One and Only (Chinese Drama, iQiYi)
I don’t think I have ever imagined that one day I would be so excited to watch a drama that I know from the getgo to have a tragic ending. The catch is of course that the tragic ending is only temporary until the follow up drama could air where our two leads would meet in their next life, in the modern world. My other reason for being so excited is that this means I get to watch TWO dramas back to back with Allen Ren and Bai Lu!
In One and Only, Bai Lu plays a noble lady who was betrothed to the crown prince even before she was born. Becoming the 11th disciple to our hero who is a legendary general that has never suffer defeat on the battlefield, our heroine slowly falls in love with her master. Despite their mutual love for one another, our two leads nonetheless are forced to hold back their hearts due to their respective responsibilities weighing on their shoulders. Since our two leads are not going to be able to have their happy ending until their next life so it wouldn’t be too difficult to imagine how the rest of their story goes. The synopsis might not sound chipper but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the show managed to add some fun moments into the story anyway.
In the novel this drama is based on, the story is almost 98% in the modern world with just little bits of the heroine remembering their previous life. The novel itself was decent but the author kinda went off on a “Godfather mafia” tangent that essentially wasted the awesome backstory she had set up for her two leads. It was kinda like the author had two great ideas and instead of writing two great stories, she crammed them all into one which made what could’ve been two awesome stories into one mediocre novel. With the production devoting a whole 24 episode drama to our two leads’ previous life, I am really hopeful that someone was wise enough to ditch (or at least play down) the whole “mafia” part of the novel and focus on our two leads’ epic romance that spanned two lifetimes.
Sweet Teeth (Chinese Drama, iQiYi)
This one is a love story between a librarian and a handsome dentist…thus the somewhat bizarre name for the show. I checked out the four episodes and the show is indeed sweet and the chemistry between the two leads is quite good. My only complaint is that a few secondary characters are really annoying. The weird thing is that it is obvious that the show’s intention is for these same characters to be charming and cute…but they really came off odd and annoying instead…at least to me. Anyhow, the main love line is cute enough I might still consider following if the show can stop adding annoying characters.
Ideal City (Chinese Drama, iQIYI or Youtube)
I actually clicked into this show by accident…and 17 episodes later I think it’s safe to say I am sold. Our heroine is a construction project manager (focusing on cost control) trying to survive in a field that is male dominated. Mired in a corporate world with hidden danger at every turn, our heroine must fight her way to the top while trying not to lose herself. I am usually not the sort to be interested in shows with lots of corporate intrigues, however, Ideal City is thus far doing an outstanding job weaving a very interesting story that really has no villains but people who are often forced to do things they are not super proud of due to their circumstances.
Mark Chao plays our hero who started out as our heroine’s enemy, then her mentor…then love interest. If you thought in Eternal Love Mark Chao did a good job portraying a restrained hero who can’t hide the love he has for our heroine every time he looks at her, then you definitely want to check this one out. The show is pretty focused on our heroine’s career journey and the corporate intrigue so Mark Chao doesn’t get nearly enough screen time for my liking BUT every second he is on screen is memorable.
Anyhow, after so much college idol romance this is a nice change…before I dive back to the college idol romance that is.
Crush (Chinese Drama, Finished, iQIYI or Youtube)
I finished marathoning this one last week. The hero’s personality in the last half of the show gave me some pause (obviously not enough to stop me from finishing it) but once I thought about the manner the heroine pursued him in the first half of the show…and the fact that the heroine pursued him knowing full well that our hero has severe abandonment and attachment issues then I figured the scriptwriter was just sticking with the hero’s character.
All in all, I enjoyed Crush and found it an easy watch.
Stealth Walker (Chinese Drama, Viki)
I am so used to seeing actor Zheng Yecheng playing light hearted comedic roles that it took some time for me to get used to him playing a much darker aloof character here. Stealth Walker’s pacing is really fast and while it starts out fairly dark but the show does lighten up some in later episodes. Zheng Yecheng is doing a great job playing his character here as an adopted son of a drug kingpin… even if I miss seeing his trademark bright sunny smile. Our heroine is an undercover cop so you all can imagine where this romance is going.
The Bond (Chinese Drama, Viki)
This one follows the story of five siblings after the unexpected death of their mother and they are forced to more or less raise themselves to adulthood due to the inattention of their father. The childhood portion of the story is quite good and was both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. Judging by the viewers’ comments, I wouldn’t go into this one expecting idol romance sort of love lines for the siblings but I think the story will still have plenty of warmth and depth to carry the story along.
Be Yourself (Chinese Drama, Viki & Youtube)
This one feels quite refreshing for a college drama that follows four freshman girls in the same dorm since it doesn’t have the usual annoying backstabbing antics or awkwardness of two friends falling for the same guy. I am seven episodes in and it looks like the two love lines that I can tell thus far are both quite cute. Even without the love lines though, the friendship between the four girls is great so I would probably even watch the show without the romance lines.
Love Under The Full Moon (Chinese Drama, iQIYI or Youtube)
Zheng Yecheng did great in Stealth Walker but it was still really nice to see him playing his usual sunny and charming character here in Love Under the Full Moon. The story revolves around a rare super full moon event in the year 2011 that caused our heroine to suddenly be transported across time and space right into our hero’s arm in the year 2021. Having no memory of her past nor of her own identity, our heroine is dismayed to discover that she can’t be too far away from our hero or she would be mysteriously zapped back to his side. Together, our two leads set out on a journey to figure out our heroine’s identity… which will eventually lead them straight to our heroine’s ex-boyfriend- the one who tried to kill her 10 years ago.
The show is mostly a fun fluffy supernatural romance but there is also a bit of thriller mystery since our heroine has to confront her killer boyfriend and our hero is also on a mission to uncover the mystery surrounding his dad being framed 10 years ago. The chemistry between the two leads is cute and I liked the supernatural aspect of the story thus far.
Our Secret (Chinese Drama, Youtube)
I am late to the party on this one since it has already finished airing. It actually caught my attention thanks to the many glowing reviews I saw online. This one is a school romance that spans from our two leads’ high school days to college. The story is a fairly standard one as far as school crushes go but it nonetheless managed to feel refreshing. I really liked our hero’s character here because while he is your typical smart handsome hero but he is genuinely nice to our heroine…even if he tends to hide his good deeds behind boisterous words.
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Just finished YAMG and Crush is the next on my list. I like WP‘s natural acting usually.
Liked Crush more despite the weak script and mediocre directing. More my kind of fluff.
Even the newbie ML did a surprisingly solid job. I loved the senior actors and the witty caretaker the most.
I like Be Yourself. It’s like comfort food, nothing spazzy but still something you look forward to. The girls are lovable though it took me some time to warm up to Huang Fu. I also like that conflicts/issues are resolved within the episode. Not a drama I would re-watch but I would still miss it once it’s done.
Our Secret is cute! Both leads give off energetic vibes and…I want to be young again LOL!
I also just finished watching A River Runs Through It – it started out nice but the ML stayed annoying to the end. I mostly liked how he hid his feelings till he thought FL was ready and how he was supportive without her knowing. But!! I wanted to smack his mouth!! Constantly saying things that were mean and being childish, even when he became an adult. I mostly like Hu Yuxian but her FL character while being a great friend was otherwise somewhat frustrating to watch. I started FF’g later episodes.