Profile: Drama: Falling Into Your Smile (你微笑时很美) Country: China Episodes: 31 Aired: Jun 23, 2021 – Jul 15, 2021 Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Original Network: LINE TV, Tencent Video, Youku Duration: 45 min
Plot: Tong Yao joins the all-male ZDGX OPL team, replacing Ming, and becomes the first female professional esports player. ZDGX team leader, Lu Si Cheng, at first didn’t accept her, but they slowly grow close.
Main Cast: Xu Kai – Lu Si Cheng Cheng Xiao – Tong Yao Zhai Xiao Wen – Jian Yang
Review: Somehow i always end up watching esports themed drama even though I’m not a fan of esports. But i appreciated the esports players after watching this drama. Didn’t realize they also do a lot of trainings. I just thought they were naturally talented.
I liked getting a peek into the good and bad sides of the industry. I think it’s the same as with showbiz where fans, rumors and fake news can make or break you. Fans dont own the players and we should respect them and their personal lives. You are watching esports because of the sport and the player who is good at the sport. It shouldn’t matter who the person was dating or doing unless it’s something illegal.
I like the ZGDX team and their friendship. Accepting Tong Yao as the only female player in the team. They also fight and argue a lot but they all grow and learn better.
I also liked that they showed the different teams and their sportsmanship with one another. The ending when Tong Yao won the championship and everyone (not just ZDGX) was cheering and praising her skills (even the ex boyfriend who at first was annoying).
I found the romance cute from the first time they met until they got together around ep 21 or 22. One of the cutest confession scene when the kitty came out of Cheng’s jacket, and Tong Yao was so happy she hugged Cheng. (I would have done the same 😁).
I wanted Tong Yao to be more responsive during the kiss scenes. She always looked wide eyed and wasn’t playful like Cheng. So it felt like Cheng liked her more than she did and the kissing didnt look natural. Which was too bad because there were a lot of kissing scenes and Xu Kai was too hot to not kiss!
Unfortunately, I got bored starting ep 23 and was fast forwarding to finish. I didnt like the forced issue with Cheng as the captain.
Profile: Drama: She and Her Perfect Husband (爱的二八定律) Country: China Episodes: 40 Aired: Nov 14, 2022 – Dec 11, 2022 Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Original Network: Tencent Video Duration: 45 min.
Plot: To get a shot at promotion, a female lawyer lied that she is already married to a guy she has never met. By some twist of fate, they meet at a party and her boss and colleagues thinks that he is her real husband. She makes a deal with the guy to pretend to be her husband for 3 months in exchange for a place to live and to help him stop his mother from setting up blind dates. Will their fake marriage turn into a real marriage?
Main Cast: Yang Mi – Qin Shi Xu Kai – Yang Hua Li Ze Feng – Tao Junhui Wang Zi Xuan – Wu Feifei Baby Zhang – Yao Yao
Review:
First completed drama for 2023! My third jiedi lian romance. I don’t know why I gravitate towards this kind of romance. Most likely it’s because the actor is cute 🙂
I love the relationship between Qin Shi and Yang Hua. They may have started with a fake relationship, but they supported and complemented each other that the age gap wasn’t even an issue. And the guy wasn’t “lower” than her, he was a genius and helpful to her career, it’s just that he had some previous career issues he had to work with, and meeting Qin Shi gave him the courage to face his issues and find support where his parents/friends/ex gf couldn’t give him. Where can I find my own Yang Hua? He was almost perfect! Good thing Qin Shi found the perfect fake husband. What if she randomly found another stranger who was a jerk? It will be a very different story! I wished they also showed how successful Yang Hua was to get back at all those who looked down on him for being jobless.
Every fake marriage trope needs to end before their real relationship begins. That’s why I didn’t mind that they broke up on eps 36-40. Qin Si mostly had the upperhand in the relationship, so it was just right that she should be the one who realizes what she lost. Although I liked that that they got back together, I wish it was Qin Shi who made the grand gesture to bring him back. And even at the end, they never said “i love you” to each other and they didn’t remarry. But that’s alright. Just like what Yang Hua said, they don’t need to get married, as long as they can be together forever and ever. Not being a pessimist here, but nowadays, marriage doesn’t guarantee forever.
I was expecting to hate Tao Junhui but I actually liked him too. It’s just that he wasn’t able to protect Qin Shi that time, and she disappeared from his life that he couldn’t even make amends. And now he missed his timing since Yang Hua is already in Qin Shi’s life. Although I don’t know if Yang Hua wasn’t there, will Qin Shi take him back? She probably still wouldn’t. I can’t believe that he would like a spoiled and spiteful girl like Wu Fei, I thought he deserved better. I thought Wu Fei was cute and sweet, but she so the opposite of Qin Shi, who was sexy, mature and intelligent. I didn’t want Junhui to end up with Wu Fei, but the ending looks like Wu Fei also grew up a little and is now ready to be more mature and work earnestly and not just rely on her daddy’s money. I hope that’s true!!
What I didn’t like is that it took too long for Qin Shi to resign from Cheng & Hui and realize how toxic their culture was. Junhui already warned her that she was being used, but she didn’t listen since she had stubbornly set her sights on partnership. I almost thought she was going to accept the partner offer after all the humiliation she went through. I’m so happy she didn’t!! Particularly Madam Tang who I always thought looked so fake, trying to dangle the carrot in front of Qin Shi and throw it away again and again.
I thought Li Dai was going to be the b.tchy villain but I also liked her a lot! She is the funny, sassy friend that Qin Shi needed. Wished that they just opened their own female lawyer studio. Their combo will be lethal!
Let’s not forget Yang Hua’s best friend who is funny and great help to the couple. I love their dates with him tagging along. Too bad we didn’t get to see his wife.
The whole side story about the brother Wenyu and Meimei was boring so I skipped all those parts. They just keep fighting and fighting it was so toxic.
Lastly, I loved the ost but couldn’t find the songs on Spotify.
Profile: Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil / Cang Lan Jue (苍兰诀) Country: China Episodes: 36 Aired: Aug 7, 2022 – Aug 29, 2022 Aired On: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday Original Network: iQiyi Duration: 45 min.
Plot: A fairy from a rival tribe unknowingly sets free the devil lord from the Moon tribe imprisoned for 30,000 years and swaps bodies with him. She ends up putting a curse on him where he can feel every thing she feels emotionally and physically. Devil Lord needs to keep her close and find a way to release the curse, but what happens when they end up falling in love?
Main Cast Dylan Wang – Dong Fang Qin Cang Esther Yu – Orchid/Xian Lan Hua/Goddess Zhang Ling He – Lord Changheng/Xiao Run Xu Hai Qiao – Lord Rong Hao Cristy Guo – Chidi Woman Charles Lin – Shang Que Hong Xiao – Jie Li Wang Yue Yi – Fairy Danyin Zhang Chen Xiao – Xunfeng
Review: I’ve never watched a xianxia- I always thought they looked fake and I’m not really into immortals and fairies. But I saw that this drama has Didi and Esther as the main leads so I thought I should check this out! And boy, I’m so glad I did! This drama totally surpassed my expectations!! I was just looking for a light cutesy romcom drama but I ended up having so much more.
Gorgeous visuals. How much did they spend for the CGI because every scene was so beautiful! The Arbiter Hall, The Moon Palace, the Memory Loss River, the Immortals Realm, etc. Even that scene where Changheng went inside the painting with Rong Hao was so good.
Beautiful costumes. Orchid was always wearing beautiful flowy dresses and her hair accessories are so pretty. DFCQ’s costumes are also splendid, so are Lord Changheng and Ronghao’s costumes. Their wedding costumes in Lucheng were also so gorgeous. The only cringy items are their acrylic looking or gold looking hairpieces that look cheap.
Grand display of power. I loved it every time DFQC used his blue Hellfire – it didn’t look fake and you really feel that he’s the most powerful being in the realm. Even the glazed fire was so shocking. Also everytime DFQC shows up in the earlier episodes to rescue Orchid was wonderfully done. The Goddess of Xilan, when she finally showed her powers to rescue DFQC in one scene, and to stop the battle between the Immortals and Moon Tribe was awesome.
Romantic Comedy. In the first half, Orchid was cute and adorable while DFQC was the unsmiling jerk. There were several light and funny scenes, like when DFQC had to count flowers, laugh and cry while Orchid was laughing and crying. The body swap scenes where Orchid in DFQC’s body was forcibly trying to kiss DFQC in Orchid’s body to swap bodies.
“Not only will I not kill you, I also won’t allow anyone to hurt you. If anyone dares to touch you, I’ll cut their skin off and make a human lantern out of it. From now on, you’re mine. Your life belongs to me. Your breathing belongs to me. Your heartbeat belongs to me. Every drop of blood in your body belongs to me. Without my permission, don’t leave my sight.”
Eternal Love. By episode 20, Orchid and DFQC are still not together, but not because they don’t like each other, but because of their current situation. DFQC’s mission is to kill everyone in Shuyuantian to avenge the wrong treatment of Orchid and to restore the Moon Tribe like he promised his father and his tribe. Orchid is from Shuyuantian and even though she loves DFQC, she doesn’t want him to start a war and kill her hometown. The angst. Omg! I was crying whenever they had to argue about this. And that scene where DFQC put the bone crushing thing inside his body which causes him pain every midnight until he is able to release the frozen Moon Tribe and Orchid’s helplessness in the situation.
The argument scene when Orchid wants to take the 3 day punishment in DFQC’s place to show the people that she deserves to be the Moon Queen, and DFQC pretending to drink the tea and secretly vomiting it so that he feels the same pain as Orchid. I was bawling like crazy!! I’ve never watched a drama where the main leads were really fighting for each other and willing to sacrifice their lives.
When Orchid learns of her true identity and tries to pretend she doesn’t remember DFQC but makes a mistake of doing the Smile gesture that gave away the truth, and DFQC kissing her like there’s no tomorrow.
Ugh!! I still can’t move on from the final episode where **BIG SPOILERS AHEAD** DFCQ sacrificed himself. Such a significant character growths for both the main leads. Of course, I wasn’t too bothered with the sacrifice. They are immortals, so I thought they can just come back / reincarnate or whatever. DFCQ carefully planting and taking care of Orchid’s seed and Orchid taking care of DFQC’s moon spirit until he comes back (after 500 years but that’s fast considering they’ve lived for more than 30,000 years).
Noble Second Male Lead. Lord Changheng was so nice, I wouldn’t have minded Orchid being with Changheng without DFQC. Changheng also had a sad fate. He is engaged to the goddess that he has never seen, falls in love with Orchid, and hiding his feelings for her because he is engaged to the goddess, not knowing that they are the same person!! When he finally founds out the truth, Orchid has already fallen in love with DFQC. Later when Orchid is the Goddess and wants to pushthrough with their wedding even if Changheng knows she doesn’t love him. Aw poor boy can’t catch a break. And his best friend Rong Hao betrays him and everyone in Shuyuantian.
Wonderful Bromance. DFCQ and the loyal Shang Que. DFQC and the mortal Xiao Run which later became a bond with Lord Changheng. Lord Changheng and Ronghao (tragic but still a good bromance). DFQC and Xunfeng.
Rich Side Stories. There were so many other stories aside from the main leads’ story, which extended the episodes into 36. We have the love story between Shang Que and Jie Li, which I honestly do not approve of. I think Shang Que deserves a better girl than Jie Li, although I also like Jie Li’s dilemma of following Haishi or protecting her friends.
The Lu Cheng episodes where the immortals all went down to the mortal realm were a huge treat. Chidi Woman and Orchid’s friendship. Chidi Woman’s crush on DFQC. I think the poem came true, that Chidi was supposed to meet DFQC that night, get married and was killed by DFQC. She wasn’t meant to be with Changheng like they all think. I think Chidi woman had the saddest story of all the characters (Changheng comes second).
Changheng and Danyin’s friendship. I was hoping they end up together but I guess they are really just friends. Plus Li Yuan’s big reveal about Danyin being a half Moon Tribe (which she never knows) and finding out Danyin and Jieli are sisters (they look so different from each other though – aren’t they supposed to be twins or something).
Evil Bad Guys. Show’s not complete without the villains. For the most part, the villain is Rong Hua/Lord of Haishi City who has been wreaking havoc across the realms to reincarnate his beloved mentor Chidi woman. I liked in the first half because although he is bad, you can sympathize with him and his mission of wanting to bring back his beloved at all costs. But I think what he did in the latter half was too much and the last episode spent a lot of time on him and Chidi woman was unnecessary. We want less Rong Hao, more Orchid/DFQC scenes and he just took most of the time away from the could have been a very happy ending.
I also think Lord Yunzhong is a big annoying immortal who keeps abusing his power and blaming every mistake to Changheng or Orchid.
There’s an even bigger baddie in Tai Sui which serves as the climax of the drama.
Of course, there’s no perfect drama and LBFD also suffered slightly from this. i already mentioned what I didn’t like – Shang Que and Danyin, too much screentime for Rong Hao in the last episode (we didn’t need to know his background story and we don’t really care). The last scene could have been extended for maybe 10 more minutes so we could have seen Orchid and DFQC happy and possibly with kids in the future. We didn’t get the best ending but I’ll just go back to that previous episode when they DFQC was in a dream that he and Orchid were happy and pretend like that’s the real ending.
This is showing in Netflix today so please do not miss this wonderful drama!
Profile: Drama: One and Only Original Network: iQiyi, Tencent Video Aired: Aug 18, 2021 – Aug 27, 2021 (Wed, Thur, Fri) Episodes: 24 Duration: 45 min. Country: China
Main Cast: Allen Ren – Zhousheng Chen Bai Lu – Cui Shi Yi Wang Xing Yue – Liu Zi Xing Li Yi Ru – General Hong Ethan Yao – Cui Feng Su Meng Yun – Feng Qiao Zhou Lu La – Xiao Yan Liu Wei Wei – Cui Wen Jun
Review: I heard a lot of great reviews about this drama last year that’s why I really put this on my watchlist. Finally had the time to watch in Dec 2021. This story started slow, I almost dropped at episode 6 but glad I listened and kept on watching. I did however, take several weeks until I was able to finish this. I couldn’t wait until ZSC and Shiyi’s romance starts (which was around episode 10) and I was hooked since then.
Zhousheng Chen and Shiyi’s forbidden love was heartbreaking! They never even held hands or kissed or confessed their love, but every gaze and every tear showed how much they long for each other and wished that things were different. I loved their “dates” and how they just connected so well and knew what each other wanted to do or say without telling the other person. One of my favorite episodes were during the time ZSC and Shiyi stayed in Long Kang Academy. It was there that they really started to feel more than just master-disciple. That scene when ZSC was kneading (?) her shoulders was filled with so much tension, and they weren’t even naked or hugging each other. Huan Yu (and later on Shiyi) asked ZSC if he ever regrets making his vow not to have a family. But he said every decision he made was worth it. Huhu. He is faithful, loyal, courageous, but also stubborn. I remember even when ZSC was set up, Feng Qiao cried to ZSC, “for once, just be selfish!”, but he still refused to yield.
Bailu also so pretty as Shiyi and when she cries, I can feel every emotion — when she hugged him so tightly because she was getting married to the Prince and knew she will never be with ZSC, when she found out his death, I was crying with her!!, and when she jumped to her own death 😭 OMG!!! I couldn’t stop crying in the last 3 episodes! 😭 Especially the final episode. I had to watch her final scene 3x and still I cried. I understand how she felt. What’s life without ZSC? Without freedom? Trapped inside the palace by a selfish prince? As long as she lived and refused the prince (now king) advances, her family will always be threatened. I think she took a courageous decision. In modern times, suicide is not the answer, but during the old times, someone always had to sacrifice themselves for the greater good and to achieve peace. Gah!! I just feel sad that Zhousheng Chen and Shiyi never saw each other for the last time before their deaths. ZSC’s final letter to Shiyi was the final thing that broke Shiyi’s spirit “Throughout my life, I never let down anyone except Shiyi.”
I wasn’t that interested in the politics, esp in the early parts where they introduced so many characters, I was getting confused who was who, who was siding with which family, and what they were fighting for. I hated the empress dowager and pushing her off the lake to drown wasn’t enough to punish her for all her crimes, including killing the emperor. She should have been beheaded or displayed in from of the capital. It was during these episodes that I started to like the politics side of the story, and this intensified and the story became thrilling starting from episode 16. But of course, there were too many collateral damage from the struggle for the throne. the emperor died, the grandmaster died, the loyal general was forced to betray the Nanchen army, 2 of Nanchen’s generals were injured, and 1 died.
One of the best things about this drama is the focus on the Junior Prince Nanchen army team. Let me break down the key characters in ZSC’s army:
I loved the story between Cui Feng and General Hong. It was also a forbidden love kind of romance. When Gen Hong cried when Cui Feng had to marry Princess Xinghua, when she learned that they got divorced, Cui Feng and Gen Hong were already planning to stay together. But then Cui Feng got kidnapped by Jin Rong’s army and she almost had to kill Cui Feng (as promised — good thing ZSC arrived in time to stop the arrow), and Cui Feng crying when General Hong was killed during a battle. It was funny though that there were so many troops attacking them but Cui Feng, Feng Qiao stopped to hug and cry over Gen Hong, while ZSC was left alone to fend off the attacks from all fronts.
Other characters I liked were Xiao Yan (the monk), although I didn’t like his interactions/semi flirtations with Feng Qiao. I find Feng Qiao annoying and dense sometimes – she couldn’t read the room and always looked clueless. I also loved Prince Pingqin, who was loyal to Western State and Shiyi, and was ready to take her away in the last episode. Huan Yu from the Long Kang Academy was a cutie with long straight flowing hair and small dimples. He tried so hard to play cupid between ZSC and Shiyi; and I also liked Gen Chou. You know what? I love everyone in the Western State. The whole Nanchen army were so loyal and dedicated to ZSC. It’s so unfair ZSC had to die of dismemberment 😵 when he was the only one who didn’t want to partake in the throne grabbing. Special mention to Yang Shao, who I thought was one of those annoying characters, but he redeemed himself later on by helping ZSC and Shiyi in their final moments.
The person i hated the most was Luo Zi Xing. First, he had this weird obsession with Shiyi just because he grew up being told he is arranged to be married to her. He doesn’t know her at all, but thinks he loves her and he felt unfair that the engagement was cancelled. I thought he treated her more like a possession than a human being. If he really loved her, he would have tried to understand her and not trap her into a marriage that made her unhappy. But in the end I dont feel bad at all or angry at him. Because of his hunger for power, he killed the Liu family (his relatives), Shiyi killed herself, he barely enjoyed being the king because he died young, sad and alone, and without an heir.
And now I’m off to watch the sequel Forever and Ever 🥰
KDrama Dreaming 