Serpentina

Btw his last released drama Key to the Phoenix Heart was not FL-centric, Xiao Wuyi was a very memorable character. And his upcoming drama Immortalis will probably be ML-centric as he plays the leader of an investigative trio.

The industry is currently favouring stories around FL, for that I think HMH actually has a pretty good balance. It's natural to always want to see him front and center as a fan, but I think being an important ML in a FL-centric drama can also showcase someone's acting ability well. It also shows future directors that an actor could be great in an ensemble cast (e.g. in a non-idol drama) rather than only shining due to ML plot armor.

The currently filming drama will apparently be quite different from the novel, they re-wrote a lot, so it might be more balanced. Rong Chenzi is not just a taoist priest, but also a demon hunter and rumour has it that it's a quite challenging role with multiple identities. We'll have to wait and see how it will turn out in the end.

He did say in interviews though that he doesn't want to go by Neo anymore and has dropped it from all his official social media accounts.

They changed the story a lot from the novel and the role of Rong Chenzi is actually quite challenging as he plays basically multiple people. He said he wants to do a modern drama, but more importantly he likes complex characters, so there's that. A flower in his hair (during an obviously flower themed scene - YSX had even more flowers) doesn't necessarily take away from that.

For sure. I don't know how the actors can deal with wearing wigs all the time. At least he's not shooting in the scorching summer sun, I'm sure the wig would be even worse then. Small blessings.

It's much cooler during the nights in Hengdian, it can get super hot during the day in August/September. People on drama sets frequently suffer from heat stroke. Shooting during the night means they have to sleep during the day, yes, but shooting itself is probably way more comfortable. When it comes to total shooting hours this production didn't film significantly longer per day (or night) than others.

It's much cooler during the nights in Hengdian, it can get super hot during the day in August/September. People on drama sets frequently suffer from heat stroke. Shooting during the night means they have to sleep during the day, yes, but shooting itself is probably way more comfortable. When it comes to total shooting hours this production didn't film significantly longer per day (or night) than others.

It's super hot during the daytime, temperatures are more than 10 degrees C cooler at night. They wear many layers of hanfu clothes, plus wigs. Other dramas shooting during the daytime often report that people suffered from heat strokes on set. It seems they are able to avoid that for LITS. I get that fans are concerned about someone having such a different schedule than they themselves are used from their own working hours, but considering the conditions and unique challenges of a drama set, shooting at night might actually be the better option.

It's super hot during the daytime, temperatures are more than 10 degrees C cooler at night. They wear many layers of hanfu clothes, plus wigs. Other dramas shooting during the daytime often report that people suffered from heat strokes on set. It seems they are able to avoid that for LITS. I get that fans are concerned about someone having such a different schedule than they themselves are used from their own working hours, but considering the conditions and unique challenges of a drama set, shooting at night might actually be the better option.

As far as I know the music agency (Yuling Culture) is only there to manage his tour and such, because that's obviously a massive undertaking. They might also manage his other music commitments and I hope they do it well, because quite obviously HMH loves music and his singer career is taking off.

As for Hesong, we simply don't know a lot. I know some fans have identified a certain person around him as someone, who has allegedly displayed problematic behaviour in the past (we have to rely on hearsay regarding that though, because there are no sources to research and any "evidence" presented is blurred out with fan claims written over it). But in reality I'm not sure we know if this is the person everyone thinks they are.

Regardless I don't think it would make sense for any agency to send a manager with their artist solely to "block" them while they are going to already agreed upon commitments. Any blocking would happen prior to that in the office, not while he's off to rehearsals or a show. Usually any staff going with talent to a show is there to organise things, make sure the process runs smoothly, everything is timed correctly, there are no hiccups and transportation and accommodation is in order.

So whatever is going on behind closed doors, I don't think we can deduct anything by one specific person being among his staff for specific shows. I saw some fans comment that she's there to "make sure" HMH returns to the drama set, but quite frankly, as funny as the thought is, I can't really imagine him spontaneously making a run for it and trying to escape into the sunset, which would require an anti-escape keeper. ;) But it shows that fan imaginations run wild regarding his situation with Hesong, about which we know FAR less than is circulated.

The only thing we truly know is that his plate is very full and that all fans would be happy if he had more time to rest.

It's due to his song Sleeping by the Wildfire Tonight.

Julia is apparently a name mentioned in his new song "Sleeping by the Wildfire Tonight" (今晚就睡在野火旁). The exact line is "you can stay, I can go, if you're Julia, my soul, here's to you, to you, to you" - unless kiwis misheard the lyrics, because the single isn't officially out yet. ;)

Since the web novel is female centric, that probably won't happen in this drama.

If you want more HMH screen presence I think the upcoming Key to the Phoenix Heart might be a better bet and also Immortalis (which doesn't have a release date yet).

I'm quite sure there will be no kissing for that very reason.

Fwiw I don't think that for actors it makes much of a difference if their co-star is the same age or older since they don't have actual romantic feelings for them anyway. So it's a bit weird to me that people are sometimes very okay with lots of kissing and even love scenes (in Western media) among actors when both are minors.

But yeah, there are strict regulations in China about portraying romance when the actors are minors, so there's no way this will get "steamy" in any other way than implied, at best.

I think visually they don't look that far apart, since she looks older in full costume/make-up and HMH always looked younger than he is. But even so I think the "unlikely pairing" is part of the plot - a battle-hardened, ruthless military general and a sheltered, spoiled young woman in an arranged marriage she (initially) doesn't want. I think if they'd look like the most natural pairing in the world, it wouldn't convey this point as much.

And for the actors it usually doesn't make much difference how old their co-stars are, because they aren't drawn to each other anyway, it's all make-believe. Tbh acting with a more experienced actor, who knows the correct etiquette of romantic scenes and isn't overly awkward about it, might even be easier - not that it matters much in this case, because there are no kissing or intimate scenes in this drama and Ai Mi has acted in romantic roles before, when she was even younger (which strangely nobody protested back then, I might add, only now).

I fully agree that this would be quite yucky in a real relationship! But thankfully it's not, the only thing that happened while filming this drama was acting and getting occasionally hugged in front of the assembled crew and staff.

She was 17 in all scenes (filming didn't even start before that), idk why people like to speculate such things?

If it makes you uncomfortable it's better not to watch. I imagine you also never watched something like Stranger Things then.

Do you really mean the quality of the outfits or their style? Because style is something people have different tastes in (although of course it's good if the style matches the characters, so e.g. a gritty demon hunter monk might have a different style than a celebrated warrior god). But quality is more objective and based on the fabrics that are used, how the clothes fit, if the sewing is well done, if the applications look professional and so on.

And from what I can tell from the Reuters images the quality is not bad at all. Nothing looks like cheap polyester fabric or with obvious plastic applications, the fits are fine, they have some embroidery, thick fabrics, they look like actually used clothes (wrinkle in the right places, sleeves rolled up in a casual way etc.) rather than looking too new and costume-y etc.

Thanks for the info! How do we know that the script was heavily rewritten and features new characters? Exciting!

Often less green screen gives a project a higher quality feel (even in xianxia). Of course it should be used when necessary and to create the beautiful fantasy world of the story, but often real sets, proper light and practical effects create a realism within the fantasy, that feels great.