China’s Remake of “Fated to Love You” Confirms Lead Cast
Taiwanese drama Fated to Love You <命中注定我愛你>, starring Ethan Juan (阮經天) and Joe Chen (陳喬恩), was a record-breaking cultural hit when it was first released in 2008, jumpstarting Ethan’s career and further cementing Joe Chen as one of the biggest stars of Asian TV entertainment.
The romantic comedy, which also starred Baron Chen (陳楚河) and Bianca Bai (白歆惠), has gone on to inspire two remakes—the 2014 South Korean drama You Are My Destiny and the 2017 Thai drama You’re My Destiny.
Mainland China is also joining in the fad, confirming that it will officially be remaking the show back in October 2018. The announcement wasn’t met with much fan love, especially after it was confirmed that the main leads “Chen Xin-yi” (Joe Chen) and Ji Cun-xi (Ethan Ruan) would be renamed to “Chen Jiaxin” and “Wang Xiyi,” respectively.
The drama has also been renamed from “Fated to Love You” (命中注定我愛你) to “You Are My Destiny” (你是我的命中注定), following the Korean remake.
According to news reports, the stars of You Are My Destiny will be Liang Jie (梁潔) and Xing Zhaolin (邢昭林), main stars of the time-traveling web series The Eternal Love <雙世寵妃>.
Fated to Love You starred Joe Chen as Chen Xin-yi, an office lady who finds out that she is pregnant with the child of wealthy heir Ji Cun-xi after an unfortunate one night stand. They do not love each other, but for the sake of their unborn child, they strike an agreement.
Source: Elle
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Ehh…I don’t find either leads attractive enough to have the main roles. But different strokes for different folks.
@coralie wow definitely agree with u on this one.. the male lead is nowhere as good looking as Ethan Ruan
@serene Ethan Ruan isn’t that great-looking either lol. But he’s better looking than this guy. And I find it easier to swallow an uglier guy than a girl…sometimes if a guy is really charming onscreen, i can overlook his faults. But not true with women. It’s incredibly biased of me, but if I don’t find a girl attractive onscreen, it turns me off from watching. And the girl here is just no star material – looks or acting-wise.
@coralie Lol…For me, they don’t have to extremely attractive looking but good looking enough to get me hooked or if you like either actors a bit ? haha Cuz I have seem more than good looking couples either girl/boy but storyline sucks so there’s no way you can just watch purely just from good looking faces alone. I finished William Chan’s Age of Legends and then try to find his other dramas. OMG, the one that’s called Side By Side with you. How can I even watch when the both the leads; one looks like his big sister even thou she’s only a bit older or something and the 40 year old look like this mother? haha ….I am sorry. Sometimes the older guy/younger women works better but I have to say the older women/younger guy disinterests me immediately. haha lol…I know I know Double Standards but true. haha…It’s just weird.
@wm2017 Lol yeah everyone has their preferences. I don’t need a couple to be extremely attractive either, but at least not unpleasant for me.
@coralie but then again Ethan is also not dashing and Joe Chen is plain. I actually don’t quite understand how that drama became such a hit. I have watched both the Taiwanese & Thai version and I much preferred the Thai version. The couple were more attractive and the Thai version so much nicer. Ok I am biased
@nigel I find Joe Chen really gorgeous – a great mix between beautiful and cute when she was younger. Prince Turned into Frog was my fav drama of hers.
Nowadays I don’t know how I feel about her looks, especially when her projects keep flopping.
Ethan Ruan isn’t that dashing, I agree, but he’s acceptable-looking.
@coralie
Angelababy and Kris Wu should’ve been hired to please fans who demand beautiful faces.
@msxie0714 Ew no lol. They’re not good looking either, IMO. And definitely not good actors.
@coralie
In your opinion, which actor and actress would qualify for the roles?
@msxie0714
for fated to love you, i actually think zhao liying would’ve made a fine choice. too bad she’s expensive & now a nursing mama. she has a baby face and can do mature roles if needed. vin zhang could be the male lead, although i suspect he’s also too expensive now.
other up-and-coming actresses that comes to mind: zhang jianing, du yuchen, janice wu and an yuexi. zhou dongyu & sun yi could play the role as well, but they’re probably out of this drama’s pay grade. these two are also some of my faves, but they’re almost too pretty to play the role of chen xin yi, though it’s not as if joe chen was ugly either: mao xiaotong & wang yifei.
male leads: baron chen, elvis han, xu kaiwei (personally i think he reminds me of a younger scrawnier version of wallace huo minus the teeth), mike angelo, ma tian yu (though I’m not sure about his acting)…that’s all i can think of right now.
@coralie
would like to see Zhao Liying, Vin Zhang and Zhu Yilong together in a drama!
@msxie0714 i wouldn’t mind either!
@msxie0714 kris wu is meh looking lol! As a matter of fact, I just walked pass LV shop today with a big poster of him and it was just a terrible photo, and his face is nothing attractive >_>
never got into the Taiwan version but the korean version got me hook onto it… yup the actor and actress attractiveness plays a big role for this well known drama, it will appeal to a certain viewers and the new generation.
@vodka The KV was quite entertaining. I like that it’s much shorter not much nonsense BS like Tdramas do. It also helped that the casting for that one was on par. Girl was so so cute and the guy was really decent looking in the later half of the show. I actually like the KV better as well. My friend watched the Thai V but I didn’t but she said it sucked as well. lol….
Don’t understand the appeal of this onscreen couple and The Eternal Love. Tried watching a few episodes but couldn’t stomach their acting and lack of chemistry. The Taiwanese version was quite entertaining back then but not sure if it is still something I watch now.
@bearbear yup, definitely those shows that you will watch once and never will really do a re-run unless we are die hard romance fans. lol
@wm2017 Those were the days when I still watched Taiwanese productions. I remembered enjoying Autumn’s Concerto more but again, that was then.
@bearbear Yes, AC was good. That was the only series I watched of Vanness Wu. He was the coolest and most handsome in that role. I haven’t watched any TD’s after that. I tried that CD w/Cecelia Cheung but I couldn’t pass 1 episode even thou VW is also super hot still in that series. It was just not interesting no matter how good looking they were.
@wm2017 i couldn’t like AC. i remember i used to post about how much I didn’t like this drama in another forum and i got downvoted like a million times loool XD. those downvotes followed me wherever i went after, until they removed that system.
i found ady so passive. and she literally does nothing most of the time – very much a damsel in distress and required vanness’ assistance at almost every turn. i also didn’t like how her sad expressions were done in slow-mo and there was like 15 frames of her just being sad. it was slow & tortuous for me to watch, like seeing paint dry lol.
@coralie Lol…I see what you mean. Like I said I only like VW on the show not how much I loved the plot line and all that cra*p. haha….I never really like the female lead and that was also the only series I watched of her. She was definitely a damsel in distress kind of lead and I never care for that either and the slow-mo’s is how Taiwanese director’s tactics are perhaps? I think it really depends on the directors or whoever else gets involved. For example, as much as I love the China drama ‘Age of Legends’ the repetitive flashbacks on every dam*n episodes pissed alot of people off and I was watching it on utube and all the comments are practically on how sh*tty annoying it was. lol….So I think it really depends on the directors or how they wanted to convey whatever. Slow mo for what? and flashbacks for what? We as audiences are watching it we are not senile why repeat when we have been watching/known all along? haha lol…sigh…. nothing is perfect is what it is. Speaking of AC – You know the 2nd support lead. I have never watched anything of him after and it seems he made it to MOVIES and all that. He actually is kind of more popular than the leads from that series? Life is interesting sometimes. He was actually not a bad 2nd lead there. I thought he acted well but I was infatuated w/VW back then. haha lol…
@wm2017 Oh you do have a point – you did only mention liking VW haha. You’re right; he was good in it. I still couldn’t fall for him though ’cause he had such a scrawny face and figure XD. I’m superficial. But those slow-mos really pissed me off like why are they wasting my time >=T.
Ady An was great in Legend of Dugu, I heard. A real femme-fatale and heartbreaker. I didn’t watch it because I don’t think i can deal with the tragedy. It’s a shame cuz I think she’s real pretty and can act! Just not in AC, because her character sucked.
@bearbear The Eternal Love was a terrible drama. It was so cringey and lacked common sense. It doesn’t help that this couple are the main stars, either.
@coralie lol, thank god im not the only one who doesn’t like that drama! A youtuber I followed loved that show, my physiotherapist loves that show (but then she’s only like 27 lol), I tried watch it to 14, and I couldn’t stand it any longer and drop it. Definitely not gonna bother with these two but then external love 2 did well in term of rating, so they are doing 3 and this, capitalise on the fans while it works! I can’t say I like the plot either! One night stand n get pregnant again?!!! I rolled eyes so hard, are we trying to turn to American cultures and their teen moms -.-??
@littlefish You have more patience than me. I got to episode 5 and dropped lol. I can understand the hype with Princess Go Go, but Eternal Love had very poor sense of humor and terrible logic. I don’t understand its appeal.
Fated to Love You is okay, people can get preggo on one shot – it’s possible. The only thing I find illogical about it are characters like Chen Xin Yi – there are no such naive/nice/gullible women like her in this day and age.
@coralie So I am not the only one who couldn’t complete Eternal Love. Online response was good and I simply cannot understand why.
@coralie lol, I actually stopped at 4, then shouldered it on because i thought I was being too harsh! But by 14, I was reaffirmed that it’s not me, it’s the drama lol!
As I kept watching on, the main FL’s hair really got onto my nerves, I can see the mesh that keep her bun up! While the support female character, their hair was great?! Like I don’t see any mesh lol! Funny how the main FL seems to have the worst hair budget lol!