RSMasterfade

The show's Douban rating is not yet available, but it currently has a Zhihu (China's Quora) rating of 0.7/10. Yes zero point seven out of ten.

People on Weibo are creating hashtags demanding CCTV to immediately stop the broadcasting. Calls to mass report the show to the censors are also made. Even sitting aside its transparent sexism, the show made numerous basic, easily avoidable medical mistakes which betrays a lack of respect for the medical profession.

Am I crazy in thinking Yang Chaoyue and Janelle Monáe look a bit alike? Was a huge Monáe fan back in her Metropolis days but haven't been following her closely since. Just saw an ad for Antebellum and noticed how Yang and Monáe resemble each other in their doll-like features.

I liked him too in Chang'an but unfortunately his look really limits the roles he can get - his character in Chang'an was Persian.
After Chang'an he played an elementary school Mandarin teacher/soccer coach in a small budget sports film that had a very limited release:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1FJ411m7YR
I don't think he has any current project.

Filming has already started yet there's no information on the cast except Hu Ge. We also don't know who the director is ( WKW is not supposed to direct the entire show). This is uncharted territory.

The last two episodes were likely censored. The speech and mouth movements often fail to match, a clear indication of overdubbing changed dialogue. One of the producers posted on Weibo that eight cuts were made and while they are not satisfied with final result they have tried their best.

I still don't understand what could possibly trigger such heavy-handed censorship.

While a lot of headline-grabbing claims are probably false or overstated, it's undeniable that there has been a highlighted degree of repression in Xinjiang over the past few years.

No one other than Dilraba and possibly her closest family knows how she feel about the situation.

I hope the screen time spent on Zhang Haifeng's relations with his family pays off in the end as part of the plot. Workaholic policeman father and unhappy wife & kid is such a cliche it's not doing anything for me as characterization.

Right after she debuted as a dancer her company created a meme that went like this: some time after Creation, God thought humans were too ugly so he cast a beautifying rain, but at that very moment all and only Han people (the majority ethnic group in China) happened to be holding umbrellas. The company managed to make the meme go viral (with the helps of bots and marketing accounts).

I don't know what reaction the company had expected, but it should have been obvious that calling your target audience the ugliest people on the planet is not a viable marketing strategy. The backlash was such that Hani Kezi had to lie low for an entire year. But even now the umbrella meme still got thrown around every time her name is mentioned on the Chinese internet.

Didn't know that the Chinese and the international site use the same membership, would have made things so much easier. And you AppleTV users are so lucky. I wish there are FireTV apps for iQiyi and Tencent Video.

I watch cdramas raw so I use the iQIYI's Chinese site with a VPN and I have a Chinese VIP membership. It's 2 episodes ahead of the international site (probably because China's time zone is ahead of most countries).

The script have been in development for years. Also it's a very high risk project censorship-wise. I doubt anyone would take that much trouble for a fluffy costume romance, so yes it's not going to be romance heavy.

Chinese crime miniseries are on a roll this year. Finished ep6. If the second half keeps up this could potentially join the ranks of Bad Kids and Horizon Tower. So far it doesn't have nearly the same level of emotional impact as the other two, but this appears to be a pure thriller instead of part thriller part social issues, so should be held to a different standard.

Two observations:

First, Chongqing is just the perfect setting for crime thrillers.

Second, Lu Han actually managed to hold his own opposite Wang Qian Yuan. Very impressive.

Yes the plan has always been making both a TV show and a feature film. They're constructing an extensive set and a feature film alone will not be enough to recover the cost (WKW films have never been blockbusters).

That's too dramatic. Even Liu Xiaobo only got jail time without his family being punished, and Liu was a far bigger threat to the government. There were precedents of entertainers saying things government didn't like, those were simply banished from the public view with the law enforcement watching them closely for potential tax evasion or drug possession charges.

Why would they? Entertainers in China ain't supposed to take political stances except 'retweeting' People's Daily on major anniversaries.

That would be a career ending move and there is zero chance she will make any public comments.

She appeared on a recent episode of Happy Camp as a guest. I'm glad she seems to be recovering from the unbelievably dumb attempt at viral marketing her company tried in 2018. She really doesn't deserve all the hate she's gotten.

Yu Zheng has been on a winning streaking cinematography & art direction wise since Yanxi. Hard to imagine now that Yu Zheng used to be associated with gaudy costumes and cheap-looking filters.

Don't expect any explicit mentioning of Tujue (Gokturks) though. Explicit representation of Tang-Gokturk conflicts will not pass the censors (for potentially fanning ethnic tensions). That's the reason why, for example, Gokturks became 'Wolf Guards' in the Longest Day in Chang'an. I'm not sure about Uyghers. They were in alliance with Tang against the Gokturks, but I guess the production team will probably play safe and use a complete fictional Khaganate.

I'm actually surprised that they were allowed to feature Xianwu Gate incident so prominently. That's other frequent target of censorship because fratricide obviously doesn't fit well with socialist core values.

Only Hu Ge is officially confirmed. Ma Yi Li is only rumored. So I guess the female roles are still being negotiated. But their choices are quite limited as not many actors speak Shanghainese. I hope they can somehow get Sun Li onboard. It's the first major Shanghainese production since forever and it would be a disappointment if we are not going to see the no.1 TV actress in China who happens to be Shanghainese.