C-actor Hu Ge has another hit on his hands with the C-drama Blossoms Shanghai directed by HK auteur Wong Kar Wai. This is probably his most high profile C-drama in nearly a decade since his career elevating critically acclaimed hit Nirvana in Fire. He’s been so picky with dramas and movies and rightly so, reportedly he only went against his own decision once in taking on the drama Game of Hunting to bring along a rookie (a common thing in C-ent) and he super regretted it. Reportedly insiders have been asking him to go back to being more mainstream again after Blossoms Shanghai but he is content to pick whatever project strikes his fancy regardless of how successful it may be.
His movie flopped, badly and this was mediocre but he has a reputation that will last him a life time.
I am actually disappointed with his latest works. He isn’t progressing, there is no real challenge. I guess he doesn’t care because he isn’t losing anything.
He is a adult and he knows what he wants. I suspect he wants to enjoy being a full time family man…he will act if he likes a script..
This show is a solid hit, despite the story being patchy. Half of Shanghai tuned in, and the city is now experiencing a tourism spike. Filming locations clogged with visitors, food sales up, hotels booked out, people enrolling in Shanghainese classes. It has been years since a c-drama created such a frenzy in the real world.
What, only half of Shanghai?? (Just kidding) That is interesting… domestic market is their biggest audience. Since the pandemic, lots of tourism have yet to recover to pre-pandemic… Good to hear things lots good for Shanghai currently.
I think a lot of people don’t feel its popularity or deny its popularity because it is very popular within a specific segment of the audience but lukewarm elsewhere – mainly working adults in the late 20s to 50s in cosmopolitan regions Shanghai and Guangdong and half of the audience were males. Also saw some comments saying it’s very popular amongst the finance and investment circles. People early 20s and below were barely watching, even fewer than those above 50 and the show was never expected to do well amongst the elderly folks because of its theme and artistic leanings. And to be fair, probably with regionalistic rivalries, I think a non-Shanghainese would feel a lot less enthusiastic when the show has been marketed as a homage to Shanghai. Definitely not that same demographic as the core audience of xianxias/costume/idol dramas, which dominate the discussions on social media. I saw the data on audience demographics and it’s very interesting to see how that propelled the show in terms of ads and sheer number of advertisers. Its audience demographic is a goldmine for advertisers – the group with the highest discretionary spending power and while it’s not the most popular show, it will be pretty much unbeatable in terms of ad revenue for a long time. Also they managed to attract even more advertisers during the later part of the show, whereas a majority of dramas see a gradual decline of ads. That’s affirmation that people were watching and talking about the show.
I also saw a comment on how Hu Ge remains a mystery amongst those that play the traffic game because he has many fanboys and can attract an equal mix of males and females to watch his shows while other traffic stars bring in at least 70%-80% females. Lol.
(For anyone interested, I saw audience data for A Journey to Love too, it was also against the norm and more popular amongst the 20s-40 age group and not the younger audience so it had a solid performance in terms of ads as well)
Oh there’s something like that. I guess there’s a lot of factors that makes this success. This seems to be literary kind that people don’t usually watch unless it strike some kind of chord within them
It’s exciting to see rivalry among region ahahha I know some region have been fighting on douyin to be the most visited tourism region after harbin craze 😂
That’s very interesting data and observations. Thank you for sharing!
China is so large, a show can be successful if none of your friends are watching because there are many niches. To discount its accomplishments is confined thinking.
“The show was never expected to do well amongst the elderly folks because of its theme and artistic leanings.”
Actually, the opposite is true. The show was expected to appeal to the older generation (in Shanghai) due to the nostalgia factor, and how it mirrored their young adult experiences. The book is acclaimed (got lost in translation to TV IMO), and WKW said that the story was the story of his relatives’ lives. The Shanghainese Boomers all tuned in to watch.
@Ophelia
Yes you are right but that’s also a regional factor. They were banking on people from Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in general to tune in. Surprisingly Guangdong came in 2nd instead, but there were alot of nostalgic Cantonese songs too. TV audiences are predominantly the older generation and C8 is a national broadcast, Shanghai is but a small part of China. To get a true explosive hit like The Knockout, they had to appeal to the older generation across all regions for TV ratings, but people were joking that the drama title itself was already a major deterrent for the oldies. They only watch spy/crime dramas. Younger generations will watch it on their devices which was one of the barometers of its popularity in Shanghai and Guangzhou – many people were watching the show on the trains, heat index was excellent and people were discussing how its Tencent results can be considered to be solely due to broadcast numbers and not inflated by water data or fandom bombardment, so the TV ratings will not reflect its true popularity.
@guest
Lmao when you start saying why web ratings that absolutely are full of water (for every platform) are more important than TV ratings you have lost the argument. Smh
@Guest, I have always been most keen to know the effects of marketing from dramas…. Thank you for sharing.
@Smh
I have no idea why you are so obsessed with forcing your opinion that it is doing poorly. I never said tv ratings were more important than web ratings. It has been observed that there are a lot of people watching it online so they’ve got a good mix of both tv and online viewers, so looking at tv ratings solely is likely to underestimate the actual viewership. I also didn’t mention that it’s still showing on 2 satellite channels- how are we to account for this set of viewers? Are we to add them up or perhaps some may be repeat viewers? It’s doing quite ok on those channels so what I can infer from it is that the tail effect is quite good. At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter to me whether the show does well or not, I didn’t invest in it, but the data and trend analysis for this just happens to pique my interest. I liked it a lot but I don’t expect everyone to do so – a lot of my enjoyment had to do with the fact people were talking about it on Weibo and the discussions made me rewatch specific scenes because of details I had missed or parts that didn’t resonate with me at first until others explained the significance/emotions/character’s motivations. I think that’s the strength of directors like WKW, the attention to detail.
Blossoms Shanghai is terrible. He got up high before of course it’s hard for him to come down now. It’s a bad drama period. It makes me laugh when people say it’s a good drama. 😅😂🤣
As a viewer if the drama is good to me I will say it’s good. If it’s bad to me, I will say it’s bad, too. It doesn’t matter how BIG/famous of the people involved in the project are (actors, directors, producers & so on). I know I’m watching it for free, but my time is important to me also. I dropped it @ episode #6. Please don’t attack me for being honest about it.
This time it’s a bad drama. Who knows next time they will pick a better project & do it better also. The important thing is they learn something from it (better story next time)?
Listen to your tone. You can only say it’s “bad”. No discussion points and you “laugh” at people who say they like it. After watching 6 episodes.
There’s no constructive thoughts here. No one is attacking you, BTW. You are the person who deems something “bad”, therefore, that must be the final verdict. How is that fair?
The drama has its unique merits. Cinematography, mood creation, actors and attresses being shown at their best, whether their skills or visually. It may not suit your tastes, but it doesn’t mean it’s terrible.
@Guest, I also think Blossom Shanghai is BS although I watched the whole 30 eps. A huge waste of time. I rate it 6/10 at best. I don’t get WKW’s artistry per this BS drama. There’s tons of sh*t in the narratives.
BTW, mood creation? LMAO. What mood did the drama create? Can you give some examples? The plot is mostly void, overshadowed by too much voice-over from Hu Ge without much substance and motion going alone. There’s no chemistry between Hu Ge and the three female leads. Watching a lot of scenes is like staring at a pool of dead water breathing no life. It’s one of the least inspiring S+ production I’ve ever wasted my precious time watching. Very tiring and frustrating! I hope Hu Ge gets to pick better directors with inspiring scripts to work with next time. Such a waste of his acting talent.
@ Guest
In another “article” here about this drama and it dated 1/7/2024 I did mention that the story is weak. I also don’t like Tang Yan’s voice in this drama and it’s annoying to me. I also said a good drama/movie needs a few important “ingredients” like good acting, good directing, good story and more. I dragged myself to finish those six episodes. I have the right to laugh if I think something is funny. I’m NOT stopping anyone to express his/her opinion – not like you. You said: “People must put something else down if it doesn’t have their favorite.” when people don’t like BS.
@XZF @Somebody. OK.
I swear every drama that did/is doing well in ratings get panned here. LOL.
Here?
Average CVB ratings for this drama was just 1.78. That is incredibly low for something being prepared for 3 years, a massive financial investment, Wong Kar Wai, Hu Ge etc.
For comparing the drama that broadcast before it, that helped boost ratings of this because it was a lead in, scored way over 2 and it’s an absolute nothing in terms of investment when compared.
Knockout, Flight to you, over 3.
I know Hu Ge’s stans are unhappy and are trying to make it sound like a huge success, look above lmao but it’s anything but. It’s at best a mediocre broadcast.
Uh uh I’m not sure but isn’t rating over 1 considered really great or something(?) and it’s nearing 2
@Yuhyi
It gives you the context? It is incredibly low “for something that…”.
If this were a regular drama, it’s a good average. But it’s not. It was broadcast at prime time winter, with an incredibly high lead in and then add the investment, WKW, HG.
Nobody is saying it’s a flop but for what it was it’s not a success either. Nobody in China thinks this did great because it simply put, didn’t. A drama of this calibre should have done way better.
@Smh
Seems like they overestimated it then, this kind of literary genre, it would never have wide popularity, it’s just too niche. Paired with wong kar wai style of having no script, it’s gonna look pretty, picturesque, but not really exciting in plot development
@Yuhyi, BS doesn’t even look consistently good in cinematography. I only noted some impressive shots with natural day lighting and the architectural backdrops in around eps 14 – 19. The rest is mostly using blurry dim light and over-magnifying close-up focus on actors’ faces that really hurt my eyes. Plot aside that just lacks interesting intensity calling for viewers’ attention, it’s physically very tiring to follow screen after screen cos how they had done with the camera work and lighting. I wonder if many scenes were actually shot by assistant directors, not WKW himself. Fans blindly rave the drama to the galaxy just bcos it starred a big star Hu Ge and a famous movie director WKW. Usually western viewers aren’t such ass-kissers. Take repeatedly Oscar-winning director Ang Lee for example. He was criticized for underwhelming productions of some of his movies. Western fans still critique his works even he is such a respected auteur with recognition of several masterpieces under his belt. But look at Asian fans! LOL. Once you had a great work, then you’re destined to be good all the time and therefore, critique is absolutely out of the question. This is the logic and mentality of many Asian drama fans that I can’t take them seriously.
Agree. People must put something else down if it doesn’t have their favorite. There are no grey areas or merits to acknowledge.
@ Guest
Listen to yourself here. Are you being fair? Just because people don’t like BS than you say “People must put something else down if it doesn’t have their favorite.” Why can’t people express how they feel about the drama? Thanks!
@Guest, I understand if this BS drama is your fave’s drama so you have to defend it. But your defense sounds spurious to me. There’re many films not only cinematographically mesmerizing but the storylines also delivering very powerful messages that communicate with audience effectively and intelligently. Those are called masterpieces and the directors behind those memorable works live up to their status in the hall of fame. One example is critically acclaimed film, Life of Pi, directed by Oscar-winning director, Ang Lee. Life of Pi is a most prominent example of artwork in the filming industry that creates a lot of “mood” in the film while there’re very meaningful and powerful messages to mark impacts on Audience’s hearts. Blossom Shangshai is near BS comparing to Life of Pi. You can argue that Life of Pi is a movie and BS BS is a drama, so no comparison. But I’m giving a concrete example to showcase what’s considered authentic artistic work of excellent quality. From that perspective, Director Wong failed big time with BS.
I really liked Hu Ge in Nirvana in Fire and also rate the drama pretty high in my drama list. Disappointedly, BS is mostly BS (pun intended LOL). Director WKW did not live up to his fame for this drama, TBH. There are many flaws in the plot and camera work too. The major failure is the narratives that fell flat with too much voice-over by Hu Ge himself without much motion going along. Not sure if that was due to back scripting or directing. But overall it’s a very disappointing and overrated drama.
Surely Hu Ge should be picky about his new projects. But please pick something really intriguing and inspiring rather than just pick famous directors to work with.
typo* – due to bad scripting or directing….
You mentioned you would going to watch and make your own judgement. I gather you dropped this drama mid way? I have yet to watch so I cannot make judgement…
I’m on fence lol, I’m curious but I know this kind of genre is not my cup of tea 😮💨
Nope! I watched the whole 30 eps, switching between Mandarin version and Shanghiness version. I think Shanghiness is a much better version than Mandarin even I had to resort to subtitles. The dubbed Mandarin version sounded pretty cringey like many other C dramas that were not appropriately dubbed.
It’s a very boring storyline, very uninspiring. Hu Ge and all the three FLs are solid actors but there’s no chemistry between HG and any one of these female characters. The ending also sucked. LOL. There’s just not much to rave about except for some artistic shots and interesting transitions from scene to scene. My conclusion after browsing through 30 eps is one phrase: A huge waste of time! LOL.
I won’t compromise my own assessment of quality of a drama just bcos I personally like Hu Ge very much and it’s directed by a famed auteur in the C filming industry. Like even the Oscar winning director, Ang Lee, who has more internationally and critically acclaimed works under his belt, many accomplished directors also produced underwhelming films from time to time. If Director WKW is truly that accomplished, then this BS Blossom Shanghai is definitely one of his worse products IMO.
It’s not my genre either. But I watched it anyway for Hu Ge and the big name WKW. I was used to watch many western films about financial slumps and booms, ebb and flow of economic tide related themes. I’m not unfamiliar with this genre and will watch anything as long as the quality is good and storyline is inspiring. Perhaps I held high standards about both Hu Ge and WKW and therefore ended up being very disappointed. It’s funny to me how some fans just rave BS BS to the moon like it meets award-winning caliber. LMAO.
@ Somebody
You get a 🤙from me for watching all the 30 episodes of BS. How did you do that?
@Somebody, I am glad you did watch thru this drama. I enjoy dramas like these alot…but there is few of them filmed in this manner for China productions. In Europe, we have more of it. I will have to find time to watch it.
@XZF, I actually regretted. It’s a waste of time and very tiring. The only benefit is that I feel fully justified to critique this crap since I did watch 30 eps. The storyline is sh*t and the ending doesn’t help at all. LOL. Director Wong did do some artistic shots with impressive camera angles and scene transitions. But other than that, it’s a failure in terms of story telling. I wanted to watch a motion picture with an interesting plot. Some fans said WKW is good at creating mood. What mood my a$$??? LOL. Cinematography styles without substance in the content to deliver powerful messages are not considered good films. Those Oscar-winning movies have never been uninspiring stories overwhelmed by cinematographic gimmicks. Blossom Shanghai is forgettable and none of the main characters or their stories are memorable or make any impact on my mind.
@Somebody
It’s ok. Just remember not to do that again next time. Your time is important – use it for something you enjoy watching instead.
@Somebody
Ahahhaha this is why movie are different from drama. Just beautiful shot for 2 hours movie is bearable, because you need to imagine to fill up a lot of thing (hence the mood). For drama, plot development is more important, it what makes us keep going. Anyway thanks for trying out the 30 ep, now I don’t need to watch ahhhahah
Oh Blossoms is definitely stylish and if you know Wong Kar Wai it’s all about mood, style, emotions in this order and less logic or story – this time he brought to life Shanghai in a different era and tugs the strings of those who lived in those times or those who wish they did.
I think the females shone more -he really knows how to film them in their most beautiful state. For Huge, I feel the whole character styling is like homage to Leslie Cheung and Hu Ge in many angles reminds me of him. Before anyone bashed me – this IS a compliment. He is charming, handsome and the character was lovable .. yeah that’s it. Lol but how many stars now can do this effortlessly? Just a handful – so he can choose and milk that talent. I’m ok.