CDrama Year in Review 2024
Another year, another crop of CDramas! I had less time for dramas this year than I'd have liked and still have a few that I'm finishing up, but am close enough to done that I feel like I can commit to rankings/reactions. I'm not sure that anything truly took over my brain this year, but there were still a number of dramas that I loved, so here we go! (And if you're also a KDrama person, you can find that list for the year here)
Disclaimer: Rankings based on my personal preference, not objective quality.
14) The Substitute Princess’s Love: I didn’t really have any problems with this inoffensive historical, but also wasn’t grabbed by it, either. Dropped about halfway through.
13) Fortune Writer: I liked the premise of this one—a villain who learns she is in a novel and is determined not to be killed off by the plot—but picked it up too soon while it was airing and wasn’t caught up in it enough to keep up with it. Dropped.
12) Follow Your Heart: I so enjoy so much of this rockstar cast, which includes Luo Yun Xi, Song Yi, and Ryan Cheng, that it was especially disappointing how much the script let them down. A remake of sorts of the KDrama The Beauty Inside, this drama features an ML with face blindness and an FL who occasionally shape shifts, which was fun at first but did not hold up for as long as it needed to to maintain any sort of real tension. It had maybe a little too much of a youth/idol historical vibe for me? I kept up with it for about 30 episodes, but even the beautiful suffering of Luo Yun Xi could not keep me hooked, alas. Dropped.
11) Different Princess—Definitely a lower budget drama, but I lowkey enjoyed this transmigration drama in which the writer gets stuck in her story as (of course) a female character supposed to be immediately killed off. Instead, she keeps herself has a romance with the villain initially supposed to kill her off, which I was very here for. There are certainly higher production value dramas with the same premise that do it better, but I enjoyed this one for what it was. I also always appreciate a drama that takes seriously the difficulty of a transmigrated character who knows she can’t stay and doesn’t know what that means for a relationship that she is really, truly invested in.
10) Snowfall—I really, really liked the first 15 episodes of this drama, but then I got distracted and just…never came back? That said, vampires in Republican China are an excellent idea, and I’m glad this story exists. Would still recommend if you’re in the right mood for a very gothic tragic vampire romance with gorgeous set and costume design.
9) Amidst a Snowstorm of Love—This drama is definitely relationship propaganda (affectionate), but I enjoyed it nonetheless, especially after the turmoil of The Princess Royal when I wanted more of Zhao Jin Mai. She’s lovely here as Yin Guo, and of course, Leo Wu brings his overpowering smolder even as a contemporary billiards player rather than a historical general. Although this drama has heavy doses of Finland-travel-ad and For-the-glory-of-China sports ball and I somehow know approximately zero percent more about snooker than I did when I started, I still really liked it overall and would recommend if you’re in the mood for a slice of life comfort watch.
8) Are You the One—Look, will this drama blow your socks off? No. However, since Lost You Forever rewrote some of my brain chemistry and I am Zhang Wan Yi trash, I really enjoyed more time having him on my screen. Though it plays with domestic bliss, the setup of a general setting up a woman with amnesia as his “wife” to use as a bait for the bandit he’s trying to catch is pretty foul, actually, and the drama was at its best when it leans into how truly fucked up it is of Cui Xing Zhou to deceive Liu Mian Tang (played wonderfully by Wang Chu Ran) that way, especially when she at first trusts him completely and does her best to support her ‘husband’. I did kind of call the twist that turns it from a game of cat and mouse to a game of cat and cat fairly early, but the slow burn as they creep towards an entirely preventable tragedy was fabulous. I think it was a mistake to market this drama as a rom com, and even though it doesn’t ultimately end up a tragedy, very much appreciated the angst and situational irony that the drama put its characters through to get them to their well-earned ending.
7) Love Game in Eastern Fantasy—I like this one! Esther Lu is charming as a modern day woman transmigrated into a video game version of a novel from her favorite author that flopped for her. As these things normally go, she finds cast as a villain she found supremely annoying upon reading, and she must get grouchy SML Ziqi (Ding Yu Xi) to fall in love her, along with a few other tasks, to escape the game. It’s pretty typical xianxia cultivator vs demon stuff, but the characters are fun to spend time with, the costuming and styling is gorgeous, and the it’s generally all around delightful. Full disclosure—I have about ten episodes left, but fully intend to finish as soon as I get the chance.
6) Fangs of Fortune—Another one I quite like but just haven’t *quite* had the time to finish. A fabulous found family/polycule just dripping in angst are at the center of this beautifully shot drama, and for the first fifteen episodes or so, I was totally riveted until life got in the way and I had to pause. Still, the cinematography is so gorgeous and distinctive, the characters and their tangled relationships are fantastically developed, and the OST is just as good. I’ve heard the last few episodes are a bit messy, but I’m really looking forward to finishing this one, too, as soon as I have the time.
5) Lost You Forever Part 2—I’m not even really sure what to say about this drama. LYF Part 1 was my top drama of last year, and Part 2 was always gonna be tough for them to put together, especially under current censorship restrictions and with the episode cap they were given. I did ultimately still enjoy it overall and would still recommend it because I loved Part 1 so very much, but will always sort of yearn for the drama it could have been had they been allowed to follow the path of the novel. Xiaoyao, Cang Xuan, Xiang Liu, and Tushan Jing are still some of my favorite characters to have encountered, and I look forward to what their actors do next. (If you’re interested, I…actually co-host a podcast where we did two episodes on LYFP2 analyzing what worked and what really, really did not, which you can find here and here.)
4) Will Love in Spring—A contemporary romance with some actually very adult characters whose relationship I very much enjoyed watching develop. Much more angsty than the fluffier Amidst a Snowstorm of Love, this drama features a not-always-likeable FL and ML who went to school together, but haven’t seen each other for years before they reconnect in their hometown. The ML is a funeral makeup artist, which was a fascinating to see, and the FL, though very well put together on the surface, has her own trauma to overcome because of her prosthetic leg. I really liked the small town setting as these two damaged adults manage to make their way to each other despite both being extremely prickly when rubbed the long way, and if the end is a little bit hand-wavey in it’s neat resolution, I enjoyed spending time with these characters so much that I don’t care.
3) Blossom—I’m not *quite* done with this historical transmigration story, but I’m close enough to the end to know that I love it. I love a realistically competent—and complementary—FL and ML, and Dou Zhao knowing the general strokes of the past she’s going back to but not the finer details of crazy political plots she wasn’t involved in is a clever way to keep viewers on their toes as well. I also really love the consistent refrain of Song Mo that he knows Dou Zhao will thrive on her own but could do even better with love and support. I also have appreciated many of the ensemble characters who have turned out just a little differently in Dou Zhao’s second go round, perhaps her little sister Ming’er the most (poor Ming). I’ve also really enjoyed Li Yun Rui in a male lead role, since I quite enjoyed him as a smartass SML in Love Like the Galaxy in my early CDrama days. Definitely recommend checking out if you haven’t!
2) The Grand Princess/The Princess Royal—This drama *just* edging out Blossom because of how much I adored and latched onto Li Rong (Zhao Jin Mai) a more bitter—and honestly more damaged—transmigrated FL than Dou Zhao. In this transmigration historical or was their first life all a dream, who’s to say, Li Rong and her prince consort husband/political enemy die on the same day, Li Rong of poison and her husband of the assassination Li Rong orders because she assumes he did it (oops). Li Rong and Pei Wan Xuan (Zhang Ling He) thus both transmigrate back to their youth before their politically arranged marriage, and in a delightful turn of events, recognize the other almost immediately because of their *Go strategy* (yes they are also giant nerds, actually), and decide to team up to prevent the tragedy that had ensued in their first lives and then go their separate ways. Seeing these two choose to grow together in this life rather than apart was a real treat. Did the SML get too much screentime in the second half, and could he have benefited from a stronger actor? Absolutely yes. Did it take away from my enjoyment of Li Rong’s rather profound emotional development as she chose to trust people she didn’t before? Not at all (or at least, only a little). The combination of political maneuvering, the mystery of just where Li Rong went wrong in her first life, and sweeping second chance romance all really hit for me. I adored this drama.
1) The Legend of Shen Li—I was absolutely hooked by this xianxia whose mature leads found themselves growing inexorably closer to each other even though the literal rules built into the fabric of the universe are against them. I adored Zhao Li Ying in The Story of Ming Lan, and she didn’t disappoint as demon general Shen Li, and she had such fantastic chemistry with Lin Geng Xin as Xing Zhi, the last of the old gods. I was all in for every narrative arc of this drama, from their domestic bickering in the first arc in which Xing Zhi is a sickly mortal and Shen Li is largely stuck in the form of a phoenix aka ugly chicken, to when Xing Zhi does his very best to pretend a complete lack of interest in Shen Li even as he can’t seem to leave her alone, to Xing Zhi absolutely losing it when he thinks Shen Li has been lost and defying the universe itself to try to find her, to their determination to save the demon realm even at the cost of their own lives. And (spoiler) their comfortable domestic bliss mixed with flirty, gender bendy shenanigans in the epilogue episode was such a treat. There may have been characters and moments in other dramas that I occasionally had stronger emotional reactions to, but this one was hardly lacking in emotional punch and was also the most solid from beginning to end. I would recommend it without reservations or caveats.
Favorite Female Character: There were a lot of female characters to like this year, but the one that hit hardest for me is Li Rong (Zhao Jin Mai) in The Princess Royal. She pretty quickly recognizes that her quest for power and single-minded mission to keep her brother on the throne in her first life came at great personal cost *and* failed to make her happy. Her resulting determination to make different choices—often ones that make her more emotionally vulnerable—in her second go round at life made her really compelling. I appreciated that although Li Rong is inarguably a strategic genius, she still often completely misread of other’s people’s emotions and totally misunderstood how those emotions will affect their actions. I also loved seeing her relationship develop differently not just with her husband, but with the other female characters that she forms an alliance with early on. Li Rong Still ultimately chooses to trust those people again even after she has been so deeply betrayed in her first life by the people she loves the most in the world, which took tremendous strength.
Favorite Male Character: Look, I just loved that Xing Zhi (from The Legend of Shen Li), the last of the old gods and the most powerful being in the universe, just wanted to putter around at home and take care of his wife. He also had this undercurrent of amusement and good cheer even when he was annoying the heck out of Shen Li by needlessly following her around while also refusing to admit his true feelings even to himself that was really fun to watch. It was also nice that he was played by a fully grown man in his thirties rather than someone younger—Lin Geng Xin’s layered performance was a big part of what made this character who he was.
Favorite Secondary Female Character: Lost You Forever Part 2 had many, many weaknesses, but A’Nian’s growth from impulsive, bratty princess to an even-keeled, clever, far-seeing queen was not one of them. I’ve always been very fond of A’Nian (yes she is my icon, why do you ask), even before she really deserved it, but I was so obsessed with both her arc as an individual—she even led troops?? Successfully?? After obsessively studying The Art of War to prove that she can be *helpful*??—and in her relationships both with her sister, Xiaoyao, and with Cang Xuan. (Spoiler) A’Nian’s long awaited and longed for wedding to Cang Xuan that she realizes she no longer wants for herself but nonetheless must follow through with for the good of her country broke my heart.
Favorite Ship: This one was pretty close with the leads of The Princess Royal, but Shen Li and Xing Zhi from The Legend of Shen Li. They had such chemistry from the beginning (somehow even when she was a CGI chicken??), and I loved that they were played by/as grown ups making grown up decisions. They balanced the big, dramatic, end of the world scenes with quiet, domestic ones really well, and I loved that even though Xing Zhi was much more powerful than Shen Li (that whole last of the old gods thing), he always stood back and let her do what she was gonna do unless she asked him otherwise. (Spoilers:) The sequence that has stuck with me the most for these two is when Shen Li has been disabled and never knows which of her sense will work when she wakes up—sometime’s she’s blind, sometimes she’s deaf, sometimes she can’t move, etc.—and at one point, she wakes up with none of her senses working. After a terrifyingly indeterminate space of time in which she can’t see, hear, or move and feels trapped in her own body, she regains her senses to find herself leaning against Xing Zhi’s shoulder. When she asks if he’s always been there, he responds that he will “always be around,” and she answers, “Since you are always around, I will no longer be afraid” (giffed here by ladydynamie). For a determinedly independent and competent woman like Shen Li to be able to really lean on Xing Zhi, both literally and figuratively, really speaks to their dynamic and is part of why I loved them so much.
Favorite Secondary Ship: Shanguan Ya (Cheng Guo) and Su Rong Hua (Yi Da Qian) from The Princess Royal have got to be it. Li Rong’s total ignorance of their romantic tragedy in her first lift contrasted with their narrowly avoided tragedy in the second really hit for me. Their personalities also meshed so well, and it was delightful to see Rong Hua fall for the rule-breaking version of Shanguan Ya who disguises herself as a man to sneak out to gamble all the time, rather than her role as well-behaved daughter of a prominent family. Rong Hua falls both first and harder for his lady, which is a trope I love, and refuses to give up on her even when all hope is lost and she seems to choose another path. And not for nothing, a solid and sober Rong Hua showing up for a desperate Shanguan Ya in their first life with the line “In this life, I’m willing to descend into hell with you” is seared into my brain (giffed here by nunafilms).
Favorite Trope: Extremely competent women who do really well on their own but find that they’re even better with the right partner—Li Rong (The Princess Royal), Shen Li (The Legend of Shen Li), and Dou Zhou (Blossom) are three of the best examples.
Biggest Disappointment: I know I still ranked it rather high, but Lost You Forever 2 really was so disappointing. Giving us exactly what it would look like for Cang Xuan and Xiaoyao to tear each other to pieces after that pitch perfect buildup of Cang Xuan getting closer and closer to losing it whenever he feels like he might lose Xiaoyao….and then making it all out to be a drug dream was such a rug pull. I hate that I can’t recommend LYF now without big caveats about part two.
Drama from Another Year: I picked up Meet Yourself after Will Love in Spring when I was wanting more of Li Xian, and I was not at all disappointed. I’m on the record as loving female leads who are Flight Risks™, so of course I was all in for Xu Hong Dou deciding to quit her job and abscond to a small village in the country that she had always meant to visit. The beginning may be a bit fraught (I’m used to first episodes having a lot going on to get things set up, but oh boy was this one rough), but once things get going, I adored this quiet, warm-hearted drama. Each episode felt like spending time with friends, and I would recommend it both for the central romance and it’s fantastic ensemble cast.
Dramas I Missed: It’s been a bit of a rough year for me professionally, so there were a lot of dramas I really wish I’d had the time for but just didn’t—The Doubleis probably the biggest one here. Other dramas I’m hoping to get to eventually are Liu Yu Ning’s Eternal Brotherhood and Heroes as well as Zhang Wan Yi’s The Rise of Ning. I still kind of want to check out The Story of Pearl Girl, even though I know it was a flop for most people, but looking at my to-watch list (as well as who knows what else will come out in the meantime), I probably won’t make it to this one for a very long time, if ever.
Dramas I’m Looking Forward To: Predicting when (if ever) CDramas will actually air remains a fool’s game, but: A Dream within a Dreamhad an absolutely fire teaser, plus I adore Liu Yu Ning; and Legend of the Female General is giving Ryan Cheng his big break as the ML—I’ve been rooting for him since his mini drama days with A Familiar Stranger. I’m cautiously optimistic about both.
