JoleCole's Station

Any of you bored with Chen Xiao's fugly costumes in Return of the Condor Heroes will be spirited away by the opulence and flamboyance of the Yun Zhong Ge's trailer. But before you can start watching the trailer, you have to speed through scenes from Yu Zheng's third installation of the Palace (Gong)Trilogy. I have to say The Palace: The Lost Daughter (aka Gong 3) looks more promising than Return of the Condor Heroes, at least in terms of art direction and costumes.

If you have been following mainland Chinese entertainment filming or Ms. Koala's Playground, or you just happened to be a big fan of mainland actor Yuan Hong, I am sure you already know a bit or a lot about Ruby Lin's second big investment project - Xiu Li Jiang Shan: Chang Ge Xing (roughly translated into Beautiful Land and River: Long Ballad March). This latest historical production centers on a piece of Chinese history that has not been heavily adapted on the small screen before. (P.S. I am actually quite happy mainland Chinese TV productions finally drifted way from the heavy Qing Dynasty backdrop and explores other epochs. Guys with a nicely groomed hair bun is much more soothing to the eyes than half-bald guys sporting a braided queue). The drama chronicles the rise of Empress Yin Lihua and endowed her with modern sensibilities.

Today is Zhao Liying's 26th birthday and Yu Zheng celebrated with two new stills of her cameo role in his latest production. Luckily, my fear that Zhao Liying's Mu Nianci and Chen Zhao's Yang Kang not sharing any scenes together has evaporated with this pictorial release. It definitely more than I asked for. It also seems my favorite pairing is sharing a "intimate" scene together.

If you have been following my comments about Chen Xiao and Zhao Liying, you are probably firmly aware of my conviction that they have successfully translated their reel chemistry to real chemistry. Even before their spike in popularity during the broadcast of Legend of Lu Zhen, countless "insider" scoops about their supposedly dating relationship surfaced. These "insiders" alleged that Chen Xiao and Zhao Liying began dating shortly after the shooting wrap-up of Legend of the Lu Zhen (around spring 2012) and even news of their co-habitation in Beijing emerged.

We have good news followed by some potential bad news regarding the new Ying Xiao pairing in the new Return of the Condor Heroes. The good news has obviously already been revealed through the release photo above. And thank goodness Chen Xiao finally has one decent "normal" costume styling! I really dislike the new Yang Guo's hooligan and "I-belong-to the-Beggar-Sect" styling. Though his Yang Kang's costume is definitely not up to par with the majestic details of Yuan Hong's version in the 2009 Legend of the Condor Heroes adaptation, it is certainly several degrees better in magnitude than his Yang Guo's mess.

The cameo role of Yang Kang, the troubled father of male protagonist Yang Guo, was originally given to mainland Chinese actor Li Chen ( Beijing Love Story ) in Return of the Condor Heroes . Due to Li Chen's recent and bitter breakup with actress, Viann Zhang, who is playing Li Mochou, he supposedly resigned from the production to avoid further association with his ex-girlfriend. Consequently, the roles of both father and son have fallen on Chen Xiao's shoulders. Chen Xiao is absolutely PERFECT as Yang Kang. I feel he may do a better job playing Yang Kang than Yang Guo. Since we already know that Zhao Liying is slated to play Yang Guo's mother, Mu Nianci, can I scream "HECK YAY!"? Once again, I will get to see this beloved onscreen couples together and this time they get to play one of my favorite wuxia couplings!

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...

I don't have much to say except that I dislike the hairstyling of both Yang Guo and Xiaolongnü in this latest adaptation of Return of the Condor Heroes. I generally like more clean styling for guys in both modern and period productions. The costumes for Yang Guo make Chen Xiao look like he belongs more to the Beggar Sect than the Ancient Tomb Sect.

Even though the newly released official stills of Yun Zhong Ge are highly photoshopped, I can't help but admire the surreal aesthetics they project. Angelababy is quite fitting in the role of the female protagonist, Yun Ge, at least in the look department. Yang Rong is also absolutely gorgeous as the vengeful but pitiful Huo Chengjun. Lu Yi is also aging very well and does not look too out of place pairing up with Angelababy. I think the character I am looking forward to watch is the antagonist, Liu Bingyi, also known as Chen Xiao. LOL.

If anyone is following the Chinese TV entertainment on weibo, it's quite an uproar right now. Endless speculation has surfaced in the past few months about who will be chosen for the coveted role of Xiaolongnü in Yu Zheng's latest adaptation of Louis Cha's classic story Return of the Condor Heroes. Rumors went from Angelababy to Zhao Liying. Well...the dust has finally settled yesterday and mystery has been revealed to be Taiwanese actress, Michelle Chen. Her most famous work to date is the movie titled You are the Apple of My Eye, successfully playing the dream girl of every young boy.

This post may be a little premature because I did not watch much of the earlier episodes of Legend of Mermaid but jumped to the TV episode 17 on my first view. After watching some pivotal episodes dedicated to the relationship of two secondary characters, I cannot contain my new excitement and fondness for them and need an outlet to release all the steam building up inside me. I am now completely enthralled by the comedic dynamic between the secondary couple portrayed by Ding Zijun 丁子峻 and Cao Xinyue 曹馨月. I love them a lot because it has been awhile since an onscreen couple could make me laugh till my stomach started to hurt.

The visual quality of The Palace is certainly exceeding my expectations. I never give this drama much thought until the first official trailer was released. Despite being an ardent supporter of Chen Xiao and Zhao Liying onscreen pairing, I am loving innocence depicted between Chen Xiao and Zhou Dongyu. If you are looking forward to this movie, you can check out the official MV. I am not too fond of the singing, but the instrumental is quite nice. I wish the song has a more traditional and melancholic feel. Unfortunately, the singing is too soft and muted to give the moving visuals that essential "umph."