Xiang Liu and You (Yes, You)

 atmospheres:

I have pretty much no hope. The soft ban was turned into a hard ban end of September, one of the senior Tencent VPs stated during a Tencent press conference that this is an industry-wide ban on all BL-derived shows and none of them would be airing and no more would be made. Furthermore, it's not based on whether the show itself has edited out all BL elements, if it is based on BL source material it cannot be aired.

Oh no, really? I was hoping that they could edit out the more suggestive elements :(

Ugh, I'm in pain now. The BTS photos look so beautiful.

 atmospheres:

I am disappointed too, he lost 15kg in preparation for the role and really suffered for it.

Ohhh the baby fat was lost for that role? I also didn't know that.

 atmospheres:

Meanwhile, he's going to film another Tong Hua project with another very young actress -- his FLs are getting progressively younger and younger, what next an 18 year old?

IKR? It's kind of off-putting.

 atmospheres:

To be frank, I'm not excited about most of his upcoming projects other than Go East and UTS2, although I know he'll personally be great in them.

I'm really looking forward to those two as well. Specially Under the Skin 2. The fact that there'll be no romance is a plus.

 atmospheres:

I mean, what else is new though, other than LYF, he's never had great chemistry with any of the love interests he's had in his previous shows because they either sucked at acting or they had to act like they found his character unappealing

Hmmmm no comment. It's like we're always joking, Kokuto and I. Those lady characters always seem blind, or dumb. Or both lol 

Imagine finding his character unappealing. That concept doesn't exist in my world hahahaha

 Elise:

Dang. Maybe that's why they like him so much. What they read is different....

Yeah, I've seen some of the excerpts they post, and their phrasing and tone are a bit strange. I can't be 100% sure because I'd need to compare the exact text but it seems odd.

@atmospheres

I am truly disappointed if the issue lies in the source material, regardless of how it was adapted. That is one of his works that I am really looking forward to. Perhaps it will see the light of day if and when the ruling relaxes. I remember how there was a ban on 宫斗 (甄嬛 heyday) and 穿越 dramas (after the 步步惊心 fever) for a time, and they made a comeback several years down the road. It is my fervent hope that it is the case for Winner is King too.

I really hope your concerns about being paired with younger and younger actresses are unfounded. Are such pairings aimed at giving those younger actresses exposure through the bankability of their older counterparts? Am surprised that you found he only had chemistry with his love interest in LYF. Were the previous ones that bad? I am still trying to find 带着爸爸去留学 Over the Sea I Come to You but can't seem to find it on the usual streaming platforms. I personally have only really watched his more serious, non-romantic dramas so I don't really have much of a gauge.

 Am not familiar with Li Landi's works so I don't really know how the chemistry would work, but 滤镜 doesn't seem romance-centric and apparently the FL lead appears to the ML in 3 different personas. It isn't based on any of Tong Hua's novels as far as I know but the premise does sound interesting so am hopeful about it. Tong Hua personally wanting TJC in the role should indicate that she believes him to be a good fit for the character she has in mind. I am looking forward to Love Me Love My Voice because it showcases voice acting and TJC's voice is perfection. Zhou Ye is adorable in the trailers so I can get behind this pairing. The one I can't get behind is with Wang Churan though, and that may be in part due to the many controversies that she has been in, though I liked her well enough in 清平乐 and 听说你喜欢你. But definitely, I am excited for Under the Skin 2 and Go East. 

Has he had any rest at all? It seems his filming schedule starts end of this month and he is preparing for his 2nd album, with a concert planned after it is released? How does he even find the energy to do so much. Incredible.

My ladies, for a moment there I thought I was in the wrong thread hahaha

 liddi:

I am truly disappointed if the issue lies in the source material, regardless of how it was adapted. That is one of his works that I am really looking forward to. Perhaps it will see the light of day if and when the ruling relaxes. I remember how there was a ban on 宫斗 (甄嬛 heyday) and 穿越 dramas (after the 步步惊心 fever) for a time, and they made a comeback several years down the road. It is my fervent hope that it is the case for Winner is King too.

I'm very sad about this as well. I hope we can watch it one day. Such a waste of talent and money. This drama would be a huge success. Just sell it to Netflix lol

 HeadInTheClouds:

It's a damn shame about ShaPoLan. TJC looked amazing in the BTS pictures. The book was also very interesting. I think if that drama had been successfully aired, he would have been popular a lot sooner.

Exactly. Those pictures are stunning and it's such a shame to see it shelved. They're sitting on a mountain of gold :/

 HeadInTheClouds:

Liddi and I talked about the importance of a good translator in the other thread and how difficult it can be to translate between languages that are not similar or have different cultures. Particularly as Tong Hua is quite careful with the words that she uses, if you're not careful, all the meaning could get lost in translation (pun intended). I've read some horrific translations online, both in English and Vietnamese where it had gotten simplified to such an extend that all the nuances had been stripped away.

Although we can't blame it all on bad translation, since there are fans who read the novel in the original language that prefer Jing. It's a baffling idea, I know ;-) 

Yes, bad translation or not, some choices are a bit questionable hehehe

I really wish there was an official translation. Or I'll follow up on my plan of only reading it once I've become fluent in Mandarin :) I want to read this in Xiang Liu's native language lol. He deserves this effort on my part <3

I'm copying and pasting what I said in the other thread:

Now why couldn't her facial expression be like that for all the other times he bit her neck? Did you notice Xiang Liu's ears are red and he didn't let go of her shoulders?  

By the way.... this is the last time he will bite her neck in the drama :(

 liddi:

I really hope your concerns about being paired with younger and younger actresses are unfounded. Are such pairings aimed at giving those younger actresses exposure through the bankability of their older counterparts? Am surprised that you found he only had chemistry with his love interest in LYF. Were the previous ones that bad? I am still trying to find 带着爸爸去留学 Over the Sea I Come to You but can't seem to find it on the usual streaming platforms. I personally have only really watched his more serious, non-romantic dramas so I don't really have much of a gauge.

 Am not familiar with Li Landi's works so I don't really know how the chemistry would work, but 滤镜 doesn't seem romance-centric and apparently the FL lead appears to the ML in 3 different personas. It isn't based on any of Tong Hua's novels as far as I know but the premise does sound interesting so am hopeful about it. Tong Hua personally wanting TJC in the role should indicate that she believes him to be a good fit for the character she has in mind. I am looking forward to Love Me Love My Voice because it showcases voice acting and TJC's voice is perfection. Zhou Ye is adorable in the trailers so I can get behind this pairing. The one I can't get behind is with Wang Churan though, and that may be in part due to the many controversies that she has been in, though I liked her well enough in 清平乐 and 听说你喜欢你. But definitely, I am excited for Under the Skin 2 and Go East. 

I think Over the Sea I Come to You is on youtube.  He has some chemistry with his love interest in that one (there were rumors at the time about reel to real, though, so that may have accounted for it because Kang Keren's acting was otherwise...well, it was what it was.) But yes, he didn't have much chemistry in his other lovelines -- most of them were actresses whose skill level was far below his or the actresses who are decent to good like Li Yitong (Court Lady) had to act like his character's affections and attention were unwanted. He's not and never has been the type of actor people like to say could have chemistry with even a rock on the ground, he needs someone who matches his level of skill and energy and emotion. That's doesn't mean he is lacking because of that, on the contrary he's an actor who needs to play off another decent actor, he needs that human connection, he's not going to emote to something inanimate or effectively inanimate the same way that he can emote to someone who is meeting him part of the way. He'll try, but it will just look off and unbalanced, as it has in the past.

滤镜 set-up sounded to me a lot like the kmovie later turned into the kdrama The Beauty Inside involving a woman who is able to shapeshift. Personally, I'm not attached to Tong Hua or her writing whether her novels or original scripts and I'm meh about the casting so I shall wait and see. I do prefer Li Landi's acting to Zhou Ye's, though. I found the chemistry in the LMLMV teasers and bts clips awkward and weird/fake -- I'm not into saccharine fluffy romcoms in general but this gave me secondhand embarrassment a bit the vibe was try-hard and off (like he seemed to be trying very hard, but the result was off), but I've been stuck on this TJC train for better and worse since 2017 so I guess it's another wait and see the final whole show for me, I'm just hoping I can get through all of it for him, I haven't yet dropped any of his shows.