#wang yang

[dangermousie]

Another one of the ironic inscriptions collection (it's a fan of a very very sleazy lawyer.)

(Wang Yang, my love!)

[admelioremvitam]

A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains 千里江山图 from 🐧 Tencent and 🐑 CCTV. Starring Zhang Ruoyun, Liu Shishi, Wang Yang, Guan Xiaotong, Zhang Youhao, Sun Yi, Chen Long, Yin Fang and Chen Daoming. First set of character posters for CCTV's 2026 drama line-up on January 9. (Part 1 of 3)

[yibocheeks]

Translated excerpts from Wang Yang's interview with "Spotlight on the Legendary Drama" 《神剧亮了》

Did your impression of Yibo change after working with him?

WY: I don't watch a lot of dramas, even for my own dramas, so for Yibo, I had watched his movie, but haven't really followed his other works. But I think everyone knows of Yibo, plus with how handsome he is, I always see him on various ads. So I know of his level of influence. But I had never worked with him in a drama before and I also didn't know what kind of person he was, or what sort of mindset he would have coming into filming. But once we began filming, my first impression of him was quite significant; it was when he was strung up, after being interrogated by Lin Qiaosong. He looked to be in quite an awful state. Once he entered my line of vision and I saw how badly he had been beaten, first, for his makeup to look like that, it was unexpected, to look so tragic. Second, it was a very cold day, it was rainy and chilling. When I arrived on set at nighttime to film the scene, it was already past 8pm. Shanghai was very cold. He wore that shirt and was strung up, and he was there to be a point of focus for me during my scenes, after he had already finished filming his part. I stood there and was looking down upon him, and he would squat there, to help be a point of focus for me to look at. That left a deep impression for me. I don't know if every young actor who has this level of influence would be able to do this much, but on the first day that Yibo met me, he did this. He was covered in blood, wore very little, and squatted there to be a point of focus for me. Even up until the very last scene with Yibo, he would always fulfill this role, he never slacked on this, he would never say, "while Yang-ge is filming, please ask someone else to take this role of being a point of focus for him." Even when I said to him on that first day, "Yibo, you don't need to squat there, you can just stand on the side and say your lines and that would be ok, you don't need to keep squatting," he wouldn't listen and would continue to squat there. Also, when he first started, both Yibo and I are slow to warm up, but since I am his senior and we would have so many scenes together, I was willing to be the one to take the first step. I would always choose a conversation topic to start the conversation between us. I found that after a few days, Yibo would slowly start to open up. Although he is slower to warm up than I am, he is very sincere and would be very sincere in his interactions with me, no matter if it was just day-to-day or while acting. I feel that he is a young person who is both capable and has a good attitude. I think his attitude towards life is also quite impressive. He likes exercise, likes racing cars, likes motorcycles, and likes a lot of sports. When I was speaking with him, I felt that his understanding and knowledge towards these far exceeded me. So I think Yibo is very interesting and is a contender who is quite moving. In the process of making this drama, you could clearly see his growth. From the first day to our last scene together a few months later, he brought Wei Ruolai's character to life, and I was able to see how quickly his acting improved. Yibo is a very capable and zealous young person. I learned a lot from being with him.

When you mentioned that you watched one of his movies, was it One and Only or Hidden Blade?

I didn't watch One and Only, but he did show me some clips before it started playing in theatres, how he was when he was dancing. I watched Hidden Blade. Although it was a Republican era show, Wei Ruolai is still quite different from the character he plays in Hidden Blade. Because of this, you can see how much Yibo has grown, as well as his understanding and interpretation of characters. In Hidden Blade you can see how his character has his morally gray moments, with a slight deranged, perverse and twisted tendency, even obstinate. Although Wei Ruolai can be stubborn, he is not as perverse as the character in Hidden Blade. This is not easy to achieve. Although both characters are dressed in suits, you can see that Yibo is able to convey the characters differently.

Why did Shen Tunan decide to take Wei Ruolai on as a disciple? Was it because even when his life was under threat, he wanted to protect Shen Tunan?

This is the more personal reason. The public reason is because Wei Ruolai is a talent hard to come by. I believe Shen Tunan saw a younger version of himself in Wei Ruolai. He was not only ambitious but also capable. When the more senior Shen Tunan saw this junior Shen Tunan, it was impossible for him not to feel touched. This is the public reason. The more personal reason is that, when a disciple is willing to sacrifice their own life and put up with such cruel punishment and yet still not confess anything, for such a devoted disciple, even if he was not yet officially his disciple, would a mentor not want him to be his disciple, to recruit such a capable person to be by his side (more literally: to recruit his capable general)? Both for public and personal reasons, Shen Tunan making this decision was certain to happen. And when he said to Chief Deng, "One may choose the most advantageous path, but in doing so, one must not forget morality." I believe this is one of Shen Tunan's principles. That he will not forget those important to him in pursuit of personal profit.

Wei Ruolai is willing to sacrifice his life to protect Shen Tunan, what is Shen Tunan willing to give up to protect Wei Ruolai?

I really want to say, if it was in extreme circumstances, if Wei Ruolai's survival, or if the value of his survival was greater than the value of Shen Tunan's survival, then I also believe that Shen Tunan would sacrifice himself, as Wei Ruolai's survival was more valuable. Shen Tunan is someone who is patriotic and wants what's best for the country. If Wei Ruolai, with his strengths and capabilities, is able to help the people, the country, and the state, no matter if it is in Soviet Jiangxi or if it is under the communist regime, then I don't think Shen Tunan would second guess this decision, he would not think, this is just a disciple, how much responsibility would he have to bear, I don't think he would have these thoughts. He is someone who sees the bigger picture and has far-reaching goals and a vision for the future.

If you could only choose between Huang Congyun or Wei Ruolai to invite over for new year's dinner, who would you pick? This is similar to a question you were asked previously, who would you choose to save if both were drowning?

I think sometimes, it's hard for a person to be unbiased or not show preferential treatment, this is just common for human beings. If you ask me this, then my answer is still, I would definitely still ask Wei Ruolai. Especially after having received blood—within Shen Tunan's body there remains a portion of Wei Ruolai's blood—how could he not ask Wei Ruolai to spend the new year's at his home? Or otherwise, would he ask Wei Ruolai to go back to his home in Jiangxi and invite Congyun instead? Why would he do this, right?

In the drinking scene where Ruolai becomes drunk, Shen Tunan carried him home. How many people in Shen Tunan's life does he show this amount of care towards?

I think, other than family, there is only this disciple. Of course, if you bring up Congyun, before Ruolai showed up, if he had gotten drunk on behalf of his mentor for such an important matter, I think Shen Tunan would still carry him, but these were not the circumstances. Wei Ruolai got drunk, so sure, he'll carry him—his own disciple, who is like family. After all, why would there be this serving of tea between mentor and disciple? Although it is not a blood tie, it is similar.

After Shen Tunan carried Wei Ruolai up, what did he discover?

He discovered that the wall was covered with Shen Tunan. The object of Wei Ruolai's interests, including being able to discover Shen Tunan's secret about Kunpeng, this was all the result of Wei Ruolai's efforts. I think in that moment, Shen Tunan was thinking, "This youngster!" But actually, I think he was very happy. As a Central Bank economic advisor, to be so worshipped by a young person, to be studied so closely, it is a very happy thing.

Was it hard to carry Yibo?

Not at all, Yibo is about 60kg or so, so it was not difficult. Also Yibo is quite lean with long limbs, so he was pretty easy to carry. It was just that the stairs in the alley building were too narrow and steep, so it still took some effort. But, although we did a few takes of the scene, it was still feasible, it was not a problem.

When Shen Tunan ended his relationship with Wei Ruolai, and he broke the teacup, was this something you came up with on the spot?

This was something I improvised. The script did not say that I had to throw this, it was a spur of the moment action. When we filmed this, it hit the table with a bang and it scared Ruolai, it startled Yibo. Because I did not tell him, and I also did not think that I would do this. Through the interaction between the two of us, he helped set the tone when he urgently pled his case, and it reached a breaking point. Sometimes when a person gets angry, they will externalize it in some way, and this action was impromptu. I think it came out quite well.

Some people say that Wang Yang's acting is such that he can even bring out the veins on his forehead, have you seen this review?

I don't think this is a marker of whether an actor is good at acting or not. I think, once an actor feels these genuine emotions, when you really get angry, then the veins will come out like that, that's because my feelings were really moved, I became immersed, and entered this character's state of mind. I think this is something a lot of actors do, I don't think it's anything special.

[blbeloved]

War of Faith 2024 Mini Review

If this scene looks to you suspiciously like a betrothal proposal, that’s because it is.

I’d really have to go all the way back to Killer and Healer 2021 to find a queer-coded Chinese drama that is as on point with all the BL elements as well as the advanced feminist queer politics between airing of The Untamed 2019 and now.

And just like every journey of true love the care, commitment, sacrifice, respect and devotion between Shen TuNan and Wei RuoLai just gets better, deeper and more homoerotically intense from here. Sadly I can’t add more than one video of the many highly charged commitments to stand side by side forever, acts of devotion, or extended eye-intercourse scenes between them in one post.

This scene of Wei RuoLai ascending as Shen TuNan descends the staircase of the apex Chinese financial institution is symbolic of where they were in their journey which was started in a hierarchy of two men unequally situated, and whose journey ends as equals united on the same, grand life path.

Over the course of 38 magnificently written, directed and acted episodes that go by way too fast, they exchange secrets, promises of fidelity, masterful financial strategies, life-saving blood infusions and finally common political purpose while the audience sits on the edge of its seat with baited breath a good 3/4 of the dramatic run time. Far too many scenes to count where I had to stand up while watching.

Despite all the galvanising tension there are many exquisite romantic, emotional scenes between these finance prodigy and banking genius, as well as regular points of levity. This post on AO3, where ShenLai have their own tag, is a good representation of how outrageously blatant Xiansheng’s affection for his Lai Lai is, including to the characters in the drama.

Link to original work here:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

War of Faith won several prestigious awards and critical as well as quantitative accolades for its splendid dramatic showcase.

An array of ass-kicking, revolutionary women are also a joy and an inspiration to watch and to root for along with women who dared to love in extremely turbulent times.

Also, as is becoming the tradition of every magnificent queer coded Chinese Drama, the creators have compiled a luxurious two-hour video of all the best Shen TuNan and Wei RuoLai scenes to the delight of ShenLai shippers.

If you need a complex, sophisticated, adult, action drama to form your next shipping obsession over War of Faith is on IQIYI and on YT.

[ohumrak]

Wang Yang 王阳 | 2025.02.14

[r3write-the-stars]

Shen Tunan and Wei Ruolai being in love with each other, a study in gifs

[yibo-best]

Who will speak first?

[hyog-blog]

Under the Microscope

This is such a neatly made little historical drama, based on an actual case from the Ming dynasty, that you could absolutely binge-watch it in a day or two (just 14 eps). What starts as a simple math problem, a discrepancy in numbers between the actual field measurements and what is written in the registry reports, later blooms into a huge case of corruption on different levels of the government system in 8 different counties along with tax evasion, murders, false witnesses, and whatnot.

Chinese bureaucratic system of that period seems like a real nightmare, even more so, when someone is trying to investigate a case (and, in many ways, things really haven't changed that much in modern times). The story revolves around Shuai Jia Mo, a math genius who lacks social skills and is probably mildly autistic. His parents die in a fire under mysterious circumstances. All he's left with are a few memories and the number 3530, which turns out to be the exact number of taxes his whole county is paying out of thin air. No one knows where the tax came from and why people have to pay it, so he starts the investigation with the help of his friend. Naturally, all the powers involved try to silence them as soon as possible.

I really had no idea a show about ancient Chinese taxes could be so captivating - mostly thanks to a well-written plot and superb acting, as well as interesting, shrewd, and excessively scheming characters. I guess this is a story more about human nature, that's why it's so relatable today, and the quest for justice, because for each bad and greedy person out there in the world, there is one with a pure heart and soul who wants to do good. And sometimes, that person could actually win (well, at least in a cdrama :)

We see quite a few charismatic faces here. Wang Yang (Teng Zijing in JOL) seems to be very compatible with Zhang Ruoyun. Here he starts as an antagonist, Cheng Renqing, a lawyer who defends anyone who pays him more (in this case, the bad guys). For a good half of the show, he's just an increasingly annoying lil' shit with a broad smile and a sharp tongue, but then things change, we get to know his story, and he turns to our boy's side eventually. Wu Gang (Chen PingPing from Joy of Life) is a welcome treat no matter what role he takes. He's so good at playing skin-crawling bad guys, it's just remarkable. I also fell in love with Feng Biyu, a feisty lady-owner of a meat shop, who can beat the hell out of quite a few bullies who go after her little bro and the ML.

Needless to say, Zhang Ruoyun's performance was top-notch. I can't imagine how hard it is to depict such a character - but I totally believed him! Both his math genius side and the slightly autistic side. It actually leads to some pretty funny scenes because of how straightforward he is, not understanding the intricacies of human behavior (and the lies and the games between people).

I was not-really-surprised to hear Liu Yuning's voice at the ending OST of the series (the guy is literally everywhere:) but ah, he's just such a good singer and the song really got me hooked from the first notes. I also want to say that style-wise the show is quite beautifully made, too. It's a true-to-life historical depiction of the Ming period, but the shots, the light, the colors - everything was just very pretty!

The show is a kind of detective case story about tax evasion, but the characters make it very alive and entertaining to watch. There's some drama sprinkled with a bit of comedy, some math, 0,1% romance, but everything comes together so nicely that you really don't have any complaints in the end. The show is exactly what it promises to be, not overlapping with other genres. I, personally, was in the mood for it and it's definitely a 10/10 for me.

P.S. also, there's a cat)))