JoleCole's Station

For a mainland Chinese actress, I find Wang Luodan to be rather plain and average in the look department. She can look quite attractive and memorable in modern clothes, but the parted hair that completely covers her ears and almost half of her face in Virtuous Empress of the Han Dynasty does absolutely nothing to accentuate her natural beauty. In the official promotional poster, I thought the bad angle and bad photoshopping even made her look distorted and hideous. Consequently, I was rather disappointed in the casting decision. I felt Wang Luodan does not possess the striking beauty to portray Wei Zifu, the dancing girl who managed to captivate the attention of the tyrannical Emperor Han Wudi. I strongly believe great beauty as well as prudence played a great role in helping this poor dancing girl to climb up the social ladder and to attain the status of empress. To my great surprise, the production finally released these pretty stills to prove me wrong! Wang Luodan is absolutely...

Hua Ce, the media production company known to make folklore/fantasy/wuxia and popularized historical dramas is currently in the mist of shooting their big project chronicling the life of the Han Dynasty Empress Wei Zifu. Wang Luodan is cast as the titular role and Raymond Lam plays the ambitiously ruthless Emperor Han Wudi （personal name Liu Che). If you don't have a clue about Wei Zifu, you may have heard of her famous family members. One of the most famous Chinese generals, Wei Qing, was her younger half-brother. The young and flamboyant General Huo Qubing was her nephew. The historical character that Chen Xiao plays in Yu Zheng's upcoming drama Yun Zhong Ge, Liu Bingyi or Emperor Han Xuandi, was her great-grandson. But her most famous connection is perhaps her atrociously despot of a husband who went berserk in old age over a voodoo doll and started a series of witchcraft persecutions that resulted in the death of  roughly 10,000 people. This infamous event was known as 巫...