全职高手 - The King's Avatar

The King's Avatar (全职高手) is an 2019 drama out of Zhong Guo. The series stars Yang Yang and Jiang Shuying aka Maggie Jiang. There is a large list of supporting cast that go in and out of focus. But the focus stays on Yang Yang's character. I caught this on and off on Netflix from December 2020 through January 2021. But stopped. I finished the last 2/3s during 2021 March and April.



Yang Yang plays Ye Qiu, who is the captain of a Glory team that just won the championship. However, Qiu's management wants to make changes to make more money. Qiu is forced out in a bad way. Qiu wants to keep a low profile and changes his name to Ye Xiu. As Xiu, he applies as a IT network admin working at an e-games shop. There Xiu, regains his love for Glory and re-builds a team to compete. Can Xiu resurrect his gaming life after being forced out.



This series runs a quick 40 episodes. At the end, our family was hoping for another 20. It is rare that we feel this way from a 40 episode series. But we did. There are so many 50+ episode series that do not deserve it. This one did.

I recently started rewatching here and there and I cannot believe how well made it is. This is 2022 now and it has held up against the test of time. Yang Yang is the highlight of the series. But the concept and the many storylines of the team that is built was done extremely well too.

Our whole family is waiting for the 2 series, but it looks like there are no plans. So sad. Yang Yang is a little older and moved over to other types of roles since. E-sports is huge in Zhong guo, but the other series about this are mainly based on LOL, vs a fictional one of Glory.

且试天下 - Who Rules The World

且试天下 (Who Rules The World) is an 2022 wuxia series out of Zhong Guo. The series stars Yang Yang and Zhou Lusi. The supporting cast include Xuan Lu, Lai Yi, Liu Ruilin, Zhang Feng Yi, Zhang Tian Yang, and Carmen Lee. The cast is quite massive as there are characters in 6 states and the larger Dadong empire. The series runs 40 episodes and was released over 5 weeks. I caught this via Youtube and now on Netflix.



The series is about Yang Yang's character of Hei Fengxi and his adventures in the martial world. Bai Fengxi is his opposite in many ways. Will this "opposites attrach" storyline lead to an happy ending? As the story goes, they face many obstacles on their way to love. From jiang hu to the imperial courts, they must overcome obstacles and enemies' plots.



I initially started this series on Tencent Youtube, but transitioned to Netflix, which is a week behind the broadcast in Zhong Guo. Which meant we had to wait. This was a very intriguing series for being simple and very complex in other areas. I liked the simplicity of the 6 states reporting to a master empire. I liked that each state had a leader much like the emperor of their state. The leaders were free to interact with the population without protection etc. I also liked that they had classic wuxia elements like Qinggong (輕功) and Neili (内力) but didn't make them all powerful.



I also enjoyed the love story and how the leads eventually got together. The inner fightings of all the groups involved were interesting and kept me in the series. All in all, I liked the series and already started re-watching bits and pieces of the earlier episodes. It would be impossible to watch the series from the middle.



Lastly...the leads were awesome. Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi did an amazing job of being able to act out their duo lives. They were both hard NOT to like. Yang Yang is definitely one of my favorites in the early 30s category. Zhao Lusi continues to impress me since seeing her on the acting variety show and "I Hear You".

The Left Ear - 左耳

The Left Ear (左耳) is an 2015 film out of Zhong Guo. The film stars Chen Duling, Ou Hao, Yang Yang, and Ma Sichun. The movie is the directorial debut of Alec Su. The end credit song was sung by Zhao Wei. The saw this at a local AMC movie theater.

The year is 2005. 4 seniors in high school begin their 100 day march to their college entrance exams. Li Er, the main protagonist of the film, cannot hear out of left ear. Li Er is secretly in love with a prominent member of the senior class, Xu Yi. This secret crush comes out in mysterious ways. However, Xu Yi's got an enemy in Zhang Yang. After a basketball game, Zhang Yang gets the attention of a local harlot, Li Bala. Bala is a singer at a local bar and draws the wrong crowd. Bala isn't shy about professing her love to Zhang. Even though Zhang is romantically linked to Guan Xiaotong. Bala eventually gets Zhang's attention. However, the weave of lies that fall ahead are many. Those lies eventually lead to the death of Bala. Li Er blames her death on Zhang and tries to make sense of her life at the same time.



Oh man, where do I even start. I might be too old for this stuff. But drama begets drama. The four main characters look for drama in their lives and get it. From secret lies to secret crushes, its predicated on bad decision making. Coming of age stories are based on innocence to bad to coming of age. You gotta do something bad to learn from it and turn around for the better. Which is what Hollywoods been selling for years. Looks like its hopped over to the other side of the pacific. As a parent and as someone who isn't that far removed from making life decisions, the emotions of people are heightened in a movie. You've got 2 hours to stuff years of emotions in scenes.

Outside of Ma, the rest of the cast had three facial expressions, no emotion, happy, and angry. Ma was the most resourceful in scenes, being naughty and good at the same time. Which lead to a constant questioning of the actions on screen. I was asking myself if its real or more deception. Because of the deception at the beginning of the film and the lack thereafter, I was wondering all movie. Which doesn't allow me to come along for the ride as their character develops.

If you like a coming of age story, this isn't bad. It also isn't good if you've use to the stuff out of USA recently. However, some of the emotions their dealing with isn't so much different than what could appear in a 80s brat pack film, like St. Elmo Fire. Trying to figure life out in the midst of chaos, deception, and the disgust of "friendship".