Taiwanese actor Darren Chen (官鴻) became famous after starring as “Hua Zelei” in the 2018 Chinese remake of “Meteor Garden”. His new series, “The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty” (成化十四年), is currently airing on iQIyi. This is his first leading role and also his first time doing a costume drama. Unfortunately, viewers had a lot of criticisms about Darren Chen’s acting.
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In the series, Darren Chen plays a 6th ranked court official, Tang Fan, who loves to eat and is often acting cute and precocious for the character. However, viewers criticized his acting for being too “unnatural”, “no feeling of being a costume drama” and “performance is like a child’s.”
In an interview on April 9, Darren Chen responded to the criticism and said, “Tang Fan is a very real character. He would express everything that is true.” He also understands viewers have different perspectives on acting skills. To this, he responded, “Drama is originally a subjective thing. I also like to hear compliments and criticisms. I can accept both. If it’s good, I will continue to keep it up. The bad, I will change it next time.”
The series can be watched with Eng Subs on iQiyi:
I just finished The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty and loved it!! I like Darren Chen’s performance in the drama. The character’s righteous indignation, situational gravity, and playful innocence is a good balance with the other two main characters. He nailed it! Wished there would be a second season.
He’s not a terrible actor, but he’s not good either. His acting is bearable but it’s mostly his face that’s carrying him. I mean he’s not as bad as Song Weilong where even his face can’t carry his acting, but the dude’s still got a ton of work ahead of him.
if you’d like to defend Darren whom I like also, please do not put down Song Weilong. They are not in the same league. Unadmittedly, they both still need more experience and more importantly, roles that suit them. Right now, I think they are just ‘experimenting’. Cannot expect 100% from them. Just give support if you like them, even just for the looks.
I watched him. I don’t think he did bad work. He did pretty well. Especially on ep. 17-18. He is making progress! Darren is really good. This is only his 3rd dramas! You did really good Guanhung;)
He has a very modern and kiddish face. I would put him in the ‘pretty and sweet’ category. Modern drama suits him better. Love to see him smile especilly.
Back off haters. He is doing good so far.