eternalsummer

Rare critical comment but I really dislike the illogicality of NXX lying about getting raped by bandits and marrying against her parents' wishes after severing family ties, which caused her mum a lot of emotional distress and led her to fall ill then die with a guilty heart. She may hate her dad but her mom was the main person feeling aggrieved by NXX's plight so her lying was unreasonably cruel to her mother, plus nobody would lie claiming they were raped by bandits in that era and let the whole village gossip maliciously about her, her family, her husband, her in laws.

Also NXX's parents look like grandparents, I know rural villagers looked rough but farmers got married in their teens and in reality they'd be 40+ when their kids are in their teens to 20s. But these days a 40yo Yangmi can play a young bride, 30yo Xingfei can play a 15yo, thus they need to cast 65yos as their parents 😂 Nevertheless the best actors are the FL & ML's mothers, Ni Dahong is usually good but he's a bit exaggerated in this and one of the weaker performers in the ensemble.

Zhang Yimou is great at capturing the feel of that era and the desolate hopelessness of Republican China regardless of where you lived; Red Sorghum, Raise The Red Lantern (this is also a must see for the cinematography), Ju Dou are all films set in the early 20th century and about women sold or married off against their wishes. Those are Zhang Yimou's best films along with To Live and Story of Qiu Ju.

If you enjoyed this and want a similar show from that era I recommend Red Sorghum, it's based on Nobel laureate Mo Yan's awardwinning novel and got adapted into a great film by Zhang Yimou starring GongLi and also a great 2014 TV series starring Zhou Xun (she was a similar age to Yangmi when she did Red Sorghum and won best TV actress, Yangmi's acting will inevitably be compared to her). It's also set in rural Northern China e.g. Shandong like Thriving Land. The film is a classic and worth watching for film buffs.

Red Sorghum is about a poor village girl sold by her abusive dad to marry some old dude who owns a distillery from a neighbouring village, but along the way one of the labourers hired to carry her wedding palanquin takes a liking to her. Even the scheming sister in law role is played the same actress Qin Hailu. Haha

Nevertheless I really like This Thriving Land a lot for the land reform plotline, it's extremely relevent in this era where billionaires are buying up everything be it land or social media sites to brainwash you.

It's very very similar to Red Sorghum, same Republican era and Northern China village setting, in fact Qin Hailu's scheming SIL role in this is 90% similar to her schemy SIL role in Red Sorghum I had Vietnam War flashbacks 😭

Red Sorghum had Zhou Xun as the poor village girl JiuEr sold by her dad during the misogynistic Republican era, Zhu Yawen playing the Ou Hao role and Huang Xuan as her scholarly first love so acting-wise it was excellent.... the director was Zheng Xiaolong aka China's top TV director and the book won the Maodun Literature Prize so yea, Thriving Land is very very good plotwise due to the land reform storyline but acting-wise Zhou Xun is hard to beat.

New Zuer Reuters https://www.douban.com/group/topic/333486758/?_spm_id=MTczODI4Njk5 ✨✨✨

Today's Reuters ✨✨ https://www.douban.com/group/topic/333486758/?_spm_id=MTczODI4Njk5

Afterwork! https://weibo.com/6263807870/5197870787201857

Yes, all the BL actors like Xiaozhan, Yibo, Johnny, Timmy etc did 1 BL and stopped because they already got very popular and the real money (BL doesn't pay well, the actors do it to get fans) is in BG dramas like xianxia, historical romances, and actors who want to be taken seriously can't keep doing BL which is for a fringe audience and not taken seriously by the general public e.g. BL dramas often have weak plots and cheap production values because BL fans are watching for the skinship mainly. Tian Xuning is signed to Huace which makes TV dramas meant for the general public e.g. Flourished Peony, even if they produced BLs like Addicted & Revenged Love. Huace basically invested money to make Tian Xuning famous via a BL and plan to let him do BG dramas after this, they previously produced A Love So Beautiful with the purpose of making Hu Yitian famous and it worked too.

Also both MLs are heterosexual men who've had cheating scandals where their exes came out on Weibo to reveal their cheating, they're already lucky they are still amassing a big fandom and not getting "cancelled" by the public for their infidelity (i don't care at all but the fans who started following them on Weibo/Douyin/XHS may stop following e.g. Ziyu has been losing a lot of followers on XHS and other platforms due to the exposes). Point being they aren't going to do more BLs, they already achieved their goal of instant fame via a "scandalous" method and had their personal lives scrutinized, now it's about converting their BL fame into a longer lasting popularity within China so they can have a viable career for the next 5-8 years. BLs aren't allowed to be aired normally on Chinese platforms and the pay is very low versus typical IQiyi, Youku, Tencent dramas.

They are trying to keep it lowkey in case the leads get into trouble. It's not too hard to understand. Huace and Chai Jidan are promoting it heavily on Douyin, Weibo, XHS given that they buy 294784848 hot searches since the drama atarted airing, IDK what kind of promotion you expect, the leads kissing in public or hugging and holding hands? Please understand this isn't possible unless they want the MLs to get banned, as things stand there are already tons of people asking for the MLs to get banned like Johnny and Timmy because both of them got exposed for their cheating scandals and are on the Weibo & XHS Hot search for personal life issues almost everyday a few weeks ago. Even if the drama isn't promoted in China (whatever you think this means, it's promoted on Douyin, Weibo, XHS i.e. they upload promos and BTS) everyone knows about it due to the hotsearch deluge and scandals of the lead actors.

The MLs of Addicted Johnny Huang and Timmy Xu promoted their BL together (it wasn't censored and aired in China, caused huge fanfare and people went crazy for them too) and it resulted in their drama getting banned in China and their appearances on varieties got wiped. Both the actors had to endure 1-2 years of blacklisting due to the controversy.

Huace plans to promote Tian Xuning as a liuliang actor (Esther Yu & Hu Yitian were their main artists but they recently left this agency) for non-BL dramas after this, so they don't want him to get blacklisted like Johnny or Timmy when Addicted aired.

This drama has a lot of investment from Huace (Tian Xuning's agency and the production firm of Chai Jidan's Addicted starring Johnny Huang all those years ago) and Enlight Media (Liu Jun's agency), Huace is the main financial backer of this drama even if the production firm is Chai Jidan's own firm.

So even though it sounds like Tian Xuning was randomly approached, it's a lot less random a collaboration given that Huace and Chai Jidan worked together on a famous BL drama Addicted years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Television_series_by_Huace_Media Huace isn't a small agency, they produce a lot of films and dramas.

I hate smokers but nobody can convince me this isn't the greatest cigarette advertisement ever in 21st century dramas 🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬🚬 Malboro needs to let Chicheng have a global ambassadorship ☠️

Cfans will have issues with a Nanking massacre drama with a Taiwanese actor because Taiwanese fought alongside Japan in WW2 (in other words they were collaborators, there are WW2 memorials commemorating the Taiwanese who died in WW2 fighting to help Japan conquer China). Taiwan was a Japanese colony in the early 1900s hence they drafted Chinese men to help them fight in China... Iirc Wallace Huo did a WW2 drama but he played a KMT soldier and he doesn't really have any political stance controversies unlike most Taiwanese celebs who have openly supported independence (e.g. Wu Kangren got a lot of hate online from both China & Taiwan for going to China to film a drama https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2024/09/28/2003824462)


Offtopic: on China Taiwan collabs... There is a lot of Taiwanese capital in China e.g. Dylan's agency 萌样 or IQiyi which has Taiwanese shareholders. There are Taiwanese actors in China like Darren Chen, Wu Kangren (signed to Easy Ent and did a drama with Sun Li), Ouyang Nana, Wallace Huo but their political stance will be scrutinised heavily by Cnetz unless they are very very unambiguously pro-China like OYNN or Baron Chen.

IMO Chinese folks are pretty prejudiced against Taiwanese capital and actors (not singers though) because there's a prevailing sentiment that they are all pro-Taiwan independence (can't blame them) and only pretend to be China-friendly to earn big bucks in China but their demeanor is very fake i.e. most of them play dead and refuse to retweet pro-China reunification tweets. I personally have more respect for Taiwanese actors who stay in Taiwan and don't chase big money in China unless they are clearly politically aligned to China like OYNN and Ouyang Didi (their Dad is a pro-China KMT politician and actor), or Baron Chen (son of a notorious gangster who led the Bamboo Union that's affiliated to the authoritarian KMT govt in the 1980s and assassinated an anti-KMT dissident). I'm ¼ Hokkien myself and I support Taiwan's independence but I'm also OK with OYNN or Baron Chen's pro-China stance since it's their family's identity, but IMO most Taiwanese actors who head to China fail to make a splash and end up flying under the radar even if they still earn good money in support roles. China's beauty standards are different and they prefer very sharp defined visuals like Wallace Huo or Roy Chiu, the current crop of young Taiwanese actors aren't really good-looking enough to steal the limelight e.g. compare Edward Chen to Tian Xuning. I'm not a big fan of Taiwanese actors working in China, most of them look out of place in Cdramas and only serve to add controversy i.e. A drama may get shelved if the Taiwanese actor says or does Sinophobic things. China doesn't exactly lack actors.

This project is a bit controversial, it's apparently helmed by Linmon which is one of the big Chinese production firms, but the director rumored allegedly isn't Chinese but from HK/Taiwan and Zuer is rumored for the FL because she's linked to Easy Entertainment (she's not listed as an official artist but she's affliated even though she runs her own studio and Easy Ent has some Taiwanese artists) and Dylan is linked because his agency 萌样 is backed by Taiwanese capital and his boss Angie Chai is Taiwanese (she discovered him on a variety and gave him the Meteor Garden role). Hence Chinese fans are kicking up a fuss because they think Taiwanese capital wants to film a WW2 drama with a sympathetic Japanese 2ML and Taiwan is known for being pro Japan.... Like there are people threatening to report the drama even before the script is completed 🙄

Wow who's smoking the herbal ones?

Smoking is really common in China so I think most of the actors smoke, Ziyu has been spotted smoking irl and Chicheng is great at the smoking scenes lol

?????
What rubbings and insertions from other men?

She's rumored to be attending a Dior event this month on August 25th https://img9.doubanio.com/view/group_topic/l/public/p695883386.jpg

It's just a polite term to address a coworker, there's a famous Chinese idiom "三人行, 必有我师" i.e. "when 3 people walk together, you'll find one of them can be your teacher" (the meaning: you can learn from everyone around you, from any walk of life, so treat others respectfully like they're your teacher)

In China the polite term to address cabdrivers is also 师傅.

She's done xianxia (Novoland/TDHR), law (Legally Romance), historical (TPOB), 1970s family (The Bond), business (Created in China), sports (To Fly With You) and her acting is praised in general...

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1E94y1X7wF/ she suits different styles quite well

Please don't use this thread to promote your faves' other dramas, I'm so tired of seeing people push ABO desire and other unrelated shows here

FYI after a liuliang like Dylan got rumored his big fandom began protesting the project & author for being unpatriotic (they are mainly unhappy he's considering a drama named after the FL and fear he has to share equal screentime with the FL lol, they want male-centric dramas where the FL's presence is low and he's the main star💤 ) because the ML takes on a Japanese identity as a spy and says horrible things as part of his undercover job i.e. he tells the FL "I'll throw you in a comfort women parlour if you don't keep quiet about my real identity" bc he wants her to steer clear when he's pretending to be 小池龙二) and they are upset about the Japanese 2ML who's written in an ambiguous manner i.e. he's tortured by his conscience and tries to stop war crimes in Nanking but Chinese fans are very angry because they feel it's wrong to portray Japanese perpetrators of the Nanking massacre as having a conscience or being forced by circumstances to wage war (this I agree, the author does make it seem like Fujita is forced by his dad to partake in war which is a way of garnering sympathy for the Japanese, the author makes an effort to show "he's one of the nice ones" which will make viewers like the 2ML bc they're brainless and like any handsome actors). Nevertheless every drama adaptation significantly alters the original novel (LBFAD & TPOB did, so did Guardians of Dafeng bc the MLs are all written to be terrible people who cheat, rape or murder at will) so it's silly to assume the rumoured production firm Linmon and scriptwriter Even Jian won't cut or alter a lot of the source material.

Also Dead to Rights/南京照相馆 is the most popular film in China this summer so anti-Japanese sentiment is at a high now, China prefers this film to City of Life & Death (I really liked this, but Lu Chuan is criticised for being pro-Japan for portraying a few Japanese soldiers in a sympathetic light) because they portray Japanese soldiers as unambiguously evil. Point being, the only interpretation of history Chinese netizens can accept is that Japan was unambiguously evil (I agree, my country was also invaded by Japan) and there shouldn't be any 'grey area' portrayals where viewers are encouraged to sympathise with a Japanese soldier in Nanking or to think "there were good and bad ones" (I like nuanced portrayals but China doesn't). In that light this project is a bit risky because Dylan's fans are already trying to report the author and claiming that he shouldn't film it bc rival fandoms will report the drama for harbouring pro-Japanese sentiment if it gets filmed (even if the script alters the original novel so the 2ML is shown as unambiguously evil... Welcome to China where they don't care for nuance and don't even give you a chance to write a different 2ML).

It'll be interesting to see if Linmon the rumoured producer (it's one of the top firms) does go ahead given how Dylan's fans kicked up a big fuss over reporting it to authorities, I just wish they steered clear of casting liuliangs bc this is exactly how much trouble liuliang fans and their rivals can cause, they will start a big campaign online to kill the project or prevent it from airing e.g. Chengyi's drama 赴山海 couldn't air in May bc Xiaozhan's fans kept reporting the 2FL for"saying Sinophobic things" and want to help their idol this way 🙄 Dylan's fans even started a fake rumor saying the title Azhi Azhi is bc the 2ML calls the FL by that name and a lot of Chinese people are aware that Japanese call Chinese “支那” but it's a lie, the FL is Xie WanZhi and says she's Azhi 阿芝 (sesame, homonym to her real name) when she's abducted by bandits to avoid giving away her rich family's surname, the ML calls her 阿吱 (also a homonym) after a creaking door because he knows she's lying. That becomes his nickname for her, it's not a reference to 支那 but Dylan fans are already running with it..... Ultimately this is why Cdramas are becoming mid, you have to contend with liuliang fandoms and how they want their idol to dominate the plot & screentime and for all other actors to be peripheral (as opposed to telling a good story....) or have uglier costumes & makeup so their idol doesn't get outshined, then you have to contend with rival liuliang fandoms trying to report projects to authorities for every minor infraction in hopes they can get it banned or postponed so their idol's rivals get screwed. Even Revenged Love has tons of post on Douban calling for the leads to be banned in China or Chai Jidan to be prosecuted and jailed because Cnetz have a stick up their arse & liuliang fans are worried Tian Xuning & Ziyu will become their idol's rivals. There's like, zero hope China can produce a Squid Game or Breaking Bad because it'll be reported millions of times for offending the masses or encouraging drug use etc etc, Cnetz have no nuance or concept of ambiguity so everything is either same old boring plotline recycled in many dramas or "report it it's offensive to me and breaks the rules" 🙄