So this whole issue needs context and I’ll do my best to provide. Apparently Liu Yu Ning has been accused of working behind the scenes to increase his scenes for dramas in recent years, don’t ask him how he accomplishes it if that is indeed what he does. This is one reason Zhao Lu Si‘s fans went berserk hearing she was working with him for The Legend of Jewelry, worried he would try and upstage her. This issue again got dragged up during the run of A Journey to Love that his scenes got increased in the end product compared to the submitted for approval script. This week Liu Yu Ning posted a picture of him hanging out with Zeng Shun Xi and Baron Chen, his co-leads of wuxia drama Heroes along with the director. What seems to be a reunion has C-netizens accusing him of using this to show he’s on good terms with that cast and didn’t steal scenes from them. I’m going to have to see receipts to believe Liu Yu Ning as second male lead or second billed has the power to increase his scenes with an entire production but this is clearly a topic around the C-webs.
I like LYN, but I don’t follow his older drama works so IDK how true that is. I mean, it seems that he is close to Zeng Shun Xi though. LYN seems to have a lot of fans but also anti fans; there’s always a bad article about him.
This has GOT to be fake news. Lol. The dude seems like such a normal guy, legitimately hustling bottom up as a singer doing live gigs and streaming to becoming a popular actor in major productions (after doing his rounds as second lead) later in his adult life. And he still does his “bottom” gigs! He doesn’t seem to care about the perception of him much at all. I think it’s because he KNOWS he’s actually talented, and his work can speak for itself. You can definitely tell in the variety shows, streaming, music, and acting productions he’s a part of that he’s just gonna keep rolling. And seriously, Chinese eyes and media are weird… he’s super good looking! Lol. Right now he’s pairing with actually talented actresses, so I hope he keeps soaring because the pairings are going to make for fantastic watches!
Agree!!
Agree. I call BS as well. I don’t believe it. This guy is like the dark horse that came from humble beginnings and I’m always gonna cheer for the underdog! Go Liu YuNing!! Can’t wait for the new work he’s doing!
I agree, I watch him as a street singer to where he is today. I may not be a fan of him but I have seen his hardwork all his years. It is likely his management at work…as a new actor, he just have to do as he is paid to do.
Perfectly said!
This smells like hate campaign made by fandoms of “competitors”. This kind of stuff happens to everyone in China and every star is guilty by association.
How are people going to complain about the male lead having more screentime when I felt like Li Tongguang had an absurd amount of screentime compared to Yu Shisan? I thought his character was going to have some significant development, but he basically had zero growth, trying to force his shifu to marry him even near the end. Yang Ying is the better disciple, hands down. I seriously don’t get why LYN gets so much hate, when it felt more like they were forcing the Li Tongguang character down our throats so much more.
Seriously I would rather let yu shisan takes the airtime too. Li tongguang is such useless character basically to serve imagination of forbidden love story. Yang ying character development is really good, I really like the scene when she confronted the emperor. It was so badass 🔥
While I think ruyi and ning story is indeed boring but no way that forbidden story between master and disciple is better. It’s so overused and Idk why people likes to eat it up so much
I actually thought Yu Shisan was going to get the “second male lead” treatment initially in termms of screen time, even though I’m aware it’s an ensemble cast. But his screentime didn’t feel as much as Li Tongguang, who I felt like had so many useless plot developments involving him.
I agree that Ren Ruyi and Ning Yuanzhou might have a “boring” love story, but honestly, they’re older. Ning Yuanzhou is supposed to be in his 30s. They’re mature enough to know what they want. It’s a breath of fresh air to have two people communicating their relationship like adults. I don’t mind the forbidden love story at all (supporter of Xiao Longnv and Yang Guo over here), but Li Tongguang was an annoying character. I couldn’t ship him with anybody.
@Jia
Yep I excused ruyi and ning love story being boring because they’re in their 30s but it does feel that for people supposed to be in their 30 they’re made to be too innocent. Especially in ancient time settings where people already married in their teens. I know it’s because lss is married so they couldn’t do something more but still feels lacking in my mind.
And yeahh I hate that li tongguang got together with yang ying in the end, no chemistry at all. He was completely defeated by her aura, feeling like it’s empress and her servant ahahhah
I’m really curious why he is so well liked in china. Having squatting on melon account for so long, I now suspect it was media play from li tongguang side to push his character favorability and shipping with ruyi
Yes, he does have that reputation in China, international fans can cry about it till kingdom come.
The only way he can change that is to, well, stop stealing scenes. Time will tell.
Ridiculous.
In order to steal scenes from top co stars, it takes lots of lots of powerful resources while LYN has none. This guy is the real rags to riches story. He started practically from the lowest bottom of the barrel without support of any agency. Until now he is his own boss, no agency.
Those campaign about stealing scenes never provided any evidences of how he can do it. They only keep going around chanting “LYN steals scenes”.
@Lady Bird …am laughing cause the comment above yours from “shrug” basically does what you said ie going around chanting that he steals scenes ! Despite like you said, no actual evidences being produced so far 😅 I love how their comment implies that international fans don’t know better which sure, we don’t know more of the nuances of Cent but like we do know the basic such as a drama production is a big expensive thing consists of many moving parts and players. So how logical is it that a one up and coming actor ( who doesn’t belong to a big company as far as I know, please correct me if am wrong) wield this kind of power? If there’s this much chatter over this issue , then at least provide us noobs with some kind of plausible theories at least
During AnLe, the campaign was LYN steals scenes from Dilireba and Gong Jun. Just imagine how powerful LYN’s backing will be if he can stole from BOTH Reba AND GJ…..#facepalm
@Lady Bird lmao that’s so hilarious 😌
Probably what happened is the leads story is so ridiculous that people pay attention to lyn compared to them.
I still don’t understand to this day how dzy can command loads of pirates at 17. Basically what I end up understand is that everything got served to her by lmx. Compared to the useless crown prince, the does-it-all lmx would seem better.
don’t post any pictures with costars = you’re on bad terms with the cast (because you stole scenes)
post pictures of costars = you trying to say you didn’t steal scenes
Poor guy just can’t win.
lmao
Liu YuNing must be the male Zhao LuSi. It’s like, no matter what he does, the hater would post it’s for some evil self-serving motivation.
perhaps you know, his scenes end up way better than other, like the dude is legit talented?
Idk why everything he is controversial while it just about working super well, post a pic and not post a pic
wish him a great life
What is wrong with scene stealing? Isn’t Zhao Liying known for stealing all the scenes in Legend of Chusen? She even got awarded and praised for it. I don’t understand why it’s ok for some people to steal scenes but it’s not ok for some people. This should be something very ok to do.
Scene stealing in this instance means that screen time that should have gone to some other actor, is transferred to him so his part is enlarged while others lose out.
He is pretty well known for this, no matter how much people here hate it.
@meh…do you know how he does it? Am very new to Cent so perhaps my knowledge is lacking but I can’t wrapped my mind around an actor able to influence the script this much when he’s relatively new to the acting industry.
@R don’t listen to them lol
Basically you can steal scenes, by having big backing, by good acting, or by coincidence. I don’t think this guy liu yuning have big backer, he was just part timer who lucked out with his voice. I don’t think he has that good acting either, he’s mid.
So either he didn’t do the scene steal or maybe the main lead was too busy with their other work that they’re often off from the set. In the end, so the project can finish on time, they fill the void with other actor scenes.
@R
He stopped being a nobody a long time ago. He has production backing now. That’s the sure fire way to push others out of the way.
His fans foam at the mouth here but it’s irrelevant. What is relevant that after his statement that acting well isn’t important but looking handsome is, that he cheated LSS big time and she has a firm reputation, in China – where it matters – his reputation is bad.
@Ehh what does “big production” backing mean? Who or what is that? I don’t understand how he became so powerful that he can steal screen time from someone as senior as Liu Shishi, or other arguably more popular/higher traffic stars like Gong Jun, and especially Dirileba. None of this makes any logical sense.
The scenes-stealing thing which the other people were talking about is different. What they meant is him changing the script and increasing his scenes without the other lead actors/actresses’ knowledge.
It is fair game if someone performed extremely well in the original scenes given to him/her because it’s part of the drama’s story. Adding extra scenes to the story just to propel a single actor/actress, however, is frowned and looked down upon, not to mention it decreases the quality of the drama most of the time.
Great explanation here. I think most international fans don’t get it and think people are just “jealous” of his success. The reason why he even has this reputation because he has one more hour of screentime than Liu Shishi, who is supposed to be the focus of this show, and Chinese viewers are not happy about it.
LYN’s acting is solid in A Journey to Love. I’m more or less indifferent to his story arcs, however, since Chief Ning wasn’t an interesting character to me. In particular, I personally think his love affairs with Ruyi was overdone and stale.
For characters or actors we don’t like so much, we most likely think they are given too much screen time. For characters or actors we appreciate and enjoy their presence on screen, we certainly wish more screen time could have been given to them. But if one particular actor is constantly being dinged for stealing screen time from costars, that just indicates that there’re quite a few drama fans who don’t like him/her. That’s my take from LYN’s controversy. I’m personally indifferent to LYN. I can watch or don’t watch his dramas, all depending on other more important factors such as script writing and directing etc.
Funny how LYN was generally well liked by everyone up until he was confirmed for that drama with ZLS. Ever since, his “reputation” has taken a nose-dive on Chinese and international social media. Wouldn’t be surprised if a certain someone’s team is laying the groundwork for dirty media-play when TLOJ airs. ZLS’s team sure knew how to use LYN to play up their ship and step on the main leads during The Long Ballad, but as soon as news of their new drama was confirmed, the smears on LYN started, it was so obvious. You gotta hand it to her media team for being one of the most low and ruthless teams in C-ent.
Nice try.
He had this reputation even before Legend of Anle but it was simmering below the surface. It always takes time for this to become noticeable. Some actors (actresses) do it once for a boost so it isn’t too frowned upon.
LYN is a serial offender and once it turned out that he has over an hour more of screen time than LSS who is a beloved name it really spilled over the top.
He says acting is irrelevant, just looking pretty is important and now this? He made his bed, now lie in it.
Dude, your crazed logic about “A Journey to Love” (with the rest of the lunatic C-netizens) is WEIRD. In the actual design of the story where it’s HIS team of friends and warriors that go on the grand adventure to send the prince/princess off, you really think the female lead is going to have more scenes!?!! The male lead character has like 5-6 people he’s constantly interacting with individually and collectively. The female lead, however, her character was a LONER!!! Lol. She only went on her revenge side quests whenever she felt it was the right time to do so and/or her emotions drove her to move. Her whoooole character arc was realizing that a good life is one where you have the people you love and trust by your side, thus, not being a loner anymore!! Lol. Just STOP 💆🏻♂️
How could LYN have this “reputation” if he only started getting more important roles this year? As a casual observer, my previous impression of him was mostly a tool for ZLS fans to play up their ship in The Long Ballad. He was also known for being a straight shooter.
He had two other dramas air this year before A Journey to Love, one with Liu Tao and the other (Anle) with Dilireba and Gonjun. Though I’m sure each of them had small fandom conflict, there was little to no talk of scene stealing. He also completed filming the highly anticipated Prisoner of Love without any fandom drama, though that got derailed due to SZE tax scandal.
In October, when rumors started circulating of his involvement in TLOJ, this negative narrative of him working behind the scenes started suddenly. This was almost two months before A Journey to Love started airing, so don’t try to point the finger at LSS fans. ZLS fans/paid trolls, who used to love to brag about their ship from TLB upstaging the main leads, did a sudden turn-about and went into full attack mode. Since then, it’s been non-stop smears against LYN on C-social media and forums.
The very fact that this issue deserved an article on this blog is a clue as to who’s behind the smear campaign. Just look at how many articles Koala has written as a shill for ZLS’s media team. Only a couple of days ago she wrote a ridiculous article implying that most people blame ZLS’s new drama flopping on the male lead. That drama is flopping so badly there’s barely any discussion about it good or bad. For a blogger overseas to post something that you can’t even find on C-social media, she’s either part of the brain-washed fandom or being paid.
@Lol no…am sorry that this will come across as blunt but the whole 1 hour more of screen time is both insane and inane. This is like a 20+ show with multiple storylines and fans acting like middle management tallying hours as if this drama is an hourly workplace is craziness to me. These actors when signing onto a project should be in the service of a good drama and not the other way around. And if production companies have to worry about the kind of insane antics and expectations of fans like you, how can any good dramas be produced ? It’s like how product placement ruin so many kdrama because the writers have to incorporates in the brands even when it’s nonsensical. Why treat the craft of acting and actors in a similar kind of way?
I agree with you completely, people are so insufferable for bringing up just 1 hour more of screentime. This is like how those kpop fans fight for few seconds of singing. So immature
Idk why people think that being first billing means thay have more screentime. In the first place billing fight were not a thing until some fandom fought about it. In the past billing was about whose story it is, now it become who is the more famous
@anon… your conspiracy theory on this smear campaign as being from ZLS’s camp makes as little sense to me as the accusation of LYN stealing scenes. What does she has to gain from smearing her opposite main lead? Especially when the drama hasn’t even aired yet, like why would she wants to turn off potential viewers by badmouthing her fellow co actor ?
Maybe insurance for in case she gets upstaged by LYN? ZLS is someone who has no qualms ruining a drama she’s involved in so that she can maximize the benefit to herself.
While TLB aired, her team flooded social media with media presses saying she outshined Dilireba and that her on screen ship with LYN was the reason people watched the drama. It was totally orchestrated by her side as “fan” edits of her ship were being drummed up on social media even before that storyline appeared in the drama.
For LLTG, I also see her fans going around recommending new viewers to only watch the first half of the drama because they perceive she had more screen time and story development in the 1st half. Like who goes around recommending only part of a drama?
Her replies sound crazier and crazier.
Here we go. Always. Now it’s ZLS’s turn, LOL.
There are people like that who rise up because they work hard, are driven, and have good relations with people.
Well I feel LYN has such strong screen presence… He can make me keep my eyes on him every time he appear .. May be that’s why he can overshadow other actor… And if you saw his past drama , you can see that he improve a lot… And really work hard on his mandarin , so he can dubbing his own character..