Xu Kai Takes on Mystery Thriller Genre in “Lost in the Kunlun Mountains”
Starring popular actor Xu Kai (許凱) and screen goddess Elane Zhong Chuxi (鍾楚曦), mystery drama Lost in the Kunlun Mountains <迷航崑崙墟> has released new photo stills!
Adapted from Tianxia Bachang’s (天下霸唱) novel of the same name, anticipation has been raised for the drama with its powerhouse production team and Xu Kai and Elane’s cast pairing. Fans of Xu Kai are also eager to catch the actor in the adventure thriller cum suspense drama genre, a new attempt for the 27 year-old hottie, whose works include The Legends <招搖>, Arsenal Military Academy <烈火軍校> and Royal Feast <尚食>.
Synopsis
The Republican-era drama sees central character Ding Yunqi facing perilous threats when he returns from overseas studies as he is the only heir who can unlock the Kunlun ruins. To protect the cultural treasures of Kunlun, he partners a band of trusted friends to uncover the secret of the five doors to the ruins. With previous dramas of the same genre such as Candle in the Tomb <鬼吹燈>and The Sound of the Providence <重啟> series garnering good reviews from viewers, expectations for the drama are definitely high!
“Lost in the Kunlun Mountains” trailer:
Source: Beauty321
I really tried warming to him but after Yangxi palace…all his other dramas really does not strike a core.. Yu Zheng loves his guy so much, he spend so much marketing this chap whilst Song Weilong is in a lawsuit with him.
I did kind of like him after Yangxi, at least for the 2 dramas with Bai Lu then realized that he had the same expression, same acting. Still think his acting is better than some of those leading guys in idol period dramas but that is because those guys are really bad.
I love him in the 2 dramas with Bai Lu, too. Though I think it’s mainly because Bai Lu can have chemistry even with a log lol! Even to an actor who I don’t think was handsome but i was still able to sit through the whole drama because of her lol! Not sure about the Song Dynasty one though, possibly because there are too many leads, not just her so I pass on that one lol.
I managed to watch Xu Kai’s drama with Zhou DongYu, but that’s because I do like ZDY, Xu Kai was ok in it, though there are weak scenes, however, a few good scenes kinda compensate it lol. Put it this way, Xu Kai is like Song Wei Long, both are pretty/handsome, but acting wise – erh… really depends on the characters they play lol. If the character is likeable, you will forgive them, if not, lol…. Also if you like the FL, you will watch it, if you don’t, which I don’t for the drama in the article, I possibly don’t bother trying. Just like I haven’t watched Yanxi palace, tried watching the food on recently, and I don’t like the FL so I didn’t bother continue, also because I know food, so that series kinda hit my nerve lol.
He is very pretty but even this trailer he is just standing there with the same expression. With the new dubbing rules, will he use his own voice this time? Trailer is visually exciting but I have no idea what it is about.
@PotatoChip Oh, what are the new dubbing rules? Sorry, just curious. China tend to use voice dubbers over original voice…but I noticed more artiste are voiceover on their own now…is there a rules change?
@Hohliu The NRTA recently specified that actors should try to use their own voice in dramas. If they can’t due to time constraints or perceived quality, the actor must pay for the voice artist themselves. The production doesn’t hire the the voice artist. Let me see if I can find the link, saw Dramapotatoe post about it.
@Hohliu There’s also a link to AvenueX’s video in the comments to explain this new rule. https://twitter.com/dramapotatoe/status/1524532740955115520?t=Oa7JOrrewxf3gr7p55rOzw&s=19
Starts around the 9:12 mark: https://youtu.be/_GDKo6_EXGo
@PotatoChip
I like this new rule because I want to hear the actors’ real voices. To me that is a big part of their actings – emotions. Thanks for the info.
@Dramas4me I agree. The voice is an important part of acting.
I have seen the name AvenueX around this site mentioned. Never knew who AvenueX was till now. Thanks for the link @PotatoChip
@Hohliu I enjoy watching her reviews and her snark at times. She has different perspectives on things. At the end of the day, she is just an opinion and she acknowledges that her views are not the authority on Chinese dramas.
Yeah sure, Yu Zheng bought marketing for him huh? Look at Yu Zheng’s weibo he promoted everyone except Xu Kai. He didn’t even mention any of Xu Kai’s drama that he is the producer for. While for Bai Lu not only he posted about her a lot, but he also helped getting her dramas without any prior achievement. His acting is not your taste because you are Bai Lu bias whose acting is weak and all over the place btw but others have different opinion as they enjoy watching his acting considering he is the actor with the highest number of views last year at 8billion+ and Dilraba is the highest number of views for actress at 7 Billion+ which makes Xu Kai the actor with he highest number of views for both category last year and Bailu is number 2 at 6billion+ with the amount of overzealous marketing she bought. Xu Kai’s acting doesn’t have to reach everyone because it was done according to the genre, I mean if Bailu is that good she wouldn’t need to buy such excessive marketing and still failed to beat his number of views despite they aired the same amount of dramas. How to know she bought marketing? Her dramas total number of bought hot search is 1000+ for each 3 dramas, yet only achieve 6 billion total views for 3 dramas, Xu Kai’s total number of hot search is 82 for ALP and 100+ for Falling into your smile and 10 for Court Lady yet he achieved 8.8billion views for 3 dramas. That’s you know how acting attract audience rather than falsely bought marketing.
To each its own…you like yours, I prefer mine..
Lol, I love Xu Kai but seriously to bring Bai Lu down because someone gives their opinions on Xu Kai is a bit much. Bai Lu is barely in the news, unless it’s about her starting a new drama or finish filming. Or only when her drama is showing, and I can say the same about Xu Kai, though his name is being dragged by his co-star’s incompetent acting (well the article said his costar’s acting was bad, and Xu Kai is not good enough to salvage them both or the drama as a whole). Regarding Yu Zheng, I don’t follow him to care and he’s always a nutcase of his own, he does whatever benefits him. And your reasoning about buying hot search is unfounded, ppl could love to go to multiple sites to talk and discuss, the fact is disregarding how popular each of their drama is, her acting is miles better than his. And your so called ppl thinks her acting is all over the place is more of the haters talk. Her acting is a lot more stable across the board than 90% of the current popular artists. Also when BL’s drama is on, most articles criticised the plot, and every other things, but never about her acting. Unlike DD, RJL, YY and ZLS, where common phrases like dead eyes, overacting, lack of emotions keep being brought up. I like DD, but that girl barely moves me lol. I love Xu Kai but it really depends on the plot, and the FL.
@PotatoChip wonder if they will find some loophole to overcome it, just like they did with the rule of not exceeding the episodes of a drama which they still continued to produce long dramas by splitting into part one and two.
Some actors will probably still pay for the voice actors since they make enough with the exposure and endorsements.
Yup, pay the actor more so he can cover the cost of the voice actor LOL
@LittleFish the latest regulation controls how much an actor is paid, it can only be up to a certain percentage of the entire production costs. However, they are likely going to come up with some other ways overcoming it to give higher monetary benefits to the leading actors.
@BearBear @PotatoChip To be honest, some of these actors have such distracting voice/accent, it really spoils the drama. A professional voiceover is much better. But I do agree,it would be good to watch the actors own voice most times..
@Hohliu @PotatoChip As a professional actor, especially those highly paid ones, they need to do better if they have to rely on voiceover all the time (like XK). The crazy fandom is also blaming the voiceover when their idols’ acting is criticized.
Even Zhou Xun, despite criticism of her voice, I actually quite like her portrayal of Huang Rong and manage to ignore her low husky voice.
Some structures are already in place One of options for example, Studio/actor’s company signes up long term contract with VA, and book this as cost not pay to the actor. Contracts with the talent have cost clauses, and this simply goes under cost clause, like assistent, accommodation, travel fair, medical cost (massage and trainer eg), etc. They just moved it from production budget to company’s cost aide. Not big of a change to be honest.
@Dee I didn’t know but not too shocked, they always seem to have some loophole to get what they want. The authority needs to try harder to constantly outsmart them.
Dang, lots of jobs lost here.
Not a huge fan of Xu Kai or Bai Lu, but I can understand their appeal. At least XK is improving in the acting category and BL is apparently also doing well (I haven’t been able to finish any of her dramas, sadly, and I can’t tell if it’s script-related or her acting.)
Interesting. Who do you like to watch mostly atm? DD? ZLS? Or ZLY?
@LittleFish who is DD?
ZLS is someone I can watch – I’ve seen almost all of her works except for two. She has good taste in projects and can perform to satisfaction. In serious or comedic series, she can emote well.
@BearBear I had to think about it for a while but I think Littlefish means Dilraba Dilmurat.
For me, I have only watched Chinese dramas for a couple of years so I can’t say there is one consistent actress that draws me yet.
@PotatoChip thanks. Forgot about Dilraba’s full name.
Actresses (or actors) whom I like may draw me to catch the first episode and make me more willing to overlook script quality to certain extent but ultimately if the story is really not my cup of tea, it will not enough to keep me going.
Actresses (actors) whom I don’t like on the other, I may not give the drama a try unless it has fairly good reviews.
@coralie How do you find who rules the world 🙂
The drama’s lackluster, but ZLS for her part, did fine. There wasn’t any real draw for me in WRTW except for her. The plot was just boring.
Yes, Dilraba 🙂 forgot to mention Yang Zi, but I guess doesn’t matter now
@LittleFish I enjoy YangZi dramas… I skip Dilraba…ZLY-hit/miss…
@Littlefish
She is barely on the news? You must have not been to weibo often. She bought hot search everyday and everyone knows. Yu Zheng even bought article to supposedly talk about her, praising her while the author of the article obviously didn’t know much about her or the drama because they got so many things wrong. She just recently bought the hot search just last time “Bailu is beautiful” and she paid a lot because everyone who keeps up with cent knows that if you trended with 180million posts but the first popular posts if you click on the hashtag has only hundreds comments and even if you open the comments are mostly bots. So its not an unfounded claim, these has been studied and analyze by people of the pattern. Her acting is miles better than his yeah sure, that’s your opinion and I have nothing against that but I found it peculiar that her fans like you likes to comment on his articles shit talking him while fans of his other partners have never done so, shows how much alike bailu and her fans are. Right now there is movement on weibo from cai xukun, luo yunxi, and ren jianlun fans exposing bailu’s team bought marketing using their artists name because she desperately wanted to be traffic stars. and this is fact. Why would I hate her when I have no interest in her acting or anything. But I do hate artists like her who overblown her own acting and popularity using other people. It is really laughable that you said she is barely on the news when she is the most on the news and everyone knows that. Gov new law on bought marketing means it exist and they target artist like her.
He’s as good an actor as a log of wood, and am pretty sure a tree would emote more pain at prospect of being chopped than him.