First Look at Gong Jun and Cast Filming Wuxia C-drama Tales of Dark River

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• As a fan of TODR. I must say that Gong Jun IS Su Mu Yu in person. The same must be said for every actor and actress who truely became the characters they're playing.
  Everything and everyone looks amazing.
  I pray to all gods that the drama is good! I'll be very happy if it's just good. If it surpasses my expectations, I'll be the crazy one dancing and screaming in my X's account.
  My greatest fear are the people behind the cameras. The people in front of the cameras do not make me worry much.

  • This is so true. Gong Jun has a powerful screen presence with high emotional impact, and it takes the right person to direct him. The directors are the ones whose vision we see on screen, as they control every movement, angle, kiss, punch and word that the actors say. Actors have very little power to control the scene. A director may re-shoot a scene dozens of times. Thinking of Fox Matchmaker, I saw many mistakes in the story telling and the way the scenes were shot. So many people were turned off by the female lead's lack of emotion and stone face in most of the show. That is the director's fault, and by not emphasizing the dead friend story in the FIRST episode, that love story was lost. Also, they should have let the actress show more secret emotion. The right director would have made this show a hit. IQIY shows 9.7+ rating on most of the episodes, so possibly those audiences are more mature and educated. I have High expectations for the director of Dark River.

• Is it really the 'make or break' drama? I feel he have been going thru that recently afew time already.

  I definitely love Wuxia more then Xianxia. Hope this script is good.

  • I feel like I've heard that "make or break" comment multiple times already too. Still seems like he's getting lead roles, so the previous flops don't seem to do much.

    • I agree.. 😂😂

  • Looks like C-ent is willing to give GJ plenty of opportunities for "make or break" INDEFINITELY. LOL.

    It's not a stretch to say GJ is one that the industry has been babysitting for a long while and drama fans are still waiting to see him to start to walk by himself. LOL.

    • Babysitting...interesting word to use. I will hijack it...

    • I won't lie this is the only possible explanation. I didn't say much then because their CP was blowing up, but Gong Jun was carried by ZZH in Word of Honor. I know ZZH is cancelled now but facts are facts, he was the better actor. I don't know why things keep falling in his lap, he's handsome I guess but he doesn't seem to be trying.

      If Gong Jun was a woman getting all these hit-or-miss opportunities people would be saying he slept his way to the top! The trust and hope in him is so strange.

    • Lol, he's someone's sugar baby for sure lol. Even after that Fox Flopmaker drama someone's still willing to bet on the wrong horse and burn money investing in his non-existing acting talent lol.

• Everyone looks great! The makeup and wardrobe team are doing a great job. I never found Gong Jun handsome, but his style in here is up my alley. Next, will have to see how the acting, script, directing, and production do.

• I'm really looking forward to 'Dark River'. I've been interested and invested in the character Su Mu Yu ever since 'The Blood of Youth' and again in 'Dashing Youth'.

  Whether Gong Jun can bring life to the character is another story, so far his acting except for his Wen Ke Xing from 'Word of Honor' has failed to impress me.

  He has huge shoes to fill as Jiang Zhen Hao was great as Su Mu Yu in 'The Blood of Youth' and Cheng Hong Xin is so far nailing the role in 'Dashing Youth'.

  • This is based off of blood of youth? If so then my interest is piqued? His acting is like ping pong for me sometimes he is okay and other times terrible. But if it’s based on the other dramas world background I don’t care if he is good or bad. Just interested in the overall story.

    • Yes, this drama is related to 'Blood of Youth' - it's the drama adaptation to the Chinese novel 'Tales of Dark River' and will be about 'An He' or the 'Dark River' family of assassins that we saw in both Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth.

      Zhou Mu Nan wrote the Shao Nian (少年 - Youth) series and its shared universe in chronological order includes:

      1) World of Honor (Jun You Yun) - set a few hundred years before the Shao Nian series
      2) The Young Brewmaster’s Adventure (Shao Nian Bai Ma Zui Chun Feng) - Dashing Youth drama counterpart currently airing, and also the prequel to The Blood of Youth
      3) Tales of Dark River (An He Zhuan) - Dark River; set after The Young Brewamaster's Adventures and 8 years before Song of Adolescence
      4) Song of Adolescence (Shao Nian Ge Xing) - The Blood of Youth

  • Fox was just bad directing. Jun was wonderful, but they didn't give the female lead any emotion.

• This might be the first drama I check out of GJ. Very excited to see PXR here!

• Chang Hua Sen looks great. Let's see if he will make me forget the stupidity of Li Tongguang!

  • Oh how did I missed that he's in this drama? Might have to rethink this drama. 🤣

• I'm more interested in the FL and the 2nd ML than GJ himself. Perhaps GJ will get lucky this time again to have strong acting and impressive presence in the cast other than himself to sell this drama like Word of Honor. LOL. Most likely he may be just proving himself a one-time fluke. I'm seeing him a lazy actor, not making efforts to understand his roles in all his past dramas thanks to lacking competition in the same cast without someone like Zhang Zhehan.

  • You just spoke my mind lol.Tbh, even in WoH even though his character is interesting but ZZH is obviously the better actor. I sometimes want to laugh during his angry or emotional scenes since to me its like is he laughing or crying/angry? And that goes on in other dramas too. Maybe he's trying to hard instead of emoting it naturally? I would love to be proven wrong though and see if he improve in this drama

• He always looks good

  He can't act worth a damn though. Another flop in the making.

• I really love gongjun in begin again. Just watching it this year. Such a nuance performances I was shock there is many haters of him here lol.... does he really that bad in other drama?

  • I'm not hating him. "Hater" is a strong word only for those who may go extra miles to take revenge. He doesn't owe me anything for me to be his hater. LOL. I was appealed to his visuals and did check almost all his past works including Begin Again that I even finished. It's fair for me to say he's not improving anything much since early years.

    • He is really wow me in begin again to the point I want to check out his other drama. He is not only good, he is really very good. One of The standout performances apart from senior actor. He is always delivered emotion even I find will challenging for a mediocre acting to pull off. He is good.I heard word of honor is his best acting, I really can't wait to watch it.

  • he is a pretty decent actor when he get a good script. And I think he suits modern drama more

• He does have a pretty face....... the end