who facetwins with Cheng Yi and Bai Jing Ting) as the second male lead. Xiao Zhan’s fans are good with Li Hong Yi as the second male lead, won’t steal Xiao Zhan’s thunder and a decent enough actor to not drag down the drama. They are, however, totally not good with rumored female lead Sun Yi thinking she’s not up to Xiao Zhan’s level to be his female lead. I legit had to google her myself because I happen to have never watched a drama of hers but there are plenty of C-actresses famous in their own right that I have never watched so it’s not weird to hear unfamiliar names here and there. From all accounts, she’s a good actress and probably has no rabid fanbase to incite any fanwars.
If the original title is 藏海戏麟, isn’t 藏海 better translated as Hidden or Concealed Sea?
The pronunciation of 藏 here is Zàng (same as 西藏) instead of Cáng (收藏). The title has part of the male lead’s name which is 汪藏海 Wāng Zàng Hǎi.
@Lilith
You are right. The chinese title literally means Wang Zanghai teasing/manipulating the nobles.
@4ever Actually to me the name Zanghai sounds like bury the sea or buried in the sea
@Lilith & 4ever
Thanks! That’s super helpful. And I like all the titles you all suggested. At the very least, no geographical absurdities landmines, lol.
Really Sun Li?? She is a very pretty woman but her acting is just …. not that great.
She married just as her career was taking off. Then it halt. I did enjoy one of her early KDrama remake. I did not expect the couple would be divorce after a few years.
Visually, this pairing looks good. I hope the script is good. Xiao Zhan really do not get very good scripts. Very unfortunate.
I’m not particularly impressed by her acting either. I watched one or two of her old dramas that I didn’t get to finish not because of her acting though but mainly poor writing and directing as usual. She gave me a similar aura as Li Qing but she looked more interesting to me on screen than LQ. I actually liked her visuals and thought she was pretty cute and charming back then.
Chinese writers are bad at scripts in general. It was reported that the production team persistently reached out to XZ for casting him throughout a whole year. XZ wasn’t interested in the script at the get-go but the writer revised the script several times to his satisfaction and he nodded. The hero WZH was described as a genius who was the architect behind the fascinating tomb burying fascinating treasure/secrets, but viewed as an antagonist by many readers of the source book, The Lost Tomb (盜墓筆記), authored by a famous writer Xu Lei （南派三叔）. There’s not much touched or elaborated about WZH in the source book though. The author meant to write a sequel dedicated to WZH but never got to wrap it up. Therefore, this said drama script is entirely original without adaptation, just built upon a mysterious figure mentioned in the well know novel, The Lost Tomb. I watched two different versions of The Lost Tomb adaptation. I did not like them. The dramas were not well written and boring. It didn’t help that the MLs were not the actors I like.
I’ve been very excited about this drama since the rumor of casting XZ as the ML. I, for one, am a huge fan of fantasy costume drama. Given that XZ’s dramas fared much better if a drama was male-centric and all had noticeable flaws if he’s not given a fare share of screen time, I hope nobody will steal screen time from him and this rumored one will make him another breakout hit.
Interesting background to story. I will try to find the novel. I noticed Xiao Zhan changing his style alot. He is looking stronger, fitter and has a Japanese swag about him. Did you watch his Birthday video for his fans. He looks good. I am sick of fair, clean, skinny, pretty boy look everywhere. I like to see Xiao Zhan having more character.
As for Sun Li, I fin d Xiao Zhan is not a guy whjo is that great on romance genre…unless he is very comfortable and relax with the artiste. Otherwise, it really shows. Sun Li is not a very relaxed actress either…Thus I am unsure how what chemistry thei pairing will create.
I just hope I enjoy this drama… Xiao Zhan do not get great scripts at most times.
@HL. Agreed. I don’t think XZ’s past dramas had great writing except for The Untamed and The Youth Memories although the latter had apparent CCP state propaganda that is almost unavoidable for most modern dramas post-Republic era. LOL. XZ only had swoony chemistry with Yang Zi in Oath of Love. But I actually enjoyed less skinship, more unspoken longing, the kinda undertone of affection in The Untamed. Some kissing scenes in OoL were outwardly cringe worthy to me. I’m more old school among my peers. LOL. So I’m fine if XZ doesn’t have lovey-dovey storylines with his leading ladies. Just present me a fair share of his screen time and then I’ll bitch less if anything else is disappointing again. LOL. I’m pretty lenient on how his drama fares compared with other actors’ cos he’s my bias and I’m definitely partial as far as his works are concerned. At the same time, I hope he gets to secure great scripts with smart directing and production teams from now on. It’s just wasting a lot of his talent in The Longest Promise and Sunshine by My Side. The quality of these two recent dramas was compromised perhaps thanks to nepotism.
@HL. Yeah, surely I’ve already fangirled over his BD video several times.
He looked so hot in that vlog. I’m also pleasantly surprised to find out he borrowed a poetic line from an established Taiwanese essayist to be the subtitle of vlog Part 1. C fans are head over heels in love with his BD vlog and have been raving about the poetic subtitle he used. They said the subtitle was coming from an alumni of Chinese major at Beijing Univ. It’s not. It was an excerpt from a poem of a Taiwanese essayist who graduated from Chinese Literature Dept. at National Taiwan Univ. LOL.
This man and his team are very artistic and that’s why I find him really unique among all the celebrities. It’s not only about his acting and visuals, but the temperament he exudes and the creativity of the video contents through the artistic editing of various vlogs. He even designed the copyrighted logo for his own studio videos. If he moves on to directing films one day, I won’t be surprised.
There was once a rumor on Chinese SM that some XZ fans were concerned about his changing appearance and physique thanks to his vigorous workout schedule. Some of them preferred him to maintain innocent youthful looks with delicate facial features. They complained about him being too muscular and looking rough. LOL. I found it pretty amusing. Although I was mesmerized by his beauty in The Untamed (prettier than women IMHO), I thought he was too skinny back then and should have gained more weight. Then he obviously gained weight on purpose by working with pro workout coaches. He posed quite a few pics of him engaged in a great variety of sports and workout. He also personally expressed in the interviews how he had been enjoying workout every day and also challenging sports such as surfing as well as diving that he had tried, and hopefully skydiving in the future. Manly Xiao Zhan is darn attractive. Since he’s 32 now, I’d like to see more manly XZ than pretty XZ. LOL
@Somebody, I agree his current image is must better…it has more depth and character. This will help him move from idol roles and idol image. I hope this will help him get better scripts and even tap further into movie land.. Maybe he can be another Hu Ge…aged like vintage wine.
@HL, hey you mentioned Hu Ge. Sorry I didn’t notice your reply until now. Hu Ge’s Nirvana in Fire was the first C drama getting me into C-ent. I liked him so much in NiF and checked all the other dramas of him. Sadly I have to say other dramas did not pique my interest as NiF, again thanks to lackluster scripts. That’s a major issue of C dramas. I read some gossips that his recent condition is concerning. I hope he’s doing all well. There should still be a lot of room and more years for him to show off his acting talent.
This is just a melon, the casting isn’t confirmed yet, my YXH sources say that LHY is not joining this drama. From what I see so far, XFXs are generally okay with any female lead as long as she can act as this is going to be an original script centered around conspiracy and revenge, won’t have much focus on lovelines.
Sun Yi is quite well known. Very sweet and pretty. Decent acting. Just that she was married in 2017, had a child and divorced in 2022. So maybe she wasn’t very active in the social scene previously.
Her divorced was so unexpected for me… I still cannot get round why.. Poor child.
I don’t know who Sun Yi is, can’t tell what’s the name of the show, I am just here to just fangirl over that XZ photo.
I’ve watched Sun Yi with Elvis Han in Siege in fog (?) But it left a bad taste in m mouth.
Not really enjoyed his performances in many dramas, bcuz she somehow looked boring. Probably bcuz of her characters in dramas.
Havent finished anything with XZ as lead.. have no idea about his acting but i know his popularity is crazy. I mean, isnt it better to get him Sun Yi as his co star than some big names? They’ll fight over top bills tho.
I’ve only watched her in Because of Meeting You (因为遇见你) a remake of the Korean “Come! Jang Bo Ri”. I finished the C version, dropped the original, so I’d score her as “not awful” 🙂
I watched that too..it was one of her earlier not bad drama.. as for her current dramas, I dropped half way.
Sun Yi had huge popularity in about 2016 -2017 when she had two hit dramas with Deng Lun: “15 Years to Wait for Migratory Birds” (DL was second lead but they had awesome chemistry) and “Because of Meeting You”(DL was lead) and looked like she was going to become one of the biggest actresses in her age group
She was young, pretty and talented but she got knocked up just as her career exploded and had a shotgun wedding with her boyfriend. Her fans didn’t like the bf as he didn’t have the best reputation either.
Sad for their child but it was not a surprise to most people that they ended up divorcing a few years later.
She has been trying to make a comeback since but her career lost all momentum because of taking time off. Also her image prior to baby/marriage was sweet, feisty good girl roles but the roles didn’t really fit her after her “scandal” in real life. Now she is 30 and kind of “wasted” those prime years of her career. She could maybe have been on Bai Lu, Dilireba, Zhao Lu Si,Yang Zi level if she had played her cards differently but I’m sure she doesn’t regret being a mum anyway.
Who actually enjoyed his last two outings? I have hope in him, but I’m waiting for an actually stellar production and story.
I like Sun Yi. She’s definitely easy on the eyes with decent acting, but she does have more of a mature/reserve aura to her. She hasn’t had a drama that will fully showcase how far is her acting range. At least the girl can cry and emote LOL. Like the other commentors were saying, she got married early which halted her acting career. And its news to me, I didn’t even know that she got divorced.
Can you please stop posting these fakes? This has already been disproven. She tried, they did not want her and she is filming a different drama. Same goes for Li Yitong. Both were just using the heat of a XZ drama to get their name out there.
I think this is just melon, Li Hong Yi is doing another drama “The Blood of Youth 2.” He’s got to air at least 6 of his dramas on the pipeline. Xiao Zhan should get another actor for his BL charisma, our dear Li Hong Yi is a romantic actor, not BL material.
also Koala, pls stop dragging Cheng Yi or Bai Jingting to Li Hong Yi, a younger actor than both & taller in height, who also has made a name of his own in his teens on “Master Devil do not Kiss Me 1 & 2” and “Love Better than Immortality” with Zhao Lusi. He is even Zhao Lusi’s Ex BF, the China Superstar definitely has a very good taste in men.