Non Shitty Chinese or Taiwanese Dramas

 Officialbiscuitbaka:

But NIF has a sequel. How is it compared to NIF? (haven't watched the sequel)

I have the sequel on my ptw but I've been timid to watch it only because I don't think I'll be as good as the original, despite the high score it also has. One day I'll get to it tho.

It started with a kiss. (seasons 1) and They kiss again (season 2)  (Taiwan)

bubu jing xing (Scarlet Heart) 

Ten miles of peach blossoms (Eternal Love)

Fated to love you

Love O2O

General and I 

Princess Wei young 

suddenly Seventeen (Movie) China

Legend of Lu Zhen 

Love me if you dare 

The witness ( Movie) China

One smile is very Alluring ( Movie) 

My new princess Pearl 

Prince of Lan ling 

Our Shining Days (Movie ) 

Left Ear (movie) 

Love keeps going (taiwan) 

Behind your smile 

Hana Kimi ( Taiwan)

The fierce Wife 

The Rose (old But Good) 

when love walked in 

Drunken to love you 

devil beside you

Ashes of love

eternal love

bloody romance

 ponyooo:

Go for historical cdramas ever since I started watching them I can't seem to watch historical kdramas anymore lol

• The Rise of Phoenixes (currently watching and it's the best)
• Eternal Love (Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms)
• Ashes of Love
• Imperial Doctress

Non-historical I recommend would be Les Interprètes  it's less annoying to those that you've watched before

Well I don't reallly watch non-historical cdramas much so I dont know if you'll like Les Interpretes

I haven't ventured into historical cdramas before but I'll give a few of them a shot. 

Scarlet Heart

Rule The World

Ruyi's Royal Love In The Palace

 ShotaSidePart:

So many people recommend Love O2O and I want to know why? 

I found this drama so boring and pointless. The only good things about it were that the leads were confident in each other and didn't believe others that were trying to break them up and the "side couple" KO and Mr. Beauty (who didn't even get all that much screen time).

I didn't really care for the drama,  but since I was a lover of the novel I gave it a shot, it was honestly hard for me to watch. i just know a-lot of people like this type of genre so i recommended.  The reason it was a bit hard for me to watch was because the actress was WAAYYY to skinny, to the point it looked extremely unhealthy and it was a bit hard to look at for me... (my honest opinion) I love her as an actress, but that was the first time i ever saw her that thin.  but overall I didn't hate the drama, the movie was a bit better. 

Here are the Taiwanese Chinese dramas that I gave a shot and failed at finishing:

Why Why Love 

The Rose 

Ashes of Love  (The FL lead was annoying to me both in terms of acting and how the character was written)

Bloody Romance  (I'll give it a second shot, mainly for the ML's acting)

Sm:)e  (I might give it a second shot)

The Eternal Love (could not get past the first episode because of how annoying then bland the FL was, depending on the "character" within the body)

Where the Lost Ones Go  (acting was great but I got bored halfway through)

Dramas that I was able to complete (with a LOT of fast-forwarding):

Behind Your Smile (great chemistry btw leads, the FL as a character got better as the drama advanced)

The Love Knot: His Excellency’s First Love (good chemistry btw leads but mostly because of the 2nd leads, her female friend and the two guys)

Dramas I'm still planning to give a shot (although I don't have high hope at this point):

Autumn's Concerto 

Black & White 

Love, Now 

Silence 

The Perfect Match 

Fifteen Years to Wait for Migratory Birds 

Love is in the Air 

At this point, I think Chinese & Taiwanese dramas, especially Chinese, are not my cup of tea 

- The comedy usually feels forced or too slapstick for me (and yes I'm well aware it can be the case in kdramas as well and I rarely like it there too with a few exceptions)

- Even after multiple attempts over a span of a decade, I still can not get past the dubbing and it usually feels very obvious especially with all the ahs ehms and sounds voice actors make to fill the silence in a scene. That's probably why I find Taiwanese dramas slightly better.

- The acting is more often than not wooden and uninspired.

- The FLs are more often than not idiots or/and annoying and yet are perceived as innocent by everyone else. I don't know about everyone else, but innocence is not the same as idiocy. I don't know whether the actresses or the writers are more to blame. Park Min Young's character in Sungkyunkwan Scandal and  Queen for Seven Days comes to mind as a character who is innocent yet not annoying or idiotic. Yoon Eun Hye in Coffee Prince, Min Ah in Aranf & the Magistrate also come to mind. Jun Ji Hyun's character in You Who Came From the Stars was silly and an idiot yet she had moments of sincerity and genuine emotions that most people can latch on. And more importantly, she always felt like an actual person, humane, someone I can connect to. Meanwhile, some of the female leads in the dramas I attempted to watch (those listed in this post as well as my first post in this thread) had little genuine emotions and seemed silly to the point of lacking an understanding of human interaction/behavior. Ashes of Love comes to mind. Having a bead that stops you from feeling love does not automatically lead to you being an idiot or lacking the ability to read the context of a conversation or situation (even in nonromantic scenes/interactions). She lacked in curiosity and had no interest in asking questions in any situation. When the empress got mad at her and she seemed bewildered she didn't bother asking why and that's just one minor example of MANY. By episode 16, it seemed that the FL was incapable of growth since she consistently did not learn from her mistakes. At that point, I decided that I'm not willing to invest in 60+ hours waiting to see when she will grow up and develop human-like/relatable feelings and interactions. 

Looking at all the positive reviews for some of these dramas, I'm not sure if I'm the only cranky and crazy person who sees problems in everything or if something is wrong with me. Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I'm simply not in the mood. Or maybe Chinese dramas are just not my thing. 

Yeah, I feel you on the dumb FL stuff - I love a competent FL, one who can actually do her job well(!) and can stand up for herself(!!) without being hysterical. Like you, I've been watching dramas for a long time, and as time goes on I have less and less tolerance for leads who are too stupid to live. If I have to watch idiot lead characters, they better be stinkin cute. Too bad they usually aren't.

Anyways, here's some reccs (that might've already been said)

The Perfect Match - I see you are already planning to watch this one - I can really only recommend the first 16-17 episodes. The quality nosedives after that. But those first 17ish episodes are really nice - the FL and ML (and the ML's best friend lol) have great chemistry, the FL is talented and not totally stupid, and Chris Wu (the ML) is a gem. There's some clingy second leads, but they aren't too crazy.

Dr. Qin - This one doesn't really have any romance, but you might like it anyway. The lead trio has great chemistry with one another and the FL is so great. 

Across the Ocean to See You - A strong FL with a beta ML. Plot's a little thin, but their relationship develops in a really nice way. 

You might also want to try some of the dramas adapted from Ding Mo's novels. She tends to write pretty capable FLs and the plots are usually well contained.

I agree with a lot of your complaints though. I think a lot of Cdramas and TWdramas (and even Kdramas sometimes) are killed by their episode counts. Like Only Side by Side with You has a pretty decent story to tell, nice chemistry among the cast, William Chan, a fairly unique and smart FL...but they had to fill 40 episodes so they padded the show out like crazy with endless, repeated flashbacks and long episode recaps (all easily skippable thankfully). So many of these dramas  have stories that could be told in 20ish episodes or less, but instead they make the episode count double that and fill the time with useless filler (flashbacks, unnecessary melodrama, pointless side characters, unfunny comic-relief bits, etc.) :/