成何体统 32 2024 2月6日 爱奇艺 王楚然、丞磊 古装
First up is How Dare You or 成何体统! This 32 episode drama stars Wang Chu Ran and Cheng Lei in this period romance drama. It began airing on Feb 6 on iQiYi.
Modern day corporate employee Wang Cui Hua is tasked with reading a time traveling novel. After speed reading through the novel, she unexpectedly finds herself transported into the novel as the infamous consort Yu Wan Yin (ft Wang Chu Ran). Armed with only a vague memory of the original plot, she finds an unlikely ally with the King, Xia Hou Dan (ft Cheng Lei). With the Empress Dowager tightly controlling state affairs and a power-hungry prince waiting in the wings, the royal couple need to form new alliances to survive. Together, the king and consort learn to trust one another while facing the treacherous realities of court life.
As you can tell, this is another “穿书” novel or enter into the book drama. However, the premise for this drama is a lot more layered than your typical time traveling drama. It’s quickly established that perhaps not all is as it seems with the characters in the book or those who have time traveled to this world.
Wang Chu Ran is as lovely as always. She should definitely keep acting in period romance dramas because she is utterly gorgeous. I thought Cheng Lei was fine but in general the male leads gave much weaker performances than the female leads. It’s a fun breeze with some genuine comedy. The original source material was already adapted into a popular animated series and a short drama so this is one additional adaptation.
The strength of the premise is really able to capture audiences. This drama has performed adequately but did not exceed expectations. It breached 9,000 on iQiYi’s popularity index however overall viewership barely broke 15m viewers per episode. For a drama that aired during the Chinese New Year break, it’s surprising that there wasn’t more buzz.
岁月有情时 30 2024 2月20日 央视八套(17:35) 黄景瑜、关晓彤 年代
Our Dazzling Days
Set in northeast China in the 1990s, this story revolves around a military factory where life including shops, hospitals, schools and of course, families, all revolve around this factory. The orphan Xiao Man featuring Huang Jing Yu, Xia Lei 夏雷 ft Wang Tian Chen 王天辰, raised in a very strict family, and young girl with dreams of sailing the seas Yan Xiao Dan 严晓丹 Ft Guan Xiao Tong grew up in a time of dazzling and bright futures. But as they grew up, the factory started failing.
Xiao Man is forced to work in Japan to learn a trade and earn money while Xia Lei graduates and travels to Shanghai for work. In the 21st century, the military factory falls and the thousands are forced to leave. But the children of the factory reunite. Xia Lei and Xiao Dan bring back technology, insight and knowledge to their hometown to save the factory. The three, where Xiao Man and Xiao Dan were lovers, are now the closest family with no blood relation. This is a story of ordinary heroes filled with romance and passion against the backdrop of a changing era.
This drama initially was not on anyone’s radar given that people did not have high expectations of Huang Jing Yu and Guan Xiao Tong’s chemistry. But, it did climb to number 2 behind the next drama and people are reluctantly admitting that the story is engaging and the chemistry between the main couple is ship worthy. This is also Guan Xiao Tong’s first drama to air after basically confirming that she is single. Though she is not going down the idol route, she continues to have steady work and her acting skills are always surprisingly better than people think. But the drama was not strong enough to beat out the next drama.
纯真年代的爱情 29 2025 2月21日 央视八套 陈飞宇、孙千 年代
Love Story in the 1970s
In the 1970s, Fei Ni ft Sun Qian is a young girl working in a hat factory but has dreams of going to University and using education to change her fate. Her middle school classmate Fang Mu Yang 方穆扬 ft Chen Fei Yu suffered an injury after saving someone and Fei Ni proactively offers to care for him. She thought that her good deeds would help give her the opportunity to go to University but the opportunity escapes her each time. Faced with the pressures of reality, the two ultimately procure their own home and become a married couple. They face hardships together to achieve their dreams and despite there being bumps along the road, the two grow to a loving, romantic couple. Finally, Fei Ni gets the opportunity to attend college and Fang Mu Yang achieves his dream of becoming an artist.
The above is the official plot synopsis from BaiKe. This COMPLETELY glosses over the true powerhouse couple of this drama which is the second male and second female leads. Fang Mu Jing ft Guo Xiao Ting is Fang Mu Yang’s older sister and young Qu Hua ft Wang Tian Chen have apparently a super ship worthy romance in this drama. This CP or this couples pairing COMPLETELY overshadowed Chen Fei Yu and Sun Qian, the main couple. I’m reading comments of people online who are like, can I just see a cut of the drama with the second couple please? Even on various charts of top trending characters, it is the second male lead at the top, not the male lead that is at the top.
What was SUPER confusing for me is that the second male lead Wang Tian Chen is in BOTH this drama AND the last drama I just talked about and he looks similar enough in both that when I was watching social media clips online, I was SO confused as to what was going on. I thought it was all one big drama and mixing the two together.
In any case, this drama has actually done quite well online and on TV ratings. It currently sits at the top of the charts vs all other dramas airing and doing much better than, I’m sorry to say, any of the romance costume idol dramas of last month. But, most of the commentary has been on the second couple rather than the main couple. However, since Chen Fei Yu needed a win after a sex scandal put him as a high risk figure, this is a good showing for him and tells audiences that if he keeps his head down and just act, he has a better path than going down the pure idol route.
江湖夜雨十年灯 37 2024 2月22日 腾讯视频/爱奇艺 周翊然、包上恩 古装
江湖夜雨十年灯 or Generation to Generation. This 37 episode drama stars the young 周翊然 Zhou Yi Ran and 包上恩 Bao Shang En. It began airing on Tencent AND iQiYI on Feb 22.
Two hundred years ago, the patriarch of the Beichen sect sacrificed himself to suppress evil forces. His disciples later established the Six Beichen Sects to maintain order in the martial world. Fifteen years ago, Nie Hengcheng 聂恒城, the leader of the Demon Sect, slaughtered countless people across Jiang Hu. The fearless martial artist 蔡平殊 Cai Pingshu, finally kills Nie Hengcheng but also perishes in the fight.
Now, Cai Pingshu’s niece, Cai Zhao played by Bao Shang En, is naturally free-spirited and was deeply fond of her aunt. Her parents forcibly send her to the Qingque Sect to study martial arts. On the journey there, she encounters the massacre of the Chang Family Fortress and rescues the sole surviving young man, Chang Ning played by Zhou Yi Ran.
Chang Ning has been poisoned with a deadly toxin and has a gloomy temperament. He is brought to the Qingque Sect to recover. Cai Zhao soon notices contradictions in Chang Ning’s words and actions, raising her suspicions. She begins to secretly and not so secretly investigate the mystery of Chang Ning’s identity. Soon after, nefarious forces appear in Jiang Hu, threatening the unsteady peace in the land. Cai Zhao must decide on her allies to save Jiang Hu.
I’ve been trying to watch it and have been struggling to maintain any sort of interest. This was sold in its marketing as a martial arts epic but in the first 6 episodes, it’s just a standard romance drama.I don’t think Zhou Yi Ran and Bao Shang En are particularly good actors. Being the main leads, they have the most amount of screen time, but their performances pale in comparison to the performances of many of the actors in the “older generation”. At this point, I’m much more interested in the storylines of the older generation than the young cast.
The original book was written by Guan Xin Ze Luan, the same author who penned The Story of Ming Lan and Love Like the Galaxy. This is only her 4th book and was expected to perform at minimum, decent. I mean, both of those dramas performed EXTREMELY well. Unfortunately, this has been an utter flop both on Tencent and iQiYi. The drama hasn’t breached 24000 on Tencent and on IQiYi it hasn’t even breached 6000.
逐玉 2024 3月6日 腾讯视频/爱奇艺， 3月8日 东方卫视(上星) 张凌赫、田曦薇、
Pursuit of Jade
Lastly, we finally have some more romance idol fare. This drama stars Zhang Ling He and Tian Xi Wei in the main lead roles.
Here is the synopsis. A butcher’s daughter, Fan Chang Yu ft Tian Xi Wei and a destitute marquis Xie Zheng ft Zhang Ling He encounter each other in a snowstorm and their fates are forever intertwined. She is an orphan who aspires to be the head of her household while he disguised his identity for 17 years in order to seek revenge. The two both have their own motives and end up in a fake marriage that turns into true love. Scheming turns into true love but true love brings about a bloody war. The two lovers are forced to separate as a result. Fan Chang Yu takes her butcher’s blade onto the battlefield in order to search for her husband, search for her family and search for justice while Xie Zheng resumes his identity as marquis and protects his country, his love and the truth. The two join each other on the battle field, unfearful of death while seeking the truth.
I kinda like this synopsis? I will be chasing this because there’s nothing else on right now that seems interesting. If anything, Zhang Ling He and Tian Xi Wei are at least going to be an attractive couple on screen so there’s that. Zhang Ling He only had 2 modern day romances last year that didn’t make a huge splash while Tian Xie Wei had 2 costume dramas last year but were overshadowed by issues surrounding her male leads. Remember last year, Tian Xi Wei had a drama air and her male lead was Xu Kai and then a woman came forward to expose him as a player and a cheater? Yea…that cut the drama’s marketing at its knees.