torycoco

It will be aired wayyyy after Immortal Samsara - there are at least a few more xianxia's to air before TTEOTM!

DM'd you!

Yeah it's super rare to breakout as the second male lead in the way he did (overshadowing the male lead). But as you can see, because Deng Lun had a more aggressive agent (too aggressive) and did a lot more variety shows, he managed to milk the success a lot more.

A lot of people believe LYX's career after Runyu was not as well-managed as it could have been, probably due to shit agent and his own preferences. He had a bunch of duds like Broker, Lie to Love, and even ATWIL - either he was not really good at choosing projects (often they don't get to see the full screenplay before accepting a role) or he didn't have much option due to the contracts he signed with platforms.

Yeah it's super rare to breakout as the second male lead in the way he did (overshadowing the male lead). But as you can see, because Deng Lun had a more aggressive agent (too aggressive) and did a lot more variety shows, he managed to milk the success a lot more.

A lot of people believe LYX's career after Runyu was not as well-managed as it could have been, probably due to shit agent and his own preferences. He had a bunch of duds like Broker, Lie to Love, and even ATWIL - either he was not really good at choosing projects (often they don't get to see the full screenplay before accepting a role) or he didn't have much option due to the contracts he signed with platforms.

Haha do you want to be spoiled?

They cleaned it up a lot in the screenplay - the screenwriter is a genius, preserved the best scenes/dialogues, simplified the AU / soul splitting plot

It's definitely a symbiotic relationship between the agent and the talent. I mean, all agencies essentially follow the same model of: invest money into actors, hope one of them get famous, make money out of them, and reinvest for the next gen of actors and grow the company.

Yu Zheng (for all his problems) wrote an excellent post about this recently about how difficult it is to groom talent - he loses up to 30% on projects with new faces because platforms severely discount them... He can't bring in more talent until one of his stars make it big.

I think he (and his agency) can afford to pay it (they've made enough money over the years), but there's just not a massive benefit for him at this stage of his career. He's going to get projects and endorsement deals anyway. If anything, it would be the production company and brand sponsor paying for it!

People who spend money on hot search tends to be those who are still a bit up and coming and trying to break apart from their peers, like Chen Duling, Meng Ziyi. They need it to get their name out and generate buzz to secure roles and fans.

Yeah there's been a lot of melons about various modern dramas though, so I'm not even sure whether to believe it. Also, he mentioned in a recent interview that he prefers costume and sometimes their answers are a preview for what's coming next. I do think the modern drama would be more credible if it's directed by Yu Zhongzhong

I think they might use him again regardless if they have the right role/IP! Think he could be filming a new costume drama by fall, like Sep/Oct, which is not that far away. Well maybe this is my wishful thinking...

It'd better!!!!

Nah he's not really considered liuliang by the chinese public (and that's not a bad thing). I would say liuliangs are like Wang Yibo, Gong Jun, Wang Kaijun etc. Should consistently have 2-4M likes on weibo posts. Lots of actors make it to hotsearch including non-idol actors - wouldn't say LYX appears that often but it's also because he doesn't pay for it.

Producer is Huanrui (Yang Zi and Cheng Yi's management company). I feel like the special effects are even worse than AOL or Love & Redemption, which came out a few years back.

They used multiple companies for special effects so it's hard to say who's responsible. This includes the company that did Ancient Love Poetry (which was supposed to be the best) as well as Time Axis which did all the major scenes in AOL. Honestly it might just come down to budget since they have so many episodes.

I feel like another factor is how much heart and soul the production team puts into it? It's the kind of thing where if it's not good enough, as last line of defense, it's your job to pressure the special effects company to make it better.

My take on Huanrui is that they're more focused on making Cheng Yi a star because that's their business model - spend money on production, make money off the star when he gets famous. That's why it's more about replicating a formula that works than... you know, "telling a story"

In contrast, a company like Otter only produces - they make money purely by selling the project in advance to platforms (and maybe receive some bonus if the show does well). They constantly need to pitch and wow platforms with their passion and original ideas. (That's what the melons say - even the 10c execs involved in HYX are very personally attached to the project.) And even though they revolved the production around LYX (the same way Huanrui did for Cheng Yi), they don't make a cent off LYX. It's purely a creative choice. So as you can see, these are very different incentives - Otter only needs to deliver the best possible drama, Huanrui needs to deliver a cash cow in Cheng Yi.

LYX not really considered a traffic actor. He definitely has a lot of fans and decent public recognition as Runyu, but not quite at liuliang level.

(He would most likely have been if HYX had come out, but it doesn't seem like he cares or aims for it. In fact, right now he doesn't have that much to gain being a liuliang but a lot to lose - too much attention can be very painful and restrictive.)

The best way to describe him is an idol drama actor with a large fanbase, strong credibility within the TV circle, and very clean reputation (doesn't drink, smoke, hook up with women; folds all his clothes after trying them on for photoshoots etc)

oh right it's only in chinese haha sorry forgot

Has anyone seen Immortal Samsara? I took a look just because it's another Youku S+ xianxia and wanted to get a sense of what to expect. They really hyped it up as a the king of dramas

I must say I'm not super impressed...

Ohhh is this from the live stream? I wonder if it's done. It should take him multiple weeks because even (his very small part in) Princess Silver took 1 week.

You can just register for a Chinese acct to download the app and then switch back to your original country!

Yeah I think 4 is nothing new. That's why they've already adjusted the screenplay accordingly. And then it's hard to say what else they will pick on. NRTA is so powerful precisely because they don't have explicit rules. If it does, you can just work around it (like the whole 40 eps limit thing). They make you guess what they want to see...

Re 1: I think the controversy came from elements that are distinctly Japanese and never part of Chinese costume language (hence the controversy). Wouldn't say China/Korea/Japan share the same culture - they have shared roots but have also diverged for over a thousand years. This is like saying the French, Italian, and Spanish are the same because they share Latin roots.

I'm personally not fussy about authenticity - I mean a lot of this is fantasy anyway. But I guess people from both sides get pissed off when cultural elements are borrowed with no attribution - on one side, you feel that it is not loyal to your own cultural heritage, on the other side, you are upset about cultural appropriation.

2 - This is a loose guideline, very hard to enforce and draw the line...

4 - I think it just means fewer proportionally. Don't think it'll be an outright ban unless the genre becomes too popular and hot .

Again, all of this is just guidance. The NRTA likes to operate in this informal manner - they share their direction and the platforms generally comply because they want to stay on their good side.