https://youtu.be/IQS1zx4q20g (1080p HD) Character preview clip of Mo Shan Shan, 'The Book Addict' From official source posted on October 28th 2018 added with my English subs Note: Actress Yuan Bingyan (Mo Shan Shan) ended up with female leading roles in two super-class ancient costume dramas both newly released in November 2018 by competing platforms Tencent and Youku. So she is competing against herself in a sense.
@Lullina: Yeah, I see they restarted the novel translation on Feb 18, 2018 (I created this kisskh entry on Jan 23rd 2018) The new group appeared to make good progress this time. Before that, the project had stalled for several years and AFAIK dozens of people were asked by various groups to take over or contribute. Even I got an informal invitation years back but I declined as I felt I'm not qualified :D From a Western perspective, Ever Night can be described as a mixture of Potter's School, GoT's Politics and LOTR's Battles - of course, that is an simplification for newcomers to understand.
@Lullina: In LOCH 2017, the leads were in fact paid less than some of the veteran actors. The budget of LOCH 2017 was less than half of ROCH 2014 and about 2/3 of ROCH 2019 (projected).
Lullina, The Wandering Earth story is quite short and can be read in one sitting. A good English translation is available: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13554058-the-wandering-earth (less than 50 pages) You can start with this one to see if you enjoy the author's work.
https://youtu.be/dvjLrec5HS4 (1080p HD) Official character preview clip of Xia Hou, Warden General of the North, posted on October 27th 2018 with English subs added by me. Note: The leak in January 2018 about Cao Wei Yu having a cameo in Ever Night turn out to be true, as this clip shows - I have added him to the cast as guest actor.
@Lullina03: The tide has turned in late 2016 when a number of top paying stars demanded filming location sets to be fully air-conditioned when they 'worked' and took away more than half of the drama budget in pay (more if they are major shareholders in one of the production company). There was one major project which didn't as well as expected and the producer-director who has been working non-stopped since Legend of Condor Heroes 1983 had to take the blame - until today he has no new project. Many major projects in 2017 and 2018 has less budget compare to even 2014 - the shortfall is around RMB 100-200 million per drama. The difference is made up by using new actors as leads and the industry decision recently to cap the maximum salary of each leading actor to RMB 50 million per drama series.
@Lullina03: I hope it wouldn't suck too :p This is not Xianxia, but Oriental Fantasy - best comparison would the Novoland dramas with politics, wars but more magic, religion and cultivation.
Can anyone here give the name of the characters (preferably next to their respective pictures)? I haven't read…
@lenje: You can try looking at the cast list here, currently it is one of the most complete among English (and Chinese) list. Some of the Chinese sites have brief descriptions on a few of the major characters. However, in both the novel and drama, it is more of an ensemble cast. What we need is a comprehensive list of characters for Ever Night like in Water Margin. But to date, no one has done it yet, even for Chinese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34EZ3YjQFL4 "Eternal Night" - the promo song for Ever Night is the 1st of its 7 original sound tracks to be released. Ethereal song and music - Singer: Sitar Tan Weewee and featured guitar, horse-head fiddle and choor musical instruments.
https://youtu.be/ZzK4jMdGl4U - (2nd version with my English subs) October 25th Character Preview of Glyph Master Yan Se (720p, 1 min 38sec)
I have watched C-drama adaptations of novels for over a decade, and so far only seen two cases where a real person portrayal is literally the book character: The first time is Li Yitong as Huang Rong in https://kisskh.at/19556-the-legend-of-the-condor-heroes Shih Chieh Chin as Yan Se in Ever Night is the second time.
PS: There are even some requests for Chinese subtitles but I did the English subs by listening
Today marks the whole world entering the (15 days) term of 'Shuang Jiang' (Frost Descent) in the Lunarsolar calendar. Many months ago I learnt that Ever Night would be released during this period. Yesterday, the author of Ever Night novel said the broadcast date of the drama should be October 31 (23rd day of the Ninth Lunar Month, past midpoint of 'Shuang Jiang').
The screenwriter shared today that the character of Mu Le and his name is based on the short wuxia romance "The Kunlun Slave Mo Le" [*1, *2] written in Tang Dynasty (by Pei Xing [*3])
[1]: In both stories, Mu Le is an aborigine with mysterious abilities from a foreign land who leapt over high walls carrying his master. [2]: https://kisskh.at/2380-the-promise is partly based on the same story but the character name is 'Kun Lun'. [3]: Pei Xing (825–880) is known as the progenitor of Wuxia fantasy. He lived two centuries after events in Oriental Odyssey.
Character preview clip of Mo Shan Shan, 'The Book Addict'
From official source posted on October 28th 2018 added with my English subs
Note:
Actress Yuan Bingyan (Mo Shan Shan) ended up with female leading roles in two super-class ancient costume dramas both newly released in November 2018 by competing platforms Tencent and Youku. So she is competing against herself in a sense.
The new group appeared to make good progress this time.
Before that, the project had stalled for several years and AFAIK dozens of people were asked by various groups to take over or contribute.
Even I got an informal invitation years back but I declined as I felt I'm not qualified :D
From a Western perspective, Ever Night can be described as a mixture of Potter's School, GoT's Politics and LOTR's Battles - of course, that is an simplification for newcomers to understand.
You can start with this one to see if you enjoy the author's work.
Official character preview clip of Xia Hou, Warden General of the North, posted on October 27th 2018 with English subs added by me.
Note: The leak in January 2018 about Cao Wei Yu having a cameo in Ever Night turn out to be true, as this clip shows - I have added him to the cast as guest actor.
Technically he is the first lead by cast order :)
To be released on Chinese New Year 2019 (Feb 5th)
There was one major project which didn't as well as expected and the producer-director who has been working non-stopped since Legend of Condor Heroes 1983 had to take the blame - until today he has no new project. Many major projects in 2017 and 2018 has less budget compare to even 2014 - the shortfall is around RMB 100-200 million per drama.
The difference is made up by using new actors as leads and the industry decision recently to cap the maximum salary of each leading actor to RMB 50 million per drama series.
This is not Xianxia, but Oriental Fantasy - best comparison would the Novoland dramas with politics, wars but more magic, religion and cultivation.
However, in both the novel and drama, it is more of an ensemble cast.
What we need is a comprehensive list of characters for Ever Night like in Water Margin. But to date, no one has done it yet, even for Chinese.
Oct 26th Character Preview for Li Yu, the Eldest Princess of Tang with my English subs
"Eternal Night" - the promo song for Ever Night is the 1st of its 7 original sound tracks to be released.
Ethereal song and music - Singer: Sitar Tan Weewee and featured guitar, horse-head fiddle and choor musical instruments.
October 25th Character Preview of High Priest Wei Guang Ming (720p, 1 min 38sec)
;)
October 25th Character Preview of Glyph Master Yan Se (720p, 1 min 38sec)
I have watched C-drama adaptations of novels for over a decade, and so far only seen two cases where a real person portrayal is literally the book character:
The first time is Li Yitong as Huang Rong in https://kisskh.at/19556-the-legend-of-the-condor-heroes
Shih Chieh Chin as Yan Se in Ever Night is the second time.
PS: There are even some requests for Chinese subtitles but I did the English subs by listening
The Oct 24th 2018 version of preview trailer with my full English subtitles
Many months ago I learnt that Ever Night would be released during this period.
Yesterday, the author of Ever Night novel said the broadcast date of the drama should be October 31 (23rd day of the Ninth Lunar Month, past midpoint of 'Shuang Jiang').
[1]: In both stories, Mu Le is an aborigine with mysterious abilities from a foreign land who leapt over high walls carrying his master.
[2]: https://kisskh.at/2380-the-promise is partly based on the same story but the character name is 'Kun Lun'.
[3]: Pei Xing (825–880) is known as the progenitor of Wuxia fantasy. He lived two centuries after events in Oriental Odyssey.