The grand historical tv series production, “Legend of the Yuan Dynasty Founder (建元風雲, LOTYDF)”, a 150 million (yuan) investment by Beijing Sunshine Sheng Tong Company, with its majority of filming work done will soon be wrapping up production. Yesterday, the drama producer revealed that in the series, Kublai Khan and Liu Bingzhong portrayed by Hun Jun and Steven Ma, respectively, though in status ruler and minister, in truth, having been through together life and death situations, their mutual feelings are no different from real brothers'. In one particular scene whereby the ruler and his minister encountering a dangerous situation inadvertently produces an amusing outcome.
The drama of the magnificent but turbulent life of the Yuan Dynasty founder, Kublai Khan, is directed by Hong Kong golden director, Tsui Siu Ming who brought together a cast including Hu Jun (胡軍), Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼), Cai Wenyan (蔡雯艳), Wu Yue (吴樾), Tang Guo Qiang (唐國強), Gao Fa (高發), Steven Ma (馬浚偉) , Ray Lui (呂良偉), Ba Shen (巴森) and Ha Si Gao Wa (哈斯高娃) . The highlights of the series are its unique subject matter, its enormous investment, and its production assembly of big shots and support staffs, as well as its stellar cast and its new way of marketing, hence it's hot even before its broadcast, and unanimously being looked upon with favor by both the satellite tv stations and film distributers, alike. The series’ chief investor, Beijing Sunshine Sheng Tong Company’s chairman, Sheng Ta Song (盛漯松), whose company has previously successfully invested in such grand tv series productions such as: 《新水浒》《大国医》《大瓷商》《香格里拉》, presented the series thus: LOTYDF will interweave an artistry process into the history foundation fabric, consequently restoring the life of Kublai Khan through bits and pieces of details. One of the major the highlights in the series is Kublai Khan’s ruler-minister relationship with his loyal minister, Liu Bingzhong, who was dubbed the “Architect of the Yuan Dynasty”.
According to history chronicles, Liu Bingzhong was a great statesman during the Yuan Dynasty’s infancy years, possessing a deep well of knowledge. In fact, Kublai Khan using “Yuan” as the national title for his country was due to Liu’s recommendation. Liu was also an renowned scholar, architect and a verse poet. Liu was a former monk, roaming the four seas. After a chance meeting with Kublai Khan, Liu returned to secular life and resolutely assisted Kublai Khan to fight for hegemony of the country. LOTYF uses this basic fact as a spring board to vividly portray the whole process of this pair of ruler and minister’s first encounter, acquaintance, and finally their bonding. The series promotional director, Lu Ke, reveals that in the series, Kublai Khan and Liu did not take to each other in their first encounter, but following a series of shared tribulations that strongly intertwined their destinies, whereby they underwent numerous life and death situations together, and numerous times saving each other's life, that though by status and title they are ruler and minister, their mutual feelings are as close as real brothers'. What is notable is that this episode of “ruler-minister adventures” is quite dramatic and very amusing. Also, through the superb collaborative performances of both Hu Jun and Steven Ma, their scenes produced quite a “laughter fruit” effect.
Apparently, Steven Ma’s scenes have already ended at the end of February. Before he left he especially stopped by to say goodbye to Hu Jun and all the producers. After almost half a year of working together, they have developed a strong friendship.
No comments:
Post a Comment