Okay, now this is a fight worth fighting lol. This week Zhao Li Ying and Yang Mi‘s fandoms went at each other HARD over who will be the second female lead and the other would then be the third female lead. It’s rare to fight over second/third normally it’s always a fight for top billing. But the project in question is a very high profile prestige movie The Murderer directed by prolific and award winning HK-director Peter Chan and starring movie star Zhang Zi Yi as the female lead. It’s based a true story in China in 1944 with a battered wife who ends up as the prime suspect when her husband is found murdered and dismembered. Zhao Li Ying plays a writer following the story and Yang Mi is a fellow female convict in jail. The script does not say has more screen time and my guess is this fight will end with one as the second female lead and the other as a special guest starring appearance or something like that. I’m curious which actress will come out on top haha, though of course this will be the Zhang Zi Yi show as the movie is totally geared for her movie star aura.
Lol the movie’s weibo account had just stated that the names will be based on chronological time order of the characters’ first appearance in the movie.
Lol the way they need to clarify this 🤣 when you are my glory aired they had to make sure order written based on age so fandom won’t fight. But true, it’s really worth fighting for
I think the movie’s really doing it on purpose. Everyone knew Zhao Liying and Yang Mi have bad blood with each other, yet they still casted both of them into the movie. And I think initially both of them didn’t knew each other is gonna be in the movie too. Hence back then there’s a bunch of weibo hot searches claiming who and who is the actual one to get casted while the other is drooling over the project.
This is a very big deal for both of them, they are both struggling to gain a foothold in the serious drama /movie industry and they definitely need to transition soon to prolong their careers at the top. The fights will be interesting.
That being said, the pics of the 2 of them in qipao side by side are gorgeous. They’ve got similar delicate features.
Forget about the fan drama over these actresses. Can Peter Chan bring Takeshi Kaneshiro out of his hiatus. It’s been over six years already. I’ll settle for a cameo at this point. I definitely thought ‘This Is Not What I Expected’ having it’s run on NETFLIX and introducing him to a brand new audience would lead to even more work, but after that shelved movie and that ad he did it’s been crickets.
The way I had waited for so long to see a reunion and recreation of the chemistry from House of Flying Daggers.
Yang Mi looks so beautiful in qipao…
I’m a fan of both YM and ZLY as they both starred in some of my favourite projects (Ten Miles of Peach Blossom and Story of Minglan), whatever the billing order is for 2nd/3rd lead, I’m just happy they get to be in this high profile movie.
How they managed to put these three in a movie together is already big news. Can we just get a Charlie’s Angel instead of this? lol
I bet on zhao liying,between the two she’s the better actress
It actually doesn’t matter who is the better actress, it’s all about experience and influence in the film industry or 咖位 which is why YangMi will likely 2nd billed even though her TV ratings have been meh. These billing order things are ridiculously stupid, if both of them are acting in the film does it REALLY matter whose name is listed 2nd or 3rd? People who think so (e.g. Koala, fans of these actresses) are the kind of dumbasses who will get mad if their name isn’t listed first at someone else’s wedding dinner. It’s so dumb.
The important thing is that Zhang Ziyi is headlining it (1st billed does matter i guess) as the lead actress who plays the killer and Lei Jiayin (apparently but idk) will be 2nd billed as the husband. Who ever is the 3rd/4th/5th billed doesn’t matter and many will be male actors so nobody cares what billing the 2nd/3rd FL has, it could be 4th or 6th.
Fact is China’s film industry has got to be slowing down or lacking in funding given that all the top post85 actresses are doing side roles in a bloody Peter Chan movie. He’s pretty overrated IMO and is known for romcoms; a murder film would be far more compelling if it was by Zhang Yimou. Even Wong Karwai lacks the ability to tell a proper narrative story since he loves vibes and opening endings. And I’ve already seen Blind Mountain by Li Yang which is very hard to surpass in terms of woman chopping husband stories.
Being 3rd billing does matter because it shows who has higher status over the other, plus movies count up to 3rd billing. Probably that’s why they are fighting to score that spot.
@lilith
“Who has higher status”
Mostly a bunch of gossipy old hags quarelling. It literally doesn’t matter and one of them plays a big role (ZLY) while the other is guest starring (YM) so who cares if one is listed above the other? Seriously normal people have better things to do like produce art, invent things, or research science… Gossipy hags need to get a grip
ZLY cares very much about “higher status” it’s why she claims to be the best out of 85s. She is not, but she’s willing to lose money to hire people saying such embarassing remarks like that. I haven’t seen YM’s side of marketing doing anything so far, it has only been ZLY who’s been hiring editors to say things like YM’s status fell behind hers. Maybe it isn’t a bunch of gossipy old hags but cheap keyboard warriors paid by ZLY.
Lol it’s well-known that the actresses themselves care very much about their statuses, otherwise there wouldn’t be any paid hot searches about this. So are you calling the actresses themselves to be gossipy old hags?
@Guest lol “GoSsIpY oLd HaGs”, huh? Bro doesn’t even realize how ageist and misogynistic his/her comment is, tsk.
Anyway, it’s stupid of non-Chinese people like you to assume it’s only the fans who care about billing when actors and actresses themselves very much care about that. You and I and everyone else on this blog may not care about billing, but that doesn’t change the fact that these celebs definitely do, and that’s why we get all these billing fiascos all the time. Even in Old Hollywood, there was plenty of drama behind the scenes of actors and actresses fighting for top billing. Heck, even Korean actors care about billing, as evidenced by the Red Sky billing fiasco back in 2021. So maybe do some research before commenting and being confidently incorrect while throwing in some ageism and misogyny in your comment too, you’re embarrassing yourself 🤷♀️
@Guest
Of course billing matter, if you don’t know how movies work, it’s better not to talk. Billing fights aren’t exclusive to China, they exist in every single film industry, from Hollywood to Bollywood, precisely because yes, it matters.
So fans of TV actor liuliangs like Esther Yu or Rosy Zhao should see this and realise your idols will be very lucky if they get to be in YangMi or ZLY’s position 10 years later vying to play side roles in films next to top film actors. Lol. So many of these liuliangs have crazy fandoms yet they can’t even star in a film and are stuck in repetitive costume dramas. YangMi in particular squandered many lead roles opportunities in films during her prime and even her drama aren’t doing well rating wise.
After Zhang Ziyi the next FL with her film cache is probably Zhou Dongyu or Zhang Zifeng
honestly asking. what about Zhou Xun?
She’s older than ZZY and a top film star too I guess, like Tangwei. Even in the 1980s there are Zhang Jingchu, Bai Baihe, Yaochen who are regulars in film and still able to get top billing when they do TV dramas against actors like Xiao Zhan. IMO Zhou Dongyu and Zhang Zifeng are also in this category. IMO these film actors are not necessarily better than TV actors and a lot of their dramas flop unless they choose a good script
Zhou Xun > Zhang Ziyi. There was an online discussion on this a few months and that was the general Cnetz consensus too.
@Guest Bai Baihe wasn’t 1st billing in her drama with Xiao Zhan.
Your first sentence alone had me LOL. I’m curious to see who is going to come out second billed.
First of all, YM did not fight with ZLY, only ZLY paid the media to write headlines all over the place saying “YM got downgraded to second lead”. Besides, YM was rumored to be in the show first. ZLY only got in by dating the director and eating out with him like usual, she went on a dates with Zheng Xiaolong in sexy tops too.
This isn’t interesting to me. I’m not their fan. TBH, I don’t think these two actresses are too much different in terms of acting ability or visuals but I do like ZLY on screen better.
Who cares about actors vying for supporting roles? Why is this even news given that Crystal Liu and Oscar Best Actress Michelle Yeoh are rumored to compete for the FL of next movie directed by Tsui Hark, which is giving Tsui Hark headache LOL. Moreover, Xiao Zhan is currently working on The Legend of the Condor Heroes with Tsui Hark and is also rumored to be already invited by TH to join the cast of the said movie above. The new movie that CL and MY are rumored to compete for is a big female centric film though. XZ may not consider it for that reason.