Historical Dramas Club

 moonchild:

I can relate. Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace does look intriguing but I'm not made for dramas with evil scheming and power struggles. 

Well, I personally love "normal" power struggles & scheming, but women scheming to get a man to sleep with them, the whole toxic (and claustrophobic) harem environment, and having no one to root for, it's kinda too much for me! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Hello, I'm late to the discussion but here's my two cents wrt Ruyi's Love in the Palace.

I love political intrigue and power struggles as well. What I do not like is harem struggles where woman scheme against each other for a man (aka emperor). Most of these stories show how little vision the woman had and it really saddens me to see the repression of woman in history.

Most of these harem fights really reflect how little the woman were exposed to the outside world. Their education and early marriage did not really equip them with the maturity and intelligence needed to scheme cleverly.

And Ruyi is filled with this kind of scheming. The emperor is conceited to boot and never really learns his lesson even though he is shown to yearn for Ruyi in the end. I rated the drama pretty high cause it does reflects the attitudes of that time period in my opinion. BUT whether I like watching such an attitude is a totally different story!

I would recommend Novoland & Luoyang instead. There is no woman scheming against each other in either of the two dramas.

Hello there! I have been lurking around for a while now!

Historical dramas have been a bit hard for me to watch usually due to the complexity of the plot or when they usually get to those boring parts. I'm looking for simpler historical dramas to watch in the next year that are-

• not centered on romance
• beginner-friendly
• not too long (32-40 eps max). 

I would love some recommendations from the club members! 

Historical dramas that didn't work for me:

• Moon Lovers
• Love in the Moonlight
• Word of Honor
• Ashes of Love

More specifically, I'm looking for something like Nirvana in Fire (watched the first ep) but less complex.

 Vya van Velaris:

That's a difficult request you ask because political historical dramas are usually complex and long.. lol.

Haha, knew my request was pretty difficult, sorry for that. 

Ooh, always had Joy of Life on my plan to watch, will give it a try for sure!

Have heard about Long Ballad too. Thanks for the recs! :)

 justanotherrey:

Hello there! I have been lurking around for a while now!

Historical dramas have been a bit hard for me to watch usually due to the complexity of the plot or when they usually get to those boring parts. I'm looking for simpler historical dramas to watch in the next year that are-

• not centered on romance
• beginner-friendly
• not too long (32-40 eps max). 

I would love some recommendations from the club members! 

Historical dramas that didn't work for me:

• Moon Lovers
• Love in the Moonlight
• Word of Honor
• Ashes of Love

More specifically, I'm looking for something like Nirvana in Fire (watched the first ep) but less complex.

Like NiF but less complex, and better for beginners... That's exactly what Joy of Life is I'd say, so I'd also like to recommend it to you! :) (Though it's 46 episodes)

Other that aren't centred on romance, less than 40 episodes: 
- Ancient Detective
- Kingdom
- Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People
- Tree With Deep Roots

More than 40 episodes:
- Young Blood
- The Long Ballad
- Six Flying Dragons
- The Untamed

Romances, but are good for beginners imo:
- The Princess's Man
- Sound of the Desert
- The Princess Wei Young

Hi y'all, how is everyone? Hope you guys are keeping safe. I've been away from MDL for a few months and I'm now trying to catch up on what has been happening. I quickly skimmed through the posts here so please forgive me if I ask about stuff already answered. I see we now have a club profile - this is wonderful! Content-wise, do we have any specific plans for the profile? It would be a great place to link to relevant reviews/articles/recommendations etc. and for highlighting external sources (videos, books etc) that would develop our understanding (and enjoyment!) of the historical dramas we enjoy so much. I'm currently reading a book titled China: A History (by John Keay) and it's so insightful, it's making me want to revisit all my Chinese historical dramas.

I watched a handful of dramas during the time I was away, two of them being historicals: Ancient Love Poetry (fantasy) and General's Lady, both of which I enjoyed. 

For Ancient Love Poetry, it took me a while to complete because I ignored it for long stretches, to the point where I thought I would eventually drop it. The drama is roughly divided into three parts, and after I got past what I call the prologue (ep 1 to 16), it was smoother sailing during the middle section (ep 17-38); this is where most of the real action takes place and that portion kept me invested. The resolution/wrapping up portion (ep 39 to 49) was too draggy for me but, overall, I liked the drama more than I thought I would.

General's Lady I completed just some days ago; I only started it because of cute YouTube clips which kept popping up in my side panel. It's mostly sweet and lighthearted; plot-wise, it's easily the most simplistic historical drama I've watched to date. 

Going forward, I plan to spend less time at MDL but, hopefully, not stay away for another full 3 months! I'm looking forward to seeing how we can develop the club profile and will happily contribute in any way I can. 

 Fourthaxis:

Hi everyone so I wanted to know how you guys are finding Sword Snow Stride. 

I wanted to watch it but I generally watch shows with complex plot & political intrigue very slowly. So was wondering if I can binge this show once all episodes are released or if I should go slow & watch a few episodes at a time.

Hello Fourthaxis,

I'm watching the series one episode a day and imo it has not yet showed any complexity! It's, still, light and has humorous scenes in it, so it's up to you if you want too binge in Januari or start now and watch it daily! It's worthy either way 😊