Xiang83

Thank you for sharing your personal stories that resonate. Your godmother is a very strong woman, and may she rest in peace.

I may enjoy World War II dramas, but it also depends on moods and circumstances. There are specific dramas I don't recommend for people, once I know their triggers.

I would advise that dramas such as "Man's Inhumanity to Man" should be avoided for you.

Please take care of yourself. Come back only if you are ready.

Ooh, what kind of villain is Liu Xueyi? That sounds great! He was terrific in the first three episodes of "Kill Me Love Me" (and then screenwriters ruined the adaptation of the novel plus Murong Jinghe's character) *goes to the drama page* He's starring alongside Jiang Qi Lin and Xing Fei! Xing Fei was marvellous in "This Thriving Land"! Jiang Qi Lin always delivers solidly.

Happy New Year!

I'll take one more look this week (because sometimes, some channels update certain BGMs later). In the meantime, I have just updated the recent statistics of success for "Whispers of Fate" in a new comment: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24719990

Happy New Year! Have you started Blood River?

Oh yes, I just updated the success statistics of "Whispers of Fate" in this new comment: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24719990

Happy New Year! May 2026 bring great dramas for all of us!

I have just updated the success statistics of this drama in a new post: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24719990

This is a drama for the ages~ The creative team and cast should all take a deep bow, especially Luo Yunxi :D

There are celebratory comments on weibo such as: "国家广播电视总局发文：《水龙吟》在湖南卫视播出时，本地收视率1.601%，微博话题阅读量超82亿，位列2025年芒果TV电视剧播放量第一；並获央视频CPOP提名，旨在评选2025年文化出海顶流IP。剧集周边年冠，其中罗云熙周边占比将近9成，充份展现扛剧号召力与唐俪辞人物塑造的成功。"

All I can say is, "唐俪辞天下第一!" 💪🌵🌗☄️🥰😘

Are you and Mizuhira-san trying to hook me onto something I should delay?! XD

This is a drama uniquely strong in wuxia elements by grounding it in Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Viewers such as kwanto and myself have watched "Whispers of Fate" twice. I have shared three classical literature sources with translations and explanations, so viewers can better understand the four main relationships of Tang Lici with Fang Zhou, Liu Yan, Shen Langhun and Chi Yun as well as how Tang Lici makes decisions for pugilistic matters (especially the basis of the sonic techniques that you will see four of the cast utilising): https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24569086

Azure did a fantastic translation of an article further giving insight into Tang Lici's thought processes but as that contains spoilers, will refrain from sharing it here. Enjoy!

Good morning! This drama is thought-provoking and has given me some radical ideas in the little things XD

You're going to love the statistics for Whispers of Fate that have come in, which I have also just updated here as a new post: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24719990

This is a fantastic unique drama that captivates me, and I can see myself rewatching it for a third time this year within these three months. Some of us have already watched this drama for the second time XD

More than one song of the OST broke my heart. I have also just made a new post of statistics above sharing how Whispers of Fate fared in China, so viewers who don't know how to understand the stats might enjoy it too!

Happy New Year to everyone who has enjoyed and is enjoying Whispers of Fate!

On this first Monday of 2026, I'm happy to share that 2025 ended with a bang while 2026 opens splendidly with confirmational details of the phenomenal achievements by Whispers of Fate, which at least one producer mentioned way before airing that this is a heroism-focused xuanxia drama. Hence there is no romance hashtag for this drama.

Actively airing since 24 October to 27 November 2025, fellow drama-lovers such as kwanto, DramFun29212, Areca hana and suzuko_d_law have been collating so many gems until end-December 2025 that I'd like to summarise some of their efforts and attribute the following details to them.

Three channel categories make up total viewership in China for the following market shares:

#1. Terrestrial/Satellite TV ~ 20%
#2. OTT (online platforms e.g. iQiyi, Mango, Migu, Tencent etc) ~ 50%
#3. IPTV (set-top boxes via China Mobile, China Telecom, etc) ~ 30%

WoF was broadcast on all three channel categories.

CVB (official govt.) calculates metrics for #1 & #3 separately;
Maoyan/kuyun ("3rd parties") measures #1 & #2, but only from top 4 OTTs (Iqiyi, Tencent, Youku, Mango). Migu is excluded.
CSM (leading media research organisation analogous to Nielsen's) is the only one who measures across all 3 channel categories using a methodology known as New TAM.

CVB records 160+ million views, for the premiere episode of Whispers of Fate (from this link: https://weibo.com/7689086611/QkNIb2eTe

You will also see replies celebrating, such as "国家广播电视总局发布《中国视听大数据（CVB) 2025年国产电视剧收视报告》 认证，2025地方卫视黄金档首播收视人次1.6亿人次: 该份报告认《水龙吟》位列2025年芒果TV电视剧播放量第一。 恭喜《水龙吟》，芒果TV2025年冠 "

Hunan Satellite TV
- CSM National Network Ratings - Number 1 across all Satellite TV for 19 days
- CSM 71 (the richest cities) Ratings - Number 1 for 17 days

CVB rating also confirmed that SLY is top 3 in term of viewership from Satellite TV views in 2025, the only costume drama in the top 3.

For OTT #2: As of 6 December, WoF exceeded 4.9 billion views on MangoTV’s front-end broadcast statistics. The daily view count exceeded 100mil for 35 days, longest ever for Mango TV. As of 2 December, WoF ranked #4 on Maoyan’s chart after garnering more than 1.8 billion views within 39 days of broadcasting, which makes “Whispers of Fate” the fastest-moving entry of 2025 to move up the Maoyan chart for overall drama viewership. As of 30 December 2025, WoF ranked #2 on Maoyan chart for Online Drama effective views. WoF resoundingly broke all records for MangoTV, which might explain why MangoTV started a bidding war over Luo Yunxi's next historical costume drama.

Migu is a state-owned platform, and is not counted on Maoyan. Historical 12000 index surpassed and soared to 15107 peak index at one point. Viewership of other dramas in Migu were also lifted due to WoF due to viewers watching other dramas, while waiting for new WoF episode updates.

For #1#2 and #3: CSM (TAM) reports WoF "total viewing hours" = 384 mil vs. 225 mil for Joy of Life season 2. (Joy of Life Season 2 was the top drama of 2024.) According to CSM data, 2.838 billion views were reached across all platforms.

Despite newly-completing airing, in December 2025 "Whispers of Fate" received nomination for CPOP 2026 (only other two dramas within these 3 years to be recognised and nominated were “Joy of Life” and “Till The End Of The Moon”).

About CPOP, I would like to highlight what kwanto said: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24449484

[ From early 2025 until now, CCTV and Rating China have chosen ONLY Shui Long Yin. In fact, SLY is their first nominated IP among drama, film, game, and other categories, is incredible. These two facts are the most authoritative and explosive. Gov officials know the real data domestic and international. After all, China Mobile, as SLY’s largest investor, has all the accurate data. ]

What is CPOP?

As per kwanto's explanation, CPOP promotes Chinese cultural works that have achieved outstanding results overseas in the past two years. This series of events showcases 20 representative Chinese pop culture IPs, including film and television dramas, novels, games, animations, and designer toys. Previous CPOP winners include "The Wandering Earth", "Black Myth Wukong", "Labubu", "Till The End Of The Moon" (Top 1), Honor of Kings (game). Only super-successful IPs are nominated.

kwanto also clarified how to understand the statistics of a recent December 2025 CVB article: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24601830

All this was achieved despite suppression efforts and not paying protection fees to various mediums, such as Douban and Douyin. "Whispers of Fate" was airing at the same time as five other traffic actor dramas, and trolls repeatedly attacked this drama on Douban. Trolls also attacked "Whispers of Fate" on this drama page using Douban and Yunhe statistics to try to mislead other viewers, while also making other misleading claims such as stating Maoyan is an outlier.

Maoyan stats do not include Hunan TV, Migu or IPTV, whereby IPTV views via China Mobile subscriptions hold a higher market share than Satellite TV. IPTV data shows "Whispers of Fate" viewership was so strong that Whispers of Fate had at least twice the volume of each of the individual heat indexes for dramas ranked #2 and #3: https://lmtw.com/mzw/content/detail/id/249663

Yunhe's gift to "Whispers of Fate" was to constantly provide unreliable figures, such as giving this drama the lowest coefficient ever during airing of the drama: https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin#comment-24241136

One drama producer during a live airing 2 to 3 years ago said if you sign Luo Yunxi, you are guaranteed a direct meeting to the CEO of a big platform whereby they will ask how to get a share and be a part of the project. A producer of "Shadow Punisher" during interviews claimed IQiyi did not approve S+ drama "Shadow Punisher" for 3 years, and claimed LYX is the key for approval.

As of 17 November 2025 on Douyin, Tang Lici's solo hashtag trended at least 700 million views while the hashtag seeking a one-sided romance trended only at 5.38 million views.

Despite being a competitor platform also broadcasting "Whispers of Fate", IQiyi bought billboards in Hong Kong for Whispers of Fate during its airing. In the footsteps of Mango & Migu’s big satisfaction thank-you ads weeks past the SLY finale, SLY peripheral brand KOOCI gave SLY a big “thank you” ad at Beijing Airport for 31 straight days, spotlighting Tang Lici. First time ever for a drama peripheral brand. SLY merchandise already hit nearly 19M in sales by Dec 12. For the final 5 episodes of this drama, all ad slots were filled and one of the most prestigious ads was another confirmation of the overwhelming success of this drama.

There are many other details of success and domestic appreciation. "Whispers of Fate" holds the MangoTV crown for multiple factors. Combined together, total real viewership for "Whispers of Fate" is among the highest of 2025. I hope this summary is a good start for all new viewers wondering how "Whispers of Fate" fared in 2025.

Ps. For those wondering about multiple sources outside of the Mandarin sources, here are a few examples from accounts in English also keeping track throughout the airing of the drama.

On 20 November 2025, this viewer announced a total of more than 1.3 billion views on Maoyan Professional Edition, plus they added a screencap of the milestone in the first comment to their own Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/MyDramaclip/posts/pfbid02U9jnW7iTg2zgYorKd4o8CzHDDhuBXXnhM8Tfj3YY1Mt7YAzg9AMrKHDgeofJGyshl

2025 Maoyan Annual Rankings announcing Wuxia Drama (Highest average effective views per episode and Highest effective viewership) exceeding 1.832 billion views: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DS5UOc5DZm3/ ]

30 December 2025: WoF reaches #2 on Maoyan chart for Online Drama effective views (These views do not include Migu, IPTV or satellite TV): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1915331545560246/posts/2283984668694930/

~*~*~*~*~

Maoyan released its annual statistics of various categories on 30 December 2025, dramas faring well getting their own weibo standalone post. I have shared different dramas below, so you can see for yourself.

# Moonlight Mystique (aired on 7/1/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5249524826377164

# Legend of Zanghai (aired on 18/5/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/status/5249525591575351

# This Thriving Land (aired on 13/08/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5249521518121624

# The Journey Of Legend (aired on 11/09/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5249149758878755

# Love's Ambition (aired on 26/09/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/status/5249513796146290

# Whispers of Fate (aired on 24/10/25 with collective statistics until 29/12/25): https://m.weibo.cn/status/5249515863935106

10 of 12 episodes are out. I have finished 4 episodes. Engaging, heartwarming, funny, and educational. Jung Kyung-ho is devilishly effective in this role, a very versatile and talented actor! I may have to check out his filmography ;)

I tend to prefer those types of dramas. I enjoyed several seasons of CSI (not CSI Miami) but when it got a bit too personal into the lives of the individual members of the team, I was less enamoured with those episodes.

In this case, Director is thankfully slowly drip-feeding bits of what we need to know about their past or personality, while altering the dynamics very subtly across every episode (since episode 2).

Do you know if there is a definite season 2 with this same cast, or is nothing confirmed yet?

Thank you for this!

The mandarin subtitles for the Japanese dialogue is mostly apt. For English, I am sure there are issues but hopefully not big.

On "the Man's Inhumanity to Man" drama page, I believe somebody did translations for subtitles and at least one or more MDL viewers emailed Youku asking Youku to use their subs (and Youku did so): https://kisskh.at/785144-731

I don't know if this solution could apply for this drama.

Between the slapping, hierarchical scrambling, confidentiality, stand-offs and scheming, episode 7 made me forget we're 7 episodes in.

I believe the first episode would have been AI subbed, if you are using IQiyi to watch. IQiyi's English translations can be good to sometimes-head-shaking, but I believe they are the platform that should have the best English subs.

Understandably people might have lost hope of this drama ever being aired, and the episodes this far showcase the quality of the production as overall solid. Director Zhao Yilong stood out as a supporting actor playing Zhen Ping in 2015's "Nirvana in Fire". In 2016, he shifted his focus to being a Director, and this drama was directed by him in 2017. He also directed "Love Game In Eastern Fantasy".

I encourage more people to watch this drama. For a war espionage drama, it is hugely immersive yet fun :D

Don't worry, I've only finished 2 episodes. This drama is good! Just what I need, to balance out "The Truth Within".

I like how Qi Sizhe is indirectly admitting he can be wrong while Han Feng is also admitting he can be wrong, in their short exchange and in Han Feng's choice of reaction towards the insurance agent suspect.

Han Feng and Qi Sizhe are both softening the barrier between them. And Liu Ya-se is easing into the role as their bridge. I've mostly pegged Qi Sizhe's character after trying to figure out the extent of his PTSD (and after the fourth example of expected recklessness that got him into formal minor trouble with Professor Huang Fengming) relative to his role in the team and as an individual.

I don't think the fourth case is over yet.

The Director has improved on his previous works, such as "The Victims' Game" (An 8-episode taiwanese drama available on Netflix, about a senior forensic investigator with Asperger's Syndrome solving mysterious murders linked to his estranged daughter).

You can read a review here: https://kisskh.at/profile/Alfendi/review/73959