C-actress Zhao Lu Si is in deep into the filming of Tang dynasty period drama The Legend of Jewelry but one doesn’t become a top flower without a mapped out future plan. She’s been offered the female lead role in the period C-drama Zhen Di which translates to battle headquarters or battlefield. It’s set during the communist revolution in the 1940’s and the female lead is 19 years old but the male leads are in their 40s and this is not a romance drama with any love lines in the least so expect veterans cast. It’s scheduled for filming next year so there is still plenty of time to firm up the casting.
Interesting. Leveling up!
Hope she makes room for some comedy in the future. I like her funny roles.
laughing at all the haters that said she gets no work and no one wants to work with her
ZLS is still young but she’s already taking steps to not only act in idol projects and thinking about her future career
Oh yeah! Get ready for cold shoulder from international fans. CCP just doesn’t get it! International community has disdain and resentment for constant state propaganda from China regardless of what means they use. Entertainment won’t work either! Just look at how Chinese war-wolf movies have flopped box offices outside China recently. For example, Xiao Zhan’s drama, The Youth Memories also turned off many international fans of XZ thanks to the historical setting of the drama. I don’t see Netflix or other international streaming platforms buying TYM but they did purchase all other dramas of him (correct me if I’m wrong about this).
CCP and C-ent just don’t get it at all. You’re not gonna change ppl’s perceptions about the regime and modern Chinese history by making pretty faces tell your side of the stories. LOL. But I guess this drama is mainly used for internal propaganda inside China. They’ve just given up trying to persuade the rest of the world, promote, and change the image of China. LOL. Too bad!
ZLS is playing it smart by doing some dramas for the masses and some for CCP. It doesn’t hurt to be friendly with people in power who can make or break her career. I recall she did another CCP drama Gen Z. It will also help her gain connections with the older actor generation.
They don’t make or break her career, a lot of top actors go their entire life without filming such shows e.g. YangMi, Cecilia Liu, Tiffany Tang, Crystal Liu
Lusi does a lot of such dramas because she wants to get on CCTV and not just do webdramas, e.g. Hutong where she played a young CCP activist and got criticised for her acting (tbh she probably accurately portrayed the type of brainless firebrand Commies who beat and tortured the bourgeoisie in the 1950s…) and Gen Z which pushed TCM which the CCP wants to promote (TCM is a sham). Propaganda dramas are aired on CCTV 1 & 8 a lot. Otherwise her usual dramas will only air online.
She lacks the gravitas to nail down the acting in Republican or recent history dramas, it isn’t easy for young actors because people can recall what the 1940s is like and compare. In Disguisers Song Yi was her age and did well but she played a side character to Liu Mintao and Jin Dong. Nobody wants to watch a kid learn how to act in Republican dramas… But i guess her fans will tune in so she’s useful for propanganda.
I wouldn’t say that Lusi has done ‘a lot’ of such dramas. I follow her career closely and I would say that prior to this drama, she only did two: Gen Z and Hutong.
And yes, the CCP can make or break your career. Case in point a lot of actors who are non-persona grata in the acting world today could have done with better connections to the people in power. Perhaps that may have saved their careers from going down the toilet. There’s a reason why certain actors are ‘scandal’ free and another suddenly gets pulled out because of a certain infractions when I suspect that they all probably do things they want to keep hidden.
I cannot say whether or not Lusi lacks the gravitas to handle a Republican drama because she has never attempted to do so before. She’s growing with each role, and it is high time she attempted to try out this genre, for growth and for whatever other reasons. She’s playing a 19 year old. I don’t know how much gravitas would be needed for that role, objectively. I would much rather judge after I saw the final product, she has pleasantly surprised me before. It’s my hope that she continues to do so.
@xoxo
I’ve actually seen compilations of her acting in Hutong and her role in that sounds pretty similar to the role in this drama if it exists.
The 1950s wasn’t too much different to the 1940s
Not seen any rumors about this show. Lusi’s Hutong and Gen Z did pretty badly so her comfort zone is still costume dramas, even if there were veterans like Wu Gang in Gen Z it was still bad. Republican dramas require a certain vibe 气质 that only some actors possess e.g. Song Yi, Jing Tian, Chen Duling, Janice Man and most Republican dramas aren’t taken seriously or watched unless the plot and acting is superb. I can’t explain why but most Republican dramas are absolute fails in execution, either because they all overdo CCP propanganda or try to insert narratives, or conform to some dumbed down spy thriller formula. The only good Republican dramas I’ve seen tend to have very strong acting like Young Marshal (Wen Zhang, Bai Yu, Song Jia, Li Xuejian), Battle of Changsha (Yangzi, Ren Chengwei, Zuo Xiaoqing), Disguisers (Song Yi, Jin Dong, Hu Ge), Age of Awakening (Yu Hewei, Zhang Wanyi), White Deer Plain (Zhang Jiayi, Qin Hailu, Li Qin, Deng Lun) and in all those dramas the main cast tends to be trained actors and you can somehow still nitpick the very strong acting because IMO it’s a recent era where we can see historical photos and videos from history and know if actors are doing it right or wrong. Costume and xianxia dramas are so far removed from reality such that even if actors behave nothing like Song or Han dynasty folks, nobody can tell. Lusi’s acting as some CCP cadre in Hutong was badly criticised everywhere this will just give the naysayers more material, the main problem is that Republican speech is hard to nail down and you actually need to sound smart like Zhang Wanyi to do well in young CCP cadre roles and make them likeable.
Hi, can you explain what that “certain vibe” is? I googled those actors and I still don’t get it, probably because I’ve never seen them in motion
I think maybe they feel like someone good with qipao? I feel like their body is made for it. Don’t ask me about acting, but I know jing tian was praisedin Rattan for pulling off the republican character. As for chen duling, I know she did business woman drama and seems to be able to pull of that elegance too
There are no credible rumors whatsoever ever about this.
Well, it better for actor or actress to get out of their comfort zone once in a while, even duo face with criticism, than not to do it at all. That is when u feel an actor or actress is not limiting his/ her self. Giving u something interesting to look out for. Propaganda or not, I say she should go for the challenge.
My dear, the problem is that China didn’t need to market it to international audience. China market it self is a huge pool. And u see mostly how faithful n nationalist china fans. Remember Dolce&Gabbana racist backlash?
I’m surprised every time iFans got their knickers on the knots over CCP propaganda since as Cdrama fans, don’t they know China produced those kind of entertainment for their own biggest market in the world?? Hahaha China couldn’t care less about what are our opinions as iFans.
So if you don’t like it, then don’t watch then. Problem solved, isn’t it??
China’s biggest viewer’s market are the Chinese from mainland themselves. And those shows are filmed for them. Who cares what International audience think?
Watch what suit them. Dont watch what doesn’t.
@Lady Bird, LOL. My fave Xiao Zhan said publicly at a award ceremony that he would like to explore outside China (跨界，破界，闖世界). Forget about that if popular actors like him were constantly summoned by Beijing to do state propaganda for CCP. LOL. Yeah! Chinese are a huge people, either inside or outside China. Therefore, investors can happily bank on this unique population. But to go beyond the Chinese speaking community, Cdrama in the currently worsening state with heavy political propaganda won’t ever beat Kdrama on the world stage. Just face the reality! LOL. Don’t dream about being internationally as popular as K-ent. It would never come true! Just feed on Chinese fans and perhaps a very limited circle of non-Chinese fans! That’s fine if that’s what they’re satisfied with. But don’t bitch if people tell you that C-ent isn’t on par with K-ent and can’t beat K-ent in terms of popularity and profitability in the rest of the world since they are telling the truth.
I don’t really hate propaganda for being propaganda. I feel like ‘go ahead, make it’. I watched In The Name of People and it was pretty good despite being propaganda. It’s the third most watched drama in china grossing 34 billion view, proof that audience only care whether the character and plot is interesting or not