You won’t believe the numbers of emails and comments I’ve gotten in the last week asking me to (1) recap King of Lan Ling, or (2) share my first impressions of it. I’ve been meaning to write about it but strangely there have been quite a few C-dramas that have turned out really watcheable recently in addition to King of … Continue reading →
I’ve been trying to retrain my brain to tolerate fantasy wuxia dramas, which to me is like the untalented sibling of the overachieving star of the family. It substitutes special effects for story, dumbing down characters because magic and make believe elements can be thrown in to solve any problem. But once my darling rising young C-actor Li Yi Feng … Continue reading →
Following along with the casting and filming of the upcoming period C-drama King of Lan Ling since the very beginning has made the wait feel interminable. So either I have prodigious patience I wasn’t aware of or time just flew by this past year because the drama is finally premiering on Wednesday August 14th on four major networks in China … Continue reading →
Brother Wolf approves, yes he does. The long drawn out Da Mo Yao–SARFT debacle has finally come to an end. On August 5th, a drama titled The Sun Moon Legend quietly got issued a SARFT permit and eagle-eyed fans recognized it as the plot synopsis of the drama adaptation of Da Mo Yao but with a different title and character … Continue reading →
Oh boy, this drama is going to end with us needing a bucket, yes? A bucket to catch the river of tears sure to come, because the just released official MV of the closing theme song for the upcoming period wuxia drama King of Lan Ling convinces me there is no way in drama Heaven or Hell the OTP is … Continue reading →
Everyone has their own favorite flavor of ice-cream, and even the exact same flavor of ice-cream can taste different despite the same basic ingredients of milk and sugar. I look at the various drama adaptations of the Japanese manga Itazura na Kiss (It Started with a Kiss) as basically different ice-cream shops doing their own strawberry ice-cream. It’s sweet, pink, … Continue reading →
We’re midway into July already which is usually when all the major big-budget C-dramas start airing. Huang Xiaoming‘s mega-biopic The Patriot Yue Fei (精忠岳飞) finally premiered on July 4th after being done filming for two years already. He plays the legendary Southern Song dynasty General Yue Fei and Ruby Lin plays his wife, this drama ought to be good considering … Continue reading →
It’s not everyday that a titan of an industry is calling it quits, either there will be a seismic shift in the framework or else the genre will die a quick death soon. The godmother of the Taiwan idol drama industry Angie Tsai has said that the upcoming idol drama for FTV called Love Prescription will be the last idol … Continue reading →
I love the filming of C-dramas even if most of the end product is crap. It’s all pre-filmed so the writing doesn’t do crazy about turns due to ratings or audience reaction, though many times it still does crazy about turns but that’s due to simply baaaaad writing. The directing remains consistent and the actors don’t look like half-death due … Continue reading →
Yun Zhong Ge the drama looks so beautiful I have no words. Gah, what is this magic happening? If the drama adaptation of writer Tong Hua‘s Da Mo Yao (Ballad of the Desert) felt like a balloon gradually deflating as my excitement and interest went from one hundred to zero in the court of the casting shenanigans, filming chintzy feel, and … Continue reading →
I usually embrace change readily but one thing I remain adamantly old school about are wuxia dramas. I don’t do fantasy wuxia or RPG wuxia because it’s like some weird hybrid of silliness without the epic depth. I’ve watched a few of Tangren’s takes such as Chinese Paladin, Chinese Paladin 3, and Xuan Yuan Sword and none of them were … Continue reading →
The other upcoming I-see-dead-people K-drama The Master’s Sun has quietly started filming two weeks ago and I’m loving the massive head start this drama got. It’s slated to air on SBS Wed-Thurs after I Hear Your Voice, and if that drama gets a four-episode extension from sixteen to twenty episodes due to the good ratings, then TMS won’t air until … Continue reading →
Even as SETTV is riding the coattails of the repeat pairing of tabloid friendly George Hu and Annie Chen in Love Around, the network might actually have an even juicier and more promising something something happening over on Friday night on the set of Just You. Co-stars Puff Guo and Aaron Yan hit it off right from the start, gushing … Continue reading →