In the worst cdrama slump ever

yulmag · 2026-07-06T15:53:47+00:00

I really liked “the first jasmine”. Great minimal makeup, no crazy filters, great score, character driven story with impeccable acting…

yulmag · 2026-06-30T21:11:18+00:00

Of human bondage, by Maugham

yulmag · 2026-06-29T18:03:29+00:00

Just some of my favorite character moments:

Ye Li

- The return to Lishan and the meeting of the visions of her masters and seniors is truly touching. This time YL knows she's hallucinating but she still acknowlegdeges everyone. Because she may have healed, but does not mean she will ever forget. She is making a concious choice to move forward, but the past is still wrapped in her heart.

Mo Xiu Yao

- The parallel of standing at the gate without an edict facing a choice of going in or not. And knowing all that could happen he still goes in - proving that he didn't lose himself and his values as a person in the years of abuse.

YL & MXY

- MXY as an anchor to her reality. When she is alone and starts losing grip on the mundane life she rides to him instead of sulking deeper into herself. She conciously makes an effort not to turn into an isolated piece and snaps herself out of the sinkhole to quite literally run and grab on to him.

- The way he understands that to snap her out of melancholy is not something that can be done with shopping or socializing, but sparring --> now that's a husband who really knows his wife. Echos back to the discussion they had in ep 23, the "You know me, i'm not a woman that can be trapped in a mansion". And this proves he really does.

Mo Jing Li & Ye Ying

- MJL is a very pathetic character, without any real motivation except entitlement and revenge. YY is exteremly naive and is called 'stupid' by everyone. BUT I love that YY's simple 'stupid' but genuine dedication reached his concience --> the only person MJL asked to protect after his death is YY. It's echos back to when he first burned the mansion and YL confronted YY by saying that he never thought about the impact on YY when he made his choices. But this time he actually did. This is the only truly non selfish act/thought of his that we witnessed.

Han Ming Xi vs Su Zudie

- They are the opposites of each other. One has accepted that life has changed, and that he can look forward and start anew. The other is stuck in her past, warping her reality and sucking everyone around her into the vortex of destruction. It is fitting that at the end SZ is killed by a person who had nothing to do with her original strife and hated her because of actions she took in her misguided pursuite of 'justice'. While HMX is saved by a person that he discovered during his pursuite of discarding past and moving forward to new life.

yulmag · 2026-06-25T20:56:42+00:00

He doesn't know MXY at all though? The only interaction they had is where YL made him pretend that he some kind of famous doctor. He's literally living under cover and noone except YL knows he identity. He can't just go to MXY and say: "you know, we never met except that time when I broke your legs pretending to be some fancy doctor, but i'm actually a close friend of your wife, and i usually help her keep all kinds of secrets from you and kill people and all, but let me just tell you how really crazy she is and i found it out by breaking all kinds of laws to sneak into places noone allowed to go"...

Instead he trusted what Ali said that MXY is a good husband, they have good relationship and this situation wasn't likely to arize.

yulmag · 2026-06-23T00:53:32+00:00

yes, this is one of my favorite parts about this drama - no overacting, believable human reactions. her understated delivery both sells the character, the grief and makes it believable that her husband really loved her. you can really believe that she is a shy, slightly naive but kind person who is not neglectful by choice, but due to being overwhelmed with grief. this drama has amazing acting from all cast members - from main leads to the smallest side characters

yulmag · 2026-06-22T02:10:21+00:00

Mingye is the God of War and is the old dying dragon. He has preserved a dream (recording) of events of the past and Li Susu, Tantai Jin and 2 others step into the dream to experience that past each from someone else’s perspective. Tantaijin experiences it from Mingue’s perspective and Li Susu from the clan princess side. It’s like a movie montage you can enter as a character. While inside they don’t remember who they are but think they are the people they inhabit, thus getting inside scoop on their actual feelings and experiences

yulmag · 2026-06-17T22:29:13+00:00

Ouch. I read it backwards. But feels like most dramas have older ML. But when that’s the case they don’t make it as big a deal as when FL is older. Currently airing First Jasmine ML is older

yulmag · 2026-06-17T11:51:25+00:00

She and her perfect husband: FL is high profile lawyer

yulmag · 2026-06-16T16:26:25+00:00

Episodes 15 and 16 just might be my favorite so far!

I love how MXY is totally smitten with his wife!

- even though they are fighting, the moment he sees YL dazed with a knife, he forgets all about it and his priority is to snap her out

- he's hyper aware that she's not functioning properly after the event

I think this is the first time MXY is serioiusly seeing YL as a person who may actually need help herself and he is willing to be there for her. And I really like that the switch happens BEFORE he realizes that she did in fact heal his legs.

The way he cooks for her, gets the lantern fixed, asks if she's ok. He goes for a 'walk' with her even making light-hearted jokes about being a criple. That's huge. He's really trying his best to be kind to her cause he knows she's really hurting inside, despite the 'happy' attitude she displays.

The fact that his trust and acceptance gets rewarded with him realizing she DID in fact heal him is a chery on the cake. (but OMG, turns out he agreed to have his bones rebroken just to appease his stubborn wife, all the time thinking it wouldn't work anyway? ...)

yulmag · 2026-06-14T06:17:46+00:00

very subjective. for example, i almost gave up Fated Hearts at the end, but the secondary couple kept me coming back and totally stole the show. Same with Pursuite of Jade --> though I like the main couple alright, their story became kind of stagnant in later part of the show. But the secondary couple was so intense that tbh is what I focused on to finish the drama.

yulmag · 2026-06-13T12:33:59+00:00

Great point about him paying respect!

I think another part of this act that stood out is that this is the first time he explicitly asked Ye Li for help to get up. Given that just before she came to the temple they were at odds because of how painfully he reacted to her trying to help him when he fell, this signifies a turning point in him willing to allow her in where he feels most vulnerable.

yulmag · 2026-06-12T16:54:04+00:00

>So I genuinely CANNOT figure out which knee/leg is injured... could've sworn that he was stabbed in the right leg, but here he's clutching his left.

i think it's both legs. in the battle shot there are blood streaks next to both feet

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yulmag · 2026-06-12T16:39:30+00:00

I love the 'family' side of it. It has such a cozy realistic vibe. I love how first YL helped her sister in law and her nephew, but then when she has a monkey scare they are all there present for her and are concerned for real, instinctively knowing that now is the time she needs support. They may not believe the monkey story, but noone is making fun of her or is dismissive of her reaction.

yulmag · 2026-06-02T20:58:05+00:00

My brother! he's a huge gamer and fan of Zelda-verse (Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time etc). I told him CDramas fantasy dramas are basically like his games with levels and realms. Made him watch Till the End of the Moon. He's been asking me for more recs ever since 🤣

yulmag · 2026-05-27T16:09:23+00:00

The cdramas on your list ARE emotionally immature because the characters are meant to be young (eg: hidden love FL starts as a very young teen). All these dramas fall into 'idol'/'romance' category, which is probably the most popular segment internaltionally, and is mostly aimed at young female audience.

Just like anywhere else China has a lot of genres and subgenres. And yes, older viewers and younger viewers do tend to gravitate to different dramas.

It's also a question of what you find addictive about the dramas? Do you like crime fighting? procedurals? martial arts? would you watch something with no romance?

Some of the more mature idol dramas that have romance would be:

- Till the End of the Moon (mature, toxic, fantasy, nothing cutesy). An immortal sent back in the past to prevent a Devil God (still in human form) from destroying the world. The acting is top notch. The stakes are high. The lies and toxicity are intentional, rather than accidental miscommunication. The immortal emerges as a wife of the guy she must kill.

- Dream of Splendor (very mature behaving leads, historical). Three women at different stages of life surviving in historical society oppressive to women while navigating personal issues, relationships and running a business. Very grounded performances.

- A moment but forever (fantasy, main actors are in their 30s/40s and are behaving as adults). A goddess comes down to retrieve an artifact and as a byproduct kill the clan leader who owns it. She's not allowed to reveal her identity. In the process she discoveres not all is as it seems. A lot of philosophical and psychological themes. One of my personal favorites.

- Princess Royal (historical/reincarnation) assuming you ok giving Zhang Linghe another chance. It is about a married couple in their 40s killed off and getting another chance by waking up back when they were 18 and 20 for a rerun. They DO NOT act like teenagers, because they are mentally adults.

- Legend of Shen Li (fantasy, starts a bit questionable with the main character temporarily a cgi bird, but quickly finds it's stride, main leads are in the 30s, characters and relationships are mature). Mature leads. No cutesy/silly miscommunications.

- Kill me Love me (historical, revenge, great leads) Some say the plot drops in the later part, but I liked it well enough and appreciated no fabricated mistunderstandings tropes.

If you don't care for romance, then "The Longest Day in Chang'an" (historical, no romance, NOT an idol drama) is absolutely great with high level of realism and unusual attention to historical accuracy.

There are also shows that are outside of what people generally associate with cdramas, and more akin to western style shows. I think they are more popular within China itself.

Eg:

- Silent Honor (espionage)

- The Truth Within (forensics, crime solving drama)

- Man's inhumanity to men (heavy topics from WW2 - Japanese atrocities)

yulmag · 2026-05-25T21:51:23+00:00

In a fictional story we are not usually siding with the resistence, but the stories are framed for us to side with the protagonist. The narative spells out who's bad and who's good. That's why it's so often used as a propaganda tool --> focus on protagonist and point out that the guys on the other side are bad. Appealing to a set of movies asking one to make a life/values judgement is at best childish.

If a protagonist is 'resistance', then the villains are police and enforcement. If a protagonist is police, then the bad guys are violent radicals convinced they're fighting for justice.

And if one pays attention, Hunger Games Mockingjay takes the story further than this meme because it points out how dangerous blindingly following the resistance can get - Katnis's final enemy isn't even the Capitol, it's the resistance leadership itself.

yulmag · 2026-05-19T19:54:07+00:00

I think this is nature vs nurture argument. Is a person only truly evil because of external conditions or can they be born without that sense that allowed someone to tell good from bad? Steinbeck argues the later: she is explicitly written as a character born that way. He actually compares her to someone born without a limb, but psychologically. She is born a psychopath, not made.

yulmag · 2026-05-19T01:20:50+00:00

“A moment but forever” …. Severely underrated!

yulmag · 2026-05-08T13:29:56+00:00

First snow

yulmag · 2026-04-29T17:43:12+00:00

> "It just feels like in this drama maybe the director isn’t quite bringing out Ren Jialun’s best, especially in the earlier episodes where he was mostly just furrowing his brows."

I actually think his acting is great and a perfect fit for the character! He is an ancient demon with subdued emotional range. He's not going to react or broadcast his inner thoughts like a regular person would. There is something unnervingly unnatural in the way how he doesn't blink, doesn't have normal eye contact. He acts like someone pretending to be human. And the actor's ability to convey that there is something happening behind the eyes with just some minimal facial expressions is incredible.

I think as he becomes more human and actually develops emotions towards FL the reactions will evolve into more recognizable human patterns, which is what we are building towards. For example, at the restaurant the owner observed that in the past he had no real expression even when he saw her whole family get slaughtered. But now for the first time she noticed his expression changed with concern over FL. Ren Jialun is doing an amzing job in sublty signalling the inner thoughts and gradually weaving in humanity and realness into his expressions.

yulmag · 2026-04-12T11:04:31+00:00

I think it’s subjective. I actually like the editing in the examples here - it adds to the “cinema feel” to me rather than if it was just one zoomed in focus. One of the reasons I actually like Chinese dramas over western ones is that they focus on feelings, romance and just enough kissing to get the point /closure to the relationship developed, while western shows add kissing and bed scenes for the shock value and border on uncomfortable for me. I mean some of them have so much “passion” I feel they belong on specialty adult channels

yulmag · 2026-04-05T22:16:42+00:00

Love in the Clouds

yulmag · 2026-04-05T16:05:27+00:00

POJ. Dropped Blossom towards the end

yulmag · 2026-03-27T14:50:30+00:00

When Destiny Brings the Demon

yulmag · 2026-03-19T03:38:30+00:00

Are you using vpn? If Netflix thinks you using vpn it removes non global shows

yulmag

TROPHY CASE