Chinese Fantasy Drama “Noble Aspirations” Release New Character Stills
2016’s most highly-anticipated Chinese fantasy drama Noble Aspirations <诛仙青云志> is in full gear. The epic series, which is based on the popular online novel Zhu Xian <诛仙> (literally “Punish the Immortals”), is produced by H&R Century Pictures and is slated to air on Hunan TV at the end of the year.
The heroic fantasy tale stars Li Yifeng (李易峰) as the protagonist Zhang Xiaofan, an unlikely hero who is determined at all costs to defeat the Ghost King and save the Qingyun Sect. Zhao Liying (赵丽颖) stars as his love interest Bi Yao, and Cheng Yi (成毅) plays the close friend, Lin Jingyu. The historical fantastic series has been shooting in Hengdian, Zhangjiajie, and Mount Longhu.
The first set of character stills for the drama was released in early December 2015, when it first started principal photography. After the announcements of Li Yifeng and Zhao Liying in the lead roles, the production studio released another series of character stills. Zhao Liying’s stills were revealed on January 25, while Li Yifeng’s official poster was unveiled the following day.
Synopsis
The television adaption follows a young peasant Zhang Xiaofan (Li Yifeng), who along with childhood friend Lin Jingyu (Cheng Yi), are the sole survivors of a village massacre. The two are later accepted into the Qingyun Sect (Noble Sect), where they learn the ways of the Immortal Sword. Although hard-working, Xiaofan struggles to catch up to his peers due to his slow wit. Fortunately, he has the support of Bi Yao (Zhao Liying), daughter of the Ghost King (Fu Chengpeng), who supports him through thick and thin.
Pivotal circumstances made Xiaofan grow, and his relationship with Bi Yao takes a meaningful turn. For power, the villainous Ghost King attempts to overthrow the Qingyun Sect, and Xiaofan gets his life on the line. Bi Yao sacrifices herself to save him, falling into an endless sleep. With courage and strong faith, Xiaofan devotes all his strength to take down the Ghost King, fulfilling a promise he made to Bi Yao and Jingyu when they were youths.
Li Yifeng as Zhang Xiaofan / Guili
Zhao Liying as Bi Yao
Yang Zi as Lu Xueqi
Qin Junjie as Zeng Shushu
Cheng Yi as Lin Jingyu
Tang Yixin as Tian Ling’er
TFBOYS’ Roy Wang as young Zhang Xiaofan
TFBOYS’ Karry Wang as young Lin Jingyu
TFBOYS’ Jackson Yi as Xiaoqi
Source: China Yes
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
No mention of Yang Zi’s Lu Xue Qi in the sypnosis at all?? I feel bad for her. She’s more of a female lead than Bi Yao is in the novel. Don’t tell me they cut down the loveline for Xiao Fan and Xue Qi. They’re my OTP! T_T Been hearing the rumor that they pushed Bi Yao to the only female lead of the drama, which is so wrong since she already went into comatose state like the first half of the story, The second half is most important as Xiao Fan descended to the dark side and it’s a long journey before he found his way back and Bi Yao slept through the whole thing. How do they plan to give her more screentime? If it’s because of star power as ZLY is more popular than Yang Zi, they should have just casted her as Lu Xue Qi then. She wouldn’t be a good fit, but I’d rather they stay true to the novel. Xiao Fan and Xue Qi’s relationship is more complex and special. Seriously, don’t ruin it. T__T Aside from the unfortunate possible change in the plot, I love their styling and costumes in this drama. Li Yifeng’s Guili appearance looks really awesome. And Yang Zi fits her role so well. I don’t like how they styled Bi Yao though. Hopefully she’ll turn out better in the drama.
@mifeng I don’t think ZLY is more famous than Yang Zi. Her fame partly comes from her love rumors. If she doesn’t have any love rumor but the rating is still high at the same time, then her fame will be acknowdged as her attempt. Don’t worry about the storyline change, in any case Yang Zi will display her talent. Personally I think Yang Zi acts better than ZLY
@cuckoo ZLY hit it big time with HQG.
@tiffany ok, big time, but I’ve just told my opinion. I’ve seen many wuxia dramas so I can find her acting just imitated other persons’ acting, very exactly, so I didn’t feel emotional when I saw her acting. HQG has tragic love story, which moves people’s hearts, in which one can sacrifice her live for her lover but lately still survive, that’s why she still can sacrifice her live again, and people are moved again, then she still survives. If I still can survive after I die, I’m willing to sacrifice all my lives minus 1 for my lover too, keep 1 for myself is enough 😀
If BY becomes female lead, maybe the production company wants to use couple effect lol, waiting for love rumor if in case lol. No problem, for me it’s just a game, to cheat couple’s fans from goddess and her hardcore fans
@cuckoo Love rumors are inevitable when both parties are single.
@tiffany ok, do you have love rumor with Wallace Huo, I guess you’re single, lol.
@cuckoo Huh? Wallace has rumors with his female costars notably Michelle Ye and Ruby Lin. Michelle is in a relationship now, so that has been cleared out. Same with YM before it was official with Hawick. I get why there are rumors. Free publicity for the dramas.
@tiffany Don’t give wrong information then your guess will be right.
WH and MY, WH and RL many years they don’t have any drama together, so their love rumors weren’t for publicity for any drama, agree? I haven’t heard WH & YM rumor so I don’t understand why you put YM into this kind of rumor
@cuckoo I’m not giving wrong information here. You’re misinterpreting, so I’ll space out my responses for clarity.
I DIDN’T say WH and YM. I used YM as an example like WH. She also had rumors before she went public with Hawick.
And neither did I say WH and MY/RL rumors were from recent dramas together. They had rumors, which helped create noise for their dramas.
I also used Wallace as an example because he’s pretty low-profile yet he still had rumors. Hence, back to my point that love rumors are inevitable.
@tiffany I think you tried to make ppl misunderstanding rather than I misinterpreted.
“Wallace has rumors with his female costars notably Michelle Ye and Ruby Lin. Michelle is in a relationship now, so that has been cleared out.” In these sentences, you meant the MY’s current relationship has cleared the the rumor of WH and costar MY. The fact is MY’s current relationship 2015 has cleared their recent rumor in 2014 in which they walked together under the rain with his hand on her shoulder, when they weren’t costar in any drama for 10 years. They costared in 2005 in The Royal Swordmen drama, so MY’s current relationship cannot clear the rumor in 2005 because that will mean they’re in love relationship during these 10 years, in reality there isn’t such 10 year rumor.
Therefore, you mixed these two events 2005, 2015 into one to lead ppl understanding that they had love rumor for drama publicity and that this love rumor was only cleared out by her current relationship to support your argument that they did that for publicity of their drama, where you want to make identity of MY& WH and ZLY & WH cases. But these 2 cases are different, and your illustration is artificial, not real, so it cannot support your argument.
So, if these 2 cases are different then YM case cannot be considered the same thing with this 2 different-case case, therefore no need to study YM case.
I understand very clear your writing!
@cuckoo Way to jump to conclusions.
You first posted, “ok, do you have love rumor with Wallace Huo, I guess you’re single, lol.”
– In response, I used Michelle and Ruby as examples who had rumors with Wallace. Michelle was single at the time. Ruby is still single. I said Michelle is in a relationship now, which shows that rumors died down when the other party is in a relationship. This goes back to my initial point that love rumors are inevitable when both parties are single.
I ended my response saying, “I get why there are rumors. Free publicity for the dramas.”
– No where did I say Wallace’s rumors with Michelle and Ruby were publicity for their recent dramas. YOU made that assumption. Wallace had rumors with Michelle while filming the World’s Finest, which was good PR for the drama. Similar to Ruby when they filmed SOC and her first production. Both examples show rumors create publicity for the drama.
I doubt you understand my writing. It’s, “I understand your writing very clearly.” – Peace.
@tiffany Your very first post (before my first post) ” Love rumors are inevitable when both parties are single.”, where “single” as the only condition for “love rumors”, so I joked you back, e.g. you and WH are single, so do you have love rumor with him?
– When you bring out examples, you must give the examples which are truth. If I don’t know anything then I cannot point out the problem in your examples, then other ppl will think her current relationship cleared out their rumor which happened when they costared, which is wrong. “The rumors died out when the other party is in a relationship”, that’s true, but that’s not the only reason that can cause the rumors dying. Take your example, WH & MY 2014 rumor, when it happened, there’re pictures as evidence by paparazzi. In his next interview happening 1-2 days after, he denied immediately, in several interviews later, he also denied, in bitter voice. I, then, still not believe him. Around 2-3 months later, MY denied. Then with me, it’s time they didn’t have love relationship. Then one fan tested MY, the result also showed she wanted to show she didn’t have love r/s with him. During this period, until she announced her lover, didn’t have any rumor about them. With me, the rumor died out before she’s in a relationship.
– The difference between MY/RL compared to ZLY are: MY had pictures going out with WH many times, RL was the one his mother wanted to marry with him, and he bought the apartment near hers. They had real proofs.
But ZLY rumor haven’t seen any real proof yet, on the couple’s fanpage, during HJG airing time, posted many evidences:
– Her wearing her hat backward as his style, wearing same spec same style, color as his, wearing warm jacket as his.
– In one of his interview he said “taking selfie is a sickness” (which I guessed he’s in scared of his and her selfies during filming are used as their love evidence) then she said in her interview “taking selfie is a sickness, must remove”, after that seeing he almost not having selfie, but she still posted many of her selfies continuously.
– Having some pictures someone looks like him next to the car that fetched her.
– During her filming Up Idols, having clip someone look like him jumping on the ship which carried Up Idols team, saying he visited her on filming set. Another few pictures or gif to prove he was on the ship like the picture of forehead of someone who has hair line similar to him. One photographer of Up Idols confirmed WH visited ZLY. “Evidences” were posted, then deleted, then posted, then deleted, etc, created lots of noise. The photographer was asked, he answered “want to know, ask Huajae”. If those are real, already big headlines on newspapers, judging the distance for taking the pic/clip, I can tell the takers can clearly know if he is WH or not, then no need rumor, just directly post clear story as MY case.
– On her birthday, he flied to TW as announced by Huajae, at airport he must use VIP (authority’s request) so there would be no pic. The big couple’s fanpage speculated that he was with her that day. The smaller fanpage unfortunately posted his pics at airport 1-2 days after, although they commented they didn’t know where’s this airport. Later, not remember how long, the smaller fanpage was in messages (coming from Baidu and some sources) that saying it was fake page, not official linked to HuaYing Baidu Bar, then the fanpage disappeared. Fanpage also has fake ? official or unofficial? I thought fanpage is free, who likes, can create his owns?
– She’s wearing chain, earings which has huaying flower (peach blossom. If fanpage didn’t say that’s huaying flower, I also don’t know what’s that). So, they said that’s his gift for her.
– While he was in Taiwan, they said in fact he and his mom were in China to meet ZLY family, two families met each other already.
I agree love rumor create publicity for drama, but in MY/RL cases, they had some kind of real relationship, in ZLY case the relationship seemed having fake evidences, which were created by ppl to generate noise continously, strong, systematic, un-natural. Who gets benefit, if the drama, game show having high rating then they get benefit, ZLY also get benefit
@mifeng I believe the production team wanted to push Bi Yao from the beginning. Angela Baby was intended to play Bi Yao, but couldn’t because of her schedule. ZLY then came along. It looked as if the casting for LXQ was set.
You know…I expected co-lead for the main gals, but it sounded as if the focus will be on the ZXF and BY’s love story? The tragic love story somehow is a favorite amongst viewers though.
@tiffany I don’t get why they wanted BY to be the female lead, when she slept through 2/3 of the story. His love with XQ is just as tragic as his was with BY, when they kept struggling with their conscience while not being able to deny having feelings for one another. The production team should just get that famous chick they want for publicity starring as LXQ who has more room to play at the same time they don’t offend the entire fandom of the original novel trying to change the focus on BY. But I guess they just don’t care. I’ll still watch for my faves while keeping a low expectation. I only hope they don’t change the ending *cries*
@mifeng Haha! I know. AB/ZLY should have been cast as LXQ, which would resolve the screen time problem. I also hope it will not deviate too much from the novel.
The tragic love story/BY’s death might pull in high ratings here. If so, that’s the selling point.
@tiffany I think this drama would have been fine without AB/ZLY and all this nonsense. Zhu Xian is already too famous with the novel and game, that’s a good chunk of novel’s fans tuning in for the first few eps. Then we have LYF and TFBoys, the chick magnets. The story itself is compelling, on top of a great love story, not to mention hint of bromance everywhere, it would have no problem attracting viewers, so I still think it’s dumb for them to try so hard pushing the love story like the drama depends on it just for some bad publicity in return lol.
@mifeng The focus is on BY whether it was AB or ZLY. It could have been Yang Mi, YSS, etc. The drama wouldn’t have a problem attracting viewers, but it also wouldn’t hurt to have someone with the popularity of AB/ZLY.
On a different note, I’m loving the costumes. Mainland dramas really stepped up their game.
@tiffany Yeh I guess so. Just look at the fanwars on wb these past few days over the OTPs and female leads of this drama lol.
I love their costumes too. LYF rocks that hairstyle. I think he looks even more handsome than his Susu days, which made the novel fans mad lol. You can get hate for being more handsome than the original character xD
@mifeng Why hate? lol Ppl nowadays. I really don’t get the point of arguing when the drama didn’t air yet. Production just started. I’ll wait to see promotional clips/interviews to judge the story/chemistry.
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