China Daily Global Edition (USA)
Riveting period drama scores big overseas
A compelling tale of journey by princess to seek vengeance grips viewers at home and abroad, Xu Fan reports.
Atroop of armored soldiers corners a young woman on horseback to the edge of a cliff. This forces her to tighten the reins of the horse, and then she rushes onto a hanging bridge which suddenly breaks. Unfortunately, an arrow hits the woman, knocking her off the horse and into the abyss.
This thrilling encounter is the opening scene of popular period drama The Long Ballad. With action packed stunts and a gripping storyline, the 49-episode series has recently become one of the most popular Chinese dramas online both at home and abroad.
The series premiered on online streaming site Tencent Video on March 31, and it is also being broadcast in South Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as on several international streaming sites.
According to distributors of the series, it scored 9.4 points out of 10 on streaming site Viki, propelling it to top the chart of all new Chinese series now available on the platform in the United States during its premiere week.
The first 20 episodes with English and Vietnamese subtitles have already accumulated more than 20 million views online.
The distributors also said the drama will be translated into more than 20 languages.
The Long Ballad tells the tale of a fictional Chinese princess who flees the capital city after surviving a palace coup during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Dilraba Dilmurat stars as Li Chang’ge, the princess and daughter of the crown prince, seeking revenge for her slaughtered family.
In an attempt to overthrow the emperor, Li escapes north and tries to assemble an army. However, she changes her mind after witnessing the sufferings of people struggling to live in the war-torn era. She finally puts aside her personal grudges to join hands with a prince of a powerful nomadic tribe to restore peace.
Yan Bei, the drama’s executive producer, says she is excited that the popularity of the period drama has attracted a large number of viewers overseas. Most of the drama’s foreign fans are from Southeast Asia.
She says the production team hopes the drama could reach a wider international audience as the Chinese television industry makes more effort to expand overseas distribution.
“The story is set in the Tang Dynasty, a golden age of Chinese arts and culture,” Yan says. “With geographical closeness and cultural affinity, overseas viewers may be willing and curious to learn more about the culture and customs of ancient China through historical tales.”
Also starring Wu Lei, Liu Yuning, Zhao Lusi and Fang Yilun, the drama was filmed at Hengdian World Studios, the country’s largest filming base in Zhejiang province, between March and July last year.
The production team planned to film some parts of the drama in the grasslands and deserts of Dunhuang, Gansu province, but the COVID-19 outbreak forced them to change plans.
“As it would be impossible to travel with so many crew members to many of the places, the production team purchased tons of seeds to create a prairie in a large area on the outskirts of Hengdian,” Yan recalls.
Covering 40,000 square meters, the crew set up dozens of tents to recreate the home of the nomads in northern China nearly 1,400 years ago.
A total of about 2,000 ancient costumes were made for the drama, with the lead actors and actresses having seven of the same costumes each, in case they were damaged during the fighting or horse-riding scenes.
For director Chu Yui-pan, The Long Ballad has special meaning to him as the drama marks his 50th directorial work. Chu is an industry veteran who has worked for Hong Kong’s TVB station since the 1990s.
In an effort to evoke a sense of reality, Chu says most of the scenes were shot in the wild or in replicas of ancient buildings, rather than having the actors perform on soundstages with computer generated backdrops — something commonly done for many costume dramas to save on costs or shorten the shooting schedule.
Chu also taught all the actresses and actors to think and speak like people of ancient China to make the story more convincing to audiences.
On recalling his biggest challenge, Chu says the most difficult part is to command the animals on set.
“Sometimes, the horses would be out of control and suddenly run away. So the crew had to be very cautious in keeping our actors safe,” Chu says. “We had to construct some fake horses to help the actors focus better on their performance.”
The story is set in the Tang Dynasty, a golden age of Chinese arts and culture.”
Yan Bei, The Long Ballad’s executive producer