JoleCole's Station

A producer of Shandong Film and TV Group once labeled the story of  Nirvana in Fire  as the Chinese version of the revenge novel  The Count of Monte Cristo  by Alexandre Dumas. Although I am familiar with the story of this French novel and even attended the play adaptation, my brick head never made the connection between these two works. Now that the analogy is made, I can totally see the similarities! My initial impression of  Nirvana in Fire  is a fictitious but very telling account of imperial power struggle in dynastic China. Brother is pited against brother. Father is pited against son. Yet among all the intense rivalries and breakdown of familial bond, a strong sense of brotherhood can still exist. It is this brotherhood between the two male leads that captivated me.

After two years of being shoved under the carpet, Legend of Moon and Sta r, or better known as Da Mao Yao , may be seeing some daylight! An executive from Hunan TV just announced on weibo that Legend of Moon and Star will be broadcast following the Li Yifeng and Yang Mi's  Legend of Ancient Swords (Gu Jian Qi Tan) on its "Diamond Timeslot" starting at 10 p.m. Beijing time. The long awaited release date is scheduled to be October 8, 2014.

If you only watch this official MV of Yun Zhong Ge without knowing much about the story, you will be seriously misled by its contents. The entire MV is compilation of random scenes that do not accurately depict the story. Liu Bingyi played by Chen Xiao seems to be torn by three women in the series: Yun Ge, Huo Chengjun, and Xu Pingjun. Although he is linked with all three women in the series, but his relationship with Yun Ge is not nearing the level of romance the MV seems to imply.

After watching Battle of Changsha , I became an loyal fan of the company that produced it - Shandong Film and TV Group. This production company is highly respected and praised in the Chinese entertainment industry for its ability combine great storytelling with execution in dramas. When I heard the famous online novel, Nirvana in Fire or Lang Ya Bang, was going to get adapted into a TV series starring Hu Ge and Liu Tao, it didn't strike much excitement. When I heard the production company was Shandong Film and TV Group, however, my eyes went blink blink blink. The more research I did into Shandong Film and TV Group and Lang Ya Bang, the more emotionally immersed I became into the story, particularly into one character - Prince Jing 靖王 or Xiao Jingyan 萧景琰, the seventh prince of the Southern Liang Dyansty. Prince Jing is the second leading character in this story who emerges as the dark horse in the succession battle and ultimately wins the throne. In contrast to many TV dram...