Bai Lu and Cheng Lei in Discussions for C-drama Mo Li From the Female Director of Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles Peach Blossoms
So it feels like every popular drama C-actress and C-actor has a drama currently filming, currently/pending airing, and another one in talks always at the same time. This week C-ent casting rumor mills has Bai Lu and Cheng Lei in 莫离 (Mo Li). The excitement is that the director is Lin Yu Fen who a lot of people are waiting for her directed The Demon Hunter’s Romance to air and she’s also the talented eye behind Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles Peach Blossoms, Lost Love in Times, The Journey of Flower, and Bu Bu Jing Xin among her many works. Her strong suit is big female lead story arc dramas filmed very prettily. Other male actor names thrown in for Mo Li also include Cheng Yi and Li Yun Rui.
Cheng Yi is a big name. I dont think he is willing to play second billing to Bailu in female centered drama. And I am ok with either Cheng Lei or Li Yunrui
Cheng Yi name was never considered big or part of A-listers though? Being 2nd billing to Bai Lu is very much possible especially if the main investor will not be his agency/company. CY was able to get 1st billing not bec he’s a big star but bec most of his dramas were invested or produced by his own agency. This is common in c-ent and the other example I can think of will be Zhao Lusi
Is this a joke? Even at Tencent event a few days ago, he was sat in C position besides ZRY, ZLY and other veterans. His position in the industry is pretty clear.
@Lina sorry but I am just stating a fact and I don’t mean to offend anyone with the truth. Also, only a handful of celebs attended Tencent event few days ago though? Mostly young celebs with career that are currently in bloom. So where do you want CY to sit? He attended that Tencent event bec the real A-listers were not there. CY never attended any all star event with all real A-listers are in the guest list .
What fact? You’re only stating your own maadeup opinion. Go check out the list of guests at Tencent event and then say it’s only a handful of people there. Also he’s not only working in HR dramas but it’s HR that inserts itself like a leach into some of Cheng Yi’s outside projects to share the profits. You can see that his projects always have a long list of investors and production companies and HR’s name will be seen at the end. HR even made a big mess out of Chang’an 24 strategies because they wanted to be part of the production but Youku wouldn’t agree. Someone needs to free Cheng Yi from that parasitic company.
@Lina sorry dear but Cheng Yi is really no a-lister. He’s just one of the many actors in c-ent. Even if you scream that he is no one will hear it bec CY will always be one of the many . Also you confirmed it yourself that his agency is always part of the investors. There’s your answer from your own mouth.
Lastly, can you name drop any project like a big budget movie or big budget drama with big top class production and renowned director that CY was part of? You can’t of course bec CY is nothing but just one of the many actors in c-ent
You can deny all you want but it doesn’t change reality. I said some of his outside projects, not all. His upcomming drama Wang Quan is from Stellar pictures without HR involvement, they brought YM and LSS as first billing for the other two parts. CY got first billing for the male centric drama of last part so you pu two and two together yourself. Also his other upcomimg male centric drama Hero Legends has an other winning director Yang Wen Jun with no involvement from HR. His currently filming drama CA24, was announced by Youku as one of their five key projects of 2025 with a cast full of respected veteran actors. Out of his 4 upcoming dramas, only FuShanHai is from HR production. All of his upcoming dramas are fully male centric.
I’m curious, who do you think real A listers are? Are ZRY and ZLY not considered real A listers by you? Because almost everyone was there at tencent awards execpt for a couple of people.
@Lina but all the ‘projects’ you claimed to be ‘big’ are just all mid-level productions in Chinese Entertainment. Please name drop legit big productions and please name genuine big projects according to the industry standards !not big projects based on your fandom definition of ‘big’. I also did not see CY last night at c-ent biggest event ‘Weibo Night’ or even remembering him attending one?
@tripleruffles – CY may not be an Alister but his seating arrangement near ZLY and ZRY during the tencent awards show that tencent and related investors see him as an important actor and are willing to invest in him and his dramas on tencent. In C-ent seating arrangement is EVERYTHING and signifies that whoever hosting the show is investing/supporting in these key group of people.
also not attending weibo night doesn’t say anything. Many famous ones did not attend as well and do not attend every year. It is hardly prestigious as everyone who attended got an award, you don’t even have to be active in acting or have any shows airing.
All these events hosted by iqiyi tencent weibo etc are not prestigious by any stretch of the imagination, they are simply events the celebs have to attend to “show face” to their investors, ensure that these platforms will continue investing in their future productions and that fans are kept happy. Weibo is THE only social media microblogging platform in china, with a ton of investment opportunities and complex business deals struck up by fan groups, production companies, the actors’ agencies and many many more parties. c-ent is cut-throat and competitive, if these celebs wanna be top of the mind of any bigwig ppl/investors, it’s best they show face at these events.
also to add – these events are simply popularity award shows. any traffic/upcoming/popular actor/actress will attend. the majority of them who attended are in the idol category and nobody in mainland china would consider half of the list of names there great actors/actresses.
@anne seating arrangement is everything that’s why CY never attended any event when many A listers are present. Because he will not get a seat and for sure he will walk early during red carpet too.
No one see CY as good investment only Hanrui or Hanrui related companies will do project with him bec if he really is a good investment then he should have doing BIG PROJECTS back to back already or his career is already flourishing without any one doubting about his status.
He cannot even keep a milk tea brand as endorsement and the brand got sued after majority of the milk tea brand franchise owners lost a lot of money for bec the brand chosen CY as endorser and put his face on their brand but got boycotted by their loyal customers bec of putting a ugly nugu photo on their drinks. CY studio even instructed fans to line up outside the milk store when everyone in China knew that people ordered online (using app) instead of queueing
CY was also caught of using high-number of bots to fake his data to dupe endorsers. It was rumored that he was called for tea by the authority bec how massive the operation he was involved in but he pushed the blame to his own fans that fans hired bots by themselves.
Lanvin dropped him bec he demanded the brand to pay for his family holiday in Paris
The reality of CY is that he’s still a laughing stock for selling a fake aegyo personality to please the special ‘fans’ that received monthly special’photos’ from CY himself
It’s not based on my definition, It’s based on Yukou, Iqiyi and Tencent’s definition but apparently you know better than them? Also even if those projects are not big as you claim (which they are) then only CY’s present in them is enough for the platforms to name them as their key projects.
And you just discredited yourself in a moment. Weibo night is C-ent biggest event?????
Also my first thoughts. Cheng Yi has been 1st billed already for a bit and doing fine so I highly doubt he is considering.
This called fake casting news , putting big names in project to get the hype ,I doubt Cheng Yi would ever cast with BaiLu they just have different style of choosing a drama, he prefer male lead center dramas and she prefer female lead center drama.
Cheng Yi was never in talks with this drama. He’s been filming male centric dramas back to back for two years now and it is said that his next three projects have already been decided.
Lin Yu Fen can show case the artistry of intricate subtlety as a female PD. I really like how she filmed Bu Bu Jing Xin. I’m less excited about BL as the FL. I gave a shot to her recently premiered Moonlight Mystique. She disappointed me again. She indeed has a limited acting range, not able to differentiate among various characters she had played so far. They all looked and felt the same. I had to drop that drama bcos of bad acting. Among all the rumored ML options, hopefully Li Yun Rei will be given the offer. He as a ML runs a fresh stream through such a large nonetheless sterile ML casting pool. I hope someone else more interesting than BL is given the FL offer though.
I dont feel Cheng Yi is suitable to cast with Bai Lu… I hope the male cast will be well chosen.
I dont dislike Bai Lu. But her acting seems stagnant. She’s pretty and has fun personality but sorry, her acting just look the same lately. It gets boring. I dropped her latest drama at ep 1.
Probably, it’s just not my preference.
Havent finished anything with Cheng Yi. And idk if he was an A list. Is he? But yeah, he has a lot of good dramas under his belt.
Agree. I’m so tired to see her in xianxia doing the same role and making the same expressions. People don’t talk enough about her acting because she looks good on costume. Can’t they find anyone else? aren’t there enough actresses in c-ent..
There’s somebody on weibo who collated her crying scenes from some of her dramas. The setting and costumes were different but her crying scenes were all – screaming, eyes shut tight until her wrinkles appear as if wishing for tears to come out.. I swear when it did, I felt relief. Hahaha.Sister didn’t even try to give some variations and spice up her crying scenes.
I like Bailey Lu but would have to agree that her acting has been stagnant. I haven’t finished anything of hers in a while
I think like a lot of these trending actors in C-dramas she is getting burned out. They just shoot drama after drama with no break and she is going through the motions at this point.