torycoco

on what? latest air date likely early 2023, esp all the Youku S+ costume dramas seem to be delayed...

Yeah exactly. BL has a very strong platform behind her. She almost never has duds and started out in 2nd female lead roles. LYX making it this far is a miracle because his own agency is so shit, and it'd be very hard for him to get cast in say Huanyu or Huanrui productions because they all have their own actors to promote (e.g. Xu Kai, Ren Jialun, Chengyi). And why wouldn't they promote their own actors? They get a cut out of everything they earn if they become successful. It's much easier to make money with 1 hit actor than reliably produce 10 hit dramas. (Sorry for this little rant - getting a bit sick of paid marketing talking about how Cheng Yi is the most gorgeous man in costume...)

When LYX gets cast, it's really out of merit or a creative choice. There's actually a douyin from an industry insider that talks about how when you have a really gorgeous SML with a lot of scenes x ugly ML, it's usually because the financing side picked the male lead against the creative's team's wishes so they add more scenes for the SML. Everyone in the comments section replied LYX in Ashes of Love.

Yeah in the end fans are just not industry experts and don't know what's going on behind the scenes. If she takes a drama with a more famous actor, she will have far weaker negotiating power, storyline, and pay (that's why Tencent is always pairing up a liuliang with unknown) . it's also the screenplay and I really believe in TTEOTM's screenplay (and also Bailu has Yu Zheng choosing projects for her, and I also trust his taste)

Hahahhaha you are getting greedy! I do think at 70 episodes it might at more typical pacing of CDramas (which I've always thought is too slow). In my mind 50-60 eps is ideal for broad viewers. I like the idea of them releasing an extended version for super fans who want to rewatch and really soak up every scene.

Yeah now it's devolved into BL fans making fun of LYX's weight, embarrassing old videos etc Meanwhile LYX fans being really defensive and reiterating that LYX has #1 billing, put the production together, how BL bought her way in (in reality it's probably more like Yu Zheng / Huanyu invested. which is a very good sign) . This is just a subset of fans but still making a lot of noise.

I'm also hoping this means he has a third Otter Studio drama lined up? Maybe for autumn? Someone needs to check if they optioned anything recently.

We need a production company that will treat LYX like the star he is!

What fans can do to help get HYX aired sooner:

Keep a low profile. Stay outta fan wars. Avoid toxic internet behavior.

Seriously, the reason dangai is frowned upon is the genre got too hot, actors got too influential, fans got too out of hand. In China, you see clamp downs whenever something gets too popular... when you have >1 billion people, the biggest fear is DISORDER. This is far more important than attitude towards the genre/content itself.

If the Chinese drama-watching netizens show that they can behave like mature audience (like, not repeat what went down with Xiao Zhan and AO3), then we will be able to enjoy more complex, groundbreaking dramas like HYX.

(The Bai Lu vs. LYX fan wars really have me concerned - I hope they realize xianxia dramas can be "banned" as well especially with this massive pipeline coming up in 2022... similar to BL in 2021.)

So with expiration date, I'm referring something completely different - not licenses but subjective quality / whether the production ages well. Sometimes when you look at shows from a few years back, the special effects look dated, the storyline is no longer original, the actors look much older in real life etc

Content depreciates in value as each day passes (or rather amortizes, if you get technical), so there's a point where you're better off just getting income back for it, before it becomes worthless (like you probably won't be super interested in watching a drama shelved 10 years ago). I believe there will be a lot of pressure for 10c to do so within 3-4 years.

FYR, Netflix fully depreciates their content in 4 years after release due to diminish consumption over time.

Yeah it's a bit different for shows that are not aired because of "cancelled" actors, vs. in this case it's more a frowned-upon topic that got a bit too hot and needs time to cool down along with reform of internet fan culture

Even with the existing 40 eps, it'd be quite easy to turn it into 50 episodes just based on how dense the screenplay is / how many scenes they fit into one episode. Like I don't know how the screenwriter thought that could be shown in 45 mins haha

Yeah you know the melons are completely made up, right? In general, the melons tend to be more accurate when it comes to endorsements, magazine covers (probably because these commercial parties have more incentive to leak things) and least accurate when it comes to casting, air dates etc

They optioned the novel probably around Sep 2020. The novel was complete in Nov 2020. Filming started in Oct 2021. So they had a full year to adapt. The second half largely follows the novel storyline, but some scenes/details are changed (in a good way - the screenwriter is genius).

Honestly, you guys are underestimating the difficulty of turning this into "BG", whatever that means. If you know the story & screenplay well, you will know how uniquely convoluted and airtight the plot is (even LYX said they dug themselves into a deep ditch). They will have to rewrite and reshoot a substantial amount of scenes (like probably 20%+) in order to make this BG and remove the BL elements (e.g. the wedding scene).

I highly doubt they did this because 1) you would know - there are no secrets in Hengdian and 2) it will be super expensive to reassemble the crew/cast/sets. OK , of the cast, only LYX is expensive, but even the director has moved on to "Back from the Brink" by Aug-Dec 2021. Given all the regulatory risk (which will still be there no matter how BG this goes because its original sin is the source novel), it'd be an incredibly stupid business decision to throw another RMB 50M of good money after "bad money". They could use the cash on another drama that for sure can air.

The other possibility is they add a few more romantic scenes between CY/CFY and/or CY/LYX, which BTW are already in the original screenplay. I suppose this is what the melons mean when they say HYX has BG storylines as a backup. In fact, it's not fair to call it backup because fleshing out the love triangle makes HYX a better, more thoughtful story while adhering to the spirit of the novel. Even if they added more of these scenes, it won't fundamentally alter the characters or plot (again, landmines) and may allow them to market the drama as more BG. Now I don't really care how they market it as long as the CWN/MR story is there (which it'll have to, because plot landmines).

The most likely possibility is that they are sitting on it, waiting for government attitude to become more favorable, and then air the original version. If regulators are not ok with dangai, they would not be able to air anything associated with 2ha, even if it becomes a dog & cat anime.

Finally, if the wait is too long and hopeless, 10c might try to negotiate a deal with the govt to sell it off to foreign markets discreetly to recover cash. Otherwise, I've heard the team behind HYX is super passionate about the project... maybe someone will just leak the entire thing illegally, so their work can be seen *cough Chen Feiyu cough*

Because censorship.

My air date prediction: April 2023

Why?

1) Particularly politically sensitive period from now till early next year, with CCP 20th Party Congress in Q4 2022 and National People's Congress in Q1 2023 expected to endorse existing leadership (or result in a shake up...) Very unlikely existing administration will u-turn from existing policies, from Covid zero to Operation Qinglang, but things may relax a bit after.

2) Expect recession to clearly kick in in Q3 2022 after prolonged economic slowdown in China, with major stress on exports due to trade wars and supply chain disruptions. This might result in more desperation to drive domestic economy and give in to business pressures eg. from 10c

3) If TTEOTM airs in early 2023 around Chinese New Year and becomes the hit it could be, that would make it irresistible for 10c to piggyback with its very own LYX Xianxia drama

4) Typically when dramas are shelved, 2-3 years tends to be the limit... after that you really do risk passing an expiration date. Oath of Love was 21 months delayed (because of Xiao Zhan?). The Wolf was 30 months delayed (pandemic + low priority). Joy of Life delayed 6 months, Court Lady 14 months delayed, Rebel Princess 18 months delayed due to caps on costume dramas. HYX is now delayed by 14 months at this point (based on original air date of Apr 2021 considering when the KFC lotus cake literally expired)... so there's still some room to go.

Haha I'm partly fine if they want to air the BG version but also unofficially "leak" all the BL scenes and Director Bilibili will do all the editing... and then years later they can release a Director's Cut with the original BL narrative (and make another round of $$$ again)

Would love to be wrong but extremely unlikely this airs after HYX. In fact, let's hope it stays ahead of HYX. That being said, if TTEOTM does really well it might put pressure on Tencent to release HYX

haha you are speaking my truth

Didn't Immortality have Mai Zhenghong, who's super well-regarded with xianxia dramas. I don't really understand how they can have both of them involved

CNY will be early in 2023 (Jan 22), which is another popular airing window. So hoping it'll come out early Jan and go on till mid Feb