Year End Holiday Watch for Chinese Drama Fans
I must admit that there are many reasons I love Chinese Drama particularly wuxia and xanxia. First, it helps me learn and sustain my Mandarin. Secondly, wuxia and xanxia chockful of old-school values such as loyalty and honorable conduct, mastery and excellence to one craft and being respectful to others. In the world that is full of so many desecration of values, at school, at workplace and even community surrounding us, it is truly refreshing to watch how the good will eventually win, which is not necessarily the case in the real world. It is to me a way to also get reminded and renew my vow to always stay true to these old school values and integrity. Lastly, given wuxia is a genre that’s there with its special effect since my childhood, wuxia and xianxia (the good ones) always have very beautiful visual that literally you can paint and become beautiful painting. For those who never try wuxia or xianxia, once in a while, try to savor one of the series, it is nearly like savoring exotic foods that you do once in a Michelin class restaurant.
Anyway, for those of you who are a fan, I will list the series that recently capture my heart by their beauties. These are all finished series so you can download these series and played them offline in the airplane (Chinese Drama have loads of episode it will suffice for 18 hours plane both ways J). Do share if you have any of yours.
The Fangs of Fortune
This story is a story of human and demon (and goddess, of course). During Zhenyuan era as Bai Ze Order went missing, Zhu Yan as the powerful of all demons in its human form of Zhao Yuan Zhou (Neo Hou) volunteers to surrender and offer to help regain peace. Joining him is Wen Xiao (Chen Du Ling), later on becoming a Goddess and her best friend and consul of the bureau, Zhuo Yi Chen (Tian Jia Rui) as well as archer Pei Si Jing (Cheng Xiao) and very young doctor Bai Jiu (Lester Lin), later on they are also joined by young mountain God Ying Lei (Xu Zhen Xuan) who loves to cook. As they progress closer to bringing peace, the cost is getting higher and the sacrifice getting more painful.
This is a xianxia with such a lovely OST and sound effects, very strong visual effect that is tightly bound to the story narratives, all of the actors and actresses are visual feast, and the entire setting and props are developed elaborately. It is indeed expected as the newest creation from Guo Jingming who is known to deliver stylish and aesthetic series. Even the costumes some of them with bells, a feast in its own. As with many of xianxia, the story line is presented in such a way that it is difficult to act them out believably so it is a hard going in the first place, but I think the writing is reasonably strong for all the actors to act it on. There are quite a few comedic moments particularly with Bai Jiu, Ying Lei and Zhao Yuan Zhou, which were carried out well, these three have good comedic timing, given the right scripts, they will continue from strength to strength. Bai Jiu especially has surprisingly strong presence albeit in early phase of his career. The actresses who play Wen Xiao and Pei Si Jing stay true to their characters, it is not a lot of big space to develop but they both are able to carry the role well. Bromance between Zhao Yuan Zhou and Zhuo Yi Chen are entertaining to watch particularly their fighting scenes.
This series has engaging fighting scenes, frame-by-frame beautiful scenes, comedic moments and heartfelt scenes, subdued and undercurrent of romance actually help push the messages on the values stronger particularly on family values. It is one of the series that is underrated snowed with a lot of negative review but actually a visual feast filled with comedic scenes and beautiful fighting scenes. This is a traditional xianxia made good.
Absolutely entertaining and a must see!
The Double
To put it simply, a wuxia that made it to Netflix, rarely not a great one. Netflix rarely want to experiment with genre such as this when there are so many choices out there. This drama adopted a favorite theme of rebirth although not in the traditional sense that usually adopted in Chinese drama. Xue Fang Fei (Wu Jin Yan) lost everything due to her husband and her husband family. She was essentially killed by her husband and later on was saved by Jiang Li and later on taking Jiang Li identity (as Jiang Li was killed by the head of nunnery where they both stayed) as she returned to the capital city. With the help of Duke Xiao Heng (Wang Xing Yue) who she met early in her journey, she persisted in her cause to clear her father’s name and in the process protect her people and find love.
This drama has no place to hide, no mythical storyline, visual effect or glorious lighting. This will require Wu Jin Yan to act well in the series as main lead who played in the beginning softer character and then hardened by extremely difficult and punishing circumstances, if she doesn’t act well, the series will collapse. Even if Wang Xing Yue acting well, it will not help. It is like a tango where one partner is not dancing well. It is such a risky move for Wu Jin Yan as the entire series is betting on her acting strength, not only chemistry with Wu Jin Yan but also to carry a story of strong, powerful and intelligence ancient woman. Thankfully Wu Jin Yan did not disappoint in this drama and is able to carry through the drama. Two other actors are critical for this series to be brought alive successfully, the crazy Princess Wanning (Li Meng) and the weak ex-husband Shen Yu Rong (played by Liang Yong Qi). This is probably one of the rare series, Chinese Drama or otherwise, where there are two equally powerful antagonistic roles that must also played well in dramatic sense to make the other side of the story explosively powerful. These four actors and actresses did not disappoint.
Just like high quality Chinese ancient drama, the wardrobe is fantastic, and this series played a bit more with costume particularly for Prince Wan Ning to highlight her power through brighter colors and resplendent accessories. It plays more with pearl accessories in the face which I thought very pretty. The costume director for this series is Lin An Qi who has done The Princess Royal and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, which explains the splendor of the costume in this drama. The director of the series also gives us enjoyable viewing with a play between wide and close-up angle as well as fast and slow pace of camera and video. It is expected as the latest product of Bai Yun Mau who did Royal Feast and Court Lady.
This is probably one of the best ancient Chinese dramas in 2024. Definitely worth watching during your holiday and may help your 2025 commitment to be a stronger and kinder individual!
The Princess Royal
I like Zhang Ling He, so this is my starting, nothing objective or serious. I enjoyed his performance in Story of Kunming Palace and Love’s Rebellion. I am not keen to the reincarnation / rebirth theme adopted in this drama (which by the way is a one of favorite theme adopted in Chinese drama, similar with marriage contract in K-drama, this fixation is very interesting to deep dive as it correlates with somehow social condition in both countries at some point in time, but that’s a deeper discussion) but I watch the trailer and see Zhang Ling He played quite a different character, not exactly antagonistic but in the beginning is definitely cunning and with can sacrifice others with no qualm.
The story is about Li Rong ( Zhao Jin Mai) and Pei Wen Xuan (Zhang Ling He) who are in convenience marriage started when they were 18th year old. Pei Wen Xuan needs the marriage to help him establish power in the imperial court, Li Rong needs the marriage to quell his father suspicion of her. They stayed together only for political reason until someone drive wedge on to them and leading to their demise. They were then given a second chance by the heaven and experienced rebirth in their 18th year old body (Li Rong) and 20th years old body (Pei Wen Xuan) and learning from their lesson, they promised each other this time they will try to survive. They still have to get married but this time with divorce in mind. This time around they become more observant and vigilant and become aware that there are more layers to peel to ensure their safety. There is another character, Su Rong Qing (Chen He Yi) that vie for Li Rong attention in both life times that makes it funny and fun as the competition heated up between Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing. In addition to this love triangle, there are two more characters who are supporting but a lovely love story on its own, Su Rong Hua (Yi Da Qian), Su Rong Qing’s playboy brother and Shangguan Ya (Cheng Guo) who in previous life Li Chuan’s wife and in this life step forward courageously to be with Su Rong Hua, her true love. I love this drama for the fact it fills with very powerful woman, being a feminist and surrounded by a feminist family, I have soft spot for movies / series with strong-character female roles, The Royal Family is included. There is softer under current where Pei Wen Xuan and Su Rong Qing in all sense and purposes are the concubines vying for Li Rong attention.
Albeit of different nature from both Fangs of Fortune and the Double, the costume in The Princess Royal is equally beautiful, it uses different texture to outline the strength of the female characters in the series. It has strongest texture probably velvety like to strengthen the powerful vibe of the female characters.
This series is brought alive by both chemistry of Zhang Ling He and Zhao Jin Mai who have quite fair bit of skin ship but also strength of emotion performance by Zhang Ling He, one can almost feel the jealousy coming out of his pores to Chen He Yi who are cloyingly sweet (for many reasons, none of them are good). This is a series for you who want a dizzyingly political drama that many people comment as too vertiginously complex. For sure you won’t feel the length of your holiday trip as you are engrossed in the drama.
Absorbingly entertaining and absolutely fun to watch!
Love Game in Eastern Fantasy
This is a series the theme is not close to my heart, perhaps it is an age thing. The word “love game” is sufficient to stop me from pursuing any further. However, over time this series came across my timeline in Instagram with news that it tops Douban, Viki and even IMDb in its rating. Of course, later on I learned it is headline by Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi, both are experience actors and with keen sense of comedic timing. Then I decide to journey into this series and came out feeling happy that I took a chance to watch. It is indeed interesting and entertaining watch.
The story line started with typical storyline of this genre, which is plenty in Chinese OTT such as WeTV or Iqiyi among others. The story revolves around Ling Miaomiao who is an ordinary white collar workier who for obscure reason fell into fictional world of her favorite fantasy book where human, monsters and monster hunters mixed interestingly. As this is the world of game (as noted by the title), Ling Miaomiao have to complete missions, winning love from Mu Sheng and defeating the ultimate villain. In the business world, there is a saying that better to have mediocre strategy but executed well compared to the reverse. This apply to this series. Despite its cheesy ludicrous storyline (at least for a gen X like me), it is executed so excellently that even I can thoroughly enjoy the series. Not only the special effect is executed very finely (to me Fangs of Fortune is a lot memorable but still this is very nicely executed too), the old-school morale is communicated in such relevant to youngsters and yet resonate well with me and the comedy is truly extraordinarily funny. Ding Yuxi and Esther Yu chemistry is explosive in this series, and each deliver comedic timing superbly. Being feminist, I tend to dislike character Esther Yu portrayed in the past but this time, her acting has truly put her as one of excellent comedy actress in her generation. This time around, her acting that typically sweet and cute morph itu often exasperated and hard thinking heroine, a funny heroine. Ding Yuxi, who has always had fine comedic timing has delivered his part superbly, both on the melodrama whenever he is lost in his anger and at the same time in pain as he transformed into demon or when he met and lost her mother as well funny and touching moments with Ling Miaomiao. There are other fine supporting casts and their story line such as Liu Fu Yi (Yang Shi ze) and Mu Yao, with Mu Sheng becoming a trio of demon hunter. Their storyline is equally engaging and later on converge as an excellent final battle.
The special effect in this series is very finely executed especially on the fighting when the pagoda is being unfold scenes as well with many of the demons. It is not as dramatic as in Fangs of Fortune but still aesthetically very pleasing and overall integrated well with the story. By far for similar genre, this is one of the best executed series. Costume and setting are all fantastic particularly with Esther Yu who carries whimsical costume really well. Ding Yuxi rocks the black on black on white hair costume.
This is a drama for the young or like me, still young at heart, who loves a simple story brought to live in a fabulous way. This is a story that can be watched by wide audience, all of the family will enjoy watching this together.
Hopefully you will enjoy my recommendation. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday from all of us in Shallow Obsesssion !
