Zirae

Omg, sorry one more I’m watching, “You are my Destiny” saw the ending but not dubbed in last epis. Started out strong, but fizzled out later. Why does this happen to so many Cdramas lately? Hope this drama ends as strong as its start because I don’t want to be disappointed!

Kdrama have the worst historical dramas, IMO. One of the few I actually enjoyed was “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo.” I find that China makes the best historical dramas, although they are draggy and a huge time commitment, some of them are worth it. I find I've been more interested in the Cdramas lately as there’s this indescribable humanity and human connection that I can’t find in Kdramas, which often seems focused on a lot more superficial things. I must warn you that the latest Cdramas are overly censored due to tighter government restrictions. So the latest batch have been getting really bad. This drama and “Parallel Love” are one of a handful of good recent Cdramas as a result. I can post a full list of my recommendations if you’d like.

Omg, the only other person in the world who didn’t like Goblin! Hi comrad! The leads had no chemistry whatsoever. The fl is a helpless, whiny cry baby.

I get it, you hate it and you’ve posted time and again about the fact that you dislike it, but IMHO, it is an amazing drama that’s intelligent, humorous, thought-provoking, and has a point of view, unlike many Cdramas that are over-censored and has no substance whatsoever. The whole silliness in the plot is the whole statement it’s making, which you don’t seem to get or care to understand, which is cool, everyone is different. IMHO, it is NOT overrated as there’s so many silly CDramas now that portrays women in a stereotypical, negative way. This is not that type of drama and it may be too out there for some people, which is fine, as it portrays women in power and depicts men in the oppressive situations that women typically live under in many societies, but it’s ridiculously funny when we reverse gender and see how perverse our world is when a mirror is put in front of us (reverse world). Yes, there are some things that could’ve been done better as supposedly it is a low budget production, but I think because of that there’s freedom to do things that bigger budget shows don’t dare to do. If you couldn’t stand the female lead, what made you force yourself to keep watching? If I don’t care for a drama, I just drop it as soon as I find out it’s a lost cause, like many with high ratings that are just poor plot, draggy, boring, over-censored, chauvinistic, depicts negative stereotypes of women, doesn’t show growth of characters, is poorly produced, has cliche characters and predictable story line, has bad acting, etc. IMHO this is not one of those.

Btw I just found out the ML, Li Hong Yi is the one that sings the opening song for the original soundtrack!

Almost forgot I also finished “Girlfriend” last week and it was mediocre at best. Cookie cutter characters, predictable story line, over censored, you know the usual.

Just finished “Extracurricular,” which was a really intense High school Kdrama. Highly recommend. Other Cdramas are “My Dear Lady,” “Designer Love,” and “Intense Love.” I don’t like any of them, but seems a lot of people do, so you might enjoy them as they are all focused on the romance. Before that I watched the “Romance of Tiger and Rose,” and it’s one of my new favorite CDramas now. Under my main comment below about this show, there’s a list of many of my recommendations because someone asked me a similar question.

Such a tough question to answer, but I can start with two that you must see if you haven’t already as my brother’s fav is “Nirvana in Fire” and
my sister’s fav is “10 Miles of Peach Blossoms,” also called Eternal love. My fav historical Cdramas are “Ashes of Love” (due to Luo Yunxi’s acting. I cried buckets and buckets when they revealed his back story!) “10 Miles...,” “Under the Power,” “Ever Night,” “The Romance of Tiger and Rose,” and “Princess Agents,” as I like bad as* females (I know most people hate the bad cliff hanger ending, but you can read the continuation of the story from the novel. They have many English translations on the internet.)

If you like a lot of romance, there’s a lot of kissing scenes in, “Love by Hypnotic,” and I really like time travel/fantasy, “Love Better than Immortality.” Li Hong Yi is so attractive in this role. LHY embodies his character and is the perfect actor for this role, although the second lead’s acting is stiff as a board.

I know a lot of people recommend “the Untamed,” or “Joy of Life,” both of which are very good. I particularly like the character “Uncle” in Joy of Life. I highly recommend “Story of Ming Lan” ( I love the second lead; he’s very attractive and the ML&FL got married). If you have time, check out “Princess Weiyoung,” and “Goodbye My Princess,” which have tragic, but beautiful endings, unlike “Princess Agents” where it’s just a frustrating cliffhanger.

Haven’t seen these, but people say “Love and Destiny” is a beautiful story, but it’s underrated. Also “Journey of Flower” though I heard it’ll make your head bang against the wall due to frustration at the characters, lol!

Although not a CDrama, please check out Korean fantasy/historical “Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo,” as it’s my favorite Historical Kdrama.

The ones most people like, but my sister and I thought was overrated was “The Legends.” Too draggy and repetitive.

Modern CDramas & Movies

I think China does some of the best school dramas. One of my favorites is “When We Were Young,” and a lot of people will recommend “A Love So Beautiful,” or “Huckleberry Friends,” though I haven’t watched that one. My favorite college fluffy romance dramas that are light and enjoyable are “Love O2O,” “Put Your Head on My Shoulders, and more recently “Love Equations.” A lot of people like the archery one “The Best of You in My Mind,” but I couldn’t stand the immaturity of the leading characters. I really like Gala Zhang as he was also in When We Were Young, but I didn’t like his character in this one.

Other good modern CDramas are “King’s Avatar,” (yeah I guess I have a thing for Yang Yang, haha, but the story really is that amazing. The rest of his dramas are really bad though).

My sister likes the “Tiny Times” movies. I just can’t get into it myself, but there’s a lot of good looking people on it.

People love GoGo Squid, but I found it really boring, and her chasing him around like a fool is not a story line I like, but I think you may like it because many people like it a lot. Another one a lot of people like that I really dislike, again with another female chasing a man around like a fool, is devoid of any story or substance and portrays females in negative ways is “Intense Love.” I don’t know why people like this at all.

So there’s my list of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Lol! Let me know what your favs are and what you plan to watch next.

I don’t understand how a supposedly extremely intelligent character (ML) could do all the dumb things only idiots would do. Beyond that, I thought the ML, Kim Dong Hee’s acting is superb. It’s a complex character that could easily be portrayed poorly by an average actor.

Ikr? So hard waiting for the episodes to come out! I don’t regret starting on watching it because it’s way better than the other 4 dramas I’m watching now. This is the only one that I look forward to watching.

Yes, I don’t think as an actress she was annoying like many girls in dramas because the writers think it’s cute to portray girls this way. I did think her actions could come off like she is crazy, suicidal or delusional because of the situation, which the audience and other characters aren’t completely clear of at the beginning. I thought in the context her actions were totally logical once we realize the situation.

I thought I was the only one thinking that the OST was particularly good! Yes his long hair and his fashions are on-point! I’ve become a huge fan of the ML. I think there are many good looking leads out there, but from his looks to his acting, to his charisma on the screen, he is one of the few Cdramas actors I follow to see what his next projects are.

This is a really smart, fun and engaging drama so far. Out of the last 10 Cdramas I’ve watched, I’d say this is #2 as it is not draggy and boring like many Cdramas because they want to fill up more episodes. At first you find the FL’s actions annoying, but then you find out she’s the smartest, most sensible and most hard-working of the bunch. The ML is actually petty, lazy, typically spoiled, conceited childish rich heir, but through his experiences with the FL, who cares for him, but doesn’t take his BS, his character grows in many ways. So far this is a really great watch. I’d give it a 9.5 for now. I’ve watched up to epi 12.

BTW great point about how we never understand why BeiBei and Shi Yun fall in love with each other. I think that’s one of the main problems in development of the relationship. Also, there’s not really a plot per se if you think about it.

Tysm! Of these that I’ve watched, I really liked “Under the Power,” which is one of the best newer historical Cdramas I’ve seen. I also liked “Love Equations” and love “PYHOMS.” I really didn’t like “The Best of You..” and can’t really remember much about “Lucky’s First Love” except Bai Lu’s terible wig. Dr. Cutie was fun and I liked it, but I wouldn’t say it was memorable either. I really like Zhao Lusi and what I’ve seen her in before. In addition to “Tiger and Rose,” she was great in “Love Better than Immortality” with Li Hongyi, who was so attractive on that show Co-starring alongside her. Been wondering about “My Dear Lady” and now I’ll definitely make it my next watch based on your suggestion :)

Totally agree with you on the “chase” part where they’re both unsure of what’s going on but have either a curiosity to know more about that person or even dislike turning into friendship into something more. I’ll check out “You are My Destiny” since it seems we have similar taste in dramas. I’ve read others’ comments and it seems to be a great remake. Let me know if there are any others that you know that may be under rated or not as popular, but good.

Ahh gotcha. I pretty much got the jist of it from seeing how it played out. But yeah haha we should’ve gotten ALL the details of that prison visit in a flashback. Haha!

I think they did it for the element of surprise so that the viewers would be kept in the dark about her plans and think she actually really died. I actually was more curious about how they would do it in prison! Also her first time is in a prison cell. Ewww! Lol!

Yes, I agree with you on O2O. In addition to the things you mentioned, I thought the fl in O2O was focused not portrayed in your typical way of ditsy, flakey girl who is only concerned about boys and her looks, the stereotypical, negative traits that many shows go for nowadays because they somehow think it’s “cute.” Instead, Weiwei is smart, even-tempered (which means she didn’t act on emotional impulse which often leads to ridiculous misunderstandings nor did she become entrenched in the gossip people were creating about her, her boyfriend and friends), majored in computer science, a major not stereotypical for girls, was not focused on outward appearance and was actually indifferent to her looks despite everyone else being obsessed with her beauty. With her looks, she could’ve posted her photo as her pfp for her game to attract more attention, but instead, she didn’t, which made people think she was a guy posing as a girl in the game. There were also many different aspects to the show that were different from most cliche scripts. There’s no crazy in-laws, the couple had 100% trust and loyalty in each other, creating zero stupid misunderstandings that drive most viewers crazy because they are soften unnecessary, the girl is not crazy, ditzy, stupid, boy crazy, or obsessed with her looks. The show’s gaming focus and its success, I believe, lead more shows of this genre to be created. The show also had elements of boy love. This show, on the other hand, had zero interesting elements. Besides the girl being stereotypical negative traits of females (btw I also think the fl distractingly over-acted), the ml was dry and uninteresting as you said. Often he seemed to have the opposite of intense love. It was more like indifferent love. The second male lead was really annoying and seemed to play the exact same part from the last show, “Love Equations,” which actually was a much better show. The second fl was cold, mean and unrelatable. All in all one of the worst most over-rated dramas I’ve seen. What made you stop watching midway btw as it seemed you were ok with it so far? I kept watching hoping it’d get better, but it only got worse.

I really don’t get why people like this drama. IMHO, it has zero substance , is banal, super fluffy yet somehow boring and dull at the same time. The girl is another good-hearted, but stereotypical air head type who’s a famous actress that worries mostly about her appearance. It’s frustrating to see another drama where the fl lives off air and sometimes energy bars and the occasional small snack or soup. There’s a lot of scenes of her worried about looks, weight, and the rest of the time is of her thinking about a boy (the ml) and how to make him fall for her. Ryan Ding’s other dramas, especially “Romance of Tiger & Rose,” also “Just an Encore,” and “Reset Life” were all great. I only had a few more episodes to go on this one but could care less about the ending because it’s just so dull, superficial and pointless that I don’t really care to know what happens.