Chinese Dramas Airing in Nov 2024
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2024-11 Drama Update
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Kill Me Love Me 春花焰 starring Wu Jin Yan and Liu Xue Yi. Total Episode Count: 32 Initial Airing Date: October 14, 2024 Platform: Youku
Fresh off her smash hit this summer with The Double or Mo Yu Yun Jian, Wu Jin Yan returns with another period revenge drama with Youku no doubt hoping for another hit after a dull start to Fall.
Here’s the synopsis: The third prince of the Yan Kingdom, Mu Rong Jing He (ft Liu Xue Yi), heads the Bei Wei Army to recover the city of Qing Zhou. A fire engulfs the city and soldiers massacre civilians. Rumors spread that it was the Bei Wei Army who were responsible for the attack. A young woman Mei Lin (ft Wu Jin Yan) loses her parents during the fire and vows vengeance against the culprit for the massacre. She becomes an assassin in a secret organization and is sent on several missions. She finally is sent to assassinate Mu Rong Jing, disguised as a beauty traveling with the Princess of Western Yan. She doesn’t realize that there are various factions pulling the strings and she must uncover the mysteries with the Crown Prince, the Emperor, and Mu Rong Jing He.
This drama was a pretty big dud across the board. Ratings weren’t great and there just wasn’t that much buzz online. It didn’t help that Wu Jin Yan announced her marriage earlier this year, which meant she couldn’t market her “CP” with Liu Xue Yi while promoting this drama. Mind you, she really was trying to sell the drama when she was promoting it. Unfortunately, everyone spent the time speculating whether or not she was pregnant rather than the actual drama.
I wrote up a short review of this drama and posted it online on our website. I thought it was fine – like average – nothing to write home about so if you just want to have something in the background with a handsome couple, this would be a good candidate
大梦归离 Fangs of Fortune iQiyi.
34 episodes
2024年10月26日
This historical fantasy drama was directed by Guo Jing Ming, the same director who directed My Journey to You and he included Chen Du Ling and Tian Jia Rui who were both in that dram in Fangs of Fortune.
In the early Tang dynasty, the goddess that controls both the human realm and the demon realm Bai Ze 白泽 unexpectedly died. As such, demons began to wreak havoc in the human world without any concern and cause a number of bloody mysteries. At this point, the leader of the demons transformed into a human and takes the name 赵远舟 featuring Hou Ming Hao. He purposefully allies himself with court and creates a government office specifically to capture demons. Wen Xiao 文潇 featuring Chen Du Ling brings Zhao Yuan Zhou into this government office and with her childhood friend and head of the department, 卓翼宸（田嘉瑞 饰), a man skilled in detective work and swordsmanship, as well as several other key individuals, they create a little team to capture all demons.
This drama has aired to middling success. It’s popularity index on iQiYi breached 8700 which I guess is decent for the main cast. However, it is competing with the following 3 dramas we will talk about and it is only able to hold 4th in the direct competition. So what is this drama about?
小巷人家 Romance in the Alley
40 episode drama 10月28日 Hunan Television starring 闫妮、李光洁、郭晓东、蒋欣、范丞丞、关晓彤、王安宇
This drama is based off a popular book of the same name and I’ve been seeing a lot of book fans pretty happy with the adaptation so far.
Here’s the synopsis
In the 1970s, in a small alley reserved for the families of workers of a cotton factory in Su Zhou lives two families, the Zhuang family and the Lin Family. The Gao Kao or the national college entrance exam has just been reinstated and the Zhuang Family are focused on their young children’s education. Huang Ling, wife to Zhuang Chao Ying, works at the factory and their neighbors the couple Lin Wu Feng and Song Ying also work at the factory. Huang Ling’s husband, Zhuang Chao Ying, is a teacher but he’s a weak-willed man who lets his parents bully himself and his family. Over the years, the Zhuang and Lin families become extremely close. The drama tells the story of these two families amongst the backdrop of the changing landscape and industrialization in China.
This drama has held the top spot on tv viewership in the past week and I’ve seen pretty positive word of mouth. Yen Ni and Jiang Xin are excellent as always. The hilarious joke is tha Jiang Xin (who plays Hua Fei in Empresses in the Palace) finally has a loving husband and son in a drama. During press for the drama, Yen Ni’s over there doing god knows what completely shocking her young co-star Guan Xiao Tong. Meanwhile, fans have come to tease Jiang Xin even more about Empresses in the Palace but she’s taken it in stride. They played an AI generated song sung by Chen Jian Bing, the Emperor for Empresses in the Palace, and Jiang Xin couldn’t figure it out for a while until she finally said – “is it 老四”.
I’ll probably start watching this drama once a few more episodes drop.
[Karen[
珠帘玉幕 The Story of Pearl Girl 北京卫视、江苏卫视、东方卫视 优酷
40 episodes
Airing date: 2024年11月1日
The 95 flowers are battling it out for viewership with each of their respective dramas. Zhao Lu Si comes forward with The Story of Pearl Girl or Zhu Lian Yu Mu. She is joined by Liu Yu Ning as her main male lead. The two of them starred in The Long Ballad in 2021 and their ship or CP was quite popular. At the time, Cathy was all over Dilireba and Wu Lei’s ship or CP while I was all over Zhao Lu Si and Liu Yu Ning’s Hao Yan CP.
Well, they are back together in this drama. Here’s the plot:
Duan Wu 端午 featuring Zhao Lu Si is a pearl gathering slave who, after many challenges, was able to escape the human eating pearl farm. She meets a businessman from the west called Yan Zi Jing 燕子京, featuring Liu Yu Ning as well as a handsome gentleman 张晋然 ft 唐晓天. She joins their caravan and enters the glittering world of jewelry. As they head west though, she discovers the mystery of her identity and becomes entangled in Yan Zi Jing’s quest for revenge. Duan Wu changes her name to 苏幕遮 and heads to Yang Zhou in order to find the truth. She works with Yan Zi Jing plus Zhang Jin Ran to overthrow a wrongful conviction and works to become the top jeweler.
This drama has breached 10,100 on Youku’s popularity index. It was the fastest drama this year to breach 10,000 on Youku’s popularity index and it is an impressive feat to be airing on no less than 3 regional networks in China. Zhao Lu Si has also used her massive network on weibo to help market for this drama. Even Xiao Zhan posted on his weibo to watch this drama, something that he very rarely does. What is odd though is that even though on Youku’s popularity index, this drama is doing well, actual viewership numbers are a little weaker both on television and online when compared to other dramas. That means it is up to you to decide if you liked this drama! I’ll give it a go in a bit.
永夜星河 Love Game in Eastern Fantasy – 32 ep 11月1日 腾讯视频 虞书欣、丁禹兮、祝绪丹、杨仕泽
On the other side of the battle of the 95 flowers is Love Game in Eastern Fantasy or 永夜星河 starring Esther Yu Shu Xin and Xing Yu Xi.
This 32 episode drama began airing on Tencent on November 1. 虞书欣 headlines this drama with 丁禹兮、祝绪丹、杨仕泽.
Here’s the plot summary.
凌妙妙 played by Yu Shu Xin is just your average young professional who slogs through work and enjoys reading the latest fantasy romance novels. A new one is released but Ling Miao Miao is disappointed with the book and writes a scathing review. That night she finds herself transported into the story and inhabits the body of the evil female side character, Lin Yu. Immediately she’s tossed into a fake marriage with Demon Catcher 柳拂衣 (杨仕泽) to capture a rogue Mirror Demon. Knowing the plot of the drama, she warns 柳拂衣 to save another Demon Catcher 慕瑶（祝绪丹). The day is saved by another Demon Catcher 慕声（丁禹兮) but he is suspicious of Ling Miao Miao. Ling Miao Miao learns that in order to leave this world, she must complete the missions set forth by this game or world of this story. And so, she embarks on missions with the three other demon catchers to complete this story.
This drama is based off a very popular book in chinese called 黑莲花攻略手册 which came out several years ago. I personally haven’t read it but I’ve seen it on top of several most popular books lists over the years. The premise is the same for books of this genre, which in CHinese is called 快穿. The main female character inhabits a side character in the story, and with her knowledge is able to become her own main character.
Esther gained a lot of fans after her appearance in Season 8 of Chinese Restaurant or 中餐厅 this year and garnered a lot of good will.
This drama currently sits on top of the viewing board amongst the battle of dramas and has had decent word of mouth. I’ve watched the first two episodes and Yu Shu Xin is back in her comfortable wheelhouse of being the cute and bubbly main lead. The special effects and costumes are top notch in this drama and there’s a star studded supporting cast. We’ll be writing our reviews online but you should watch these dramas and let us know what you think!