Designer Tim Yip (right) instructs staff to dress Yang Mi (left) as Qing Wen, an outspoken maid. Photos courtesy of Li Shaohong.
Li originally cast six winners of a Beijing Television reality show for plum roles in the show but refuses to say why one of the girls, Yao Di, has so far had three different roles.
Yao was last year asked to play Xue Baochai, the No 2 female role, but when shooting started in May, she was switched to Lin Daiyu, the melancholy lead character.
Then suddenly last week, Yao was introduced at a press conference as Wang Xifeng, center of the power in the huge noble family.
Xue, Lin and Wang are three roles as familiar and beloved to every Chinese as Macbeth is to Britons and Tom Sawyer to Americans.
Is Yao, a student of the Beijing Film Academy, really capable of playing three roles with totally different personalities? And how come out of 236,000 hopefuls who took part in the reality show, she is able to take her pick of three plum roles?
Li would not answer these questions. Nor would she confirm whether she has the final say on castings. "As the creator of the show, I focus only on making a perfect production," she says.
The director says she is confident that the costumes and make-up appear very natural when placed in the context of the set design. She plans to release more pictures, which she thinks will persuade people that her show is beautiful rather than bizarre.
As for the storyline, Li says she will be as truthful to the 120-chapter book as she can. "We dare not change the plot at all, otherwise people will bite me," she says.
Word is that Li, as director of such a high-profile and expensive show - it is said to be costing 1 million yuan per episode - is walking a tightrope trying to keep several investors happy. It is this very tension which is said to have resulted in the resignation of Hu Mei, another famed woman director who had been lined up for the series.
Compared to Li, her long-time partner Li Xiaowan, who produces this show, seems more relaxed.
"Controversy is good," she says. "Innovation makes for controversy and whether the news is good or bad, it is news.
"And news is good for a show."
