eternalsummer

There are rumors Lusi spent the last 6 months getting nose and eyelid surgery because she looks different and more mature/sharp in her new vlogs....

Wang Churan just isn't cute like Lusi but womanly but it doesn't really limit her? E.g. she can play ancient beauties like Yang Guifei or Diaochan and nobody will disagree, but she is also clever looking enough to play doctors and tall/strong looking enough to pull off fighter or female general roles. Very few actresses in China can be that versatile? Dilreba maybe. Ultimately the kind of childish webdrama roles Lusi does is not wellregarded in the industry as it doesn't air on TV and is usually played by newbie idol actors who never attended acting school. Even if you want to see Lusi do childish roles at 28, there is a neverending supply of 18-21 year old young actresses who look more naturally fitting for childish roles than Lusi and people will prefer to watch them than Lusi trying to act 12 as a 28 year old. That's why she is trying to expand out of webdramas.

I think her comfort zone is in playing more childlike or rebellious roles and perhaps with a long break she may take more acting lessons? Mature roles won't really cast her as easily because of her build and overall visuals or vibe, like Wang Churan is 1999 and played doctors twice already because she looks mature whereas Zhao Lusi will look like a kid in dressup as a doctor, or maybe she has to do comedic light-hearted roles if she plays a doctor because she lacks the gravitas of more serious dramas

It's not really fair to pick the director's best work and say that's his usual standard. Untamed was kinda convoluted and Beauty of Resilience is a mess.

Yes. The standard accent is a Beijing Putonghua one but not everyone speaks it. That means some are dubbed because it doesn't fit the story to have 1 character have a different accent when they grew up in the same town. Actors who attended acting school have to codeswitch accents but many actors never attended acting school don't learn it formally. The most obvious example is Dylan Wang who has a heavy Leshan accent, he doesn't even sound like a standard Sichuan person and most Sichuanese actors can codeswitch. It doesn't affect his popularity and he is almost always dubbed.

Hope it helps!

Because China is a vast country and people speak different dialects and accents. It's the size of Europe or USA and some people speak Sichuanese, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hokkien as a 1st language and Mandarin 2nd. It's not like USA where everyone was forced to give up their native local tribal language and speak English, hundreds of dialects are well and alive.

Dengwei is from Inner Mongolia and probably can speak or read Mongolian, he sounds fine in Mandarin but nasal.

There are 10 million Weibo likes on the Hello Saturday Lost You Forever episode preview 👀🤯

Again I don't know much about Dengwei's family but in China/US/Russia/Europe, fine arts like Opera, Dance, Ballet, Piano, Violin, Traditional Instruments are highly regarded and if you want to be a professional dancer or do arts there are opportunities to sustain youself because the population is huge enough to have a lot of people who pay to money to attend ballet/opera/dance/musicals/plays/symphonic orchestras. Perhaps Vietnam is still developing so these artistic jobs are not stable because people don't really have disposable income to attend dance concerts, musicals, opera yet but in future fine arts jobs may become more lucrative? In Singapore as well because our country is very small, being a classical musician, dancer, or opera singer pays well but not as well as Europe and Singaporeans actually go to Europe, US, China to work because they have more famous dance troupes and symphonic orchestras in all their big cities like NYC Ballet or Berlin Philharmonic.

Being a dancer is not a "low class" or unstable job, you have many famous prima ballerinas in Russia, USA, Europe and many top Chinese actors and actresses were ballet or dance majors: Leo Luo (he was a pro ballet dancer), Cecilia Liu, Li Yitong (she was a ballet teacher), Victoria Song, Gina Jin, Liu Haocun, Ren Min, Yang Yang, Jin Xing, Huang Xuan, Liu Haoran, Zhang Huiwen etc etc etc. In fact to enter C-ent the most easy path is to successfully audition to enter Beijing Dance, Beijing Film, Shanghai Theatre, or Central Academy of Drama. These 4 schools (plus Communication University of China) are famous for producing a lot of celebrities and they have certain advantages over other Chinese art schools, like if you attend a regional art school or prestigious non-art university you will at most get supporting roles or find it very hard to build connections unless you are super good-looking lol. So dance in China isn't regarded as an unstable profession at all, I believe they have a lot of state dance troupes that do traditional dances and get paid by the government.

Not really, I'm not sure which country you are from but in my country Singapore and countries like China where there are super wealthy folks, billionaires and 8/9-figure millionaires who own listed companies let their kids do fashion, arts, dance, start a business, play sports like golf, race cars and drive f1, even if they are smart students. One of my schoolmates' dad is a tech billionaire who has a garage of Ferraris and while she got good grades and attended a good uni she doesn't have a fulltime job and does charity work and dabbles in pottery.

It's the middle class or middle upper class e.g. children of average working class or lower net worth millionaires like doctors or lawyers who put pressure on their kids to do 9 to 5 jobs because they are not business owners or CEOs and are essentially still just employees who don't have wealth and stability to let their kids do as they please. Again I'm not speculating about Dengwei since i know nothing about him but Esther Yu, Feng Shaofeng, Sun Zhenni, Victor Qin, Hans Zhang, Hua Chenyu, Tao, Tzuyu all come from money and have families who own big businesses.

How is it surprising? It just means his family is rich enough to allow him to do what he wants and not have to take the conventional path. In China and many countries those who can afford to study dance or ballet for years and major in Performance Arts in university usually come from money because it's very unstable and you need to have parents who pay for ballet lessons as a kid. Average families can't afford it, only rich families can. Only rich parents can let their kids do as they please. There's a saying 有钱就是任性 or The Rich Can Be Wilful https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4645097029766089

Again I doubt he ever intended to become an actor and his interview replies have more depth than Wang Yibo, Yibo sounds very shallow and couldn't write his own name lol maybe because he spent too much time in Korea.

It's Esther Yu and her family is on a different level, I think she's one of the wealthier ones.

Doubt Dengwei is super rich just averagely wealthy since he is from Inner Mongolia which isn't too urban overall and he doesn't flaunt branded clothes but dresses modestly https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4935385534695237 his agency is really tiny or he would have gotten some fashion sponsorships bc he's a good model. As for why he became an actor, he was said to be upset when he had to stop dancing and looked moody in a lot of his old photos. In China there are not many avenues for ex-dancers other than teaching so acting/modelling was probably the only option available. He actually speaks well, is funny, and has intricate thoughts (among the whole LYF cast he is the most well spoken in interviews? like i prefer his answers to the others because he sounds very sincere) , i really like his speaking voice but it's a bit nasal like he has a blocked nose so IDK if he can use his real voice when acting LOL

He has 2-3 managers and a boss, and his agency was created to manage him. He is from a rich family (back in his early Weibo days he told fans he didn't need to support his family so his injury was not a big deal) and suffered injuries as a Dance Drama major, then went to US for physiotherapy before becoming a model then got started in acting. His personality is very soft-spoken so fans believe he would not have become an actor if he didn't get injured.

https://m.weibo.cn/detail/4932112643788284 as for why he gets side roles in big budget dramas, his appearance is the main reason and he looks like the typical white knight ML. His face is small, with broad shoulders, long legs, tiny waist so he really suits traditional hanfu and long hair. At least his rise is organic and he didn't start off in lead roles but climbs from side roles. He needs to do dramas where the ML cries a lot lol

He is lucky LYF is a hit and got him better roles since his agency is tiny and only manages him, such a chance may never happen again and most actors in C-ent stuck in support roles don't get such opportunities. It's up to him to prove he is worthy and cement himself as a 1ML since he is almost 30. If the drama flops then he will go back to side roles. It's hard to move up the ladder without any connections or big agency backing so DW has to appreciate his chances.

Yes it's pretty much confirmed. The project was started by Julia Xiang's agency and they originally wanted Bai Jingting but he rejected the role so they had to look for another actor and decided to offer Deng Wei after seeing LYF. It's a xianxia drama and the role suits him quite well.

https://www.douban.com/group/topic/293569135/
Dengwei's next drama and first ML role is all but confirmed to start in September. It's Xiantai Tree, and the project approached him after seeing his performance in LYF. The director has a lot of popular dramas and the ML is a doctor who has a cold hurt exterior but he does everything for the FL who is a playful character. The project is invested by Julia Xiang's agency as a vehicle to push her into costume roles so it's surprising that they are letting Dengwei have top billing.

When she calls him Jiuming on that barren island after her coronation, I laughed because it sounded like a cry for help. Well he had 9 lives (and 9 heads) but he's now got only 8 lives left after saving Xiaoyao.

The earliest is 2024 January, LYF is Tencent's most successful 2023 drama so far and will be the #2 most watched drama in China behind The Knockout this year. Tencent have said they will air S2 in the winter holiday slot so schoolgoers can binge it (LYF aired in the summer holiday slot which is when media companies air all their blockbuster xianxia, wuxia, S+ productions) plus they want to score a good result in early 2024 so they can guarantee advertising collaborations for next year.

On their names and surnames / a Chinese culture explanation post: The surnames Tong Hua used are two-word surnames she invented like Fangfeng, Tushan, Chishui, Chenrong. Two word surnames are rare in China, the most common ones are Ouyang (e.g. Ouyang Nana) and Linghu (e g. Linghu Chong the famous ML of Smiling Proud Wanderer)

- Fangfeng 防风 literally means Wind Protection and is the name of a mythological giant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fangfeng

- Tushan 涂山 is a stereotypical surname for fox spirits lol (Fox Spirit Matchmaker's FL played by Yangmi is also from the Tushan clan) because it's the name of a Chinese mountain where foxes supposedly roam https://foxspiritmatchmaker.fandom.com/wiki/Tushan Qingqiu literally means "green hills" and is the home of the mythological nine-tailed fox https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-tailed_fox hence why Jing is also called "Qingqiu Gentleman".

- Chishui 赤水 literally means red water https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chishui_River

- Lirong 离戎 is the name of a defunct minority clan in Northwest China https://baike.baidu.com/item/离戎/10616992

- Xiaoyao's name is a pun because it's named after the peach blossom on her forehead but also is a homonym for 小妖 "little demon" which unsurprisingly refers to her true parentage. If you get Mandarin there is no doubt whose daughter she is.

Jing always felt bad for Tushan Hou because he is badly treated as a concubine's son despite being the more talented brother. That's why he never blamed Hou for torturing him. Jing is a literal angel, but Hou ended up killing his wife and trying to kill Jing again 😤

He will grow up as Jing's son and inherit the Tushan clan eventually so Jing can go off and wander the earth with Xiaoyao after their wedding. Jing knows the baby isn't his but he doesn't reveal it because it's not the child's fault.

Here is the ending spoiler scene https://youtu.be/JozEcbakMhQ

They are Hello Saturday colleagues and jokers irl