Legend of the Female General Premieres to Strong Buzz Thanks to Tencent’s Heavy Promotion But Mixed Reviews
Yesterday was D-Day for those of us (memememe!) waiting for the premiere of Legend of the Female General, adapted from a novel by Qian Shan Cha Ke titled Rebirth of a Star General. Tencent had to delay the drama for six months due to the scandal with a male supporting lead and then filming his scenes with a different actor and AI face swapped but summer is probably a good time anyways to air. The drama stars Zhou Ye as the titular female general with Cheng Lei as a fellow male general so it’s a lot of loving on and off the battlefield for these two crazy kids in love. I watched the first 5-episodes and feel mixed emotions, TL:DR it’s not as good as I had hoped but good enough to keep watching. The drama is getting the most criticism for the huge changes made to the set up and plot – removing the rebirth of the female lead (which does away with the douchey ex-husband and her new reborn into family), and also the overuse of her voiceovers in explaining the plot. Zhou Ye’s acting is her usual weak, she does okay in still and action scenes but when asked to emote in quiet scenes her acting is very noticeably “acting”. Cheng Lei is doing fine though this version of Xiao Jue feels more one-dimensional than the novel version. But for those who love the novel so far the drama isn’t butchering the whole vibe and is fun enough for the casual viewer to also enjoy.
I think ZY did a pretty good job. I did read the novel tho I drop it later. Her character is one of the reasons why I dropped it. She didn’t interest me even with her tragic backstory. She’s too cheerful for this kind of character.
And I don’t understand why you said XJ is one dimensional. At this part of the novel, there’s barely anything about XJ that makes him a very good male lead. But at least they already add his backstory early in the drama. So I kinda sympathise with him
The whole production feels cheap. But because of all the excessive promotion, it heighten people expectation. So it affects the drama. The previous drama from the same writers have similar level of production. But they hv less promotion. So people started with low expectations
I love it. I’ve read the novel and ejjoy the drama. I really like Zhou Ye’s acting. She’s fun to watch. Cheng Lei was better when he was the 2nd lead in another drama. But i dont mind him as General Xiao.
Currently on ep 6 and cant wait for the next episodes.
Without the rebirth story, it takes away some of the angst, so maybe that affected the drama.
Episode 1 seems rushed. Or perhaps it was hastily edited for some reasons. Anyway I started enjoying the show from episode 2 onwards.
Overall, I think overall Zhou Ye still did a decent job, especially her fighting scenes. Did she perform all the stunts?
Cheng Ye is also doing fine. They both seem to have a good chemistry.
Which is the actor that was replaced? I didn’t notice any AI yet…..
The one playing Cheng Lisu. The lighting on his face especially during outdoor scenes kinda make it obvious to me.
This year is really not great for drama. I’ve never given up on so many shows. It has become difficult for passer-by viewers to find something good.
same here. In recent years whenever I try a new drama I end up dropping after 5 eps and go rewatch some old faves instead…
It’s really annoying. They don’t want to make solid dramas anymore.
This site has glitches. 1st comment as a password to unlock comments. What a weird algorithm behind the user interface! lol
They ruined the novel, it is depressing. Too much ML who is actually surprisingly bland, he is not good enough to hold up the main lead and of course, the changes are really messing with the FL plus her own mediocre performance. It is one of my favourite novels but I think I am going to give up.
So far, I like it, but I do not love it. I still don’t know what the real personality of the female lead is. Is she playing the cheerful soldier as an act, or is that how she is? It doesn’t seem to fit the character considering her history.
The odds of them portraying reincarnation or transmigration accurately probably won’t ever happen in general until the censorship allows it. It will always either be just a dream, premonition, or this was just a story like joy of life. It is to be expected or they take it away and build the story without the logic. Almost all webnovels or webcomics utilize the transmigration to another book or era or redo at life bit. Does China still believe people will truly try suicide to replicate these stories? Can’t fictions just remain fiction? Though it is odd that they write a lot of stories with this trope. Still I don’t see the harm in allowing fiction to stay fiction. I get explicit things being censored though. 🤷🏻♀️ I will wait for drama to finish out. I’m more interested in the male lead though than female lead.
Why people cast weak actor and actors in many historical drama this year?
when i first saw the name of the fl, i did not expect that much. I think her level of acting is just okay okay, she has this type of default expression which is annoying for me. the male lead has a strong aura, i would like her to be paired with Song Zuer or bai lu or lusi-
I am not feeling it so far. I don’t see any chemistry between the leads and tired of seeing episode after episode of the FL asking to join the elite fighters. Struggling to continue to watch, but if something doesn’t happen soon, will be tuning out.