Jing Boran and Song Weilong’s historical detective mystery The Society of Four Leaves 张公案 just popped out a bloody great looking trailer this week. And together with the release also comes a brand new English title A League of Nobleman which sounds very secret society-ish imho. Rightly so because while Zhang Gongan’s author Da Feng Gua Guo is known for her BL novel Peach Blossom Debt, A League of Nobleman is in fact a crime mystery with Jing Boran and Song Weilong as kinda like an ancient version of Watson and Holmes! But are they or aren’t they allies?
From the drama’s trailer, Minister Lan Jue proposes Zhang Ping, the examination candidate, to also participate in the investigation. That means he trusts the scholar’s deductive skills right? But then the trailer also hints that Lan Jue is worried “someone” is about to solve the case. If he’s talking about Zhang Ping why would he be worried if his goal was to solve the case in the first place? Meanwhile, as events progress, a concerned Zhang Ping wonders whether he has been deceived by Master Lan again. Or is there something more sinister at play?
For a mystery lover, I really liked the look and feel of the trailer, particularly all the dark red tones which give the drama an extra dash of richness on top of the big conundrum baffling both our protagonists. All the extra elements too like the masked faces, chemistry shenanigans, potential red herrings and fiery explosions only serve to peak your curiosity. Besides, why did both the minister and Zhang Ping end up inside a jail? You’ll also get a laugh out of Song Weilong singing a wee bit off key from his jail cell to the irritation of the cell’s other occupants including Jing Boran.
Actors Names are Alphabetically Ordered
Also a thing to note about top billing for this drama is that production has in fact been very very careful to maintain that the actor’s names indicated are ordered alphabetically based on their last names. I guess they just want to avoid anymore potential blow ups about this all together you know? Remember how Leo Wu Lei was supposed to have been blacklisted from Tencent because of top billing issues for this series?
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