A Stalker's Guide to Mark Chao
"Angelababy? What kind of name is that?" I bet that's what you all had in mind when you first saw her name, right?
Angelababy is a Hong Kong-based Chinese model-actress signed by Style International Management at an early age of 14 (same management as HK model-actress Hung Lynn, her BFF Mizuhara Kiko, etc). Angela is her English name while Baby has always been her nickname, so she combined it when she entered the modeling industry. The result of this name combination is now a name you would commonly hear in Greater China's households.
I only entered the Asian dramaland last year, and it was only this year that I started watching more Asian movies. I realized that movies are an easier alternative to dramas in terms of time, and convenience in getting them. It was my friend who's a huge fan of Peng Eddie who gave me a copy of Love You You so I watched it out of curiosity and boredom. Lo and behold! It started my love for Asian movies (Chinese movies to be more specific) and the leading lady there was no other than Angelababy (or Angelabaobei as my friends and I fondly call her) so my love for her started from there too and I try to watch almost everything that she is in.
So here are her works that I've watched so far.
FILMS
Love You You (2010)
This was one of the first movies that I watched this year and it really touched my heart. This film also introduced me not only to Angelababy, but also to Eddie Peng and they make such an adorable pair! In this movie, she plays Xiami, a paralegal who was sent on an undercover mission to spy on Eddie's character, You Lele. Angelababy's Xiami is actually the opposite of her in real life since Xiami looked mostly unhappy and even Eddie's You Lele could not predict her well. The movie is just beautiful in all aspects in terms of character and story development, and even aesthetics-wise because of Eddie and Angela in a beautiful Malaysian beach setting. I'm not going to say much because everything would make sense if you watch it because this film's truly worth watching!
First Time (2012)
After watching Love You You, I didn't expect to watch another beautiful movie from Angelababy. This is apparently based on the Korean movie, ...Ing which I haven't watched but I heard from so many people that this one is much better. I remember getting bored while watching this movie at first because I seriously didn't know what was happening, and everything was just happening way too fast. Angelababy acted as Song Shiqiao, a college student with a terminal disease. If having a terminal disease in a movie or in any form of fiction turns you off, I still suggest that you shouldn't miss this movie. This film wasn't being pretentious and already clearly presented that the female lead has a terminal sickness but it definitely portrayed it differently. How different? It's not the cliche type wherein one would hide his/her sickness from their lover and the lover would just eventually find out, and they would promise to love each other forever. Nope, it's not like that and you will actually see how completely different it is when you watch this amazing film. Mark Chao's portrayal of Gong Ning was superb and so was Shiqiao's mother here who is also an important character. If Love You You touched my heart, this movie definitely broke my heart and even made me burst into tears. Until now, I've been nagging my friends and sister to watch it so I have a reason to rewatch it (because I just really want to!). Beautiful story + beautiful soundtrack (most of the songs were sang by Mark Chao) + beautiful cinematography + beautiful actors, yup, I just love using the word "beautiful" especially for this movie because it truly is.
Tai Chi Zero & Tai Chi Hero (2012)
As a fan of light and romantic comedy genres, it's a bit of a chore for me to watch historical/martial arts kinds of films. However, being a fan of Angelababy also means having to watch a variety of her works. These films actually highlighted the versatility of her beauty and acting skills as Yu Niang, a daughter of a Kung Fu grandmaster, who also specializes in martial arts as it is their family's most treasured weapon. Both movies were about the historical narrative of how Tai Chi as a special form of martial arts came to be. These movies also marked the 2nd and 3rd collaboration of Eddie Peng and Angelababy in a movie and it is also exactly the reason why I just had to watch the movies. Even if I'm not a fan of the genre, I still enjoyed watching it and it was also mainly because of Angelababy's presence that made it even more enjoyable to watch.
Crimes of Passion (2013)
Even though I'm not a fan of action films, I was so curious to see this film because it was Angelababy's first project together with her then secret boyfriend (now husband) Huang Xiao Ming. However, this story was a bit disappointing, I wish that they just made the story something like "Mr & Mrs. Smith" for this real-life couple. I think that the film creators wasted so much potential for these two to show their chemistry onscreen since the story focused on Angelababy's character and the Korean actor Jae Hee's character instead. Though it was still great to see Angelababy being a bad-ass detective, or agent of some sort, and this movie also made me learn that she can actually speak English well!
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon (2013)
This film is literally a mash-up of Chinese history and a mythical tale. Set during the Qing dynasty, the people of China have become cautious of a mysterious sea creature who would randomly attack and destroy their towns/cities. This was Angelababy and Mark Chao's 2nd collaboration after my forever favorite film, First Time, but my reaction towards this film is definitely the opposite of what I felt when I watched First Time. I actually fell asleep when I was watching this, but don't get me wrong, I don't think it was that bad but maybe I was just too sleepy and that the film couldn't sustain my attention anymore (lol). Angelababy was a royal courtesan and she was everyone's favorite. They love her so much that people would actually fight over because she was the most beautiful courtesan in town (well, she really is beautiful!) What really made me enjoy in this movie was Lin Geng Xin's (I just love him!) awkwardness around her. I think the Kdrama fans out there would also be glad to know (maybe you know already actually) that Kim Bum also starred in this movie too and he actually had great chemistry with Angelababy here!
Together (2013)
Let me just be honest and say that Kai Ko and Angelababy should've made a movie with just the two of them instead. The movie poster shows that there are three pairings, or three stories, in the whole film but I don't remember seeing the 3rd pairing having any scenes at all. Anyway, I actually didn't know that Angelababy was paired up with Kai Ko (who happens to be one of my favorite TW actors!) here since I just randomly downloaded this movie after finding out that it's an Angelababy movie available with English subtitles. Maybe this is just a biased opinion of a fan but the only thing that was keeping the movie alive was the pairing of Kai and Angelababy here (my apologies to Donnie Yen, Michelle Chen, etc). Kai Ko plays a police officer here while Angelababy was being suspected of doing money-related crimes so there's obviously a conflict of interest there, which made it interesting. The only reason why I gave a fairly high rating (9/10 here in MDL) is because it was so much fun to watch the two of them, that I actually wish to see them in other projects.
Rise of the Legend (2014)
This film's the 4th collaboration of Eddie Peng and Angelababy (yes, 4th!! China's pretty crazy about them, huh?). I actually never planned to watch this, until I read an article online that Eddie and Angelababy would be sharing intimate scenes here. It really caught me by surprise because I never knew that Angelababy was actually going to star in this movie, but it all made sense when they said that it was going to be a guest appearance. When my friends and I watched this all together, we were just squealing whenever Eddie and Angela would be alone together in their scenes (yup, we're that crazy!). Angelababy was a courtesan (again!) and her character here was really heroic, and I don't even think that it was a guest appearance at all. She acted so well here and I love how she showed her love towards Eddie's character. I'm actually glad that she played as a courtesan here again because she did so well the first time in Young Detective Dee and I love how the courtesan look suited her face.
Love on the Cloud (2014)
I gave this a rating of 3/10 here and it is probably the lowest rating that I've ever given to a film. This says a lot given that I'm actually very easy to please that I often give scores ranging from 8-10. I actually thought that it was going to be okay, but it turned out to be too peculiar for my taste and not even Angelababy could save this movie for me. It was such a waste of my time to watch this, and I definitely don't recommend this to anyone. Such a pretty harsh comment for me to say but it also goes to show that I've actually grown to be a mature watcher and not automatically love something just because my favorite star is in it. Angelababy played a model here who hit it big in the end so her face was literally everywhere, it's pretty much what's happening in her life actually (haha!). The movie just recycled her past photo shoots and magazine features and I should know because I actually save almost every beautiful photo shoot of her in my phone. Yup, she's totally my inspiration but I hope that she won't ever do a movie like this again please!
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Love YunGe from the Desert (2015)
My girl is going to have her first drama ever aired anytime soon! This is apparently the sequel to Sound of the Desert with Eddie Peng in it so I'm definitely going to watch that first then watch this right away. The drama released so many beautiful stills and this one is just one of my favorites with Angelabaobei smiling so prettily while perfectly matching the background.
2015 FILMS
It's actually quite easy to be a fan of Angelababy because she just keeps working and working despite the beginning of her new life as a married woman, which I'll be talking about later ;)
Ever since learning that there would be a film version of this (I have yet to watch the drama adaptation though), it already piqued my interest to watch it. This film's the 2nd collaboration of Angelababy with her husband Huang Xiao Ming and it's funny that she played as a step-sibling in love with HXM's character. During the press conference of the movie, Huang Xiao Ming uttered some sweet words saying that "In the movie, Mo Sheng is my baby but in real life, Baby is my Mo Sheng". Everybody say aww! :D
Bride Wars
Yup, it's the Chinese adaptation of the American film with Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson as the stars. I've never watched the original version because people were telling me that it sucked but I'm definitely watching this for Angelababy! They have been promoting it for quite some time now and I'm sure that this could get subtitles easily.
The Ghouls
Angelababy went to the recent Cannes Film Festival to promote this with film with her co-stars. It's a star-studded project about tomb-raiding (China's been obsessed with this subject lately) and there are going to be elements of horror. As a fan of horror, I'm definitely looking forward to this aside from the fact that Angelababy's going to be in it!
VARIETY SHOW
Running Man China/Hurry Up, Brother!
As a fan of the TW/C entertainment industry, I don't really know much about other countries so I had no clue what Running Man as a variety show was all about. I even had to read it on Wiki after learning that Angelababy would be part of the Chinese version. I only got to watch one episode so far and I really want to watch all the other episodes except that there are only a few episodes with English subtitles in it. All of them just have subtitles because the guests are from the original Running Man and because some are Kpop stars. The only episode I watched made me cry of laughter that even my sister asked me what the hell was going on with me (lol). It was RM China vs. RM Korea and Angelababy's just the cutest thing and the Korean members were so starstruck to see her (I really can't blame them!) You can actually see how playful and cheerful she really is, a far cry from most of her movie roles.
OTHER FACTS:
As I said earlier, she's beginning her new life as a married woman. She's been (secretly!) dating Huang Xiao Ming since 2010 although it was actually an open secret in the Chinese-speaking entertainment world already. They only formally announced that they're dating last February 2014 when HXM surprised Baby during her 25th birthday. He's actually known to spoil her with lavish surprises (READ: a new sports car). It was only a matter of time that they'd actually tie the knot and they did as proven by HXM posting their marriage licenses on Weibo, so I'm just really happy for them! Here's one of the few wedding photos that they shared but obviously they'd be sharing more this coming October for a grand wedding banquet to be held in Shanghai with 3,000 guests (seriously going to be a crazy bride if I were her).
- Angelababy's not only hitting it big in Greater China but Hollywood has been noticing her as well. She's going to be starring in upcoming movies such as "Hitman 47" and "Independence Day 2". For the latter film, they already held a press conference and Angelababy said that she's honestly nervous since English isn't her first language. You can totally do it, girl!
- Just like her husband who's both an actor and a businessman, she's also a businesswoman by owning "Baby Cafe" in her homeland Hong Kong. It is a restaurant which offers world cuisine that she handpicked herself and each cafe actually has large posters of her (like the photo below) plastered on the walls. When I went to HK, I actually placed it in my itinerary but the lack of time didn't allow me to see it. I'll just go next time and hopefully she'll be there too! ;)
- I think people won't forgive me if I end this article without talking about that one issue that has always been attached to Angelababy's name -- plastic surgery. If you just simply Google her, it is already inevitable to see pictures of her from before and you can actually see the major transformation that was done to her face. Honestly, I don't have anything against people who went under the knife to have some features of their face changed because I seriously think that I would do the same if I had all their money and fame (haha!). However, she's getting so much hate because of how she just denies it every time. It's actually normal to deny it, but of course people are throwing some shade because of her huge popularity and because there are actually some actresses who would not deny it.
- With 60 million followers on Weibo (China's version of Twitter) and dubbed as the Weibo queen, it is definitely inevitable for someone like her to have many haters but she definitely has more fans (like me!) to support her.
- At such a young age of 26, she's listed in the annual Forbes China Celebrity List ranking #12, a huge jump from her 2014 ranking of #55.
- She's definitely going places literally and figuratively and I can't wait to see her do even more! And that's it for my Stalker's Guide. Hope that my article was able to make you know more about Angelababy and her works. Feel free to drop some comments and questions below! :)
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