To be honest as time went by the less I became interested in this drama. Tiny Times (小時代) is of course the adaptation of Guo Jing Ming’s famous novels which became a very commercially successful movie series. This drama version, by Taiwanese Director Chu Yu Ning (aka Director Winnie) starring Ivy Chen, Li Yi Feng, Andrea Chen and Peter Ho was filmed back in 2012 but then Guo Jing Ming decided to direct his own movies so not much has been heard about this drama version since.
When the first long trailer came out at the end of 2012, this actually looked half decent. But as I found out more about Tiny Times (no I haven’t watched the movies but I have a general idea of what it’s about), yes I can understand why Guo Jing Ming wanted to make his own version. The drama is more down to earth and dare I say, it might be attempting to insert more substance? HA. I really shouldn’t snark on things I haven’t seen.
Just when I thought the drama version might never see the light of day at the Shanghai TV festival this week, Youku announced they have acquired a total of 17 dramas to be released weekly, exclusively online. One of the dramas they will be releasing duriing summer is Tiny Times. This one episode per week format is a new initiative for them, since the audience is getting used to the Korean/US/UK models with 1 or 2 episodes per week rather than the mainstream television channels who airs something like 3 episodes PER DAY! I often wonder how anyone can watch 3 episodes per day every day but I guess the online streaming sites have the dramas on demand anyway.
If the movie version was the closest adaptation from book to screen as envisioned by the author, then surely the fans will bash this to death since… just look at the poster and stills. Are they even talking about the same thing? But then these days, any press coverage (good or bad) is better than none.
The 18 minute preview of Tiny Times
Here’s a comparison of the lead characters between movie and drama versions. 🙂
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