Prestige C-drama Born to be Alive with Yang Zi and Special Guest Hu Ge Wraps Run with Mid-viewership and High 8.1 Douban Ratings
The time before lunar new year may not have been the best time to release Born to be Alive, the Tibetan plains era drama with a strong homeland security and environmental conservation themes. CCTV released the drama at the end of January and in its two week run that just finished this weekend, the viewership was pretty mid for a big budget drama with big names Yang Zi in the lead and Hu Ge in a special starring role along with plenty of famous veterans. This was supposed to be one of those rah-rah serious and solemn C-dramas that espouse themes of patriotism and doing the right thing which usually does well with terrestrial viewers in China. The opening Douban ratings are high at 8.1 but there isn’t a lot of voters showing that the prestige is there but the mass appeal isn’t. Word on the street is that the drama is good but it’s too dark and serious for viewers to want to watch it all, so the drama is actually doing well in short clips on social media and video platforms.
I didn’t even know that this was airing.
Same
As I’ve always said, Douban ratings are highly unreliable 🤠They have to make the rating high because someone is aiming for Best Actor/Actress awards despite their mid acting skills.
Does the mid acting skills comment refer to Yang Zi? If so, I have a genuine question. Wasn’t Yang Zi always considered a genuine actress in China, rather than a traffic star? The only drama I’ve seen of her was “Battle of Changsha”, filmed when she was still a teenager, I think, and I thought she was really good in it. Better than her co-star Wallace Huo, even (which, granted, might not be saying much… but still). And it was a Daylight Entertainment production, which means prestige, right? So, did she regress in her acting skills since then, or what is it?
Thank you so much if you have the time to explain.
When she was teenager she is good child star. But in recent years it’s true she took more idol roles. I don’t think she is bad actress, but she’s not amazing one either since she never took a role that could show off her skills.
Well actually it’s hard since chinese production, unlike korean, have huge chasm between idol and serious role.
I don’t care what anyone says, I enjoyed this drama. The first arc with Hu Ge was the best part but there are a lot of deaths and tribulations but it’s based off real stories. I gave it a 9.5/10.
It wasn’t mid viewership as it damaged CCTV8 range. A big flop on every metric and from a big production team. Low CVB, Low Yunhe, only data that can be influenced by fans like discussions and reposts on social media was high. The marketing was too much.
If this drama damaged CCTV8, then why was it picked up for airing on CCTV1 starting February 19?
These things are prearranged.
What? What mid viewership? Koala’s bias is getting worse towards Yang Zi on a daily basis.
This drama is a massive, massive flop. Daylight invested through the roof and now they are in financial trouble. TV ratings appalling for this time of year. Online views even worse.
Yang Zi was destroyed by critics. Her acting never worse. The only light point in this drama is Hu Ge.
Of course YZ bought the Douban ratings, just like she will buy the Magnolia nomination. Still won’t change that this is a huge disaster so stop whitewashing it.
Yang Zi, Zhao Liying, and Cheng Yi articles will always bring out random haters. The drama is good, Yang Zi’s acting is good. Wish it would have done better but less views doesn’t automatically mean lower quality.
Ofcourse her drama no matter how good or bad will get a high rating on Douban
I enjoyed this drama… regardless what rating say..
I have really tried to like Yang zi but I have been unable to. Maybe I have been unable to recover from her baby act and pouting in ashes of love and whatever I saw in Go go squid.
I was the same as you. I couldn’t stand her in Ashes of Love back in the day. I loved Battle of Changsha but her character in that drama was also difficult to like in the beginning. But she really has improved. Lost You Forever, Flourished Peony, and this drama Born to Be Alive really show a different side to her.
What “mid viewership”? It’s a total flop both on web as well as on Tv.
Not even getting 10 million views per ep after completing it’s run.
This site is so biased. This drama FLOPPED so hard I heard it on the other side of the planet. I bet if this was Bai Lu’s drama, y’all would have ripped her apart.
Welp, Unveil Jadewind is doing much better beating out this crap and you likely wont post about it and even if you do it’ll be filled with some kind of negative comments.
So all that matters are the numbers? LOL. The quality of C-dramas is steadily declining, precisely because of the competitiveness and the focus on who sells the most. In K-drama communities, there are arguments about ratings/popularity, but folks still stand firm when it comes to discussing about intention. This explains why the South Korean industry has advanced to its current level. It also highlights why C-drama viewers dislike the lack of romance in a script, they are used to junk content.