“The Imperial Doctress” Spends 3 Million RMB on Costumes
The period drama, The Imperial Doctress <女醫•明妃傳>, which features Cecilia Liu (劉詩詩) and Wallace Huo (霍建華) in their third collaboration, reportedly spent more than 3 million RMB to ensure that its costumes adhered to the traditional fashion of the Ming Dynasty.
A joint production by Chinese Entertainment Shanghai and New Classics Media, The Imperial Doctress stars Cecilia as Tan Yunxian, who starts as a young lady and palace maid and grows into an accomplished army doctor. Along the way, she becomes involved with Zhu Qizhen (Wallace Huo) and Zhu Qiyu (Huang Xuan 黃軒), two brothers who both eventually become Emperor of China.
Because of the characters’ physical growth and subsequent change in social status, the drama’s costume designer had to create many new outfits, accessories, and headgear. Cecilia alone goes through at least 30 different costumes, and the two male leads each have more than 20 outfits. Wallace and Huang Xuan also faced the challenge of wearing 15-kilogram armor, which was constructed with real metal and thus required the assistance of four to five people to put on.
In total, about 300 new outfits were fashioned for The Imperial Doctress, with the costume design budget exceeding 3 million RMB. Nevertheless, the cost was worth it, as it allowed the designer to accurately replicate Ming Dynasty fashions, such as broad sleeves and metal buttons on men’s clothing, and pleated skirts for the women.
The resulting costumes, which occasionally caused the drama’s fitting room to resemble a Ming Dynasty fashion show, were so magnificent that Cecilia, who is no stranger to ancient dramas, became extremely excited upon seeing the outfits. “They’re so beautiful!” she cried and immediately began browsing through them as if she were shopping.
Though the outfits took months to create, executive producer Karen Tsai (蔡藝儂) takes great pride in the costume designer’s work. “Chinese Entertainment Shanghai has always placed great importance on the characters’ designs,” she explained. “The ancient costumes in previous dramas have been called classics, and they won’t become out-of-date even ten years in the future.”
Source: QQ.com
This article is written by Joanna for JayneStars.com.
The costumes as always are beautiful. The title The Imperial Doctress is errr.. interesting.I look forward to this even if sorta reminiscent of DJG only in so far as a female imperial doctor. After all DJG started off and was primarily about food and imperial chef so the similarity ends there.
” two brothers who both eventually become Emperor of China.“
So one will die? Wallace?
Wait! Didn’t China ban historical dramas or dramas based on historical characters in fictional situation?
Maybe there will be changes like DMY.
No,I do not know if you guys remember but the founder of the Song Dynasty, was a king and then allowed his younger brother to be king upon the request of his mother. This one special fortune teller even told his mother when they were young that she had a dragon with 2 heads which meant that both her sons will be kings. At first even she did not believe it herself since how can they both be kings? But later on she saw how true it was.
It refers to the aftermath of the Batte of Tumu Fortress. The older brother got captured by Mongolians in battle cos of bad advise from an eunuch. The younger one had to ascend the throne to take care of the country. Then elder brother came back after years of torture and got imprisoned by his younger bro who likes his dragon throne. Elder brother got pissed and organised coup to overthrow younger brother.
In a nutshell, it is what Meng Qiyou and his younger went through in QingShi Huang Fei.
^ And they wonder why they cant catch up to the quality of Korean dramas.
lol I actually think Korean dramas are extremely boring! There are a couple I really like a couple but most of them fail to keep me hooked.
Well, most would disagree with you. There’s a reason that Korean Entertainment is the world’s 2nd biggest export, behind Hollywood.
@Will
Where do you get your stats from? I can’t fathom the idea that S.Korea’s entertainment export value being higher than the Japan, UK, France or even Germany. S.Korea’s music industry didn’t even make it into the top 10 countries with the highest retail value. I can’t see how its even possible they have such a high export value when their music retail value is $4234.5 Million behind Japan which ranks 2nd or $28.8 Million behind Netherlands which ranks 10th. Can you provide some stats or even figures where it says S.Korea is the world’s second biggest export?
Kpop almsot equal to Americna pop. more people is listening to kpop than regular pop
Right, there’s so many people listening to Kpop that their retail value is $4200+ Million less than Japan. Care to explain how that happens?
Where are you getting your figures that it is that much less?
http://www.riaj.or.jp/e/issue/pdf/RIAJ2013E.pdf
Go to pages 23 and 24 for the figures.
Or Wikipedia’s page here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_industry
Go to the sales Statistics and see the charts.
Yes, Kpop is VERY popular…………………………………………………………………..only in Asia, not universally. I believe it will be popular temporarily in this decade and will be certainly forgotten in the next decade. The western entertainment will always be No. 1 worldwide. This Kpop is 2nd biggest export thing is just like how the japanese entertainment was popular back then in the last two or three decades – anime, comic books, horror movies, etc. Some foreigners might like it but certainly not the mainstream. I once saw a commercial in a shopping mall in Malaysia where it showed different races from the US, Germany, the UK, Japan, China, Thailand, South Africa, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, South Korea, Veitnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, etc sang a korean song. I was like LOLLL! Folks, don’t be blinded by it.
Also, languages, races, racial worship, superior appearance, $(money), strong economy, social status, and most importantly, creativity & diversity play an important part. The korean entertainment does not have all these. Maybe yes a bit of strong economy, but others are no, especially my last point on creativity & diversity.
@Qwerty
No American music wont be no 1 worldwide. Name a song that has beat PSY record on YT. that show how powerful and popular Kpop is around the world. asia only? are you sure?
Tiana,
Say whatever you want to say. It is up to you if you want to say Gangnam style is popular just because it has 1 billion viewers on youtube. The current real life shows the other way round, let alone the future where this gangnam style will be forgotten. I look at facts, after all.
@qwerty
( http://news.asiaone.com/news/showbiz/number-k-pop-fans-around-world-surpasses-9-mil )
if he was popular just online, why was psy invited to perform in america or be covered by amercian media?
Lol, it looks like there are a lot of Kpop fans here. I guess I have to sacrifice my free speech and stop commenting on this matter from now onwards so that you guys won’t be butthurt by facts.
Maybe we consider something differently. You might consider a few singers or groups/bands that could make it in America and then call it popular/famous, or you might consider a clown in an online video that has 1 billion viewers and then is invited to perform in America as popular/famous. It’s up to you because everyone’s definition is different as well as slightly different.
the posts you wrote werent facts. they were your opinion on kpop. as of 04/04/14 do i see kpop > american pop.. no. but to say they are only popular in asia aint true.
Mainland productions are willing to invest in costumes, which is a good thing.
Anyway, LSS must be veryyy busy. It seems like she gets no break, lol
True, they have investors. Look at the details in the costume in picture 3 from left 1st row. Exquisite.
Chinese Entertainment Shanghai? No wonder! Should have guessed since that’s Cecilia’s mother company. If it is the same level as BBJX I will be in HD heaven, apart from Wallace being in this series.
Anything is possible if you are willing to put out the money which is something TVB sadly is not willing to do.
how can they? they are a bigger company, more mouths to feed than Cecelia’s company. they have a lot of tvb artistes to support. plus, not enough money. and didnt they say they are a shortage?
look a little bit a copy kdrama costume
I was thinking the same thing. Chinese Ming dynasty clothing is so familiar to Korean drama clothing.
Well, the Korean hanbok is influenced by nomadic tribes, some of which were part of China. The Ming Dynasty also recognised Joseon Korea as a tributary state. Given the relations between the 2 countries, it is no surprise that their clothings would invariably adopt some features of the others. It is not fair or accurate to say the drama is copying Korean drama costumes (much as I do adore the hanbok in all its glamour).
Agree.
Agree for the period timeline but very influent by drama costume…
they only banned time travel dramas.
perhaps a little Bing or Google would answer your question.
I guess you did not read the article about it. They also banned remaking the classics and doing any major and ridiculous changes to history and historical characters.
I did not say they banned historical dramas. If I remember correctly,they said that they would not allow remakes of the classics like San Guo, Hong Lau Meng and other classics. Of course it would be really stupid if they banned historical dramas. HK is already lacking in ancient series so it would be sad if China no longer made them. We would all be stuck with modern series only and ancient series fans like me would be screwed.
thank you, cole + HTS
Wow,the costumes are soooo nice. It is great that they have a lot to wear unlike some series where they wear the same 1-2 outfits at most throughout the whole series and think that people do not even notice.
They are all ancient traditional clothing of Korea.
When has China became Korea??
Another copy of Jewel in the Palace.
They did say that this was a “remake” of the Jewel in the Palace. I think the costumes look nice but wished that they made them more Chinese Ming dynasty style because do they look Korean.
Korea had their influence from China. So most korean costume are model of the chinese back in the days.
True, but overtime, Korea has developed their own style so do not look as Chinese anymore. However, the costumes in this series seem to be getting into the Korean style instead of the other way around.
The influence is the other way around. Why this looks strange is because for once the budget allows for more than 1 layer of clothing. Of course modern designers will add in their own signature so to speak but basically it does look like Ming dynasty.
Really?? But then again, I am not too sure how Ming dynasty clothing looks. However, from what I have seen in other series, it looks different then in this series. But then, who knows how accurate it all is???
Lol, Ming Dynasty costumes to me will always be the “Princess Chang Ping” that Mai Shuet made famous back in the early 80’s. Her costume and hairstyle was so beautiful at the time, of course I was still a baby then, but even now, when I see clips of it in Youtube, I still see myself as that little girl who wanted to wear Chang Ping’s hair and Costume.
Ming Dynasty covered over 276 years, I am sure in those few hundred years, styles might have changed depending on what year the historical drama was set in. China back in ancient times was very much into the arts and they were very advanced. So I am sure like modern times, their fashion would have changed just like it changes by seasons here.
I find it very ironic that wished they made them more “Chinese Ming dynasty style”, wheares in your other post you claim to be not familiar with Ming dynasty clothing…
Korean hanboks were influenced by ancient Chinese fashions, as was much of the culture. Since K-dramas are so popular and highly publicized these days, most people now wrongly believe Korean culture was the origin of much which was from China, including the Daoist yin-yang symbol of the Korean flag.
The female doctor in this series was based on an actual historical figure of the Ming Dynasty.
Gosh.. Influence of Kdramas indeed.
You know, I really can’t stand to read such comments. I love to watch Korean dramas, but let’s not twist the facts because it’s pretty much the other way around. Both Hanbok and Kimono were heavily influenced by the Hanfu, traditional Chinese clothing. Joseon dynasty adored the Ming culture. If there is something that Hanbok displayed in sageuks might have inspired Chinese ancient dramas lately, it must have been the color pallet, and not the layering and cutting of the costumes.
You mean Korea copied their costumes from China? Practically, their entire culture and customs are “borrowed” from the Chinese, whether you want to admit it or not.
Yup, we have to learn from one another to improve. Japan learned from China to excel. China still have lots to learn over the Senkaku islands.
War over the islands or Nanking Massacre. Do the right thing. Learned from the past and move on.
China owned “Senkaku island” since the 15th century leading up till the beginning of the 20th century (for 500 years), until the Japanese took it away from the Chinese after the First Sino-Japanese War. The American’s claimed that island during the Second World War, then it was “returned” back to Japan during the 1970’s.
Simple logic:
China had ownership of Diaoyu island for 500 years, where as the Japanese barely annexed it for 100.
China has nothing to learn from Japan in this regard. The Americans need to mind their own damn business.
“China owned “Senkaku island” since the 15th century leading up till the beginning of the 20th century (for 500 years), until the Japanese took it away from the Chinese after the First Sino-Japanese War. The American’s claimed that island during the Second World War, then it was “returned” back to Japan during the 1970′s.”
Why now? China still have lots to learn. China better be ready and fight to death if going into war with Japan. Otherwise live and learn. No worries here there won’t be any war. And that’s the fact.
Fact: Japan can’t announce war due to its post 1945 constitution.
‘Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.
In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized. ‘
“Why now? China still have lots to learn. China better be ready and fight to death if going into war with Japan. Otherwise live and learn. No worries here there won’t be any war. And that’s the fact.”
Because China has never been an oppressive state, they’ve never initiated a war with any nations beyond their border. On the other hand, Japan has always been a militaristic oppressive state, they’ve invaded Korea, China and Southeast Asian countries countless of times, for you to imply that China will initiate a war with Japan is like saying that the American’s have never bullied a weaker state. It’s laughable!
It’s true that Japan cannot initiate a war, but who’s to say that they can’t provoke war? They’ve been doing that for many years now (Shrine visits to honor war criminals, recently denouncing china comparing them to Russia’s act in Crimea, not officially apologizing for war crimes). Japan wouldn’t be running their mouth if they don’t got American’s back. They can’t defend on their own.
Yup, you said it all. Who is the enemy here?
Man is soft power important… dumb Kdramas have somehow managed to make authentic Chinese costumes look derivative to people who should know better but unfortunately spend their days ogling Korean **** and idolizing people who think that they’re beneath notice as a people unless they’re ponying up cash.
Sad!
Over years China made a name for themselves “made in China???” $ On the other hand Japan, Korean made it big “made in Japan or Korean” $$$$$
China=closed minded
Japan=open minded
wow love the costumes! cant wait to see this series!
beauitful costumes. but it wont replace dae jang geum or achieve that worldfame for it.
tvb, you really have to learn a thing or two from this….
Yeah I agree with u
Yeah I quite like those costumes but they spend a lot of money just to get prepare for those outfits
Tvb u should have a think your costumes for tv films
Those costumes looks so much better then the tvb tv film costumes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Those costumes looks a bit like the Korean
Tv film outfits I think they copied Korea HEHEHE
I honestly cannot understand why some are saying the drama copied kdramas. Whilst there has been some creative freedom in coming up with these costumes, they are largely reminiscent of actual Ming era fashion. See here: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2960481210
And here: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2956854240
If they spend so much on the costumes, I don’t think they just copied it from K-drama. I believe they studied the fashion during that period of time before designing the costume given such a big budget. Out of curiosity I googled and find out actually han book very similar to Ming dynasty women’s outfit. So I don’t think it is fair to say the above drama copied k drama. I would say it is the other way around.
There definitely are similarities. Korean fashion has mostly taken its cue from Chinese fashion. This is hardly surprising given how China was probably the only the ancient super power known to them. Several Chinese invasions also definitely contributed to the mixture and adaptation of fashion.
I think saying one copy the other is disrespectful to both. Traditionally, china with its military made Korea their state, forcing cloth/value/official ranking to mimic china. They have no choice.
ATM, we know of these costumes as korea’s because they popularise it. While China has made countless ancient period, only for the past 3years, they are attempting to be accurate with the costume. And in that 3 years, only few drama do so, and in all different period. So the viewers is used to this costume as Korea’s because they do it first and they do it in every ancient drama >_> it’s their trade mark.
Also, Chinese does not embrace these tradition clothes currently, Whereas the Korean wear them still for special event. Chinese is their cheongsam. Sooo it’s understandable if ppls go look like Korean costume. It also does not help that the drama seem to redo a recent remake of Korean popular drama.
You can say it’s based on chinese history, however, did they bother with it despite its being in their history? They only did because Korea made that story popular >_> sorry, still skeptical about Chinese drama be “original” here. Only a few really old drama are original lol (I.e dream of red chamber, my fav lol, and I watched this when I was 5-7yr old)
No need to be cynical. Maybe these producers are going for a high quality and ACCURATE production. Saying that they only now attempt to be accurate because todo so would be reminiscent of Kdramas is naive… when has the mainland drama industry ever had this much money before?
Bottom line: Koreans don’t own these fashions (far from it) and they are consistent with what Chinese court females would have worn in that era. I fail to see the controversy.
And lmao@ implying that Chinese people just discarded Han styles for the cheongsam… they were FORCED to and it’s not like the Communists were ever going to encourage a return to traditional non Manchu wear after hundreds of years.
exactly. koreans dont own this type of costumes. korea, japan in some weis were all influenced by china in some way
Aside from it being being a drama about a female physician, there are no further similarities to Dae Jang Geum given the present synopsis so it really isn’t that much of a copy no?
Lol. You viewed my post in the most negative way. Point is no need to say who copy who. Like I said, as much as Chinese made the fashion, they don’t use that fashion any more, so that’s why ppls see it more as korea’s.
Understand that Chinese production is now going for accuracy, however, they are 1 step behind, so the mass know these costume as korea’s not chinese. Couple that with korean still use these costumes whereas the Chinese has moved. Forced or not, they have, and that’s what we know as their traditional clothes.
I just tried to point out both sides on this “you copy me, no, you copy me” argument. The only part I was not sure is whether Chinese drama can be original in term of script. If you intend to be just pick one side of this copy argument, then you are a very small minded person.
(Also, the detail when I typed in at 3am made my name appear a bit wrong lol)
You are too funny in your analysis. The Ming dynasty was the before the Qing dynasty which was the last Monarch Dynasty in China. Qing dynasty/Manchurians practically forced the Chinese to wear their clothes, and the cheongsam eventually evolved from the Qing era. So in recent history, yes, the Cheongsam is practical and easy to wear than the many layers of the Ming dynasty clothing. So, how can the Chinese be wearing costumes that were more than 300 years ago?
You also need to understand that China has only recently got more money for their entertainment industry, and therefore they can afford the research etc to make the costumes authentic. I don’t doubt that China has their own ancient woman physicians also since they also had a true Women Emperor, Empress Wu. Therefore, I can believe they had a women physician too. Based on watching many Chinese/Hong Kong Dramas, women in China were always portrayed as strong willed and is able to protect themselves and smart unlike the “Candy’s” of Korean heroins who are basically a “doormat Cinderella” waiting for a rich chaebol Prince to rescue her. Don’t get me wrong,I like watching K-dramas since the stars look good(even though 99% got PS), but to say that China is copying Korean historical fashion is outright wrong. The storyline might have been based on a real women physician, China has such a rich history that perhaps some K-Dramas were copied from some of China’s drama. By the way, the original Cinderella story was from China, the westerners took the story.
@jkfan,
No,actually the original Cinderella story originated from France. Cinder in French means fireplace. I used to take French and my teacher told me the origins of that fairytale. We even acted in a Cinderella play in French as well. Please do not think that everything originates from China. As for PS,many in China got PS as well but they try to be more secretive than the Koreans.
I provide an explanation why we think the way we think. Why ppls say one copy the other. Sure china come up with the fashion. But to say korean copy china is disrespectful to their country.
I understand china change their dynasty a lot, and hence fashion get changed rapidly. But because of this, overtime, we see these costumes as more korean than chinese because they kept it in their tradition.
Anyway, like I said the only thing I’m skeptical is Chinese original in the way they do their drama, simply because they like to copy previous well known drama, and tweak it a bit to make it different. There is adaptations that are good, but there are adaptations for the sake of being different, when in fact, it’s just mocking viewers’s intelligent. Seeing many of these drama make me skeptical about Chinese drama :p it should be treated as a separate issue to my explanation on why ppls yelling “k copy c” :p
Everyone copies from somewhere every now and then, so that is not anything new. However, the most important thing is acknowledge the original source if you know it. Otherwise it will be considered plagiarism.
@Fishy- Korean does remakes of Taiwan and some Chinese dramas and yet, I don’t see you mention any of that?
Don’t wear clothes. Even better.
Fishy, you are making all types of excuses for Korea appropriating ancient Chinese culture/ fashion. Why do you say it’s disrespectful to say Korea copied China and show a double standard about when it’s the other way around? I think it’s disrespectful when Koreans don’t acknowledge the origins of much of their culture and make it seem that Chinese are plagiarizing them.
Sometimes when watching K- historical dramas, it feels that the entire wardrobe/headpieces/hairstyles were from HK or Taiwan-made Chinese historical movies from the 80s and 90s.
By the way, the reason why the costumes look similiar to Dae Jang Geum is because Dae Jang Geum was during the years of 1457-1544 and the Ming Dynasty was from 1368-1662, therefore costumes being similiar would make sense since it covers the same time period. I don’t know what year this particular Chinese Physician drama will be in, but since China was a superpower then, I am pretty sure Korea was influenced heavily by China’s fashion.
Just for further information, the character Shishi plays is 談允賢(1461年－1556年.
@Catlover – Thanks for the info. Then it is the same time period as Dae Jan Geum therefore the similiar costuming, but just to be clear, the original fashion is from China and not Korea, so readers, please don’t say they are copying Korean fashion, when it is the other way around. If you don’t want to use the word Copy, Korea Hanbok was heavily “INFLUENCED” buy China’s fashion. 🙂
@HeTieShou — You might be referring to Perraults version in which he wrote a Cinderella story in French. Accourding to http://www.movabletypemedia.com/2012/12/199/“The first known written version of the tale dates back to the Tang Dynasty in China, around the ninth century, and tells the story of a girl named Yehhsien.[iv] Yet the oral history of the tale is much older, dating back to antiquity”
This wasn’t the only source, I read this somewhere else too, therefore yes, Cinderella the actual story is from China, the name “Cinderella” was used since the French made it popular that is the most widely distributed story.
I am not saying China created everything, but China did create many things that we still use such as paper, fireworks, gun powder etc.as can be seen during the China Olympic Ceremony. While the actresses in China probably did PS, this is not the norm of Chinese culture at least not yet, and that is why when the media finds that actors and actresses has PS, it is big news since the culture believe more in natural beauty. This might have changed in the last 10 years since I don’t follow Chinese nor HK news as much, just recenly when I found out about this website.
skipping this. copycat dramas no good.
I also like the costumes of “The Imperial Doctress”, but I must admit that the costumes do look like “Dai Cheung Kam” to me.
No. I know. I just said they look alike. People here could be right …. they were clothes from China long time ago.
anonymous
———————————-
I guess I did not write my post clearly. I meant those costumes are tailor-made as per clothing worn by people in China in old days – in real life.
Boo. Can’t stand watching china drama. Too long, too long winded and too much rrrr talking.
Lies about the price.