kaddie001

It’s the best thing I’ve seen out of China all year.

It’s night time in China and the start of the school week so I’m guessing that people are in bed. I wish there were a way to measure the international audience

There were several comments about her earlier in the day. She’s killing it. I don’t mind her lack of screen time as long as she makes a great impression. The Black Widow didn’t have a lot of screen time in Iron Man 2, but it was enough to make her unforgettable

I agree with everything but the FL comment. CX is breathtaking in nearly every scene. I also appreciate that they didn’t put too much makeup on the male actors.

What’s been shown so far is excellent. It doesn’t seem to be an annoying, the-2MLs-like-the-same-FL storyline, and the cast chemistry is spectacular. They didn’t promote this much, yet it is already at a 8100 score on the iQIYI heat index.

I think iQIYI has only had 1 or 2 dramas this year that have broken 10k. I know that War of Faith broke that mark, but it starred Yibo so that’s not really a surprise. However, I don’t think WoF was as popular internationally as FoF appears to be. I think that if there were a way to include the International viewership, I think FoF would be close to 10K. It’s already past 8K in less than 24 hours. BTW, thanks again for the heat index link!

Thank you!

I liked her too. Really, the entire cast is f’king awesome

If this index only reflects popularity in China, and does not include international viewership, then this thing is already a mega hit. Disney…Netflix…you’re sleeping on this one. Pls add it to your platforms ASAP

I can’t tell no lies. EVERYBODY IS GOOD! My favorite fantasy drama of the year…in China and in the US…I just hope they stick the landing and don’t fall down at the end. They’ve set a high bar for themselves.

I heard it passed 10000 on the iQIYI heat index an hour ago. Can someone pls confirm?

If this is only Chinese popularity and not international, then this thing is already a mega hit.

Thank you. Although I can only understand a few words, the cinematography in each scene continues to look badass.

Thank God! IMO, it deserves every reservation. Someone on this page posted that there was no chatter for this show on Weibo or on other SM sites. I’m glad to read that it’s known and has picked up momentum. I think the MV and the trailer look like something from the MCU’s best days, and the music seems to be as epic as the action.

It looks like something she’s acting in has been selected for a film festival. Does anyone have any details?

Today’s shoot was beautiful https://weibo.com/2949742691/5089782185855364

Her haters always seem to appear whenever her popularity is soaring. Over the last two weeks, she has received nearly 100M social media views on Weibo and Douyin thanks to videos on the following:
her RL skills in esports and being named MVP in We Are The Champions
A Douyin video where she dances spontaneously in RL to a cute song sampling 50 cents’ In Da Club
Her participation in the popular TV show Random Journey on the Way and her chemistry with her co-stars
And her filming as a desert princess for The Ingenious One Season 2

And, like clockwork, we get haters showing up on sites like this one. I don’t believe in coincidence or randomness.

She’s had 3 of the best red carpet looks in 2024 in China. Her Queen of the Galaxy dance routine and Fox Princess dance routines in 2024 were among the best, and most watched, dance performances in China all year. Her routines on the Masked Dancer were some of the most popular in China in 2023. Yet, the only articles you can find for this woman in English are ones featuring negative stories that were disproven over and over again. Even the people that the writer claims were involved have denounced those stories. How is it possible that only those articles exist, but there’s nothing about her positive performances?

I don’t blame her agency. In fact, I think that it’s partly because her agency is run by a woman that she is facing many of these issues. Women owned businesses around the world face more challenges and criticism than their male owned counterparts.

I also think there’s a lot of prejudice because she was an idol in Korea. I’ve noticed that idols, male and female, get a lot of trolls when they go expand from singing or dancing and into acting. It doesn’t matter how good they are. It doesn’t matter if their acting skills are equal to their peers.

It’s also apparent that, besides the English language article prejudice, there is something negative about how she appears in Hot Searches and Hot Lists on Weibo. As someone who works in data insights and strategy at SM companies, I know those algorithms are not based 100% on math and raw stats. There are “other factors” considered by the algorithm that can be manipulated by TPTB at those SM orgs.

I know that when she left WSJN in Korea, the group’s popularity plummeted. Although her Korean fans seem lovely and highly supportive, someone powerful (or several someones) lost quite a bit of $$$ when she made that decision. In fact, the negative everything about this woman has a distinct timeline of appearing when she left that group.

As her videos from Fangs of Fortune and TIO show, she is one of the few actresses in China that can actually perform the martial arts convincingly without having to rely on favorable editing and cheesy CGI. She’s tall. She has a natural, amazing figure that doesn’t rely on implants. Hopefully, she will persevere and become as popular as she is talented.

Thank goodness FIYS is on YouTube - in fact, it is one of the most popular Cdramas on YouTube - so that everyone can read the comments to see for themselves how the overwhelming majority of people love her chemistry with the cast and the character. Her international fan base is so big because of how much people loved her in that show.

As the FL, and the character with the most screen time, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the drama to be so popular if her acting was as bad as you claim. Despite it having aired over 3 years ago and it never having been translated into English, this remains the 2nd most watched drama on Viki and the 6th most watched on YouTube. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-024-02897-7.pdf. It even has 18B viewing hours on Netflix in the first half of 2023 despite not being available globally on that platform and it being over 3 years old.

In fact, the only place where this drama is not popular, appears to be China, but it seems like there are other - unsavory and illicit - factors behind that.

You claim that she is “expressionless”. Let’s look at this objectively by watching Episode 1. Are you saying that her expression at 5:26 - 5:29 after her decisive win, is the same as her expression at from 5:39 - 5:41 when her best friend shows up and reminds her of their lunch date?

Are you saying that her expression from 6:03-6:10 when she is supposed to be puzzled and awkward about what to say to her friend is the same as her expression from 6:31 - 6:34 when she is enjoying trying on clothes? Are you saying that you her expressions from 6:40 - 7:05 are exactly the same throughout the entire scene?

If you want to tell me that her expressions were wooden and identical in World of Fantasy, and Legend of Awakening, I would agree. It was clear that she was just starting out, was only 17-18 when those were filmed, and she was new to living in China. I dislike her performances there and I don’t watch those dramas because of her performance and the bad CGI.

However, by the time that she films FIYS, Lie to Love, and My Heart she has not only improved, but she is every bit as good as actresses like Bai Lu and Esther Yu. To claim that she is more wooden than they are is an outright lie.

So, in your universe, the Chinese market is larger than the world market. It’s must be so for you to have dismissed the international market so easily. The reality is that China wants its dramas to do as well or better internationally than K-dramas. For that, they’ll need stars like Cheng Xiao whose expressions matched the scene instead of overacting in the scene.

LOL. Thank God, the international audiences don’t agree with you. FIYS is the 2nd most popular c-drama ever released internationally. Her face and emotions were perfect for her character. In fact, maybe there’s a difference between how Eastern and Western audiences perceive emotional expressions because I find that many of her peers overact.

Here’s what I don’t understand about the OP. It’s clear, from every interaction that’s been posted during and after filming, that CDL and CX are very fond of each other. Why try to create strife where there is none? I’m looking forward to seeing both of them in FoF. IQIYI, please promote it heavily and release it already!