Esther Yu Wants to Work with Leo Wu?
Riding high on the success of Love Between Fairy and Devil <蒼蘭訣> last summer, actress Esther Yu (虞書欣) quickly entered the league of post-95 flowers with her popularity. While she has been confirmed as the female lead of time-travel period drama Black Lotus Tactics Manual <黑蓮花攻略手冊>, the race is on for the male lead role, said to be a fight between Leo Wu (吳磊), Ryan Ding (丁禹兮) and others!
Actors in the Race
Already confirmed as female lead, Esther Yu is likely to have a say in the as-yet-announced casting of the male lead. Heating up speculation, netizens are calling it a fight of the century, with discussions have also thrown up names of popular liuliang actors Dylan Wang (王鶴棣) and Arthur Chen Feiyu (陳飛宇), on top of Leo and Arthur.
High on the radar after pairing with actress Zhou Yutong (周雨彤) in Nothing But You <愛情而已>, former child actor Leo Wu made viewers sit up in popular onscreen CPs together with actresses Rosy Zhao Lusi (趙露思) and Tan Songyun (譚松韻), quickly earning the reputation of high onscreen compatibility with female co-stars. Meanwhile, support for Dylan to snag the role is also high, as their romantic sparks in Love Between Fairy and Devil proved irresistible.
While all stand a good chance, netizens believe that Esther is more inclined towards picking Leo in an on-par casting, given his strong potential, even giving the CP the nickname “incomparable”, combining their respective names with creative wordplay.
Synopsis
Adapted from a web novel by Bai Yu Zhao Diao Gong (白羽摘雕弓), the story centers on Lin Miao Miao, who
time-travels to the setting of a fantasy novel. Set to play the book’s supporting female character, she is tasked with plotting against the female lead Mu Yao; on top of seducing the male protagonist Liu Fo Yi, Miao Miao also has to scheme against the supporting male character Mu Sheng. To cover up her tracks, Miao Miao has to lie convincingly or risk being ridiculed as “white lotus flower”, thus making her role particularly challenging.
A web fiction hit spilling into published novel and comic formats, the drama adaptation of Black Lotus was confirmed this year. Golden producer Wang Yixu (王一栩) who was behind surprise hit Love Between Fairy and Devil, will be at the helm.
Source: UpMedia
I am sure she does, but does he want to work with her? I bet she wants to work with Wang Yibo and Xiao Zhan too..
Omg!! So excited!
I hope it’s Dylan Wang again and if it’s not, I hope it’s Leo Wu. Someone new that she hasn’t already worked with would create new sparks for sure.
@Coralie Are you watching Dylan’s new drama? He seem to capture the lead role quite well as a student…
@Hohliu it’s out already?! Is this the republican drama? I def think he can pull off a student role – his character in Never Give Up was student-ish and he was convincing in that. But I can’t stand republican dramas – too much bloodshed and heartache and tension.
@Coralie Yes, it is out. You are right, it suits him. But I am not keen on Republic propaganda dramas much as they can be very sad and heartbreaking to watch…. I just watched afew snips of this drama, so far it is still good times. Will wait till it ends then start to watch properly..
Is it good? The article I read was criticise both lead on terrible acting :/ also not into republicans drama lol
@LittleFish Not sure if it is any good…I just watched bits and bobs…will be unfair to make a fair opinion. But Dylan seem suited to pay his role…
Actually reading the description of the ML, I actually think Ao Rui Peng would be a good fit. He’s relatively unknown, but he can do a GOOD sunshine ML with a dark underbelly. Not on the same level as Esther now, but he has a lot of potential
Unpopular opinion warning! I don’t think that would be smart move. Lu Wei is good actor she is not the same league. She is risking being outshined like with Dylan. Wu Lei is much better actor than Dylan, although Dylan has a lot of potential and much needed x factor (Lu Wei has it as well though) he is not same league as Lu Wei. She might hope for actor to carry her as acting side by side with better actor pushes your own acting up a notch. But there is a real risk involved that your lacking moments are more visible like it happened for her with Dylan. That’s why it should not be too big of a gap between main leads in term of acting skills. Many puts it to ‘sparkle’ or ‘chemistry’ but lots of it is in well matched acting skills and, naturally, good acting itself. I am not sure how is she going to grow as an actress once past the ‘cute adolescent girl’ roles, although she found good niche for her in them.
I kind of always thought Esther to be the stronger actor between her and Dylan. I liked his role in LBFAD and think he’s improved a lot since his earlier years, but I also credit a lot of the success of that role to the voice actor. I can’t imagine Dylan using his own voice for Dongfang Qingcang. I haven’t seen his newer office drama though. I agree with you that Wu Lei is definitely the better actor. Esther might just enjoy collecting handsome male leads :). It looks like her upcoming one with Zhang Linghe won’t be her typical cutesy girl role. She’s supposed to be an assassin or something? It looks to be a more serious role. On a side note, I love unpopular opinions! It’s always interesting to read other people’s perspectives that don’t always align with your own.
Thank you! Yes, his voice is an issue. and not the only one. He is not my fav actor of younger generation at all, but he has material to work with, he is rare one with factor X, and he is putting an effort. Before LBFAD I would have serious doubts about him. I don’t think Esther is bad per se, but she is at the moment stuck in one type of roles. I hope she manages to grow out of it. Let’s wait and see her next role, personally I predict ‘cute by day tough by night’ assassin, hiding in plain sight. But I might be wrong. I like to be wrong and change my opinions. Somehow Yang Zi was in that tough spot and still did not manage to get out of it although she really tried, and she is truly talented and hardworking. Having said all this I have no doubts Esther take her trade seriously and she is working hard to improve. Let’s wait and see how she grows.
Aww really? I actually think she’s the better actor between her and Dylan. Her character was overshone by Dylan’s character, not because he was the better actor, but because his character is way more interesting than a powerless little fairy. Personally, I think her acting was great and she drew the potential out of her costars for sure.
Agree with @lilseemonster! Dylan’s own voice is a dang Achilles heel for him lol. He def would not be able to play DFQC convincingly without that voice actor to bolster his image.
As to this new drama, idk I think Wu Lei has very questionable chemistry with those he costars with – the best one was with ZLS and similarly to Esther, ZLS is really good at creating chemistry between costars. It is def a boost to Wu Lei and not to Esther if they were to couple up because the focus will be on the ML and less on her character development. But the chemistry will be Fiyah!!
Thanks @Coralie always love to hear your opinion and appreciate it. I agree chemistry is not something that flows easily with Wu Lei. And that is an acting flaw he can improve. Unless he worked on that on acting side I doubt pairing with Esther would do him good on that front. However, he is an excellent young actor and he has true potential to grow into top actor. Although he is not my favorite I do monitor his progress as I believe he has true potential. In my humble opinion Esther has limited acting range unlike for example Zhou Xun. She is choosing roles that fit her well, as this fairy role. Of course I might be wrong and she resurfaces in 10 years as an actress with versatile portfolio of challenging and different roles with some memorable characters difficult to remake. To be fair I agree she delivered well on LBFAD, she was not bad at all, however I believe that Dylan delivered more, to put it in plain words his agony felt closer, hers to me was meh. Having said all this I have no doubt if Wu Lei and Esther pair in next production it is going to be one of the top rated and huge commercial success. It will be pleasure to watch for sure.
Who is Lu Wei?
omg I am so sorry i made typo. I started with Wu Lei and ended up writing about Lu Wei. This is totally my mistake thanks for noticing. Wu Lei or Leo Wu. so so sorry!
@Dee I see! Thanks for the clarification. Was wondering if you were referring to Deng Wei then rejected that idea since felt that his acting was quite one dimensional after watching (and dropped) his current drama with Bai Lu.
Shows I’d rather read comments here than watching the drama haha
@Dee I just came across a new with Dylan as lead, “Youth in the Flames of War (2023)”. He seem to capture the role quite well…but I only watched bits and bobs.
@Hohliu I also just saw juts bits of it. Glad you like it. I have to see more to form more educated opinion. To be honest did not have much time recently, working a lot travelling as well. He is not my top choice of younger generation, but I have to admit he works hard on his acting skills and progress shows (that caught my attention, change is palpable) meaning there is enough material to work with, plus he has that unique quality that makes his roles difficult to remake due to his presence which puts him in upper echelons. I am curious how will he grow as an actor as he ages. He comes across as someone who could do that well if he pulls right moves.
@Dee not sure if I like the drama yet but have seen only bitts and bobs. As for Dylan, not a fan of him as yet but I can see he is improving alot and making good choices in his projects. II believe he has alot of him invested in him by Capitalist… They want to create another Wang Yibo high value Star… I noticed a change in his image recently… very positive move.
I retired early and now I just do abit of consulting job. Thus more time on my hands. I use to enjoy travelling for work but it does tired me out alot. You take care and rest well in between work.
@Hohliu thank you! So sweet of you! Thanks to you and couple of more people here I feel like having tea with old friends in Jayne’s comments section.
@Dee I do enjoy chatting with afew members here too… This is my tea/scones blog-forum…
How come it sound like ZLS’s drama? Story of tiger and rose? Isn’t in there she also travel into a book and wasn’t the FL? And meant to die???
Haven’t seen Leo in other drama but the long ballad. while he’s handsome, his chemistry with the FL is rather questionable from what I’ve seen