HK Actress Angela Yuen Rises in Popularity in China
Quite a few HK artistes have managed to successfully break through the mainland market in the last few years, including William Chan (陳偉霆), Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼), and Wong Cho-lam (王祖藍). But when it comes to rookies, only one has made it into that list.
Scouted in 2015 by a talent agency, 25-year-old model-actress Angela Yuen (袁澧林) made her debut as a supporting actress in ViuTV dramas. In 2018, she was cast as Ming He, the second female lead in the mainland Chinese drama Listening Snow Tower <聽雪樓>. Cold-blooded, mysterious, and love-struck, Angela’s role became a hot favorite among fans, surpassing even the popularity of the drama’s first female lead portrayed by Crystal Yuan (袁冰妍).
Listening Snow Tower, based on the novel of the same name, is a wuxia drama that centers on the adventures of Xiao Yiqing (Qin Junjie 秦俊傑), master of Listening Snow Tower, and the love of his life Shu Jingrong (Crystal Yuan), both who vow to destroy the dark Baiyue Sect and its leader. Meanwhile, the leader’s daughter Ming He (Angela Yuen) struggles with her feelings for Qing Lan (Han Chengyu 韓承羽), Jingrong’s sihing.
Fans and netizens have since criticized Crystal’s performance as Jingrong. Unable to evoke the strong-headedness and coldness of Shu Jingrong, critics have said Crystal made the character seem much weaker than what she actually is. Crystal has responded to the criticism on social media with positivity, expressing that she has considered every praise and criticism and is looking for improvement.
On the other hand, Crystal’s underperformance allowed Angela to shine—playing the second female lead, Ming He was the simple-minded daughter of Baiyue Sect’s leader, Hua Lian (Jessican Hsuan 宣萱). To protect her love, she defied her mother’s orders and the sect’s loyalty. It wasn’t until after her mother’s death when Ming He started to change—more ambitious, more cunning, and more possessive. Ming He’s impressive character arc and development made the role one of the most popular characters in the series, and Angela a rising star.
Source: HK01.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
Havent watch this drama yet but based on reviews that i read, it seems that the plot is kinda bad and i heard jessica hsuan is getting flak for her bad acting. Can anyone who watch this drama let me know if this drama is still worth catching?
@joant07012 It’s not her forte. Jessica fits modern dramas.
@joant07012 i only saw the first 5 eps, and I think Jessica is overacting quite a bit. But I think it’s mainly due to being in the mainland production. I found many actors and actress overact on their first cdrama series, it possibly has more to do with the director wanting them to act like that, if you know what I mean. Like they all act fine in hk production but their acting suddenly went bad whenever they are in cdrama?
In term of the drama, it’s so slow! I didn’t like it. Even at 5 eps, which basically need a strong grip on the audience to keep going, you can feel it’s slow and drawn out. Have you seen legend of qin? It’s like that, high production quality but slow and boring and end up being pretty mediocre. The first 5 eps, the female lead is so useless that you wonder if she is even needed to be there -.- check soompi forum, and mydramalist, people are saying that even at 30+, the drama isn’t getting any better. So it’s safe to say this drama is pretty bleh!
I think it’s because she has that type of “look” Mainland viewers like. What do they call it? the snake face? idk.
@karina
i don’t think she’s got that snake face look but she is quite small framed, maybe mainland people like it? but quite hard to image that she didn’t have connections for getting such a significant role