Director of Period Romance Key to the Phoenix Heart Makes Uncomfortable Joke Suspecting that Leads Hou Ming Hao and Ai Mi Actually Fell for Each Other in Real Life Filming the Drama
Talk about both massive foot in mouth and being wholly unable to read the room. I’m talking about the director of period romance C-drama Key to the Phoenix Heart, which just started airing last week and thus far is doing what is considering rather uneventful viewership. The number one complain and discomfort mentioned with the drama is that female lead Ai Mi was underage at 17 years old when she filmed it (she turned 18 last week during promos) and the massive age gap with 28 year old male lead Hou Ming Hao. Not their fault, the production cast them, and short of one or both rejecting the offer it’s a job and both are doing “acting” as required of them. Alas the director of the drama really made the discomfort real when during a media session he joking said that he suspected Ai Mi and Hou Ming Hao actually developed feelings for each other for real during filming the drama. WHAT THE FUCK?!? You can see the immediate cringe on the faces of the two actors as Hou Ming Hao is basically making a “Nonononononononono……” wide eyed save me look while Ai Mi covers her face awkwardly and tries to laugh it off. The director needs to be slapped upside the head but sadly all this happened because the production made these two star together in a romantic story that is falling as flat as a pancake.
Makes me wonder what other weird things this director says when not in public. Feel bad for Hou Ming-hao! I wonder if this will lead to other male idol actors waiting for the FL to be cast first in order to avoid this sort of situation.
It could happen though but it probably was not wise of the dude to say so. No one knows what goes down behind the scenes and most often they pretend stuff for
PR purposes. Hopefully he gets a clue.
as long as no kissing, its fine with me but the director was having alternate mind, may be wanted to promote the drama by giving conceal romantic hint, which were supposed to be there but must not-I watched a few episodes, so far so good acting wise, but nothing extraordinary, forced marriage is like staple to chinese drama plot, so recurring theme is pretty much expected. Nothing new.
C drama is dying anyway, hengdian is half empty now with mid tier and low tier dramas disappearing at fast pace, making TV production people unemployed.
Good look luck to drama overdo today. Trailer looks promising
So, she’s 18 now and can do kiss/chemistry scenes in romance dramas. As for the males have to be age appropriate, as she has already filmed with a 10 year-ish age gap I guess that’s not so much an issue anymore either.
I’ve actually been watching it and micro-watching their interactions, couldn’t help it. Will finish it, the pair act well enough and the director has managed to film it so that it doesn’t feel icky, again imo. Not that I’m bothered by her being 17 or him being 10 years older, have seen and enjoyed dramas/films where that has been the case.
What I’m surprised at is the Director’s comment, having done such a decent job of keeping it chaste enough, he clearly was aware of that issue and yet said that. Ooof!
Yikes. So nice to publicly state paedophilic content is fine for you.
Tbh I see international fans kicking up more of a fuss than Chinese fans, who are supposed to be drama queens. In fact they are happy idol dramas are getting a new face rather than seeing the same few actresses again and again. Ai Mi is continuously getting cast in dramas and is going to be starring opposite Deng Wei who is even older than Hou Minghao. I want to see more ifans seethe because Ai Mi is snatching roles of their old faves lmao.
If you watch behind the scenes, you see HMH being extra careful with her in any physical interaction, and asking the direction twice and confirming with her, I hate when they hire underage actresses in romance drama, you know the leads wont have any physical contact, and every romance scene will feel awkward. Her acting is good but you see how weak she is in romantic moments
Yes, it is fine for me to state that 17 year olds kissing older people in movies/dramas is content I’m ok watching. It’s also ok for me that older actors playing 17 year olds kiss older people. We all know that in that time women were often under 17 when they were forced into marriages and worse. Should that not be depicted, mentioned or it’s okay providing all actors portraying them are over 18?
Only it’s not quite as ok for me to watch actors’ characters casually threaten/intimate that they’re going to sexually harrass/assault/rape someone/several victims’ characters both under and over 18, which happens in an awful lot of dramas that I’ve seen, yes, Asian ones. Actually, I find that really not ok but watch it because well, it’s the story line, that kind of stuff happened/happens. I just wish it wasn’t so random and casual.
How about you Yikes, you ok with rape/forced intimacy storylines of under and over 18 year olds in dramas/movies? You’d have to boycott/not watch an awful lot of them if that’s the case. It’s a pretty common, casual storyline. It’s that commonality and casualness that really bothers me.
You comfortably and me (uncomfortably) stay with your paedophilic and/or casual, non-consensual sex storyline content and I’ll stay with my 17 year olds kissing mature adults ones.
Where is the tact?? I thought people in the entertainment industry would have better EQ than us peons… What is wrong with the director… Poor HMH almost cried out “Save me” at one point…
This drama is the only watchable one out of all dramas currently airing. Ppl shouldn’t judge before watching.
And the way ppl are acting as if 17yo is innocent.. please.. we know how it is all around the world. She may not be as innocent as she looks, legal or not. Look at the case of the late Kim Sae Ron and Kim Soo Hyun. It’s not just the industry.. it’s a worldwide thing. I’m not saying the actors or actresses are completely sinful.. but even some normal children develops crush and relationships as young as 10yo. 17yo is really too much to expect them to be innocent.. it’s the harsh truth.. not saying aimi in particular.. just in general.
Disgusting