Deng Wei and Chen Duling’s Screen Time Are Drastically Reduced in “Till the End of the Moon”
While Leo Luo Yunxi (羅雲熙) and Bai Lu (白鹿) have incredible chemistry in Till the End of the Moon <長月燼明>, many viewers notice that the supporting cast Deng Wei (鄧為) and Chen Duling’s (陳都靈) scenes have been substantially reduced.
In the first eight episodes of Till The End of the Moon aired, netizens observed the screen time of each actor, and found Yunxi ranking first with 235 minutes, followed by Bai Lu with 200 minutes. Meanwhile, Deng Wei and Duling are only seen for 29 minutes and 17 minutes respectively. This came as a huge surprise as the screen time is drastically disproportionate, even when Deng Wei and Duling are playing the second male and female leads.
Screenwriter Upset Over Changed Script
One of the screenwriters Luo Xuan (羅璇), who was responsible for writing Deng Wei’s scenes, also pointed out the issue in her social media post. She originally had meaningfully crafted Deng Wei’s character in every aspect from personality, to visuals, and costume accessories. When she was asked to rewrite the script, she argued with the staff, but unfortunately had her opinions dismissed. Feeling helpless, she told herself in the post, “Will not follow a crew next time; just take it easy and stay safe.”
Just as disappointed, fans are questioning why the crew would deviate from the original novel by cutting out so much of Deng Wei and Duling’s scenes. They commented, “This is likely a costume drama where I’ve seen the least scenes from the supporting characters.;” “Even the screenwriter is criticizing the script. There is nothing wrong with changing a script, but it has to be reasonable;” and “As a fan of the novel, all I can say is that it completely misses the point.”
Despite the criticisms, others defended, “The original story would not have been suitable for a drama adaptation anyway. The rewritten script is quite reasonable” and “Besides, Yunxi portrays his role very well, and his scenes complete the story, so it doesn’t even feel like he has a lot of scenes.”
Source: [1]
This article is written by Minna for JayneStars.com.
CDL and DW’s characters in here are too one-dimensional. One is purely a villain and the other has savior complex. Their personalities distilled into two simple concepts. I personally don’t have an issue with them doing this because a) DW’s character is not shown to fall in love with YXW, so what’s the purpose of him being around? And b) the way they wrote CDL is to make her as irritable and b1tchy as possible, so who wants to see more of that onscreen?
*correction maybe they also wanted to contrast his personality with TTJ and we can see why we want to root for the good guy. But everything TTJ has done so far, just seems rational and logical.
The show created a separated role for CDL as Mo Nv and of course with DW plays a big role in it. I don’t mind their scenes being cut on the first and second arc since it doesn’t contributed much in the first place. DW is super handsome and CDL is very pretty and totally fits the white lotus role.
@niangniang oh really? So CDL will come back?
@Coralie
Yes, she is back as Mo Nv in immortal arc, the character that didn’t exist in the novel but created especially for her.
This is the drama in like so long that I’ve seen the 2 leads actually have way more screen times than the supporting casts. Nowadays, supporting casts have a lot of screen times, some even have almost or the same amount of times as the leads. Sometimes it makes me feel like the leads don’t have that much screen times, but the supporting casts keep showing up on screen.
A lot of stuff was edited out to fit the series in the 40 ep size. I am not bothered as the current speed of the plot is going well in my opinion. There doesn’t seem to be much drag. As for Xiao Lin and Ye Bing Chang, their relationship is not that interesting. The relationship between Tantai Jin and Xiao Lin is way more interesting. Sorry but I don’t find YBC and Tian Huan that much different. I think CDL is doing fine but she has no scene to highlight her acting thus far. I do love Deng Wei but Xiao Lin is supposed to be a 100% good guy so again, not that much development. I thought he was more comfortable as Sang You.
I am looking forward to Mo Nu and the eldest martial brother. YBC and XL is only the beginning. Mo Nu will be the character of CDL that would have the most development. Looking forward to her Mo Nu scenes. She looks really lovely in white.