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Believe it or not, the hit C-drama series Pursuit of Jade made viral stars out of its villains. Goodlooking villains, to be exact. Of course, the meteoric rise in popularity of male lead Zhang Linghe, playing the Marquis incognito-turned-husband to the village butcher, remains unbeatable, but Deng Kai and Lin Muran playing the hateful princes have now become sought-after stars with a growing fandom.
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Deng Kai, who apparently hardly had any security detail, was mobbed last March in the airport in China, shortly after the series ended, while he was on his way to film a variety series. The reels went viral, of him dashing to the restroom, where the fans’ cameras followed him to the door, of him sitting down waiting with again, the fans’ cameras boring down on him, and of him seated on the plane begging the fans to move on the aisle.
Succeeding reels showed him at last with proper security escorts and vans, and taking time to greet fans in more controllable circumstances.
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Deng Kai, 31, and Lin Muran, 20, play two ill-starred brothers—princes—set up by their scheming father to wrest power. Nothing unusual with that. It’s just that the two are not blood brothers. Deng Kai’s character has a tragic childhood, and as a young man, his almost lifeless body is saved by a beautiful commoner played by Kong Xue’er. He’s beguiled by her beauty, sires her child who, if the royal bloodline is followed, is bound to be emperor. But she and the child disappear from his life. Finding her has become his lifelong obsession, and when he finds her at last, she becomes his even stronger obsession burning to his last breath—an unrequited love. That’s why it’s so funny how one netizen, posting the reel of Deng Kai being cornered by fans, writes a hilarious caption that captures the irony of the mob scene: “Forced love.”
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The impulsive prince played by the youthful bedimpled Muran worships his older brother—his word is his command—not knowing that he’s just being used to serve his scheme and will suffer the ultimate betrayal.
Pursuit of Jade, a powerful and violent series (it is a cut-throat festival, literally), turns the two young villains into tragic figures. That Deng Kai and Lin Muran are able to portray villainy in a most visceral sense is what obviously makes their complementary performance stand out in the 40-episode series—this, even if they’re in less than 10 episodes; it is reported that Deng Kai’s cumulative appearances didn’t even stretch to 30 minutes. Their performance must have been that impactful. Their portrayal of evil is disturbing yet their characters show the vulnerability that draws empathy from the viewer, strangely enough.
And they know how to use their good looks to lethal advantage: Deng Kai’s menacing stare—with menacing smile, Lin Muran’s boyish grin that turns into maniacal anger. These idol-age actors know how to turn such nuanced acting into lover-boy moments, violence into romance. That explains in part the success of Pursuit of Jade.
It is so smart of C-drama productions such as this to post behind-the-scene (BTS) reels of the cast, particularly of Deng Kai and Lin Muran, showing them rocking like idols, in their period costumes—after brutal episodes that show them cutting throats. We find it quite ingenious and crafty of C-drama producers to give the viewers a breather from their violent roles. You see Deng Kai and Lin Muran hacking away at bodies, then next you see BTS clips of them dancing and rapping, still dressed like princes, their long flowing hair swaying to the beat. How cool.
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It doesn’t hurt that each actor has an interesting back story. Lin Muran, at 20, has been acting for only six years, but is active on social media. There’s a cute post of him, trying to speak English to thank two fans who flew to his filming set all the way from Korea, and who, it was reported later, he gifted with Chinese paper art. His agency sure knows how to rack up his number of netizen followers.
Photo from themoviedb.org
Deng Kai was a relatively unknown actor (“low-tier,” he said in a livestream) before POJ, who was struggling to get acting roles. A graduate of a fine arts academy, he debuted only in 2018, and was a last-minute replacement for the villain role in POJ. He worked so hard on the villain prince character in POJ, down to dyeing his dark hair to ashen white, it was reported.
He and his female lead Kong Xue’er produced such a strong love chemistry that they later got invited to variety shows and are reportedly filming a romance drama starring Dylan Wang.
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Bad boys turn cool—only in dramaland.
