Tag Archives: Xiao Zhan

Robin N 2:24 pm on January 6, 2021
Tags: Darren Wang, Ding Yong Dai, Guo Shu Yao, , The Wolf, Wang Talu, Xiao Zhan,   

The Wolf: Series Review

2020 was, for me, the Year of Xiao Zhan. He captivated me in The Untamed (and yes, I watched both the Netflix version and the special edition version — more Xiao Zhan/Wang Yibo scenes), made me catch my breath with his cliffhanger role in Joy of Life, broke my heart with the traumatic negativity and cyber harassment to which he was subjected, and tickled my fancies with each musical appearance and small sighting on Weibo or Douyin (Tiktok), so there was no question that when The Wolf was released in one surprising all-in-one upload (rather than weekly installments) that I was going to watch it. Sure, it was his first major role, he’d expressed concerns about how nervous he was to have people see him as such a novice and judge him for his inexperience, but baby, he had nothing to worry about!

Oh, and note: I’m going to avoid specific spoilers in this review, but there will be some comments that indicate a direction or two in the plot that are minor hints of outcomes. Feel free to read on without risk of having things ruined egregiously 🙂

That’s not to say that this is a perfect drama, a perfect drama, even a pretty good drama because, to be frank, it’s got some rocky moments. It’s also important to note that technically, Xiao Zhan is not the lead male character — Darren Wang is the titular Wolf — but for a number of reasons, for all intents and purposes, you could argue that he is the male protagonist, the one who truly walks away as a survivor, just as he has at the end of this horrible year.

The story is a hybrid fantasy, star-crossed lovers mish-mash that was not helped by the scissors of censorship; originally the Wolf in question was intended to be more of a werewolf (per early trailers), along with his loyal pack, er, team of the “Night Fiends” (members of a sort of a crack paramilitary squad), but with the cuts came a loss of character depth and plot for Darren Wang’s part of the story. He’s now just a human raised by wolves (but with the benefit of being hyper in-tune with nature and being shockingly strong and vulnerable to a certain herb that brings out the beast in him). He meets the lovely, strong, brave, and often naive daughter of an important member of the court, head of an important army supporting the king of Yang. She’s played by Li Qin (you may remember her from Joy of Life, or Xiao Zhan’s movie Jade Dynasty). They frolic and live a happy life exploring the mountains of her hometown, until things go wrong and suddenly they don’t. Misunderstandings and tragedy happen and the big, bad Emperor of Yang is at fault. Said big, bad Emperor of Yang is played by a familiar face, Ding Yongdai, who was the big, bad emperor in Nirvana In Fire. In fact, there is a lot of his performance that feels like he was just channeling that previous (better) performance.

He’s captured wolf-boy (yes, that’s how he’s called by his sweetie), tamed him, made him a tool of war, and even adopted him, making him Prince Bo. But this is never an easy task; just as in all court scenarios, there are ambitious other princes/misunderstandings/tragedies/suspicions/etc. and Prince Bo is often called upon by his adoptive father and Ruler to do his dirty work. This dirty work involves an engagement to his former playmate Ma Zhaixing (Li Qin) in order to keep the army loyal to her under control even though he now hates her/loves her. I did say big, bad Emperor was involved in cooking up some misunderstandings and tragedies, right? Well, he did a number on Ma Zhaixing, but because he’s put the blame on a neighboring kingdom, the Jin, she’s unaware of the truth and labors along under various misconceptions. “Why does he look just like Wolf Boy? Why does he hate me one minute and is nice to me another?”

Into this mix comes a rough-and-tumble brash bounty hunter, Ji Chong (Xiao Zhan), who is captivated by Li Qin and works hard to be her friend and supporter. He’s the one who stands behind her when Prince Bo is treating her badly, and is a clever and resourceful ally. And he’s easily the best-looking of the men in her circle, in spite of the fact that the shooting conditions where rough, causing Xiao Zhan eye problems and skin issues (but we love the stubble the director encouraged him to grow). The minute Ji Chong enters the story things pick up, in part because he’s not part of what must have been the werewolf part of the original plot and therefore his storyline is not as choppy, but mainly because he just brings a freshness and visual honesty to his performance that is lacking in his love rival’s. The open, observant gaze of Xiao Zhan’s Ji Chong is so much more realistic and appealing than the often shifty, squinty, surly gaze of Darren Wang’s Prince Bo. Ji Chong’s emotions and intelligence is right at the surface level; when he’s feeling something, you know what it is and it’s not overplayed. When he’s not speaking in a scene, he’s acting his role as the listener too and frankly, it’s no wonder that when Ma Zhaixing is delivering a speech the camera is often on Ji Chong capturing his reactions! I wonder just how much they changed the story to give him more screen time when they saw how much the camera loved him…

Another person who is just loved by the camera (in spite of the absolutely atrocious hair and costumes given her character — and let me add that the costumes in general for this show look like they were constructed from the scrap yardage bins at the local fabric shop, opting for shiny and/or frayed and/or netting whenever possible) is Xin Zhilei, playing Yao Ji, a sort of hybrid priestess/healer/maybe ex-werewolf? and rival/frenemy to Prince Bo. She was the lovely Haiting Duo Duo in Joy of Life and she has a luminous quality to her performance. I think she outshone Li Qin on a number of occasions; for all her beauty, Li Qin often looks fragile and brittle, but as that’s not out of keeping given what traumas her character endures, it’s not a negative against her looks, but at times her performance is as brittle as she looks. Being a dubbed drama, it’s hard to know how much of this is the way lines are delivered on set versus in dubbing, but it’s clear that she does not have the fluidity of Xiao Zhan’s delivery, nor of more seasoned actors, such as the one who plays the King of the Jin.

Is this drama worth 49 episodes? IMO, if Xiao Zhan were not in it and he did not deliver the performance that he did even as a rookie, I would have to say “no, no it’s not.” There are some good moments, but very few very good moments, and a lot of meh or even borderline laughable moments, but definitely not enough to put this drama in the must-see category. (Of course if you’re a Darren Wang or Li Qin fan, have at it!) I spent a lot of the non-Ji Chong scenes with my finger on the fast-forward button — watch a minute to get the plot advancing gist of the scene and zip to the next — and I’m not in the least bit sorry!

#darren-wang, #ding-yong-dai, #guo-shu-yao, #li-qin, #the-wolf, #wang-talu, #xiao-zhan, #xin-zhi-lei

Robin N 2:36 pm on April 27, 2020
Tags: , , Guo Qilin, Hai Yitian, , Li Qiang, , Li Xiaoran, Liu Runnan, Mao Ni, , Thankful for the Remaining Years, , Tong Mengshi, Wang Yang, , Xiao Zhan, Xin Zhilei,   

Joy of Life – Book versus Drama

Oh, the challenges that faced the script writer when first adapting Mao Ni’s novel, “Thankful for the Remaining Years,” better known by drama viewers as Joy of Life. The source novel is 746 chapters long, dense, action-filled, character-driven, and complicated. The success, or should I say “triumph” in bringing part one to the small screen had me thirsting to know more, to know what would happen in Fan Xian’s world, which turned me to the novel while still half-way in my viewing of the drama. But I made myself a promise; I would not read further than the the adaptation covers until after I’d finished watching it (and yes, I kept that promise.) However, as the script writer is in the process now of adapting what will be the next part of Joy of Life, with plans to go into filming at the end of 2020 if all goes to plan, meaning we’ll likely not see the finished product until late 2021 or even 2022, I’d like to talk about the drama versus the novel, and maybe yes, where the next part will take us as viewers. If you’ve not watched the series I can only ask, “What are you waiting for?” And know that there will be spoilers if you plan to read further, as well as speculations.

In Chinese dramaland today there is a constant need to balance the desire to be truthful to the source with what the official broadcast censors will permit, and we see minor influences of the latter to the former from the start of the drama. It is clear from the start that “this” is a “work of fiction” because we see a contemporary Fan Shen (modern-day Zhang Ruoyun) explaining his latest fiction-writing project to his professor. Folks, this is not a real China, real Emperor, real-world time-traveling or anything like that. It is Fiction with a capital “F.” This is because there have been, at various times, crackdowns on playing fast-and-loose with history, and crazy notions like time-travel, etc. But let’s not let that get in our way.

SPOILERS AND TINY SPECULATIONS FROM HERE ONWARDS

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#chen-dao-ming, #gao-shu-guang, #guo-qilin, #hai-yitian, #joy-of-life, #li-qiang, #li-qin, #li-xiaoran, #liu-runnan, #mao-ni, #song-yi, #thankful-for-the-remaining-years, #tian-yu, #tong-mengshi, #wang-yang, #wu-gang, #xiao-zhan, #xin-zhilei, #zhang-ruo-yun

Robin N 1:38 pm on February 19, 2020
Tags: , Frida Li, , , , Li Shen, Li Xiao Ran, Liu Duan Duan, , Thomas Tong, , , Xiao Zhan, , Zhang Hao Wei,   

Joy of Life – Series Review

This is a review for Part 1 of Joy of Life; subsequent parts (planned to be 3 parts at this stage) are in development. It’s important to know this going in because the series does end with a major cliff-hanger which I’ll discuss in the spoiler section of this post. That said, please do yourself a favor and watch this drama! I haven’t been as caught up in a Chinese drama so full of plot twists and turns since Nirvana In Fire, and that is saying a lot (as anyone who knows me will understand).

Wan’er and Fan Xian

What is it about this drama that has captivated me so? Pretty much everything, so much so that I’ve taken up the source novel (available on Webnovel.com/app) to cross-check the drama against the source material and spend a little lot more time in Fan Xian’s world. Note: While tonally the drama is true to the source in terms of the nature of characters and basic aspects of the plot revealed in the novel, there are major changes to the timeline, most significantly when characters are introduced. I’ll do a comparison of book to drama post at a future date.

Chen Pingping

The series is introduced as the work of science fiction created by a student (Zhang Ruoyan) which he’s presenting to an instructor. His story begins with the circumstances of the rescue of the infant Fan Xian during a conflict in which his mother is killed. A mysterious blind man (eyes covered by a thin, ribbon-like strip of cloth) carries the infant to safety; a mysterious man in a wheelchair directs him to take him to the village of Danzhou to be raised in the home of his paternal grandmother. The blind man is Wuzhu, the trusted companion of the baby’s mother, and first mentor to young Fan Xian, and the cripple is the powerful spymaster Chen Pingping, head of the Overwatch Bureau founded by Fan Xian’s mother.

Fan Jian

Fan Xian is raised as the illegitimate son of Revenue Minister Fan Jian, another who is tied by love and respect to the dead woman, and tutored in poisons and medicine as a youngster by yet another Fei Jie. Fie Jie is one of the division heads of the Overwatch Bureau, and sees young Fan Xian as his most beloved pupil.

Fan Xian survives an  assassination attempt as a child, but is finally summoned to go to the capital 4 years later, ostensibly by his father, but in truth, there are other players working in the wings; namely Chen Pingping and the Emperor. Who is this young man, and why is he so sought after, and so skilled in many ways? Wuzhu has trained him physically, and gifted him with a book left by his mother explaining how to achieve grandmaster-level martial arts skills and manage his extreme levels of zhenqi and Fei Jie has taught him to cope with poison, but when you’ve had to deal with all he’s had to deal with, you either crumble or develop resources. Fan Xian excels at the latter. In addition to his physical skills, he somehow knows that he has the memories of another lifetime, another world (or worlds) ago, and uses that knowledge to dabble in literature and poetry (borrowing, let’s say, from the works of those long-ago, unknown in this time, authors), successfully publishing novels and poetry with the help of his half-sister, Fan Ruoruo.

Emperor

In the capital his fortunes and challenges rise and grow in complexity. He finds the love of his life early on, but their future is uncertain. She’s the illegitimate daughter of the Eldest Princess and the Prime Minister, and has been taken under the wing of the Emperor. Too bad that mother is a schemer and wants things that belong to others (namely, the treasury that once belonged to Fan Xian’s mother and now is held by the throne), and that there are a number of other hurdles (Crown Prince, 2nd Prince, etc.) to deal with as well.

With that brief initial synopsis covered, let’s look at the elements that make this story work so well. First has to be the mixture of bravery, insouciance, moral strength, and zest for life that Zhang Ruoyan brings to the character of Fan Xian. I’ve read that he was not considered a good choice for the role and, in reading the novel, he doesn’t match the physical description (almost feminine good looks) of Fan Xian, but he has taken this character and made himself Fan Xian. There is no way they could recast this role with another actor at this point (as was done in Ever Night) because it just would not work. He’s not the only actor to make an indelible impression — even the youngster who plays Fan Xian as a child is remarkable! The choice of the script adapter to move up the introductions to the characters of the Emperor and Chen Pingping was a sound one; their interactions with each other and with Fan Xian are compelling and these veteran actors are scene stealers in their own right. I can’t look away when the Emperor is onscreen!

There are also touching and/or playful supporting characters in addition to the schemers and villains, such as the sly Wang Qinian, stalwart Teng Zijing, the graceful Fan Ruoruo, and more. Li Qin as Lin Wan’er is lovely and a touching counterpoint to the brash Fan Xian, and their love story, while a relatively brief portion of the plot, is well-told and is skillfully interwoven into the major plot points.

The world created by this story, the reasons for why Fan Xian is who he is, who he becomes, and the trials he faces kept me hitting the ‘next’ button far longer each night than I should, and at the end of the day’s viewing I would treat myself to letting the full outro song play over the ending credits and listen to the voice of Xiao Zhan lull me into the hope that things will work out for our hero. Take a listen, and I’ll get into spoiler territory after the video.

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#chen-dao-ming, #frida-li, #gao-shu-guang, #joy-of-life, #li-qin, #li-shen, #li-xiao-ran, #liu-duan-duan, #song-yi, #thomas-tong, #tian-yu, #wu-gang, #xiao-zhan, #xin-zhi-lei, #zhang-hao-wei, #zhang-ruo-yun

Robin N 3:02 pm on February 4, 2020
Tags: , Li Bowen, Liu Haikuan, Meng Ziyi, Mo Dao Zu Shi, Song Jiyang, , Wang Haoxuan, Wang Yi Bo, Wang Zhuocheng, xianxia, Xiao Zhan, Xuan Lu, Yu Bin, Zhu Zanjin   

The Untamed – Series Review

There aren’t too many dramas that start off by killing off the main character, are there? Or show him (apparently) steeped in swirling black clouds of demon magic amidst all hell breaking loose, but that is how we are introduced to the unforgettable character of Wei Wuxian, aka Wei Ying, aka the Yiling Patriarch and the hero of The Untamed.

This drama, even with its flaws, has been one of the more exciting dramas I’ve watched in recent years, for two reasons: the first is the coming of age of Xiao Zhan, playing Wei Wuxian, as this production rests completely on his youthful shoulders. No offense meant to his costar Wang Yibo, but barely a scene goes by without long dialogue sequences and interactions requiring Xiao Zhan to play the heart and soul of the drama and he delivers. The purity and truthfulness that he bestows upon Wei Wuxian is a sight to see. I know, I think I took hundreds of screenshots to try and capture just how much he gave to every second of his portrayal.

I will also give kudos to Wang Yibo, playing the correct and proper Lan Wangji, aka Lan Zhan, aka Huangung Jun, and Wei Wuxian’s true friend (they are Wei Ying and Lan Zhan to each other, so those are the names I’ll use to refer to their characters’ actions), or soul mate in the BL original story. He’s required to be the near-silent, stone-faced foil to the irrepressible (“Shameless!”) Wei Ying, but still convey the bond he feels with this brash counterpart. In interviews the two have a clear bond and mutual admiration society; Xiao Zhan has said that he thinks Wang Yibo had a harder role even with so few lines because he was called upon to act so subtly, with few facial expressions, and there is a great deal of truth to that. Unfortunately, as this is a dubbed drama we do not hear his voice in the production, nor Xiao Zhan’s (though his voice actor does an excellent and much closer job matching Xiao Zhan’s voice).

The other reason this drama worked for me is the successful (IMO) reworking of the tale to remove the BL elements that the censors would block and still tell a story of brotherhood and indelible bonds and make people care what happens to these two young men and want to see them never separate. (As for the BL purging, the production team does manage to get in a few subtle nods to the source material, such as the ‘bonding over bunnies’ references; apparently there is a rabbit deity that has been adopted by the LGBT world).

The drama tells the story of Wei Ying; adopted into the Jiang clan and “brother” of sister Jiang Yanli and brother Jiang Cheng. He’s not treated with universal love in the household, but he grows up to be talented in talisman work and swordplay. The three youths travel to another clan’s holdings for training and clan bonding exercises and there he meets Lan Zhan, the second son of the clan leadership and sparks fly. Lan Zhan’s older brother encourages their friendship because he sees in Wei Ying the characteristics his younger brother is missing and needs.

Unfortunately, this tentative friendship is cut short when a rival clan gets all greedy over accumulating wealth and power and territory (total world domination kind of stuff) and wants to use an evil demonic talisman to obtain their hearts’ desires. The upright Lan Zhan and anti-bullying tyrants inclined Wei Ying are challenged to prevent this mayhem. Things, shall we say, do not always go as planned. But don’t they look great setting out together?

I won’t get into the plot details too heavily so as to avoid spoilers, but I’ll address some where they highlight strengths and weaknesses of the drama. The major weaknesses first: some of the CGI for the ‘worlds’ they travel to are pretty cheesy. And some of the cast are given to highly melodramatic face acting, such as the green actor playing Jiang Cheng (the often jealous and thoughtless ‘brother’ of Wei Ying), and most of the villains of the show, particularly the characters Xue Yang and Meng Yao. The latter is very clearly playing his role as if this is a full-on BL drama.

There are some cheesy demonized zombie looks that drag down the beautiful costumes worn by Wei Ying in particular, and others (and can we talk about the hair?) In particular, the actor playing the loyal Wen Ning gets the short end of the costume stick, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of a few pivotal scenes that he has late in the drama. I heart Wen Ning.

There are so many things that the story does get right though, that this is a drama worth seeking out. It’s on Viki and Netflix, but you might also look for the Special Edition packaged on YouTube by Tencent with a more satisfying ending edit. (Not to say the Netflix/Viki edit ending is bad, but the Special is better.) Then, once you’ve finished The Untamed, you’ll want to dive into Joy of Life and any other Xiao Zhan content you can find because you will be obsessed. Oh, and BTW, he’s a pretty fine young singer too!

#bl, #li-bowen, #liu-haikuan, #meng-ziyi, #mo-dao-zu-shi, #song-jiyang, #the-untamed, #wang-haoxuan, #wang-yi-bo, #wang-zhuocheng, #xianxia, #xiao-zhan, #xuan-lu, #yu-bin, #zhu-zanjin