The Prisoner of Beauty Confirmed to Be Adapted into Mini Drama to Start Filming Next Month June 2025
Oh my god what?! Wow, this was not what I thought would happen but then thinking about it now probably always makes sense. The currently airing popular C-drama The Prisoner of Beauty (折腰) adapted from the novel The Marquis is Innocent (君侯本无邪) by writer Peng Lai Ke is confirmed to be made into a mini/short drama. Mini/short dramas are all web streaming only and range from a few minutes to maybe 10 minutes per episode and don’t have to adhere to the same restrictions as properly produced dramas and needing strict approvals. For example, years ago when the ban on time-travel in dramas came down, the mini/short dramas continued doing it anyways. Mini/short dramas have low budgets and a lot more making out/skinship, it’s the equivalent of a Thai lakorn. It’s basically bite sized candy drama nuggets and no one spends any time criticizing, either watch or don’t watch. The Prisoner of Beauty got its formal drama adaptation which is way sweeter and chaste compared to the more sexy novel so having it adapted into a mini works, not to mention the novel has a past live element that added interested pre-knowledge for the female lead. A mini drama will be able to do those elements and also cut out the borning politics lol, win and win. I’m kidding, I love the proper TPoB adaptation but would be fun for a trashy version as well. No word on the leads but no one thinks Song Zu Er and Liu Yu Ning will in a million years be back in a mini drama format.
I just learnt popular actors in short dramas are very well paid…much more than they taking on long dramas. I watched Memories beyond Horizon S03 and learnt that.
No wonder actors that have some success in short dramas are not keen to move away from it. Bread and butter is important…Short dramas are no longer just newbies turf.
I am not a fan of short dramas, I watched afew but not for me. I bet this drama will do well…I wonder who will be selected to lead this drama?
Really ? Cause when asking around on rednote I was told mini drama actors salaries range from a lil above working class people’s to upper middle class’ in western countries for example while actors in the long drama industry are paid crazy amount of money (reason why people are mad whenever one is hit with tax evasion)
It is the popular mini drama actors that are well paid. Even must better then them taking up long dramas. Watch 【Memories Beyond Horizon S3】EP08. There is a interview section between 2 popular short drama artistes.
I doubt it is the same for all.
I really hope what you said is true. my fav short drama actor Dai Gao Zheng is more busy than regular actors and I always wondering why he is still stuck in short drama when he is so good looking and his acting is good. But they probably get less chance for advertisement tho
In 【Memories Beyond Horizon S3】EP08, I heard for some top artistes in mini dramas, they are not willing to move to long dramas due to pay.. you can watch the ep on Youtube.
I’ve definitely seen some really bad ones where the plot is completely nonsensical (and not in an entertaining way). A lot of them you can also tell the budget is very low (cheap quality sets, props, costumes).
But honestly lately it’s all I’ve been watching, I find with kids and work it’s draining to invest the time to watch a long drama without knowing if there will be a good payoff (and some long dramas have draggy scenes which feel like a waste of time). The mini dramas can be cliche and cringe but in general are pretty entertaining in a light-hearted way, most of them have a happy ending where the bad guys get their comeuppance, they have some good cute/fluff moments, so in general I find them a fun and quick, usually satisfying watch that doesn’t require a big time commitment. And even if it turns out to be bad, at least I haven’t wasted much time checking it out (usually I abandon the bad ones quickly).
Honestly though having a good plot is just gravy and bonus, for mini-dramas at least half the reason I’m watching is for the eye candy (LOL).
Sometimes mini dramas can be great and others just a waste of time. It depends on the quality and editing and of course acting but for me more quality.
Most are pretty awful. That said, some interesting directors have come up from or done mini-dramas, and picked up skills in pacing and working on a shoestring budget. Jia Bin Bin, the guy who did Blossom, for example. His mini-dramas were good and visually interesting.
Sorry, that director was Zeng Qing Jie. I mis-read. Jia Bin Bin is the screenwriter.
that director is good. even with limited budget he can make drama looks good
I usually dislike mini dramas as well, but I feel like the quality is getting better lately. I truly loved Dominion and Devotion, for example.
I also liked Mystic Tales with Zhao Jia Min who played in “The Double” (see link below). This one was decent (I even think this one is better than the SZE and RJL one).
https://mydramalist.com/768189-bu-si-yi-zhi-guai
And I also liked the one titled “Doppelganger” which I think wasn’t predictable (see link below)
https://mydramalist.com/779012-jiang-song
The mini drama sector is slowly improving in quality. Even some of the vertical ones (The cheapest in my opinion) became huge hits in China with their actors becoming popular to the point YuZheng casted some of them in his next project led by Hou Ming Hao and Guli Naza
@ Sirey Thanks for the recommendations! I don’t think I’ve watched either of these two dramas but I’ll give them a try!
I’m addicted mini dramas and short format 2-3 hours in length) dramas these days. They satisfy my night time snack attacks and some of the actors are excellent. Some of the intimate scenes are quite eye-opening! 🥸
I only watch short drama with good actors since the plot sometimes really unreliable and repetitive. only good chemistry and good acting can save those drama
Drama and novel same title in Chinese, it even says so in the picture.
I rarely watch period short drama because the low budget is usually more obvious than in modern short drama. I hope they GET good actors
@ Sirey Thanks for the recommendations! I don’t think I’ve watched either of these two dramas but I’ll definitely give them a try!