#this has to be my favourite xz drama after cql | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ohnobjyx · 4 years ago

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Thank you so much for the work you put into the detailed posts on xz's situation. One thing that jumped out at me in Part 3 was the "xiao xianrou" issue. Bad shows/films with xxr's are usually bad on multiple fronts: script, direction, editing, etc. However, due to “fan quan” loyalty culture, the xxr’s fans will support a work by their idol even if it is objectively terrible. This incentivizes/rewards poor productions with xxr’s, which is a trend that upsets regular viewers. (1/3)

Sometimes poor production is (or implied to be) blamed on the expensive salaries of highly sought-after xxr's, and draining the project’s budget in other areas. A lot of these works are also adaptations, so the poor quality upset fans of the source material. One example is “Jade Dynasty” which stars xz and came out months after CQL. It was objectively terrible in pacing, editing etc. but hugely successful financially thanks to xz’s fame (2/3)

The film was originally probably banking on the source material, and since xz wasn’t nearly as popular when he was cast. But thanks to fans and promotion based on him, everyone knows xz stars in Jade Dynasty, which made lots of money but is “really bad”. And no matter how bad Jade is, investors would be happy to make the same deal again. The issues of xxr, “fan quan”, and economics of the c-ent industry, and public perception of idols in it are all interconnected. (3/3)

Hi, anon! I’m sorry that it took me so long, but I really liked your perspective on this issue.

(This... ended up long. Again. Well. I’d say that I’m sorry, but I’m not).

You’re right of course. When I was writing that part of the post, I was thinking of another famed celebrity, who started out as a model. There were some vicious criticism about her acting and that her bad acting had ruined some of the series she starred in.

I haven’t actually seen Jade Dynasty, so I can’t comment on that one yet, but what you say reminds me a lot of “The legend of Ruyi”. Because it’s the continuation of a very successful drama, it got a huge budget, but they spent half of it in the salaries of the two leading actors, Zhou Xun and Wallace Huo (both older, seasoned actors, that have been in the industry for years).

Said half of the budget was $22.5 millions (a total of 30 million for all of the actors). That’s a lot of money. That’s why earning 15 million per episode was considered the minimum (and it also raised a debate about where’s the limit for a tv drama). But because so much was spent on the actors the production was quite poor. It was also bad timing that it got aired short time after a drama also set in the same historical period Story of Yanxi Palace (after their initial success, Ruyi’s airing had to be put off to avoid immediate comparison, but they still got compared anyway, though they both did well in charts) spent more than 90% of their very similar budget in production.

That produced a highly historically-accurate (well, except Gao guifei’s costume) and incredibly beautiful and extrincate costumes, that combined with a good plot and superb leading actors took over by surprise the audience.

(Yes, the costumes were handmade for the series, and the hair accesories and such were also handmade following traditional methods. Some of the emperor and empress’ robes took months to complete. And they did them for every single character. Nevermind if it’s maid #7 or this girl that’ll never appear again after episode 1. I like pretty things and I’m weak to such great production).

I’ve brought these two here to make a comparison, because it addresses some of the issues you’ve commented on your ask. These two shows are based on the same period (Qianlong Emperor’s reign) and had around the same budget, so when the time came, the fans’ comparisons were merciless.

While Ruyi spent half of their budget in the acting crew’s salary, Yanxi spent 90% of theirs in production. Such a acting crew brought by fans of said actors, which added to the original Legend of ZH’s fans and their acting made possible the success they had afterwards.

However, Yanxi didn’t slack in the casting: they hired professional and seasoned actors, that just never made it so much into the limelight.

While prodution + actors+ plot (the vindictive, petty heroine made a great change from the usual meek and pretty heroine of these kind of dramas) made Yanxi a success, poor production did affect Ruyi’s overall effect. And I won’t talk about plot to avoid spoilers, but imo Ruyi’s plot had some problems as well.

What saved Ruyi was, from my pov, Zhou Xun’s acting. The whole casting does a great job, but hers... I was left speechless. And it’s also the reason why I’ve good memories of the series after all (it also produced a heartbreaking Ruyi AU wangxian fic here).

All in all: the audience is beginning to realize the problem there is with these highly sought after celebrities and their high salaries (it’s almost a competition sometimes as to who can hire who). They’ll still look after these kind of celebrities because they bring in a lot of fans, that’ll watch the show because their favourite idol is in it, even if they sacrifice the production cost as a result However, well-produced drama with a good plot and less well known actors (Story of Yanxi, The Untamed) has also proved to do well with the public, because quality simply can’t be faked.

#ask #my post #c-entertainment #I hope I didn't bore those who read this #disclaimer: there's my opinion in thre #sprinkled in

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yibocheeks · 4 years ago

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2020 a year in review

Thanks for the tag @wei-gege! It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, so this was a good look back at a year where I spent most of it in a cql/wangxian/yizhan hole after rewatching the drama and re-reading the novel.

Queen and Slim

Top 5 movies you saw this year

I can only think of a few that are memorable out of the movies I’ve watched this year (mainly because I was too distracted by cql to watch more movies):

Parasite

Hamilton (does this count? it’s movie length and I love it)

Top 5 TV shows you watched this year

The Untamed - okay so this was a rewatch in 2020 but obviously had to be on the list

The Good Place

Search: WWW

Street Dance of China Season 3 - the cultural appropriation parts do take away from my enjoyment of it, but I loved Yibo on this show so much and talked about it to all my friends excessively so this had to be on the list. Still trying to sort out in my head what I’m comfortable with, but for now I’ve just decided not to share any inappropriate clips. Always happy to hear thoughts on this

Legend of Fei - it’s still airing, but it’s been really good so far, and I like the cast of characters. I love Xie Yun so much I even made a twitter for the puppy

Top 5 songs in 2020

Wang Yibo - 我的世界守则

H.E.R. - Damage

Lee Hi - HOLO

Lianne La Havas - Paper Thin

ARASHI - Whenever You Call