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.