Xiang Liu and You (Yes, You)

 H19279:

In general, I don't understand the stylish concept of having curling end part of the hair. It is historical or ancient time. If a man had curly hair it was due to his DNA. there were no hairdressers with curling service. 

Thus such style is unrealistic

This is probably xianxia, so realism isn't exactly a priority. ;p

 Kikinaki:

'avoid evil men at all cost'!

......for the "bad boy" husband bit, can I live dangerously safe?

.....I don't want to live all the way dangerous, I'm quite fragile . Lol

I 100% recommend avoiding evil men.  We're looking for a fictional style "bad boy" not an actual bad boy. The trick is to spot and separate the creeps from the genuinely sweet men who can tap into their inner "bad boy" when needed ;-). Besides, who says that he has to be the one to teach you? Maybe you two can explore together. You can always find yourself a sweet, good boy who's open to being educated ;-).

 HeadInTheClouds:

Was Deng Wei in consideration for XL? If he was then I'm thankful for whoever vetoed that idea. His XL would have been straight up a block of wood. I think someone mentioned that Tong Hua wanted Yang Yang for the role. I saw Yang Yang in some XL-ish costumes/styles for another drama. He would be very pretty indeed, but again the acting would have been 80% blank/stoic face.

No, he wasn't. LYF could've ended up a pretty different show if Tong Hua had gotten her way. Her first choice for XL was Yang Yang -- he passed on it (unsurprisingly). Her second choice was Xiao Zhan, I don't know if it was ever offered to him, but if so he also passed on it. One of the directors of the show, Qin Zhen, was a fan of TJC's from Under the Skin, she pushed for him to be offered the role. TSJ was originally offered to Xu Kai -- he passed on it in favor of Snow Eagle Lord.

 HeadInTheClouds:

The one rumoured with Zhao Lusi is, I believe, from the same team that did Love Like the Galaxy. I enjoyed that drama and it was very well received. What I hope is that it won't be a story that focuses on the female lead, while the male lead is in a more supporting role. Love Like the Galaxy was co-lead, both female and male leads had their arc and development. I think to get to the next level, TJC needs to successfully carry a drama where he is clearly the lead protagonist. 

I agree with that. I was thinking that drama might be Go East, but I'm not completely sure because it could end up more of an ensemble-type drama. It's hard to say because so many shows look quite different from early teaser trailers and so much can happen in post-production editing that the final product could barely resemble what early teasers are like in terms of tone, narrative framing, etc.

There is a lot of politics when it comes to cdrama -- particularly with idol dramas -- casting, billing, hierarchy. If he wants to get to the next level, I agree that he needs to have a successful and trending S/S+ drama (and probably needs to be a big-budget gu ou) where the story is ML-centric and he is the first ML or it is co-leads. That is the next step to becoming a top liuliang, he may never reach it. If he doesn't, I'm ok with that, selfishly it might be better for me as a viewer because once someone reaches top liuliang status there are shows that they just won't or can't do like take on an interesting 2nd or 3rd supporting role or do shows that are FL-centric -- look at how constricted someone like Yang Yang's script options are, even if he wants to do edgier stuff he's probably not being offered those kind of scripts. He always plays the same kind of ML-centric hero role, it's boring and causing his acting to stagnate and degrade when it wasn't ever that great to begin with but with the right roles in the right shows he could've improved. There was no way he would've taken the role of XL in a FL-centric reverse harem playing supporting character to Yang Zi's character, I'm surprised they even offered the script to him, I guess Tong Hua must've really pushed them to because he was her dream casting choice.

Look at someone like Chen Duling -- she had a big success with the film The Left Ear, then she started doing all these FL roles in dramas but those roles pigeonholed her and she got frustrated with the scripts she was being offered so she decided to downgrade her own status (tbh I'm kind of amazed her agency even let her do this) and start taking on lots of supporting character roles in lots of shows to try different things with somewhat mixed results -- I feel like she's now getting pigeonholed as the weepy, tragic secondary female character but at least she's actively trying to get different scripts by accepting non-FL roles. And also, props to Li Xian for taking on the ML in Flourished Peony which is a FL-centric female-driven narrative, he upset a lot of his fans by doing so because to them it was a downgrade in billing and status especially right after doing another FL-centric show in Meet Yourself, but it's working for him because Meet Yourself was the biggest hit he's had since Go Go Squid and his performance in it was praised (although he's probably getting these scripts in the first place because his status has fallen since his Go Go Squid days and he's not a top tier liuliang).

I hadn't heard about Deng Wei's and TJC's names thrown into the mix with that Midnight Owl show, but I think Deng Wei and Zhang Linghe would be a more sensible casting because although I think ZLH is better, neither is so good that they're going to glaringly outshine or scene steal from the other. If the project does end up happening with Deng Wei and ZLH, I would probably watch, it would only remain to be seen who plays the more interesting anti-hero character (I don't even know anything about the original IP but any 2 ML show, one of the roles is going to be a more interesting anti-hero foil) because I think both acquit themselves better in the acting department when they play more of an anti-hero character.

 H19279:

Don't know if it is proper to post it here. Some claimed that "I swear this is the vision TH had in her head when she had her 1rst thought on how XL should look like. "

This is legit awful.

 Kokuto:

Lord, LYF could have been a disaster.  I can't see any of those "name" actors in these roles.

Agree!

 nathsketch:

This is legit awful.

Why do I love it though? Jajaja 

But yes, TJC is the perfect XL though.

 HeadInTheClouds:

I 100% recommend avoiding evil men.  We're looking for a fictional style "bad boy" not an actual bad boy. The trick is to spot and separate the creeps from the genuinely sweet men who can tap into their inner "bad boy" when needed ;-). Besides, who says that he has to be the one to teach you? Maybe you two can explore together. You can always find yourself a sweet, good boy who's open to being educated ;-).

oh I'm blushing, yes yes yes....I want a sweet man with an inner bad boy....

my future is blissful, with all this "exploring together" and all this "education"

oh thou sweet man with an inner bad boy , where art thou?

I call thee forth , come to me.............

Cheng Duling is a gorgeous woman, she is stunning! but the roles she's choosing makes her "ugly" . She should stop playing the evil 'bitchang" or else she'll never breakthrough.

I don't think her role in TTEOTM did her any good cos I hated her character...... whenever I see her in any role I remember her as 'bitchang ' . She is so naturally elegant, she should find roles that bring that out

Yang Yang is just too aware of his perfect looks, he's just meh in all his roles, I couldn't even get through WRTW. the only thing that moves on his face are his eyebrows