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She is, right? :D A perfect example of an anti-hero trap, where you see all these bad and ruthless things she's doing, yet can't help liking her ^^

Yes, many c-novels tend to be rather lengthy, and it can be hard to find a good translation :) Thousand Autumns is fully translated now, although different parts by different people; if you ever have troubles finding a translated part, you can message me and I'll help :)
Also, I might have gotten a bit carried away by classifying Yan Wushi as unscrupulous hero, the more I think of it the more I lean towards nominal hero now... but it also changes throughout the story :D Anyway - you can read and see for yourself ^^ There's also a 3D donghua adaptation available on youtube to watch :)

It's a great article, thank you for sharing! it was interesting to read about the classification of anti-hero types ^^
I've just finished The Rise of Phoenixes, and indeed it was fascinating to watch the character journey of Ning Yi! I also loved Wei Wuxian from The Untamed, Jung Geum Ja from Hyena, the kids from The Bad Kids... Having an anti-hero in the story usually compels me more to watch it, then just following the adventures of a righteous hero.
The "most unscrupulous" anti-hero I've ever encountered comes from a webnovel though: Yan Wushi from Thousand Autumns. I hope we'll get a live adaptation of this novel one day, because it's a brilliant clash of the most anti-hero you could have with the most righteous hero type ^^

Great article, thank you very much for sharing all this info about the entire franchise! I've just started watching "The Lost Tomb" and can't wait to get deeper into the adventures and the Iron Triangle friendship! ^^

This is the most comprehensive article on historical c-dramas I've ever read, well done! :) It was a pleasure to read even for a person like me who's already accustomed to watching long c-dramas ^^ I think it may help a lot of people to understand the context of such dramas and encourage them to actually give historical c-dramas a chance!

Thank you for sharing this nice article!
I watched all three dramas that you mentioned but I haven't yet read the novels they're based upon. I actually really like all these dramas, despite their glaring script flaws; I agree that their strengths lie not so much in the script as in the characters themselves and the portrayals of different relationships, all thanks to the effort of the respective casts and crews :)
After finishing WoH I started reading "Lord Seventh" and then I intend to continue with "Faraway Wanderers" because I'm really curious about the original story, even more after reading your article :D
And I'm waiting for the "Silent Reading" adaptation! I read the novel last year, and found it truly amazing ^^ it's a real challenge to adapt such complex criminal cases and an equally complex relationship between the main characters... I keep my fingers crossed, but I'm also not holding my hopes too high ;)

I'm rather a shy person, and it takes some time for me to get confident enough to talk to people, even on the Internet. that's why I do not voice my opinions very often (also because often I do not feel competent enough - I do not have any professional knowledge about film making, I've been watching c-dramas for merely 3 years, and I'm an European who still doesn't know much about Chinese history and culture) :) but yeah, despite everything, it's nice to talk to someone about shared interests! :)

I totally agree that while we had higher hopes for LoF, it's still enjoyable enough to keep watching as it is! I'm watching on Viki, and I've almost caught up with the translated episodes, but there's still 2 weeks of watching ahead of me, and I'm fine with that :D

The issue of music is subjective, as you said :) I like how you described the differences between the scores of LoF and TMBFY - and I agree with your insights, now that I think about it (usually I tend not to think about dramas' music scores too much if something doesn't catch my ear the first time I hear it, because I've always been more of a visual than auditory person... :)).

However, I have some favourite songs and scores - definitely the music score and character songs from The Untamed, but also:
See You Later by Liu Qin (from Ancient Detective)
Summer by Tan Songyun (from Under The Power)
One Step by Cui Zige (from Bloody Romance)
Burning Heart by G.E.M. (from Princess Agents)
Remaining Years by Xiao Zhan (from Joy of Life)
River of No Return by Alan (from Red Cliff) (this song is sooo good, the chorus part is totally unexpected (compared to the verses) and it made a deep impression on me :D)

I listened to the Ode to Shangyang, and wow, I literally got chills when the chorus came in! This is a good song, thank you for the rec :D
Hidden Heart is also nice!

Even though I did not watch the dramas, for some time I've already been listening to Upwards to the Moon (it's good, I like it) and Love Like Colored Glass (I absolutely love it, especially because it's sung by Zhou Shen, whose voice I've been in love with ever since I saw him on Our Song :D So I can also recommend his "Infinity" from Lost Tomb Reboot).

A Lifetime Waiting For You is beautiful, but it also sounds so sad, so I prefer One Step from the same drama :) BTW Bloody Romance is doubtless the most beautifully shot drama that I've seen so far, and a quite good dark wuxia - if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend giving it a try (even though I found secondary characters more interesting than the main ones, I still think it's worth watching) :)

First of all: you really have a talent for writing reviews, they are informative, balanced, well-written, and you make good points!
Second of all: I agree that the strength of this drama lies in its characters, rather than in the production values - it reminds me of Under The Power, which suffered from similar production problems. Anyway, for me LoF is an entertaining drama when I'm watching it with the mindset of "going on an epic adventure with interesting and likable characters" without focusing too much on production faults :)
The one thing I don't fully agree on is the OST -it's not bad, the lyrics are nice and fitting, but musically it doesn't stand out for me from any other historical drama, and the opening song is somehow annoyingly similar to the opening of The Moon Brightens for You... However, I have to admit that the Picking Lotus song is amazing! :)

I haven't seen any of these movies, thank you for the recommendations! ^^

Thank you for sharing this article, it got me interested in the drama about Ikebana :)

I'd recommend "Detective L" (republican era) or "A Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower" (contemporary) - they do not focus on romance, but rather case-solving and various relationships between the characters :)

This is a nice, informative article - thank you for sharing it!
I've been watching c-dramas for about 2.5 years, so from my own experience I can add a few points for people who want to get into c-dramas:

1) Do not be discouraged if you don't like your first (or even second and third) c-drama; there are so many genres, and so many different types of stories of the same genre, that it may take some time to find what is your cup of tea :)
I agree that the synopsis may often be misleading, so watching trailers may be helpful (although the trailers often present the dramas as much more dark and serious than they actually are), but I'd also recommend reading the tags, which are usually accurate and can help determine if the drama has the elements that you love/hate.

2) It's totally OK to not like the recommended "classics" or generally hyped dramas!! To this day I can't understand the hype of "Eternal Love", and I think I need to grow up a little more to appreciate "Nirvana in Fire" ^^ I didn't even start watching the much hyped "Love and Redemption" because I knew it wasn't really my kind of story, and I don't have any problems with that :) Find YOUR niche, and enjoy your niche :D you don't have to always follow the crowd ^^

3) Do not question, just ACCEPT the "weirdness" of the wuxia/xianxia world :D (It's easier if you're already a fan of fantasy stories - I went into my first c-drama, The Flame's Daughter, because I saw the posters with very pretty people who looked like Tolkien's Elves for me ^^ and then I stayed for the very different, but still fantasy-like story and aesthetics)

4) Many historical/wuxia/xianxia c-dramas are simply worth watching for THE AESTHETICS - seriously, the locations, the sets, the costumes, the props, the actors are all so beautiful ^^ Once I actually watched a drama (Bloody Romance) MAINLY for the beautiful shots :D

5) Do not be mad about the endings - many c-dramas, especially the historical/wuxia ones have open endings, or bittersweet endings, or even just plain sad endings :) So, either accept it, or if you want to avoid a sad ending after watching a 50+ episode long drama, you'd better check out what kind of ending it has before you start :)

I'm reading the novel right now, but out of curiosity I checked if there's a live adaptation planned - so yeah, if the info on the cast is true, I totally can't imagine these actors in their respective roles, even though I'm actually a fan of both of them :D

Thank you for this article, you've convinced me to put this drama on my to-watch list :D

@Size15FeetJames Hotel del Luna is one of my favourite dramas ever (it's visually stunning :D but the music is also nice, as I've already mentioned), so I hope you'll like it too ^^

C-dramas are often quite long, 40+ or 50+ episodes, so if you're more accustomed to 16-20 episode long dramas, I'd start with something similarly short, e.g. "Ancient Detective" - it's only 24 episodes, with Agatha Christie-like murder mysteries, and a general plot with a surprising twist, so I'd advise to avoid any spoilers about this drama :) It has an ensemble of interesting characters and beautiful cinematography, unfortunately there's no full OST on yt or spotify (and I don't remember much of it) but there is the theme song (which I love): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2cQtRlO0f0

I can also recommend "The Untamed" with all my heart (especially because the music is great, the entire OST can be found on yt and spotify), if you're not put off by all the hype around it, and if you have the patience to get through the first two episodes with little understanding of what's going on (the story really starts with the end of episode 2) ^^

Thank you so much for your recommendation! No, I don't find it weird, because we've established what both of us like from the beginning, so you're right in thinking that a forgettable OST wouldn't be a problem for me if the story and visuals were good. The plot sounds fun, so I'll gladly check it out! ^^

@Size15FeetJames oooh, do you remember the title of that tv show? :D I saw some movies that also used classical music during action scenes, but for me it usually works as it creates this nice, sometimes funny contrast :) So I'm not against unexpected music genres in OSTs if it's done according to a well-thought idea ^^

When mentioning my favourite OSTs I forgot about k-dramas (because I rarely watch them, I'm usually into historical/wuxia c-dramas), but I like the songs from Hotel del Luna (especially "Done For Me") and Goblin ^^

Ah, thank you for the compliment <3 I'm glad you liked it :D

About your first question: hmm, I guess if the music to the drama was as unfitting and bad as you described it, the drama itself would probably have much more problems than just the OST, so I probably wouldn't have loved it in the first place :D although I don't recall ever watching anything with a botched music score, so I can't say for sure ^^ if the music fits the general vibe of the scene, I don't have complaints.

Despite not caring about it that much, sometimes during watching I do catch some pieces of music that I like, and that's what prompts me to seek out the entire OST :)

Out of the scores I mentioned - I love the one from The Untamed the most, partly because of my great sentiment for this drama, but also because I genuinely find this music resonating with my soul ^^ I love especially this piece: 人生若只如初见 (If Life Was Just Like When We First Met), it's so beautiful and sad, but there's also a kind of acceptance of the fate to it, along with a fond recollection of the past... yeah, it's great :D

Thank you for sharing this article! You've got me interested in Black & White and Meet Me @ 1006 :D Although I'm usually watching c-dramas, I've also seen three t-dramas so far: Before We Get Married, Bromance, and The Ghost Bride, and I liked them all, so I'm ready to try some more ^^

It's an interesting article, thank you for sharing! :)

A fitting and memorable OST certainly makes the viewing experience more enjoyable, however for me it's often a secondary issue - I'm more of a visual then auditory kind of person, and very often I simply don't pay attention to the background music. That's why I can't say I'll forget a drama when it doesn't have a memorable soundtrack, it's usually the other way round: I can't remember any single music theme even from the dramas I loved, unless I actively search for and listen to the OST for at least a few times :)

I do have a few favourite OSTs: from The Untamed (plus the character songs), Under The Power (same composer), Guardian, and the Red Cliff movie. And I like the songs from Princess Agents :)

Also: I don't think it's weird to listen to the OST before seeing the movie/drama :D I listened to the Guardian's OST just after seeing the first few episodes of the drama, that's why I was prepared for the ending (the last track of the OST gave me a pretty good idea about what kind of ending to expect :)).

Oh, ok, I didn't catch that when I was watching. I was under the impression that the book made it clear that the ML survived, but I haven't read it so I don't know if it's true (I tried, but, the book is... ugh... something else :D) Anyway, thank you for this info! :)