Ugly Wudi: Chinese Ugly Betty

[aznjacinda]

Does anyone watch this?

$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://cfensi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/w020081010499582509986.jpg')


And guess what the main actress is from?

$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://cfensi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/1222499984233_51617.jpg')

Credit: http://cfensi.wordpress.com/2008/10/...he-is-popular/

[ChineseChik525]

Does anyone watch this?

$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://cfensi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/w020081010499582509986.jpg')


And guess what the main actress is from?

$this->handle_bbcode_img_match('http://cfensi.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/1222499984233_51617.jpg')

Credit: http://cfensi.wordpress.com/2008/10/...he-is-popular/

yeah ive seen like a bit from one episode. its ok. pretty funny, but i think i should watch it from the beginning.
and who wouldve though that the girl was from the dream of red chamber competition? wow.

[brightlight]

I really liked it. The actress is really good.
Good acting, nice plot, I liked it better than Ugly Betty.
They're actually making sequels. It'll have 200 episodes by the end of it.
Does anyone know where I can find the original Columbian version?

[owbjhx]

I've been watching this series, and I have to say, I'm impressed. There's a maturity and polish to it that's totally lacking from so many Chinese TV shows. The production deserves an award for avoiding the abominable, inexcusable practice of dubbing, and for giving the cast space to do *real* acting. This is entertainment TV for grown-ups.

It's not perfect - the product placement is a little crass, some of the acting (including, unfortunately, lead actress Li Xinru's) is raw, and the director can be a bit faddish - but in general it's an accomplished production. Maybe it's just because my expectations have been lowered by seeing so much Zhang Jizhong or Li Guoli wuxia trash, but Ugly Wudi is a sight for sore eyes.

Strongly recommended.

[yanfeng]

After reading the posts here, I watched 8 episodes of this- and think it is fun, very polished, with cool split screen pictures (e.g., as many as 8 different ways so we can see the facial expressions of everyone sitting around a round table), nice sets, costumes and very crisp production quality.

However, it reminds me a little too much of the Korean/Taiwanese idol dramas- with too-convenient plot devices and rather unrealistic conversations. E.g., do directors really involve multiple directors and even their fathers in the decision on who to hire for their secretary in China? From what I've seen of corporate America at least, hiring is a very important part of management, but its escalating things out of proportion to involve multiple directors and making phone calls personally- rather than have HR handle it all- to determine who they should hire for a small position like secretary.

I sneaked a peek at the last episode for the first season and was a little disappointed. I liked the concept in Ugly Bette that she and her boss do _not_ have a romantic relationship. The need for something romantic to develop between the lead female character and the lead male character (incidentally her boss) is a little overdone.

I thought the funniest thing in the first few episodes was Wudi's good pal telling her "Nevermind that you embarassed your boss.... the most fashionable Korean dramas today always have the lead characters falling in love with the girls who embarrass them!"

Its definitely poking fun of themselves for being in the same league as those korean dramas! That sort of self-deprecating humor I appreciate, but not _quite_ enough to sit through this series. (The comments online complain about it being a little slow paced, which I can see as well, plus the 'dumb blond' secretary is a little _too_ 'blond' for my tastes, too many gratituous scenes of her vacant stare, mincing steps or just cleavage.)

Overall: Fun and silly, but a little slow and not genre-defying!

[ChineseChik525]

After reading the posts here, I watched 8 episodes of this- and think it is fun, very polished, with cool split screen pictures (e.g., as many as 8 different ways so we can see the facial expressions of everyone sitting around a round table), nice sets, costumes and very crisp production quality.

However, it reminds me a little too much of the Korean/Taiwanese idol dramas- with too-convenient plot devices and rather unrealistic conversations. E.g., do directors really involve multiple directors and even their fathers in the decision on who to hire for their secretary in China? From what I've seen of corporate America at least, hiring is a very important part of management, but its escalating things out of proportion to involve multiple directors and making phone calls personally- rather than have HR handle it all- to determine who they should hire for a small position like secretary.

I sneaked a peek at the last episode for the first season and was a little disappointed. I liked the concept in Ugly Bette that she and her boss do _not_ have a romantic relationship. The need for something romantic to develop between the lead female character and the lead male character (incidentally her boss) is a little overdone.

I thought the funniest thing in the first few episodes was Wudi's good pal telling her "Nevermind that you embarassed your boss.... the most fashionable Korean dramas today always have the lead characters falling in love with the girls who embarrass them!"

Its definitely poking fun of themselves for being in the same league as those korean dramas! That sort of self-deprecating humor I appreciate, but not _quite_ enough to sit through this series. (The comments online complain about it being a little slow paced, which I can see as well, plus the 'dumb blond' secretary is a little _too_ 'blond' for my tastes, too many gratituous scenes of her vacant stare, mincing steps or just cleavage.)

Overall: Fun and silly, but a little slow and not genre-defying!

click to show/hide spoilers

so she does get together with her boss at the end?

and does anyone mind telling me how many episodes this is?

[jiang bao]

Why can't they use some actual ugly people if the character is supposed to be ugly? I am so sick of just putting a pair of glasses on some pretty girl and mess up the hair a bit and call her "ugly."

What a farce. Are ugly people not allowed to be the lead even in a show about ugly people?

[yanfeng]

click to show/hide spoilers

so she does get together with her boss at the end?

and does anyone mind telling me how many episodes this is?

click to show/hide spoilers

Its a bit of a cliff hanger ending, though they do have a 'date' and seem to be hitting it off on a romantic level

43 episodes in the first season- I believe the second season is still in progress.

[yanfeng]

Why can't they use some actual ugly people if the character is supposed to be ugly? I am so sick of just putting a pair of glasses on some pretty girl and mess up the hair a bit and call her "ugly."

What a farce. Are ugly people not allowed to be the lead even in a show about ugly people?

I agree- and so do some of the Chinese viewers according to this Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008...china.uglywudi

I'm with the group of viewers who are resigned to this saying that a truly ugly actress would never make it to lead a role in a TV serial. (Though I might say that the fact that the lead actress for Ugly Bette really isn't a dazzling beauty in glasses and dentures might mean that the tolerance for lack-of-attractiveness is higher amongst US audiences/serial makers?)

[owbjhx]

However, it reminds me a little too much of the Korean/Taiwanese idol dramas- with too-convenient plot devices and rather unrealistic conversations. E.g., do directors really involve multiple directors and even their fathers in the decision on who to hire for their secretary in China? From what I've seen of corporate America at least, hiring is a very important part of management, but its escalating things out of proportion to involve multiple directors and making phone calls personally- rather than have HR handle it all- to determine who they should hire for a small position like secretary.

I wouldn't say the plotline you mention - the tortuous hiring of the CEO's secretary - is unrealistic. In a smallish professional services firm like IDEA, such a position is significant enough to require input from the CEO. From personal experience it's actually rather difficult to find good secretaries, and if you hire one who doesn't fit, getting rid of her has consequences that escalate beyond HR. Finally, choosing a new secretary was Fei Denan's first decision as the newly-crowned boss, and was thus recognised as having unusual significance.

It's true that Chou Nu Wu Di is no dose of hard, gritty realism and naturalistic plotting, but then neither are any of the other TV series popular on this forum. I'd actually say it's far more realistic - not just in content (how many idol dramas have plotlines revolving around financial reporting and corporate debt?) but also in form (how many wuxia flicks contain acting and directing that's actually human rather than outlandishly cartoonish?). CNWD might be Cinderella in disguise, but this is a seasoned, grown-up version and not the kids' comic one.

Its definitely poking fun of themselves for being in the same league as those korean dramas! That sort of self-deprecating humor I appreciate, but not _quite_ enough to sit through this series. (The comments online complain about it being a little slow paced, which I can see as well, plus the 'dumb blond' secretary is a little _too_ 'blond' for my tastes, too many gratituous scenes of her vacant stare, mincing steps or just cleavage.)

The pacing is slow, but that to me is not a weakness of the series - it's a strength. The director can create texture using incidental scenes, show different sides to things and people, and allow space for events to unfold on screen and for actors to express their roles. I'd argue that slow pacing is the optimal pacing for this particular form of media (i.e. 40-episode TV series), unless your audience are children or have short attention spans.

I do agree that Mao Junjie's portrayal of Pei Na is excessively affected. However, it's all the more noticeable because she's often surrounded by actors who I feel are a cut above what I've seen elsewhere. And as excruciating as Mao's butt-wiggling barbie-doll-isms may be, she is still actually acting rather than miming to a soundtrack of bland third-party dubbing - which is how most other Chinese TV actresses 'perform'.

Overall: Fun and silly, but a little slow and not genre-defying!

Hmmm. Is it bad that CNWD isn't "genre-defying"?

In any case, I'm glad you gave the series a good try and recognise that it's (at the very least) slickly executed. Ultimately, it's not for everyone. But to go a bit off-topic, I'm surprised that you're a fan of wuxia TV when everything you said you disliked about CNWD is present there - and in the the most gratuitous portions, too!

[ChineseChik525]

click to show/hide spoilers

Its a bit of a cliff hanger ending, though they do have a 'date' and seem to be hitting it off on a romantic level

43 episodes in the first season- I believe the second season is still in progress.

ooh. ok. thanks

[aznjacinda]

Why can't they use some actual ugly people if the character is supposed to be ugly? I am so sick of just putting a pair of glasses on some pretty girl and mess up the hair a bit and call her "ugly."

What a farce. Are ugly people not allowed to be the lead even in a show about ugly people?

You imply that an ugly person would automatically be better because she's ugly. Well, it's acting, and it's not so easy to find girls who can do the humor required by the role.

Besides...there's not that many girls in China who are Carmen Ferrera's size (who btw, I also think is pretty and was uglified for Ugly Betty) and probably even less who are aspiring actresses. That in itself limits producers.

I think that China has a lot of great series, especially modern series that people in this forum don't really bother with. Unlike Wuxia, they are not burdened with a script that must be a certain wooden way, or else Jing Yong fans would boycott.

The reason why I chose Ugly Wudi to post about out of everyone of those series was because 1) people here actually knew of the Dream of the Red Chamber casting 2) people know what Ugly Betty is.


Oh, and also Betty is not getting with her boss. She' getting a boyfriend season two.

[yanfeng]

I'm surprised that you're a fan of wuxia TV when everything you said you disliked about CNWD is present there - and in the the most gratuitous portions, too!

Touche! I am a wuxia fan in spite of many of the flaws of the genre... though I guess I grew up with the fantasy genre in all its forms including wuxia, and the various assumptions are dear and familiar to me (from faster than light travel in space science fiction, to qing gong 'flight' in wuxia serials!) And like the weird physics, the weird plot devices in wuxia are old friends!

Actually, CNWD is a good example of its genre, but I guess I've seen a few too many of them recently and was looking for it to add something to this spunky-but-slightly-bumbling-girl-hero-meets-high-power-corporate-guy serial... though what aznjacinda you said about her not getting together with her boss but instead gets her own romantic interest is actually a nice twist... thank goodness since the ending episode of the 1st season wasn't promising on that front!

Re: Slow vs. more character development- I do have a rather short attention span- and when by episode 10, the creative director was being "fussy guy", the 'blond' secretary was still mincing her steps, and Wudi was as bumbling as ever... it felt that it was just time spent showing us more of the same rather than giving more facets to the characters! (Though I trust that changes by episode 43!)

And actually i'm quite a fan of serials that have 20 episodes... like the good old days of TVB! I feel like the type of stories that can sustain 40-100 episodes are rare and its harder to do the long serials well... too often they're simply 20 episode stories that are not tight/concise enough or have one too many side stories! (Maybe its my wuxia interests, but I've seen too many shoddily written long wuxia serials!)

Re: 'Ugly' actresses- I speculate (without proof of course!) that of the many Chinese women around, there might be some who are less-than-attractive, who have acting talent and desire. Definitely agree that just being ugly is insufficient to be an actress... just as being beautiful is insufficient (most of the time at least!)

Being unattractive is a handicap even in less 'looks-oriented' fields, and in acting likely much more so! Perhaps the negative response in some segment of the audience is due to their dissappointment that a role that seems cut out for a less-than-attractive actress was given to a very attractive one- its the "support the underdog" impulse!

Not that I think the decision is wrong, I actually think its a good move on the serial producers' part because the actress is more popular than a 'ugly' actress could ever be, and its good for the serial's ratings... just a sad reality of the world.

BTW, aznjacinda, I'm quite ignorant of china's modern serials, would you care to recommend a few for me to try out? I'm quite excited about China entering the entertainment industry in a big way over the last decade or two, and am embarassed that I know so little about non-wuxia Chinese-made serials!

[ChineseChik525]

um...i know this is way off topic here, but i thought the girl who plays betty in ugly betty's name is america ferrera? just a side note

[jiang bao]

You imply that an ugly person would automatically be better because she's ugly. Well, it's acting, and it's not so easy to find girls who can do the humor required by the role.

Besides...there's not that many girls in China who are Carmen Ferrera's size (who btw, I also think is pretty and was uglified for Ugly Betty) and probably even less who are aspiring actresses. That in itself limits producers.

I think that China has a lot of great series, especially modern series that people in this forum don't really bother with. Unlike Wuxia, they are not burdened with a script that must be a certain wooden way, or else Jing Yong fans would boycott.

The reason why I chose Ugly Wudi to post about out of everyone of those series was because 1) people here actually knew of the Dream of the Red Chamber casting 2) people know what Ugly Betty is.


Oh, and also Betty is not getting with her boss. She' getting a boyfriend season two.

I am not implying whether an ugly girl would be a more capable actress or not. What I am saying is that if a show is "supposed" to be based on an ugly person, then why can't an actual ugly girl fill the role instead of giving it to a fake ugly girl?
The message I get from this is that it is ok to be ugly as long as it's not real ugliness.

If an ugly person cannot even star in a show about an ugly person, then what do we know about the so-called "talented actresses"? Acting is secondary, looks are the most important.

Surely, if a talented ugly actress --and don't anybody try to suggest that ugly people cannot act -- cannot get a starring role in a show about ugly people, then it is about looks, and not about talent.

[Lady Zhuge]

I am not implying whether an ugly girl would be a more capable actress or not. What I am saying is that if a show is "supposed" to be based on an ugly person, then why can't an actual ugly girl fill the role instead of giving it to a fake ugly girl?
The message I get from this is that it is ok to be ugly as long as it's not real ugliness.

Maybe it's because eventually in the storyline, the "ugly" girl will undergo an amazing makeover/transformation, and it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to make a pretty girl appear ugly than to make an ugly girl pretty.

[Ren Ying Ying]

I am not implying whether an ugly girl would be a more capable actress or not. What I am saying is that if a show is "supposed" to be based on an ugly person, then why can't an actual ugly girl fill the role instead of giving it to a fake ugly girl?
The message I get from this is that it is ok to be ugly as long as it's not real ugliness.

If an ugly person cannot even star in a show about an ugly person, then what do we know about the so-called "talented actresses"? Acting is secondary, looks are the most important.

Surely, if a talented ugly actress --and don't anybody try to suggest that ugly people cannot act -- cannot get a starring role in a show about ugly people, then it is about looks, and not about talent.

but the thing is...which actress would want to be labeled as "ugly"?

[aznjacinda]

I am not implying whether an ugly girl would be a more capable actress or not. What I am saying is that if a show is "supposed" to be based on an ugly person, then why can't an actual ugly girl fill the role instead of giving it to a fake ugly girl?
The message I get from this is that it is ok to be ugly as long as it's not real ugliness.

If an ugly person cannot even star in a show about an ugly person, then what do we know about the so-called "talented actresses"? Acting is secondary, looks are the most important.

Surely, if a talented ugly actress --and don't anybody try to suggest that ugly people cannot act -- cannot get a starring role in a show about ugly people, then it is about looks, and not about talent.

People assume that she was chosen because it means she's too pretty, but when I watch her act I see why she was chosen.

You forget that Hunan TV is the station affiliated with the Supergirls, aka Chris Lee, Bibi Zhou, etc...and they could easily choose a number of not conventionally pretty aka "ugly" girls from those Supergirls and the show would have been an even bigger success, because these girls are like the most popular idols in China. Bibi would have really fit the role actually, and people are in love with her. But instead of going that easy route, they went with an unknown, one that really fits the role.

I find it hypocritical of people in this forum to complain about this casting, when so many threads have comments about looks. Especially those complaining about Deng Chao's look and even weight for his character in HSDS when it's been mentioned quite a bit that his acting is good. If China can use ugly actors for the roles that are require someone more handsome then they can definitely choose someone who is pretty for an ugly role. It's acting. In general I find that Chinese audiences are more appreciative of qualities other than looks, more than those abroad I'm afraid...people like the Supergirls for their spark. People outside of China love Jane Zhang because they think she's pretty and sings well, but inside China, Bibi is way more popular. Looks matter less, and the it factor matters more. For example: Deng Chao. He's in no way better looking than some of the hot guys that have graduated from China's top acting universities, but he's a very good actor, and his career is moving fast because of that.

[aznjacinda]

um...i know this is way off topic here, but i thought the girl who plays betty in ugly betty's name is america ferrera? just a side note

Er yes....I just watched Sisterhood of the Traveling pants 2, sorry. I still think that she was made ugly too, but she's a good actress as well. Hate what they've done with the character.

And Lady Zhuge, I don't think she'll turn pretty. I really will be disappointed if that happens.

[jiang bao]

Maybe it's because eventually in the storyline, the "ugly" girl will undergo an amazing makeover/transformation, and it's a lot easier (and cheaper) to make a pretty girl appear ugly than to make an ugly girl pretty.

So it's still the same message. It's ok to be ugly only if you really aren't. Is it not possible to show an "ugly" person finding happiness with a normal guy? I understand the idea that no one wants to watch a series about an actually ugly person, but why make a farce that is a series about a fake ugly person?

(I know the answer is for ratings, but it just underscores how BS the entertainmet industry is)

At least ABC chose a relatively normal looking person to play Ugly Betty.

but the thing is...which actress would want to be labeled as "ugly"?

It's not like if an ugly (or "normal" looking) actress didn't associate herself with the role of an ugly character, people would not think she was ugly. Ms. HK 2007 has been blasted for being a pig face, the ugliest Ms. HK of all time. So winning a beauty contest did not change the fact that compared to past Ms. HKs, she was ugly. If a person is ugly, she is ugly no matter what role she takes on.