PeachBlossomGoddess

Croton has indicated April 22 as the international release date.
In the meantime Chen Kun and Bai Yu's Longxi 风起陇西 is rumored to drop on April 10 on iQiyi. That should come with subs so maybe you can watch that while waiting for this to be subbed. Its not a romance but it should be excellent.

She is indeed an echo chamber from Bili2, Douban, Weibo etc but to give credit where its due, she is quite knowledgeable of Chinese mythology, literature and culture and that is where she excels. IMHO her best reviews where she actually adds value were fantasy and period, she really sucks at the modern stuff. Not enough exposure and knowledge of Western dramas which lead in that genre. I boycotted her after she went after Zhang Zhehan so vindictively and now as it turns out so wrongly. I won't watch her again until she retracts what she said and apologises so idk what she said about TBW.- I am sure its nothing I haven't already read on the Chinese sites.

WOH was a huge home run for Youku. It was very low budget - they worked with a much smaller production company and it was staffed with a less well known team and actors who put a lot of heart into the production.

The 2ML is indeed a snooze fest.

I mean his acting is good, he doesn't need to say much. But his character is so far not as interesting as Lin Haoqing.

He says it best when he says nothing at all. 😂😂😂

Random thought - this is the best, most flattering wig Ren Jialun has ever worn.

Yeah I am really bummed about Night Wanderer as well, I just think Ni Ni is such a fantastic actress I was really looking forward to it. Hopefully iQiyi had a moral clause but even if they recover Deng Lun's pay, they won't get all the other salaries and costs back.

Hi hi tyvm. Indeed Chen Kun is in a class of his own as an actor but he has also had his share of questionable scripts. I always like the more experienced actors as well but they also need to be well cast - Hu Ge for example shouldn’t have been cast as such a young character in The Disguiser. I do think there are some very good younger actors but it is really hard to come across great scripts/roles. Even this drama has enough flaws that so far a masterpiece has eluded Chen Kun…

Yes indeed they are a “producer” anyone who puts money in can be called one. But you are determined to believe what you want have it your way.

Lol... it is long indeed. Netflix and Prime Video have gotten smarter, now they seem to wait and see how well these dramas do in China before acquiring rights... iQiyi is sad, sad, sad - just fired 30-40pct of their staff.

That's old news that the platforms put the foot down on celebrity pay and insisted that the industry better manage celebrity pay. Of course the platforms ultimately pay the actors bc it costs more to license dramas and it raises the cost of their in-house productions. The regulators have since stepped in to put in place even stricter caps on celebrity pay to rein in out of control content costs. I have never heard of the kind of pay arrangement you describe - it creates all kinds of reporting line and accountability issues for the production AND more importantly may give the wrong impression the platforms who are already in government crosshairs are trying to help the actors circumvent taxes and/or govt caps on pay. From a revenue standpoint it is also messy - this is not pay per view - how much of Youku's membership fees are to be attributed to TBW vs the many other dramas and variety shows on its platform???
That doesn't mean to say this is not an important drama for Youku, they certainly paid a lot for it and are spending a lot on promoting it in China. But they are a distribution company, getting in the weeds of production is not their forte or interest area. They are an e-commerce and fintech company, unlike iQiyi and Tencent media and entertainment is not a core business for them.

I think it’s the total investment cost. I would expect Youku would have had to pay at least that for the exclusive China rights bc Huace would need a return on it. These nos are never fully disclosed or documented but Huace may discuss it in their results.

The specifics of these deals are never made public but in general, the platforms prefer to manage risk by investing later in the process. It takes two years or more from scriptwriting to airing it ties up a lot of capital for a long time. During which the stars can misbehave and get banned or they are not hot anymore etc etc etc. As it is with their in house projects they already commit a lot of capital and take a lot of risk. So for the stuff they buy from Huace or Daylight Entertainment etc they usually (but don’t always) get involved later in the process although not at the very end. The information on copyright cost is not transparent at all but I don’t think it’s that much in dollar value but lots of it never gets developed.

Yeah I think it just is a reflection current sad state of the industry - they are each losing 3-4bn RMB a year in digital media. Huace is the largest production company I think their market share is 10pct. They just try to sell their dramas to whichever platform pays the most. It makes sense Youku is reluctant to pay much for overseas rights bc they have virtually no subscribers. Tencent has ample pipeline of its own and iqiyi is in deep financial distress or one of both of them would have bought rights for at least some markets. I think Huace is just hoping to place it with platforms like Netflix or Prime Video after it does well in China, hence the delay in subs.

Here is one - there is lots of info on the web on it but you will have to look the rest of it up yourself. https://3g.163.com/dy/article/FPEUI2TS05431P4H.html?spss=adap_pc
I also happen to know in this case bc I cover the Chinese internet and media names for a living and I simply asked someone at Youku about it.

Actually Huace owns the copyright to The Blue Whisper and it is their production. Youku simply secured the exclusive broadcast rights for China. Huace is a public company, most of this is readily available public information on multiple Chinese sites. The investment cost is said to be RMB 200mm and is Huace's biggest investment this year. Tencent has a full content pipeline already and likely passed on it.

He takes tough love to a whole new level.

Yes, just keep checking Croton Media's channel. It definitely will not be on Youku's Youtube channel.

Youku doesn’t have the international rights and will not be releasing it overseas at all. That belongs to Huace/Croton Media.