couchpotat

One of the Best of 2025, Over Prisoner of Beauty

So far, it's one of my favorites of 2025. Personally, I prefer it over Prisoner of Beauty but don't come at me before reading my reviews for both.

While nothing original and following the generic script of many many many historical C-novels, the acting and chemistry of the two leads really bring the story together. While I love Liu Yu Ning and think he deserves more credit, I just didn't feel there was much chemistry in Prisoner of Beauty. There were a couple of sparks, but it didn't last very long. Song Wei Long gave one of his best performances in this drama and really made us feel as if ML was falling hard for FL. He's always had a more roguish (if you could even call it that) look and air to him which he really made use of this time around and made viewers swoon a little when he teases FL (which, again, love because why do MLs always have to be stoic). Honestly, Bao Shang En was not on my list of actresses to watch, but she is now. Without seeming foolish or like a shrinking wallflower, Bao Shang En manages to portray a FL that is cute, vibrant, yet cunning and fun to watch. She makes the FL a believable partner for ML who is supposedly this amazing character.

New, unique plots are always good, but it's really the actors that bring the script to life. I'm always a sucker for a tropey, yet well done drama and Youthful Glory has done it for me. While it doesn't top my drama list for 2025, I think that it performed well above its limit especially up against Prisoner of Beauty which was one of the most anticipated dramas of 2025.

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Overhyped and Disappointing

Going into this, there had already been clips all over social media and people were super excited about the drama, but personally it was a flop. Park Min Young has a tendency to choose manhwa adaptations which is fine but they all kinda feel the same. This drama in particular was quite click baity. If you go off of just the clips, you would think that it's fast paced and exciting but it is the complete opposite. The background and flashbacks took forever to complete. There wasn't a particular OST that stood out. In general, everything was kinda meh.

The FL (who is supposed to be the protagonist) makes quite a few false promises to the audience that she's going to chage her fate but it always somehow ends up being ML who saves her. FL becomes quite boring at one point and ML was the only thing making me continue the drama. Unfortunately, he also gets kinda boring towards the end. Not to mention the weird pacing at the end with the random ex-fiance arc.

The actors were great but I did notice there was a tendency to overexaggerate emotions or expressions. I think it might have been due to the fact that this did originate from a manhwa, but I felt that it could have been less cartoonish/comical. There were moments where either FL or SuMin went kyaaaa and I lost it. Honestly, the only character I found half believable was actually Park Min Hwan and the mom.

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Pick Your Poison: Perfect Yet Imperfect Beginning, Middle, End

Under the Moonlight is an incredibly nuanced C-drama and may turn some viewers away who are looking for something perfectly sugary. It is utterly imperfect but perfect at the very same time.

The plot was quite simple, but what makes it interesting was its fidelity to the issues of the time. Our FL is a woman who meets obstacle after obstacle due to her position in society. While she does have the privilege of being a female constable, she is not completely exempt from societal pressure and judgement due to her background as a performer. Our MLs (yes, I count both as MLs) are also constrained by the same judgement when they fall in love with FL and attempt to marry her. Between an ML who is gentle but too cautious (due to his position as a magistrate) in protecting FL and an ML who is too naive and reckless but unwilling to let anyone run roughshod over FL, it was really a difficult choice who was the better choice for FL. While they all got their happy end, I still believe that FL should have just stayed single.

The reason I say the drama is imperfect is because of a couple of reasons. FL ends up with her ML though he is not necessarily the best fit for her in terms of personality. The ML who is a perfect match with FL in terms of personality ends up with his fiancee, someone who he initially despises. The villain didn't truly get his just desserts and the smaller villians (those that betrayed and those that contributed to the whole mess) also weren't thoroughly punished. Some were punished off screen and others were whitewashed before they met their end. Believe it or not, our mains did get punished for trying to save the situation which is not uncommon in history. This felt completely unfair, yet at the same time, this was probably the only way that our main couple could have been a couple (again, due to FL's background). As a result, it could be considered a bittersweet (yet also slightly fictional/fantastical end; FL became a merchant out of nowhere, another golden finger) ending to a drama that falls somewhere in between a more serious, factually accurate historical drama and a more beautified, fictional historical drama.

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Three Different Generations, Three Arcs Ordered from Best to Worst

As the synopsis says, this drama follows the journey of three different women across three different generations. Many came for Ryan Cheng and left immediately afterwards which was the correct choice in hindsight.

Arc 1
-Setting: A vibrant Shanghai with undertones of war
This was the best arc for many reasons. The actors and plot was head and shoulders above the other arcs. This follows Lin Si Yun who is a woman ahead of her time. Educated abroad and raised in a well-off family, LSY is an aspiring ob-gyn. Upon her return to the country, she realizes her family has become bankrupt after her father's passing due to her brother's gambling debt. Her brother and mother both want to marry her off in exchange for a fortune to clear their debt. When the debt collectors arrive at her family's house, she meets the gang's lawyer Cheng Ao who takes care of legal disputes.

Girl, when I say Ryan Cheng outdid himself in this role, I mean it. He played the role of well-educated bastard/smooth 'criminal' so well. He is what Wattpad girlies dream of. Coupled with Jelly Lin's excellent portrayal of LSY, it was quite good in terms of chemistry and plot.

Arc 2
- Setting: A devastated Shanghai rebuilding after the war
This was an interesting yet frustrating arc. Again, the actors were quite good in this arc but the plot made me raise a couple of eyebrows. Given how strict China's censorship is, especially regarding historical events, I was surprised this made the cut and was shown as it didn't really paint the new society after the war in a completely good light. The main character of this arc is YiYi who is LSY's niece. From the previous arc, we know that YiYi fell in love with a young man who later joined the Kuomintang army. Our starting place with YiYi was already rough as she's being sidelined and poorly treated as the widow of a KMT official. She insists on staying in Shanghai to await news of her husband but in the mean time, she's being interrogated and questioned every other day by everyone around her, including her own sister-in-law. It gets so bad that even her own thoughts written in her diary were considered revolutionary and nothing is 'private'. Her room is searched multiple times; she cannot drink coffee without it being considered a luxury/bourgeoisie, and she's framed a couple of times based off of prejudice. When it is revealed that her husband is actually a martyr and her status changes, she again is not given any peace. Now she has to 1) speak of her husband's heroic actions, 2) cannot grieve or have negative emotions regarding her husband's death, and 3) has to be even less bourgeoisie because she needs to be a model for others as a martyr's wife. At the same time, her stinky sister-in-law is demanding all sorts of things from her despite also participating in her ostracization, reporting her for revoluntionary thoughts, and ignoring her (and her brother) because of ties to the KMT.

As frustrating as this arc was, I still watched through it because I wanted to know how it passed through inspection. Surprisingly, I think because the prejudice, sidelining, and framing were done by people and not necessarily condoned by the party itself, censorship let it slide which gave the arc a sense of realism. In real life, China did go through a period of societal unrest/distrust in one another because of the Communist party takeover. The only part I found to be unrealistic in this arc was YiYi 'staying' for her new love. Respectfully, she did not come across someone who was willing to take things down lying. Given the amount of crap that they put her through, I was sure she would have left for good after they found out that her husband was a martyr. And then later when they continued to persecute her for liking art, literature, etc. and then barring her from falling in love with an official in the Communist party. From Arc 1, we know what a spitfire YiYi is but it was like they completely changed her character. The number of times she had to make clear that she didn't blame anyone or that she wasn't resentful seemed unreal. Sorry girl, no man is worth having to live your life being persecuted for liking coffee or literature or having 'revolutionary' thoughts. (Edit: I skimmed this part too because it made me mad but apparently she did leave but her ending with Wen Pu was kinda unclear)

Arc 3
- Setting: An increasingly commericalized Shanghai
Honestly, I skipped this arc but caught glimpses. This arc follows Ye Xi Ning who is YiYi's granddaughter and LSY's great grandniece (?). Ye Xi Ning is an aspiring entreprenur in a society that had become more lax towards capitalism. She as a female business owner is navigating a male dominated field, scams, and pitfalls. Her love interest is a grad (?) student who hold more lofty ideals than her which kind of sets up the issue that later follows. The premise wasn't that interesting and so I didn't bother watching it.

TDLR: Just watch the first arc and treat it like a short drama.

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A Rare Sci-Fi Drama in the Era of Historical, Transmigrating, Romance Novel Adaptations

As the title suggests, Mobius stands out amongst its peers airing in the same year as it is one of the only of its genre. If I had to choose one to compare it to, it would be Seven Relics of Ill Omen which falls in a similar category of sci-fi-fantasy-paranormal. At the time of this review, Mobius stands at a 8.2 which is a great disservice to the drama as it had a highly concise plot (little to no draggy moments) and excellent acting from the entire crew.

Mobius is quite an interesting drama if you analyze it deeply. It takes place in Guangdong (?)/Southern China and likewise features a hybrid cast of mainland Chinese and Hong Kong actors. If you were around long enough, you'd recognize a couple of big names like Cheung Kwok Keung who is well known for his triad and police roles in HK dramas and films. Given this unique setting, it was surprising that this drama allowed for dialogue in Cantonese and Southern dialects of Chinese. While it wasn't exactly HK Cantonese (more like mainland Cantonese), it was surprising that there was no dub over of standard Mandarin Chinese. Watching Bai Jing Ting who has a very very very strong Beijing/Northerner accent speak Cantonese was hilarious. This man tried but his accent and vowels were so rigid that he really couldn't pass for a Southerner. It is also worth mentioning that the dialogue switching for the cast was seemless. In heated moments, they used the dialect and in more sober moments, they used standard Mandarin. While a small detail, the addition of a dialect adds to the audience's immersive experience and becomes a more accurate representation of how different regions in China speak on a daily basis.

Bai Jing Ting is great, but I watched this drama mainly because Janice Man looks so good in those glasses. Often when I watch for an actor/actress, it ends poorly because they either get too little of lines or they performed poorly. To my delight, JM did get a substantial role and performed well alongside BJT. Her outfits and styling were the epitome of the career-driven, Southern Chinese city girl. It didn't (IMO) feel like Guangdong styled career woman (more like Shanghai or JiangXi) but it was close enough. There's not much to comment on for BJT other than he outdid himself. He has a history of action/police/military dramas which he performs well in so it wasn't a surprising role for him. Compared to the heavier, more serious police/action dramas he's done before, Mobius is more well suited for him as it incorporates a couple of comedic moments which allow for his true personality to come through. From his various variety show appearances, we know that he has a particular brand of humor which meshed really well with his character in Mobius.

My only bone to pick with this drama was there were a couple of plot holes and issues with the logic. An example would be when we realize the villain was the one who was reversing time, but then there were moments where ML says that there are different 'loops' (as in different pathways since the loops originally were supposed to be the same every time). Later it is explained as due to the villain (who was so close to ML) realizing that someone else was conscious during those loops and changing his actions which created a butterfly effect. At the same time, we have people who may remember fragments from those loops which affects their memory and their health, but then in the final loops when everything is resolved, though the ML and villain suffer quite a bit from health issues, the others that have 'deja vu' are perfectly fine. Even the professor and ex-MOMA researcher who both came back to life after the loop reset did not show adverse health effects. The open ending was a nice touch though (even if it's a bit cliche for sci-fi dramas to end this way).

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Lovely Runner's Shadow

This drama was hyped to be Lovely Runner's successor, but I'm not sure that was the right PR move or successful. Lovely Runner was unique because it had the same 2016-esque cringe element (not a bad thing). This can only be replicated if you don't care how it looks or how silly you think it is. Love Next Door was too tame, too safe to have the same elements that Lovely Runner did. No matter how you look at it, Love Next Door was too much in the shadow of Lovely Runner.

Love Next Door had a star studded cast, but the script was so so so safe. There was nothing unique about it (aside from maybe the second lead couple). Tropes are not necessarily a bad thing, but it has to be done right. The first episode was fine, but as it went on, it becomes clear that it was never a true enemies to lovers or even a best friend to lovers. Love Next Door occupied this weird in between that lacked chemistry. I didn't feel any sizzle at all. I was more invested in the second lead couple because they had more chemistry.

As far as script and logic goes, the use of cancer as a convenient excuse was overdone. Sure, they foreshadowed everything properly, but it felt so surface level. A lot of the interactions felt half done. I can't quite pin it but there was just something incomplete or missing from this drama. Someone pointed it out earlier in the comments section, but I didn't realize it until later. The progression from friends to the confession then them getting together and then the last episode had no tension or suspense. It was pretty bland.

All in all, it was a decent drama. It could have been worse. Yet, because it was so unremarkable with such a well-known cast that it makes it all more disappointing.

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Early 2000s Quality

The plot is nothing crazy (as of Ep 6) and we've seen these tropes before. What makes the drama unbearable is the acting. It was quite in your face, nothing sutble or refined. The cinematography and the cuts were all very old-fashioned/amateurish. This was my second attempt to give it a fair chance and power through, but ultimately what turned me away was the execution. FL is supposed to be an OP (or at least somewhat powerful) character since she hails from a general's family. For some reason, her schemes and acting as a playboy aren't up to par. She's found out by two important characters about 3-4 episodes in. One of them found out because she was wearing perfume (?). This is the screenwriter's mistake, but the actress that plays FL made really exagerated expressions when she was questioned. If she cannot maintain her composure, then how are we to believe that she's supposed to fool the Capital into thinking she's her brother.

All in all, even if I had the spare time, I would not try to push through this drama and try watching something else.

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