On April 3, Xinhua News Agency reported that the General Department of Radio and Television of China requested film crews to eliminate the ideology of worshiping appearance and distorted aesthetics, focusing on scripts and quality of works instead of actor traffic.
Previously, on April 2, the General Department organized a seminar on healthy aesthetics with the participation of audiovisual platforms such as iQIYI, Mango TV, Tencent Video, Youku, and major production companies. The conference emphasized the problem of movies "beauty is paramount", excessive makeup of actors, unreasonable costumes and settings, and required characters to "have flesh and soul".
The emergency meeting took place after a controversy about Truong Lang Hach's general image in the movie "Chuc Ngoc". The character Ta Chinh was judged to be too clean, meticulous, with few impressive combat scenes, leading to the nickname "base cream general" with comments: "polishing first, fighting the enemy later" or "not afraid of breaking the battle, only afraid of breaking the base cream".
This image is said to tarnish the image of a battlefield soldier, causing strong reactions from Chinese media and the military. Not only domestically, the "foundation general" is also reported by international media such as Thailand and South Korea, negatively affecting the image of Chinese television art.
According to Sina, Truong Lang Hach was not specifically named, but because his performance of the general role was not convincing, his acting ability was still underestimated. This may affect his opportunities when participating in large-scale drama film projects, directed by management agencies and departments for production in the future.
In the movie "Axis of Jade", Truong Lang Hach plays Ta Chinh, a servant. In the scenes commanding soldiers, his image emphasizes the beauty of a scholar with white skin, red lips, and clean armor.
Battle scenes are considered excessively aesthetic, fake, when the general rides a horse as if performing on the catwalk.
Many short clips cut scenes of Ta Chinh leisurely in the middle of three armies, fighting and slashing without a grain of dust, making the character a topic of criticism. Audiences also compared the image of Ta Chinh of Truong Lang Hach with Tay So Ba Vuong Hang Vu played by Ha Nhuan Dong in "Han So tranh hùng".
