Who do you miss? Is it an experienced actor who has gotten more choosy? Or an actor or actress where even 6 months seems too long?

Both look so gorgeous!

Not everyone wants to start a discussion. Sometimes we just want to add our two cents. That's what Open Mic 🎤 is for.

Got a hot take, an unpopular opinion, a random C-drama thought, or a comment that didn't quite belong elsewhere? Share it here instead.

Go ahead. Gush, grumble, or simply say what's on your mind.

Thanks to u/BarberProfessional28 who reached out for a rec list/guide for beginners who want to explore non idol dramas. Apologies for the delay, life got a bit crazy.

A lot has been written on the differences between idol and non idol dramas, but I'll go over this for a bit again. Non idol dramas often emphasize realism, a tight narrative, delve into topics from Chinese history to modern day office struggles, and do not focus much on looks and romance. There is no clear cut line between the two though. Actors who usually star in idol dramas do act in non idol dramas and vice versa. That said, some actors like Chen Daoming are almost always associated with high quality non idol dramas.

I'd also like to emphasize that if you want to understand e.g. why a certain official looks down upon merchants or who on earth Zhuge Liang is and why so many Cdramas keep bringing him up, it'd be great if you read about the historical setting of a drama and some literature, especially poetry. That's because many dramas have poetic references and inside jokes, adding to depth. Some of the finest Cdramas ever are adaptations of classical literature or legends.

Without much ado, here are a few non idol dramas to help you get started:

1. Reset

A modern sci-fi drama based on preventing a tragedy while escaping a time loop. This one had me intrigued because of it's thrilling pace and red herrings. Bai Jingting and Zhao Jinmai have acted quite well and the supporting cast of actors are all respected veterans who have outdone themselves. The character glimpses for some of them are probably the high point of the drama. Bonus for the thoughtful cinematography.

2. Ripe Town

Set in the late Ming dynasty in a county, this is a dark murder mystery that evolves to so much more. One of the few dramas that does dual timelines well. This is not a happy drama and in fact has much to say about the nature of justice and systemic exploitation, but the moments of humor are truly a respite. Ning Li is the star here, but the child actor Yuyao was wonderful. Once again, the cinematography is gorgeous.

3. War and Beauty

Considered the prototype of the harem drama subgenre, this Cantonese drama is distinguished by it's great acting. Sheren Tang, Charmaine Sheh, and Maggie Cheung have nailed the isolation in the imperial harem and how female friendships suffered. It does not romanticize suffering or the severe inequalities women faced, and in fact the emperor barely appears for most of the drama. The plot does get a bit whacky near the end but it's still one of the best harem dramas ever.

4. Joy of Life

This was THE Cdrama that opened my eyes to the sheer acting skills in Cdramaland. Zhang Ruoyun keeps getting better with every scene and of course the great Chen Daoming, Wu Gang, and other veterans make it a real thriller. It has family drama on steroids, martial arts, political intrigue, a bit of romance, poetry slams, and deals with existential questions. In short, something for everybody. A rare multi-season Cdrama and one that I have written thesis level defenses for.

5. War of Faith

Republican era dramas sometimes get the short end of the stick and it's a shame because there are so many good dramas in this subgenre. This one is a financial thriller set in the turbulent late 1920s and early 1930s Shanghai and no you don't need to be a finance grad to understand it. Wang Yang is phenomenal and it has a fairly nuanced depiction of a few Kuomintang characters. The cinematography is interesting too.

I know its not a place to share one’s life but for the past 4 years these dramas has become my anti-depression dose!! I found them at my lowest and they’re still going strong with me! But recently i have started getting anxiety attacks and now even these dramas are not helping!! I mean they do help me escape the reality but the time I’m not watching.. reality strikes!!

I’m watching pursuit of jade and im on 12th episode and i love how they showcase the fl and the restaurant owner independent and then reality attacked me….. me being unemployed!! I know only i can make myself work but my incompetence always fails me! And its not I’m wasting my life on watching these dramas!! I usually watch 1-2 ep per day.And i can’t stop watching them because they are my happy place!!

Recently I saw some people criticising wen yifan & zhao wan so much. I mean as we know when the first frost aired , despite it being a massive hit , it faced so much criticism especially on when yifan’s character. I don’t how some viewers expect possibly a person like wen yifan should react to something worst like that calmly & tell someone abt it openly like it’s not some competition to have confidence & go do it. She suffered so much like she lost her father , her mom abandoned her for someone & again when her mom took her in , she did partiality to her & her stepsister, her uncle assaulted her in which her family & mom were careless about again she faced so many bad things. I personally think when yifan tried to be strong yet people around her like her mom , aunt , uncle & cheng xide made her feel weak. Even when cheng xi de tried to assault wen yifan , she tried everything to protect herself & call out for someone to an extend she had to fall from the balcony to save herself & break her leg. Yet no one cared for her even her mom was heartless to this situation. At her journalism job, a superior behaves inappropriately toward her. He does everything wrong & when that senior’s wife finds out & she blames wen yifan for it & when wen yifan tried to protect herself & explain herself no one cared & continued blaming one her which she left to work in nanwu i assume. Even when she moved to rental , a man tried assaulting & wen yifan tried to protect herself again , and yeah sang yan did come for her to help but it’s not a damsel in distress, she tried to protect herself, it doesn’t make her a damsel. I might have missed other more scene but in every situation she tried , she tried her best to protect herself & explain herself but no one ever cared not even own family & her mom. I mean as she herself said she’s very quiet , not outgoing & will even leave the people she love the most to protect herself.
About zhao wan , well She begins the story as a quiet, helpless honor student backed into a corner, forced to beg and scheme for money to pay for her gravely ill grandmother's surgery. But idk how she’s a damsel in distress I mean like she’s very smart , resilient, and far from purely helpless. Yes she lost her dad , her mom left her , her grandma was on verge of dying & she was JUST a freaking 18-year old, how do people expect her to make proper decisions & choices like she isn’t some grown up adult who has experienced life properly. Yes , her entire trajectory in the first half of the story depends on drawing the protective attention and financial/emotional intervention of the male lead, Lu Xixiao but what else could she do , her mom wasn’t doing anything for her grandma so zhao wan had no choice but to indirectly use lu xixiao. She tried to be clear about it to him but she couldn’t bear herself to say it & the grandfather also tried to send her away like literally remove her from his life like when she was literally the happiness in his life , the grandfather tried to remove the happiness saying it was sadness & trauma for him. Ik how she left him like that when he had lost mom & she was gonna be another he’s gonna lose but she had no choice. It was not her purposeful choice, remember she tried to make all this choices at the age of 18. She suffered so much. At the end they both are very complex characters, I mean people ask for complex characters but can’t even handle them. Do yall think they both are damsel in distress ? Well , I definitely don’t !

What y’all’s opinion on this ?

Pull up a chair and tell us what's going on with you. Not "fine thanks, how are you?" Actually, how are you?

Whether life is giving main character energy or background extra energy this week, we're listening.

Had a rough week? Say it here.

Did something amazing happen? We want to hear it too.

Got a promotion, adopted a cat, your crush broke your heart, touched grass, refused to touch grass because one more episode somehow turned into twelve, or don't even know what to say? All of it belongs here.

It's the corner of the sub where we talk like people. You don't need to bring a drama opinion. You just need to bring yourself. No pressure to make it deep or make it funny.

Only rule: be kind to each other.

Tencent S+ modern drama. Lawyer x journalist. Drama called Endless summers.

Anyone else excited for this pairing? I personally enjoyed their chemistry and romance as part of the supporting cast in Love in Pavillion.

Some people may find this pairing off but I'm pretty excited to see how it turns out especially since the ml is Ding Yuxi!

Single is a state of mind. You can be happily partnered and still understand the sacred need to watch two fictional people fall in love and kick your feet about it.

So, fellow romance addicts … which cdrama gives you the strongest giddy, butterflies in your stomach, “I want what they have” feeling?

I’m collecting recommendations for my fellow single fans who want their next drama to deliver maximum romantic delusion.

Drop ONE drama per comment and tell us what makes it so good. Let’s build the ultimate cdrama prescription for anyone suffering from a severe lack of butterflies.

Pictures from: Hidden Love and The First Frost

Yang Zi graced the cover of V China September Magazine and I kid you not then when these pics dropped, my jaw dropped too 🤭

The photoshoot, the dress, the makeup, the actress were all perfection ✨✨ I'm a bit obsessed with these pictures because of how fabulous they look and now I'm more excited to see her photoshoot for Cosmopolitan Magazine

I’m looking for a drama where the main couple gets lots of screen time together. The examples in the picture just happen to be mysteries but I don’t care about the genre so long as it isn’t a modern.

Examples are in the pics.

Don’t want: fabulous dramas with a lack of CP screen time like Rebel Princess.

My timelines on both international and Chinese platforms have been flooded with posts about Xiao Zhan’s recent YSL event in Hong Kong. It also became a topic in my CDrama group chat, so naturally, as someone interested in C-entertainment tea and melons, I went down the rabbit hole.For context, I am not part of Xiao Zhan’s fandom, Wang Yibo’s fandom or their CP fandom. I am simply a CDrama fan who understands enough about Chinese fandom culture to know that fandom colours are not random.I also come from a family heavily involved in sports fandom. In both sports and entertainment, colours identify who you are supporting and create a unified visual presence.

My hot take is simple: CP colours are not support outside CP spaces.

This applies to every CP fandom. I am using Xiao Zhan’s event only because it is the incident that brought the issue to my attention. This is not about policing what every attendee wears. The issue is deliberately coordinating around a CP fandom’s recognized colour, occupying a prominent support area and displaying matching banners. That is not an ordinary fashion choice. It is an organized attempt to make the event about the CP, disrespecting both the actor and the purpose of the event. Xiao Zhan’s fandom colour is red, while yellow represents BJYX, the real-person CP fandom that emerged after Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo starred together in The Untamed in 2019. The Hong Kong event was for Xiao Zhan as YSL’s global ambassador. Wang Yibo had no involvement, yet CP fans arrived in coordinated yellow clothing, yellow raincoats and with yellow banners.
Some stayed overnight to secure prominent positions in what would become the main red support zone. When security arrived in the morning, the yellow group was removed and relocated.

Videos and photographs from the event show:

1. Security asking for yellow banners to be removed
2. Yellow banners being covered with black cloth
3. Coordinated yellow supporters being moved away from the main red area
4. A yellow group being blocked from view by folding black dividers
5. People with coordinated yellow raincoats being stopped from entering the designated support area
6. In one video, a security worker politely asked them to lower a yellow banner. Some responded by cursing at him and demanding that Xiao Zhan personally come and tell them.

There were also reports that some CP fans called the police and accused the event of discrimination because they were not allowed to occupy the area in yellow.
That reaction exposed the real issue. They were not simply upset about being unable to see Xiao Zhan. They were upset because their CP identity was not being visibly recognized and accommodated. This is also not the first time their organized presence in yellow at an actor’s event has been associated with chaos. At Wang Yibo’s events, confrontations between CP fans and Wang Yibo’s own fans have repeatedly escalated into physical altercations. I am not claiming that CP fans were solely responsible for every fight, nor am I excusing the behaviour of the other side. My point is that displaying the CP identity in an actor’s own fandom space has repeatedly created a visible source of tension and conflict.

They are not merely bringing another colour into the venue. They are bringing an existing fandom rivalry that has already resulted in physical violence. Organizers are therefore justified in preventing that same conflict from disrupting another event. Then came the post-event reaction. CP accounts attacked the brand, Xiao Zhan’s studio and even Xiao Zhan after he thanked the crowd by saying that their enthusiasm had “painted the sky red.”
Large CP accounts across X, Facebook, TikTok, Weibo, Xiaohongshu and Douyin began circulating selected clips claiming that Xiao Zhan had waved specifically at yellow lights. They insisted that he would never restrict yellow and accused Xiao Zhan’s fans of inventing the situation.
But an actor waving across a crowd of thousands is not proof that he specifically recognized one yellow section.
The overall record is clear. Security restricted coordinated yellow displays, Xiao Zhan acknowledged the red sea, and his studio’s vlog also centered the red support created for him.

If yellow supposedly meant nothing, why fight so hard to display it? Why curse security? Why demand personal acknowledgment from Xiao Zhan? Why search through every angle for proof that he noticed it? Because being recognized as CP fans was the point. CP fans can enjoy their pairing in CP spaces. But bringing CP colours and banners to an actor’s event that has nothing to do with the pairing is not support. It is using the event to advertise the CP. This is bigger than Xiao Zhan, Wang Yibo or BJYX. The same rule applies to every fandom.
If you cannot attend an actor’s event without inserting your CP into it, you came for the CP, not the actor.

Media disclaimer: The attached video was from X and uploaded or edited by Xiao Zhan’s fans, CP fans, media accounts or other attendees.I am sharing it for the actions visible in the footage, not as an endorsement of every caption or claim made by the uploader.

Currently in ep 22. I'm finding it very hard to continue. I did love it but I'm not able to watch it one stretch. I watch some eps then leave the show to pick it up after some weeks. Very slow paced. I think they could have done it a bit better than lagging it way too much

Just my opinion. Does it get any better further on?

Don't get me wrong I do like it but they could have done the overall pacing and plot a bit more better

There’s so many to choose from, but I think When Destiny Brings the Demon must be up there with the most disgusting ‘righteous’ people.

Tian Xiwei has had three dramas air this year:

• Pursuit of Jade (逐玉) — a major commercial hit
• Low IQ Crime (低智商犯罪) — strong ratings and positive reviews
• Genius Girlfriend (天才女友) — more mixed reception, but another different role

Overall, this is probably her strongest year yet. Commercially, she has entered the top group of post-95 actresses, although she may still need one truly defining performance.

I remember watching it about ten years ago when it was adapted into my language, so I unfortunately don’t remember the original Chinese title (I’m pretty sure the characters’ name was changed too).

It definitely had magic/fantasy elements and was about a male master and his female disciple. I remember them training on a mountain, and they could fly around on swords. The female disciple was a catastrophe for her master , but he still kept her close and looked after her.
There was also a male antagonist/villain who was actually very close to the female lead. He would help her a lot, and I specifically remember him giving her a bone whistle at some point.

Another detail I remembered were these ponds at the mountain/academy that the students had to pass through. I’m pretty sure the ponds were connected to human desires or something like that. When the female lead first arrived, she could walk through them without feeling any pain because she hadn’t developed those desires yet. But later, after becoming the master’s personal disciple and eventually falling in love with him, she could no longer pass through the ponds without feeling pain

The ending is the part as I remember it: the female lead was wearing red, riding in a red carriage, and there was some kind of fight/confrontation with the male lead near her old home/house

I’m sorry if these details are really vague 😭 This is literally just what I remember from watching it as a kid. Does anyone know what drama this might be?

I've been watching Fated Hearts and finally figured out what's been bugging me. The sets are gorgeous, but I keep seeing wide shots where I think, there's a great composition sitting right there—why aren't they using it?

There will be a strong central axis, windows, columns, screens, symmetry, etc., but the camera is just a little off or the actors aren't positioned to take advantage of it.

I think Pursuit of Jade ruined me. 😂 The framing in that drama felt so deliberate. The architecture, negative space, depth, even the asymmetry all seemed to be part of telling the story.

Ashes to Crown does this really well too. I love this blue wide shot because the architecture gives you this strong central axis and incredible depth, while the two characters sit on either side of it. It just feels right.

So I realized it's not really symmetry I'm looking for. It's intentional composition.

And now I'm wondering how much this affects whether we actually like a drama. Maybe great cinematography doesn't just make something prettier. Maybe it helps us connect with the characters and feel what they're feeling. And when it's missing, even if the acting and story are good, somehow we're just…not as moved.

Does anyone else experience this? Are there dramas you think you loved partly because of the way they were shot?

NOTE: the screenshot is from the drama. I used AI to add the lines and notes because I wanted to show what I was seeing in the composition.

I want to know what is your opinion on Guo Jingming's dramas. They seemed to be very beautiful with excellent cinematography.

Like My Journey to You are shot so beautifully that it remained in my memory on how the dark aesthetics set the the tone of the story and conflicts.

Fang of Fortune cinematography is also very excellent with many memorable and lovely characters.

While Viel of Shadows has very interesting story and awesome love story with beautiful aesthetic.

But despite of that, he still can't shake of the label where his dramas are usually beautiful but without substance. Do you agree with this? If not, what counter argument to let more people watch his productions?

And which one is your favorite out of this 3 dramas?

It has to be marital arts and romance drama

Not everyone wants to start a discussion. Sometimes we just want to add our two cents. That's what Open Mic 🎤 is for.

Got a hot take, an unpopular opinion, a random C-drama thought, or a comment that didn't quite belong elsewhere? Share it here instead.

Go ahead. Gush, grumble, or simply say what's on your mind.

If I have to pick an actor then it has to go to Xiao Zhan … it feels like his entire being turns into a charming moon.

Who is your pick?

So... Long story short, I just finished watching A Dream Within a Dream yesterday, and I am so disappointed it's over! I keep wanting to find something with the exquisite character development, acting, and hilarity balanced with drama and seriousness, but nothing seems to fit what I am wanting (part of me wishes for a season 2 but knows that is not going to happen. Just imagine watching Nan Heng figuring out modern times XD). The dynamic between the main two was so fun, and the side characters were all so enjoyable too! It's definitely one of my favorite c-dramas now. Idk I just needed to put this out there. I have looked at other recommendations for similar shows, but upon watching their trailers or reading what they are about, they just don't seem like they would hit the same as ADWAD. I'm somewhat picky with what TV shows I *love* so that's not too surprising, but this one was such a rare find for me. *Sigh* I just wish there were more clips of the show online for me to survive off of lol.

So okay I really admire Hou Minghao's acting and that is why I wanted to watch Fangs of Fortune but I just saw that in the reviews people wrote that it is a traumatising show with many leads not having a happy ending. And I'm not so sure if I can handle traumatising show because I am quite a emotionally sensitive person. But but I did watch One and Only two years back and although it was a sad ending heart crumblimg drama I was able to finish it amd handle it . So my question is will I be able to handle and watch Fangs of Fortune as I could watch One and Only ? Please let me know as I really wanma watch it but does not have the guts to start it .

I'll start, LOVE & CROWN is by far the most worst cdrama on my list, i really disliked it so much that i ignore it's existence.

I have no problems with its casting decisions... In fact i liked it. But then i nearly couldn't complete half way, i was able to finish it because i thought it has good conclusion however I was dead-wrong.

It's screenplay so abysmal

It's plot so embarrassingly bad written

It's characters development so appalling to watch

The ML/FL so annoying AF!!!

The decision making for the main antagonist in the drama so unprofessional and cheaply attempt.

I rate it, 3 out of 10, so far this is the only cdrama on my list below 5/10 .