Reviews are Bad for Yang Mi’s Performance in Period Spy Thriller C-drama In the Name of the Brother

I have such a soft spot for C-actress Yang Mi and it just makes me sad that she can’t seen to turn things around in terms of reviews and feedback on her acting in recent years. Her recently aired C-drama In the Name of the Brother (Harbin 1944) was a foray into the spy thriller genre with a strong leading man in Qin Hao and was a prime opportunity to notch a performance win for herself. Unfortunately the early reviews are back and it’s really bad. Her performance is being ripped for her dialogue (hard to understand unless reading subtitles), her looks (too skinny which makes her face look wrinkly), mockery for her team releasing news articles about how she brought in a dialogue and acting coach which is a bad look for her since she’s been in the industry for 20 years and shouldn’t need any coach and in fact should be a veteran helping coaching others. Another issue is that C-actress Wang Ou in The Disguiser is basically the same role and she was so amazing so in comparison Yang Mi looks even worse. With this drama airing, Wang Ou’s acting actually rocketed back up on the hot searches


Comments

Reviews are Bad for Yang Mi’s Performance in Period Spy Thriller C-drama In the Name of the Brother — 54 Comments

  1. She has been putting in sub-par performances for a good while now. She didn’t used to be like this.

    I have long been wondering what happened and then I accidentally stumbled on an interview and I realised she just doesn’t care. She didn’t want to be there and was because she had to. I think this encapsulates her whole work now. She isn’t into it and until and if it comes back, this will continue.

    • The spark and passion for acting is not there like before. I wish she would find that spark again. I liked her in Ten Miles, but have been disappointed in all her other dramas since…. it’s like she’s bored

      Was this project done while she was under her old management company?

      I’m hoping that she’ll find that passion for acting again now that she’s on her own

      • No it was the first project she chose after leaving her company. And she specially hired an acting coach to guide her while filming. Apparently she was super serious while filming this that even the director said he felt that she was constantly anxious and tense. Maybe this is why her acting underperformed as she was eager to try and prove herself.

    • Yesss… I been watching her since Wang Zhaojun and her last drama i manage finish is Eternal Love 😭 after that her acting just feel the same.

      What happen with her? I feel like she lost her passion for acting.

  2. I wonder how she will be in the movie she is a supporting star for? As for this drama, this period dramas, I am not as keen to watch… that is just personal preference…

    • It’s all state propaganda! Over-glorifying CCP spies to such an extent is a joke. They copied the concepts from James Bond, similarly in War of Faith. LOL.

      • Yes…state propaganda…every mid to top artistes will want to casted in at least one in their career…🤣🤣

        @Somebody, CCP is currently clipping the little wings of her people…using all ways to track everything.. I read about social points…but I only found out even companies can get punished if their staff caused social unrest outside work hours. I was shock. It was the case of that Chinese influencer who lied she was given a homework book by a Paris cafe staff, that she found after a young boy left the table. The Chinese influencer that detailed her searching process online till “Fake” owner is found. When the Chinese Influencer was exposed and she had to apologise online. Her company also received Administrative Punishment for her conduct outside work hours.

      • @HL, we both already got -1000 points on social credits with all these chit chats online. LMAO.

        Digressed a bit. I just read a rumor that Xiao Zhan is going to do another propaganda film after his new drama, The Legend of Zhan Hai. Deep sigh and great disappointment if that’s true! But that may be the way C actors can survive in the current environment.

      • @HL, CCP is excessive. China is exactly George Orwell’s Animal Farm in the current world. Investment fled China thanks to all the fear that Xi regime has created in private corporates. We the professionals in the financial sector all know that. Not surprising to what happened to the company this online influencer worked for.

      • @Somebody, I think locals who are brought up there will have to live as rules says. If story does not interest me as I very rarely watch those dramas…I will just look at some photos.. 🤣

        I am just shock by how CCP clamp down on it Tuition education sector almost overnight!!! Shocks just dropped overnight for those investors who invested in this big market demand sector. That is the power of CCP.

        On the otherhand…US take so long to deal with Tik Tok…🤣🤣…Ops, I just lost -1000 social credits.

  3. Douban discussions pointed out several times, Zhao Liying is behind it. Earlier, in Legend of Shen Li, ZLY did not dub her own voice and got scolded for being lazy.
    To make sense, seeing that YM dubs herself, people should be happy. It didn’t make sense that people still complain again. It’s a double edge sword for YM, dub and get scold, or don’t dub and still get scold. If it’s ZLY, while she doesn’t have a girly voice, she has stuttering, which is directly related to unprofessionalism vs natural tone, but as long as she dubs herself she won’t get scold. She at least has a choice, as long as she works hard like how she markets and dubs herself she can get any prize, even without real talent. If she forgoes it, she only gets a bit complaint because she makes it hard for her team to market, they know they sound contradicting and hates it. It’s not the same for others, they don’t have any choice. It’s very harsh for others. Whether they do this or do that, they will always be in trouble. Whether they look pretty or ugly, old or young, fat or skinny, it will always be wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

    It’s not hard to take ugly snapshots of anyone and put evil captions on top. Other actresses are just not evil enough to do it back to ZLY.

    This is only a photo that some angry fans put online, but they don’t dare to caption anything and write essays, then publish it on the news like ZLY’s team. BC they fear ZLY’s power and connections.
    https://i.pinimg.com/564x/9f/57/05/9f57053366b6663dd0c7fd3e06ae6ee9.jpg
    Some had tried to do that before, they get sued like crazy. With YM, anyone can bully her as hell and she doesn’t sue anyone for their opinions. ZLY is very CCP.

    The reason YM doesn’t care is because she’s not going to waste money like ZLY on marketing.
    Data alraedy proves that people are watching, if they hate it so much they wouldn’t be watching, YM’s data is real data. While ZLY has good reviews online, high ratings, and viewerships 1000times surpassing human population, the words of mouth are never good, so her data are fake.
    ZLY is a business partner of Liu Shi Shi, as a business partner, LSS never want to friend ZLY but rather reconnect with YM on purpose, knowing that ZLY hates YM. The fact that each and everyone in the circle ignores ZLY only shows that she is very green tea. On the other hand, each and everyone friends YM knowing she is powerless and always bullied online.

    • Give it a rest!
      YM acting is just not good… so what of she’s got more friends??!!

      If she’s so kind, why didn’t LSS do business with her?

      Ridiculous point. Not comparing apples with apples.

    • Sorry, pinning Yang Mi’s subpar acting on ZLY’s negative ad campaign is a real stretch. Of the two actresses, Yang Mi is by far my favorite, but I would be the first to say that she just doesn’t shine in serious roles. When her real voice is used, it’s too high pitched and girly for her role, and doesn’t suit her onscreen persona; and the likability and charisma she has in period dramas don’t translate well to those genres. I know she’s trying to find her feet outside of idol dramas, but as she’s been acting for so long, she should know her weakness and strengths by this time and play more to her strengths.She should do more modern romcom, family and ensemble dramas and stay away from spy thrillers or police procedural dramas, she really can’t pull them off.

  4. These kinds of characters are just not her acting abilities. At least we can give it to her that she tried and likely should stay away. Some people are not natural and can’t play every character just because they chose acting. She has always been a weak actress for me. Even in her breakout role “peach blossom, 3lives 3world,” as a huge fan of the novel, she was wasn’t strong enough for the Fox queen as Qing Qiu (as Susu she is good because that’s her acting range).

  5. Okay peeps, I am so entertained these last few weeks. In 8 out of 10 articles on C-ent one commenter (using different usernames) always manages to bring up Zhao Li Ying ZLY and weave how awful/manipulative/ugly/stupid/deceptive she is into any topic whether or not it has a tangential to zero connection to ZLY. It’s the most hilarious thing EVER! Who has this much time and obsessiveness with one star? This commenter has been doing this since 2022 here but really ramped up recently.

    Yang Mi is criticized for bad acting ——-> ZLY is behind it!
    Yang Zi’s new drama is doing meh ——-> ZLY is fanning it!
    Yu Shu Xin is copying Jang Won Young ——-> ZLY started it!
    Ju Jing Yi is a terrible actress ——-> ZLY is worse!
    Chen Zhe Yuan is fighting too hard for billing ——-> ZLY taught him it!
    C-ent is making too many bad xianxia dramas ——-> ZLY pushing it!
    Fish are mysteriously dying in West Lake ——-> ZLY poisoned it!
    Earth’s temperature is rising too fast ——-> ZLY is the mastermind!
    Tainted baby formula lead to deaths ——-> ZLY is the owner of the company!
    US might ban TikTok ——-> ZLY is orchestrating it!

    You get my drift, haha. At this point if as asteroid was headed to the Earth I’m sure this commenter will say it’s karma to punish Zhao Li Ying for being such a talentless, ugly, vindictive hack.

    Regardless of whether any of the allegations against ZLY are true or not, it’s impossible to take anything this person says about her seriously, but please continue because the entertainment value is top notch. Even better than ZLY’s acting ability in any of her drama for sure. The commitment and creativity to link everything back to her is *slow clap*.

    • I have been lurking for years now reading your blog mostly just to catch up on dramaland happenings and your opinions on it as this is a personal blog. I get a kick out of reading comments too. Almost every article there is always some trolls with their own take which makes for very amusing reading and you can see it coming a mile away hahaha. Thanks again for entertaining me all these years 😁

    • Idk who they are trying to convince with different usernames. That lunatic style of typing is unique and one-of-a-kind. That craycray is apparently active on other drama sites like Jaynestars, Dramapanda, MDL etc as well.

    • I knew it! I knew it has got to be the same person with all those weird posts. But gosh, she has a LOT of time on her hands. Those manifestos were scary long!

      • There are always jokes in Asian movies and dramas about anti fans. Guess this individual is just one bonafide extreme anti fan and chose your blog to unleash it all because they won’t be penalized or troubled by doing so. I personally never witnessed such a thing personally. Like woah LoL. Seriously though what dedication 🙃

    • Honestly I come here these days to entertain myself on these ridiculous accusations and this loser never fails to show up. You know the most hilarious one I saw recently was also blaming ZLY for In Blossom ratings lmao, the poor lady probably never even heard of Liu Xue Yi, I swear if the sun doesn’t shine they’ll find a way to pin it on ZLY 😂😂😂

      Constantly making her out to be some monster and EVERY other actor in China is under her thumb, at a point one might wonder if ZLY is the secret president of China 🤣🤣

      That person needs to get a life post haste

      As for Yang Mi, I enjoyed her in Eternal Love but that’s it, God knows I’ve tried to like her other dramas but damn she’s got one look all through her dramas, zero life, she’s just the same bland look playing different characters. I like her but she really hasn’t given me much material to work with. Talent isn’t hidden, if you got it, you got it

      As for ZLY, one would not deny that lady is extremely talented, especially when acting strong characters, she’s one actress that makes you empathise and bond with any character she’s playing, I started watching costume dramas because of her after I enjoyed Princess Agents so much, loved her in Legend of Fei, MingLan and recently ShenLi which in my opinion is the best drama of 2024 so far with all the crap that’s been getting released. She’s super fierce and believable in her role as a warrior, she makes you believe she isn’t faking it.

      I honestly do not care about whatever rumors about her personal life, I’m only interested in acting prowess and if I had to pick, I believe everyone can guess who my pick will definitely be

      • It’s always the background color(automatically?), if Mrs.Koala writes in the comment section. And every comment to that is then pink, too. I’m reading this block far longer then a decade and never saw it differently colored. I like that it’s easy to spot, if she replies here.
        This time she shared a very hilarious observation, which was highlighted so well by the pink. I loved it

    • I think she wants a cdrama made after her. THE Legend of Obsessed anti fan of Zhao Li Ying. She is like a crying baby! Wants to be heard. To bad we all don’t have time to screen shot this onto weibo or chinese Media, people would get a kick out of this. Funny this person started off reddit trying innocent, then moved on to MDL trying to look like she Hates ZLY marketing team… Now it’s gone too obsessive lol. This one needs real help!

  6. I love Yang Mi for me my personal opinion she’s the best Chinese actress. I love her in period dramas such as Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, Novoland Pearl Eclipse, Legend of Fuyao simply amazing

  7. Her acting never convinced me to know more about her character. She was just there, doing her job, that’s it.

    I’ve watched the 2 first episodes and dropped it. Not like the genre tho. Im more into the story than acting but bad acting is still a bad acting despite the story is good.

  8. Her styling and acting might be off but its really vile to compare her with the actress whom her ex husband cheated on lol (although I agree that Wang Ou’s portryal of Wan Manchun was iconic). Chinese netizens really know to strike where it hurts the most.

  9. dont trust the review…who are they? chinese netizen that try to vent their stress with hatred. They gave negative review to all veteran, Yang Yang (despite all the negative effort, the drama ended as top 3 in the year), Ni Ni, Zhao Li Ying (the Legend of Shen Li later show them that they are wrong, it break the record and well loved), Bai Lu (who won artist of the year and got so many hit drama. They recently even criticize their national hero Ma Long that just won World Cop table tennis, as when he pose with the cup, there is a watch on his wrist that use him as the ad. Such hypocrisity, he is 36 and the legend that is well loved by International, whats wrong with become Ad model to get more income? and he about to retired. So enjoy the drama without listening to this crazy people that is feel they are superior than Oscar reviewer LOL. However i believe Koala is good reviewer. On the side note, Yang Mi drama broke Iqiyi record

    • Yang Yang can’t act either. He is too aware he is pretty and that is all that is. He is becoming more and more oily as he ages.

      Bai Lu has been seriously deteriorating in her acting but she has the talent. Hopefully she doesn’t end up like Yang Mi in her lack of drive but once she leaves that psycho Yu Zheng, which should be next year hopefully, she can at least bounce back. But rn, she isn’t doing all that well.

      You can’t just lump every criticism into the same pile.

      • Bai Lu need a year’s break to rest and reflect on all her works, then return with new energy. She has been running on top speed for to long for herself and even audiences…

      • @HL

        I don’t follow her too closely but unfortunately he really messed with her when she signed her contract with him. It is for ten years! So technically it should still be going until ’26 but she made a deal with him over filming a drama so she should be free next year. I really hope he sticks to the bargain.

        I agree she should rest a bit then but on the other hand, this industry is ruthless and she will probably be afraid of falling behind. She has no real serious acting jobs in her portfolio rn. But at least she will be free to choose.

      • @Nah, I really hope Yu Zheng will agree otherwise, when her contract is up…she can go anywhere which will upset him just as Chen Xiao left him.

  10. oh boy, way to rub it in with the Wang Ou comparisons, since there were always rumours swirling around back in the day that her ex husband had an affair with Wang when acting together in a drama series – the infamous ‘we were only script reading together’ incident when paparazzi had videos of him entering and staying her room late at night for hours at a time

  11. Lol, I watched the first two episodes. I was curious to see if Yang Mi could actually act but had been restricted by the genres she/her old company chose.

    Well, her bad acting is actually alot more glaring here, it looks like she just woke up from 20 years of sleepwalking through her roles and suddenly had to start acting, she does look very anxious and twitchy.

    I think she’s using her real voice, she sounds like a bad tempered grandmother, hoarse and grumpy. In the first episode I actually thought she was undercover disguised as a grandmother.

    Her extreme thinness is really ageing (I actually think she looks ill) and is making her look very frail like a elderly Japanese lady (on life long diets and are extremely thin).

    The other thing I noticed was her really bad hair that reminded me of 90’s footballer mullet hair. Where the front is short and straight and the back is long and permed, it looks so odd.

    Lol who will be doing the acting in her Fox spirit matchmaker drama with Gong Jun, it will be like the blind leading the blind.

    • Thinness is good but too much of it accelerate aging process. Plus she didn’t lay low on the jaw-shaving work and nose/lips jobs which make her face looks it can break at any time

      • Lol, whenever I see Yang Mi’s thinness, I start to worry about osteoporosis and bone density then pop a calcium tablet lol.

        Her face does look very skeletal, it looks quite different to younger photos I’ve seen of her.

    • I am wondering if Ozempic have seep into China…I am not say YAng MI took it as she is alway super slim…she has no reason to take it.
      But it does make me wonder if Ozempic had made its way into some of the heavier artiste as a form of weight lose drugs.

      • Oh absolutely yes. China accounts for something like 5% of their sales. You can get it no problem, you just have to pay if it’s for weight use.

  12. Whether her acting is bad or good, it’s ab time she starts choosing this kind of roles and let her viewers judge her by her acting skill

  13. I’m loving this drama and the only other drama of YM I’ve watched is TMOPB. YM acting has improved she’s so badass and the storyline is soo good

    • This person really needs professional help.

      And that comment about Liu Xueyi was written by me and I am absolutely not koala. Damn, that’s some fixation she has.

    • Wow 😮 I read it. She is really something. Looks like she won’t stop. Truly beyond obsessed. Borderline psychotic maybe. 😬

      • Except the people responding to it are not on the same page and dislike his/ her comments on the wrong place to start weird fan wars of I don’t know what? lol just like we have stated likewise.

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