My Impressions of the Dramas

I have been watching "A Tale of Love and Loyalty"  with Li Fei and Ming Jiajia. It is a short drama with plot holes you could drive a truck through. However, the chemistry between the two leads is palpable despite the dismal plot and the fairly low production values.

Watch it for the lead actors and leave your brain at the door before you do  ...

Just finished "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love".

 It was a really sweet, understated love story but also about how to move on if life doesn't quite work out the way we had planned it. The sporting element became a catalyst for their love story and not just added on to make the target audience bigger. This drama will stay with me for a while.

Just finished watching "An Ancient Love Song".

 The plot was well crafted +  is probably why the drama works so well. Zhang Yaqin is exquisite as the empress. The love story is sweet but the chemistry is not really there (for me).

I'm still puzzled that it has done quite so well in 2023 but it was a good watch. It is, however, impressive that a low budget drama did this well in the charts. Perhaps it was this dark horse aspect that propelled it to the top?

Just finished watching “Blossoms in Adversity” with Hu Yitian and Zhang Jingyi  ? It was such a gentle drama about a young woman and her family who experience hard times, but who manage to thrive in the end because of their humanity and business skills. The main couple has a sweet vibe and their love feels real even without much skinship.

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112407320648728362

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112347671565045383

Just finished watching "Fake it till You Make it" w Elvira Cai + Elvis Han.

It's a remarkable look at corporate life w its toxic work culture, but also an honest look at why some relationships work + others don't. The main couple has great, slow burn chemistry but also has the charisma to create a realistic, touching love story. 

It's a drama that deserves to be savoured not binge-watched.

Finished watching “Forever and Ever” with Ren Jialun and Bai Lu ? I wasn’t in the mood to watch this drama when it was released but it has been a nice watch while waiting for good dramas to drop.

It is a gentle, understated and unfussy love. The reincarnation aspect has been toned down heavily, but it is implicitly still there. It is sad that dysfunctional families are so destructive in both the ancient and modern versions.

Just finished watching "Golden House Hidden Love".  I wanted something light + fluffy, while waiting for better dramas to drop. The premise is quite sweet: an ancient man is waiting for someone in a house for years. 

There is a love story and lots of misunderstandings. The main couple is sweet with a significant height difference but not much real chemistry. Wang Zihao is a promising young actor who will be fabulous in costume dramas. Lai Meiyun is also good.

Just finished watching a short drama, "Governor's Secret Love" with Deng Kai and Jin Zixuan.

It is a fairly good, lightweight drama and the male lead is especially good despite the limited plot & character development. It is a fake eunuch love story.

These short dramas are often good vehicles for testing out the star power of up and coming actors. "A Familiar Stranger" does the same for Cheng Lei.

Just finished watching “Guess Who I Am” ? It’s a light-weight rom-com with some business melodrama mixed in plus it is a frame narration where a young writer is trying to write a successful web novel. The plot is slightly ridiculous but there is sweetness in the main couple and real friendship in their group of friends.

Fastforwarding might be necessary but the good bits are really lovely ❤️

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112303019038455504

Just finished "Hello, I'm at your Service" with Miles Wei and Xu Lu.

I needed a light romance after some heavy dramas. The main attraction is that the main couple actually talk to each other and have an open communication. The side couples and sub-plots were less entertaining, though...

Just finished “In Blossom” with Liu Xueyi . The drama was well-crafted with beautiful costumes and a fairly good murder mystery wrapped in palace intrigue. Liu Xueyi carried the show but the second couple (Li Geyang and Wu Jiayi) had much better chemistry than the main couple.

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112260369830962577

Just finishing episode 5 of “Joy of Life” . The drama feels very different from more standard Cdramas. Difficult to pinpoint exactly why. Perhaps it is because it allows its characters to be flawed?

Wang Yang as the assassin with a backstory who turns into a helper has great charisma. Nice to see actors who are not extremely young, being given meaty roles to play.

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112497459220268779

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Just beginning to watch season 1 of “Joy of Life”  It is still laying the foundations of the drama but there is already a sense of foreboding. Zhang Ruoyun has a very charismatic presence - slightly goofy but clever. 

Ting Meishi has a brooding, underplayed aspect that complements Zhang Ruoyun’s more mercurial character.

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112483216518783437

Just finished "Lost You Forever".

Very impressed how they have woven the plot with the 3 men organically in with Xiao Yao's life. It feels emotionally true and not contrived. The drama is visually beautiful and feels more like a palace drama than a xianxia drama. The ending point for series 1 was well done and gives a little closure without being a total cliffhanger. Will definitely watch season 2.

Just finished watching "Love Me Love My Voice" with Tan Jianci and Zhou Ye.

It was a wonderfully gentle, modern drama about dubbing actors. The narrative structure was a love story that meandered along creating several couples along the way.

What makes this drama special is that the soundtrack and voice dubbing adds an aural dimension together with the cooking scenes. It's like a visual poem. The main couple is sweet without jealousy plotlines.

It is an understated and quietly beautiful drama where the love is communicated in micro expressions rather than in-your-face intimacy. The plot locks the main couple in a dilemma which dominates the entire plot.

Looking forward to the modern ending to this love story…

Just finished watching “Secrets of the Shadow Sect” with Lin Zehui and Hu Yiyao? It’s a short drama but well-plotted and with character developments for the main cast. Both lead actors are new to me but beautiful and talented so I’m glad that they were given a chance to star in a short drama.

Just finished "South Wind Knows" with Cheng Yi and Zhang Yuxi.

They were lovely as the main couple but the drama as a whole was very uneven. The second couple truly tried my patience but slowly improved. The whole incident in country M felt contrived and the mother was out of her mind but realized her mistakes in the end. So I used the fastforward button a lot! Nevertheless, the chemistry between the main leads was sweet.

Just finished watching #TheStoryOfKunningPalace.

 It took me a really long while to get into the drama. It is a very slow burn both with the romance and the unfolding of the palace drama, but it was very rewarding in the end. 

#ZhangLinghe and #BaiLu are well cast and spark off each other in subtle ways. On the surface Xie Wei is not likable at all, but our journey is Ning'er's journey of discovering the man beneath the many layers.

The psychology and intrigue in the drama is rewarding.

Watching episode 15 of “The Deliberations of Love” with Li Fei and Zhao Jiamin  It’s a mini-drama with a rebirth plotline but mainly it is an excuse to see beautiful people fall in love in ancient costumes

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112225860225977394

Just finished watching "The Snow Moon" with Zuo Ye.

First noticed him in "My Journey to You". This drama is short but he is able to stand out with his charisma and he is still so young. Definitely an actor to keep an eye on... Hope he will be cast in dramas with higher production values in the future.

Just finished “To the Wonder” which is drama about a Han Chinese girl and a Kazakh boy who meet one summer. It feels very real the way people struggle with the fading of nomadic culture and the hardship of living off the grid.

Even people who don’t watch Cdrama will find this worth a watch…

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112423513054036493

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112407348505313446

Have now finished watching "Under the Skin".  I don't usually watch crime dramas but tried this one, based on a recommendation and I'm glad I did. The friendship between the main characters develops from mistrust to trust and the villain is caught at the end. There is a season 2 this year, which I'm looking forward to. The last scene with the portrait implies that there is more to the artist beneath the surface.

It was a beautifully realistic depiction of two traumatized people, trying to make a long-distance relationship work. The female lead was immature and selfish, though, and had to do some growing up before they could have a future together

https://mastodon.online/@Sollenbum/112469689792379219

Just finished watching "Wonderland of Love" with Xu Kai and Jing Tian.

The relationship of the main couple was well done with both humour + relationship issues. The second couple was super sweet, too. The plot was a little uneven but the ending was satisfying. The theme of acheiving happiness by giving up power is poignant in these times.