Jade Palace Lock Heart 《宫锁心玉》 - Yang Mi, Feng Shao Feng, Mickey He

[therainhouse]

Alec has a great voice, but I did mention in my last post "except for singers-turned-actors", which he falls under. (Though I actually think he's a better actor than singer and I didn't even know he used to be a singer till years after seeing him in HZGG!) Same goes for Peter Ho (or did he start acting first? I'm not too sure about the timeline with him...but for him is the opposite, I think his singing is better than his acting).

I don't really watch TVB series, so I'm not really familiar with those actors...never heard Chen Kun either.

I haven't heard Deng Chao sing. I think I will, soon.

Uh, I don't know how to be a professional critic although I can tell, like, most of you, that Yang Mi has difficulty with the notes. I'm not good at this, and I don't know how to analyse like you're doing, which is rather impressive, by the way, but I think... I can tell when someone has a nice voice. Haha.

Peter's foray into the entertainment industry started with modelling. 1998, his first album was released in Taiwan, then he moved on to Hong Kong. His first drama series was aired in 2000. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Um.. if you want to listen to the old TVB songs sung by Flora, just tell me. Or it might be on YouTube.

Gallen Lo sang 仍然在痛 for the TVB drama Secret of the Heart.

Flora sang one with Andy Hui and one with William So. And there are a few others too.

Flora Chan, William So. 固定伴侶 for TVB drama 大喜之家.

Flora Chan, Andy Hui 苦口良药 for TVB drama A Herbalist Affair.

Oh, I missed out on Bowie Lam. He sang the themesong for War and Beauty. I liked that.

Dicky Cheung can sing too. He won a singing competition, began both his music and acting career at the same time. Acting didn't work out, he went back to singing, then made it big with a HK drama.

So, he's a singer turned actor, I guess.

So, what you're saying is that Mickey He is up there on your list along with Deng Chao. Like if you didn't know they were actors, you would think that they're singers? I don't really know how to tell who's professional and who's not. Only that Yang Mi's vocal range is really short. People talk about Lin Chiling having a baby doll voice, here we have Yang Mi who is a doll and has a baby doll's voice too. Don't get me wrong, peeps, I'm a fan of Yang Mi's, meant it as a neutral comment. I mean, Yang Mi does have the sort of voice that you imagine would come from a porcelain doll.

[therainhouse]

So basically good YM vs bad YM right. I would go berserk if I were Kang Xi, isn't some sort of law about against witch craft back in those day. Is Sonjia Kang Xi concubine or one of the prince concubine?

Okay.. here's what we have..

Good

Qingchuan (Yang Mi)
Qingchuan thought she liked Yinzhen but then she saw what he was really like and Yinsi was always there for her. Guess all the teasing got to her after all.
Yinsi (FSF)
Consort Liang/Yinsi's mother/She came from the future, too. (Maggie Siu)
14th prince
Ning Xiang (the girl in the tribal costume)
Jinzhi (Yinzhen's first wife)

Neutral

Yinzhen (Mickey He) He's good at first, then because he hurt Qingchuan in some ways, Qingchuan turned against him and he saw it as betrayal. Then Yinzhen really started his hate campaign against Yinsi.

Suyan (Tong Liya) in love with Yinzhen but 14th prince falls in love with her. She decides to help Yinzhen cause she loves him. So, she does some bad things to Qingchuan to help Yinzhen.

Kang Xi

Crown prince and wife

Bad
Suo Ni (Sonija Kwok)
But, she's not completely heartless. Yu Zheng's aim is to show why she does what she does. She has her reasons. She is one of Kang Xi's concubines. But, she's not at the same rank as Consort De and Consort Liang.

Hua Ying (Yang Mi)
There is not much information about her, except that she takes Qingchuan's place on the wedding night and that she's evil but that she loves Yinsi. And that Yinsi shoots her, of course.

But, that doesn't necessarily mean Hua Ying is going to die on the night Yinsi shoots her.


We know that Yinzhen is good at first, but he slowly becomes bad. But, he still longs for Qingchuan. Which is why Yinzhen is, to me, the main villain.

[mango_cake]

I haven't heard Deng Chao sing. I think I will, soon.

Uh, I don't know how to be a professional critic although I can tell, like, most of you, that Yang Mi has difficulty with the notes. I'm not good at this, and I don't know how to analyse like you're doing, which is rather impressive, by the way, but I think... I can tell when someone has a nice voice. Haha.

Peter's foray into the entertainment industry started with modelling. 1998, his first album was released in Taiwan, then he moved on to Hong Kong. His first drama series was aired in 2000. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Um.. if you want to listen to the old TVB songs sung by Flora, just tell me. Or it might be on YouTube.

Gallen Lo sang 仍然在痛 for the TVB drama Secret of the Heart.

Flora sang one with Andy Hui and one with William So. And there are a few others too.

Flora Chan, William So. 固定伴侶 for TVB drama 大喜之家.

Flora Chan, Andy Hui 苦口良药 for TVB drama A Herbalist Affair.

Oh, I missed out on Bowie Lam. He sang the themesong for War and Beauty. I liked that.

Dicky Cheung can sing too. He won a singing competition, began both his music and acting career at the same time. Acting didn't work out, he went back to singing, then made it big with a HK drama.

So, he's a singer turned actor, I guess.

So, what you're saying is that Mickey He is up there on your list along with Deng Chao. Like if you didn't know they were actors, you would think that they're singers? I don't really know how to tell who's professional and who's not. Only that Yang Mi's vocal range is really short. People talk about Lin Chiling having a baby doll voice, here we have Yang Mi who is a doll and has a baby doll's voice too. Don't get me wrong, peeps, I'm a fan of Yang Mi's, meant it as a neutral comment. I mean, Yang Mi does have the sort of voice that you imagine would come from a porcelain doll.

Haha, oh dear, don't get me wrong, I am by NO MEANS a professional critic and I don't know if my judgment is actually correct! I just meant that I am pretty critical of actors singing because I generally feel they should leave the singing to actual singers--not that I am a good critic or anything!

Basically I just go by what I "feel"...as in, with most actors, I actually feel a bit awkward/uncomfortable and cringe when they try to hit the low/high notes. A bit of second-hand embarrassment, if you will. I get this with all the actors mentioned before (HXM, Sun Li, Vic, Barbie, YM...also many others like Ruby, LYF, etc etc). Some pull it off better than others though. But I agree YM has a very cute-sy, "doll-like" voice. I'm also a big fan of her acting but I'm glad she gets her voice dubbed over in her series (not just her--it might be an unpopular opinion but I much prefer the professional dubbers for most actors/actresses).

But yes, I do mean that with Mickey & Deng Chao, I could definitely mistake them for actual singers! Actually I've only heard one of DC's songs (the one he did for HSDS) but it was quite impressive. Maybe they just did a great job editing it though, sometimes it's hard to tell with the technology these days!

I will try to check out the singing of the HK actors you mentioned since I generally don't really pay much attention to HK entertainment...I'd definitely be glad for any recommendations though!

[therainhouse]

Oh, I see, mango_cake, I will definitely send my recommendations your way.

Since we've kinda gone off topic, there's this site I visit for song recommendations. chinesealbumart.com

She does a 'Songs Ringing in My Mind' post every month.

This is for everyone here who likes Chinese or Cantonese songs. It's in the category My Music List.

[therainhouse]

If anyone wants the songs to Gong, I suppose you can PM me. But, bear in mind that there's that freaking robotic voice saying 'This is a demo.' Some of the songs have that, some don't. It's all in MP3 format.

My advice of course is to wait for a while to get HQ versions.

[bachtuyet]

people stick to topic which is this series, otherwise visit another blog

[therainhouse]

Has this been posted already?

Do you guys know about the airdate? January 2, 2011 on HunanTV.

Wait, wait, don't take my word for it, I mean, I saw this posted in the threads and it is most likely in January and it's like an 87% chance of airing on that date and airing on HunanTV.

Tan Xuan is driving me nuts, he said the new trailer would be released in a few days and it still hasn't been released. The waiting is making me go crazy. Seriously have to distract myself.

[therainhouse]

If she a prince consort why is she in such a different cultural custom that all?

The girl wearing tribal dress is Ningxiang, she is the 13th prince's wife.

It could be that that scene was before she married the 13th prince or it could be that the emperor made an exception for her.

[therainhouse]

Yang Mi plays Luo Qingchuan 洛晴川, when she gets transported to the Qing dynasty through some time portal, she takes on the Manchurian last name of Guoluoluo 郭洛罗. So, in the Qing dynasty, her full name is Guoluoluo Qingchuan.

Huaying 花影 is physically identical to Qingchuan but she is evil and she's in love with Yinsi as well. Huaying and Qingchuan are very different in character.

So, Yang Mi plays 2 roles here. Qingchuan and Huaying.

[swtaznlaydee]

Demo music video:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/x8S5WETlPTQ/
New scenes that weren't shown in the trailer.

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[therainhouse]

爱的供养，Yang Mi's version has been uploaded onto Baidu.

If you want to download it, here.

http://mp3.baidu.com/m?tn=baidump3&c...C4%B9%A9%D1%F8

[kengyew]

Feng Shaofeng is looking kinda chubby and never liked Mickey's big nose. The girls are more of a draw for me, especially Yang Mi. I still wish she didn't sing in here though, because her auto-tuned voice sounds very fake.

[bachtuyet]

Does that mean the evil YM die at the beginning of series? I believe in one of trailer, an arrow YM, that mean it kill evil one right?

[therainhouse]

Does that mean the evil YM die at the beginning of series? I believe in one of trailer, an arrow YM, that mean it kill evil one right?

bachtuyet, I do not know when Hua Ying/evil Yang Mi (so cute that you're referring to the character that way) will die.

I believe that picture with the one of the arrow in her chest is Hua Ying. Because, in one of Yu Zheng's blog posts, I saw this picture.

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with this caption. 她，一心一意，只想做他的女人，到头来却要死在他的箭下，他心里只有她，哪怕同样的容貌也容不 下……

Translated, it means this.

She only wanted to be his woman but in the end, she had to die by his arrow. His heart only contained her, even if she was identical to her..

The italics were not included in the original caption. This is a very literal translation. By her, I think Yu Zheng meant that Qingchuan (Yang Mi). The man in question here is obviously Yinsi (Feng Shaofeng). The woman who had to die by his arrow is presumably Huaying (also played by Yang Mi)

But then, in another blog post, he posted this still.

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with this caption.
她的结局是在不断的宫斗过程中学会长大，学会隐忍，学会什么是真正爱一个人……
Translated. The ending for her was to learn and grow amidst the schemes and manipulation in the palace, learning to tolerate and hold it in, learning what it means to truly love a person.

Now, this caption seems to be more Qingchuan than Huaying but it could be applied to both characters. Because both Qingchuan and Huaying learn what it means to truly love someone.

Confusing, right?

I am not sure whether Huaying dies in that scene with the arrow or whether she dies on the wedding night....
The information about Huaying getting shot by Yinsi on the wedding night was posted on Baike which isn't always 100% accurate. But, I will try and get more information by reading Yu Zheng's blog.

First of all, I don't think Huaying's death will be in the early part of the series. It could be in the middle. It could be at the end. We have to show Qingchuan at the university and then we have Qingchuan at the party and then we follow her into the Qing dynasty and she has to learn her bearings and avoid all the weird looks. Hey, the girl shows up in a spaghetti strap.

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This is Yinsi and Qingchuan.

[bachtuyet]

How could Maggie come from the future?

[therainhouse]

How could Maggie come from the future?

Maggie's character is also from the future. And she's always researching/looking for a way to go back to the future. Kangxi thinks she's a freak and so doesn't pay a lot of attention to her. When the princes start fighting over her because she knows the future Kangxi gets seriously freaked out.

And um.. yea, I think it is Maggie's character, Liang Fei, who eventually finds a way to go back to the future. But Qingchuan and Liang Fei are not the only ones going to the future though. That's all I'll say.

[bachtuyet]

I think Qingchuan will take Yinsi back to future w/her to save him from his fate & without changing the history

[therainhouse]

I think Qingchuan will take Yinsi back to future w/her to save him from his fate & without changing the history

Uh， nope. That is not exactly what happened. If I give away the ending, that's just too many spoilers.

[mango_cake]

But...what will happen to poor YK if his girlfriend comes back to the present with a Qing dynasty prince? Right now I'd rather YM & YK end up together! XD

Haha, just kidding...ok maybe not, but I'm guessing FSF will win me over by the end of it.

[wanglin]

Oh my god, therainhouse. You have spoilers?!? Can you PM me the ending, through I have a feeling that I know what's going to happen.