天才，女友 28 2025 8月2日 爱奇艺 田曦薇、胡一天 青春
Genius Girlfriend
This short 28 episode high school romance stars Tian Xi Wei and Hu Yi Tian.
Girl Genius 林知夏（田曦薇 饰) Lin Zhixia (Tian Xiwei) has a straightforward personality and is not good at socializing, and she has had no close friends since childhood. After being admitted to Provincial No. 1 High School, she meets top student Jiang Yubai (Hu Yitian) (江逾白 ft 胡一天 ) who has a sunny personality, through a problem-solving competition, and the two become desk mates.
Jiang Yu Bai helps integrate Lin Zhi Xia into his friend group and to express her gratitude, Lin Zhixia helps him with his studies. The two gradually go from competing against each other to helping each other, ultimately becoming best friends.
While they work to solve various problems at school and enter different competitions, Jiang Yubai’s feelings for Lin Zhixia gradually deepen. He originally planned to confess his feelings to her during their graduation trip but his mother becomes embroiled in a fraud case and he regrettably has to leave. In the end, the two overcome the obstacles between them to end up together.
This drama basically got no attention during its run. This drama received only a 5.3 rating on douban and its iQiYi popularity index rating only reached a peak of 7667. Yea… No one watched this drama and people didn’t like it apparently.
Which is a surprise given that Tian Xi Wei was in THE biggest drama this year with Pursuit of Jade and also was in the surprise hit Born with Luck. This is her third drama to air which is a great amount of output from her but the real question is whether or not SHE is the draw for a drama or not. It’s hard because this subject matter or genre just doesn’t seem to be doing as well anymore.
As for male lead Hu Yi Tian. This is not a good signal for his career. He’s been pretty mid for quite some time from a commercial perspective and he doesn’t been filming for quite a bit of time.
花开锦绣 36 2025 8月9日 腾讯视频(首播)， 8月11日 东方卫视(上星) 丁禹兮、邓恩熙 古装
The Road to Splendor!
This Ming Dynasty costume drama reunites Ding Yu Xi and Deng En Xi from 2024’s Melody of Golden Age.
Ding Yu Xi plays Zhao Ling, a bold and big hearted private-salt smuggler, comes from humble origins, but he harbors great ambitions. He meets Fu Tingyun (Deng Enxi), a young lady from a prestigious family who has been falsely accused of having an illicit affair, and the two are forced to flee together.
They endure repeated challenges from both their families and from court to fight against their fate. Initially skeptical of each other, they eventually join forces to support each other and develop romantic feelings. Amid multiple trials and tribulations, their love endures to become a legendary romance.
First of all, this Baike plot summary does this drama absolutely no favors. I had to massage it a little. But don’t let this very basic plot summary fool you! Because I gotta say, FINALLY – A GOOD costume drama! I was traveling around in Europe and eagerly chasing this show which was honestly I think a first for the summer? It did receive a 7.1 on Douban, probably one of the higher ratings for a costume romance drama this summer.
The costumes, cinematography, HISTORY included in this show are AMAZING. There’s significant depth to the script and the characters that you really feel like analyzing each character in the show. Not, the actor/actress. Definitely a top three drama of the year for me.
I will be publishing an in depth review both written AND a video version soon on this drama so stay tuned for it. But additionally, I’m going to be bringing out our old expertise by publishing a separate video going through key Chinese culture and history moments OF this show. I think we’ll do just one episode on it so, if you have anything specific you want answered, let me know in the comments below.
Do I think it’s the BEST costume drama? No, it’s not in the same caliber as other classics, but I still thought it was a solid drama with high production quality.
From a viewership perspective, the drama didn’t do TOO well. Only breaching 2700 on Tencent’s popularity index. BUT you could say this show has long legs. It did reach the top of the charts for market share during its last days of airing which is normally the inverse of what happens and then it’s staying resiliently near the top of the charts now after all episodes have come out.
师兄太稳健 30 2024 8月19日 爱奇艺/优酷 敖瑞鹏、孙珍妮、艾米、敖子逸 古装
Pull Strings
This 30 episode fantasy comedy staring Ao Rui Peng and Sun Zhen Ni in the main roles.
Li Changshou (Ao Ruipeng) is a qi refiner in the primordial world. Faced with an environment that has danger at every turn, rather than charging headlong through everything, he follows the principle of “plan thoroughly before taking action.”
He makes exhaustive preparations for everything and always leaves himself “countless backup plans,” using modern ways of thinking to deal with the various problems of the primordial world.
However, as more and more people enter his life, Li Changshou—who originally only wanted to cultivate peacefully and securely—gradually gets drawn into greater conflicts. Through one unexpected incident after another, he embarks on a cultivation journey that is absurd, hot-blooded, and filled with nonstop laughs.
I started watching this drama and it was such a silly watch. A lot of elements remind me of Joy of Life to be honest but I guess that’s natural for a drama where you have modern day knowledge going into a new fantasy world. This drama did not do well at all even if it was considered really funny. iQiYi – broke only broke 6000 but didn’t breach 8500
Youku – broke 8500 and only received a 5.8 on Douban ratings.
This is more of an FYI that this exists if you want something brainless to put on in the background. The problem is it is forgettable. I started watching some episodes to fill some time and then promptly forgot about it when things got busier. This is NOT a good performance for male lead Ao Rui Peng who was in The Coroner’s Diary last year that breached 10,000 on iQiYi.
早春晴朗 24 2025 8月26日 优酷 井柏然、孙千 都市
The Early Spring
Now let’s turn to the surprise hit. This modern day romance is only 24 episodes long and stars Jing Bo Ran and Sun Qian.
This is a forbidden love story that started by respect for talent, paired together by personality/character, and sustained by equality. The extraordinarily gifted, unconventional genius Luan Nian 栾念 ft Jing Bo Ran crosses paths with Shang Zhitao ft Sun Qian, who is starting her career in Beijing .
The passionate and courageous Shang Zhitao transforms and grows step by step, gradually breaking through the hardened, worldly defenses around Luan Nian’s heart. Mutually attracted to one another, the two engage in an intense push-and-pull, repeatedly separating and getting back together.
In the midst of love, he gradually reins in his sharp edges, while she begins to stand firmly on her own. Now evenly matched, the two will write a new ending for one another.
Guys – Youku is knocking it out of the park in August. Mystic Nine dominated the charts at the beginning of the month and now The Early Spring is another surprise hit. This modern day drama breached 10,000 easily on Youku’s platform and now completely eclipses other dramas currently airing with more than 30% market share. Daily views are also quite impressive, over 40 million views per episode, which, for a 24 episode drama is a fantastic showing.
This is a great performance for male leads Jing Bo Ran and Sun Qian from just a stats perspective. For those that don’t know, Jing Bo Ran participated in a reality competition show back in 2007 and was actually part of a boy band in 2010 and that’s when he had his official launch in the industry. I feel like I’ve seen him in a bunch of variety shows over the years and heard his name but he was never in a popular drama. Well this is putting him on the map.
Female lead actress Sun Qian has made steady progress over the years and was in Love Story in the 1970s and I thought she was fine in last years 大生意人 Legend of the Magnate.
From the social media commentary I’ve seen, it does seem like most of the focus has been on Jing Bo Ran, which I guess is normal for a modern day romance. This drama does also seem to be quite popular on Netflix. If you’ve watched it, let us know in the comments below if you’ve liked it.
醒来 22 2024 8月26日 央视八套 娜扎、冯绍峰、江疏影、欧豪 谍战
The Awake
And then lastly, we have The Awake or Xing Lai. This is a 22 episode spy drama from the 1940s featuring Gu Li Na Zha, and Feng Shao Feng.
In the winter of 1941, C-party member Li Mu Sheng in HangZhou. Before his death, he entrusted dozens of photo film roles detailing the location of the Japanese military’s “sleeping plan” to his apprentice Chen Kai Lai featuring Ou Hao, in the hopes that he will travel to shanghai to hand them over. Chen Kai Lai and Dancer 金宝 ft Gu Li Na Zha travel together and unexpectedly become embroiled into faction fights, corruption cases, assassination attempts etc. Finally, Chen Kai Lai brings the intel to underground party member, Codename 苏堤. The party discovers Chen Kai Lai’s exceptional observation abilities and through his analysis, is able to thwart the Sleeping Plan.
Na Zha enters into the foray of Republic of China era spy thriller dramas. She gets the top billing despite the fact that Feng Shao Feng, Jiang Shu Ying, and Ou Hao can lead and have led dramas in their own right. Everything that I’ve seen about this drama online hasn’t been about the storyline but more on Na Zha’s costumes, makeup, and acting in the drama. She hasn’t starred in a republic of china era drama before and people were very excited to see her in costumes of that era, namely QiPaos.
So far ratings have been fine. It did break 8000 on iQiYi’s popularity index which is fair for a drama of this subject matter. TV viewership ratings broke 2% for a high of 2.7% during its run which is the highest for a spy thriller drama this year.
It seems like nothing else is really airing right now because it’s been in second place for viewership share and even per episode views for quite a few days but there is a pretty far gap between this drama and The Early Spring.