Translated by minchong92 @ http://asianfanatics.net
Competition between [Moungar]'s male leads: Mark Zhao suppresses Ethan Ruan
Before its official release, [Moungar] has already begun to gain attention. At first, all the focus was put on male lead Ethan Ruan. After Mark Chao won a Golden Bell award, there are rumors that the focus has now turned over to Mark. Will both male leads have equal parts? Producer Li Lie strongly stated that she has never considered who is better than the other!
[Moungar], a story set in the 70s about Chinese triads, has many male leads: idol drama brother #1 Ethan Ruan, [Winds of September]’s Feng Xiao Yue, [Ruffian Hero]’s Mark Chao, [Cape No. 7]’s Ma Ru Long, Wang Shi Xian etc. During filming, Mark Chao had not yet won the Golden Bell award so all the spotlight had been placed on Ethan Ruan who gained much popularity through [Fated to Love You].
There had been much discussion about Mark Chao who won an award from just his first drama. Right now as filming is rushed, there are rumors that his scenes are more than Ethan’s. And so Ethan’s position has been lowered. The first wave of trailers and promotional posters all focused on Ethan Ruan. Will there be a change in this? Producer Li Lie Di expressed that the future posters have yet to be finished and that she has never thought about who is the first male lead.
When Ma Ru Long accepted an interview, he expressed that in his heart the first male lead was Mark Chao. The reason for this wasn’t because Mark had more scenes in the movie, but because behind the scenes Mark would accompany him in waiting for the next shoot. And sometimes such waits were 1-2 hours long. This let him feel very grateful.
Moungar will premiere next year in the spring. Because Director Dou has high expectations and wishes for the movie to be perfect, many scenes were hard to shoot. This let the filming process lag behind. And the other male lead, Feng Xiao Yue has already returned to England to study. So the conflict between male leads falls upon Mark Chao and Ethan Ruan.
