The Allure of C-dramas & Personal Favourites

I can't believe that it took me such a long time to understand the allure of C-dramas despite my ancestry. Perhaps it's the annoying dubbed voice of the actors or the horrible CGI or possibly it can be due to the overflowing of K-dramas that we don't have the need to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, I am glad that I've been able to find some gems in the C-dramas world that surprisingly can resonate with my heart well and I will definitely be looking forward to more upcoming awesome c-dramas!

 Firstly, I would like to say the amount of crappy C-dramas are so abundant that sometimes the good ones are buried deep within. Unlike Korean dramas who are mostly consistent in the quality of their dramas, I find that this is not the case with Chinese dramas. There are some awful Chinese dramas that make me feel like I should go to the filming industry and see how can people think of making such horrendous dramas. BUT after watching so many Korean dramas & a handful of Taiwanese dramas in my life, I feel like Chinese dramas are insanely exceptional in so many ways. I have always known how the mainland Chinese people are great in making historical movies such as Red Cliff which I think is just a masterpiece. I have also fallen in love with Painted heart 1 & 2, Hua Mulan which starred Vicki Zhao and Chen Kun. They blew my mind away with those movies but I didn't think that Chinese can also produce such good dramas too. Anyways, just watching from some notable Chinese movies such as the IP man series, Confucius, A wedding invitation, and others, I find that Chinese are better in creating an impactful box office movies. They are able to weave in so much emotion and the plot lines are executed in such a way that even after three hours of watching we feel like the time has gone by so fast. BUT BOY I WAS WRONG. Once there is a good Chinese dramas(mostly historical though), it will blew your minds off and after watching them you feel that C-dramas have a certain kind of Chinese sentiment that can't be replicated. 

If there's one thing that the Chinese does best is creating a tragic love story in the most poignant and exquisite way. Some of the best Chinese dramas so far seems like a poem being transformed into a drama in the most grandiose and artistic ways. I don't know if it's just me but I always feel like Chinese do "melancholy" so much better than Koreans in terms of their dramas & movies. If there's a sad Korean dramas, Chinese can present the same drama but just 10x sadder. Oh and another thing is that the Chinese are so lucky to have such amazing writers because I realised that the greatest c-dramas are mostly some sort of an adaptation from a book or some other form of writings. 

Now let's get down to business and tell you some of my favourite C-dramas

1. Bu Bu Jing Xin/Scarlet Heart : A drama that has everything that you need & desire in a drama: it's like yin and yang, there's a balance in this drama that I can't find in all other dramas. It's a drama that can make you insane and make you want to learn Chinese just for the sake of wanting to read the book. I dare say that it's my favourite drama in the drama world, even I can't seem to find any K-dramas that can be as memorable as this drama ( I watched Empress Ki & Queen Seon Duk, i love them but if this drama is a 10 then they would be 8-9). This drama is like the Romeo and Juliet of China but better and a thought provoking fairytale that will leave you in a daze.

As nothing is not perfect in this world, this drama is not perfect either but it has the ability to simply makes the viewers go nuts for a few weeks/months after watching it. It's a drama that after watching it you feel so exhausted and you just have to lie down for awhile to ponder upon life. It's a drama that I re-watched 3 times back to back and you know what, this drama is ruining my usual preference of dramas that usually includes no bald guys because i like cute boys & hairs. yep. I really don't want to over exaggerate but how the hell can a drama be this good and how the hell can i find a drama this good. It's a drama that makes me do unusual things like for example: 

• Read other people's comments & discussions in SPCnet just because I couldn't let go of the characters. However, i became more attached and love the drama even more after reading the forum. 
• The characters are so complex that I have to read characters analysis in other people's blogs and forums. (like what the hell am i doing, it's like i'm back in school and had to do an analysis of this drama or something)
• You can't help but compare all dramas with this drama and other dramas just seem to be bland. (I feel like I'm caught cheating on my beloved k-dramas but this drama is just making me go cuckoo from my usual self) I hate how I can't seem to watch any other dramas the same way after I watch this and I became a much more cynical person who can't seem to watch anymore cliche dramas.
• I thought I was the only crazy one but I'm glad that I found so many people being attached with this drama & suffer from a withdrawal just like me. Just proves the fact that misery loves company & how impactful this drama truly is.

Anyways, I will dedicate another long post just for this drama because I want to do it justice and it's impossible to explain it in a few sentences. However, if you want to watch this drama I recommend you to not even try to read the reviews/recaps because I think it's better to just watch it without any expectation and let yourself be gradually immersed in the story.

2. Romance in the Rain : I'm simply can't believe how this drama is produced in 2001 and I will still re-watch it now, 14 years later. This drama is almost the same age as me and yet sometimes after watching some crappy dramas, I would go back to this and find myself smiling again. This drama is etched in my heart forever and I thought I wouldn't come across another C-drama as good as this but after I watch BBJX my hope for c-dramas have finally revive. Anyways, this is a great love story that also revolves around the theme of family, war, brotherhood, and friendship. Like any great drama should be, this has complex characters that pulls you right in and I especially love the female lead which is acted by Vicki Zhao. I might be a bit bias here but i just love vicki zhao, i love her feistiness and her vulnerability in romance in the rain especially when she sings <3 by the way My mom thinks i'm insane for liking this so much but i just can't help it... when other kids are watching Cinderellas and Spongebobs, this is what i watch during my childhood days, no wonder i'm bitter all the time.

3. My Sunshine: Silent Separation : Finally here's a drama that's more lighthearted than the dramas mention above. I'm amaze of how china is able to produce a great modern drama & a love story that's somehow supposed to be typical but it is somehow not (guess I underestimated them too much). It's a bit draggy but you can skip unimportant parts and just focus on the relationship of the female & male lead. I don't know something about this drama especially the first half is addicting in a quiet way just what the title "silent separation" suggested. I have to admit, the female lead is a bit annoying but somehow with this drama I'm able to get over it. The best part about this drama is also how their love story just lingers on you and there's just the right amount of sadness in the drama to fully portray the characters emotions. 

4. Da Mo Yao/ Sound Of the Desert: First of all, I watched this before BBJX, because I love the female lead in this series although I love her character in BBJX more. Secondly, I skip about 10 episodes of this drama and watch only the few minutes of the final episode to prevent myself from suffering. I got so sad after this drama ended just because of one male lead in the drama and how his character is one of the most pitiful character in the whole dramaland. Not to mention he's one of the hottest actor in China so how the hell am i supposed to watch how he suffers the whole time. furthermore, he's a great actor and his eyes are just gazing with pain all throughout this drama. I just can't..... 

However, the reason why I got so upset is because I really love the first half of this drama and because I love it so much I just want to hold the good memories I have of it. With that being said, so many people love this drama if you love the other guy of course so I would still recommend it especially if you love BBJX because they both have the same writer. The cinematography is great and just like bbjx it kinda feels like you are watching a poignant drama. I would say that perhaps one day when I come to full acceptance of the unfairness of life, I would watch this drama again!

5. The Legend of Zhen Huan: This drama makes me look beyond my superficial and shallow self in a way that is surprising even for myself. If Bu Bu Jing Xin is great because there's less girls so less annoying cat fight and petty scheming, this might be the opposite of it. More importantly, this drama consisted of 76 looonngg episodes and 76 episodes with seeing only tiny bits of handsome males are torturous. However, this drama is so darn epic, intelligent, well executed, and you can see how they really planned this drama flawlessly. It makes me feel somehow intelligent myself for being able to endure and finish the drama. This drama is undoubtedly for a more mature audience that loves to see great character development & intelligent females that use their brains to scheme against each other. There are no true villain in this drama as well which makes it seem more real since no one is born evil. After watching two Qing Dramas, I have concluded that the nature of forbidden palace is the root of all evil, be cruel or be killed. They can't fully be blame for their actions because they have reasons to do it & can i just emphasise one more time of how humane this characters are. In addition to that, i think one important aspect that helps me endure some of the draggy parts are the costumes. The sets as well as the costumes and not the boys are the main eye candy of this drama it seems. In spite of all that, i don't think I will ever re-watch this drama, maybe I would re-watch some of the scenes near the end because the female lead is too impressive. IF you are not shallow like me, IF you doesn't yearn for a drama that has a great love story, IF you would like to see the game of thrones but female version of china I would recommend this and this might be your favourite drama! I think I'm going to do another blog post to show the grandiose sets & costumes for this drama because it's on a much higher level than bbjx. 

6. The Lady and The Liar: Okay. let's go back to being shallow now and focus on Hawick Lau. This is my first time watching his drama and i was totally being swept away by him. However, this drama is a very addicting hot mess that despite my frustrations over the plot & the typical annoying, naive, angelic female lead, I would still watch it. The first 15 episodes are greeaattt and you can just skip over the annoying episodes and resume watching until it is less annoying. Is it a good drama overall? uhmmm I would say it is before the writer went all crazy. Will I watch it without Hawick Lau or the female lead being at least gorgeous? probably not. The main reason why this drama is so great is how Hawick Lau portrays his character and i just love their relationship at the beginning. Although the plot line is messy, it is still unpredictable and not that cliche which i totally dig. I'm also drawn in by the 1930s set, their costumes, cinematography, and the ost which combine together still makes it a great drama to watch. Anywayss, this is a drama that I can't exactly pinpoint why I am actually obsessed with it despite its glaring faults and moments where you sometimes want to bang your head for the main female lead's stupidity but give it a try at leeast! If you can't stand the female character like me, I advise you to take a look at this blog http://deerdrama.com/ because her recaps of this drama are so hilarious so you don't have to waste time watching unimportant scenes.

That is all for now since I haven't watch Lan Ling Wang and people say it is really good too so I'm currently forcing myself to endure the first few episodes. Anticipate for more posts about c-dramas though because I would like to share my thoughts/rants about the hyped up cruel romance and the empress of china which I am currently halfway through and thinking whether I should drop it or not.