Upcoming Yu Zheng's Costume TV Series

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The famous or should I say "infamous" producer Yu Zheng tend to produce multiple costume TV series simultaneously . After the rating successes of Gong and Gong 2 last year and earlier this year, Yu Zheng's series seem to have went under the carpet. Though he continues to make some greatly anticipated series such as the Swordsman, but for some odd reasons, most of Yu Zheng's completed series have been put on hold for most of 2012. I speculate the delay definitely has something to do with politics.

Female Prime Minister
There are wild rumors floating online that Female Prime Minister may be coming out in January! I pray pray this tentative date will get officially confirmed or pushed even to an earlier date. I usually don't take rumors seriously unless there some remote signs of promotion, but somehow the January air date gives me a good gut feeling. LOL. Readers, don't take me seriously on this speculated date. It can probably change anytime. Yu Zheng has been awfully quiet lately about Female Prime Minister on his weibo and has been concentrating on his movie version of Gong. I'm just excited at the fact that he posting about Female Prime Minister again and hasn't forgotten about it completely. Anyway, doesn't our OTP look soo good in their respective red court robes in the above photo? I absolutely love Chen Xiao in his imperial red robes with the emperor's headdress!


In Love with Power
Still no reliable update on the release of this drama series yet, but there is a new spoiler. Someone leaked a shooting schedule online, which revealed that Zhang Meng's Hailanzhu would at a certain point in the drama lose her memory. The memory loss plot device is sooo WAY OVERUSED! Why can't scriptwriters nowadays come up with something unique?

The Emperor's Women
I actually have no interest in this drama. None of the characters particularly appeal to me. Ming Dao, unfortunately, is also one of those actors I tend to avoid watching for personal reasons. I can never really immerse into his characters and his screen presence lacks charisma. Though I like Chen Xiao and Luo Jin's screen presence, the Emperor's Women butchered the historical relationships of some famous people to an intolerable degree. Yu Zheng or whoever wrote the story deviates soooo much from real history beyond what I can personally accept. I'm perfectly okay with twisting history and fictionalizing historical figures to make the drama more interesting (e.g. Female Prime Minister). Some historical canons can be reinterpreted or reinvented for the sake of art. However, there are still limits. I just cannot imagine Lu Zhi (played by Joe Chen), better known as the cruel and shrewd Han Dynasty Empress Lu, falling madly in love with her husband's great military nemesis, Xiang Yu (played by Ming Dao). Meanwhile Xiang Yu's great love in history, Concubine Yu (played by Yuan Shan Shan), fraternizes with the last Qin Dynasty emperor, Zi Ying (played by Chen Xiao). To sum up the story, the writer is basically breaking up every single canonical relationship in this history period and have the historical figures fall in love with their designated enemy. It's like having Romeo not love his sweet Juliet but his enemy Tybalt. X_X.
The Swordman
I think I would be more excited about this Louis Cha's wuxia adaptation if Yuan Shan Shan didn't play Ren Ying Ying. I know I should give her a chance before judging her too critically. But my gut feeling tells me that she's totally miscast as the cold beauty. She would have been better in a supporting role in the Swordsman than tacking the role of Ren Ying Ying. I actually don't have a strong candidate in my mind for this role, but I just want someone who can act convincingly and also look pretty for the part. Am I asking too much? LOL. I think the renown Xiao (younger) Song Jia would make an interesting Ren Ying Ying. For those who don't know who is Xiao Song Jia, she played Wallace Chung's wife in Ni Shui Han. Despite my disappointment with Yuan Shan Shan, the one thing I'm not disappointed is Wallace Huo as Ling Huchong. I'm still open to any good onscreen chemistry he has with Yuan Shan Shan, though I'm much more excited about his war-harden portrayal of the Nationalist Army officer Gu Qingming in Battle of Changsha.  I heard this series is tentatively set to air for the Lunar New Year time slot on Hunan TV, but this rumor leaves much doubt since not even a single trailer has been released yet.

EDIT: Yu Zhen said expect to see the trailer next week, maybe Tusday.

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