Alan Yu Menglong nomination/ Zhao Lusi - Orca rumored deal/ Fight For Love/ Neo Hou

Hi guys, Marcus here and welcome to Chinese Entertainment Update. I release episodes every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday between 7 and 10 PM PT. This is episode 1056 and the rundown with timestamps is in the description box below. Now, because I use Chinese names quite a bit on my show, if you want the English spelling of them, you can't run on subtitles, I create them myself. In today's episode, Love in the Clouds with Neo Hou and Lui Xiao gets its opening douban rating. Rumor has it that Zhao Lusi and Orca Entertainment have agreed to a five-year deal, with the actress also serving as a mentor to the company's upcoming talent. Alan Yu is posthumously nominated for TC Candler's Top 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2025. And Neo Hou talks about his Love in the Clouds character, Ji Bocai, and says he wants to play a biker dude in a drama in the future. But first, here's what's recently premiered, one drama for today and yesterday. Fight For Love 战争为爱 stars Victoria Song and Ryan Ding. The costume drama premiered earlier today. Victoria plays Chu Yu, the daughter of a general who dies mysteriously while in battle. To investigate, she marries into the Wei family who's also suffered a devastating loss, and meets their youngest son, played by Ryan Ding. Together they navigate danger and uncover hidden truths as warm feelings towards each other arise as well. Fight For Love 战争为爱 is slated for 40 episodes and is available on WeTV with English subs. And that's it for premiere dates, moving on, opening douban ratings, I have two for you guys today. Love in the Clouds 战争为爱, the costume drama starring Neo Hou and Lu Yuxiao, opened with an average score of 7.0 from around 37,200 ratings. Pleased with their score, they shared this poster to announce it on their Weibo. The Hunt 战争为爱, the mystery thriller starring Huang Xuan and Teresa Li, opened with a 7.6 from around 7,400 ratings. Pleased with their score, they shared this poster to announce it on their Weibo. It is the highest score for an iQIYI light on drama series since 2024. Those of you who checked out any of these dramas, what do you think about their opening scores? Too high, too low or just about right? Let us know in the comment section below. Next up for drama updates, wraps and bootings. Zhong Qi, or Powerful Weapon, shared a batch of photos and a video to announce they had wrapped filming on Oct 29th. The legal drama stars Johnny Huang, Jiang Qiming, Zhang Jianing, Jiang Peiyao and Yan Peilun. The film shoot which began in May went for over five months. The drama is set in the early days of China's reform and follows five law school graduates who enter different departments within the justice system. Powerful Weapon is slated for 40 episodes and will stream on iQIYI. Also wrapping up recently was Live Up To Your Youth 青春之路, the retro drama starring pictured here from left to right, Bai Yu, Zhang Ruonan and Jenny Lin. Production shared these photos on Oct 28th. The cast and crew had been filming since the beginning of July so it was a four-month film shoot. Set in 1990s Beijing, Live Up To Your Youth follows a scriptwriter who keeps facing rejection, an actress who navigates the glitzy but ruthless entertainment industry, and a singer who longs to perform on grand stages but scrapes by by singing at commercial gigs. The drama is slated for 40 episodes and will stream on iQIYI. To drama bootings now. On Oct 25th, My Dear Brother held their booting ceremony. Here's the entire cast and crew on the day. And here are the stars, Pan Yueming and Hu Xianxu, two director Baishan's right and left respectively. My Dear Brother follows a modern-day firefighter who travels back in time to Republican-era Chongqing, where he meets and befriends a street-smart veteran. Together they face life and death situations and embark on a profound spiritual journey. The drama is slated for 24 episodes and will stream on iQIYI. That's it for drama updates, moving on celebrity updates and today we begin with more Zhao Lusi discussions on Chinese social media. Is it a case of when there's smoke, there's fire? In a recent video, I spoke about the latest rumors of Zhao Lusi possibly signing with a new company, Orca Entertainment. The discussions haven't stopped, in fact, recently more details of the rumors have surfaced. But just to back up a little bit, in August, the 26-year-old actress accused her current management company, Galaxy Cool Entertainment, of forcing her to pay compensation for cancelled endorsement deals and withdrawing around two million RMB from her personal studio's account without consent. Their feud became very public and the two parties were seemingly at an impasse. According to reports on Weibo, Lusi contributes to almost 80% of Galaxy Cool's revenue, making her easily their biggest moneymaker. Galaxy Cool had written in a massive termination penalty clause in her contract. About two weeks ago, rumors spread that Lusi was going to sign with one Tianhao Shengshi Entertainment. However, she quickly refuted that on social media. A few days ago, people noticed Lusi's image emanating from the huge LED displays all over Orca Entertainment's building. Orca Entertainment is one of the country's largest entertainment groups and like Galaxy Cool, is a subsidiary of the Alibaba conglomerate. This led to rumors that Lusi will move from Galaxy Cool to its sister company, Orca. And because Lusi did not refute this rumor, netizens are saying there may be some truth to it. The latest murmurings are that Lusi and Orca have agreed to a five-year contract. The massive termination penalty with Galaxy Cool is waived but Lusi will still have to kick a small share of her earnings to them moving forward. She will also have to mentor new talent for Orca Entertainment for two years. It's also said that Orca already has projects lined up for her, including one co-starring Tian Xuning from Revenge Love. While this is all unverified, netizens are saying an official announcement will be made on Lusi's birthday which is November 9th. We'll know by then if there really is a fire to any of this smoke. Before we get to our next celebrity segment, if you've enjoyed the content so far, please like and subscribe. And if you'd like to support the channel a little more, you can do so by shopping on Amazon. I'm an Amazon affiliate and I've added some links in the description below to some products you may be interested in. Among them, the best-selling Biodance Biocollagen Real Deep Mask for that porcelain glow skin you see on your favorite Chinese drama leads, Yanyan Sandstan Rhinestone Flats for wedding parties and work dates, and the Laneige Cream Moisturizer for skin barrier support. If you click a link and make a purchase, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. And remember to bookmark this video. If you like the product you purchased, you can come straight back to the link instead of having to do a search on Amazon. Thank you for supporting the channel. Next up for celebrity updates, Ellen Yu has been posthumously nominated for TC Candler's Top 100 Most Handsome Faces of 2025. On October 23rd, TC Candler, creator of the annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful and 100 Most Handsome Faces, posted this on Instagram. The message read, Our Patreon members nominated these celebrity faces today. Who do you want to see next? And up here on the top left corner, was a picture of actor, singer, model, Ellen Yu, Yu Menglong. It's a picture of Ellen as Bai Zhen in the 2017 Xianxia classic, Eternal Love. There are captions saying, first nomination, and rest in peace. Ellen's sudden and tragic passing on September 11th raised many questions that remain unanswered until this day. The way authorities quickly ruled out foul play, and the way any discussion on it on Chinese social media gets shut down immediately, hasn't helped quell the speculation. Ellen's nomination drew much attention from international fans. Even though there were other names on the list, the IG post's comments section was flooded with comments about Ellen. People wrote in English and Chinese. Some expressed regret. He's gone and only now is the world seeing him. Others wrote, he never bowed to power, and he was a kind person and deserves to be remembered. The final list of 100 Most Beautiful Faces and 100 Most Handsome Faces is curated by TC Candler and a team of about 20 independent critics from around the world. The critics claim to consider criteria that go beyond aesthetic perfection including grace, elegance and originality. The final list usually comes out in late December. Lastly for celebrity updates, Neo Hou speaks a little bit about his character in Love in the Clouds. Love in the Clouds premiered on October 8th and has done well. As mentioned earlier, it opened on Douban with a 7.0. The costume drama has also topped web viewing charts for the past two weeks. On October 27th, Sohu Entertainment released a video clip of an interview they did with lead actor Neo Hou. The 28-year-old actor was asked to give his character, Ji Bozai, three tags. In other words, describe him in three words or short phrases. He said, thirsty for love, manipulative, and honest and open. Next, he was asked what is the best way to win over Ji Bozai, in other words, to pursue and win his heart. Neo replied, Well, winning Ji Bozai's heart may seem challenging but it's really quite simple. He may seem like a complicated two-faced type, and maybe even a bit of a rascal, but inside he's really simple, pure and kind. He seems distrustful of those around him, but in fact, he wants to be able to trust everyone. So I think to win his heart, the best way is to just be honest and sincere. The discussion then shifted, and Neo responded to a comment regarding his fans loving the way he looks on stage. He said, I am very happy about that. I am thankful that they can all come to see me perform on stage. In any profession, if you want to do well, you have to try to be brilliant. I think that as an actor, I have to first do the best I can in my performances. Crossing over to performing on stage is something I've always wanted to do. It's a dream I've had since I was a kid. Neo was then asked, hypothetically, if he could do another drama with his Love in the Clouds co-star, Lu Yuxiao, what type of drama would it be? A modern drama, Neo replied. I'll play a biker dude, and she can be a cute girl. I've just now learned how to drive a motorbike, and I want to do that on a drama. And that's it for Celebrity Updates. It's Thursday today so time now for another segment of My Predictions for this Sunday's Top 10 Champions. As you guys know, every Sunday we do the Top 10 Chinese web and TV dramas of the week. In this segment, I give some of my thoughts and predictions as to who the champions will be. To recap, last week's top web drama was Love in the Clouds with Neo Hou and Lu Yuxiao, and the top TV drama was Light Beyond the Read with Vin Zhang and Mao Xiaotong. I'm backing two new champions this week. For web dramas, it'll be a tight race between Sword and Beloved with Cheng Yi and Li Yitong, and Blood River with Simon Gong and Peng Xiaoran. Ultimately, I think the latter will take the top spot. For TV dramas, I'm backing Leo Luo's Whispers of Fate to be the new champ. I don't think any other drama will come close to challenging it this week. So that's Blood River and Whispers of Fate to be champions this week, what do you guys think? And that's been another segment of My Predictions for this Sunday's Top 10 Champions. It also brings us to the end of today's episode. Have a great weekend and I'll see you guys Sunday. As always, stay safe and I wish you clear blue skies, good health and happiness. Until next time, cheers.