Liu Yu Ning Elevated Another Level in C-drama Male Leads as The Prisoner of Beauty and A Dream Within a Dream Both Made Money
So this metric isn’t about buzz, search rankings, viewership, or ratings, but the age old “did it make money in the end” assessment. Usually it’s tied together, a popular drama will make money because the high viewership will lead to more CF sold and tail with streaming, but lately it’s not always the case due to the increasing cost of drama production including the salaries for the top stars. So making money (i.e. net profit, not gross revenue) remains the key driver for productions as it looks to cast stars and greenlight new dramas. C-actor Liu Yu Ning had two dramas air back-to-back this past spring 2025 and both are now confirmed to be moneymakers. The Prisoner of Beauty with Song Zu Er was specifically mentioned during Tencent‘s most recent shareholder and investor meeting as a hit for the platform and made money. While A Dream Within a Dream with Li Yi Tong is reportedly the only Linmon Pictures drama in the first half of 2025 that made money for the production company. Song Zu Er was already a top flower before her short cancellation and the success of TBoB and her The Demon Hunter’s Romance simply returned her to her OG position. Unfortunately Li Yi Tong did not get credit for Dream as she remains seen as solid but not exciting in her performance or generating buzz for herself. It’s Liu Yu Ning that’s had a level up thanks to the success of these two dramas and C-ent is looking to what he picks as his next drama project.
She carried Prisoner of Beauty. Absolutely nobody who knows anything thinks he was anything except a burden.
He isn’t happening no matter how hard you try to make him so for whatever reason. Already bloated, at best mediocre acting skills, rat faced.
And same thing, Li Yitong carried A Dream Within A Dream. He? Any actor with better skills and screen presence would have elevated the role.
Really do not understand what his appeal is. No acting skills, no screen presence, and still has such a complex about his looks that he keeps having to “jokingly” defend himself and imply passively aggressively that others are at fault.
I hate to break it to you, but he has already happened.
His concerts are sold out, he’s in the most successful varieties, and now he gets cast in hit dramas. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea visually, but he even has an army of fangirls that find him hot, so no matter what your or I think, he’s here to stay.
🤣🤣🤣
I was about to say.. LYN is getting alot of buzz right now so regardless of what you think about his acting skills as long as he is successfully making his brand prof?itable then who cares of the critique of a stranger on the internet who doesnt enjoy him but still watches him
@Nope Come out to play again? 😂👀
The rat faced comments a bit mean but I agree with everything else. Song Zuer HARD carried Prisoner of Beauty. I’ve tried really hard to like LYN but he’s not a compelling male lead. Not even because he’s not that attractive, it really is his boring acting. Mark Chao isn’t the most handsome but he carried TMOPB on his back as Yehua because he’s such a damn good actor. I watched A Journey to Love and Fang Yilun was the standout male performance, not LYN. He’s not male lead material imo. His female costars always out-act or at least out-charisma him. I have no clue how people can say that LYT isnt exciting to watch but then praise LYN, like that’s crazy.
LOL! The hate is delusional in this one.
Well deserved I would say.
I don’t think he his the only reason those dramas were a success, but he was a big part of it. It’s a shame Liu Yu Ning doesn’t get more credit for her acting in her role, I thought she was great. But the real winner for me is Song Zu Er. I hadn’t seen her before and the drama made me watch some of her older work. I am looking forward to see her in future projects, same as LYN.
I have a question for those who may know more. Youtube had afew videos that state Liu Yuning has helped Zhao Lusi leave her agency. He helped her get good legal support. And she is now independent. Is that so? As Koala has no further updates, I did wonder if that was true. Is Zhao Lusi still in her Frozen stage with her agency or have they cancelled her contract?
I’m pretty sure that’s some CP delusion. If Zhao Lusi were free of Galaxy Cool, it would be at the top of the hot search.
@Nope, why do you sound so bitter about Liu Yu Ning success? The article didn’t mentioned anything about his acting, it’s the overall money making ability.
Song Zu Er is known for her acting and Liu Yu Ning get criticized for his look and acting for years, so what’s your point….
An actor ability to bring out a character and their willingness to improve their craft are much more important than look. Just look at Ding Yu Xi, even he got criticized for his look and his performance in Love Game in eastern Fantasy changed people opinion.
I will pick Liu Yu Ning drama over any popular/pretty actors, at least I know he did his own lines whereas so many of them don’t even bother to improve their lines delivery. What kind of actor do not do their own lines, it’s something only happen in c-dramas.
I know, right? I really don’t understand how people can criticise someone’s looks. Even the ‘ugliest’ child is beautiful to their mother. That said, I don’t even see why people say he isn’t good looking,I find him extremely manly and attractive. Plus, his acting has definitely improved over the years.
They are just delusional haters. Why would any investor or platform deliberately choose ugly people for an idol drama, which is all about the visuals??? It makes no sense. They are not doing that. It’s understandable if someone’s looks aren’t to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t make them ugly.
They’re second hand jealous for the actors they stan. Lol. I’ve been trying to avoid saying that, but sheeeesh! The hate is outta control.
I don’t get the mean comments about his looks. He looks good enough to me, his height and bulk is convincing as a general or any heroic roles, not a pretty face, but we have more than enough of those.
That said, I find his acting just serviceable, SZE is the soul of the drama in TPOB.
While ADWAD was great and solidly acted by both leads, I’m not surprised it did not favour Li yitong. Her character was frustrating🤦♀️ and the only time I got frustrated with the male lead was when I expected him to just move on from the female lead.
Meanwhile Nanheng was a more complicated character to portray.
Of course the Nan Heng character was complicated … Nan Feng asked for more rewrites and screen time. ;p
I think it is just another level of meta that Li Yi Tong didn’t get the buzz or blow up, despite playing the character as written and then some, because that’s how the industry treats female characters and actresses. That’s not to say that LYN doesn’t deserve all the accolades, especially since a portion of the show was based on the slander and mess he went through for A Journey To Love.
Don’t shoot me for this but with the right styling LYN actually resembles young Zo In Sung (early 2000’s era).
I’d give most of the credit of TPOB success to Song Zuer and the writer on early part. It was hard to watch after episode 32 when SZE was given lesser scenes.
Out of topic, but why is Zo In Sung’s name sometimes spelled like that and sometimes it’s Jo In Sung? I’m confused lol, can someone explain?
Anyway, yeah I can kind of see the resemblance tbh
Zo is the official romanized translation of his name but there is no Z in Korean i think so sometimes he is called Jo.
I’ve seen some korean fans call Song Zuer as Song Jo Ah 😄
Yes, he actually even looks like one of the top drama actors in Taiwan during the 80s. I don’t understand the hate towards LYN but it seems people either like him or hate him. But in my orbit, all of us like LYN, find him attractive (than most of the people we see in our normal lives, haha) and think he acts well. I was actually on the other side, I could not continue POB because SZE’s acting is not compelling for me. I had to drop it. I have seen a few of her dramas and find that her acting is pretty much the same.
I agree that LYN has already happened. I think he is a much bigger star than SZE. He is in music and variety and then drama. I think the turning point was when he became Liu Tao’s leading man in Be Your Own Light.
Let’s call it as it is, hate aside.
Not shooting you but LOL @ the comparison with JIS. Nope! They don’t look alike at all except for the height.
I have seen a couple of LYN’s dramas and really enjoyed them, think he did a great job portraying the character and I don’t find him unattractive at all… From what I know he is extremely hard working, so kudos to him for achieving this level of success.
Every time there is news about LYN, there is also so many bad comment ( about his looks, his acting, etc ), but for me, I can see he make a lot of progress with his acting… And I really like his appearance.. so if people don’t like his looks just skip his drama, and watch another drama..
Are there publicly available information about which dramas “made money in the end”? People tend to judge dramas by buzz and ratings, but I feel like whether the drama actually broke even or turned out a profit is an important consideration. I know money isn’t everything, but the production and airing of dramas is still a business.
LYT not getting buzz is sort of expected since the character was written sort of frustratingly for half of ADWAD (even though I understood her motivations).
I’m happy for Liu Yuning. People knock his looks, but he looked great in these two dramas. He really suits the royal/high-ranking character styling.
I’m indifferent to LYN’s visuals although he’s on less appealing side in costume IMO. But there are many ugly actors who still won fans’ hearts through their incredible acting craft and charisma on screen. LYN, however, doesn’t own those merits to convince me of ML material YET. Think about his past works! He had been very lucky to costar with good actress after good actress. A lot of people including me tuned in to check out his dramas just to watch his leading ladies. His breakout leading role started with A Journey to Love with elegant Liu Shi Shi, followed by charismatic Zhao Lusi, and recently ended high note with beautiful-in-costume-who-also-can-act girl SUE. (I skipped LYT cuz the lady is almost forgettable as a leading actress.) All these three actresses can carry any drama ALONE and they actually did. LYN’s acting isn’t nuanced and always exuded smarminess in romance scenes that I felt funny and cringe-worthy at the same time. LOL.
No hate to him. I just can’t help snickering a bit seeing so much passion from fangirls including Koala towards a very ordinary actor all the time. LOL. No jealous as some comments suggested in the thread above cuz he’s still miles far behind my fav. I don’t see any chance for LYN to catch up in the near future either. They aren’t in the same leagues. I don’t need to be negative about LYN because of insecurity about my fav’s status in the industry. This is simply a subjective and personal opinion about LYN as an actor objectively compared with other C actors except for my fav. IMO, LYN’s roles in those high-profile and popular dramas costarring with good actresses mentioned above could have been easily replaced by quite a few other better actors and the drama could have been still success or even greater hits. His acting wasn’t pivotal to those dramas IMO.
It just happened that Koala is a huge fan of LYN. Therefore, she would bloat and rave about his success either commercially or rating-wise while downplaying equivalent or even greater success of LYN’s peers. Koala’s posts may mislead readers to consider LYN the most successful actor among all this year. I don’t think so, and I believe there are many on the same page as I regarding LYN.
👋😏
Opinions hey! Good job they’re often times different, otherwise it could get boring, quickly. Have only seen two of his works to the end – POB and ADWAD and thought he was fine in POB, basically (strongly) supporting the star of the show- SZE. He was excellent in ADWAD. Not just anyone can do well acting/presenting a fully formed character with their face half-covered most of the time AND also playing another, different character. I was impressed. As for his looks, well, this has come up before, so, while I was watching ADWAD I paid more attention to them. No, I didn’t find him ‘handsome’ if I’m being as objectively critical as I, or anyone can be, BUT I liked him, inspite of that. AND thought he brought something special to that role or rather roles.
Have part watched two other dramas – The Long Ballad, in which preferred him and Zhao Lu Si’s story/characterisation to that of the main leads. The other is A Journey to Love which I dropped after only a few episodes,not because I wasn’t enjoying, particularly. Can’t remember how I judged his acting in it. Might go back and continue, with a more critical eye to both acting and looks.
Não entendo esse hate. Acho ele um homem bonito, talentoso e bom ator. Além de carismático! Se não gostam dele é só não acompanharem a carreira, ignorem apenas, e deixem aqueles que gostam dele apreciarem-no em paz!
Song Zu’Er carried TPoB. She’s the highlight of this drama. All LYN’s FL carry the drama! Zhao Lusi, Liu Shishi, and Li Yitong are the highlight. The women are swan, while he’s a frog. Ugly frog that is. LYN and his fans are trying so hard to be the real deal, but despite their effort to pay yxh, passerby always poke their bubbles of delusions. LYN’s mid-acting skills, ugly expressions, and his constant duck-lips really bother me while watching TPoB. Sadly, he has army of delusional fangirls that always hype him up. But seriously, who want to watch ugly old man in costume drama?🤮