JoleCole's Station

Turbulence of the Mu Clan has an extensive ensemble cast and many complicated characters.  I hope this list of characters will help those who don't understand Mandarin very well  or those who would just like to know more about the drama before you invest your time into it. :-D

Title: Turbulence of the Mu Clan /Mu Fu Feng Yun/ 木府风云 # Episode : 40 Genre : Ethnic History, Family Politics, Romance Broadcasting Compan y: CCTV Cast: Choo Ja Hyun as Aleqiu, Zhu Xiao Yu as Mu Zeng, Ray Lui as Mu Qing, Yu Rong Guang as Mu Long, Pan Hong as Luo Shi Ning. Sun Wei as Mu Kun, Su Xi Wei as Azhao

Are you tired of dynastic Chinese history, palace dramas, or idol dramas in general? Turbulence of the Mu Clan or Mu Fu Feng Yun 木府风云 offers a good change of setting and some sugarcoated sweetness with the love story. This series traces the rise of a famous Naxi Chieftain and his beloved wife in 16th century southwest China. The highlight of this drama is the battle between hate and love. In sum, this is a classic Cinderella story mixed with Romeo and Juliet elements, except with some very different outcomes.

I suddenly got interested in this upcoming modern series after the heavy promotion by Hunan TV on weibo. The storyline is rather overused and cliche. Since I'm currently bored in dramaland and the trailer looks captivating enough for me,  I'll give this series a try when it airs Monday. 

 Title: Fairytale in 1/2  童话二分之一/ Tong Hua Er Fen Zhi Yi / Half of Fairytale # Episode : 26? Genre : Modern Romance Release Date : August 27 Broadcasting Compan y: Hunan TV Cast: Janine Chang as Zhao Tingxuan/Zhao Tingyu, Lee Joon Hyuk as Du Yu Feng, Zhu Zixiao as Jing Wei  

Okay. It's established fact that Gao Zhan is alive in this scene Today is Chinese Valentine's Day. To "celebrate" this special occasion, more pretty pictures from Female Minister just got released . Yay! These stills just shows the various romantic relationships between the major characters. They include: Gao Zhan and Lu Zhen; Lu Zhen and Shen Jiayan; Gao Zhan and Shen Bi; Gao Yin and Xiao Guanyin. I think the pairing I dread most is Gao Zhan and Shen Bi. Based on what I read and saw in the trailer, Shen Bi just looks like the typical jealous villain without any redeeming qualities. Hopefully, she won't be too bad in the actual drama.

While Chinese dramaland remains dormant with no exciting news, I will drift off to other random topics.  Though I sometimes pretend to be profound and philosophical in my drama rant, I certainly possess a superficial side, which makes me nonimmune to all things pretty, particularly pretty people in pretty costumes. Hence, you all understand my attraction to Female Prime Minister, which has two gorgeous main leads. I have always been a big fan of period dramas because I feel they offer more visual stimulation than modern series. In period dramas, more exquisite details are given to props, sets, and costumes.  Add some pretty faces to this formula and the aesthetic effect of the production automatically magnifies.

Before the advent of popular internet novels or even romantic "idol" dramas in general, Chinese television was once dominated by romantic series created by Qiong Yao.  She is a famous Taiwanese romantic novelist who adapted many of her novels into popular TV series and movies for decades. Her first movie screenplay brought major success in 1960s. She is also renown for hand picking countless beautiful women and bringing these aspiring actresses to super stardom. They include Bridgette Lin, Vicki Zhao, Ruby Lin, Fan Bingbing, Jiang Qinqin (Shui Ling), Chen Hong, Chen Derong, Qin Lan, Leanne Liu Xuehua and etc.These women were completely unknown to the general audience before filming Qiong Yao's TV series/movies. I don't think I know of any prominent writer who has as much monopoly or "power' over her TV series as Qiong Yao.

What can I say? Somehow I saw this coming; BUT I still do not want to see it happen! Apparently, Jiangsu Television, the channel that bought the rights to broadcast In Love with Power, just publicized their remaining 2012 and 2013 program plans. Unfortunately, In Love with Power did not make the cut into the 2012 calender year and got allocated to the 2013 schedule.

Yet again I dedicate another post to this upcoming onscreen couple. I admit I'm really hyped about their collaboration because of my eagerness to watch Female Prime Minister. A few days ago, Chen Xiao attended an event in Beijing for the International Youth Culture Art Weeks and got interviewed about his role in Female Prime Minister.

Title : Ballad of Seodong/ Seodongyo / Ballad of Suh Dong # Episode : 55 Genre : Historical Romance Director : Lee Byung Hoon   Writer: Kim Young Hyun (also wrote Dae Jang Geum, Queen Seondeok) Release : September 2005 Broadcasting Compan y: SBS Cast: Jo Hyun Jae as Jang/Seodong, Lee Bo Young as Princess Sunhwa of Shilla,Ryu Jin as Kim Do Han/SaTaek Giroo, Koo Hye Sun as Eun Jin

Even though I watched A Frozen Flower more than three years ago, I suddenly got the urge to write about it. The intensity of the storyline definitely made it memorable. It's also interesting that as I browse the online commentary on this movie in both Chinese and English-speaking world, the interpretation of the story is quite divided based on gender.

While we wait for this series to come out, we can just sit back and  enjoy the pretty colors of these photos. Even though Dayu'er is the main focus of this drama, I'm sooo UNEXCITED about her character and I do expect much from Yuan Shanshan's performance. I'm certain her character will grow out of the naive and "I want to save the world" attitude eventually, but Dayu'er has been over exposed in the Chinese TV drama history. I want the focus shifted to another figure...like her sister.

A Frozen Flower (Ssanghwajeom) is a 2008 Korean movie about the love triangle between a homosexual king, his queen, and his chief royal guard. I'm a total sucker for pretty period dramas or movies with pretty people and pretty costumes. But man...when I first watched A Frozen Flower, it gave me quite a SHOCK! I knew it contained some sexual material and violence inappropriate for the young audience, but I never expected it to be SOO graphically explicit!

Aye, I've been so idle lately in dramaland that I just can't help but stalk the Baidu Forum and scout the weibo world for any new bits of information on Female Prime Minister. Unfortunately, there is still no official release date except for Yu Zheng's weibo response citing a October 1 broadcast date and some minor changes to the total number of episodes (extended from 40 to 45 episodes). In the meantime, I'll just gush over any spoilers I can get and speculate on the story.