what: modern vertical short cdrama // completed // 79 eps, roughly 2-3 mins each
where: wetv mobile app (this is not eng subbed sorry buddies 🥺)
why: THE CHEMISTRY!!! my god these two really gave it their all, and i was yelling and kicking my feet all through 79 eps ngl. very fast-paced because it's a short drama so it keeps you hooked and entertained the entire time. watch if you're into 双向治愈, or uhhh 闷骚男主 types
trigger warnings: major mentions and depictions of suicide attempts, there is literally no way to avoid this in this drama because its central plot revolves trauma and healing from trauma, so if this content is not for you, this show is not for you.
my girl yan rui is a surgeon with +300% ptsd and -5000% will to live. she quits her job to go to the countryside and moves into a bed and breakfast by the mountainside owned by my boy duan bo'an who is also the captain of the mountain rangers.
IMMEDIATELY they are sizzling ngl. yan rui is out here trying her best to get into rile duan bo'an up and get in his pants - for her, it's a bit of "eh, one more round of fun before i die". for duan bo'an, it starts out "don't fucking die here, i want to continue running this place" to "i cannot lose you to the ghosts of your past". the whole time i am eating this up with a spoon.
yan rui is the type that uses humour and her cavalier nature to deflect from talking about things that upset her, and the easiest way to do that is to tease duan bo'an A LOT. duan bo'an, on his part, is secretly goddamn 闷骚 and pretends not to be interested in her, but in actuality is having sexy dreams about her, tying her hands up with his goddamn belt, and also the person who initiated the first kiss and then runs away because he freaked out 🤷♀️
over the next few weeks, they both grow on each other. he lets her tag on to his mountain rescue trips and gives her the opportunity to use her skills to help people, takes her to watch the sunrise to show her there is so much beauty around them, tries his best to show her that there are so many things out here worth living for (himself included, he doesn't really say, but we all know it's implied). 🥹 she starts to care for him, and decides huh, dying doesn't really feel so easy anymore when she has someone who will cry over her if she dies.
across the episodes, a countdown timer ticks down - as the audience, you can sort of tell it's counting down to when she has decided she will die, so it does get a bit ominous and the whole vibe of the show is quite layered because of that instead of just alternating between incredibly spicy at times and sweet and healing at others. 🥹
the storyline is fairly simple, there are no big plot twists (there is a Big Bad that this summary doesn't cover, and duan bo'an has his own Traumas as well that gets resolved in the end also), but everything was pretty well-executed and the quality of this drama was actually so good for a short drama!
the actor who plays duan bo'an, liu xiaoxu, was incredible in this. i was genuinely not expecting this level of acting from a short drama but goddamn, i really felt him. i'd never really been into vertical dramas before, but i'm also going to look up everything he's been in and watch them all, so i guess my stance on that will change wildly 😅
all in all, 11/10 would rec, i remembered belatedly this was scheduled to air last night, and ended up staying till 1am just to finish it. i bought the vip pass just because i couldn't bear the lag of 8 second ads. THAT'S how much i enjoyed this. 真的很值得看，力推！
hello, what is this show you keep reblogging about and is it worth watching? 0.0.
chasing jade aka pursuit of jade aka 逐玉 zhu yu. the official title is pursuit of jade but i have been tagging this as chasing jade for so long (i have been waiting for this show to air for what feels like 83 years ngl) that i am just going to keep doing that.
what: period cdrama // currently airing // we’re on 11 out of 40 eps, roughly 40 mins each
where: iqiyi // wetv // netflix (standard disclaimer that i don’t watch with subs so i don’t speak to the quality of eng subs)
why: excellent, excellent fake married to lovers trope. beautifully shot (this is the same director from blossom), the cast is gorgeous, the humour in this is on point. i'm only 7 eps in and i am enjoying myself so much 😭
this is fan changyu, and her husband mrs fan changyu.
our girl changyu has just recently lost her parents, and is stuck having to make ends meet to bring up her little sister (super cute, 10/10 would do anything for her) - she continues the family business, and becomes a butcher.
while dealing with the bs in her life (which includes inter alia being said to have jinxed her family, dealing with her good-for-nothing ex-fiance and his good-for-nothing mother, having to earn a proper living, feeding the beautiful stray she brought back), fan changyu encounters the next problem:
by law, if there is no male heir in the immediate family, the closest male relative (her gambler uncle) gets to inherit her house - basically a fee tail male sort of rule of inheritance.
enter mrs fan changyu. this is yan zheng aka xie zheng aka marquis of wu'an. goddamn he really does have a nice face
fan changyu rescued him when he was wounded. she housed, nursed and protected him from the authorities - not so that he would marry her, just because she's a kind person. yan zheng learns of her inheritance problem and tells her he'll marry into her family!!
i'm on ep 7 atm because work just got crazy and i am stuck going through discovery and inspection instead of bingeing cdramas, so that's more or less where i am with the plot - i haven't read the source novel so idk what really happens next, i will fix this rec post when i have more of a clue 🥹
some prelim thoughts:
tian xiwei is adorable in this as she is in everything else she is in, i love her and would die for her, this is not news to anyone who knows me, but also!! fan changyu as a character is so so good - like she takes no shit from anybody, and doesn't need a man to save her from anything (except the inheritance stuff). i love how she beat up and then subsequently formed a bond with the thugs who tried to steal the title to her house. she's a little self-conscious about her work as a butcher in front of yan zheng, but ultimately it's how she makes a living and she's not ashamed of that!!
the humour in this is on point - i know that we'll probably move away from this when we get a bit more into the plot and they have to go to war etc, but for now, it's just a really heartwarming show about mr and mrs fan changyu and how they navigate life in the village and shut everyone who says anything bad about each other up.
if this keeps up, it might?? surpass hdu as my favourite show of the year??? i have a soft spot for tian-mei. 🥹
as promised, drive-by intro to how dare you. i will?? try to keep this spoiler free as best as i can??
what: period cdrama // currently airing // we’re on 18 out of 32 eps, roughly 40 mins each
where: iqiyi (standard disclaimer that i don’t watch with subs so i don’t speak to the quality of eng subs)
why: excellent, excellent transmigration drama - such a good balance of comedy and upcoming knives. the plot is fun and engaging, the entire show gorgeously shot. cheng lei and wang churan are a+++ in this. every single costume in this show is so pretty.
the story opens with our girl wang cuihua, overworked and underpaid, tasked to read and adapt a trashy novel by her manager the night before her birthday. at the stroke of midnight, there is a flash of light, and bam-
-she has transmigrated into the novel she was reading, as yu wanyin, (evil) concubine to the tyrant emperor.
book!yu wanyin has no feelings whatsoever for the emperor, has a thing for the emperor's brother, and ends up dying a terrible death as is fitting for the antagonist. present wanyin thinks: fuck that, i will survive, come hell or high water.
this is our tyrant emperor, xiahou dan, known for his persisting headaches and violent outbursts. he is hated by literally everyone, and in the book is eventually overthrown by his brother, and dies at the hands of an assassin.
but our emperor has a secret (well, many secrets, but we're not quite there yet) that yu wanyin learns when she is summoned to wait on him...
he is also a transmigrator.
these two come clean with each other, and start scheming to change their fates in the book - yu wanyin has skimmed through most of the book so she knows a lot of the plot points, even if she is murky on the details because she skipped the boring bits. her plan is to help herself and xiahou dan avoid their terrible deaths, chill out in the palace, and enjoy life!!
the tyrant emperor/demonic consort shenanigans are so fun to watch!! these two play up to their stereotypes to avoid suspicion by the empress dowager (very evil - the zs flashbacks have been....A LOT) and the emperor's brother (honestly? also evil).
this is the emperor's brother, prince duan. a general. well-liked by most people. in the book, he overthrows the tyrant emperor, and assumes his reign as emperor to the praise of the people. in reality, we learn that he does this by Evil Scheming. (side note: he was lowkey terrifying in this scene, i truly Felt It.)
this is xie yong'er, another concubine to the emperor. she is the book protagonist, and is prince duan's one true love in the book. is a Suspected Transmigrator - dan-zong and yu-jie test this theory in hilarious ways.
ANYWAY. this show is so much fun to watch and caters to alllllll kinds of cdrama viewers, casual or serious. if you are here just to look at pretty people? you're in the right place - LOOK AT THEM. here for fun shenanigans? you definitely get that. here for the romance? it's cheng lei c'mon, he does yearning Well. here for a deeper insight into the effects of transmigration on a person? ya, we gotchu. here for knives? we've got you covered also dw - the more you learn about my man xiahou dan, the more painful the knives are.
10/10 would rec everyone to join us, i'm honestly having so much fun watching this. <3
also relevant to your interest: the animated series (eng sub but again idk how good these subs are; this is also still airing, we're on s2e5 atm) // the novel (chi) (if anyone knows a good eng translation, lmk and i'll pop it here)
what: period cdrama // currently airing // we're on 16 out of 34 eps, roughly 40 mins each
where: youku // netflix (standard disclaimer that i don’t watch with subs so i don’t speak to the quality of eng subs)
why: i know this is an unpopular opinion, but i am actually enjoying the show?? i think it's my predisposition to liking bai lu's shows?? i think the pacing of each case is good and don't drag. the consensus seems to be that there isn't enough chemistry between the leads, but i think it's picking up and i am actually curious as to what happened in the past and the actual overarching story (which is v rare when i watch investigative dramas). the leads are pretty and i like the costuming in this show!
this is li peiyi. niece to the emperor, orphaned at a young age and raised by the emperor. is currently an officer in the neiye ju, in charge of investigating issues occurring within the palace. very fight fight fight.
(her entire household was massacred 15 years ago - allegedly by her father who just went off one day randomly. she is the sole survivor by virtue of not being present in the manor on that day, and has serious Doubts over what actually happened, but her memories of the day are murky at best.)
this is xiao huaijin. officer in the taishi ju, and functions like an imperial astrologer for the emperor. was tasked with assisting li peiyi on their first case, and has just...continued to stick around, after. v smart - like he looks at the moon and calculates the height of a suspect 😂
(he has some connections to what actually happened to li peiyi's family back 15 years ago. we see a few flashbacks where he led li peiyi out of the manor to safety. there is however Strong Denial from p much everyone around her that this happened - everyone tells li peiyi that she was in the palace the entire time because she was ill.)
ANYWAY. li peiyi and xiao huaijin go around investigating fun cases like:
a princess was set on fire mysteriously during a banquet!!
a body was found stuffed between the walls in the imperial garden!!
recently deceased concubine's residence is haunted!!
it's not strange tales of tang dynasty (a rec, if you are into the genre and have not watched this) level of plot, but for an idol drama, i think all the cases pass muster so far. the pacing is good, so there's really no downtime for me to ponder too much over the logistics etc.
i'm on ep 15 and so far, the romance arc is very slowly moving. we've had the you saved my life when i was a child trope, very recently a we were both drugged with an aphrodisiac and the emperor might arrange our marriage now trope, and ofc the overarching gentle scholar/powerful princess thing going. i am warming up to them, and i think the chemistry is?? slowly building??
overall, a very easy watch. my focus is mostly on how dare you so i'm watching this as a filler, but it's been holding up so far!! maybe a 7/10 for now but with the caveat that you watch it for what it is - an idol drama. this is not a show that purports to be smart or to stay true to the genre etc. this is an 偶像剧 imo and if we treat it like that, it's really not all that bad!
Have you watched Andor or Shogun? They are bingeable over a weekend and defiantly worth it.
Also, True Detective: Night Country is really good. Its darker and got some horror elements and the female leads are amazing. Jodie Foster and Kali Reis are excellent. I'm in the middle of Jack Rabbit which I'd recommend, but I wouldn't binge it over a weekend. The Territory with Anna Torv (from the Last of Us) is great, although slightly different. It's a limited Netflix western/crime series, kind of like a short Yellowstone set in northern Australia. Or The Studio, but if you were into Severance, I assume you watched this immediately after! Another series I love to binge is Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories.
Will be checking out the Lioness and Sharp Objects recs.
I watched Shogun and loved it! I'm not into Star wars universe so Andor is not on my orbit lol.
Might check Night country, I loved first season of True detective, second one was disappointing so I never returned to the series even though I heard that 3rd and 4th seasons were good.
Never heard about the Territory and Midnight dinner, gonna check it up for sure, thanks!!!
Sharp objects is great! Amy is amazing in it! Also I didn't mention it earlier, but Lady in the lake is pretty good. And probably not well known series called Why women kill, it's kinda dark comedy anthology and I enjoyed second season with Allison Tolman
