I have this weird problem in that I’m severely allergic to Roy Qiu‘s C-dramas but I love the man to pieces. It’s like loving chocolate but eating it makes one break out in hives. Ottoke? It was fine and dandy when he was back in Taiwan these past two years doing TW-dramas. I loved Office Girls despite its slowdown towards the end, and Miss Rose I can live with if I lop off the entire second half and revisit only the lovely low key laughs of the first half. His C-dramas, on the other hand, leave me frustrated with the surfeit of overacting, ridiculous plot lines, and lackluster production values. So it’s to my everlasting pain that he’s currently in China filming the modern C-drama Red Wine My Fair Lady with C-actress Li Sheng (best known as the next generation Xiao Yan Zi from the new Princess Returning Pearl remake 2 years ago). This week comes the first official stills from the set showing Roy in a red suit (how apropos for the title and the fact that Lunar New Year is coming up) and his two co-stars Li Sheng and HK-actress Myolie Wu. I have a little bit of hope since it’s helmed by the TW-director who directed one of my old-school fave period dramas Princess Huai Yu.

Roy plays the lead singer of a rock band and he’ll be returning to his singing roots and performing both the opening and ending theme songs for this drama. The story revolves around Li Sheng’s earnest part-timer character who travels to Shenzhen to find her ex-boyfriend played by Miao Zi Jun. Too bad he’s shacked up with the heiress to a red wine importing company played by Myolie. Li Sheng finds herself embroiled in the success battle between Myolie and her step-mother in the drama. Roy’s character is the younger cousin to Myolie and finds himself constantly butting heads with Li Sheng. He’s a kindhearted guy and helps Li Sheng stay in Shenzhen and lands her a job at the wine company. Li Sheng finally becomes a top-notch sommelier and in the process the two leads fall in love. Does this not sound like every other C-drama with work place success battles and bickering OTPs and family woes but everything all works out in the end. Li Sheng annoyed the bejesus out of me in the Princess Returning Pearl remake but hopefully she’s got her mugging under control here. I’m loving Roy’s look for the drama, the short red-do makes him look more energetic and is a nice change. The drama is scheduled to film until March with no air date scheduled yet. Continue reading →