“Get away from routines and formulas. Carefully scrutinise the drama in detail and you’ll see our dedication and sincerity!” declares Yang Xiaopei. This appears to be the challenge posed by the Ancient Love Poetry 千古玦尘 producer in response to the show’s critics who say actress Zhou Dongyu is unsuitable to play a goddess as the female lead in a xianxia. It is the actress’s first foray into the genre.
Specifically, this was her response to an article entitled “How Zhou Dongyu is Ugly” which recently surfaced online indicating the number of ways the award winning actress isn’t deserving to be cast as a goddess in the drama. From her height which the writer says makes her appear half a head shorter than her co-stars, to her appearance which apparently doesn’t scream “fairy-like”, to her happy facial expressions which goes against the expected dignified and cold countenance of a deity, the article pretty much sums up some viewer’s sentiments as to why she simply doesn’t fit the standard formula of a goddess.
“The Audience is Too Familiar with Our Voices”
Another beef viewers seem to have with the drama is the voice dubbing for Zhou Dongyu’s character which they criticised as really bad and which supposedly doesn’t “match” her face. Ji Guanlin, the seasoned voice actress who dubbed Zhou Dongyu’s voice in Ancient Love Poetry said it’s possible audiences just couldn’t reconcile Shang gu’s (the character played by Zhou Dongyu) voice because they were too familiar with both her and the actress’ speaking voices.
Simply put, she said “the voice actor cannot completely emulate another person so he can only try to grasp that feeling. At the same time, it may be because everyone is too familiar with Zhou Dongyu and myself’s voices, that’s why they feel such a sense of discomfort.” Moreover, Ji Guanlin said that Zhou Dongyu has the tendency to speak very fast, so sometimes a word or two in the sentence isn’t very clear.
“It’s not that she didn’t perform well, she acted very well, but the actor’s speaking habit is like this. In the process of voicing over, you must not only grasp the feeling the actor wants to convey, but also keep up with how fast they speak. You can’t say every word clearly, but at the same time, you can’t let the dialogue remain unclear as the original sound. Balancing this increases the difficulty” she says.
HL
She is definitely getting lots of bad comments throwing at her face…No deserving at all… And dubbing over her own voice is not her choice. Honestly, dont like drama, just switch off… dont be so bitchy towards this young actress…
Yamapisukii
Agreed. I’m watching it and she’s doing fine so idk what all those netizens are bitching about. Smh. Their beauty standards are so effed up over there as well.
Cherry
Lead actresses need better protection, Her company need to start suing the bitches who throw dirt and slander on her name. This is going too far
MsRenay
My first time seeing this actress and initially I thought it was the FL as a youngster. However, as the drama progresses, this Young Lady really gets to showcase her acting chops. She’s petite yeah but her stature give visual credibility to the character’s physical shortcomings. And did I said this Young Lady can act! Very talented and pretty young Lady. I thoroughly enjoyed Ancient Love Poetry ❤️❤️❤️.
Anon
I think the reaction was because of the high expectations. She is an award winning actress. To be honest, I found her acting quite awkward in this drama. It feels like a normally serious person trying to act cute and child-like and she couldn’t quite pull that off. And the speech was …. now I know why. Whatever the reasons, something just didn’t sit right with her performance.
And when audiences start to feel uncomfortable with the acting, usually there are other things to focus on, like beauty, costumes, etc. To be honest again, ZDY’s face is no beauty in the traditional sense, not because of any unrealistic standards. There are many other actors and actresses who also do not have “pretty” faces.
“Beautiful” is just a feeling on the whole package. For eg. Zhou Xun does not have a traditional pretty face as well, but man, her face, her expressions and her voice are simply arresting. One could watch her alone for a whole episode even if she was talking nonsense.
I think ZDY might be better suited for films which are short and fast and not for long, multi-episode dramas where every minute detail can be seen and scrutinized. This is just my feeling – I watched her republican drama Sparrow as well and I was also quite unimpressed with her performance.
Just trying to put in words why the audiences are reacting like this and are expressing it negatively. This kind of audience reaction is quite normal. One day, you are their darling. and can do no wrong. The next day, they throw you under the bus. That’s why leads are paid so much higher than the supporting and other cast. I wouldn’t worry for her. They know the game very well. She is already a veteran in this industry, no longer a freshie. This wouldn’t rock her position as a mega star.
Yes, I have dropped the drama as well, after the first few episodes. Not solely because of ZDY, but also the script.
Trinity
I get criticizing her on her performance and acting but it’s gross and cruel to attack her for her looks simply because she doesn’t fit their idea of beauty. She is unique and beautiful imo and it’s sad that her uniqueness is being attacked because her performance might not be stellar. I think you are just trying to justify cruelty and intense judgment. Actresses being attacked because they aren’t beautiful enough and are ugly has happened to other actresses before (and ones who have done well in the roles). This sadly isn’t new.
Farah
I love the drama and the script. Way better than fan service drama 🤷♀️
I like the drama
People just hate whe a “regular” looking actress thrives and shines, like they accept when a amazing beauty gets the role beause “yeah, I’ll never be as pretty as she is”, but when a normal looking person shines because of talent, they slam with “shes ugly, doesn’t deserve that” but its actually the critics own lack of self confidence that speaks through. Chinese are also criticising the Shang Chi actor calling him ugly. Is just such stupid hate, those actors are hardly ugly, they just don’t fit a Fan Bin Bin, Zhou Xun, Dilraba, CrystaL Liu image. I didn’t know the actress when I started watching it, I thought “yeah, she is different, but ok” the character growth just got me, shes Shangu for me now I also started to like that the most powerful being is petit, sometimes mythologies show powerful beings with small or fragile figures and I like because is unexpected. I do don’t like the dubbing, because its almost the oficial female lead voice for Xianxia, I mean, just choose another voice.
Atticus
Your reason really does make sense. Zhou Dongyu is known as a really good actress but netizens don’t like her here and it’s really just because of the “goddess” role. Mark Chao had the same disdainful comments made about him because of his appearance but then he proved himself in 10MoPB. I think it will be a lot harder for Zhou Dongyu to get people to like her in this role though even if she acts her part well because female drama viewers are so much more critical towards actresses, but I still hope she’s able to.
Lisa
I just want to say I was one of those non-believers of Mark Chao in the beginning, but he completely blew me away. Some people play seemingly cold characters and just put on a stoic face. But he portrayed the role so well with his small micro-expressions. I haven’t watched Ancient Love Poetry yet because I’ve gotten xian xia fatigue in the last few years… there’s just been so many! I might give it a watch later when all the eps are out and I can binge 🙂
Yooi
She’s pretty and i have no problem with her acting. My problem is the storyline. Meh. Just my preference tho.
Belle
TBH, i am not a fan of anyone. But i found this series kept me to continue watching. Interesting enough to not let me drop after the the 1st episode. There are no issues with the storyline though. Well organised; so far. Not draggy (the most important one)! -Compared to other xianxia/romance 😅
The casts so far acted well; from the leads to the supporting.
Baobao
I feel sorry for the production for opening with Douban ratings 4+ something. The show has its weakness but the score is too low. They are getting too much hate.
Anon
Zhou Dongyu is a film star so technically she has no real rival and no real haters since actors in her age range are only active on TV. I feel like no matter what people say here, a 4+ rating on Douban just shows that she doesn’t fit general beauty standards.
xiao yang
Leave your comment here…*Zhou dongyu is not that much of a perfect beauty, but we have been admit beauty belong to the heart of the beholder.So….no hard feelings… but to me she more prettier than me
Landystravel
She’s not the classic beauty but I’m enjoying the series so far. It gets better and the ML and FL are so cute together.