Hot off his directorial success with In Time With You, nabbing himself a well-deserved Best Director prize at last month’s Golden Bell Awards in Taipei, Director Winnie (Qu You Ning) actually spent this past summer helming a very talented cast of young actors in a hotly anticipated C-drama adapted from a popular modern C-novel by best-selling writer Guo Jing Ming. The drama (and same name novel) is called Tiny Times 1.0 (小时代) and chronicles the life of four college best friends that are trying to find professional validation and romantic connection in a modern Chinese metropolis. In addition to Tiny Times 1.0, Guo Jing Ming also wrote Tiny Times 2.0 and Tiny Times 3.0 which together comprise a trilogy. With Taiwanese actors Peter Ho and Ivy Chen leading the cast including Li Yi Feng, Kitong Jiang, Andrea Chen, Yang Yang, and Kimi Qiao, among many more, this feels like C-dramas’ attempt to do something more epic and realistic to speak with the generation of young adults who grew up in the 80s and 90s. The novel has been described as a Gossip Girl meets The Devil Wears Prada, and in addition to this drama version, a movie version with Yang Mi and a completely different cast is also in the works. I really loved this initial trailer for the mood and the directing, but the story feels a tad disjointed and all-over-the-place. Overall it still looks light years better than any modern C-drama I’ve seen in a long time so I’m definitely checking this out when it airs. Continue reading →