Well, the first big flop of C-drama land 2024 is unfortunately going to be Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red Moon Pact. There are way worse dramas this year and lower viewership but compared to the astronomical budget and mega star studded cast of this drama then this drama has underperformed to a record degree. The drama is reportedly now abandoned by the production and main cast in terms of promotions, leads Yang Mi and Gong Jun will do no further promos and are acting like this drama doesn’t even exist. The production has also ended purchasing hot searches to create buzz. This is a big deal that this drama flopped as reportedly it’s negatively impacting both Yang Mi and Gong Jun’s pay scale for future projects as well as throwing the next two installments Love in Pavilion and Sword and Beloved in the Fox Spirit Matchmaker drama universe into question.
It is hard to replicate the success of Love between fairy and devil but they can atleast learn from it. That show had a good team of writers and director that knew how to make actors act. Instead Stellar choose the Love you seven times director for all 3 of these shows. That’s a pretty big risk they’ve taken but I think people will still tune in to atleast check out a few episodes of both Liu Shishi and Cheng Yi’s dramas for their popularity alone.
I love LBFAD ….it is and it will be my favorite CDrama
But I liked also Love you Seven Time
This drama isn’t for me, instead
I randomly checked out thirty some odd chapter and felt the pacing slow and slightly boring. The chemistry with the leads seems forced. Main female lead is so resting mean face and main lead cheery and hopeful. It just does not blend well. It just does not have that captivating pull for a story. But there does seem a lot going on maybe because there are so many characters they failed to bring the main characters to full bloom. It happens more often with stories that have multiple couples thrown in. Still I will wait to watch it later fully but if by episode 30 and on the story is slow rolling still it can’t be good for people to pull through and have the great patience to watch. Not everyone has the will power to trudge through dramas like that.
The writing is appalling. I stuck it through 34 episodes but have no desire to watch it to the end. They make all the human-spirit side couple’s romance (which the viewer gets invested in) end tragically and the villains are almost undefeatable.
This drama was ruined mostly by a lousy script which didn’t call for much nuances in Yang Mi’s acting, just basically a one-note poker face. Unlike most people, I enjoyed Yang Mi’s and Gong Jun’s performances for most of the drama and thought they had chemistry, but I got tired of the repetitive themes. It’s one thing for a character to start off with a poker face but gradually soften as the drama proceeds. That’s what they do with the tsundere male characters and I don’t know why they didn’t follow a similar arc with this drama.
Hope Yang Mi has better luck next time. She hasn’t found much success in productions since she left her agency.
One thing is certain they all looked so pretty. From costumes and set.
I love the costumes and cinematography and found myself defending the production for the first 15 episodes. But it slowly started to devolve. I don’t know why C-drama writers don’t think about the ending of a script before they start shooting. For a drama about lovers, there’s only so much tragedy an audience will take before they start tuning off. I think I lost it when the third human-spirit connection ended up in misery. What’s the point?
Drama loaded with traffic stars tanked hard
This is so true to so many C dramas. Those popular actors got exorbitant pays that were like high way robberies of all the banks financing the productions. I wonder if anything much was left for other crew to even perform decent jobs cos they were not paid well, writers and directors in particular.
There have been numerous examples of flops with liuliangs in the cast.
For a drama that is supposed to be around LOVE and multi-lover maching; I felt no love in this drama, it was so dry that could cuz you an emotional damage.
Totally agree
I always think its important for an ctor to choose good scripts, too many failures and you get downgraded. The dramas that will be offered to Gong Jun from now on, will get worse and worse. Yang Mi still has her status from being in the industry for a long time. Her obstacle now its her age, productions will want younger trendier stars, and she won’t be a priority for high budget series. This is the same for all 85 flowers,they can’t afford too many flops at this stage of their career.The 95 flowers are in full force, they will be the ones moving big capital.
I think you never really know what will hit a big and I’m not sure if they get more than just a preview of the script. And things like direction can affect the script and the implementation. Fox Spirit Matchmaker being an already popular manhua and animated series and the drama probably garnering a lot of interest and investment made it seem like a safer bet than maybe a web series of a less popular novel.
I hope Gong Jun and Yang Mi can pick a script that has low expectations, low budget, and blah costumes only for it to be some dark horse drama that blows everyone away.
This is in no way the actor’s fault. The script was abysmal. They both should have turned it down. I do feel bad for Yang Mi, this has not been a good year for her acting-wise. None of her projects were up to par.
I’m very sad for Yang Mi but I hope that the producers will learn a few valuable lessons from this.
If the writing and directing sucks, it no longer matters how much budget you spend on actors, costumes and CGI. The focus of any production has to be on the quality of the core elements of a drama, plot and acting. Pretty costumes may draw people in, but they will stay for the plot.
Casting zero-chemistry pretty face Gong Jun in any romantic role will lead to the inevitable flop. The only acting partner he ever had any chemistry with was Zhang Zhehan, so give the guy some wuxia where he can be surrounded by boys.
Omg lol you are so right
I also think he would shine in a male centric drama. Too bad dramas like WOH have no chance of coming out anymore
I think Gong Jun has had good chemistry with Zhou YuTong in Begin Again (2020). This Fox Spirit Matchmaker drama does not have a solid script, it is like a smorgasbord of various spirits and humans trying to mate… Poor directing. I fell asleep many times trying to finish one episode. Not the leads’ fault. The whole production is a big mess.
Gong Jun does not have the aura for this type of drama. He should try a comedy. He should try to be the new and younger Stephen Chow. This is a tall order, but can be done.
Example a remake of Kung-Fu Hustle with Gong Jun.
I think Gong Jun would make a good full time shopping channel presenter, whenever he’s holding something candied hawthorn, sword etc he looks like he’s trying to sell it to you lol
😂😂I can visualise that lol lol
Gong Jun can’t act.
Yang Mi doesn’t care at all and is just going through the motions.
They have no chemistry.
Plot is bad. Of course it flopped. It’s actually embarrassing just how much water they bought trying to give an appearance of success.
It all ended with the finale of the production suing that Gong Jun fan, who spent a ton of money to push this drama. What a total disaster.
I think you need to go to DETOX. If GJ upsets you so much, there are a lot more other actors for you to watch. LOL. It was not your money that was spilled, why so emotional??
Do there was no successfull matchmaking?
I just finished ep36.
I watched from ep30 onwards- it was not as bad as all the reviews said- I thought Yang mi looks v pretty n I think her costumes are one of her best in all dramas.
Gong Jun is acceptable n handsome too. They do have chemistry together. So I don’t really agree with all the bad review.
Too many side characters in this drama. The main leads do not actually get much screen time. Very unfair to blame YM & GJ. Nowadays too many C-dramas reaping the S class artists’ fame to promote the minions. Drama was planned for 38 episodes, ended quickly at 36. Lots of scenes got cut.
I have not watched it yet but I will cos I really like Yang Mi. Funny everyone is calling this a flop but let that god awful abomination “The last Immortal”slide. I am still pissed off about that cos I just love love love ALP and was furious about how Yuanqi was portrayed and I am sick of seeing that female lead playing the same character over and over again
I dropped it at 10 episode a d I watch now the end episode
And I understand all like I would watched all drama
In the same time I am watching The Double and it is more abd more interesting then this drama, that I waited for months
I hope the others of the Fox matchmaker are more interesting
The actress here is so ….without expression….and the actor is so childish ….it is a great no ….