Chinese Drama : The Long Ballad 长歌行

Year Released

2021

Genre

Action, Historical Fiction

 

No. of Episodes

 

49 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

 

Starring

 

Dilraba Dilmurat, Wu Lei, Zhao Lusi

Storyline

Yong Ning Princess, Li Changge (Dilraba Dilmurat) vows revenge against her uncle Li Shimin (Geng Le) when he killed all her families. She also has a love-hate relationship with her cousin Yong An Princess, Li Leyan (Zhao Lusi) because of this. 

She meets up with a lot of people on her way and ends up being in the grassland with Ashile Shun (Wu Lei). Changge wants Ashile tribe to help her with her revenge but she comes to realise that she only wants peace among the people whether it is the Tang Dynasty, grassland or desert.

My View

 

Some parts are draggy especially the Princess Yong An being kidnapped portion and Ashile Khatun's (Yang Ming Na) controlling the royals. I almost wanted to rate a 3 stars but overall the plot is well written. I like how the relationship between Ashile Shun and Ashile She-er (Wa Er) work out in the end.

Hao Du (Liu Yuning) is kind of adorable and he matches well with Princess Yong An.

Rating

4/5 Stars

 

Chinese Drama : Moonlight 月光变奏曲

Year Released

2021

Genre

Romantic Comedy

No. of Episodes 

36 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Ding Yuxi, Yu Shuxin, Yang Shize, Ma Yinyin

Storyline

Chu Li (Yu Shuxin) dreams to be an editor and happens to be given a chance when she joins Yuan Yue Publishing. Her first author is young and promising Zhou Chuan (Ding Yuxi), then a once popular Jiang Yucheng (Yang Shize) and a trying to make a comeback Suo Heng (He Xinlin).

Coincidentally, Chu Li under nickname 'Monkey' and Zhou Chuan 'Mr. Fox' are web friends since young. Gu Baizhi (Ma Yinyin) used to be Jiang Yucheng's ex-girlfriend and former editor but they broke up due to misunderstanding. The four leads help each other overcome their fear, accompany each other when they need someone.

My View

Moonlight is pretty sweet and adorable romcom. The part where Jiang Yucheng is reading Liu Lao Shi's husband letter, those words are extremely touching and I cried so so much. Jiang Yucheng also mentions about He Shuhuan from Romance in the Rain drama from 20 years ago where he popped up from a box. That is funny too as I watched that drama upteen times.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Korean Drama : Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area

Year Released

2022

Genre

Action, Crime

No. of Episodes

12- 1 hour 10 mins per episode for Season 1 & 1 hour per episode for Season 2

Starring

Yoo Ji-tae, Park Hae-soo, Kim Yoon-jin, Kim Sung-oh, Jeon Jong-seo

Storyline

A group of thieves led by 'Professor' (Yoo Ji-tae) take over a mint located at Joint Economic area between North and South Korea. Their aim is to trap innocent citizens and workers of the mint in order to stall time for them to print billions of dollars. Some want the money, and some are for political reasons.

My View

Understand this is a remake of Spanish Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) but I really enjoyed this drama. The wits of these thieves against the North and South Korean police department are truly amazing. 

Rating

5/5 Stars

Chinese Drama: Legend of Two Sisters in the Chaos 浮世双娇传

Year Released

2020

Genre

Historical Fiction

No. of Episodes

40 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Aarif Rahman, Meng Ziyi, Li Yitong, Wang Zhuocheng

Storyline

Rumour has is that whoever marries daughters of Fu family will become the Emperor. The two sisters, Fu Yuzhan (Meng Ziyi) and Fu Jinzhan (Li Yitong) happens to get involved in a task set up by Emperor but this is actually to get rid of one of the sisters.

Prince Xue Rong (Aarif Rahman) is in charge of this task and leaves with no choice but to kill Yuzhan. Using her wits, Yuzhan manages to save herself. Xue Rong eventually falls in love with her and decides to marry her.

However, as Xue Rong is an adopted prince, he faces multiple obstacles from Emperor's sister as she only acknowledges the Xue's family bloodline. Due to an incident, he ends up marrying Jinzhan instead. Jinzhan is already in love with Jiang Shao (Wang Zhuocheng) who she meets up by accident when he tries to kidnap her during Emperor's task.

Little did anyone know except for the Emperor's sister, Jiang Shao is the Emperor's illegitimate son whom she wants to help him to ascend the throne. 

My View

The story is not too bad though in between a little slow but still okay. It should not be two sisters in chaos as I don't see them causing much trouble other than the two "princes". The ending was kind of sad by the way.  

Rating

3/5 Stars

Chinese Drama: You Are My Glory 你是我的荣耀

  

 

Year Released

2021

Genre

Romance

No. of Episodes

32 - running time of 35 minutes per episode

Starring

Yang Yang, Dilraba Dilmurat

Storyline

Qiao Jingjing (Dilraba Dilmurat) had a crush on Yu Tu (Yang Yang) during their high school days but was rejected. Fast forward years later when Jingjing becomes a famous celebrity and needs a professional help in gaming as part of her job. She still keeps in contact with Yu Tu online but under another identity.

 

Yu Tu is having a difficult period in deciding if he is to quit as an aerospace engineer as his job does not pay him well. He is unable to afford medical assistance to his parents and feels guilty about it. He meets Jingjing while he is on a break away from his job and ends up being her teacher in gaming.

 

After Yu Tu gets to know Jingjing more, he decides to pursue her. Their relationship has obstacles due to the nature of their jobs.

 

My View

 

The plot is a simple and romantic one but because I'm someone who prefer ups and downs in a drama so I have to rate two stars. Really nothing much as compared to Love O2O 微微一笑很倾城. 

When I heard from a friend that on the day the episode of their wedding scene, the whole Tencent crashed I suddenly feel like ?? LOL!

 

2/5 Stars

 

Chinese Drama : Listening Snow Tower 听雪楼

Year Released

2019

Genre

Historical fiction

No. of Episodes

56 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Qin Junjie, Yuan Bingyan, Han Chengyu, Yuan Lilin

Storyline

Shu Jingrong's (Yuan Bingyan) father was 'Blood Demon' who killed a lot of villians especially those from Bai Yue Sect. After her father was murdered by Hua Lian, leader of Bai Yue Sect, she is saved by Xiao Shishui, Listening Snow Tower's leader. She was then sent to Sand Valley as Bai Di's disciple and named as Qing Ming. She has another two elder brothers under Bai Di, Qing Lan (Han Chengyu) and Qing Yu (Zhao Dongze).

Once out on a task to protect the Crown Prince, Qing Lan meets Ye Huo (Yuan Lilin) and she was injured by Bai Yue Sect's poison. Qing Lan brings her back to Sand Valley not knowing that Ye Huo is actually Ming He undercover from Bai Yue Sect. She is also the daughter of Sect leader.

Qing Lan sacrifices his life to save Qing Yu and Qing Ming during Sand Valley's attack and they both end up staying at Listening Snow Tower. After the leader was killed by Hua Lian, his son Xiao Yiqing (Qin Junjie) takes over the sect. He vows to take down Bai Yue together with Qing Ming and the rest of Listening Snow Tower.

My View

There is a spoiler where I'm skipping here and all I can say is the storyline is not too bad at some point. But most of them are so draggy and I literally fast forward most of the episodes. Why the need for side tracks? Why 56 episodes and not like 24? The two main leads are like getting sick, getting injured, saved each other, almost died and recovered a little and injured again then sick again. Over and over this cyle repeats itself. 

The scriptwriters seriously what is wrong with you guys??

Rating

1/5 Stars

Chinese Drama : Sword Snow Stride 雪中悍刀行

Year Released

2021 - 2022

Genre

Action, Historical Fiction

No. of Episodes

38 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Zhang Ruoyun, Li Gengxi, Hu Jun, Qiu Xinzhi

Storyline

King of Northen Liang, Xu Xiao (Hu Jun) is feared by all epecially the Royals in Liyang City. In order for his son, Xu Fengnian (Zhang Ruoyun) to take over him and his 350,000 army, Xu Xiao manipulates everyone to be Fengnian's supporter.

Fengnian vows to choose a different way instead of following Xu Xiao's plans. Fengnian believes there is a best of both worlds path which he could take. That is to be in charge of Northern Liang and also to keep Jiang Ni (Li Gengxi) by his side despite her identity.

Fengnian learns swordsmanship from God of Sword Li Chungang (Qiu Xinzhi) throughout his journey to Wu Di City. Along the way, he meets up with various high skilled fighters and improves himself.

In the end, Fengnian manages to avenge his mother's death by killing one of her murderers.

My View

I have not watched such an awesome wuxia drama in a long time. I kind of enjoy watching anything with Wang Juan's as the scriptwriter as he introduces a million characters which keeps the story confusing but intriguing at the same time. Two thumbs up!

Rating

5/5 Stars

Chinese Drama : Novoland: Pearl Eclipse 斛珠夫人

Year Released

2021

Genre

Fantasy

No. of Episodes

48 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Yang Mi, Chen Weiting

Storyline

Ye Haishi's village was destroyed by corrupted officials though the villagers had risked their lives to retrieve pearls (from mermaid's tears) to be submitted to the Emperor. Fang Jianming (Chen Weiting) happens to save Haishi's life and makes her his disciple and renames her as Fang Haishi.

Over the years, the master and disciple grow fond of each other but Jianming often pushes Haishi away. This was due to his short lifespan by being Di Xu's (Xu Kaicheng) Baixi. The Liushang Fang's clan has a special bloodline where they can exchange the pain with another person after performing Baixi. 

This was how Emperor Xu was able to escape multiple injuries or deaths but all taken in by Jianming. Jianming was eventually let go of all these worries by ending his Baixi. His injuries over the years also being cured by drinking mermaid's blood with the help of Haishi.

My View

Pearl Eclipse has a pretty good story flows, no draggy scenes and only showing what are needed from the audience. I seriously like the ending whether it is good or bad because it kind of makes sense in that situation. 

Second leads Emperor Xu and Ti Lan Princess are a sad couple but I guess they were at least there for each other during difficut times.

Rating

4/5 Stars

Chinese Drama : Joy of Life 庆余年

Year Released

2019 - 2020

Genre 

Fantasy

No. of Episodes

46 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Zhang Ruoyun, Chen Daoming, Wu Gan, Xiao Zhan

Storyline

The entire plot is about a university student who writes a story about Fan Xian (Zhang Ruoyun) who has memory from the modern world though living in an ancient era. Fan Xian is constantly being assasinated starting from his birthplace Danzhou till when he reaches the Capital. 

His has the support from Emperor of Qing (Chen Daoming), Chen Pingping (Wu Gang) and his bodyguard, Wu Zhu. Fan Xian finds out the true identity of his mother, Ye Qingmei when he opens up a mysterious box which was left by her after death.

Fan Xian gets to know more about his mother when he escorts Xiao'en (Yu Rongguang) back to Beiqi. Little did he know, Xiao'en (under the manipulation from Pingping) mistakes Fan Xian as his grandson and shares with him the entire encounter years ago with Ye Qingmei. 

After rescuing hostage Yan Bingyun (Xiao Zhan) from Beiqi, Fan Xian begins his journey back to Qing but will be faced with multiple challenges.

My View

The whole drama is full of characters and almost everyone is a grand master in martial arts. Plot is extremely confusing yet intriguing. You need to follow every scene to understand and connect the story. I'mvery curious who is Chen Pingping's bodyguard "Shawdow". The ciffhanger is really my god... I was left in awe. Part two please start soon!

Rating

4/5 Stars

Chinese Drama : The Legend of Hao Lan 皓镧传

Year Released

2019

Genre

Historical Fiction

No. of Episodes

62 - running time of 45 minutes per episode

Starring

Wu Jinyan, Nie Yuan, Mao Zijun

Storyline 

Plot depicts the life of Hao Lan (Wu Jinyan), Queen Dowager Zhao who is mother of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Hao Lan comes from the State of Zhao and is entangled with merchant Lu Buwei (Nie Yuan). She is later being presented to Ying Yiren (Mao Zijun) who is a Qin prince under hostage at Zhao.

With the help of Buwei, Yiren manages to escape back to Qin and later changes name to Zichu. Once Zichu becomes Qin's crown prince, he arranges for Hao Lan to leave Zhao for Qin to become his Empress. 

My View

For the first probably 20 episodes, it's all about Hao Lan being schemed and how she managed to clear her name. In between, also multiple love hate scenes of Princess Ya of Zhao (Hai Lin) and Yiren. I feel so sad for Hao Lan as no one truly loves her in her whole life except for Lao Ai I guess (Zhu Jian).

Most of her men may have loved her at first but in the end abandoned Hao Lan for their own prospects. Like Lu Buwei, Prince Jiao of Zhao (Hong Yao) and finally Yiren who dreams to unite the world.

Rating

3/5 Stars