This weekend in Beijing was the 7th Annual TV Drama Awards, showcasing the splashiest and buzziest Mainland Chinese dramas of 2015. I would say best of the bunch but so many award categories seem to be based on popularity even in the description alone. There wasn’t a Best Drama category but ten C-dramas from 2015 was honored for being the … Continue reading →
Now this is how I call throwing a fun awards show shindig. One of China’s top streaming sites iQiyi hosted the 2016 All-star Carnival this past weekend and it appeared all the It Stars showed up, and then some. There were so many scene stealing reunions on stage one doesn’t even know where to look – is it Hu Ge … Continue reading →
I’ve noticed that over the years I’ve been writing about C-dramas, and C-entertainment more and more due to the rise of both the quality as well as the increase in cross-border collaborations. Some folks new to C-dramas, or haven’t even dipped a toe in, sometimes enjoy my posts without a clue of who’s popular and why certain stars seem to … Continue reading →
The production of the upcoming fantasy wuxia C-drama The Journey of Flower (花千骨 Hua Qian Gu) didn’t capture my full interest since I didn’t read the popular online C-novel by writer Fresh Guo Guo. I’ve heard good things about it and the drama casting was right up my preferred alley with leads Wallace Huo and Zhao Li Ying being two … Continue reading →
There is finally a straight up light and comedic romance C-drama on the horizon and this one looks absolutely fantastic. Bonus win for having two leads I adore in Hans Zhang and Zhao Li Ying, marking their first onscreen pairing but likely won’t be the last with how idol C-dramas recycle couplings all the time. The drama premieres next week … Continue reading →
There’s a new C-drama filming based on the adaptation of a very popular fantasy wuxia novel and it’s already getting readers and netizens abuzz with excitement and concern. Excitement over their favorite C-novel getting to the small screen mixed with the usual concern that the casting of iconic characters is all wrong and the plot may be tweaked for the … Continue reading →
There is finally something easy on the eyes coming out of the set of the upcoming nth drama version of the wuxia novel Return of the Condor Heroes. While C-actress Zhao Li Ying’s name was never mentioned as in the running to play the leading lady Xiaolongnu, seeing her in costume on the set of RoCH makes me wish she … Continue reading →
Even if his fans and detractors universally acknowledge that he’s more or less a douchy hack of a producer and scriptwriter, Yu Zheng is probably having the last laugh right and counting his dough all the way to the bank. His just finished airing C-drama Legend of Lu Zhen was a smash hit thanks to the youthful vitality, natural good … Continue reading →
When one’s beloved novel is getting a live-action adaptation, there is always the fervent hope that it doesn’t get butchered tempered by the dream of seeing it finally come to life outside of the words on the page and the images in one’s own imagination. I’ve been through the process so many times whether its English novels, Japanese manga, or … Continue reading →
The existence of these two is why I continue to dip a toe into C-dramas even when the vast vast majority of its output is pure unadulterated crap. It’s not even addicting bad crap, it’s boring nonsensical crap. But seeing the newest and hottest onscreen C-couple flit around talk shows and leap off the screen at me as I watch … Continue reading →
It is a thing of beauty to watch a truly breakout performance. It’s an even greater thing of beauty to watch the breakout performance come in the form of an astonishingly gorgeous young man that just about took my breath away. C-dramas have had its shares of breakouts, a few notable recent ones were Feng Shao Feng in 2011 with … Continue reading →
Hhhhmmm, this might be the first Yu Zheng drama I’m looking forward to. Though my reasons are totally unrelated to how interesting the drama looks. The upcoming Female Prime Minister (Nu Xiang), about the only female prime minister in thousands of years of Chinese history, Prime Minister Lu Zheng of the Northern Qi dynasty, has just released a pretty gorgeous … Continue reading →
You know, I just might have to accept that Yu Zheng is a flat out insane drama producer. His loco casting choices for his adaptation of The Swordsman have been causing extreme cases of laughter and spitting up blood in C-fandom, but he doesn’t seem to do it to drum up publicity or whore out his projects, unlike Ladyboss over … Continue reading →
