Stepmother Xu Duoduo - Short Review

#StepmotherXuDuoduo #后妈许多多 #TheBlendedFamily #重组家庭 #TongYao #童瑶 #WangZhifei #王志飞

Stepmother Xu Duoduo aka The Blended Family is a contemporary series that was shot and set in Xiamen, China. The story centres around Xu Duoduo (Tong Yao), a young television drama screenplay writer who meets plastic surgeon Wen Shuping (Wang Zhifei) in a series of amusing encounters before eventually falling in love and marrying the much older man.

Life Is A Long Quiet River #心居 - long commentary

Chinese Drama #LifeIsALongQuietRiver #TongYao #童瑶 #HaiQing #海清 #ZhangSongwen #张颂文 #FengShaofeng #冯绍峰 #JieBing #节冰 #SunAnke #孙安可 #DongQing #董晴 #LuSiyu #陆思宇 #TengHuatao #滕华涛

A COMMENTARY WITH MAJOR SPOILERS (read at your own risk)

(Note: Some of the paragraphs in the first section have portions that are similar to the Spoiler-Free Short Review of the series because they both serve as a synopsis for the series.)

Life is a Long Quiet River (henceforth abbrev as LLQR) is a contemporary series set in Shanghai in the Autumn of 2017. The series is centred around two protagonists played superbly by Tong Yao and Hai Qing, They play a pair of sisters-in-law who are superficially cordial but who actually dislike and mistrust each other privately. At the beginning of the series, the pair will clash over money and the buying of property. This will result in a tragic event which will drive the two of them further apart.

Life Is A Long Quiet River #心居 - short review

#TongYao #童瑶 #HaiQing #海清 #ZhangSongwen #张颂文 #FengShaofeng #冯绍峰 #JieBing #节冰 #SunAnke #孙安可 #DongQing #董晴 #LuSiyu #陆思宇 #TengHuatao #滕华涛

A SHORT SPOILER FREE REVIEW

Life is a Long Quiet River is a contemporary series set in Shanghai in the Autumn of 2017. The series is centred around two protagonists played superbly by Tong Yao and Hai Qing, They play a pair of sisters-in-law who are superficially cordial but who actually dislike and mistrust each other privately.

Tong Yao plays Gu Qingyu, a very successful executive in a multinational investment bank. She owns her own apartment and pretty much everything she wears is from luxury brands like Giorgio Armani, Dior, Chanel etc just to name a few and she looks effortlessly elegant in them. (Aside: Tong Yao looks stunning in this series.) She's independent, forthright, practical and rational but can also be dispassionate, acerbic and sarcastic.

#TongYao #童瑶 #ZhangXincheng #张新成 #WeWillGrowOldTogether #爱情回想 - review

I finally got around to doing this one too.  This approximately 10 minute short film was released as part of a series of short films by #VogueFilm China near the end of 2021.  Titled We Will Grow Old Together, it's scripted and directed by Wen Ye. 

It's a nice short film.  It won't be winning any awards but then it wasn't made for that.  If you're a fan of either star or if you like films and/or short films, you won't be wasting ten minutes of your time to watch this.  Happily Vogue China has made this available on their YouTube channel and they have provided English subtitles too.  So now you have no excuse not to watch it. :)

#TongYao #童瑶 #TheNewYearEveofOldLee #过年好 - Film - short review

The New Year's Eve of Old Lee - 过年好

I finally got around to watching this in part to see if it's any good and in part to check out Tong Yao's cameo in this film.  It's not bad but it's also not great.  It's merely a relatively generic story about an elderly man, Mr. Lee, who's suffering from Alzheimer's disease.  His daughter Yang Duo just found out about it and returns immediately with her daughter Julie in tow to celebrate the Spring Festival.  Several simmering grievances surface during this short visit leading to several tense moment but given that this is a Lunar New Year film, you can expect a happy ending.  Which means, in a film like this, the journey is more important than the conclusion.

Life Is A Long Quiet River #心居 - trailer, synopsis, preview

#LifeIsALongQuietRiver #心居 #TongYao #童瑶 #HaiQing #海清 #ZhangSongwen #张颂文 #FengShaofeng #冯绍峰 

(For capsule reviews and links to other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)

I thought that I would write up a little something on this series since it's going to be released very soon.  Most international audiences should be able to view this on iQiyi.

This series boasts a strong cast with award winning and/or well regarded actors like Tong Yao, Hai Qing, Zhang Songwen and Feng Shaofeng.  The director Teng Huatao is also an experienced award winning director who also helmed two older series that I found quite interesting.  I'm hopeful that this will be a quality series about women, life and family in our current world.

Documentary (极境所在) ~ behind-the-scenes of 属于我们的黑夜 The Night Belongs to Us

#TongYao #童瑶 #BoHanxiong #薄汉雄 #TheNightBelongsToUs #属于我们的黑夜 #FIRST #TrainingCamp

(For capsule reviews and links to other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)

NOTE: Edited 22nd June 2022 to reflect the name change of the official English title from Night Night to The Night Belongs to Us.

At first, I thought that I would just do a short write-up of some bits but I ended up translating most of the interview in this video.  😅 

I think the reason why the production company Bobosnap called this a documentary rather than just a regular behind-the-scenes video is because they proposed a “thesis question” so to speak and are attempting to answer it. They are trying to answer this question by documenting Tong Yao as she participates in the making of the short film The Night Belongs to Us.

Additional Comments 1 ~ The Rebel (叛逆者) 2021

#TheRebel #叛逆者 #ZhuYilong #朱一龙 #TongYao #童瑶 

USE OF MISE-EN-SCENE AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS TO CREATE MEANING - Lin Nansheng + Zhu Yizhen

[Version 2 18th August 2021

-- added a section on the use of Walt Whitman's One's-Self I Sing in the section on Whitman.  I can't believe I forgot about this key scene. 😅 Also, other minor grammar, spelling & formatting errors]

Preface:

I have already written a review on this series if you would like to read it, please CLICK ME. That review is spoiler-free.  Unlike the review, this post will have SPOILERS, please read at your own risk.  Also, this post assumes that you have already watched the entire series because there won't be a synopsis and references to scenes won't be in chronological order.

I had originally written these additional comments as part of the review but it kept expanding, so I decided to finish the review and publish it first, if not it might go the way of the many posts that I have started and never finished.  😁

I have also decided to write at least one more post on The Rebel because I have enough material already written to start it but I will need time to finish it and that will probably take a while which is part of the reason why I'm splitting up the post again.  When that post is done, I will edit this post and post that link too.  If time permits and I still retain an interest in writing more about the series, I might still write one more.  When either one of those posts gets completed, I will rewrite this paragraph and post the links here.

(Timecodes may vary slightly depending on which version of the series you are watching.  Some episodes of the version I used had some advertisements & trailers.  If time permits in the future, I might go back and fix the TC using a version without advertisements. If I do so, I will note it here.)

(For capsule reviews and links to other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)

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Review / Comments ~ The Rebel (叛逆者) 2021

 #review #TheRebel #叛逆者 #ZhuYilong #朱一龙 #TongYao #童瑶 #WangYang #WangZhiwen # ZhuZhu #LiQiang

(For capsule reviews and links to other reviews of Tong Yao's work, please CLICK ME)

(For Additional Comments 1 ~ USE OF MISE-EN-SCENE AND NARRATIVE ELEMENTS TO CREATE MEANING - Lin Nansheng + Zhu Yizhen, please CLICK ME) 

(For Additional Comments 2 on  The Rebel, please CLICK ME -- currently WIP, will update this post when the link is ready)

The Rebel is an espionage series set in China during the Republican Era.  The story centres on a young cadet, Lin Nansheng 林楠笙 (actor: Zhu Yilong 朱一龙) who was plucked out of military school even before graduating by the head of the Shanghai Branch of the Fuxing Society to help flush out the Communists spies in the city.  Chen Moqun 陈默群 (actor: Wang Yang 王阳) is mostly concerned about trying to capture a mole within the Shanghai Branch.  He decided to recruit a new face into his team because he knew that there was a mole in his branch and had begun to suspect everyone there.  He chose Lin Nansheng because he noticed the young man's intelligence and powers of observation.

Review ~ One Metre Sunshine (2003) #一米阳光 (#孙俪)

One Metre Sunshine (一米阳光 ) is the fourth series that Sun Li (孙俪) has acted in if we don't count the one where she was an extra with no lines.  This is also the second time she's acted opposite Peter HO Rundong (何润东).  The first was in Goddess of Mercy (玉观音) which I also wrote a review of (click me).

Like a lot of Sun Li's older series, there is little information in English so I will write a synopsis of this 29 episode series.

SPOILER FREE SYPNOSIS

The story begins with a chance meeting between Yi Chuan Xia (Sun Li) and Jin Zheng Wu (Peter Ho) in Shanghai. Chuan Xia has been sent from the Nian Corporation's head office in Canada to be the manager of their Shanghai branch.  Chuan Xia is having an affair with her superior Nian Liang Xiu (Ai Wei) who is also the younger brother of the Chairman of the Nian Corporation.  Nian Liang Xiu sent a bottle of wine to Chuan Xia and the delivery man happens to be Jin Zheng Wu aka Xiao Wu and that is how they first met.  Xiao Wu also works as a talented bartender in a bar that Chuan Xia happens to frequent.  He quickly takes a liking to her and begins to woo this mysterious woman who is happy to check out the city with him but not happy to answer any personal questions about herself.

Review ~ Goddess of Mercy (2003 drama) #玉观音 (#孙俪)

Goddess of Mercy (玉观音) is Sun Li's debut drama.  Well, technically she's been in at least one previous series before but that's as an extra and it's a non-speaking part.  This is the fourth series starring Sun Li that I have ever watched.  By this time I am already a huge admirer of this excellent actress.  It only took one series and that's Nothing Gold Can Stay (那年花開月正圓).  I still hope to do a post on that series but that might take quite a bit of some time and so I thought I would do something that I think I might find easier.

I am trying to watch everything Sun Li has ever done to get a full understanding of her evolution into the exceptional actress that she is today.  So there's no place better to start than by watching her award winning debut performance.  This is the performance that heralded the arrival of a star-in-the-making which by default makes it an important series for anyone who is interested in Sun Li's progress as an actress.