The Legend of Shen Li: Zhao Liying's first turn as producer, and a runaway phoenix

2024 · Hunan TV, Tencent Video, WeTV, Mango TV · Zhao Liying (赵丽颖), Lin Gengxin (林更新)

Why this one

The Legend of Shen Li (与凤行) has a distinction that has nothing to do with its plot: it was Zhao Liying's first credit as supervising producer (监制). She is one of the most bankable leads in Chinese television, and for this project she also had a hand in shaping the production. The series premiered on the prime-time slot of Hunan TV on March 18, 2024, at the same time as Tencent Video, WeTV, and Mango TV, and it ran 39 episodes until April 5. On April 1 its popularity reportedly passed 31,000 on Tencent's heat index, and Chinese coverage described it as breaking heat records.

The setup

Shen Li (沈璃) is the ruler of the spirit realm, the Lord of Bicang. To escape an arranged marriage with the grandson of the Heavenly Emperor, she flees. During the escape she is badly injured, transforms into her true form as a phoenix, and falls into the mortal world, where she meets the man who will become her companion: Xing Zhi, sometimes known as Xing Yun, the last of the ancient gods, who has come down to live among humans and try out an ordinary life.

The premise rests on a double disguise. A ruler is stranded in a body and a world that don't fit her, and the man who takes her in looks like an ordinary mortal while being the most powerful being in the story. The romance is built on the gap between how they treat each other in the mortal world and what each of them actually is.

Note — A book with a different title: The novel by Jiulu Feixiang (九鹭非香) is titled Yu Feng Xing (与凤行) in print, but it originally appeared on the Jinjiang literature site as a shorter work called Ben Wang Zai Ci (本王在此), roughly "This king is here." The two titles point in different directions. The original is a boast from the heroine, and the drama's title is a description of the relationship. The author also wrote the screenplay.

Cast and crew worth knowing

• Zhao Liying (赵丽颖) as Shen Li, and, for the first time, a supervising producer on the project. She is also the lead of The Journey of Flower and The Story of Minglan, both covered on this site.

• Lin Gengxin (林更新) as Xing Zhi / Xing Yun.

• Directed by Deng Ke (邓科). Produced by Tencent's Penguin Pictures (企鹅影视) and New Classics Media (新丽传媒).

• Filmed at Hengdian World Studios from June to November 2022, which means it aired about sixteen months after filming wrapped.

Where to watch

• WeTV, Tencent's international platform, with English subtitles

• Apple TV, in some regions

Its echo outside China

Airing the same series on four platforms at once is a deliberate choice, and it is worth noticing as a sign of how the industry treats a top-billed costume romance: as an event to be distributed everywhere at once rather than an exclusive to protect. It is also a reminder that Zhao Liying's overseas profile has been built across several projects, not one, and that the same lead can appear in this site's coverage of three very different eras of the genre.