C-movie Adaptation of The Journey of Flower with Chen Du Ling and Toby Lee Majorly Flops with Terrible Reviews
Being a mom I’ve done my share of telling the kids “like, maybe doing that is a baaaad idea, baby” and dealing with either agreement or insistence on going ahead. The decision to make a C-movie adaptation of The Journey of Flower from the original source novel nearly ten years after the hit C-drama adaptation just seems like a giant waste of money and time. The story isn’t even popular anymore and no one thought it needed another version since the OG is still beloved as a xianxia classic. Unfortunately The Journey of Flower movie version with Chen Du Ling and Toby Lee did get made and premiered this week to abysmally bad reviews and box office. Like, so bad the director had to apologize. And this despite Zhao Li Ying actually posting about it with her support and approval to her fans. Even she couldn’t make a pig fly haha. The movie is apparently terrible all around – bad casting, bad costumes, bad makeup, bad directing, bad chemistry, bad acting, you name it, it’s being complained about. Welp, hopefully next time someone wants to spend money on a bad idea it’s nipped in the bud.
If I’m not wrong, the film adaptation of “Journey of Flower” was actually made years ago but was kept on the shelves till now, hence the outfits feeling a bit outdated. Still I’m scratching my head at the purpose of adapting the novel into the big screen when the leading actors are still unfamiliar to the general audience (even if the production decided to cast actors based on their talent alone, I find Chen Duling not the strongest in her field) and the art direction and CGI will not exceed that of the TV series.
I would say their investors are getting their comeuppance now for casting leads and hiring people based on connections.
Can C-ent write good stories and plots with some creativity rather than remake, remake, remake, adaptation, adaptation, adaptation, copy, copy, and copy? 1.4 billion! LOL
Didn’t watch the drama but pretty much any movies that already have a drama version is bad all around, imo. Regardless of the cast. Always will feel like a mess-in-a-movie.
My Sunshine, TMOPB and Love 020.
Yeah, some stories just aren’t meant to be made into movies because they’re too long. Movies are meant to be short and concise.
Personally I like Love O2O the movie way better than the drama. Angelababy is not a strong actress, of course, but her portrayal of Wei Wei is fun and likeable, and her chemistry w/ Jing Boran is way stronger too!
100% agree about Love O2O
Yeah the movie love o2o is atrociously bad. They changed the entire character settings. All the friend also became useless backdrop.
From production perspective the lighting was way too dark, are you shooting thriller or something ?!
And I guess angelababy stony face is just like a nail on top of coffin. It’s that bad
Xianxia stories like Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms and Journey of the Flower shouldn’t be made into movies. The story is simply too long to be crammed into a movie that’s roughly 1.5 hrs long.
Who is Chen Du Ling?
Who is Toby Lee?
Are they top actors in visuals, popularity and talent?
How big is their fan base?
Why they get casting in movies whereas other popular actors are considered not qualified just because they didn’t graduate in arts and drama from the university?
I didn’t watch the movie, so can’t comment on acting. But Bai Zihua visuals is definitely a step down… Chen Duling is pretty, and I can see her playing the role better after Hua Qiangu turns dark. But Zhao Liying is a cuter version before then.
Agree with everyone above. While I think a lot of these dramas were previously too long. At the same time, these are hard to adapt into one movie since there’s too much content to cover in two hours.
ok I stand corrected. I was wondering who he was, so went and looked him up. He’s actually a pretty good looking guy in the modern pics. He might just not be a good fit for costume dramas/films. Also that last pic of him looks very unflattering for some reason.
Agree, Cdramas usually has a big world building with multiple characters overlay that are usually hard to condense down into a movie unless they break it into parts, but even that is skeptical because you don’t know how part 1 will be recieved. So, might as well not do novel or Cdrama adaptions, but make your own storyline either on romance, murder, fantasy or thriller.
There was a lack of female baddies in JoF era. Everyone was waiting on HQG to become evil, but even after getting powerful, she still failed female empowerment. It was such a letdown. Wallace and ZLY had great visuals and fans as well, whereas aside from Chen Duling, nobody knows who Tony Lee is. Still, neither of them are a box office draw, but maybe with this foray into film, it’ll lead to more movie opportunities
This movie looks like a cheap web film. Why bring it to cinemas and let the actors suffer such humilation?
A Chen Du Ling oversaturation in C-Ent. She is freaking EVERYWHERE since 2023 !
Wallace Huo looks mad stiff and constipated on those pictures as he did in the drama. Another one I have never got the appeal. Everything scream mid about that guy
I wonder if the same thing happened when Goong remake become true. Something that we didn’t need coz the OG is such a beautiful memory for us. I will be there just to say ‘i told you so’
I don’t know about the rest but her make up in these stills is good!!! That winged liner is fire🔥!!!!
This ML just caught my eyes. He’s definitely not handsome enough for a story of idol genre. But he’s not as horrifically looking as the ML of Different Princess! How the heck did this ugly guy get the role as a heartthrob in an idol drama with a decent FL? So ridiculous!
omg this popped up in my feed and I was going to try to watch an episode, but when I saw the male lead, I couldn’t click the close icon fast enough! He really is the opposite of good looking, but somehow is part of Yuehua.
@Soph, The FL of Different Princess, Song Yiren, is a very charming actress. It’s a shame her costar isn’t on par with her at all both acting-wise and visually. Dang! He’s managed by Yuehua? Not again! That agency has trained a school of ugly and talentless idols who’d better stay as dancers for life and not rob acting opportunities of real actors. LOL. But I guess Yuehua doubled down to market her dancers to compete for acting projects since it may be a more lucrative career and the agency seems always greedy to milk from her artists. Yuehua hasn’t done well since the IPO in HK. The company’s stock price tanked about 80% days ago and there’s a slew of hot searches of Wang Yibo inundating Weibo following the stock tumble, obviously for marketing purposes to boost up investors’ confidence in the company. I hope this agency collapses as a whole that will be a huge blessing to C-ent. LOL.
He was the male “lead” in the highly acclaimed movie SoulMate, which gave Zhou Dongyu & Sandra Ma Sichun’s double Best Actress winners of the Golden Horse Awards, the first time ever in the award’s history. (They both deserved it, IMO). You can tell he was overshadowed by the female leads.
I didn’t know him. I know nothing about his acting but just compared his visuals with Wallace Hou. He looks handsome in modern wear. Not everyone looks good in costume though.