On October 28, Lighthouse Data reported that Where the Mask Ends had surpassed 900 million effective views. On October 29, the series received an opening score of 7.0 on Douban. It also climbed to No. 4 on Netflix's weekly Non-English TV chart, recording 3.8 million views for the week, setting a record for a Chinese domestic drama, trending in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It has also reportedly topped Youku's weekly rankings for attracting new subscribers.
Where the Mask Ends follows Ah Chou (played by Pursuit of Jade actress Tian Xi Wei), who was originally a lowly girl who collected night soil and was bullied by everyone. Because she has a face strikingly similar to Wei Rao, the daughter of a noble household, she unexpectedly becomes the bride of Lu Zhuo, heir of a duke's household. Ambitious and determined, Ah Chou tries to use this chance to rise in status. However, her newlywed husband, who was on the brink of death, suddenly wakes up, which results in a series of complications.
Where the Mask Ends is streaming on Netflix, Viki, and YOUKU.
Meanwhile, Chinese life drama Small Town Remedy is performing just as impressively. As of writing, the drama's popularity index on iQIYI peaked at over 9,500.
Small Town Remedy tells the story of Liu Zheng Liang (Xiao Zhan), a genius doctor who suffers a major setback in life and is forced to return to his hometown and start over from scratch. He brings together a group of "unreliable" people and throws himself wholeheartedly into doing the "most reliable" work. Amid the hustle and bustle of everyday life, they weave together the warmth of human connection and the kindness of ordinary people, offering prescriptions for life that heal the heart, one after another.
Small Town Remedy is streaming on iQIYI.
Other dramas trending in mainland China are Tigers Sniff the Rose, The Vanishing Beauty, Dream, Light the Dark, and Shadow Punisher.
Tigers Sniff the Rose tells the story of Mu Wan Yao (Meng Zi Yi), the daughter of the imperial family who refuses to resign herself to fate, and Yan Shang (Li Yun Rui), a gifted scholar of humble origins with unparalleled strategic and intellectual prowess. Together, they join forces to build a peaceful and prosperous world.
The C-drama is streaming on Disney+, WeTV, Viki, and iflix.
The Vanishing Beauty follows Yu Meng (Li Yi Tong), an internet blogger from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region, who is caught in a marriage scam. It tells how, on the fifth anniversary of her marriage, her seemingly happy marriage to her "model live-in husband" begins to show cracks, and she faces a series of crises, including the threat of financial exploitation and having her family property drained.
The Vanishing Beauty is streaming on WeTV.
Dream surpassed 21,000 in platform popularity on Tencent Video within two hours of its premiere in the X Theater and received a 7.5 opening score on Douban.
Set against the backdrop of corporate reform at the turn of the millennium, the drama uses journalist Shen Le Shui's (Liu Shi Shi) camera lens to chronicle more than a decade of ups and downs at the old Songjiang Brewery, unraveling the intertwined schemes of power and desire behind the death of a female worker, Liu Xue Mei.
Dream is streaming on WeTV.
Light the Dark tells the story of siblings Chen Ying (Jiang Xin) and Chen Shan (Chen Zhe Yuan), whose family is shattered after an explosion in the late 1990s, leaving them trapped in a dense fog of deception and betrayal.
The siblings face numerous obstacles and, at one point, turn against each other, but eventually reconcile after realizing the depth of their bond. They then join forces to set a trap and put themselves in danger, and after years of hardship, they finally bring the real culprit to justice.
Light the Dark is streaming on iQIYI.
Following its premiere, Shadow Punisher quickly climbed to No. 1 on Thailand's list of popular Chinese dramas and topped Singapore's Chinese drama rankings by viewership. It also ranked No. 1 on iQIYI International in 10 regions.
Set in the Daye Dynasty in the 37th year of the Hongyun era, Shadow Punisher follows Li Si (Luo Yun Xi), the Young Master Qing Yang, who infiltrates the Divine Constabulary to uncover the truth behind the Fourth Prince's death. There, he forms a team of detectives with Bai Zhen Zhu, a female coroner, and Meng Rui, a ghost arrestor/constable, as they investigate a series of bizarre and mysterious cases.
Shadow Punisher is streaming on iQIYI.
