The drama adaptation of Nirvana in Fire was such a smashing critical and popular success it’s a no brainer to make a sequel, lesser received dramas have spawn follow ups but this one comes with heavy expectations that will be hard to match. The exact same production team is back for Nirvana in Fire 2 (Wind Rises From Chang Lin) but the cast from the original isn’t back for narrative reasons and because they’ve all moved on to bigger better things. So Nirvana in Fire 2 is set 30 years after the time period of the original and will be split into 2 stories of 24-episodes each. The first will have Huang Xiaoming and Tong Li Ya as the leads, the former as the General of the famed Chang Lin army, and his story will then be followed by young actor Liu Hao Ran playing his younger brother with his own narrative and love line with Zhang Hui Wen. I’ll keep my hopes measured but as long as the production team keeps the quality the same high level and the director imparts the same restraint then it’ll be a drama worth watching come this November even with a new cast. Continue reading →