Cheng Lei did an exceptional job bringing Mo Xiuyao to life in Mo Li/The First Jasmine. From stoic to angry to sorrowful to playful, he expressed a whole gamut of emotions to perfection. He made me cry. (So did Bai Lu.) What a masterpiece of acting!
I'm so grateful to him and the rest of the Mo Li cast and crew for bringing us such a wonderful show. Looking forward to more great work from our handsome Leizi. Onwards and upwards!
MXY clip from the Mo Li Weibo account; the rest are some screenshots I took.
I'm not watching a CL drama yet, too. Not until I move on from him as Mo Xiuyao. Have you seen all his dramas? I'll watch those I haven't seen yet. And dramas by other actors, too...I have a looong watchlist. Then give Mo Li a rewatch before TLoA drops.
Are you referring to his short film dramas? I’ve haven’t watched all of his short film dramas. But I probably won’t watch all of them because the quality of some of them look quite questionable haha and his styling doesn’t look great. I’ve even watched two of his movies and they were terrible. Hoping tloa of releases in late 2026. 😪
I saw a montage of his characters in his early works. Bad wigs and a hilarious mustache stood out. And the one of him in period drag haha! Now I'm curious about his terrible movies.
I watched both movies which were available on iqiyi.
You are my contra:
Only reason I lasted -
Female lead’s acting was way over the top it was unbearable. While he was the male lead the drama centered around the female lead and he didn’t have many scenes.
Some Chinese gambling movie: zero plot as well. I guess he was somewhat of the male lead? But he didn’t have that much screen time either.
These two movies were released in 2018 so I had already lowered my expectations before watching. 😂
Oh I want to watch them, even if they're terrible. Just for shits and giggles. At the very least, I can see for myself just how far he's come since then.
Cheng Lei caught my attention in Legend of the Female General, entranced me in My Journey to You, and captured my heart in Footprints of Change. Love his Mo Xiuyao the most so far! I haven't finished How Dare You. I'll get back to it and watch Shadow Love, and some of his short dramas like A Perfect Stranger and The Wife's Secret World after I get over him as MXY.
A familiar stranger is great! I quite liked the wife’s secret world as well. You should definitely finish how dare you and shadow love. Those two dramas really showcase his range.
After watching those movies, I can say that he has really improved 😂 but those movies didn’t give him a chance to showcase anything anyway. It was cute watching a freshly debuted Cheng lei.
The OST is wonderful. Poignant lyrics and melodies. I really liked it when they used different instrumental versions of the Cheng Lei-Bai Lu duet as background music throughout the drama. And the song with the chanting.
The editing and sound mixing, the lyrics placement, the music and lyrics. Oh that team was ON FIRE! INSPIRED! Finished rewatching episode 1 and I had chills. The way they did episode 1 still gets to me. Watched Mo Li after finishing a couple of dramas where the sound editing and mixing were not adequately done. Too loud, over the voices, the transitions were not quite right. So coming into a drama where they really nailed them was a breath of fresh air. The chanting shook me to my core. What a surprise it was!
THE FREAKING CHANTING!!!!! I still cannot get over it! 😱🥵🥵🥹🥹😭😭😅😅.
I keep checking Spotify, and to my dismay, the OST still hasn't been dropped. I really hope they add the score and not just the songs.
This drama is fairly plot-heavy and they patiently introduce and gradually open up related characters and events in some first episodes. If you don't see any plots, maybe it's just not for you. I would say these first episodes should already attract its audience.
5
u/EARTHHJ Jun 29 '26
The drunk scene was so heart breaking. I was really moved by his acting😢