Zhang Zhehan’s “Legend of Yunxi” Gets Remake
Chinese period drama Legend of Yunxi (芸汐传) is getting a remake! The 2018 series starring Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚), Ju Jingyi (鞠婧禕), and Merxat Yalkun (米熱) as the main leads aired on iQiyi to high popularity.
However, due to Zhehan’s 2021 scandal in which he was accused of being pro-Japanese and heavily criticized for taking photos in front of shrines honoring imperial Japanese military officers, he has been boycotted in China. In addition to his social media accounts, his movies, music, and television series have all been removed.
The remake of the popular drama will retain the original storyline, which revolves around an imperial physician’s daughter, Han Yunxi, who is not only beautiful and kind, but also a talented physician who is exceptionally skilled at detoxifying poisons. Taking place during the chaotic Three Kingdoms period, Han Yunxi is forced into marriage with the crown prince and gets wrapped into palace politics.
Due to the drama’s initial success, there are high expectations for the big-budget remake. It is alleged that the choice of female lead is among Dilraba Dilmurat (迪麗熱巴), Liu Yifei (劉亦菲), and Peng Xiaoran (彭小苒)–all who ooze celestial aura in period dramas.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Huynh for JayneStars.com.
Wow, a remake so soon… I read the novel. The novel is much better than drama. I hope the new remake is better….
A suitable strong female lead is very important as the character is the main role in the story. Ju Jingyi was not a great choice(she portrayed the character rather childish) but her chemistry with Zhang Zhehan made the drama popular.
I think peng xiaoran would fit the role better than the other 2.
Don’t they have other novels yet to be adapted? Don’t they have original scripts to produce instead of constantly relying on novels IP or remarks? I can still understand adaptations from novels of Jinyong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng though enough is enough on the too frequent productions there. But Legend of Yunxi isn’t even a classic to begin to with.
These C-scriptwriters should be ashamed of themselves. They cannot even produce original scripts and when they adapt from novels, they cannot even do a proper job and now this.
I wonder would these popular actresses accept this remake of a b-list production.
And how many S grade productions have flopped in these 2-3 years.
I started reading Chinese novels the last 2yrs… I have to say, there are really many very talented authors in China. I have read a great number of very interesting novels. Thus it surprised me why we have so many badly written scripts. I cannot fathom the difference in standard.
They are but sadly the novels quality has been declining as well. Interesting and more matured works are harder to come by and popular authors with well-received novels have also stopped writing as well. Not all earlier novels that are known as “classic” 1-2 decades ago are really good in my opinion but they are probably worth a try for own judgement given the popularity.