The internal struggle within Starshine Pictures has entered a new phase.
However, the outside world is unaware of this information.
The following day, "The Imperial Decree" and "The Legend of Zhaohua" premiered together.
As the platform's main follow-up drama, "The Legend of Zhaohua" has been trending on social media ever since it aired, showing its impressive popularity.
Several trending topics quickly climbed to the top of the charts.
"The Legend of Zhaohua" was broadcast simultaneously on both the internet and television, which broadened its reach and attracted more viewers. Many fans had already made preparations and were determined to boost the ratings for their favorite actress.
The female lead in "The Legend of Zhaohua" is played by Yu Xuezheng, the top star of Xingchen Entertainment.
Compared to Qin Lezhang, who received full support and had the status of a "crown prince," Yu Xuezheng's resources were relatively less favorable. While the company did provide considerable support for her to reach her current position, she herself also put in a lot of hard work.
Yu Xuezheng is currently primarily focused on television dramas, having starred in numerous idol dramas and become a familiar face to the public. She has appeared in several wildly popular dramas and has been paired with several popular idol drama couples. Now, in "The Legend of Zhaohua," she is acting alongside another talented actor who also possesses a knack for creating compelling on-screen couples.
This time, "The Legend of Zhaohua" is Yu Xuezheng's transformation work. It breaks away from the simple and childish idol # Nоvеlight # romance drama and leans towards a serious female-led palace intrigue drama. For this work, Yu Xuezheng lost weight and exercised her posture a long time ago, striving to bring her career to a new level with this work.
The premiere went very smoothly.
Exquisite costumes, magnificent palaces, and a leading actress with superb acting skills... Although the plot has not yet fully unfolded, the beautiful scenery and the beautiful women are like an unfolding scroll, attracting countless passersby to stop and admire.
On the first day of its broadcast, "The Legend of Zhaohua" received rave reviews from viewers, and fans of various shows began to happily display the drama's viewership data and compare it with other works on other platforms during the same summer season.
It's already the second half of the summer movie season, and the domestic dramas that several platforms promoted earlier have already been airing. Although each has its own popularity, their viewership is not very good compared to others.
Various bloggers and marketing accounts have begun to speculate that this summer's TV dramas may be a surprise hit.
Currently, only "The Legend of Zhaohua" has the potential to become a hit.
All eyes are now focused on "The Legend of Zhaohua".
At the same time, "The Imperial Decree" also began its low-key broadcast.
...
"Mom, what are you looking at?"
When Xiao He passed by the living room, he thought he was seeing things. But when he looked closely, he realized that there was a very familiar face on the TV.
Pan Yuerou truly embodies the classic Lin Daiyu look. Even dressed in a simple moon-white long gown, with a delicate and graceful posture, her eyebrows and eyes still exude an ancient elegance. However, her eyes do not possess the sickly frailty of ancient women, but rather the liveliness and vibrancy of modern people. This makes her lack the coyness and restraint of a demure young lady, and more like a plum blossom in the snow, naturally possessing integrity and nobility.
These actors seem born for this job.
No background information or cause and effect is needed; just looking at her face and her eyes is enough to fill in the blanks of her identity and story.
Xiao He stopped and carefully examined the people on the television, feeling quite satisfied.
I'm a genius for being able to discover actors like this so easily in Peking Opera!
"Watching TV dramas."
While cracking sunflower seeds, Xiao's mother pointed at the TV in front of her with her chin and said, "This show is good. I've been watching it every day lately."
Thinking of the data reports that Sister Liu had recently sent him, Xiao He sat down with interest and asked, "Weren't you reading The Legend of Zhao Hua a while ago?"
Since returning from abroad, Xiao He has been busy with announcements and events. Only in the last two days has he finally managed to take some time off to go home and spend time with his parents.
If Xiao He remembered correctly, the day he returned, his mother was watching the TV series "The Legend of Zhaohua," but unexpectedly, it had become "The Imperial Decree" today.
"Oh dear, I can't watch that TV series."
Xiao's mother waved her hand and patted her chest. "I'm planning to retire. I'm already annoyed enough by those brats in my class. If I keep watching 'The Legend of Zhao Hua,' my heart disease and high blood pressure will all come out."
Xiao He: ?
"Don't talk about getting sick from anger, you're perfectly healthy."
He offered a somewhat helpless consolation, then asked with a hint of curiosity, "Is 'The Biography of Zhaohua' really that infuriating?"
Xiao He hadn't even watched his own studio's "The Imperial Decree," let alone the plot of his rival's "The Legend of Zhaohua." However, Xiao He had paid attention to the reputation of his rival. Recently, the online sentiment seemed quite positive, with viewers giving it good reviews, and the screenshots were indeed beautiful, far superior to the works of their own fledgling graduates.
But Xiao He really didn't expect to receive such a evaluation from his mother.
Xiao's mother, a Chinese language teacher, while not fully understanding the director's filming logic, possessed a keen eye for the script's plot. She directly offered her opinion: "The plot of this TV series is consistently depressing from beginning to end, making it suffocating to watch. I roughly understand that they intend to use this 'suppression before elevation' approach, turning the heroine's early hardships and pain into a whetstone, making her more resolute and mature, allowing her to gradually awaken her consciousness and slowly climb upwards..."
"However, the initial setup was too cumbersome, and there were many unnecessary plot points. The visuals were beautiful, but most of them were used to describe and embellish the heroine's suffering, which I felt was a bit too deliberate."
Just like how it always rains when the protagonist suffers hardship, and snows when he is wronged, Xiao's mother admitted that this was one of the ways to advance the plot and indirectly describe the protagonist's psychological activities. However, she found it quite strange that this had to be done every time, and that it had to be filmed in an exceptionally poignant way, repeatedly emphasizing this beauty and tragedy.
Moreover, the female lead was wronged so badly. Her family background was already considered to be of a relatively high level in the palace, but no matter how others harmed her, she just couldn't bring herself to retaliate. And every time she ended up in such a miserable state, whenever Xiao's mother thought that she was going to rise up, that she was going to take revenge, or that she was going to compete for the emperor's favor, the female lead would start to back down again and again, still unable to bring herself to do it.
After several repetitions, Xiao's mother began to hallucinate about her students whom she could never teach, and her blood pressure kept rising. In the end, she chose to give up treatment and switch to other TV dramas to calm her mind.
Thinking that her son's studio had recently released a palace drama called "The Imperial Decree," Xiao's mother promptly watched the show.
The female lead in "The Imperial Decree" is named An Lanyue, and she is played by a newcomer actress. Her performance is still a bit raw, far inferior to Yu Xuezheng, who has been in the industry for many years. However, she is very close to the character, so the role doesn't feel out of place. On the contrary, her beauty elevates the overall quality of the web series.
The overall story of this work is a "feel-good" story of a heroine's rise to power. The main attraction is the story of the heroine, An Lanyue, who enters the palace as a daughter of an ordinary official family and climbs the ranks step by step using her looks and intelligence.
Upon first seeing this delicate and beautiful woman's appearance, Xiao's mother's heart skipped a beat, fearing that this female lead would be another soft and delicate girl who would never talk back or fight back, suffer all kinds of bullying in the palace, and then turn evil and fight back.
However, An Lanyue's performance completely exceeded Xiao's mother's expectations.
Although she appears weak, she is very determined. She has a firm goal in entering the palace. Her delicate and fragile body has not become her weakness, but rather her weapon. The "sickly and weak" tactic she used several times has enabled her to gain huge benefits.
She will repay those who harm her, praise those who hate her, be grateful to those who are kind to her, and treat those who are good to her with kindness.
Whenever An Lanyue appears, no matter how many conspiracies and schemes lie ahead, the audience will feel a sense of security.
—As long as An Lanyue is there, it seems that no difficulty is a problem.
