Buzz is a priceless thing and even all the water armies in the war and purchased searches can only buoy it a bit but can’t sustain it unlike the organic thing. June 2024 buzz goes to underdog hit The Double while mainstream big budget C-drama The Tale of Rose, reportedly the most expensive production filmed in 2023 due to the salaries for all the leads, is doing solid but not as much chatter online. Part of the reason is female lead Crystal Liu refusing to do any CP promotions with her five male leads – Tong Da Wei as the big brother type, Peng Guan Yin as her first love who broke her heart, Lin Geng Xin as her husband turned asshole ex, Wallace Huo as her soulmate gone too soon, and Lin Yi as the much younger man later in life. Crystal reportedly refuses to use CP promos to help her dramas whether in the past or now and is content with viewers choosing to watch or not. I respect that. The Tale of Rose has gotten solid reviews and the opening Douban rating is 7.1 which seems about right. It’s not groundbreaking in acting, story, or directing, but for any woman who feels taken for granted, gaslighted, abused, treated unfairly by life, then this is the drama for you to watch the titular Rose overcome adversity after adversity in life and love.
Very wise to stop CP promotions…She does not need to anyway.
I thk its rather refreshing and wise not doing CP promotion and the drama piece speaks for itself. Rabid CP fans are such a headache
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Liu Yi Fei has been on a hot streak lately – 梦华录 / Dream of Splendor, 去有风的地方 / Meet Yourself, now 玫瑰故事, and upcoming 小城焕日. Her recent choices are diverse in genre and FL-centric. Tale of Rose is the kind of meaty role that 30-something actresses would fight over. She’s also surrounding herself with a super strong supporting cast in her dramas. No traffic stars, but a lot of respected actors like Tong Da Wei, Wan Qian, Zhu Zhu, Qin Hao (!!!), who help carry the show.
LYF isn’t and won’t ever be a great actress – at best, her acting is serviceable – but she has a phenomenal eye for scripts. She’s a blueprint for how 30-something actresses should navigate their careers.
It’s not an eye for scripts but rather she’s getting strong scripts because script writers want her star power and actors want to benefit from her popularity and play interesting characters.
There are other actresses in her cohort with similar popularity and equal, if not stronger acting skills. They are not making such interesting drama selections and pairing up with idol actors.
LYF’s career stalled a few years ago after a string of box office bombs, but she’s managed to do a 180 by going to dramaland with 梦华录.
It’s really impressive how she has turned her career around by picking strong drama scripts rather than attaching herself to a young traffic idol actors.
To be fair to other actresses though, there aren’t many of these scripts being produced so options are limited.
I dont think many actresses will choose Tale of Rose, she just has a good eye for modern drama script and probably these slices of life drama are her cup of tea,dont see Yang Mi or ZLY choosing this type of script.
@Ophelia
Qin Hao was not in this drama.
Opinions about this drama are very diverse. I still have 14 episodes to go. I had a first love, I had a husband (not my first love), and I dated after divorce. I think her story is pretty realistic. It’s obvious the author is a woman because most men look chauvinistic and petty. Just differing POV on any topic can make a guy THAT type of person from a woman’s standpoint. I love the drama and it is top 3 IMO for 2024 so far.
It’s ‘pretty realistic’ to portray most men as chauvinistic and petty? LOL. I wonder why women watch hetero romance if they hate men so much…
Don’t worry, BL is most famous because there are ton of female fans. Women don’t just watch hetero romances.
LOL. There are many many dramas that portray women as dumb, useless, dumb, useless and dumb again. Do you complain about it too? Or are you trying to spread your sexist agenda? Lmao.
@Rina LOL! Your whataboutism is pretty entertaining.
“Portray most men” What is MOST? Half of the planet? Less of the half of the planet? Or just the men on a drama? Maybe two, three dramas? Lmao.
@Rina If men see women as inferior/useless beings, isn’t it ironic that their reputation/status depends on how many women they can have/attract. I find it amusing.
@Rina…the majority of men being sucky in real life is PRECISELY the reason why women watch hetero romance because being straight, they don’t have a choice of whom they’re attracted to and since a lot of men in real life is garbage, the romance drama is their fantasy escapism, you silly!
Opinions about this drama are very diverse. I still have 14 episodes to go. I had a first love, I had a husband (not my first love), and I dated after divorce and most were younger than me. I think her story is pretty realistic. It’s obvious the author is a woman because most men look chauvinistic and petty. Just differing POV on any topic can make a guy THAT type of person from a woman’s standpoint. I love the drama and it is top 3 IMO for 2024 so far.
Liu Yi Fei is ugly and all her male co stars look better than her. Not a good actress either.
The plainest of all plain janes. Just a flat pancake face with small eyes.
She gets to get away with this just because of her wealthy background.
Any other actress looking like this would be bashed by cnets.
“Small eyes”? LOL! It is an East Asian’s physical feature. Not in general, but it still is. Are you hating on ethnic features? Lmao. I guess you look better than her since you praise Esther Yu all the time. Lmao!
The user you replied to sounds like one of those self-hating Asians who look ordinary themselves, but have really high standards for actors. Standards that they don’t even fit into, but they dare to judge another person’s appearance by them 🤷♀️
@Ann She is above-average. But Esther Yu is pretty, I’m mesmerized by her beauty.
It’s sarcasm, right? I hope so because Esther Yu looks ordinary.
Wow, who kicked your grandma and stole your puppy today? My condolences.
@Gennita
I was wondering about the same thing about Ann also. 🤔🤔🤔
Uhh LYF is ethereal and is also considered a goddess in China. Her resources may come in handy but she gets shows like Tale of Rose which is essentially about a gorgroeus woman’s life journey because she is considered extremely beautiful in the industry. It can be your preference but don’t say that she gets to get away with being called ugly because of her background when she is for one not ugly but quite the opposite and is considered very beautiful on the whole too.
I only find her beautiful in period dramas. The same goes for many chinese artists.
I never thought LYF was a good actress. No doubt that she’s a beautiful girl but like other people said she had no chemistry with her co-stars and her even when she cries, I never was able to feel her emotions. But in here, I feel her acting is different. I think this is by far her best acting. I was able to feel all of her emotions wheter she was in love, happy, sad, or angry. She did a great job in here & I’m surprised by how much chemistry she has with the first guy. Whenever they were together it was like fire.
Same. She’s surprisingly pretty good here. I really like LYF but can’t deny she is limited in her acting ability. Here I think she is paired up with a really good director who makes sure that her limitations are covered. But its also credit to her, there isn’t one moment where I feel she is lacking. I think it also helps that she suits the character.
This review completely misses the point of this tale. Rose struggles with the issues that face many women today. Women are more than breeders, nannies, housekeepers, and entertainment. They are people who deserve respect, trust, opportunities, and honor, praise and adequate renumeration for their endless contributions.
She is only a mediocre actress but boy, does she have an eye for good scripts! This show only really took off post the FLs divorce but it was a good build up. Very realistic in how a young woman can end up as she did and what happens with maturity.
A rare script for China, good on her for picking it.
Haven’t see The Tale Of Rose yet but I just finished watching The Double few hours ago. It was a good journey overall, it has good artistic qualities despite the so-called low budget. In the past I used to think that S/S+ = Good, but I can see it can be wrong.
I’m mesmerized by the actress playing Princess Wanning. I could feel the tension when she was on screen. Great job!
The actor in Duke Su role has a strong presence in the whole drama. I didn’t like his character that much but his charisma is impressive.
Who is doing it like Crystal Liu in C-ent right now? Another mature female led hit drama? I respect her refusing to pander to couple promotions and letting the work succeed on its own merits. As others have mentioned above she is showing she has an eye for scripts lately and it’s so refreshing to see her thriving in these female led dramas when C-industry sidelines most actresses once they hit their 30s. I hope producers/writers/directors are noticing and will make an effort to make more good dramas for “older” actresses. There is clearly a market who want to watch these dramas rather than yet another idol drama.
Yep! It’s annoying to know that there aren’t even good roles for older actresses to shine.
I just read a ridiculous funny comment claiming this drama a complete fantasy because apparently all the men she encountered remained single and pining for her and in the end she ends up dating a young guy happy and moving on. They said the trope of this drama has been done over and over and they wished there would be a male version of this called the Tale of Bob. They wanted to see a male perspective but I feel like the culture today might get pissed off if they did such a story. There could not possibly be toxic women right? This story frustrated me though because the main female was not faultless and it was like watching a moth intentionally fly into the light bulb to get hurt. Realistic or not it just was not my taste. I stopped watching with her first relationship.She is pretty in it though. Not doubting on her acting either just not my kind of drama.
Of course, there are toxic women but toxic men are MORE. It’s the reality, lol. Just take a look at Middle East countries lol.