JoleCole's Station

If anyone has been reading the comments I've been posting lately, you are probably aware of my great disappointment and utter frustration in the development of the much anticipated coupledom Hailanzhu and Hong Taiji. Though I'm quite upset over their poor story development, or to be more correctly, "lack" of story development, I was not too surprised at the poor writing of this drama series. To clarify some confusion, the writer of this drama series is not the infamous Yu Zheng, but scriptwriter from a Hong Kong named Shen Zhi Ning 沈芷凝. I heard she was also a student of the famous Taiwanese writer Qiong Yao. So don't blame Yu Zheng for the poor writing in this series. He's just a producer. I blame him for hiring her.

Title : In Love with Power / Beauties without Tears/ 山河恋 /美人无泪 # Episode : 39 Genre : Historical Melodrama, Court Intrigue Broadcasting Compan y: Jiangsu TV Cast: Yuan Shan Shan as Dayu'er, Hawick Lau as Hong Taiji, Han Dong as Prince Dorgon, Zhang Meng as Hailanzhu, Ada Choi as Zhe Zhe Release Dat e: December 17, 2012

The official air date is quickly approaching! Hence, we have more and more materials of INWP being released. Check out the end theme song titled "Promise." Once again, Yuan Shan Shan is the singer.

ILWP fans, let's count down till the official air date! It was originally designated for December 16th, but now I think it's been postponed for another day, December 17th.  One day delay I can take. Just don't make an official announcement and then delay it for a month or something. Anyway, more photos galore below!

ILWP fans! It's a done deal now! The OFFICIAL release date has finally been announced! No more speculations, doubts, and the never ending wait. The drama series is coming out on December 16! Are you all ready to scream out in excitement?!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! Hawick Lau, Han Dong, Zheng Meng, or even Yuan Shan Shan fans, I have some good news for you (you can probably tell already by the title of this post. LOL). Sohu TV  just revealed on its website that they will release along with Jiangsu TV this drama series in December. They are already starting to promote this drama series on their official website.

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.

It appears the release date for both Female Prime Minister (FPM) and In Love with Power (ILWP) is not anywhere near the horizon. Rumors and speculations are plentiful but nothing concrete is set. FPM was originally slated for summer, then got pushed to October. Now I don't even hear any details on it's official release date. I just know Hunan TV has officially included FPM in its long list of dramas to broadcast for 2013.

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.

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.

Hailanzhu - The Pearl of Revenge In Love with Power devises the character of Hailanzhu to undergo some drastic transformation. Hailanzhu and Dayu'er grew up together in the great plains of Mongolia. The former is dubbed as the "Grassland Star of Disaster" while the latter is called the "Grassland Star of Good Fortune."  Hailanzhu's mother is the maidservant of Dayu'er's household. They shared the same father but are birth by different mothers. Because her of low social standing, Hailanzhu experiences quite a lot of hardships and often gets ostracized by her own tribe. Later when Dayu'er falls in love with Hong Taiji, Hailanzhu inadvertently becomes the love of his life.

The popular Chinese Television Magazine just dedicated a whole section to In Love with Power and conducted some short individual interviews from the writer and main cast, which included Hawick Lau, Yuan Shanshan, Ada Choi, Zhang Meng, and Han Dong. In these interviews, they give their take on how they portray their character. Below is Hawick Lau's interview translation. Hong Taiji - A conniving and manipulative emperor with a touch of loving softness 

I've been so absorbed with the new Female Prime Minister trailer that I totally don't feel the strong excitement I once did for Hawick Lau's new drama In Love with War. My curosity and excitement for Female Prime Minister has completely consumed me! I hope I can get myself back in In Love with Power mode when the drama comes out this summer (speculated release date).

I really love the the instrumental introduction to this song. The singing by Yuan Shan Shan and Han Dong is mediocre but the music is really lovely and soothing! I think some type of Mongolian wind instrument is used in the introduction, but I don't know name of it since I'm an absolute dumbie in terms of music. I hear it used a lot in Mongolian pop music. Wish I knew the name. =/

Apparently the official English name for Beauties without Tears is "In Love with Power" and they changed the Chinese name as well. Henceforth, I'll just use the official English name to refer to this TV series.

Yu Zheng, the famous producer of Gong and a ton of other popular TV series, just posted a series of photos on his blog and tagged some cryptic monologue along with each photo. This TV series is expected to air this coming July. Hailanzhu -- Zhuolin, Zhuolin! Everything of our past is clearly imprinted in my heart. No matter how well he treats me, it will never erode my determination to love you

Hailanzhu and Hong Taij The infamous producer/scriptwriter, Yu Zheng, just released some beautiful photos from this series. I'm loving the rich array of colors, sets, and costumes. For serious no-nonsense historical dramas, I tend to like more subtle and darker shades of coloring with deep details of embroidery in the costumes. But since this drama is supposed to be a fusion of history and mostly fiction, I don't mind the wild color combination. In my opinion, the profusive use of fur somehow works well to give an exotically ethnic feel to the drama.

After reading the scriptwriter's microblog and some spoilers, I managed to put together the above relationship diagram for the upcoming Chinese drama, In Love with Power (Beauties without Tears). Set in late Ming Dynasty/early Qing Dynasty, the story centers on the Qing's founding emperor and his wives/concubines. My initial reaction to the complicated web of relationships is "OMG! What the heck is up with all the one-side love relationships?!" LOL. The only mutual love relationship I know for certain is between Hailanzhu and her first love, Zhuolin. Maybe later, Hong Taiji's infatuation with Hailanzhu will grow into mutual love, and perhaps Prince Dorgon will finally get his love reciprocated by Dayu'er?

If I have to name a drama that I really want to see now is probably Yu Zheng's Beauties Without Tears. I know this fact even shocks me. Despite my reservation about his personal character and plagiarist habits, Yu Zheng once again manages to put together a cast I like in befitting roles - Zhang Meng, Ada Choi, Han Dong, and Hawick Lau. The one actress I have qualms about is Yuan Shanshan as the politically shrewd Dayu'er (future Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang). And I heard she's the #1 main female lead. NOOO~! Okay, I'll skip over her parts and watch Zhang Meng's gorgeous Hailanzhu and focus on the beautiful costumes. Trivia: this is the drama that caused Mo Shaoqian to go BALD in Sealed with a Kiss mini-movie!