Despite “Diamond Lover” gaining massive attention, the Chinese series still faced controversies over behind-the-scenes matters.
In 2015, Rain traveled to China to film the TV drama “Diamond Lover”, where he co-starred alongside Tiffany Tang, Luo Jin, and Dilraba Dilmurat. With such a lineup, the series enjoyed explosive popularity upon its air.
At the time, “Diamond Lover” can be considered one of the most successful romance dramas, commercial-wise. It also boosted major actresses, Tiffany Tang and Dilraba Dilmurat, into top Chinese stars.
However, as the series approached its end, it also became embroiled in numerous controversies, with Rain being drowned in criticisms.
Rain condemned for going back to Korea whilst filming is not completed
“Diamond Lover” revolves around the romance between female lead Mi Mei Li (Tiffany Tang) and the handsome company president Xiao Liang (Rain). After getting into an accident, Mi Mei Li transformed from an obese person with low self-esteem into a gorgeous and confident one, and changed her name into Mi Duo. From then on, Mi Duo pursues Xiao Liang with her new identity, joining Xiao Liang’s company, Tesiro Diamond, as an aspiring jewelry designer.
However, as she struggles to hide her old identity of Mi Mei Li, Mi Duo runs into various struggles. At the same time, her unusually close friendship with Lei Yiming (Luo Jin) makes Xiao Liang green with envy. On the other hand, haughty celebrity Gao Wen (Dilraba Dilmurat) entered the scene, pursuing Lei Yiming despite claiming on media that she loves Xiao Liang.
The aforementioned love “rectangle”, which introduced a lot of hilarious and emotional situations, drew massive attention from Chinese audiences. However, the series’ finale was said to have ruined it all.
In particular, most viewers were fully convinced that Xiao Liang and Mi Duo would become a couple at the end of “Diamond Lover”, only for Mi Duo to suddenly turn to Lei Yiming.
At first, audiences were enraged, and rushed to bombarded the “Diamond Lover” director. However, upon learning the reason behind such an ending, it was Rain that faced intense criticisms in China. As it turns out, “Diamond Lover” was supposed to have 90 episodes, but was shortened into 68 episodes. This was because Rain went back to Korea early, when filming had not finished, leaving the production team with no choice but to turn Lei Yiming into the male lead instead.
Responding to such criticisms, however, fans of Rain gave their own reasons. According to them, Rain originally signed a contract for 40 episodes, only for the production team to lengthen the drama to 90 episodes. It was only condensed to 68 episodes after Rain showed his stern standpoint, and the singer-actor only returned to Korea since his contract has ended. Despite filming being unfinished, Rain still has other previously planned schedules in Korea, and so simply cannot accommodate “Diamond Lover”, which already lasted way longer than promised.
Luo Jin, from pitiful second male lead into sudden male lead
On the other hand, the fact that Rain left the project early and that Luo Jin’s character was “promoted” into the male lead is something even the actor himself cannot predict. In “Diamond Lover”, Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang’s characters get their happily ever after, while Rain’s character was just never mentioned again.
Not only did he transform into a drama male lead, Luo Jin also successfully wooed Tiffany Tang in real life. The duo then reunited in “The Princess Weiyoung”, this time playing the “true” leading couple.
Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang had their happy ending both on the screen and in real life
In October 2018, there were rumors that Tiffany Tang and Luo Jin traveled abroad for their wedding. At the time however, both sides maintained their silence. It was only until the 28th of the same month that the official statement announcing a private wedding was released.
Even now, Tiffany Tang and Luo Jin remain in love and affectionate whenever they appear together. They rarely disclose information about their personal life, in order to protect the privacy of their children.
Dilraba Dilmurat outshined Tiffany Tang in “Diamond Lover”?
Alongside Tiffany Tang, actress Dilraba Dilmurat also made a deep impression via “Diamond Lover”. Most notably, Dilraba Dilmurat was still a relatively unknown name at the time, especially when compared to Tiffany Tang.
Assuming the role of the haughty celebrity Gao Wen, Dilraba Dilmurat has earned the love of many viewers. In fact, with her stunning appearance, many people even said that Dilraba Dilmurat’s Gao Wen “completely outshined” Tiffany Tang’s Mi Duo.
On top of this, Dilraba Dilmurat has turned into a top star after “Diamond Lover”, and would later star in “Eternal Love”, “Eternal Love of Dream”, “The Blue Whisper” and “The Long Ballad”, affirming her position as a top Chinese actress who was born in the 90s.
Regarding the behind-the-scenes of “Diamond Lover”, certain staff members claimed that Tiffany Tang and Dilraba Dilmurat had a bad relationship due to intense comparisons between the two. Of course, this was only a rumor, and the two actresses might have just been friendly rivals.
Source: k14
