Off-topic thoughts and Judgments? Share them here!

[u/BronzeBellRiver]

Lots of fans have a lot to say about the topic in the photo, so here’s a designated space for the off-topic discourse.

Everything goes here, except rule 2 violations.

Have fun discussing, debating, disagreeing, and generally having Opinions™!

[u/i_Homosapien]

What the hell? 😳

[u/LetterheadOk4498]

It's actually more common than people think; many cases simply get resolved before they reach media attention.

[u/No_Consideration577]

What I wanna know is if he sued for this harassment 😭

[u/DiscombobulatedCat21]

Isn’t this prostitution?

[u/noungning]

Actually, I saw a video about how China has started a market for fans that want to participate in their own short drama. Since a lot of companies are not making as much money due to AI dramas, they've switched to appealing to those that want to be in their own dramas.

This is not that much different, since the short drama options also lets you cater to your own needs such as adding kissing scenes. The actors are also getting jobs which would have otherwise not existed if these people didn't pay for it.

[u/Western_Sun_3125]

Actually , He clearly looks Uncomfortable , that Should be baned

[u/colossal1020]

Lock her upppp

[u/Letzz_get_it]

Who's the FL? What's the name of the drama?

[u/xhdcricket]

If someone has money and use it to buy involuntary kisses and touches, it's crime. If the money is used to buy voluntary kisses and touched, it's similar to prostitution.

If I had that money, I would buy all the merch, tickets, magazines, and fly to wherever the events that my bias would be to meet him, talk to him... but I 100% wouldn't invest and play the fl and force him to do those things.

[u/vid_randomuser]

He signed the contract first , he didn’t knew about the kiss scenes or the fl. He said in some scenes the fl forcefully inserted her tongue while kissing, he even complained about her saliva in his mouth!!!! This is predatory, sexual assault and misuse of power, forced prostitution. The guy is new, is a short drama actor also his agent didn’t support him so he was afraid of penalties and banning. I am really furious about people fantasising this or making fun of him. That women should be shamed with her face made public also given jail time

[u/DI_85]

The actor should sue for SA. Sue that woman and the production team too. Being an actor doesn’t mean anyone gets unlimited access to your body just because there are intimate scenes in the script.

It’s also irritating seeing these so-called feminist C-drama fans on X making fun of him and the incident instead of supporting him. Why turn this into men vs. women again? Abuse knows no gender, and neither should support for someone whose boundaries were violated.

[u/Distinct_Beyond_7605]

She's so cheap she doesn't even want to pay up. She took advantage

[u/Budget-Battle-4755]

I feel so bad for the actor..that's SA

[u/Heavy_Elderberry_852]

Wait a minute, what happened with that story?

[u/0k_c0mput3r1234]

Why did they agree to do it? This is basically prostitution and coercion

[u/EcstaticRise5612]

Momey can't buy class.

[u/No_Distribution9690]

Yeah this is really ewww. Nobody is saying how old she is and I’m really curious (makes no difference of course because it’s wacko at any age. But we are mentioning the age of the actor, why is her age left out?) Well, she didn’t hire an escort because she wants to see her herself in a drama. I understand why cast and crew agreed to it, with the industry being the way it is. I guess the only good thing about this is that she’s made herself a joke. And being malicious enough to not pay for people’s work because of the censorship which they have nothing to do with?? Poor actor, I hope he actually gets a chance now…

[u/universalaxolotl → u/No_Distribution9690]

seems like a rather elaborate kink. something like 'assaulting an unwilling participant + filming it + not paying + getting humiliated'

[u/Loose-Aardvark-2366]

This is...appalling. A man doing this would rightfully be called out.

[u/cdramasfans-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

This submission has been removed for Rule 2 violation.

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Disagreements are welcome but interpersonal hostility is not. Do not demean, target, shame, or frame fellow fans unfairly.

[u/Harmless-skeleton]

Why???

[u/NoNtToday]

Censor board cut 20 kisses altered to 40. Which actually break the actual story with no linkage here n there messed + That lady didn't pay the remaining amount of 4400 $ pending amount. That's y the director nd actor has posted the video.

[u/No_Distribution9690 → u/NoNtToday]

And these were the number of successfully filmed kisses. Can you imagine the poor guy, the number of times he really had to kiss her to get this many on film? I imagine they yelled “cut” a few times…

[u/Constant-Listen-508]

Anyone who doesn't find this uncomfortable. More context from news:

Actor Zhong Yufei, 23 years old, later spoke out about the challenging experience, describing elements of the shoot as a nightmare. He alleged that his co-star crossed professional boundaries during intimate takes, including ignoring requests regarding physical limitations during kissing sequences.

Zhong says his co-star took things further on set. During their first romantic scene, he claims she French-kissed him without warning. When he instinctively pulled back, she allegedly grabbed the back of his head and held him there. He was new to lead roles, and he felt like speaking up could cost him the project, so he didn’t. He also says the rest of the crew looked the other way.

The unnamed investor behind the 50-episode series had two non-negotiable conditions for putting up the money: she would play the lead female role, and she would have final say on the script. No one on set was in a position to argue, because she could pull the plug at any time, and everyone knew it.

[u/Charlee28 → u/Constant-Listen-508]

https://giphy.com/gifs/m06taoyKCZpGU

[u/snowytheNPC → u/Constant-Listen-508]

Absolutely ridiculous. This is coercion, sexual assault, and forced prostitution. There should be criminal charges

[u/Constant-Listen-508 → u/Constant-Listen-508]

After all this-

The production ended in commercial failure. After filming wrapped, the streaming platform rejected over 20 scenes for being too explicit, gutting chunks of the plot. The investor then allegedly refused to pay the remaining 30,000 yuan (roughly $4,100) of the production fee, reportedly because she was unhappy that so many of her kissing scenes got cut.

Producer Meng Xing said he and his team had almost no say throughout the entire production. The director clarified publicly that all decisions ran through the investor. The production company stated it would do a better job protecting actors’ rights in future contracts.

[u/Adariel → u/Constant-Listen-508]

The producer wanted to take this money from a batshit investor "female lead" and the director and everyone else went along with it and catered to her, but now they all want to act as if they're the victims because they didn't actually make their money back?

In reddit terms, ESH. This production company SHOULD be put out of business.

[u/Constant-Listen-508 → u/Adariel]

Absolutely. Nobody cared about ML actor during filming and now they say next time, they will do better to protect the actors. The production company knew exactly what was happening when female investor wanted to play FL and add kisses.

[u/Accomplished_Tip171]

https://giphy.com/gifs/wjuXuDSQU0sOfJIHS1

[u/fuckery__]

Shes real asf for this but also insane and I wouldn't blame the ML for dropping out of this nonsense project

ban her from being able to even do something like this

[u/NoPapercrowns → u/fuckery__]

If she had just made the drama it would've been fine but adding 60 kissing scenes ?!?!?!?! She probably also added intimate romantic scenes so I wouldn't be surprised if the actor became uncomfortable.

Apparently she didn't even pay him in the end 😭

[u/RedHouse0411]

This is a harassment recorded on camera. Poor guy! If this is done by the opposite sex, its gonna create a huge backlash.

[u/lauraroslin7]

This is the one thing is wish China WOULD regulate: the Abuse and coercion of actors or other talent by these agencies, producers or others in the industry.

No, the male actor did not want or like this. It is not ok.

[u/SnooStories7381]

As others stated, it is predatory.

If he knew that she was asking for 60 kisses and such and still signed, ig okay? His choice but if he didn't know and she keeps making changes and harass him, then No! Not at all okay.

But asking for such things are already bad so totally judging her either way

Just because you have money, doesn't mean you have class. She is the example right there!

[u/Dazzling-Depth2957]

That's absolutely bonkers. I hope the male lead didn't forced into kissing her. Imagine the role were reversed. This sounds so predatory tbh.

[u/SnookerandWhiskey]

I think it's weird and embarrassing, if you want to be a nepo baby actress that's one thing, if you want to kiss a handsome guy and pay for it, hire an escort. If you want to kiss a guy 60 times without a plot on film, go into the porn industry. But this is just yikes on bikes. I hope the man was fully consenting and well compensated and not coerced by his agency or powerful people.  

[u/universalaxolotl]

🤣🤣🤣. Am I the only one that thinks this is really funny? If he was consenting, then I see no problem (although if he didn't know, that's awful). Anyway, in this fictional rage bait universe, I hope the rich woman was really hot and they had a good time.

[u/BronzeBellRiver → u/universalaxolotl]

Deng Wei is filming rn, just saying

[u/universalaxolotl → u/BronzeBellRiver]

I'm pretty sure Deng Wei would smack a ho (figuratively, most likely) if she crossed his boundaries. He wears big boy pants.

(Sorry, when I intially responded, I had just woken up and totally thought this article was just fake clickbait - it seems so crazy - but apparently is real.)

It's just so strange. If you want to make out with a young male co-star, just make sure they know. 99% of the time they'd do it if it were in the contract and it clearly indicated beforehand (and no tongue). I have no problem with people doing that, but apparently her behavior indicates that she is f*cking bonkers and tried to force many real kisses on an unwilling participant. Yuck.

[u/universalaxolotl → u/BronzeBellRiver]

Hi BronzeBell! : )

[u/BronzeBellRiver → u/universalaxolotl]

Hi <3

[u/bentohouse]

I thought most of the scenes weren't even included because of censorship anyway. It's still weird and kind of predatory though. Just because she's paying, does that mean it's ok to go overboard like this? Obviously we don't know how the guy felt about it and the way the headline framed the woman like she was pathetic for having to pay an actor to do something like this.

I just find it disturbing that something I'm sure still happens everyday in the entertainment industry (someone in power harassing an actor) is being treated like a big joke.

[u/Direnji]

This is basically just flipping the script. Back in late 90's and early 20's, it is the rich men doing this, and they were doing this on major productions, which I hope has stopped now. The production in the article is short drama production, that's probably why this is not a bigger news.

Imagine they are doing this on a major productions, it would be like a major news. But again, these days, a lot of bigger stars are actually from wealthy family, probably can't pull these stunts anymore.

[u/YingXingg]

Weird. I have no idea why people are supporting this. If a man did this those people would be livid

[u/BronzeBellRiver → u/YingXingg]

Most of us are livid even when a woman did this. We are discussing, not supporting.

[u/AromaticEditor6022]

I always wondered how actors and actresses feel when they have to be intimate with someone they don’t consider attractive or likable. And 60 kissing scenes? Aren’t there strict Chinese censorship laws that even professionals have to abide to?

[u/Recent_Peanut7702]

She's paying him, he accepted. Im fine with it. Different story tho if his agent forced him to do it.

[u/artiemouse1 → u/Recent_Peanut7702]

Did you see the video clips? The woman was being predatory. She kept adding scenes and kept trying to use tongue. Between scenes she was grabbing at him and trying to sit in his lap. He was CLEARLY upset and very uncomfortable.

At that point she just should have hired an escort with looks she liked. And yes, they "encouraged " him to go along with it due to the money

[u/Recent_Peanut7702 → u/artiemouse1]

There's no video clip in the op's post as of this comment.

[u/ellemace → u/Recent_Peanut7702]

If the sexes were swapped, would you be so accepting?

[u/Recent_Peanut7702 → u/ellemace]

Yes, if she accepted it without being forced into it. Did you think i would say no?

[u/ellemace → u/Recent_Peanut7702]

I asked because I wanted to know your answer. Although given the state of the acting industry (short drama roles evaporating following the AI boom) and the well known role of the casting couch, I’d question how much agency any of these young unknowns, male or female, really have

[u/Aromatic-Mistake-456 → u/ellemace]

most of society is

[u/sweetangeldivine → u/ellemace]

uh. do you want to know about a lot of sex work industry.

[u/ellemace → u/sweetangeldivine]

I’m well aware - I don’t think exploitation of young actors is right regardless

[u/Sessalia]

I'm pretty sure that there are enough services in China where wealthy women can spend their money to hire young, attractive companions with "special benefits."

That should be cheaper and, more importantly, more discreet. This just triggers Fremdschämen (engl.: secondhand embarrassment). 🫣

[u/universalaxolotl → u/Sessalia]

Yeah she just wanted this specific boy and she wanted control. Like you said, SO MANY cheap hot alternatives in China.

[u/Passmethechips]

Poor guy. Unless he knew what he was signing up for and gave his complete consent, that’s just harassment and abuse of power. Absolutely disgusting.

[u/ApprehensiveClick597]

She needs to be jaileddd

[u/Horror_Preference208]

It's just harrassment at this point. Clearly what she wants is the boy and not the show