First, I have to make a disclaimer. I know I don’t watch as many C-Dramas for someone who claims to really love them.
Second disclaimer, all C-Dramas that will be mentioned below are modern C-Dramas.
A few reasons why:
I actually try to understand every single word that they’re saying. I watch them with Mandarin subtitles, so I pay attention to anything I don’t understand.
I don’t skip any scenes, there are no “boring” scenes to me. I won’t watch C-dramas at 2x speed. I’ll watch everything from beginning to end.
BUT I interact with many pins on Pinterest about C-Dramas and I watch so many C-Drama edits on WeChat Channels and Instagram. I even occasionally see stuff on RedNote.
A Love So Beautiful《致我们单纯的小美好》
My rating: 3.5/5 stars
When I watched it: 2 years ago
Why I watched it: My dad recommended it, and we actually watched it together as a family.
What I liked: The episodes were funny and entertaining. The plot line was enjoyable too, overall fun to watch.
What I disliked: I only noticed a major flaw after reading other people’s comments on Reddit. People were saying that the main male lead was a red flag. This is the “ohhh.. wait yeahh” ahh moment.
My favorite character:
I liked Wu BoSong (吴柏松). He was wholesome, funny, and really caring towards the main female lead, Chen XiaoXi (陈小希). I remembered feeling conflicted about him. While I admire that he truly treated Chen XiaoXi well, I was also really rooting for the main female lead to get with the main male lead, Jiang Chen (江辰).
Looking back at it now, I can tell that while Jiang Chen did have some moments of care towards Chen XiaoXi, he was inconsistent because he still treated her coldly, always pushing her away. I looked at his moments of kindness, but didn’t look at the overall pattern and account for his cold behaviour at times.
Go Ahead 《以家人之名》
My rating: 4.5/5 stars
When I watched it: 1 year ago
Why I watched it: This was one of the C-Dramas I found when looking for recommendations.
What I liked: I loved the tragic plot and the romantic drama. I don’t think there’s much “real” romance in this CDrama though. It was more about family, friendship, and all the drama that happens within it.
What I disliked: I tried to ignore other people’s complaints about how it might be a bit weird for there to be romance between the main characters, because they grew up together like siblings. They’re basically family. This is the kind of thing that definitely crossed my mind but I’ll 睁一只眼，闭一只眼 (turn a blind eye) to it.
My Favorite Character: Their Dad, Li HaiChao (李海潮), is a wonderful parent figure. Maybe he doesn’t always make the right decisions, but he truly has a good heart. He always treats his kids right, and it was so touching how he welcomed the two boys who aren’t his son by blood, but treated them like his own children.
Our Secret 《暗格里的秘密》
My rating: 4/5 stars
When I watched it: 10 months ago
Why I watched it: Again, from browsing through recommendations.
What I liked: This was the first drama that made me really think: “I really want to experience romance.” Zhou SiYue (周斯越), the male lead, is such a green flag, I love his treatment towards Ding Xian (丁羡), the main female lead.
What I disliked: The plot where Ding Xian tries to get into the same university and the same major with Zhou SiYue. It annoys me because that major might not align with her own interests.
My Favorite Character: I liked the second male lead, Su BoCong (苏柏从), because he’s really handsome in the drama :’D. He was actually really nice towards Ding Xian, but at the end, their values clash. Ding Xian still ends up with Zhou SiYue.
When I Fly Towards You 《当我飞奔向你》
My rating: 6/5 stars 😀
When I watched it: 6 months ago
Why I watched it: This was really popular online, I saw a lot of edits of this C-Drama and decided to give it a go.
What I liked: This C-Drama is LIFE CHANGING. I totally get the hype now. It’s stuff like this that changes my view on romance <3. I believe in love again.
What I disliked: I kind of agree when people say that the first episode wasn’t that interesting. I was a bit confused at times. But I love how the storyline progressed afterward.
My Favorite Character: I loved Su ZaiZai (苏在在) the most. She’s a sweet ball of sunshine that illuminates the world and people around her. She’s so adorable and quirky. But ultimately, what made Zhang LuRang (张陆让) fall in love with her wasn’t just her charming persona, it’s this kind of sincere and wholehearted love that radiates off her that’s so irresistible.
The First Frost 《难哄》
My rating: infinity/5 stars 🫠
When I watched it: 2 months ago
Why I watched it: This C-Drama got a lot of attention on the internet.
What I liked: The vibes, the cinematography, the storyline is all immaculate! This one is my favorite C-Drama of all time! It felt refreshing to see a female C-Drama lead who is lonely and sad, someone I can relate to.
What I disliked: I have to admit that people were right about the incredibly slow romance. In real life, if there was really anything romantic going on, it would progress a lot faster. This kinda messed up my perspective on how romance works.
My Favorite Character: My favorite character is Sang Yan （桑延）!!! He was really handsome and charming with his dry humor and *cool* personality. He’s the ultimate acts-of-service guy. He’s yearner final boss! Sang Yan, you worked so hard to get Wen YiFan (温以凡). I agree with what people say that he “willed the stars to align in his favor”. He never let go of “the string that tied them together”.
A small note for Mandarin learners:
It’s difficult to describe the Mandarin difficulty for the C-Dramas. Personally, I think that you need an intermediate to high level of Mandarin to watch C-Dramas comfortably (without subtitles in a familiar language). Even when there are a lot of unknown words, I can still understand what they’re saying based on context.
When I was still a beginner, I could catch a few words from the Mandarin subtitles, but I couldn’t listen to them perfectly. To a beginner, they speak way too quickly.
What I mean is, if you’re a beginner, you might recognize a few words from the Mandarin captions if you pause the video. But it feels almost impossible to understand it in real-time.
The more I practice listening, the easier it is to finally be able to listen to C-Dramas comfortably.
Even though I might not get the CDrama plot that I want, I got my dream of studying in China, and that in itself is such a blessing.
And that’s a wrap-up of my C-Drama review for now! I realized that I mostly watch CDramas that are already pretty popular. If there are any other good C-Drama recs, please comment down below :D. I might write part two after watching 5 other C-Dramas.
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