On the heels of the massively successful release of The Ferryman: Legends of Nanyang, iQiyi, one of Asia’s leading streaming services, continues to power the impressive popularity of Chinese-language series with the release of Danger Zone, their first prison-themed original series featuring groundbreaking scenes and a million-dollar production.
The story revolves around psychological profiling expert Yan-dong Liang, played by Vic Chou, who is set to be imprisoned due to a violent abuse incident. To flip the case, he has an under-the-table deal with police captain Chong-hui Tang, portrayed by Christopher Lee, and rookie officer Fei Ran, played by Berant Zhu. However, this decision triggers a series of lethal crises and mysteries.
Vic Chou
Sandrine Pinna
Christopher Lee
iQiyi held a virtual press conference in Taipei, joined by eight cast members namely Vic Chou, Sandrine Pinna, Wu Hsing Kuo, Berant Zhu, Tseng Jing Hua, and Christopher Lee. Also present at the event were directors, David Chuang and Chen Kuan Chung.
The virtual session also saw the attendance of over 150 journalists and media personnel across the Asia Pacific, including CHiNOYTV. They were also treated to the global debut of an exclusive 12-minute sizzle reel of Danger Zone followed by a question and answer portion with the cast.
Vic Chou, Christopher Lee, and the rest of the cast greeted global viewers in English, Korean, Malay, Indonesian, Filipino, and other local languages. During the Q&A, the cast shared their behind-the-scenes experiences and answered fun trivia about the show.
It was unanimously agreed that Chou has the most significant contrast regarding his on and off-screen personas while he appeared quiet and calm most of the time. However, off-camera, he was warm and often poked fun at others. It was also clear that a brotherly bond has formed between cast members Lee and Zhu, who play police officers in the series.
“Even though Christopher Lee shouts at me all the time in the series,” said Zhu, “I still like him a lot. We are the best partners.” Lee also showed some brotherly love, “Zhu is the tag-along I can’t get rid of.”
In the trailer, Vic Chou delivers a convincing performance as a cold and quiet criminal.
“Even if I am a part of this series, I still find it fascinating to watch the trailer. I can’t wait to binge-watch alongside everyone,” Vic shares.
Pinna, Lee, and other cast members also pushed their limits in Danger Zone. Lee and Zhu had intense car chase scenes and jumped off bridges; Pinna cut her hair short for the show and performed with Wu, a renowned Peking opera master; and in contrast to his previous goody-two-shoes characters, Tseng now plays a spoilt, rich, arrogant kid.
Exploring themes of criminal sexual abuse, the discovery of infant corpses, and headless female corpses, are also groundbreaking aspects of this Chinese-language series.
Danger Zone is now available for streaming at iQiyi across 191 countries and regions worldwide with 10 available subtitled languages (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Malaysia, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, and Spanish).
Have you seen Danger Zone yet? Let us know in the comments below!
