“The Empress of China” Premieres in South Korea
Could this be the dawn of an impending Chinese wave? After the successful Korean broadcast of the historical epic Nirvana in Fire <琅琊榜> last year, the next Chinese television drama to hit Korean airwaves is The Empress of China <武媚娘傳奇>, starring Fan Bingbing (范冰冰). The biographical epic about China’s first and only empress regnant premiered on South Korea’s Chunghwa TV on March 14, 2016.
The Empress of China first aired in Mainland China in December 2014 to record-breaking success. The first episode, which aired on Hunan TV on December 21, was the highest-rated premiere episode ever recorded in history. It finished its run as the highest-rated Chinese television drama in ten years, breaking a new record.
In Hong Kong, The Empress of China was the second highest-rated television program of 2015. An “uncut, original” version of The Empress of China was aired in Taiwan, where it also became a success.
Due to its astronomical production budget, expensive costumes, and large cast, The Empress of China already attracted an international following in the early days of its inception. The show received wide international media coverage when Chinese censors halted the broadcast for a few days to censor the actress’s “racy” costumes. Though the move was criticized by many Chinese viewers, ratings for the 2014 series were not affected. Hong Kong’s TVB aired a “CGI cleavage” version the following year, while Taiwan’s CTV aired the original, untouched version.
The success of The Empress of China reached South Korea even before the show’s local broadcast this month. Early last year, the Running Man cast photoshopped their own faces onto various characters in the series and shared it on social media. Zhang Yuan (張玉安), a Chinese television personality in Korea, talked about his disappointment at the drama being censored on his show, Non-Summit. Actor Lee Seung-gi has said he was willing to lower his pay just so he could work with Fan Bingbing.
Source: Sina.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
i stopped watching after episode 18 or so…too damn long
@m0m0
Being long is not the problem at all because if a series is good then the length should not matter. The problem is the very boring storyline and script. I have seen way longer series but they are actually so good that I did not even notice the length. I saw San Guo which was long but was so good that I wanted to see more even after it was over.
@hetieshou
it was episode 18 and the series was getting no where. just like other chinese drama. too darn long
@m0m0
There are many good China series but you just have to watch the right ones. The length is not necessarily the problem, but other problems like the script, plot,etc…are what makes a series boring not the length. Like I have said, I saw San Guo which was 95 eps but was very good that I wanted to see even more and did not even notice the length. But I do agree that some series that are long tend to get boring and draggy due to the length which in turn is due to the to fault of the story/plot line.
I am enjoying Mi Yue because of the phenomenal performances of Sun Li and some veterans. I absolutely hated this series because of many reasons, but mostly because the story is lame even if the actor as the emperor was superb.
@funnlim
I also did not like this series due to the boring plot and storyline,which is another good example that is telling everyone not to just blindly go for the cast and other less important factors. The plot/storyline is the most important aspect of any series because that is what carries you through.
the only series i watched with 50+ episodes was Korea’s Empress Ki. It was a one-time amazing series! Im kinda glad when TVB buys back some mainland series, they cut the heck out of it hahaha! Never really watched this one either though.
I would rather SK buy the rights to more interesting dramas from China such as Wu Xin (a teensy bit convenient in some circumstances but still a very good webdrama) and Princess Go Go (more illogical plotline & terrible ending, but interesting nonetheless.) I think I watched 10 epis of Empress Wu and then I gave up. Watching FBB prance around all prettily for tens of episodes when the plot is boring is not my cup of tea (also why I dislike her in general – she picks a lot of terrible projects to do and most of the time she uses her face to popularize them.)
Also jaynestar – off topic – but I think you guys have been having some slow news day (there has been news that Alex Fong Lik Sun & Stephy Tang has broken up! I mean I think that’s big news for us HK celebrity followers)
@coralie Saw that yesterday on a fb post.. gotta say, I’m not surprised by it. If the girl is not ready to marriage then it’s good that she let him go… as it seem he was ready to get married and have kids. 10 yrs is a long time… I just hope she doesn’t have any regrets later. As the trends these day is break up with someone whom they dated for a very long time.. then date and marry someone else and have a kid within a year afterward.
@happybi Wait I thought it was the other way around (like Alex didn’t want to settle down yet and Stephy does.) If she want kids, she should’ve had them by now. Maybe it’s due to this lack of timing that she’s pursuing this break up. At least that’s what I assumed. And yes, if getting married and having kids is her ultimate goal, then I think she will follow her peers a la Linda Chung/Myolie Wu and just get it over with next year.
@coralie My sis said she read that it was her who initiate the breakup as she doesn’t believe in marriage..Not sure where she read it from though? But she does listen to a lot of those VChannel news from her phone…
@happybi Haha well if that’s the case, Alex will be on the rebound soon.
@Coralie The news for #StephyTang and #AlexFong ‘s breakup is posted. We try our best to cover the juiciest happenings in HK entertainment, but occasionally we will need a little more time post the articles.
@jayne Hey Jayne, didn’t mean to harrass you guys about the slow updates, but just wanted to let you know the latest news to stay afloat of the mass updates. Always appreciate the newstream you guys provide.
I think calling it the Chinese Hallyu might be a bit of an exageration. Periodically, there are some Chinese drama that had made it big in Korea but they did not trigger off any mass attention toward Cdramas.
I believe Princess Returning Pearl (HZGG) was the first followed by Taiwan Idol drama Meteor Garden.. And recently, BuBuJingXing and TW drama Drunken to Love You also saw success to the extense that both have been remade into Kdramas.
I really enjoyed his drama despite the length. The first 10 episodes were a little slow, but after that you get pretty invested with the characters. The really made me feel for Wu Mei Niang, even though I personally would’ve written her as a more cunning person. She was way too nice in this version. I also wished they could’ve focused more on the later half of her life when she was in rule. But of course much of this drama distorted history, so I shouldn’t expect much. Ultimately though it was an enjoyable watch, as long as you can see beyond the flaws.
I watched tvb’s version of this, and I understand there was a lot of cutting of it, but I still really enjoyed it and I plan to watch the original/uncut version some time soon. The thing that really bugged me is that the title of this drama is called ‘EMPRESS’ of China, but we barely saw any of her reign as empress, we only really saw her climb and falls to being empress. Which sucks, because in history, that’s where it all really mattered.
@melodylai
Well, considering the original title in Chinese is “Legend of the Young Wu Mei Niang”, there should not be any surprise that the focus of the drama is on her early life. I think FBB said as much during a press conference.
I don’t know why TVB adopted the title “Empress of China”. They just want to “short-change” people. I guess.
@aiya Oh! I did not know that at all! It makes more sense now.
Boring….
@yummysukiyaki
the ratings in HK were the highest for any drama so far.
I found the storyline to be quite slow and pretty boring. I love their costumes, all look so pretty, but the story moves slowly. I managed to finish the series with some fast forwarding. Not sure if people outside China will like the series, I think apart from having FBB and great costumes, the story is pretty meh. There are many great chinese dramas.
Thank you