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First Official Character Posters for iQiyi Environmental Conservation C-drama Born to be Alive with Yang Zi and Hu Ge

A Koala's Playground Posted on by

Filming has commenced for the CCTV and iQiyi C-drama Born to be Alive (Chinese title Life Tree) starring Yang Zi with special male lead guest star Hu Ge. It’s filming in the Tibetan Plateau in Western China and tells the story of a girl who was adopted and grew up in that region and becomes a police officer patrolling the mountains engaged in conservation and protection. This a big tentpole prestige production for CCTV and the director did Nirvana in Fire and The Disguiser hence being able to get Hu Ge onboard in a special guest role. Fans are liking that Yang Zi hasn’t been styled to be clean and pretty and instead all the characters look suitably weathered for having to work in the mountainous regions in the outside. The earliest this drama will arrive is the first half of 2026 but could be end of next year.

Comments

First Official Character Posters for iQiyi Environmental Conservation C-drama Born to be Alive with Yang Zi and Hu Ge — 24 Comments

  1. no hate but YZ photos are still overly photoshopped vs the other casts. YZ has extra deep double nasolabial folds // \\ that are etched deep on her cheeks even with resting face. But they are not visible in those photos .

  2. It seems the rumors are true that Hu Ge is currently on financial crisis that pushed him to accept 2nd billing for this drama. Many of his remaining fans de-fan after this announcement.

      • yeah and his name is after YZ name in the official announcement 🤣 so ‘special’, right?
        many c-netz esp WK fans mocked HG when his 2nd billing was just a rumor and now that its official the mockery got stronger that made many of HG remaining fans to defan out of embarrassment. HG fans cannot accept that their ‘Best Actor’ winner gege will just be a 2nd billing to 800M water queen of c-ent 🤣

      • Tell me a case where special billings come before first billing then. If you want to mock celebrities, at least get your info right.

    • I personally think that “fans” that de-fan because their “fave” decided to take anything else but 1st billing (either because he’s in a financial tough spot, as you claim, or because he just loves the project as is more probable) are sh#t and no decent actor would want to have anything to do with them.

  4. I really like YangZi and hey, women support women. But i was one of those who thought that Hu Ge would never be 2nd billing. But in this drama, Hu Ge, despite named as ‘special’ is put in the 2nd after YangZi.

    But this is not bad. It means, whoever ‘lead’ the story, the main character of the story, deserves to be acknowledged as 1st billing.

    Hu Ge is that actor. His humble attitude must be followed by many juniors.

    • Hu Ge is special billing because while his character is important, he dies or disappears at a point so that is why he is special billing and besides the story is about the FL so it shouldn’t be surprising that she is first billing anyways

  5. I don’t get what the big deal is over biling regarding this drama. He’s getting the special guest title because that’s what he is. He probably has a limited role in this drama while Yang Zi’s character will dominate most of the story. In that case, she derserves to be the lead that she is.

    Different industries, but I’ve seen Gong Yoo take second billing in ‘Trunk’ when he has bigger hit dramas, hit films, and seniority in the industry compared to Son Hyun Jin. The same applies to him in comparisson to Jung Yu Mi who he took second billing to in ‘Kim Ji-Young: Born 1982’. He could easily makes demands, but he’s humble, and at the end of the day, will still be the huge star that he is. Daesang winning Kim Jung Eun of Lovers in Paris fame, who probably has way more general public recognition, took second billing to Lee Yoo Min in Strong Girl Namsoon. Top billing should go to the central character or be shared if both actors have equal status and have equal time on screen. If they have equal screen time and don’t have equal status, top billing should go to the more popular star.

    Hu Ge could probably care less about the billing. He’s guesting as a favor to the director of Nirvana In Fire who may be a friend. Why would he even care about the silliness fans obsess over when he was the one chosen to be the lead in globally renowned director Wong Kar Wai’s very first drama with Blossoms Shanghai. He’s also spending more time working in the art house film industry that probably has zero patience for fan drama. Billing issues, former costars that can’t even acknowledge each other’s existence. I can see why Wu Lei and other popular drama actors run for the hills at peak drama popularity to focus on film instead.

    • My understanding, which could be wrong, is that billing is also tied to salary. I think China has salary caps, depending on the billing. Billing must have some importance to the actors, cause they and their teams / agencies do ‘fight’ about it with production companies. Sometimes actors will use their fans ‘outrage’ in the negotiations, but fans are capable all on their own to be outrageous about billing, especially given the pursuit of stats in fan circles.

      That said, I agree with those that say Hu Ge taking Special Guest Star is fine and isn’t second billing, since he allegedly isn’t in the drama that much. He’s clearly doing a favor for someone, giving the drama a little extra shine with his reputation and talent. If fans are de-fanning over that, they really weren’t fans of him in the first place.

  6. The make up team did great job also styling *-* they all look so rich in character & details.

  7. This looks so good, definitely can’t wait to see yang zi and hu ge grace our screens next year

  8. Yang Zi’s script choices have been really good so I’m trusting she’ll keep the streak and as for the acting part I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about

  9. Pass this CCP propaganda drama even HG’s appeal isn’t strong enough LOL.

  10. NIF had two directors – is this Kong Sheng or the other guy? I only want to watch if it’s Kong Sheng…

  12. Lmao Yang Zi doesn’t look like that, talk about editing to the point of being unrecognisable. I wonder why she hates herself?

    And poor, old Hu Ge. How the mighty have fallen. Reduced to playing second fiddle to the water queen. Cent is cruel.

    • you’ve commented so many times under different names, it’s very obvious and very pathetic.

  13. If you care about billing you need to touch grass. If you have the energy to care about billing have you considered getting a job instead

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