C-Drama Alert: Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花

Theres’s another drama adaptation that will be airing soon and this is the highly anticipated and highly promoted Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms 三生三世十里桃花 based on the novel by TangQi GongZi 唐七公子 of the same name.

“After a devastating war, the immortal tribe paid a heavy price to seal the demon lord. 70,000 years later, in an attempt to re-seal the demon lord who broke free, Bai Qian was sent to the mortal realm. In the mortal world, she meets Ye Hua and falls in love with him. Su Jin, who is jealous of Ye Hua’s love for Bai Qian, intentionally creates a series of misunderstanding between them and causes Bai Qian to lose her eyes. Thinking that Ye Hua has betrayed her, the devastated Bai Qian jumps off from the Zhu Xian Terrace. At her request, all her memories have been erased and she forgets Ye Hua. Hundred years later, the two meets again as deities. Another lifetime another world, Ye Hua recognizes Bai Qian but the latter remains indifferent. Three lives three worlds, her and him, are they fated to bear an entangling loveline?”

Credit: wikipedia.org

What has made this drama be even more anticipated is that there will also be a movie version. The movie version starring Crystal Liu Yifei 劉亦菲 and Yang Yang 楊洋 was actually announced to be made before the drama version was announced, so you could say that the announcement and buzz of the movie had helped the drama version. Of course some of the buzz will be comparisons but I think the both versions will have different things to offer. I’ll get into more details in the respective posts (I’ll be doing a movie anticipation post as well, how can I not when it stars two hot actors/actress). There is actually also a web drama version too… but I know nothing about it and it stars a bunch of nugus so it is in way relevant to this at all!

Like in the case of General and I I had read the novel first so I’m super excited as I really like the novel. I however read the English translation and I have to thank hamster428 for translating the novel (I won’t be posting the novel here but for those that would like to read it please leave a comment with your email and I’ll email it).
The problem with adaptations is that you are always going to compare the drama to the original novel and I hope I will not be as disappointed as I was with General and I. I really enjoyed the novel although it did have a lot of problems, the romance, the angst, the misunderstandings, the love, it was all there. I was able to block out the the plot holes and the unnecessary plot devices. The novel tried to build a backstory, tried to show you what happened to our protagonists to lead them to where they are now- remember this story spans over three life times so of course there’ll be a bit of story to tell. But ultimately the novel never quite finish what it tried to start, there wasn’t enough detail more like a glimpse that you didn’t really need. Maybe it’s because of the scandal? There is a currently a plagiarism scandal involving TangQi GongZi 唐七公子 and TLTWTMPB (and his other works as well I believe). It’s said that TLTWTMPB is plagiarised from a Chinese Xianxia 仙俠小說 BL novel (BL stands for Boy’s Love) and this is a genre that is banned in China which is why not many people know about that novel. Because I’m not too aware of the details surrounding this issue I won’t dive into.

TLTWTMPB has secured leads in the form of Chinese A-list actress Yang Mi 楊冪 and Taiwanese actor Mark Chao 趙又廷, playing Bai Qian/Su Su 白淺/素素 and Ye Hua 夜華. Yang Mi is no stranger to period dramas and shes often hailed as an goddess. Meaning she is one of the few Chinese actress that look ‘goddessly’ in ancient period costumes (the ultimate goddess coincidentally will be playing the same role but in the movie version). I’m not quite sure if I would use the word goddess for Yang Mi, sure she is gorgeous but I don’t get goddness vibes from her, it’s a case of once you see the ultimate nothing else compares. However I won’t contest her casting for this drama, I’m actually quite pleased as there is no doubt that she is an A-list actress regardless of her flaws, I have seen her acting grow and improve.

Mark Chao on the other hand I’m not so sure about…. I’ve only ever seen him in the Taiwanese drama Black & White 痞子英雄 and the movie Monga 艋舺. I only watched B&W for my bae Vic Chou 周渝民 and Monga for Ethan Juan 阮經天. B&W gave Mark the surprise break through that no one saw coming, I don’t think anyone expected this drama to do as well as it did or that he would get as much attention as he did. To be honest Vic lead that drama, it was the drama that made him a serious actor and Mark just rode the wave and robbed Vic of his Best Actor Golden Bell Award 金鐘獎. I couldn’t even understand how Mark was even nominated… I guess that incident made me a little bias against Mark. B&W propelled him to ‘movie actor’ status as he’s only ever done movies since B&W (he did have a guest role in Midnight Diner 深夜食堂 but I won’t count that) and TLTWTMPB will be his second TV drama and in I believe his first period TV drama. From what I have seen of Mark, I don’t particularly think he is that great of an acting, certainly not male lead material. But that was eight years ago and he definitely would have had the time to sharpen his knife. So I really haven’t seen enough of his acting but but in terms of looks he just doesn’t look right for Ye Hua. I had envisioned an actor like Wallace Huo 霍建華, Yang Yang 楊洋 fitting the role perfectly, but would even be happy with actors such as Eddie Pang 彭于晏, Feng Shao Feng 馮紹峰 and even babyfaced Li Yi Feng 李易峰.

There’s nothing I can do now about the casting now (not like I could before) and just hope that the script and chemistry is good enough for me to ignore any acting stiffness or awkwardness. I really hope that the writers were able to deepen the backstory and fill the hole the novel gave me, as its a TV drama I’m sure they have the time to. Chinese dramas are usually pretty long so that won’t be an issue.

This drama is a about a god and a goddess who have met and fallen in love without knowing each other’s true identity. Those around them create situations and misunderstandings occur, however be it pride or be it stubbornness no one wants to be the one to clear up any of the misunderstandings or give any sort of explanation. The good old saying of “it doesn’t help or change anything” seems to be the excuse of being a mute. It’s not all dark and depressing, throw in Little Dough 糯米糰子 in with the mix to lighten and bring a smile to your face and everything will be alright. Apart from the plot above, I’ve tried to not go into the story line too much as I don’t want to give too much away and we know with adaptations the story can differ from the novel. However watching the making of video and the teaser MV, from what I can tell and see the drama is staying pretty true to the novel.

The production team has released some pretty posters and I think they do suit the ‘fairy’, ‘deity’ background of the drama. The images I have used in this post are the official posters or are images from the drama officially released by the production company. The feature image however is of the novel, which was split into three books.

 

 

 

Doesn’t Yang Mi just look so beautiful!!

 

 

 

Look at that hair on Mark….. Horrendous…

 

 

 

 

I had to include this as it was just too pretty not too!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out the ‘making of’ video below, really gives you a glimpse of all the effort that went into the TV drama and its definitely a big budget production.

 

I leave you with the music video of the official ending theme song called 涼涼 sung by Aska Yang 楊宗緯 and Zhang Bi Chen 張碧晨. This also acts as a trailer to the drama and you can see what’s to be expected from the series.