theotherayn

haven't watched all the videos but a fan on xhs transcribed his full speech and he roughly said (via google translate):

"Hongce, as you all know, is the fox prince, and also a deaf prince. For him, this drama is also about investigating a case. It's about unraveling an incident from the past. Our entire series, Love in Red Dust, is based on this story, unfolding around this incident, like a road movie, and a series of stories with the beautiful woman next door, Ms. Xu Ruohan, playing Mu Xiaoshu, and I think this time is very different because it's a comedy. I'll be evenly matched. This is actually my first time acting in a comedy*, and my first time trying to deliver punchlines. These three words are a big challenge for me right?"

*Delicacies Destiny was a comedy though lol he forgot

he was known as the guy who treated the crew the most, even when he was a supporting actor. and he donates to charity a lot too. he also recently gave gift bags of his endorsed products worth a total of at least 600,000 yuan during TWD's press conference last week. the boy is rich and generous.

there isn't a page yet, I was going to submit one but there hasn't been any official announcements (I'm not sure if MDL will accept melon accounts as a source.) it's a modern crime thriller. this isn't the official styling, it just seems like he's teasing the character. a melon owner said there were prison scenes so he'll likely be shaving off his hair (not sure if it means in flashbacks or throughout the show)

aww he just gave back 100,000 yuan to his fans to thank them for their support. he seems like such a good kid. a crew member also complimented him saying that he prefers to wait on set with them to save time (instead of hanging out in his trailer like actors usually do) which I also noticed in some of the reuters/bts of his other dramas. hopefully good karma will give him a long fruitful career and his haters can just wallow in their loserdom lol.

EDIT: he also apparently gave the crew 6 rounds of red envelopes during the wrap up dinner!

on one hand, I think that it's just bad luck that WXY made too much of a splash in The Double when TWD was supposed to be a low key drama to introduce a bunch of upcoming 00 actors, not a high pressure situation to prove if he can "carry a drama" (a concept I don't personally believe in because dramas/movies are always a team effort.) on the other hand, without his fanbase this drama would've probably done a lot worse.

and yes, though I understand why iQiyi was optimistic based on the last arc, the setup was really too slow. I feel like it didn't really hit its stride till episode 20-ish and that was too late. audiences are really impatient nowadays and without the cushion of an IP, or a CP they could root for, it was dead in the water.

tbh all platforms manipulate their data. iQiyi just made their manipulations really obvious this year. still, it's the best platform for the subject matter. maybe now that they have an actual hit on their hands (This Thriving Land) they'll settle down and stop the shenanigans.

please see my comment here: https://mydramalist.com/people/51889-wang-xing-yue#comment-23108478

he said in a couple of livestreams before that he's not confident enough to do modern dramas yet. maybe that's what @Huong Pham meant.

🍉Project Updates:

Love in Red Dust - today (Aug 18) is the official wrap up of the drama. congratulations to the team! seems WXY is leaving Hengdian directly so congrats also on his well-earned vacation/road trip he's been talking about taking for so long in interviews lol

Bao Hu Feng He (Violent Tiger Feng He) - Shoot will start mid to late September in Yunnan and will last 110 days (long for 24 episodes, even longer than LIRD, but that's good because it means they're not rushing the production.) platform is 🥝, co-actors are Wang Qianyuan and Elvira Cai. WXY is playing the title character Feng He, an ex-convict searching for the wife he allegedly killed. (the title is also an idiom which means to recklessly fight a tiger with empty hands.) looks like he's teasing the role in his latest douyin: https://www.douyin.com/video/7539773100423400756

Lie Xin (Heart Hunter) and Gao Bai (Confession) have reportedly moved on to other actors (🍉Jiang Qiming for the former and omg he's a really great actor so for WXY to be even considered for the same role is a compliment.) No news on the FL of Xing Zhi Wan either.

The Wanted Detective - the VIP broadcast is also ending today but the hot broadcast period is going to last until mid September. the current forecast average is 10-12M per episode so it probably didn't hit the KPI 🥝 had hoped but:

- TWD is currently ranked #6 in iQiyi's cloud bookings this year (#18 for all platforms), with 101,000 seats, worth 3 million yuan total. around 80,000 came from WXY's fans and an additional 10,000 from WXY's friends, brand endorsements and drama production companies (including a movie studio which fans say approached him last year but the project didn't pan out.)
- TWD is currently ranked #5 in iQiyi's livestream popularity with a contribution value of 14.877 million (this includes sending gifts to characters which costs real money, I just haven't seen someone convert how much it actually cost the fans.) Unfortunately, the drama merchandise isn't selling well but what little they are selling is mostly for WXY's character.
- TWD had a total of 54 ads from 15 brands, 3 of which were WXY's endorsements
- the production bought only 291 weibo hotsearches as of Aug 17 (big budget dramas usually buy thousands)

now, I'm not sure if this means 🥝 earned a profit but TWD is also the production company Upcoming Legend's 4th drama and is its best performing one so far. the screenwriter said he had hoped for a 2nd season but I don't think it's possible with WXY's schedule (YZ might also want to put him in more mid to high budget productions.)

her prejudice might be against Yu Zheng, she's also unnecessarily nasty about Bai Lu and Wu Jinyan. not sure with Xu Kai.

according to the director the script was originally 24 episodes then expanded to 32 (because iQiyi liked it) then expanded again to 36 after casting and I think this actually hurt the pacing. a tighter edited beginning would've helped its reputation with the not-so-patient audience more but hopefully word of mouth about the good final arc will help people give it more of a chance.

this drama will never flop because it's living rent free in their head🤣

yes that's why I don't worry about MDL ratings so much and would rather read/upvote the thoughtful reviews instead.

MDL's formula also favors dramas with more ratings, this one only has around 500 so far. for example, dramas like The Long Season are only at 8.0 with 300 ratings in spite of all the reviews being above 8.5. there was a thread about it on twitter before:

https://x.com/anniedelavoye/status/1337977223790333952

he really shines when he's acting alongside the veterans. it makes me so excited for Violent Tiger Feng He now.

they're actually this drama's biggest fan! lol

yes, I don't mind bad reviews, as long as you can see they actually watched the drama. a good snarky takedown can be fun to read, even if it's against something I love.

or they should do a weighted average like IMDB (which gives less weight to 1 and 10 scores as this is usually what haters/fans like to default to.) my only knowledge about MDL's algorithm is that it favors dramas with more ratings so that's why kdramas and popular genres like romance usually get higher scores, while jdramas or some of the lesser watched genres are stuck at low 8s or high 7s because there's less viewership.

lol according to its synopsis, he dies at least 8 times in his next drama under Yu Zheng so maybe watch out for that.

was bananakim's fake review finally removed? I can't see it anymore.

although there's another review calling every character morally questionable without any plot details so they might have just made another account lol

if you scroll down far enough you'll see why people here call it trolls/fan wars. there were a lot of unnecessary comments in the beginning insulting the FL's actress (some were eventually deleted) or comparing this show and actor with that show and actor. when you check their profile they weren't even watching this drama and they were mostly inactive accounts with barely any comments/interaction. but they've gone quiet for now.

EDIT: oops never mind, there's one troll that's still stalking the reviews lol at this point I'm calling them Joe Goldberg coz they're just so in love with this drama.

it's better but I feel like it'll confuse the people who want romance even more😂