Huayu started as a lecturer at Beijing Film Academy

The previous drama "Legend of Wu Zetian" was broadcast on Mango TV in late 2014 and finished in early 2015. The whole series itself only had 82 episodes (already long enough), but everyone knows the style of Mango TV. Because the ratings of this drama were too high, Mango TV edited it into 96 episodes, which supported the high ratings for many days.

How high was the ratings of this drama at that time?

The ratings broke 2% from the first episode, and never fell below 2% all the way. At the end of the finale, it climbed to an average rating of 4%. Can we still see TV dramas with such high ratings now?

It was not until three years later that the magical drama "In the Name of the People" appeared, which completely surpassed the ratings of this drama.

Of course, although the ratings were high, the evaluation of this drama was not very good. The Douban score dropped from 6.5 at the beginning of the broadcast to 5.3. The reputation was very average, and the plot was seriously watered down.

The first half and the second half are completely like two screenwriters. Although the plot in the first half is also ridiculous and there are many fabricated plots, it still makes the audience feel that the plot is gripping.

As a result, after the death of Emperor Taizong of Tang played by Zhang Fengyi, the plot entered the "crying Mary Sue little white rabbit era". Wu Meiniang cried from beginning to end, unable to control herself and unwilling to accept it, and described the empress as a little angel without any schemes.

This is also a common problem in TV dramas in recent years. The heroines are all a combination of white lotus + Mary Sue. The heroines are white lotus from beginning to end, kind-hearted, dare to love and hate, mighty and brave, and kind-hearted.

In history, people who should have been killed by Wu Zetian's vicious means, such as the queen, Concubine Xiao Shufei, her own children, etc., either committed suicide in the TV series or were eliminated by the emperor and teammates. They have nothing to do with white lotus at all. It is really washed away, and the heroine has become a spotless image of the Virgin Mary.

There is simply no sign of the conspiracy, political iron fist, and great governance that a winner in a palace fight should have. The heroine never wants to harm others, and never wants to be an empress. She was forced to do so. She had no choice but to fight back when the bad guys forced her into a desperate situation. She became the queen because she had no choice. By the way, the heroine is spotless, so there is no male favorite.

This is not to say that there is a slight gap between this and Liu Xiaoqing's version of "Empress Wu Zetian", but at least it can be said that it is far from it!

Therefore, the plot of this version of Zongheng Film and Television has been greatly modified. Li Shimin's role has been cut a lot, and the bloody love-brain plot has been removed, restoring the true image of the emperor of all ages.

Even Li Zhi's image has been adjusted. He is no longer crying and looking like a coward who is afraid of his wife.

Although Fan Binbin's version of Wu Zetian is not as vicious as the old version, it also removes those unnecessary whitewashing plots, allowing her ambitions and desires to slowly grow out, including the historical records of killing her daughter and forcing her son to death, which are all retained.

Now Gu Zhongyu plays the son who was forced to death, Li Xian, the Prince of Zhanghuai.

Li Xian was Wu Zetian's second son. He was knowledgeable, handsome, and dignified. He served as the "regent" three times and was the most ideal candidate for the crown prince of Emperor Gaozong of Tang.

Ming Chongyan, a close minister of Li Zhi and Wu Zetian at that time, who was good at witchcraft and physiognomy, always said that Li Xian was not suitable to be the crown prince. As a result, he died soon after. Many people suspected that Li Xian did it.

This unlucky child happened to have Wu Zetian, his biological mother. The relationship between mother and son was not good. In addition, there were rumors in the harem at that time that Li Xian was not Wu Zetian's biological son, but was born to Wu Zetian's sister, Lady Hanguo. Wu Zetian killed Lady Hanguo and raised Li Xian. The hatred between Li Xian and Wu Zetian was the murder of her mother.

Li Zhi looked at the rumors flying all over the sky and ordered a strict investigation of Li Xian. As a result, weapons and armor were found in Li Xian's residence.

These two things together led to Li Xian being deposed as the crown prince and then exiled to Shu. On the way, he was forced to commit suicide by Wu Zetian's men. After his death, he was posthumously named Zhang Huai Prince.

To be honest, Gu Zhongyu has never played such a frustrated historical figure. If Fan Binbin hadn't agreed to call him grandpa, he would never have come to guest star in this role.

Fan Binbin's Wu Zetian was still the queen at this time. She wore a gorgeous palace dress and an exquisite phoenix hairpin on her head. She sat majestically in the main seat, and next to her was Peng Guanying, who played Tang Gaozong Li Zhi.

The original actor Li Zhiting's horse face had no ancient style, and his acting skills were also expressionless. Gu Zhongyu decisively asked his junior brother Peng Guanying from Beijing Film Academy to play. Although this brother has not been in the industry for a long time, his acting skills are still quite good. He interpreted the deep feeling of the emperor when he sat there.

Both of them were already dressed as middle-aged people. In fact, the crew's official filming had not yet reached this stage, but because Gu Zhongyu was short of time and could not stay here all the time, his scenes were filmed first in the past few days.

"Xian'er, why don't you pay attention to me?" Wu Zetian asked Li Xian, who was kneeling on the ground, with a hint of heartache in her tone.

Li Xian was wearing plain clothes and said calmly what made his parents desperate: "Kill me if you want, father and queen." He had already determined in his heart that he was not Wu Zetian's biological son.

"Treason, how do you call your mother!"

"She is not my biological mother at all. My mother is Lady Han, who has been killed."

Wu Zetian did not understand her son's brain circuit at all. The child who had been pregnant for ten months was fooled like this. Her tone gradually became cold: "Then why don't you ask your father? I asked you to enter the palace again and again because I was afraid that you would listen to the slander of the villain. If I had arrived at the East Palace in advance, I would have become a ghost under your knife!"

Li Xian inherited his father's soft ears, and Wu Zetian quickly changed his absurd thoughts with just a few words.

He threw himself into Wu Zetian's arms and cried bitterly, begging for her forgiveness, but since ancient times, the crime of treason has been unforgivable, not to mention that this is the Li Tang royal family where fathers are kind and sons are filial. Princess Gaoyang also died in the rebellion.

"My son, please forgive me, father and mother!"

Fan Binbin almost couldn't help laughing when she was called by the queen mother! After calling you dad for so many years, today it's finally your turn to call me mom. It feels like a liberated serf singing a song!

Li Zhi, who was next to him, showed reluctance and wanted to let his son go, but Wu Zetian glared at her husband and shook her head.

"It's hard to tolerate it under the law! Even if you are our son, you can't escape the guilt!" Wu Zetian's words actually sentenced her son to death.

"Mother, you are so cruel!"

"If you really have the talent of an emperor, you should understand your mother's decision."

After saying this, she left here with her husband Li Zhi, leaving only Li Xian with a look of astonishment, waiting for him to face death.

"Okay, teachers, take a break and continue in the afternoon."

Director Li Muge was very satisfied with their performance. He was only in his early 30s, but he had already directed TV series such as "Glorious Years" and "New Three Kingdoms". Although they were all executive directors, his professional skills were already perfect. He was also very excited about directing a big production like "Legend of Wu Zetian". He was very concerned and tried his best to become famous with this drama.

I hope he will not meet Yang Yang again in this life and go to shoot "My Human Fireworks".

As soon as he walked out of the camera, several assistants came up to give Fan Binbin water, fan him, and wipe his sweat. Gu Zhongyu didn't like this style very much, but Fan Binbin's assistants were too attentive, so he took care of him as well.

Nazha, who had been watching not far away, was very envious of Fan Binbin, who was being praised by many stars. When could she enjoy the feeling of playing the leading lady like her sister?

~

Just kneeling on the ground for more than half an hour, even with knee pads, his legs were sore. Gu Zhongyu sighed: "It's better to play the emperor! Then others will kneel to me."

Li Muge thought Gu Zhongyu was complaining that a scene took too long to shoot, and quickly explained: "I'm sorry, Teacher Gu, I'm just striving for perfection, I don't think your acting is bad..."

Gu Zhongyu chuckled: "I just said it casually, Director Li, you are too serious." The gap between the stars is too big, and his unintentional words can cause misunderstandings from others.

Fan Binbin rolled his eyes at him: "If you don't want to kneel, you came to play Li Shimin and Li Zhi for me! It's not like I didn't invite you before."

"Then Senior Brother has to play Li Shimin. I was here to kowtow to Teacher Zhang Fengyi yesterday!" Peng Guanying also made a joke at this time.

Li Muge breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly thought of something, and said: "Mr. Gu, with your current fame, playing Li Xian is really a waste of talent, and fans are not satisfied with it. How about we change the script?"

"No! Director Li, you just need to shoot the play well, don't consider me, I'm just a guest star, if there are too many scenes, it will be suspected of stealing the show. After all, "The Legend of Wu Zetian" is a women's play, there is no need to add unnecessary details."

"But... Guanying, senior brother, I still have to say something about you."

"Me? Is there anything wrong with my performance?" Peng Guanying looked confused, not knowing what went wrong with his performance just now.

Gu Zhongyu pointed out the problem to him: "There is no problem with your performance, but the direction is wrong. Although "The Legend of Wu Zetian" is a women's play, it does not mean that all the characters in it are foils. You lack understanding of the characters in the script."

In the past, in TV dramas about Wu Zetian, whenever the character of Li Zhi appeared, it was basically a mediocre emperor who was submissive and weak in character.

But the real Tang Gaozong Li Zhi in history was skillful and resourceful, and more importantly, he continued his father's good play, which was very good. He was also good at discovering talents and reused a group of outstanding civil and military officials. Although he could not be compared with Li Shimin, he was also an excellent emperor.

Therefore, the character of Li Zhi in this version of "The Legend of Wu Zetian" was greatly elevated by Gu Zhongyu. Although he did not surpass Wu Zetian, the two of them were also a couple of equals. In most cases, one played the white face and the other played the red face.

But Peng Guanying's performance just now was still a little bit off. Li Zhi at this time was just in poor health, not completely bedridden, and the power was still in his hands.

Facing the situation that his own son was about to be executed, he should not have acted so weak. Even Wu Zetian could suppress him with just a glance. He did not look like an emperor, but seemed to have completely become a puppet!

Speaking of so many TV dramas about the Tang Dynasty, the only one in which Li Zhi completely overshadowed Wu Zetian was the one in "Beauty of the Tang Palace" directed by Yu Zheng. That Li Zhi was a completely dark and cruel person, and Zheng Guolin's performance was also very good.

This may be because Peng Guanying was still influenced by the previous TV dramas about Wu Zetian, and felt that Li Zhi should be a weak emperor, but Gu Zhongyu was more inclined to another reason, that is: he was afraid of stealing the limelight from Fan Xiaopang!

Just look at Li Muge's fear and trepidation. Actors with too big a status will cause pressure on others. Peng Guanying is just a nobody in the entertainment industry now. Even in a few years, he won't be a first-line male star. He can't perform on par with Fan Binbin.

So in order not to offend Fan Binbin, his senior, his performance must be restrained. He can't open up and show the dark and deep image of the emperor in the script.

This can't be blamed on him. It's the same for other actors, unless you find someone with the same status as Fan Binbin. But in the TV drama circle... except for Gu Zhongyu, there should be no one else who can suppress Fan Huli in the same age group.

Gu Zhongyu turned around and said to Fan Binbin: "Bingbing, you shouldn't suppress Guan Yingyan all the time. A single flower is not beautiful, a hundred flowers blooming is spring. You have enough roles in the play Wu Zetian. Give the opponent actor more room to play, so that the quality of the work can reach the highest level."

This can only be said by Gu Zhongyu. The director and others will definitely not dare to say it even if they see it. It is too offensive. Even if Fan Binbin is not such a stingy actor, they will not say it casually.

The original version of "The Legend of Wu Mei Niang" was invested by Fan Binbin and starred by Fan Bingbing. Because of this, all the plots revolve around her, and she intervenes everywhere, because beautifying Wu Mei Niang is beautifying Fan Binbin, and all the actors' performances must obey her needs.

Gu Zhongyu changed the plot so much, but almost forgot the influence of Fan Binbin himself. It feels that if it weren't for his interference, the script would have been taken by Fan Xiaopang to make major changes again!

"Okay! I know what to do."

Fan Binbin really wanted all the characters in the play to revolve around her instead of stealing the limelight, but Gu Zhongyu was right. He shouldn't have been suppressing the male lead's performance. He was almost deviating from the character setting of the script.

Li Muge felt relieved. Gu Zhongyu finally spoke for him on this issue. This was more meaningful than Gu's guest appearance.

"Why don't you stay for a while and let Li Longji guest-star as well! In this way, if we have any problems in the performance, we can correct them at any time." Fan Binbin said with a sudden thought.

Get lost! It's not enough to let me call you mom in the play, you also want me to call you grandma?

Gu Zhongyu saw through Fan Xiaopang's mind at a glance.

The villain's revenge will never last overnight. When it was night, Gu Zhongyu found Fan Binbin and found the scene in the daytime.

"I asked you to call me mother... I asked you to call me mother... How about it? Do you still call me?"

Please give me monthly tickets, gentlemen! Fill me up with your monthly tickets and recommendation tickets!