WK1

Please keep this article to ourselves.

https://epop.my/2022/03/12/%E5%A5%BD%E6%AE%A4%EF%BC%81%E5%84%AA%E9%85%B7%E3%80%8A%E8%88%87%E5%90%9B%E5%88%9D%E7%9B%B8%E8%AD%98%E3%80%8B%E6%8A%84%E8%A5%B2%E3%80%8A%E7%9A%93%E8%A1%A3%E8%A1%8C%E3%80%8B%E8%A2%AB%E7%BD%B5%E7%BF%BB/

Just read an article which mentioned that when Youku released those new posters yesterday, in one of the posters, the Chinese text was copied from another drama. This made the fans of the other drama very unhappy and they even went online to scold Youku. It was quickly changed, but the damage was already done.

How will this impact the airing of this drama? No idea. It may well mean further delay in the airing, as Youku wait for fans of the other drama to cool off.

In the extreme, fans of the other drama may well go to Douban and deliberately rate TBW down when this is aired, as a means of taking revenge.

Just thought everyone should know, in case there is further delay in the airing. Feel really sad for Reba and Allen, if view count for TBW is affected because of this incident. Totally not their fault.

Let's see if there is anything new over the next few days.

Yes, if the trend of declining viewership continues, it may well mean that Xianxia has lost its novelty. TMOPB first started it, and so many others have followed. That format has already reached saturation, and will only decline in popularity.

There is still Xianxia dramas that do not follow that format. TBW is one of them. There will be others who are also non-3W3L. But, Xianxia has a major challenge, which is CGI. No matter how fantastic, after a while viewers will also get saturated and will demand better and better quality. It will be extremely difficult to produce better and better CGIs, and, I am sure, there is a limited supply of good CGI people in China.

Why are they still producing so many Xianxia dramas a year? I have expained to Babepiggie above. My opinion is that there are lots and lots of actors/actresses in China. and there are still many Xianxia novels around. And many producers around. They need to make dramas or they will out of a job. And so Xianxia dramas will continued to be made, and people will continue to watch.

I am not saying viewership will go to zero. Just that we can no longer expect the same kind of viewership, compared to TMOPB, ELOD, Love and Destiny, Lover and Redemption.

I think some producers or writers/directors could be trying to do something different: Good historical drama, but using CGI to do all the fight scenes. I think Sword Snow Stride could be one such attempt. Will viewers continue to accept something like SSS? Where more CGI is used, than real hand to hand, and sword to sword type of wuxia fighting?

Coming back to Reba, I am glad she is trying Prosecutor Elite, because it is really something different (for her). And she has so many different kinds of serious roles to play, in modern Chinese dramas. For historical, she has already tried Xianxia (TMOPB; ELOD; TBW) and historical wuxia (LOA; TLB; King's woman; Flame's Daughter; Ban Shu Legend).

If she does well for PE, and really wants to try different things, I will not be surprised that from here on, she will prefer modern dramas. Maybe out of 4 dramas she does over the next two years, 3 could be modern only one historical?

We can keep track of her future choices and see what happens. If she avoids Xianxia in future, my opinion is right. If does do Xianxia and scored a big hit in the region of 4-5b views, I am wrong. I am talking about the future, not TBW. I do feel that TBW will be a big hit, because of a unique storyline, great cast, great production team and, supposedly, great CGI team.

I am not a professional reviewer, so, yes, I am more than ready to say that I could be wrong. We are merely exchanging views here. No one is going to get any nobel prize for being right, or great shame for being wrong.

Exchanging views is just fun.

None of the posters has the airing date of the drama, meaning no firm commitment when they wish to show this drama.

If they really want to air it soon, the simplest thing to do would have been to insert the airing date in at least one of the posters.

At this rate, we cannot count on March 17 as the airing date. Could well be later.

Let's see if more stuff will be coming in the next few days.

Waiting for this drama to air is going to bring about lots of character change in all of us. Better than waiting for that fish to bite at our bait, or for our fruit trees to flower and bear fruits, the waiting game Youku is subjecting all of us to will surely mould us into people with greater level of patience and hence better individuals in our families, workplaces and communities.

Just saw the two new posters. We are not getting any closer to the airing date, if that is all they are showing us today.

Really? That is all? Really sad.

I know someone who is a MDL volunteer. Will pen a personal note to her, see if she can do something about the title. And I do agree with you. The title is rather unfriendly to all kinds of viewers. Prosecution Elite is a much better title.

Once they announced the air date, next thing we look for will be the airing schedule (how many episodes per day, on which day, etc), Once those are out, we are in business. There will be no turning back for Youku.

And I really do enjoy doing this stuff. Even if I am wrong and Da Wei ends up having really little screen time, I enjoyed this process. The question I then ask will be, despite knowing the miminal screen, why still do it?? Good salary? He has some free time at hand, so why not do it?? And get to meet one of the most beautiful actresses in China?

NPE still had decent viewcount. But, it had Yang Mi, who has about 111m followers in Weibo. And William Chan, who has 40m followers. With those kind of high traffic stars, more was expected of NPE. NPE is likely Yang Mi's worse performing historical drama since TMOPB.

Not everyone is hard to please, but viewers in China, who are used to good CGI from the massive amount of video games they play, are particularly hard to please. When the first trailer for TBW was out, some viewers in China mentioned that the CGI is not even as good as some of the video games they played.

For viewers in China, the bar for CGI is set very high. And is raised, with each drama that has good CGI. I was told ALP has very good CGI, so people will compare TBW with that one. Maybe that is why TBW is delayed. CGI people keep trying to make sure TBW is at the same level as ALP, and they are struggling to do so.

Small issue, really. We are really just having fun doing conjectures here, filling our time and exercising our brains, while we wait for TBW. Nobody is right and no one is wrong, till we see the actual drama.

CGI will not suffer. More of the expectation issue. It will be raised, and hence, to score a really big hit, you need to do as well or even better than the previous Xianxia drama who did have very good CGI. This will mean a long drawn out affair for the post production team. Like what is happening now to TBW. Filming took only around 4 months, while the post production took close to 8 months. This, despite what we are told, that the CGI team who worked on TBW is an excellent team.

While China is still the leading country that produce this kind of dramas (it is likely the pioneer of this genre), I suspect the supply of excellent CGI experts is limited. Which is why not many Xianxia dramas have good CGI. Out of maybe 4-5 this genre that is produced every year, only 1 could be said to have decent CGI.

They will continue to produce Xianxia dramas, not only because of Xianxia novels around, but there are hundreds and hundreds of actors/actresses around. These people need job. And there are lots of producers around, who need to make dramas. So, this genre will continue to be made and people will continue to watch them. But, scoring big hits with monster like viewcount is quite another issue.

NPE was below expectation, despite the viewcount, because of the two big stars involved. Given their stature, much higher viewcount was expected. Sword Snow Stride, on the other hand, really performed well above expectation, despite having only 1 really big star. Tencent scored a big hit with that one, and then bombed with Mirror Twin Cities. MTC was shown in S. Korea recently and it was severely criticised on many aspects.

So, you have a heavy burden with Xianxias. Not only must the production team be good (director, costume people, lighting, etc), but your post production must also be excellent (CGI people). You have an extra set of burden, compared to a pure historical drama (like TLB).

If you are Reba, and you have two scripts in front you. Both are equally good. Both have great production teams. One is a historical drama, the other a Xianxia. Which will you go for? I suspect it will be a historical drama (like TLB or LOA), rather than something like TBW. There is just so much risks and uncertainties involved, as far as CGI is concerned. With longer post production time needed, if Reba wants to have more dramas aired, I think she will choose a historical, if timing becomes an issue.

Yup. No official air date, no airing. They can show us any stuff and still delay it. The most important item now is an offical broadcast date. Once they do that, it is a commitment to air on a specific date.

How will Allen's wife being pregnant affect the airing of this drama? Do you mean showing this series will affect her pregnancy??

Another thought just occured to me. Tong Da Wei is not a lightweight actor. He has starred in movies directed by John Woo and Zhang Yimou, both of whom are big time Chinese directors. He is a winner of mulitple acting awards. Will he even want to pick this up, if he is given minimal screen time?? I am just wondering aloud.

Yah. I think we did talk about this. This could another reason why she did not pick up Ball Lightning, as it is an Iqiyi project.

There was also that earlier conversation we had, that Ball Lightning is an IQIYI project, and that company is in some sort of financial trouble. That may also have discouraged Reba from taking that project.