No, pure evil is just a supporting character in the story. And LXY has already played dozens and dozens of supporting characters. This is the right moment to be used as ML. If this moment passes (he could never play the male lead). SZY is perfect in his role. I wouldn't change him for a second (I could change all the actors, except him). He is the hero of the story. He is not the villain.
He is wonderful in the scene he appears in. Asking him to be a supporting actor again at the age of 30 is a bit of a misunderstanding of the actor's struggle to be recognized. And I want to savor every scene of him as a male lead in every important role he gets in every drama that comes along. And I dream of another xianxia with him as the male lead.
PS:
He just finished filming a spy thriller drama. He plays a police officer. I want to watch this drama with him too, from youku. 'Jagged peaks"
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peng-peng an hour ago
He is perfect as SZY indeed.
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Niney919 an hour ago
In the original novel, Shen Zaiye is technically the antagonist of Da Wei. There’s even a debate between the Fourth Prince and Taohua on this point. He insists Shen Zaiye is a villain, while Taohua argues it’s all a matter of perspective.
What I wanted was a truly ruthless man who only begins to change after falling in love, and that shift happens only after she unknowingly takes an arrow for him.
That version of the character? We never got it.
Regardless, I think Liu Xueyi deserves proper main lead roles. He is constantly typecast as the “good guy wearing an evil mask,” and honestly, that trope is wearing thin. The scripts keep softening him to make the character more acceptable to the audience.
Take Kill Me Love Me for example. They altered Jinghe’s character to make him more palatable. But just imagine LXY playing canon Jinghe .. ruthless, conflicted, emotionally feral. He would have delivered that role flawlessly. That is the kind of performance that shows his full potential.
Right now, his talent is being underutilized in scripts that keep turning him into a muddled mix of good and evil instead of letting him fully lean into either.
ETA: I wonder if you have seen him in “What If”. He plays the good guy so well just like he brought Hao Chen to life in a way where people hated him along with the character. I am saying he is capable of a lot more but the scripts & his on screen partners keep falling short in my opinion.
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peng-peng an hour ago
@Niney919 You are correct indeed. If only they kept the ml in both dramas as they are in the novel minus the r..p
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mparthur 36 minutes ago
@Niney919
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eliteles1 VIP 32 minutes ago
@peng-peng Indeed !! 👏👏👏
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eliteles1 VIP 25 minutes ago
@Niney919 I watched "What If" (he even says that this is the character that most resembles his personality). And Hao Chen in "Love and Redemption" was my first character with him (he caught my attention a lot, to the point that at times I preferred him). As for being a total villain (that won't happen, I don't see any actor playing the villain (or with very questionable behavior in dramas), that's not allowed. (What one might want is a balance between good and evil, that's not bad, and I don't see him being labeled as that. I always saw him being labeled as the villain, and that he never smiled. Well, now he's the middle ground between the two (and I like that, that transformation, that ambiguity, even if softened). And he smiles, with charm, with love or with hate. That kiss scene (and his speech in the scene was phenomenal), the total ambiguity between love and hate. Between tenderness and aggression. It was very well played.
PS: But I think the best character he played between good and evil (was Yuan Zhong, in xianxia, A moment but forever, with actress Tiffany Tang). The existential conflict was well portrayed in the drama, including showing the conflict in the consciousness stage.
PS: Another actor who seems like a villain in stories, Luo Yunxi, has he ever played a truly questionable villain? (I've only watched two of his dramas, but I already know he hasn't played anything like that.)
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Niney919 14 minutes ago
@eliteles1 I completely agree with you about his performance in A Moment But Forever … that internal conflict scene was so powerful. The way he portrayed the disillusionment of a well-meaning, innocent man being manipulated, and then his inner demons surfacing… that was honestly one of his best-acted moments. It’s exactly what I mean when I say he has the range to play complex, morally ambiguous characters.
I just wish he’d had a more seasoned co-star in this one. He deserved someone who could match his emotional depth. But then again, he rarely gets first billing with seasoned actors, so that kind of pairing is hard to come by with him as the main lead and first billing.
I also really enjoyed him in Qing Luo … he was such a standout there.
By the way, I’ve only watched up to a quarter of episode 21 in The Princess Gambit, so I’m not sure if I’ve seen the kiss scene you mentioned yet. Was it earlier, or is it coming up soon?
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eliteles1 VIP 7 minutes ago
@Niney919 Episode 18 (Kiss scene).That scene where he kisses her furiously, after her kiss. He seems to let her go, but then he pulls her back and kisses her crying and angry. His tears slide down his face and onto hers. If I'm not mistaken, it's episode 18, or is it 19?
PS: This scene is very memorable for me. I thought: he can play this so well. But Hao Chen in "Love and Redemption" was like that too, although there was no kissing scene with the heroine he loved, because he was the "villain".
Yes, I loved "Qing Luo" too and there are some beautiful martial arts of his there, it looks like a dance.
