My C/HK/TW Movie Watchlist 2014

In order of anticipation.

Every big name director is having an epic out in 2014.  This is already my shortlist, there are many I am not interested in but make good business sense.  Quite a few, I can not wait!

Chu Han Contention: A Few Words

Two episodes in, I’m disappointed.

Headdesking

The official MV of 楚汉传奇/Legend of Chu and Han is out:

Three Kingdom is the last Cdrama I’ve watched that wow’d me with awesome every possible way, elevating PD GaoXiXi to the pedestal of Can’tDoNoWrong, esp in a historical.  While his choice of actresses is always questionable,  and I’m always wondering what does he see in Peter Ho talent-wise when the talent pool at his disposal is as deep?!  Minor misgivings in Three Kingdom’s case when drama is doing justice on all the important fronts to a piece of classic literature very dear to me (even casting Peter as the buffoonish peacock of a warrior works).

I don’t like much if any of this ChuHan MV though.  Argh.  What is causing me a great deal of pain?

ChuHan Contention (mainly Peter Ho appreciation)

, Mousie, for you!

PD Guo, BRAVO!  Oh so smart to give us this sleeveless armor look.  It'll be ridiculous and lowbrow to have Peter shirtless ALL the time, afterall how busy r our eyes to appreciate all the diff muscle groups?!

My (shallow) gut is telling me I’ll finally succumb to PeterHo

It's NOT fair PD Gao.  Do NOT blog kickass hot stills of my AILF (ahjusshi I'd like to…fangirl) right next to a guy I'm not attracted to at all….till NOW.

And I do not wish to look forward to drama very desperately like counting down the days when my Binnie will be discharged.   The WHEN can be a year, hundreds of days or MORE.  I hate hate hate waiting for anything, much less sth I am coveting every drop of it.  And I'm still definitely ANGRY I'm not getting my ChenDM/ChenJianBing most glorious clothes/rags-a-flying ahjusshi lovehate bromance….but Peter, I'll give u a chance, prove me VERY wrong.

Driveby post on upcoming HK dramas (I will watch)

1. I've been following every little tidbits on Ghetto Justice 2. 

I will be !#$%^&*(&*@^!ing if Kevin didn't get his best actor award come Dec 5th, the TVB awards.  If it's up to me, I'll give one to Myolie as well and the drama, just coz she's her least annoying self playing an easily extremely bratty annoying noisy character (ie her usual typecast)

Shall we all time travel back to 3rdC/2ndC BC Middle Kingdom and save the trillions of Yuan?!

FIVE!!!!!  SIX if I'm counting 大秦帝国2/DaQinDiGuo2/The Qin Empire 2. The worst case of copycats offense, EVER.

A roundup (in order of my interest)

1.楚汉传奇 (my guess fr C title it'll focus on the 4 yr Chu-Han Contention 206-202BC )
Draws:  producer GuoXiXi (3 Kingdoms), Lead actors: Chen DaoMing (confirmed), LuYi….
LAVI$H!! producer Guo is touting this will be grander than SanGuo (with MUCH more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$).  It's reported to be the most expensive TV production to date in Cdramaland and it's all still in preproduction prediction.  Guo has been working on this since end of SanGuo Both the main ladies Empress Lu, Consort Yu are still in casting.  Cameras will roll in August, big downer: might have to wait 2, 3 years for it to broadcast.

2. 楚汉争雄 (again on the Chu-Han Contention)
Draws: very soft spot for PD 陈家林, the trustworthy brandname gold standard for C historical, this is his very last project before retirement!  Any YangMi fan should check out her Wang ZhaoJun, she's allowed to be in sth decently scripted and to ACT, for reals. I fangirled Chen DaoMing because of his KangXi Dynasty (sooooo good, along with its brother piece YongZheng Dynasty  and I'm forever grateful they spoiled me of the 'amusement' in watching anything YuZheng can crap on KangXi/YongZheng 😉 )
Also PD Chen said this will focus on the XiangYu, ConsortYu vein.  I'm their shipper, Liu Bang was an STDs carrying cruel, weasel/douchbag.  '站在“失败者”的角度演绎故事，试图找寻真实的刘邦与项羽，以更公正的态度看待两人的对决 -PD Chen.   'We will hinge on the 'losers', in our quest for portraits of Liu Bang and XiangYu closer to the truth, a look at their contention fr a fairer standpoint''  WANT!! But this is still in very early pre-production, another Billion Yuan project, quite possibly will never materialize. :(((

3. 大秦帝国2 (mid 3rd C BC to mid 2nd BC?)
Draws: bookend piece to the awesome Qin Empire. Continue the story of YingSi, arguably the best (the YongZheng of Qin if I may) of Qin rulers, laying the groundwork for Qin's eventual unification of China.

I know netizen is already ranting on how horrible the 50+ min preview looks and without the awesome writer fr Qin Empire, this is never going to be as good.  But even if it's nowhere near, I still have to watch.

The preview:

Yes, the music is crap, the VO is fr the 80s….historical inaccuracies, atrocious editing blablabla.  I concur!  But, this is a C trailer and they r seldom good/ has much to do with the end piece other than the pretty, I can't stop myself fr watching even though I hate the casting of YingSi/main guy.

4. + 5. 王的盛宴 + 鸿门宴  (Feast at Hong Gate: new year's eve 205-206 BC)

Draw:  The real headbutt, I'm much more interested in wrestling the 2 movies together and its BTS shenanigans than each on its own.  Both will be based on the exact same Most Fateful ' Last Supper' in C history.  All the juicy players r rounded up there.  Lets see if any of the production can make a memorable art like Leonardo did for Last Supper, heh.

LuChuan is the WAYYY better writer/producer imo, but his production is plagued by many disconcerting snags..  It also amuses me to no end sizing up every single character and its actor on my scale of OMGvsMEH.  LuChuan's still edging on the gorgeous men front alone: Daniel Wu as XiangYu(OMFG!), LiuYe as Liu Bang(he can do layers, dark and connive better than LeonLai), Chang Chen as Han Xin (CHANG CHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), Nie Yuan as Xiang Zhuang (sword dance!!!), and Sha Yi (Bigbro Sun) as brother of Consort Yu.  I don't have a care for the ladies in this.

6.  Yu PoS I refuse to name/watch/hear/read/tease/shit on.