Peng Guanying and Cai Wenjing’s urban suspense drama The Confidence 阳光之下 has been the talk of the town lately, but instead of its exceptional opening week ranking that saw Douban ratings open at a high of 8.0!, what has Netizens all hot and bothered are actually the changes to the actor’s role and his diminished screen time in the show! Viewers have been lamenting the fact that Feng Xiaosheng – Peng Guanying’s character, is practically down to almost a supporting role instead of the main lead. Not that there’s anything wrong with being in a supporting role of course but long time fans of author Xian Cheng’s novel would know that super villain Feng Xiaosheng should actually be its main focus.
When the drama first published its plot synopsis, we knew early on that the changes meant Cai Wenjing’s He Yan will be front and centre in the story instead of Feng Xiaosheng. In fact, even the name of Peng Guanying’s character was changed to Feng Xiaosheng from the original Fu Shenxing .. maybe to distance his drama character a bit from the novel? I guess with Feng Xiaosheng aka Fu Shenxing being the baddie in the original novel – breaking laws and causing irreparable damage to He Yan, putting him as the main lead might not be such a good idea especially with the censors. However, nobody seemed to expect Peng Guanying getting so little screen time at all! In fact in episode 6 alone, the actor was only on screen for a measly forty seconds. Blink and you’ll almost miss him – that’s probably why some Netizens have jokingly compared his appearances to that of an ad or commercial popping in mid-play!
Despite the lamentable direction Peng Guanying’s role has taken, the series seems to be doing rather well for its opening week. But as to whether they can manage to sustain this position is another matter.
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