Gong Jun Fails to Get Another Hit C-drama with Rising with the Wind and is Fully Banking on Fox Spirit Matchmaker
Last week saw the premiere of modern garment industry and fashion C-drama Rising with the Wind with Gong Jun and Zhong Chu Xi and its landed with a collective yawn. This has led to C-ent pundits to discuss how Gong Jun has basically exhausted all the buzz and firepower from his career elevating hit Word of Honor in 2021 without a follow up hit drama since. Legend of Anle with Dilraba Dilmurat should have been that drama but he had a dull character and the drama production was surprisingly low budget looking. His agency is reportedly now banking everything on the upcoming S+ xianxia drama Fox Spirit Matchmaker with Yang Mi, but my concern is that drama has a heck ton of big name supporting cast members who could end up with more interesting characters or performance and steal the leads thunder. At this point in his career Gong Jun has dropped from top liuliang level post WoH to just liuliang star.
I’m not surprised. The general consensus is that male actors whose breakout role was in a drama where they weren’t 1st billing usually can’t carry a drama on their own, but there are exceptions of course.
Me too, I am not surprised either…
Hmm that’s sound explanation
Well at least he’s tall and handsome.
Yes and his acting skill is good. Especially his eye expressions, much better than most famous Chinese actors.
I was going to check this out but now I might not due to the not so good review here. But yeah GJ looks good in here. Probably his best look from any of his dramas.
honestly, I thought this was a very refreshing drama and absolutely loved it! infact I eagerly waited for each episode, the main leads have perfect chemistry,the story stays on plot….
He needs to stop himself from being casted as a perfect model and/or prince. Have some actual flaws and work through them to earn a happy ending.
In order to act a character with flaws he would have to be a much better actor than he is. Complexity in character requires real acting skills. It’s why he is picking these bland dramas. He can’t do anything else.
They just gotta pair his acting with the right voice actor if he’s not gonna strengthen his line delivery. “Word of Honor” showed he could with depth, but his voice matched soooo… Just Waiting!!
He doesn’t have enough acting chops to take flawed characters. It’s kinda a gift to turn a flawed character likable. He just doesn’t have that charisma cos he can’t even make perfect characters mesmerizing YET. LOL
He looks great in the drama. 🙂 He needs to get back to a role that made him–a teasing, flirty, bold and slight devilish man (in costume or not), with a dark side. I miss his pursed lips and side glances. Yeah, he’s good at those.
Pursed lips and side glances are not acting. And that’s his problem.
Eh. You do you. I enjoy what I enjoy. We make the world go round, cool?
@Gennita lol the commenter didn’t even say you can’t enjoy visuals over good acting, you can enjoy whatever the heck you want. He/she was just correcting you that doing pursed lips and side glances don’t make for great acting. So many people on this site need to work on their reading comprehension lmao
@Heh You’re saying I’m also Lol? Okay, you can think what you like, I won’t waste time convincing you otherwise. But find any other argument, won’t you? Because even if I’m Lol or not doesn’t make me wrong. Pursed lips and side glances are not good acting. If you enjoy bad acting as long as the visuals is good, good for you, but don’t pretend it’s good acting. But go ahead and enjoy your handsome, bad actors, I guess 🤷♀️
Some people really have low standards lmao
you are right. spot on!
Lol. Pretty sure u and that commenter are the same person
Heh,
I understood them fine. I was just happily talking about what role suited him (imo) and certainly wasn’t handing out acting advice to him :). Obviously they wouldn’t like him in those roles either, but I would!
Please ignore these people. These are some pathetic Zhang zhehan fans. After Zhang zhehan was banned in china because he visited Yasukuni Shrine, all Zhang zhehan fans somehow believed that Gongjun made all this happened, and become Gong Jun’s lifetime haters. All their lives are wasted in making up rumors, taking shit and critisizing Gong Jun. If you said Gong jun played a good role, they will be angry as if you murdered their parents.
It will flop too. He will pour water but it’s not real data.
Lbr, he can’t act. Everything else is a side issue. He was at best decent in WOH as well, all the drama moments were badly done and ZZH carried that show.
He hasn’t improved at all, in fact in this last drama he has regressed. So he will longer in web and idol flops until he ages out.
Despite the amount of dramas he’s starred in, he’s still THIS BAD? I really should lower my expectations from “traffic” actors/actresses in China other than a very select few.
To be honest, as a fan of liulang actor, I can’t defend criticism to his acting
I have watched some of this vs Dylan Wang’s new drama, although I lean more towards a casual Dylan fan, this is actually the better drama that doesn’t make me cringe every 10 mins? I see the money in the quality, certain scenes’ cinematography are film-like even. The acting isn’t bad, and for once I even like Zhong Chu Xi and her styling here. Their chemistry is eh but isn’t off putting either. Overall, slow but ok.
I would think Gong Jun was banking on An Le and now Fox Spirit for another hit under his belt, both with more star-studded casts. I doubt he expects this to be a huge hit, this is probably just his modern drama quota, lol
Hmm true nobody thought anle would tank (the result is not that bad, but considering it has two liuliang actor as the lead, it tanked)
I feel like chinese dramaland is so unreliable, sometimes when I see the director track record, I think “oh it will be good” but it’s not. Same goes for screenwriter and actors. Whether it’s just because the investor changing things too much, too much nepo baby side actor, or the effortless shooting. Because cdrama always takes only 3-4 months for works that could span 30+ ep, that means 1 ep/3 days. Not counting the amount of days actors need to go for other commercial deals. They’re churning out whatever without quality.
yea, i think censorship/SARFT also hugely affects the reliability of quality too. A production team can have a great track record but then literally be ordered to cut or replace scenes/actors/screenwriter with no regard to the cohesiveness of the storyline 🙁
So true. Agreed with all the weakness of Cdrama you guys pointed out. I literally checked almost all the modern dramas of Gong Jun in the past cos he’s tall and not bad looking and I confess myself a visuals freak. LOL. But have to be honest those dramas were all banal to me. I still think most of the problems lie with scriptwriting/directing/editing etc. Without good scripts, actors have little chance to hone their acting skills and grow. I think that might have been the situation to Gong Jun given that he had been very popular and were given a lot of high-profile projects.
this is one of the best drama i watch in 2023. my take on this drama is a nerd guy trying to with the it girl. i think the whole cast make sense. the storyline is much better than the others. i watch drama for entertainment factor not how someone perform.
this is one of the best drama i watch in 2023. my take on this drama is a nerd guy trying to with the it girl. i think the whole cast make sense. the storyline is much better than the others. i watch drama for entertainment factor not how someone perform. as for only for love. i like dylan wang. i like bai lu. i dont like them together. after the 2nd episode, i stopped watching. the whole storyline is really bad and awkward. its unwatchable for me.
I’ve watched the first 10 episodes and it’s good
So far I can say it’s so much better produced and directed from than I was expecting
The acting is good from everyone
Fox spirit matchmaker trailer is out and it looks boring as heck. The one ray of light is Gong Jun’s character looks like he’s in a coma, which would fit his non existent acting talents perfectly. LMAO
LOL. I got a good laugh.
Tbh I’m enjoying this one more than that Bai lu and Dylan Wang drama
So Koala’s post piqued my curiosity. I’ll check it out and see how boring it is. Besides, I’m more lenient on tall and nice looking guys and will give them chance again and again. LMAO.
Ohhhhhh ok. So we can safely say he’s overrated now?! Because when I first saw the fruits of his below mediocre acting after Word of Honor I was an anti, hater, or ZZH fanatic. Lol. Even Zhang Linghe, the newbie, is slightly better than him.
Anyway,it’s been pretty obvious that Gong Jun is just a BL drama darling. He’d better ride the wheels until they fall off, or get an acting coach.
Judging from all their dramas I checked to watch, I personally think ZLH is a better actor than GJ. But it may change. You’ll never know. I’ve seen impressive progress of quite a few K drama actors who were popular but always got dinged for their bad acting in the past. I hope the same happens to C actors too. It just hasn’t happened YET. LOL. There should be reasons behind cos any serious actors will make certain progress regardless of whether they have innate talent in acting or not.
No you are apparently not fair. His acting is much better than ZZH. The fact that ZZH fans talked shit about him in foreign websites wouldn’t effect Gong Jun because at least he keeps having new shows. I just feel sorry for Gongjun because he’s a good actor and he made Word of Honor famous, but ZZH fans become him lifetime haters just because ZZH visits Yasukuni Shrine himself. I really wish Zhou Zishu was played by another guy, who won’t make this show disappear.
Dang! I have to annoy C fans again. IT IS BORING! I will drop the drama anyhow given limited time off. But to be fair, GJ isn’t bad as an CEO, less awkward than Dylan Wang in the drama costarring with Bai Lu. At least GJ’s lines are ok and he exudes a better aura as a corporate executive. Was that his voice or dubbed?
GJ dubbed himself
For my opinion, I think he did a good job in this drama. This genre is heavy and not many people will like it. As, investor he really good in potray the character. Very professional investor that know how to separate his personal life and works. Stable emotion,have a good work ethic and responsible toward all people under him. His acting improved too. His micro-expression so good especially sad scene (stair scene at his home),drunk at teng yue rooftop and also with his mom scene(ep39).As an actor, he need to be brave to challenge a new character and roles (and he did-firefighter, psychologist,investor next policeman). He already in his 30, he can’t stay on his comfort zone and keep taking idol drama or ancient drama only. He need to establish his acting career on realistic genre too slowly. I believe he is a guy with big dream and have intention to go more bigger.Slowly improving and stable.
The things that GJ need to improve is his line(he using his own voice in this drama) but i think it might be because his dialect or something. Still, it is nice try but need to improve it. At least he try and take initiative to use his own voice
The things that GJ need to improve is his line(he using his own voice in this drama) but i think it might be because his dialect or something. Still, it is nice try but need to improve it. At least he try and take initiative to use his own voice
Actually his acting is much better than many other popular male actors in China, and he is also good-looking. But the script he chose is not very good. Recently, he has taken on roles in two dramas where he always plays the warm-hearted guy who dotes on the female lead, and in both, the female lead has a larger role than the male lead. However, his temperament is actually more suited to playing dazzling roles, such as Wen Kexing, who is both righteous and evil and very charismatic.
Rising with the Wind is actually a very good drama: the business aspect made sense, all scenes were carefully chosen and curated, the progression of the romance was slow but realistic and the chemistry eventually gets to a boiling point. I did not know Zhong Chu Xi but I am now in love with her while Gong Jun did play and had the chops to carry the character who is quite flawed here
A lot of comments here mention Word of Honor. It was a great series & it was one of my favourite C-drama’s of all time. However I knew Gong Jun before he took over as Wen Kexing. The first time I ever saw him was in the tv series The Flavour it’s Yours. I thought he was great in that role. I think Gong Jun works very diligently and I wish him all the best. I also like Zhang Zhehan & I feel so sad about what happened to him. I actually like both of these actors. I know both of them have strong fan bases & I am not exactly sure why there is a conflict but I hope both of them can continue to succeed in their own way. Word Of Honor may have been the best for Gong Jun so far but I think the best is still yet to come for both actors!