BenjaminWolf

@kdramaspace +@userdramas 2025 YEAR IN REVIEW | Under the Mistletoe | best kiss scene(s), best chemistry, best couple(s) of 2025

Sorry for taking so long to get to this ask! I still feel like a CDrama beginner myself in a lot of ways, and I really wanted to do this recommendation list justice. Finally, though, here it is: 

CDramas for Beginners

Some caveats—this list is very shaped by my taste. There are a lot more really good CDramas that may very well be good for beginners in genres that I don’t watch! For instance, I don’t watch a ton of contemporary dramas and the ones I do generally tend to be filled with warm fuzzies, so if you want something both modern and gritty, I’m not your girl. Likewise, I prefer my historicals to have romance as the main focus or at least *a* focus, so your more prestige historicals are also not on this list.

Most importantly, this is not a list of the Best CDramas Ever—rather, it’s a list to help you get started if you’re interested in this whole CDrama thing but don’t know where to start. With that in mind, I’ve tried to pick some of the more beginner friendly dramas that mostly hang together from beginning to end and give you a taste of what some of the major genres of CDrama can offer. (And as  quick note-- I’ve tried to note where each of these is available for streaming in the US as of this writing, but you can always check see where to watch each show on the website My Drama List.)

First up, fantasy:

Love Between Fairy and Devil: No list of CDrama recs would be complete without a xianxia (i.e. cultivation fantasy), and this one is solid from beginning to end. Coming in at 36 episodes, it’s also not so long as to be completely overwhelming (a la Love and Redemption, which I do also recommend but which clocks in at 59 episodes). This high fantasy romance between the Orchid, a young fairy who is but a grass, and Dongfeng Qing Ceng, legendary genocidal leader of the Moon Tribe whom Orchid accidentally releases from his 35000 year imprisonment, starts out with jokes and then gets real real quick. Due to magical hand waviness, there’s also some body swapping between Orchid and DFQC that results in some delightful shenanigans and top tier acting from both of actors. I recommend giving this one 8 episodes to see if it hooks you—that’s when things really pick up!  (Available on Netflix, Viki, and iQiYi)

2. The next CDrama I’ll recommend is The Legend of Shen Li. This one follows the forbidden romance between Shen Li, a powerful (female) general, and Xing Zhi, the last of the old gods. While it has the majority of the hallmarks of a good xianxia, including ongoing conflict between demons and immortals and a (mostly comedic) stint in the mortal realm, what sets this one apart for me is how grown up the main romance feels. Because both main characters have responsibilities to their people and the world that they’re not willing to abandon, and because they’re both played by actors in their thirties, their performances feel a little extra grounded, and it gives the main romance more weight. As a bonus, there’s also a delightful demon character who has some light gender fuckery (amazing what genre lets you get away with) that I very much enjoyed. (Available on Viki)

3. Transmigration fantasy dramas (aka isekai aka real-life person gets sucked into the novel/comic/show they’re either reading, watching, or writing) are a good place to start for learning the rules of a genre, and the one I’ll recommend here is When Destiny Brings the Demon. One of the best parts of this drama is that our real world FL is extremely genre savvy, so when she gets sucked into this high fantasy story, she both (a) wants to treat it like a vacation from her shitty office job and (b) is extremely funny in how she navigates her relationship with the somewhat terrifying, mildly  genocidal, and deeply traumatized five hundred year old Grandmaster Sima Jiao. Another benefit of this drama is that it gives you taste of just how dreadful the behavior of the supposedly Good™  Cultivator sects can be in their pursuit of immortality and power by showing us just how poorly they’ve treated Sima Jiao over the years. Full disclosure, I haven’t *quite* finished this one (I’m a few episodes short because I got distracted), but from everything I’ve heard/read, this one wraps up pretty well and will serve as a good intro to the transmigration genre—and there’s plenty more where that came from if it works for you! (Available on Viki and Youku)

4. If you’re here because you already watched LBFAD and wanted more from where that came from, can I interest you in Till the End of the Moon, LBFAD’s angry cousin? Look, I don’t recommend it as your very first cultivation fantasy, but if you’ve gotten your feet wet and are ready for more, the enemies to lovers romance of Li Susu and Tantai Jin may just be for you!  In the set up for this drama, Li Susu finds herself at the end of the world as the Devil God kills basically all of her family and friends in front of her and sets the apocalypse in motion. Through a Series of Events, Li Susu manages to go back in time 500 years before the Devil God’s rise to power in order to stop him—which is where she meets Tantai Jin, long before his aforementioned rise. This one is a bit more raggedy in its storytelling than LBFAD, especially at the end, but if it gets its hooks in you, you’ll be so in it that you likely won’t care! (Available on Viki and Youku)

^^bonus gif of Li Susu and my favorite fox demon girlie, Pian Ran

Moving on to historicals (a term I’m using very loosely), at which CDramas inarguably excel: 

5. The first historical I’m going to recommend here is Perfect Match, which follows a mother and her five daughters as she tries to save the marriage of the one daughter and arrange the marriages of the remaining four. If that sounds Pride and Prejudice-esque to you, it kind of is, and that’s exactly why I’m recommending it! This drama has a separate narrative arc for each sister’s match, and while it’s likely that each one will land for you a little differently, if you don’t like one sister, you just need to hold on for a few episodes until we get to the next one! Since each narrative also makes use of different tropes and archetypes of the CDrama historical romance, this drama also functions as a good primer for the genre. I also adore the scheming of the sisters as they work together to save their family from various trials and tribulations—and each other’s relationships. As a bonus, wedding episodes are often my favorite of any CDrama historical, and this drama gives them to you in spades. (Available on Netflix)

^^one of my fave couples of the drama

6. So, if you’re into historicals, I’m going to assume that you have the patience for a higher episode count, which means I can recommend Love Like the Galaxy! This drama has a little bit of everything—sweeping romance, a Cinderella story, murder mystery, and, of course, epic revenge. Most importantly, it has Shaosheng (aka Niao Niao) as an extremely sharp female lead and Ling Buyi, a taciturn, deadly young general who is entirely swept away by Niao Niao from the moment he sees her stick her hand out of the carriage to turn in her shitty uncle to law enforcement. This drama absolutely turns on the slow burn relationship between Niao Niao, who never plays by the rules, and Ling Buyi who may *seem* to play by the rules but definitely has some schemes of his own. The ensemble cast on this one is also a good time, including Niao Niao’s family, especially her brothers; the emperor, his two consorts, and their many children; and various other members of the royal court. (PS—Anyone who tells you Ling Buyi is a green flag is lying, but we love him for his red flag behaviors so it’s fine) (PPS—I went on the podcast Afternoona Delight to do a deep dive this one and it has a spoiler free section, so feel free to check it out if you want more setup to decide if you want to commit: https://open.spotify.com/episode/46vfl6rHvpVphKTzwy1Xa4?si=4768c6cb510d4c1f) (PPPS—If you like Love Like the Galaxy and want an even longer but arguably even more rewarding historical romance to dive into, might I interest you in The Story of Ming Lan?) (Available on Viki)

7. Another necessity for a CDramas for beginners list is a historical transmigration story, and after some deliberation, the one I decided to include here is Story of Kunning Palace. While there are several flavors of transmigration (I recommended a fantasy transmigration above), in this one, our female lead dies tragically after her rise to empress and wakes up as a teenager again with the knowledge of her past life. (Because transmigration stories have been banned for the last little while, there’s a framing device the drama uses where it’s a novel that the author wants to rewrite because she doesn’t like how her FL ended up, but we all collectively know to just sort of ignore that bit because it exists solely to get past the censors—something to get used to if you want to keep watching CDramas!). Determined to right of the wrongs of her past life but also still kind of a bitch (complimentary), our female lead somehow has chemistry with Every Single Person she comes across, including the crown princess (cue queer subtext here). She also learns that while some things can be changed, other things are just fate, and that balance is a big part of what gives this drama so much of its momentum.  (Available on iQiYi and Amazon Prime, supposedly—I’m pretty sure I watched in on Viki when it aired) (PS—If you find that you like this kind of transmigration narrative, I also recommend The Princess Royal/The Grand Princess as a follow up—while the second male lead in this one is a bit of a wet blanket and gets too much screan time, the charm of this one is that the female lead and male lead *both* wake up with memories of their past married life where they each think the other assassinated them, so it’s also something of a second chance romance.)

8. If you’re here for wuxia (martial arts and chivalry and low fantasy and other stuff) then I’m probably not your girl, but the closest thing I can give you is A Journey to Love, which I absolutely adored. This drama follows a female assassin as she teams up, marginally against her will, with a rival sect of assassins/spies to rescue their emperor from her home kingdom. The mission is to escort a princess who has mostly been cast aside, now in disguise as a prince, on her mission to save said emperor (who is kind of a moron for getting kidnapped in the first place) and avert a big war. To be honest, the finer details of the political machinations here are hazy in my memory, but that’s because the real draw of this genre is the excellent found family vibes of the Team™ as they embark on this probable suicide mission for the good of king and country and all that. I also adore the romance between our female assassin and the head spy/assassin guy from the other sect (apologies for kind of butchering this description, I told you I’m not a wuxia girl!). Anyway, if you love a good ensemble cast, top tier romance between two grown adults, some stellar battle choreography, and some light gender fuckery, then this drama is for you! (Available on iQiYi and supposedly Amazon Prime—I did not know Amazon was getting into the CDrama distribution game and tbh I would like them to stop before they ruin things for me even more than Disney+ has)

Now, while CDramas have the corner on the market when it comes to historicals and fantasy, they’ve also had some really solid contemporaries lately, a few of which have already made the jump to Western audiences, so here’s where I’d recommend starting with those:

9. First up for contemporaries is one that already crossed over to Western audiences quite a bit, and that is Hidden Love (the 2023 drama, not whatever else pops up when you search that title). This lovely romance follows Sang Zhi from middle school to college as she crushes hard on her older brother’s bestie, Duan Jia Xu. It’s a sweet and pretty straightforward romance and really shows some of the best parts of young love. They’re pretty careful not to have Duan Jia Xu cross any lines (or even come close to them) while Sang Zhi has an unrequited crush while she’s way too young for him, and it’s rather lovely to see when he starts to see her as a real adult woman once she gets to college. That said, if age gap romances give you the ick, maybe give this one a skip. (On Netflix)

10. Another recent contemporary romance that I found delightful is Love Between Lines. In this super fun set up, female lead Hu Xiu first meets the male lead Xiao Zhi Yu when playing a real life murder mystery game set in 1920’s Republican China. When he betrays her (as his character!), she naturally decides she needs revenge! Then, the two start to cross paths in real life in fun and interesting ways that I won’t spoil here—though I will say that one of the highlights is just how sharp the two of them are both in the game and in real life. Be warned that there’s a fair bit of focus on the FL’s dream of becoming an architect more than the mystery game, but it’s handled in a way that I still found extremely watchable because Hui Xiu is such a fun character. (Available on iQiYi and Viki)

11. If you’re in the mood for some slow, atmospheric storytelling and a lovely ensemble cast, then I also recommend Meet Yourself! This contemporary is in the genre of City Girl Goes to Countryside Small Town and Falls in Love (which I’m sure you’re familiar with), but what really makes this one so lovely is just how much texture and specificity there is in the rural village that our female lead Xu Hong Dou finds herself in. You’ll want to brace yourself for the events of the first episode that lead our high achieving female lead to quit her successful career and rent a room for three months at a long term stay in this rural village, but everything from there is lovely and heartwarming and just such a balm for the spirit to watch. The undercurrent of darkness that Hong Dou has because of the loss she has suffered to open the drama also works really effectively to give the rest of the drama weight—while Hong Dou is pretty mild mannered a lot of the time and always happy to help, you never quite forget that she’s *this* close to falling off the edge. I also love the romance Hong Dou has with the equally capable male lead she finds in this rural village trying to revitalize the local economy so families don’t have to keep splitting up by sending the parents to the city to make enough money to support the children that they leave behind with their grandparents. I highly recommend this one particularly if life feels like a little too much right now and you could use a low stress drama with characters that are so, so lovely to spend time with. (Available on Viki and Netflix)

^^the vibes really are immaculate

^^and a bonus gif because of how much I love this drama and this couple <3

12. I also appreciate the contemporary CDramas that deal with some of the thornier parts of life, so the last recommendation I’ll leave you with is Will Love in Spring, which I’m going to affectionately describe as a Romance for Grown Ups. This one is in the genre of Woman Returns to Small Home Town From the Big City and Finds Love, but she’s spiky enough personality wise that she definitely has some edge to her. She also lost one of her legs in a car accident as a kid, and the drama deals with disability and trauma in ways that I found compelling—particulalry since she’s now a medical device salesperson. The male lead is a funeral make up artist, which is honestly a fascinating career for a male lead to have, and it leads the drama to deal death and the trappings that surround it in really compelling ways. Like Meet Yourself, this drama is also concerned with what happens to small towns when their young people have all gone to the big city—what happens to everyone left behind? (Available on Viki)