Yang Yang Confirmed as Male Lead for Big Budget Wuxia Period C-drama Zhan Zhao Adventures
Looks like the brief bad publicity for C-actor Yang Yang last summer during the airing of Fireworks of My Heart is over and he’s back feeling on top again. He has big budget period C-drama The Immortal Ascension filmed last year and can air anytime but probably late this year, and now he’s confirmed for another big budget period C-drama that reportedly a lot of C-actors wanted. It’s the male lead centric Zhan Zhao Adventures (Chinese title 雨霖铃 Yu Lin Ling) and if the name of the lead character sounds familiar you’re in my age group haha. Zhan Zhao is the famous Song dynasty folk hero a top wuxia swordsman who became a magistrate and enforcer for the legendary black-faced Judge Bao champion of the people. This is a very covetable male character to play and Yang Yang has landed it, and reportedly with Ding Yu Xi also signing on as the second male lead. Above is the concept poster released with the casting confirmation.
Sigh
He does look good in costume dramas and is good in action scenes despite being horrible in acting. At the end of the day these super popular liuliangs may be mocked for their bad acting but the industry will still choose to use them instead of less known actors.
I hope his acting is decent.
I’m such a veteran in Cdrama land that decent acting is good enough for me.
I’m kind tired of seeing people bashing and kicking actors when they do decent jobs.
I’m so much more worried about the directing, editing and screenwriting. People in China are messing up very badly in these departments.
People bash and kick the actors but the people behind the cameras and the scenes are left unpunished by their bad deeds just because they do not show off their faces.
💯 true, those bts fuck up even more but then they always get laid off easily compared to the actors
I still don’t let bad acting slide (and worse when it’s a silly romantic drama and the acting can’t even show love) but YES the screenwriting, directing, and editing in Cdramas are so bad. I used to not care at all until I became annoyed by bad lighting in dramas and then that was the beginning of going down the rabbit hole of noticing everything wrong with these productions.
I see webnovel fans argue over casting choices for their favorite novels, but they should worry more about the screenwriting and director. Nowadays originality is dead and all of these adaptations are getting made, but most of them are horrible.
@Jiao, agreed. Bad writing and directing are mostly the major culprits to produce subpar C dramas.
Horrible color grading, bad costumes, weird camera angles, and bad endings are always bashed by Netizens, if you are a veteran you would know so IDK what you are talking ab
That’s the price of being the face of the drama/movie as they get the most benefit when a project is success, more fame, endorsement. PLus these Actors demands so much $, at times even more 30 %of the budget(hence the government intervene but they resort to other methods).
Even when a project is awful, if the actor is good they wont get so much bashing… so the actor should work on their acting and pick project they know they can deliver.
everyone has a different perspective of what “decent acting” is. YY is generally acceptable in more stoic characters. it’s when he tries to play more complex characters like in Fireworks and Martial Universe that he falls flat on his face. I love his visual though, so I’ll still check out his dramas where he plays more reserved characters.
Zhan Zhao is one of my favourite characters. Kenny Ho is still one of my favourite Zhan Zhao…
Yang Yang has taken on a iconic role. I hope he will do the character justice. I will leave my judgement when the drama airs…I have seen Yang Yang working hard in the period drama that is waiting to be aired. I will not dismiss him as yet.
But on a personal note 🤔🤔: I can imagine another liuliang that can nail this character. But….. 😔😔
I guess Yang Yang is the male version of Yangmi at first he has lots of potential than in recent years he become stagnant,lucky for him,he’s still handsome.
Yang Yang is so handsome,I can’t wait to see immortal ascension.
He can’t act to save his life so how did they think to give him a role that requires actual, substantial, skills?
I am so disappointed in Daylight. The netizens tore this casting apart so I hope they are ready for the disaster when this starts broadcasting. Because he won’t get any better than he is now. And that is really bad.
Right? It’s hilarious that anyone would think this is a good casting. Zhan Zhao is such a classic character and Kenny Ho was amazing in the role.
All Yang Yang will do is to preen and pose and walk around with a stiff back, like what he did in WRTW.
@snow
Posing and trying to act cool is all he knows how to do. There is no way he can pull off this role unless they dumb it down completely and that would be a crime.
I don’t understand people who care only about him being hot, plot and quality be damned. Just open a magazine and get off to photos then. It’s the same thing.
If I recall correctly, in previous adaptations of this character, he was very upright and stoic. Sigh… Yang Yang can be stoic but in such a boring wooden fashion.
Will the other Justice Bao characters show up? I liked the clerk a lot.
Clerk? Or Strategist? Just curious…
The clerk/strategist? Lol. My memory is faulty.
You’re talking about Gongsun Ce? My parents used to watch the TVB version from time to time and the late veteran HK actor Liu Kai-Chi played him so well.
You’re right, that’s who I was thinking of! Thank you for jogging my memory.
Zhan Zhao is Chin Chiu in Canto yeah? Huh a story focused on him instead of Justice Bao? How weird…
And really Ding Yu Xi willing to be 2nd billed to Yang Yang? But then again it wouldn’t be hard for DYX to outshine YY in the acting department so if he plays his cards right, he’ll be the one getting praised in the drama.
If they wanted a liuliang as ML, I can actually think of a few who can act well, are good looking and have a large fandom to bring in traffic. Best one would be Wu Lei though.
Yes, I could definitely see Wu Lei in this role.
You are right about DYX running circles around YY so it’s possible he is thinking strategically about having a stand out role while still being a supporting actor.
Wu Lei would have been good but who knows what they were thinking. It’s actually a quality crew, it’s the Story of Minglan writer. Writing for Yang Yang ha ha. It’s funny negl.
The side profile is exactly Yang Yang’s preference. He should tan up a bit to look tough. The pale white skin is not becoming of an enforcer/swordsman.
I cannot imagine any liuliangs doing so to be honest… the natural healthy tan skin tone…Love it!!!
So per all the information about this production, Yang Yang hasn’t really got scathed by negative campaigns running rampant against him last year. LOL. Investors obviously still bet huge on him. It seems he has also lied pretty low-key since that setback due to Firework of My Heart.
YY has some onscreen charisma in modern dramas. But his costume ones have never successfully worked on me. I hope he’ll have some breakthrough in this genre. I always consider visuals a great asset in the showbiz. After all, acting can be improved through different levels of efforts. Looks, however, can’t be changed without sharp knives. Ouch! LOL.
I agree…visual is key for liuliangs. If a artiste looks appeal to me, even if his acting is subpar but story is great…I will still watch the drama. Of course, if acting is bad and story is bad…then I will drop it.
Examples of afew liuliangs apart from Xiao Zhan, Wu Lei.. Yang Yang, Dylan Wang, Cheng Yi, I would watch their dramas before deciding if I will continue with them.
Yang Yang hasn’t improved in 15 years and you think now he will? Not happening.
Yang Yang is a half empty glass to you…I will place Yang Yang a half full glass for me…he can go up or down. I will watch and see…
It’s hard to say. Think about K actresses and actors. Quite a few couldn’t act or fairly bland in their 20s but progressed to fine actors years later. For example, Suzy and Junho. If they are bad in both acting and visuals, then the prospect will be gloomier. Acting can be dramatically improved if one does due diligent.
I agree with you. YY acting really hasn’t improved in 15 years. He also rarely tries to tackle anything challenging. He mostly stays in his safe zone. Hopefully, he actually tries to improve his acting before it’s too late and he’s too set in his ways.
There are also Korean actors like Sung Hoon, who have never improved. I found him so cringey in Perfect Marriage Revenge.
I stopped watching C dramas a while back, but I have a soft spot for Yang Yang lol. No idea what controversy is being referenced from last year, but I do love a male centric drama sometimes particularly if it has some bromance. Never heard of the source material but I’ll keep an eye out if I dont forget.
I’m glad for him though I’m not the biggest fan of his acting. Yang Yang is really really handsome (probably one of the prettiest actor in C-ent) but I can’t bring myself to finish any of his dramas. I first watched him in ‘Love 020’ and dropped it, then tried ‘Who Rules the World’ with favorite of mine Zhao Lusi and couldn’t go past 15 episodes, it was such a snoozefest with zilch chemistry between the leads that I’m still pondering to this day whether I should continue it or not (I’m even dumbfounded by its MDL high score; Douban is more spot on)…
He’s so nice to look at lol, so I hope he is at least decent, and that they cast a strong actress.
sigh u guys..waiting for the strong actress & 2nd ml
Youku is churning out a bunch of interesting dramas lately rather than same old xianxia, which is good news for me.
Xianxia is getting tiring for me…
There are no bad actors, only bad directors.