cdrama fangirl diary

currently watching 'shine on me’ | cdrama side blog | i write reviews <3

[xiaoshengnu]

c⃣ u⃣ r⃣ r⃣ e⃣ n⃣l⃣ t⃣y⃣     w⃣ a⃣ t⃣ c⃣h⃣i⃣n⃣g⃣

Shine On Me

a⃣ b⃣ o⃣ u⃣ t⃣     m⃣e⃣

she/her . femme. london

hi! i'm from London, England with chinese heritage. i know quite a bit of mandarin but i'm still learning and there's a lot of han chinese culture that i don't know.

this is a side blog for all my c-dramas that i watch and i wanted a place to just talk about some stuff that i like about dramas and what i don't like. it's also for practising my analytical skills and 'active watching'. but of course, everyone has their own opinions and i will try to be mindful of that and not blurt out anything phrased too harshly or anything too scandalous. also, please note that my opinion of some dramas have changed, and some older reviews may not reflect my current opinion. maybe one day I'll watch the dramas again and review it again, but... just so you know.

okay, that's over and done with, let's move on to the dramas

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ⓡⓐⓣⓘⓝⓖ ⓢⓨⓢⓣⓔⓜ

usually I rate my dramas in plot, characters, production and acting out of ten, then find an average to give an overall rating. 

I also have a rewatch value (idea borrowed from mdl lol) and also a hidden gem value which is rated out of five. the rewatch value is basically how likely it would be for me to rewatch it, while ‘hidden gem’ is more about how unique and meaningful the drama was in comparison to everything I’ve watched before.

find all the drama reviews listed here.

find all reviewed dramas sorted by hidden gem value here.

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d⃣r⃣ a⃣ m⃣a⃣ s⃣    I⃣    h⃣ a⃣ v⃣ e⃣    w⃣ a⃣ t⃣c⃣h⃣e⃣d⃣ 

[ in no particular order ] master posts will eventually be linked if there are any // italics = I particularly like and recommend

A Love So Beautiful [ rom-com ] Shen Yue + Hu Yitian

Ruyi's Royal Love in The Palace [ historical ] Zhou Xun

Delicious Romance [ rom-com ] Li Chun, Zhang Hanyun, Wang Ju

Word of Honor [ wuxia ] Zhang Zhehan + Gong Jun

Empresses in the Palace [ historical ] Sun Li

Story of Yanxi Palace [ historical ] Wu Jinyan

The Untamed [ xianxia ] Xiao Zhan + Wang Yibo

The Double [ historical ] Wu Jingyan + Wang Xingyue

Love Game in Eastern Fantasy [ wuxia ] Yu Shuxin + Ding Yuxi

Blossom [ costume ] Meng Ziyi + Li Yunrui

When I Fly Towards You [ romance ] Zhang Miaoyi + Zhou Yiran

Story of Minglan [costume] Zhao Liying + Feng Shaofeng

The Tale of Rose [ contemporary ] Liu Yifei

Sword Snow Stride [ wuxia ] Zhang Ruoyun

Legend of Haolan [ historical ] Wu Jinyan

Pursuit of Jade [ costume ] Tian Xiwei + Zhang Linghe

Couple of Mirrors [ thriller ] Zhang Nan + Sun Yihan

My Journey to You [ wuxia ] Yu Shuxin + Zhang Linghe

Rattan [ fantasy ] Jing Tian + Zhang Binbin

Love o2o [ modern rom ] Zheng Shuang + Yang Yang

Ancient Love Poetry [ xianxia ] Zhou Dongyu + Xu Kai

My Little Princess [ modern rom ] Zhang Yuxi + Mike Angelo

The Blooms at Ruyi Pavillion [ costume ] Ju Jingyi + Zhang Zhehan

My Mr Mermaid [ modern rom ] Tan Songyun + Xiong Ziqi

I Cannot Hug You [ modern rom ] Zhang Yuxi + Xing Zhaolin

Romance of Tiger and Rose [ costume ] Zhao Lusi + Ding Yuxi  

more stuff under cut

ｄｒａｍａｓ . ｏｎ  .  ｐａｕｓｅ

Love Like The Galaxy [ period ] Zhao Lusi - just like Legend of Haolan, I am becoming way too attached to this spunky lil fictional character and her relationship to everyone in her life- I think I will make myself an emotional wreck if I don't take a break, so imma wait until I feel more at peace- im so emo about this show its getting bad

Moonlight [ modern rom ] Esther Yu + Ding Yuxi - this is such a cute drama omg. I haven’t gotten much further than the 6th episode as I quite honestly prefer the more depressing xianxia dramas lol, but whenever you feel sad or anything this drama is such a gem, I love the chemistry between the two main leads- it is so entertaining and so fun to watch.

Serenade of Peaceful Joy [ period ] - ngl although the costumes are so slay and the drama overall so beautiful, I can’t get my head into it. It’s a little too slow pace for me to really calm down and watch this. there’s also some long windy political court scenes which I don’t completely understand (maybe you have to know some history) but overall I don’t hate it. maybe at some point I will find my way back to it.

Love between fairy and devil [ xianxia ]  - sorry sorry I know this is such a fun a fan favourite but I- I'm lazy.

ｔｏ .  ｗａｔｃｈ  .  ｌｉｓｔ

Dream of Splendor - the plot sounds super sound and interesting

Luoyang - WANG YIBO (NO OTHER EXPLANATION NEEDED)

Duoluo Continent - Xiao Zhan - the sciptwriter is GOOD

A New Life Begins - Tian xiwei

Love and Redemption - good plot

a murderous affair in horizon tower - same director as delicious romance

She and her perfect husband - turns gender roles on its heeeadd

(honestly whatever catches my eye.)

ｄｒｏｐｐｅｄ .  ｄｒａｍａｓ

ashes of love [ xianxia ] nothing will ever convince me to ever like this drama I am so sorry- I can’t stand it.

lie to love [ mystery ] too many other dramas to watch... and it wasn't the best drama either. eventually it had to be sacrificed :(

ten miles of peach blossom [ xianxia ] tbh I really don’t get the deal? I really don’t like/care about any of the characters T-T

immortal samsara [ xianxia ] very sob worthy, but it really- its- ugh- no. its pretty but I really can’t watch this show-

city of streamer [ minguo ] ngl its quite flat? I’m not completely sold on the dynamic between our main leads, I really don’t feel much for the drama overall

till the end of the moon [ xianxia ] I thought the writing of the characters were kind of ridiculous, didn't really like tan tai jin tbh or the way he's portrayed, stopped around like episode 16?

lost you forever [ xianxia ] just like the title suggests, the drama goes on for fucking forever. while the first half of the first part was good, the rest drags like hell and there's pretty much no substance to anything that ever happens in the later bits

rise of ning [ costume ] lowkey just gave up, it really didn't intrigue me all that much, besides the male and female leads really don't have chemistry. the male lead's set up feels kinda arbitrary and not convincing at all. biggest crime was just being eh?!

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main blog - wangjisbathtub (danmei)

[aneurins-barnard]

ANEURIN BARNARD as RICHARD III and FAYE MARSAY as ANNE NEVILLE THE WHITE QUEEN // Episode 6 Love and Death

[valyrianpoem]

Rebecca Ferguson as ELIZABETH WOODVILLE [12/?] The White Queen (2013)

[violaobanion]

ANEURIN BARNARD as RICHARD DUKE OF GLOUCESTER in THE WHITE QUEEN (2013), episode five

[aneurins-barnard]

ANEURIN BARNARD as RICHARD III THE WHITE QUEEN Episode 10 The Final Battle

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

WORD OF HONOR 山河令, Episode 16 or let me look after you

By the way, Shifu, where is Wen-shu? You should eat first. He's outside. I'm going to look for him.

[rozrozhollander]

multifandom meme > [15/15] ships - fleabag x hot priest (fleabag)

I love you. It'll pass.

[stargirldotcom]

- love in the mundane

warsh_tippy and zelda- whatever, dad/ minari/ new years day- taylor swift/ @death-born-aphrodite/ stay, stay, stay- taylor swift/ everything, everywhere, all at once/ i will- mitski/ @death-born-aphrodite/ fleabag/ sweet nothing- taylor swift

[concerningwolves]

You will never 100% idiotproof your creative work & if you try to, you will only succeed in smothering the soul out of it. btw

[renewedmotionforjudgment]

I feel like I have 2 conflicting thoughts about Veil of Shadow, and it's a bit like when I was watching My Journey to You. Which is, I'm actually interested in and enjoying mostly (although tbh, episode 6 and 7's pacing was kinda off for me and I sorta was falling asleep in the middle of the episode, but I'm told the pacing picks up and I have nothing else to watch and before I get any threatening DMs, I am actually invested in the characters and their relationships) the world building and the character set up and the relationships.

But my god the dialogue is driving me crazy. Like taking me out of a scene emotionally crazy.

I'm going to put it under a cut because idk, I know a lot of international fandoms enjoy GJM but gotta let out my native speaker angst somewhere

(also, i debated on and off about tagging, but i tag in part for my own organization, so .. yeah ...)

I need GJM (or the screenwriter, or whoever is giving instruction to the screenwriter) to pick. If the characters are going to talk in the simplistic subject verb noun syntax, then have them talk normally. Or if the purpose is the characters are suppose to talk in Poetic Dialogue (TM), then actually pick up a book of poetry and do poetry. Not this ... modern pop song lyrics masquerading as ancient chinese poetry.

And no, it doesn't have to be everyone is reciting Tang dynasty poem on the time, but the dialogue needs to flow. Like Scarlet Heart (not the kdrama version, that is a separate rant) had very poetic dialogue that mixed the modern and the ancient, but it all flowed.

So yeah, i can speed up everyone's talking, and to be fair this is nowhere near as bad as Fangs of Fortune, but i'm just annoyed because it is such a prominent part of the drama.

[dreamyklutzs]

Yes. I really do feel GJM needs a better writer for his stories. GJM is, above all, a director. He understands visual language, and he is able to pull out actor's best performances/ (It's the rest that I'm like...duuuude pair up with a writer, who understands your vision, please, je vous en prie....)

I actually like the plot and the themes. I like the characters and their dynamics with each other and their development, it's all very tragic and grand and angst-y, but I often feel like I'm watching two drama's.

One, has all the Shakespearean pathos and tragedy ( +gay and abs, abs, abs). While the other one has Joseph Zeng and Yan'an and their abs, speaking like 13y old protags in an anime 💀. It's the disconnect, really. Because you have CDL being a sexy fox, having a mature, adult angsty relationship with Joseph Zeng (AND sexy times), while talking like an emo goth 13y olds. 💀

[curiocoelacanth]

ok seeeeee I was curious how it was coming across and had suspicions it was more faux poetic edgy (hey my languague skills may be bad srry heritage but I can hear things (flow/lack of flow) and slightly gather how words are put together) but nice to know my suspicions were right 👀

Full agree he's a director more than anything and in many way's he's a strong director (obv also faults). I mean the visuals alone and the sheer sheer committment to his aesthetics and visions speak to this so yeah go work with a writer pls for the dialogue and for keeping plot together 😹 I do love his themes and think he can/could explore really cool ideas. So much inter-relational dynamics and big thought ideas about living, dying, loving, family, what makes up a person etc. Very fun and speaks to me.

[yingtan]

SHINE ON ME 骄阳似我 (2025-2026)

[yingtan]

Love is sorcery.

VEIL OF SHADOWS 月鳞绮纪│2026

[dingyuxi]

PURSUIT OF JADE 逐玉 (2026)

[lexiblake25]

Can't believe this was removed from the show 😭

[yingtan]

You couldn't bear to see me hurt. Couldn't bear to see me scarred. Am I right?

VEIL OF SHADOWS 月鳞绮纪│2026

[xiaoshengnu]

Pursuit of Jade (逐玉) final review

overview | episode no. -  40 episodes, genre - costume

living in the sweet provincial town of lingan, fan changyu (tian xiwei), the village's local butcher girl takes up her father's pig butchering business after her parents are killed by mountain bandits. one expected snowy evening, she stumbles across a young man in the snow going by the name yan zheng (zhang linghe) and finding him to be heavily injured, she takes him home. however, what she doesn't know is that this handsome young man is really the empire's powerful yet reviled military general, marquis wu'an, xie zheng.

with political unrest brewing in the background, changyu find herself thrust into the midst of battlefield.

l⃣e⃣ t⃣’ s⃣    b⃣e⃣g⃣i⃣n⃣

a beautifully shot drama with really lovely execution- at least in the first half. I was initially drawn to the drama because of the pretty intriguing premise of a butcher girl turned female general and OF COURSE, the man and legend himself; DIRECTOR ZENG. I know people absolutely love this show, but while I'd say the production truly is beautiful, the plot and pacing was less striking (if not grievously bad) in the second half. let's get into it.

o⃣u⃣t⃣     o⃣ f⃣     t⃣ e⃣ n⃣

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 8/10

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 5/10

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 6/10

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 8/10

𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕘𝕖 - 6.75/𝟙𝟘

o⃣u⃣t⃣    o⃣ f⃣    f⃣ i⃣v⃣ e⃣

𝖍𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖌𝖊𝖒 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - 💎💎

[ this drama is everywhere on the internet right now, and while admittedly it is beautifully shot, I really don't think its worth the time beyond the first half, a good two gems. ] 

𝖗𝖊𝖜𝖆𝖙𝖈𝖍 𝖛𝖆𝖑𝖚𝖊 - ✨✨

[ you won't be catching me going anywhere near the second half of this drama with a meter long stick. maybe I'll stop as soon as changyu gets her armour, but that's as much as I'd ever rewatch ]

‘keep reading’ for detailed review

major spoiler warnings ahead!

guys I really really invested so much hope in this drama that I made it to the end. it was lowkey kind of disappointing, but because the beginning was so good I felt like I had to finish it. this review is quite a long one compared to my last one hahah but given how much I talk about blossom in this one, I might just go back and rewatch it and see if I'll have as much to say about that one as I did for pursuit of jade this time round. anyways, good things first!

𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖓𝖌 - 8/10

all around the acting was really really good, the child actors were all really talented and the cast were all very well chosen and capable. one minorish issue I had was that sometimes the actors could tip into melodrama that sometimes really took me out, though I'm sure a large part of it was due to a choice of directing and framing by the director. THE VILLAGE SCENES WERE REALLY REALLY SWEET. tian xiwei and zhang linghe had CHEMISTRY alright- the amount of times they were out there tugging at my heartstrings had me tearing UP. in related crying news, tian xiwei's crying scenes following the lingan massacre were genuinely so heartbreaking, it had me sobbing at my laptop screen.

𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖉𝖚𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 - 8/10

as expected from zeng qingjie, the production is absolutely impeccable. the lighting, the costumes, the makeup flatter everyone so beautifully and everything looks so lived in an breathed in with colour and life. we've come so far from this hyper-washed out flat pastels of the early 2020s guys. this is huge :,D the score and the background music for the show is also really really lovely, might be one of my favourites from all the dramas I've watched this year.

I did dock a few points however for costuming because there were points where I felt xie zheng and sui yuanhuai / qi min's outfits did veer slightly too far out of the song dynasty and more towards fantasy type vibes which took me out slightly.

𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 - 5/10

i had a lot of high hopes for the plot after watching director zeng's previous work blossom and absolutely loving it- and to be honest I was disappointed. the beginning of the drama was really really lovely, hence why the plot rating hasn't fallen below 5, but I think as soon as we entered the capital/military/political era of the drama, things started to very seriously fall apart. there's a lot of things I could mention, like the completely unrealistic song dynasty politics and military politics and random romantic shots in very serious life-or-death situations or absurd logical skips so I'll just say a few things.

while the set up of the village was truly excellent- each of the characters felt full of life and I felt myself caring for every one of the lingan villagers- I think the drama could have done a lot better had more thought been given to setting up the central political conflict that had driven change's family to lingan and killed xie zheng's father from the very very beginning. I found myself not really sympathising or caring for any of the later political figures like prime minister wei, qi min, general he because I had no real idea of how all the characters connected or their emotional ties to each other. it was kind of revealed by the very end but ended up making no impact because the tension of that knowledge hadn't had any time to linger.

this issue of revealing information too late also applied in a lot of the other logical "scheming" points in the drama as well which really just made it look like a lazy way of explaining things without fore-planning when it could have simply been weaved into earlier points in the plot (like for example the whole "oh the enemy was going to take sui brother 2 anyway by digging a hole in the mountain" conclusion to the whole changyu using private military force section was genuinely just pure ragebait). i think this could be chalked up to the scriptwriters wanting to keep things mysterious, only for it to appear (at least to me) extremely slapdash and did nothing to help the audience build emotional ties to the drama.

(ALSO the whole xie zheng hiding his identity dragged on foreverrrr- to the point that it was honestly difficult for me to suspend my disbelief or suppress my frustration. surely the more interesting question was not how xie zheng was going to hide his identity but how the two leads were going to navigate it???? like hello? LIKE IS THIS JUST ME IN HERE? also what IS GOING ON WITH THE SLOW SOFT LIGHTING IN THE MIDDLE OF A COUP. WHY ARE U FIGHTING FOR YOUR PERSONAL FAMILY REVENGE IN THE MIDDLE OF A COUP WHEN UR EMPEROR IS QUITE LITERALLY BEING DRIVEN MAD AND THE USURPER IS SHOOTING ARROWS AT YOU? LOCK IN BRO)

either way. I BEG the scriptwriters to never touch political historical stuff ever again. like write me a 40 episode slice of life about a butcher girl navigating being head of a household and building community instead. THAT I'd love to see.

𝖈𝖍𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖈𝖙𝖊𝖗𝖘 - 6/10

oh man. the whole of lingan has my heart. I loved the concept of the butcher girl as the main lead. like FUCK THE REST OF THE SHOW. let's just stay in the damned village. that village, along with the grand princess and gongsun yin save this character rating. and the village arc part of changyu and xie zheng's relationship :3 (they're too cute)

now onto some more bad! while I do have gripes about changyu's writing from the moment she began shifting to the female general identity, my biggest gripes are with sui yuanhuai / qi min and xie zheng. I felt like the scripwriters didn't really know what questions mattered about these characters, and couldn't help but compare them both to song mo's writing in blossom.

xie zheng and song mo are pretty similar characters in that they're both generals with difficult relationships with their father-figures, song mo had a defining characteristic of a strong sense of justice. xie zheng though? I couldn't really tell. it was all well and good when that was happening at the village because our perspective is limited to changyu's which doesn't know much about xie zheng, but when the plot started to transition to genera!xiezheng he seemed a hollow vision of a cold and aloof military general. it would have helped a lot more had the script asked the questions of "who is xie zheng the military general? who and what is important to him? what makes him tick?" and all these questions could have been answered by exploring his relationships to people at the camp such as gongsun yin, and the more more plot-important personal ties to prime minister wei.

the same goes for sui yuanhuai / qi min- and for him even more so because he was nothing short of pure psychopathic evil, which, for a villain, is just plain boring. comparing to song mo again, bad!songmo at the beginning of blossom is kind of a similar character to qi min in that he willingly takes part in an attempt to usurp the throne, but while song mo is understandable in that he's not a psychopath but a man with strong morals disillusioned with imperial justice (which is perfectly valid), qi min just seems plain evil. the script had given him a 'tragic past' but did nothing beyond simply showing us the bare bones of that. at least to me, a tragic past isn't made by just a terrible thing happening to you, but rather a terrible thing happening and the emotional losses is causes, like loosing your family or the happier self you had in the past. none of these emotional struggles were shown and I felt like I had no real reason to be interested in him. it was not intellectually stimulating in the slightest.

worst of all, the script kept shoving this narrative of "oh but she's his meaning to life" upon his incredibly toxic and r@pey relationship with yu qianqian as though it was a point of sympathy the audience was mean to get which seemed so an utterly tone deaf to me. if idol fantasy is escapism, psychological abuse is not the treatment of women that I want to romanticise. real women exist in these situations and the soft lighting and pretty shots just seem so disingenuous.

like guys are we still here in the big 2026? since when did the abusing of women and justifying it get aesthetic and sexy?

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𝖇𝖔𝖓𝖚𝖘!!

favourite characters

changning (awwwww shes just such a cutie patootie)

grand tutor tao yi (I love me an eccentric old man like guys come on. he's difficult, he's a nagger, but he's just a big softie at heart)

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𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖈𝖗𝖊𝖜 (source mydramalist)

lead actors : tian xiwei, zhang linghe

directors : zeng qing jie

screenwriters : zou yue

[yingtan]

PURSUIT OF JADE 逐玉 (2026)

[zhanglinghez]

Fangs Of Fortune (2024) 1.02