eternalsummer

SZE did nothing of that sort.... This comment section claiming she's stepping on people is crazy. She's borderline anorexic right now, and Zuer has no agency (she's a child star and is freelancing mostly while being affliated to Tencent) unlike Xu Kai who is backed uo by the loudest industry drama queen CEO Yuzheng, and on this comment section people are claiming she's stepping on Yuzheng's actor? Good heavens.

Yuzheng is not the kind of person to let anyone step on his agency's celebrities, he will start a whole shitshow on Weibo over the smallest infraction. The last time Yuzheng was asked about Song Zuer's return to C-ent he responded: "She's a strong actress with good visuals and I heard a lot of people have booked her to film so her schedule is filled till next year." He also said he forwarded a few scripts to her. Most neutrals commented that Zuer shouldn't accept because working with Yuzheng and his stable of actors may result in getting scolded or attacked online... He's too much drama yet Xu Kai fans are making up rumors. Please only act with Zhao Qing and various newbie actresses under Huanyu, instead of defaming others....

Well I'm not a hater too but as a Song Zuer fan I do hope she doesn't act with Xu Kai too because this comment section is scary 😂 plus Yu Zheng is known to publicly attack the costars of his charges like Xukai, Bailu long after their drama aired (recently he started making comments about Allen Ren, the costar of Bailu's most popular drama).

For Xu Kai's sake lets hope he gets a viral hit soon so he can film those so-called male-centric dramas like Dylan Wang does, all he needs is one of his dramas to go viral like LBFAD and he releases so many dramas every year one of them will go viral I'm sure. Yuzheng can also write him a male-centric drama and get one of the lesser known Huanyu actresses like Zhao Qing or He Ruixian to act as a sidepiece FL for Xu Kai, that way Xu Kai fans will be happier.

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/wishing-you-eternal-happiness/ here's the novel translation if people want to read it!

Cousin Wanfu reuters💕 SZE looks super expressive even in stills.
Scene where she gets kidnapped by the 2nd ML? https://www.douban.com/group/topic/331700975/?_spm_id=MTQzMTI3MTE2

Crossdressing with the ML https://www.douban.com/group/topic/331702387/?_spm_id=MjIyODg0Njky
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/331671968/?_spm_id=Mjg0NjQ2NDIy
Her male outfits over the years 🙃 https://www.douban.com/group/topic/331775901/?_spm_id=MTU4NzE3NjQx

Sorrythere's no chance Zhao Liying or Liu Shishi will be cast given that Shen Miao is 14yo when she starts over. Unless you want literal 40 year olds pretending to be 14yo (iirc Zhang Ziyi did that in one of her dramas and got criticised badly), the likelihood is that they'll cast someone from post95-00 line even though Chinese fans have even suggested Deng Enxi or Huangyang Tiantian before her earring scandal.

The actor is also going to be young, 95-00line, because the novel describes him as a handsome youth and dudes like Hu Ge and Wallace Huo are pushing 45. This is not some serious historical drama like 大汉赋 or 大唐赋, this is an idol drama and the novel it's based on is stupidly fluffy and mostly read by teens e.g. the revenge arc barely makes sense, everyone kowtows to the FL (i guess Yanxi was the same....). Point being Tencent are going to use this as a vehicle to push somw young actor's popularity and they won't cast ZLY, Wu Jinyan, Hu Ge who are all too old for idol dramas unless they are playing parents, emperors, or aunts. Lol

It's a book about the Republican era in China, specifically the Battle of Shanghai. Why would Korea adapt it?

CBLs would clear if not for censorship due to their storylines and visuals, hate to say this but China is a wayyyyy more literary country than Korea, Japan and many other countries if you check out how big China's novel/webnovel industry is. Even in the digital age China is one of the top few countries when it comes to books read per person annually. Korea & Japan are big on manga/manhwa (China also has manhua but it's not as predominant as novels) and don't produce as much literature given that their literary tradition isn't as long as China and they used to use Chinese characters until they invented their own language a few centuries back.

Hence Cdramas are mostly based on popular novels/webnovels where plot matters more versus Kdramas which are heavily manhwa-based (illustration skill matters more than plot & literary skill), plus China has better visuals due to their population size/smaller bone structure.... You can find many actors willing to do BL whose face is more snatched than KBL or Thai BL actors even though they are struggling models or no-names in China...

I think she has some degree of anorexia ever since she made a comeback (scroll down, when she returned in April she already looked very skinny in airport videos 😭 ), her fans in in China must pester her team to make sure she gets enough nutrition. 2 years of being frozen, dealing with uncertainty, heavy penalty fees if her dramas didn't air, or losing her career have had a big toll so when she was cleared to return to C-ent she lost a lot of weight and appetite in order to look photogenic in costume dramas and on screen because she desperately fears her career cannot return to normality and fears she won't get casted again after 2 years of not filming since tons of other actresses are debuting everyday, plus China's drama industry is scaling down due to the economy so a lot of actors are jobless or moving to short/vertical dramas.

Zuer is one of the top actresses of her age group so she'll get a steady stream of work but she def has to sort out her fears on not being casted or not being as competitive and favoured by big production firms as before, and not let those worries take a big toll on her weight. It's hard because she probably thinks being rail thin will show casting directors, producers, investors that she's still unwaveringly serious about her career, didn't "let go" to enjoy during those 2 years and is willing to be harsh on herself for art's sake. I really hope she can get back to having comfortable amount of security in her career, image, future, so she can go easy on her body... She used to love snacking 😭😭😭😭

Apparently the director Gong Yushi is getting a lot of offers in China to film hetero idol dramas 😂 Yay for her!

More cute videos 😻 https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5189524443367892

8.6? 😭😭😭😭😭

Even the side characters have great arcs, I really hope the production firm has a budget to adapt it properly and hires a good director....

2nd FL Jiang Shouyue is a very good role: Initally a peripheral character as Xiao Wangyun's fiancee, she's raped by Japanese troops during the fall of Nanking and taken back to be a comfort woman due to her beauty. (Everyone who reads this novel will hope for her sake that she dies at this point...) Freed later on Fujita's orders because he likes Xie Wanzhi enough to save her friend. Despite severe PTSD, feelings of worthlessness and nightmares, she immediately joins the CCP resistance to become a ruthless spy/assassin out for revenge and survives the war, living til old age with many kids.

Xiao Wangyun: A painter/teacher friend of the FL who returns to Nanking with his fiancee just before the massacre, he's decapitated when he tries to save Meng Yuan from getting raped at the Nanking safe zone. His head is displayed on a stake by the Japanese as a warning, and his friends risk life and limb to retrieve it, carry it in a bag for weeks until Xie Wanzhi buries it with the rest of his body using her bare hands. (i hope they can somehow film this arc, it's so heartbreaking but shows the characters' courage and strong friendship)

Meng Yuan: dress shop employee who has a crush on Xiao Wangyun, when he's killed in an attempt to stop her rape she nearly goes crazy (the audiobook is so realistic, she screams like her world has exploded). She retrieves his head from a stake and gets chased by Japanese through the streets of Nanking screaming like a mad woman, until she's saved by He Feng. She later self immolates and jumps on Japanese troops in a suicide attack.

Li Changshen: 17yo who follows He Feng after the Battle of Shanghai and loses an arm while trying to save Meng Yuan after they pledged to be together.

Song Qingtao: He Feng's childhood playmate at the bandit lair who loves him enough torture Xie Wanzhi out of jealousy, and gets shot in the hand by He Feng in retaliation. Dies to save He Feng when Japanese attack their village.

Luo Lingshu: He Feng's educated professor mom who got kidnapped to be a bandit's wife while she was already pregnant after studying in Japan. She abandons He Feng and his sickly half-Japanese brother He Zhan after escaping the lair, returns to Japan to be a professor, marries a high status Japanese, and is well respected in Japan even though she's Chinese. He Feng takes on He Zhan's identity and half Japanese bloodline to reconcile with his mom in Japan and do spying.

All these characters stand out a lot in the book because they are written with depth. I do hope they faithfully dramatize it because it's rare to see a role depicting a comfort woman bravely fighting her trauma, or a "traitor" mother like Luo Lingshu who's extremely rational and cold-hearted but will do anything to save her Chinese spy son.

Characterisations:

ML He Feng (requires strong charisma & alpha male acting; Ao Ruipeng, Xu Kai, Oliver Chen?)
- playful young master of the bandits turned KMT soldier/spy who fakes being a high status Japanese
- nicknamed He Sanfeng 何三疯 by bandits due to his ruthlessness
- Physical description: Very tall, broad shouldered. Laughs a lot. Strong fighter. There's a sauna scene where the 2ML gets jealous of how much taller & muscular He Feng is and sees a huge dragon tattoo on half his body that the ML inked to hide his battle scars.
- Devotedly loves the FL and risks his life to save her time & again from when they were teens to when they become spies, even when he knows it's a trap.
- Kills so many (mostly Japanese & traitors) as a bandit, KMT soldier/spy, he can't reincarnate
- Climbs windows and trees to visit the FL for trysts, oft disguises as a rickshaw puller.
- Extremely cocky (he goes "Are you ready to record my achievements?" when the gig is up, even the 2ML is impressed by his patriotism and vows to let him die as a Japanese and lose his Chinese identity so his heroic acts won't be respected), shamelessly flirty to the FL, scoffs and swears a lot, has 0 qualms when branded as a traitor, bandit, scum and says he's way worse. Pretends to be into BDSM to look more Japanese and avoid having to rape women.
- Fujita's sister is madly in love with him so there are many tense double date scenes with the Fujita siblings where the lead couple must pretend they don't know each other even though they're practically married.

--------

FL Xie Chi/Wanzhi (SZE is linked, I imagined young YangMi while reading)
- Unfavoured artist daughter of a wealthy family who's kidnapped by bandits and cunningly schemes her escape by charming the most powerful person in the lair, He Feng. Despite using him at first, she falls in love when he goes against everyone to save her.
- Vengeful, headstrong, cold, independent, yet charming. Her beauty gets her in trouble with the Japanese. Pretends to be weak and afraid of snakes when she's not, and fakes an inability to walk to get He Feng's sympathy.
- Doesn't care what her rich family (misogynistic dad, stepmums, stepsiblings) thinks. Raised by grandpa in rural mountains after her mum died. Has multiple high drama scenes where her dad tries to shoot and disown her for colluding with bandits and Japanese.
- becomes a dressmaker/CCP spy/assassin after she's disowned by family for returning after "getting defiled by bandits" (she didn't and willingly fell in love with the ML)
- becomes a nurse during the fall of Nanking and treats so many horrific injuries she's willing to sacrifice herself for revenge.
- uses/seduces Fujita to get information as a spy.
- Goes from having PTSD after killing a bandit in self-defence to ruthlessly assassinating Fujita's bestie immediately after meeting him bc he looks too different to his photo and can't be easily assassinated again. Stabs a lot of Japanese at night.
----------

2ML Fujita (villain who's depressed by war, artistic, gentlemanly; Chang Huasen possibly?)
- Physical description: Curly long hair initially, fair skin, sensitive, doesn't look Japanese, did well in military school but chose to study drama in UK to become a theatre practitioner before getting recalled by his general father to Nanking.
- nursed by Xie Wanzhi at a hospital where he pretends to be mute to appear like a Chinese civilian.
- Initially repulsed by the Nanking massacre and tries to stop war crimes but eventually becomes violent, crazy, ruthless due to jealousy, kills a prostitute who laughed at him.
- Takes a lot of medicine (implied impotence?)
- His role written as a metaphor for Japan imo: Fujita stresses the importance of human rights because he studied in UK (Japan wanted to Europeanise during the Meiji Empire) and hopes Japan is seen as a righteous country, but his actions are hypocritical i.e. he leads troops to battle for Chinese land. His jealousy toward He Feng's tall muscular body symbolises Japan's jealousy towards the vastness of China, and his obsession with Xie Wanzhi symbolises Japan's desire to possess China by force despite how genteel and educated he/Japan appear.
- Needs a skilled actor to portray the 2ML's struggle with his conscience, he starts out likeable but descends into darkness.

Finally finished the novel! For a WW2 story it's a 9.5/10 because it isn't cliched and has a lot of twists, I hope the drama adaptation and actors do justice to the plot which is highly dramatic, mostly logical (except for the 2nd ML's obsession with Xie Chi even after she's revealed as a spy) with 0 boring moments? It's wave after wave of high drama and tension! Even if SZE doesn't act in it I'll check it out, that how much I enjoyed it. The audiobook is very popular in China https://ting15.com/dushiyanqing/1599/0-26.html due to 顾辰's voice acting as the ML (they may need to get him to dub the ML.... He embodied He Feng), start from 26 and skip all the Ji Tong bits to ignore the modern story. It's super important to cast strong actors...not Song Weilong or Chang Huasen as He Feng, they don't fit the ML's physical description which requires an actor who can bare his body and flex his muscles/tattoos, that is a key scene where Fujita gets jealous of He Feng and realises he can't compare plus gets suspicious of He Feng's array of scars.

Sze's latest drama's styling https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5187283594777195

Reuters https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5187741677785356

Finally started reading the novel, the Republican bit is very well written and the modern parts are hard to adapt, the leads undergo vast personality changes due to tragedy. Both start as playful teens but choose a self sacrificial path and are ruthless killers for the resistance during WW2. The FL is an artist who's disowned by her rich family after she's kidnapped and escapes a bandit lair because she's unclean and deemed shameful; they wish she died so they could say she fought to keep her honour intact🤮. Her father shoots at her for daring to return home so she cuts familial ties and joins the resistance war effort as a spy/assassin despite having PTSD after she killed someone at the bandit lair, and a nurse when Nanking falls.

The ML is a complicated role that needs a charismatic actor, the leads meet as 17yos when the FL is kidnapped by bandits and the ML is a Dao Mingsi-esque ruthless 2nd generation bandit who loves hunting, uses the FL as shooting target practice, gropes and shamelessly propositions the FL throughout the novel (BUT he never forces her, keeps saving her, and they only get together after she confesses; at the start she pretends to like the ML to escape but they both fall in love for real), robs/kicks random folks, has killed dozens (I'm watching Revenged Love and Chicheng's demeanor and speech are similar e.g. 老子，他妈的，我想上你/睡你 x 1000) so being able to convincingly play a charismatic scoundrel is key. When Japan invades and kills his entire village the ML is hellbent on revenge and joins the resistance, he gets sent to Japan to assume the identity of a dead Japanese bc his mother (also a rich upperclass lady kidnapped by bandits to be a wife like the FL jeez) studied in Japan and taught him Japanese. He pretends to be a shameless violent wastrel Japanese bully and gets hated by everyone when in reality he's a spy for the resistance, and joins the army during the war. So the ML's acting has to be good, but ultimately the directing and writing is most important.

https://www.douban.com/group/topic/330926831/?_spm_id=MjYxODgyNTU2&_i=236424564qcJWz Zhang Kangle looks the part i.e. teen bandit/shameless Japanese collaborator/army enlistee but his acting isn't untested, some folks are suggesting Tian Xuning (looks too old to play a 17yo) or Ao Ruipeng but idk, it's a difficult role to nail. The 2nd ML is a Japanese who comes between the leads, he turns evil over time and he appears quite late in the novel.

https://youtu.be/U79--J8b1YQ this is the audiobook,, pt 2 is the 1930s bit that'll be adapted and the ML is a teen bandit with a huge temper, e.g. he shoots those who cross his path.

Yay 😭😭😭

Chang Chen was 23-24yo were he filmed Crouching Tiger, not 40+.... The 1997er who's 1.9m with a 痞帅 vibe is Tian Xuning that scandalised BL actor (he also needs dubbing and his acting isn't tested outside BLs), the other person who suits the roles is Ao Ruipeng. But casting comes down to things like which actor's schedule is open, whether they are willing to be 2nd billed hence why people are saying it's Chang Huasen due to his links to Tencent.

https://img3.doubanio.com/view/richtext/large/public/p911468202.jpg there are quite a lot of 97ers but they don't suit the role?

Joseph kinda lacks the mountain bandit demeanor (names I've heard are Chang Huasen & Dong Sicheng but they lack it too lol). In the novel the ML is 1.9m with a fighter's build who kills a lot of people as a bandit, he later assumes to identity of a Japanese person and works as a spy. If SZE does take this project, the ML will be 2nd billed so it rules out a lot of more popular names, but the characterisation of the ML in this novel is very good as he's a bandit (think Chang Chen in 卧虎藏龙) turned double agent.

Song Zuer is rumored for the FL, the ML is apparently a 97er but it's unconfirmed.

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/a-zhi-a-zhi-my-boyfriend-from-a-previous-life-has-turned-into-a-ghost-and-come-to-find-me/
https://www.novelupdatesforum.com/threads/a-zhi-a-zhi-my-boyfriend-from-a-previous-life-has-turned-into-a-ghost-给我一块面包吧-阿吱-阿吱-by-uin-he.192670/