As the costume romance drama The Prisoner of Beauty continues to trend, Liu Duanduan’s portrayal of second male lead Wei Yan faced backlash. Originally a layered character in the novel, Wei Yan is depicted in the series as cunning and harboring forbidden feelings for Song Zu’er’s heroine, his cousin-in-law Xiao Qiao. Some criticize the adaptation for turning a complex figure into a “too over the top” caricature, while others praise Liu Duanduan—who’s a trained theater actor—for his intensely dynamic performance.
In response, the 38-year-old actor posted on social media: “It’s possible that Wei Shi Jun’s way of expressing himself earlier made you feel uncomfortable. But please remember to watch Zhe Yao together with us. Thank you, thank you all. To all the fans on the frontlines, you’ve worked hard. Sorry for the trouble.” He also included a meme that stirred further backlash. The image mocked viewers for complaining too soon and implied they’d be emotionally wrecked later—a tone some found dismissive. Liu Duanduan quickly edited the post to remove the image. Fans later clarified that the meme was actually from the drama, quoting the character, not the actor himself.
Director Deng Ke is known for bold reinterpretations, and Wei Yan’s portrayal is certainly one of them. Whether he’s drunkenly sketching Xiao Qiao’s silhouette or shrinking in shame after a heated confrontation, Liu Duanduan brings dramatic flair to a man both unhinged and flamboyantly flirtatious.
Some argue the adaptation strays too far from the source. Love it or hate it, Liu Duanduan has undeniably kept everyone talking.
Photo: Liu Duan Duan
Avarachika
I only caught up to ep 7. Haven’t watched further to see how much they have changed. I was okay with the add ons, but some scenes that they pulled from the novel just didn’t fall into the right places/right moment and I feel like they were just piecing it together.
Ash
I’m glad I don’t read Chinese and will never have to compare the drama against the original story. And why can’t the drama be better than the story anyway? The Lord of the Rings series were definitely an improvement over the thick volumes I had to read; they had to take some creative liberties when making the movies too.
avarachika
I don’t read Chinese, just the English translations. If a drama can outshine the novel, then that’s an A++ in my book.
For some readers like me, and I’m not talking for everyone, but it can be tough to fully switch over to loving the drama adaptation when you already have a deep attachment to the source material. If they start messing with the timeline or completely changing the vibe of key moments, then it’s bound to get compared. I get that explicit scenes have to be toned down for censorship, and I’m fine with that. That said, I’m all for adding scenes that expand the world or flesh out characters, as long as it doesn’t lose/rush the core essence of the story. Now, if I didn’t have attachment to the source material then I wouldn’t even be able to compare in the first place LOL.
I’ve never read Lord of the Rings before, but the movies are still some of my all-time favorites.
Coralie
When I tried reading LoTR, it bored me with its verbose and flowery language. I can understand given the time of its composition, that there wasn’t a lot of external graphics or technology that could capture the world building as much as detailed texts.
But when I watched the movie, it bored me again! Compared to Asian dramas, I find the drama and action in most western movies really pale in comparison. What did you love about the movie?
As to the current TV series, there are definitely some tidbits they exaggerated – like the whole consumed by revenge theme. The ML of the novel didn’t outwardly display hatred – wariness, suspicious, but not outright hatred – nope. I’m still on episode 2, so it’s been slow moving for me. The FL also didn’t really solve any big problems that I could remember, but my memory is fuzzy.
Avarachika
😂 My sister-in-law couldn’t get into it either. She fell asleep. I watched it when I was younger, and at that time, I was into the fantasy genre with a world setting like Middle-earth. I loved the adventure, the action, the characters, the worldbuilding, and the design of the villains. I can’t say the same for Hobbit or Rings of Power; those two bored me.
Yes, as I grew up, I realized that Western television dramas pale in comparison to Asian dramas. However, I can’t say the same for all movies, although I appreciate the golden era of Hong Kong cinema and occasionally come across some good Korean movies. I feel like Western movies are declining too; they keep recycling or doing continuation of movies.
When it comes to books and movies, I approach them differently. I don’t mind watching other genres except horror or sci-fi, but I usually stick to romance for reading.
For TPOB, I find it funny how some viewers are more forgiving of the male lead’s actions maybe because it’s Liu Yu Ning, but in the novel, the male lead wasn’t as well-received 😆. I think you hit the nail on the head regarding why I can’t fully get into the drama. The male lead and female lead in the drama, while similar to the novel, still have notable differences. In the drama, the part where female lead solves a big problems early on was an add on. Still, I’ll wait for the drama to finish airing and pick it back up to see how the rest unfolds.
Ash
“… similar to the drama, but still have notable differences” I think that is one of the reasons people feel let-down when watching a drama after having immersed in the book. Cos, when we read, we build up our own imagery of the characters, the places, the expectations – it’s very personal. However, the drama or movie is built on other people’s imagery and when they don’t match to ours, we feel let down. I remember reading “The Wuthering Heights” and to my mind then, the ML was just a thoroughly hateful, selfish and self-pitying weak character, Yet, when I watched the drama, I felt pity and compassion for what he became.
Maybe we can do credit to both and enjoy them as they are. Both have their strengths. Eg. I could never have imagined the grandeur and majesty of many scenes in LOTR just reading the book – the cinematography, the massiveness of clashing armies, the beautiful scenery, the sounds, the music.
And I do agree that the current Hollywood dramas & movies are a pale comparison to Chinese dramas – they basically revolved around violence and s** with nothing deeper than that. Gone are the days of Forest Gump and sitcoms which are witty and wholesome.
Coralie
I grew up on a diet of Asian dramas and movies. The olden days of “Journey to the West,” “A Step into the Past,” “Gods of Honor,” “Eternal Happiness,” etc. amongst other truly great epics were my childhood and helped define great entertainment. So nowadays, even with shows like Game of Thrones, I’m feeling like Western entertainment lags behind what’s truly awe-inspiring. And/or wholesome for the family.
Where Western shows had an upper hand in was a tighter plot, but also more variety. I also love love love their hilarious sitcoms and witty dialogues. A lot of this still something Asian entertainment is lacking in, though it exists. Nowadays, fun sitcoms are hard to find and wholesomeness is no longer the main focus (short of kid shows like Bluey.) Which is why I default back to Asian shows (less on movies, though I’ve never been a fan of movies to begin with.)
I brought up LoTR because it’s considered a contemporary legend, along with all the other greats like A Hundred Years of Solitude (which is, imo, vastly overrated.) Anyways, I am not impressed by Western literature in terms of plots, but I am impressed by their scope of genres. Asian shows have got nothing on Western in terms of scifi, comedy and technique. But Western have got nothing on Asian entertainment in terms of grandeur, scale of storylines and depth.
I’m glad to understand both so I can enjoy all they got to offer.
Applefish
Have you seen the wheel of time? I have to say, the wheel of time is getting up there with the actions of cdrama. The plot is also tight enough. The Witcher season 1 was awesome, but season 2 n 3 literally derailed the whole IP. I’ve never been impressed with TLOTR lol, nor GOT 🙄 GOT is more the glory and those harem palace fighting drama than fantasy for me lol.
Talking about adaptation, one has to talk about TTEOTM, I read the book before the drama, and they picked the right actors for it. When you read the book, you can see these actors as them, because the character’s mannerisms are very much BL and LYX. It was a disappointment that LYX’s TTJ got white washed, n ppl don’t talk about it as his book version is a psychopath and too dark for the cdrama viewers lol, and because of that, it undermined BL’s LSS. However, the drama managed to weave all the important events correctly (minus 1 that was super crucial), and even though it ended with an OE rather than a straight out HE like the book, it’s still a very good adaptation. Is it better? It’s questionable, to some – yes, to LYX’s fans – definitely, to me, a book lover – leaves much to be desired. And if you look at One and Only and forever and ever, the book, while short, anchor the whole thing on the relationship between the two leads. In the modern time, with ML has no big stake, n there is nothing sizzling about their relationship due to the route the drama took (maybe because of Allen Ren’a clause), their love story feels mid, n the drama as a whole, while watchable, has nothing to go for 🫤 in the book, he’s cold, but he has a hot for his wife lol, it’s subtle, but it’s of a burning lover. So depending on how a drama adapt, if they manage to keep the relationship dynamics the same, expanding the world will make it better so long as the expansion is short, precise n logical. But if the main point of the novel is their fiery relationship, n you have to cool it down due to censorship, the whole adaptation is already mid lol.
I also grew up with Journey to the west, Liao zhai, journey to the east (the 8 fairies from Singapore + Taiwan production), and I found back then the versatility was sooooo great. Nowadays, it’s just all the same, minus a few lol
Dominique
Having read the novel, I have to say … Wei Yan is not that complex of a character.