[Upcoming Chinese Drama] My Sweet City 甜蜜都市

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Henry Lau posted photos from the filming on his weibo microblog.

(Photo from weibo.com)

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New My Sweet City publicity photos from weibo.com.

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CCTV news story about Zhang Xinyi. In previous television dramas her leading men were all much older than her. Now for the first time Zhang Xinyi has a leading man who is much younger than her.
 

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Actress Zheng Rosie plays the girlfriend in the story that quits her job to pursue her dream of working in musical theater. She posted this photo on her weibo microblog.

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My Sweet City is based on the novel, My Sweet Seoul by Jung Yi-hyun.
Goodreads.com gives the following review of the book:The life of a 30-something single career woman seems “ordinary” in every sense of the word, yet integrating love and money brings exceptional challenges.
It is easy to say that something is standard or ordinary. But living an ordinary life could be the most difficult task to achieve, since the adjective “ordinary” is just a grand illusion that exists only in our mind. When asked to pick the most ordinary person, one might be deeply baffled. After all, each individual is unique and special. Jung Yi-hyun stages an entertaining battle against the illusion of the banal by depicting a Korean woman’s ordinary life and work in a rather extraordinary fashion.

Thirty-something Oh Eun-su is a deputy manager at a publishing company who has a seven-year career under her belt. She is an ordinary Korean in every aspect. Nothing in her family background, education, appearance, or even personality can be categorized as other than ordinary. Strangely enough, her everyday life is full of deviation and struggle. The novel chronicles Oh’s ordinary office life and romantic relationships in Seoul, but the way they are described is far from ordinary.

Love, marriage, and dating are three different things in modern life, but Oh and other “ordinary” Korean women want the three things to be integrated into a single, perfect harmony. But what if such integration is just an urban myth or illusion? The novel’s delicate depiction of the character in her 30s is telling because her everyday life is full of frustrations. The chief stumbling blocks to the integration of the three modes of a single woman’s life are none other than money and temptation. A younger man, though charming enough, lacks money; a rich man, however, seriously lacks attractiveness. A young woman’s heart swings rapidly and recklessly in accordance with the intensity of such temptation, creating a potentially lethal emotional cycle. What’s more lethal is that in this world, even romantic love depends heavily, if not entirely, on money.

The sheer dilemma facing young women in the metropolitan city of Seoul makes it tricky to blame them for preferring an expensive Starbucks coffee whose price is almost double that of a cheap lunch. For adult women who cannot imagine their lives without all the conveniences that the metropolis offers. The novel is a kind of second initiation. For readers who are drawn to Oh, who “is 32 years old, doesn’t have anything, no achievement, no man I deeply love, or no man who deeply loves me,” the novel will leave a subtle aftertaste like the caffeine in a Starbucks caramel macchiato.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15769461-my-sweet-seoul

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Actresses Zheng Rosie and Wang Shi Meng play the heroine's two girlfriends.

(Photos from weibo.com)

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laquetahodge said: I hope this gets subbed when it airs, I don't want to miss Henry  

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The latest publicity photos for My Sweet City attempt to show contrast between the two men pursuing Zhang Xinyi's character.

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this is first time i see a construction worker has such smooth white porcelain skin.

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A behind-the-scenes video of the My Sweet City filming.

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Zhang Xinyi and Henry Lau preparing to film the scene where they attend the wedding of one of her girlfriends.

(Photo from weibo.com)

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laquetahodge said: I was already on the Henry ship, but that other guy is kinda hot. What's his name? 

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At a press conference, the two actors pretended to bicker over Zhang Xinyi.Henry: "I can sing a song to you."Lu Fangsheng: "I can buy you an entire orchestra."Henry: "I will be around a few years longer than him since I am much younger." 

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Actress Zheng Rosie filming a scene for My Sweet City. (Photo from weibo.com)

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Chinese actress Wu Yufang will play Zhang Xinyi's mother in My Sweet City.

(Photo from weibo.com)

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Henry Lau and Zhang Xinyi filming at a shopping mall. (Photo from weibo.com)

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Lu Fangsheng and Zhang Xinyi visit a farm in My Sweet City. (Photo from Xinhuanet.com)

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(November 15, 2013 Hollywood Reporter News Item)

China's DMG Entertainment, co-producer of Iron Man 3, is ramping up its recent push into international TV, partnering with Korea's CJ E&M to develop and produce the romance series Sweet City, starring K-pop star Henry (aka Liu Xianhua) from South Korean boy band, Super Junior. It will be Liu's acting debut.

While DMG is best known for its Hollywood co-productions, Looper and Iron Man 3, along with Chinese hits Founding of a Republic (2009) and Go LaLa Go (2010), the company has been expanding its activity in TV. On Wednesday, the DMG signed an agreement with Washington FilmWorks to develop, produce and shoot a Chinese-language TV drama on location in Seattle for later broadcast by CCTV.

CJ E&M, South Korea’s largest entertainment conglomerate, has several joint venture initiatives underway in China, including cinema construction projects across the country, and co-production of director Park Kwang-hyun's sci-fi fantasy The Fist, with $20 million of investment from China Film Group and Pegasus & Taihe Entertainment.

"We are very excited to be working with the team from CJ. It’s a great opportunity to enhance the close ties between the two countries, while adding a dash of DMG style to the Chinese TV market,” said Wu Bing, DMG president and executive producer of “Sweet City.”

An adaptation of South Korean author Jeong Lee Hyeung's bestselling novel, My Sweet City, the drama series will have built-in appeal for the South Korean market. The first edition of her book sold 250,000 copies and went on to top the country's best-selling lists with a record 65 reprints.

“In order to cater to the tastes of Chinese fans, DMG’s TV development team has revised and updated the story to give it more of a Chinese sensibility,” said Bing.

Henry will play the role of a talented teenager who drops out of school to follow his dreams. DMG says it developed the character’s playful style and attitude to match Henry’s off-screen persona in Super Junior.

The two companies say they hope the project will be the first in a line of collaborations, as they seek to instigate a "new Korean Wave in Chinese TV."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chinas-dmg-koreas-cj-produce-656320

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Chinese actress Wang Shi Meng plays the girlfriend who enters a marriage of convenience.

(Photo from weibo.com)

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Zhang Xinyi, Wang Shi Meng, Zheng Rosie (Photo posted by Zheng Rosie on weibo.com)