WM

I don't know about it.

While I was duped by the "Legend of the female General" trailer- the one promising me the legendary story of the heroic female general- and I got a cute military rom-com instead, the one here was already off-putting, with red flags everywhere.
The same happened with "Royal Bethroyal", so after checking some clips, both dramas were easily droppable.

It's not easy task, because you rarely have such a trash human playing the ML here (I'm talking the character, not the actor); typically he would be a main antagonist, like a Yang Kang in "Legend of the Condor Heroes".

Maybe "Blossoms of Power" would do it, the ML there is quite similar, but was toned down heavily compared to the novel.

Yes, both MLs were quite similar (trying really hard to not call them names...); not a surprise then I dropped both these dramas :).

Likeable characters with tags: Arrogant Female Lead + Cold Male Lead?

I'm waiting for HIDDEN SHADOW as well, but it remains... hidden :(.

I didn't see that one, but maybe I will. You definitely made it pique my interest, plus Ryan Cheng is a rare Idol actor I can tolerate, so it's even better with him.

Besides "Are you the One?", I only watched a few episodes of "Love Has Fireworks".
I don't think WCR looked as good there as in "Are you the One?", but it's like discussing what is "10" and what is "9.5", lol.

No, you didn't. I thought it was because I had written too much nonsense :).

I am barely watching anything at the moment, mostly because I am trying to get better at playing chess :).

Regarding "Blossom of Power" - I watched a few episodes, and the 2nd couple is the main reason to watch it; until episodes 27/28 they even have a decent screen time (and the female lead is an amazing crossdresser).
I dropped it mostly because I couldn't stand a creepy, Marty Sue ML, who got away with his obsession with the female lead just because he is a good-looking Prince ML.
Not as bad as in "G2G", but not much better, especially when the female lead was trying to distance herself from him.

But, I think I am done with dramas, at least the big productions - even when they seem well done, like "Road to Splendor", they have way too many tropes I am tired of watching; like villains winning way too much, especially in the 2nd part, mixed with the main couple getting dumber to make it possible, with them also having way too many miscommunications, etc...)
I am still trying some Vertical Dramas though, with so-so results.

Also, Reversal Role Club sounds interesting in theory, but it still has the main flaw - Romance :).
The best and most interesting female lead roles are when there are no ML around (at least not in the Romance way)

"The female lead (WCR) is insanely gorgeous."
Yes, she is. She is one of the rare actresses who should have a "beautiful and gorgeous" category only for them.

"In her previous drama, her visual aura wasn't 100% unleashed yet. "
I hope you are not talking about "Are you the One?", because she looked OMG there!!!

It's always amazing how people enjoy different things - after the 1st (supposedly) humour scene, I knew I would ff them every time; maybe the ones with ML's advisor were an exception.

I'm yet to see a C-drama (I make this distinction, as foreign ones tend often to be highly inflated, which hugely surprises me) that I enjoyed with a tanked rating on Douban.
Or the opposite.

It's not like I watched everything, but it's as reliable as it can get in 2026.

If the writers were consistent in presenting the female lead as a competent and capable politician, she should make either her uncle or at least his shady advisor disappear.

The same goes for "empress lady" - you can't touch her because she is ML's late brother's fiancée? You definitely can touch her servant/bodyuard; just kidnap and torture him, as her behaviour is shady enough to justify it.

But of course, according to standard C-drama script, the villains need their wins before the big end, so the female lead was already deep in "sheep awaiting the slaughter" mode with half of her IQ gone.

The synopsis reminds me a bit of "Kill My Sins", at least on the female part, and since it has WCR playing her, I will definitely check it out when the time comes.

But...
"who appears to be a playboy but is actually wise and brave" - this cliche is so overdone, ugh.

There are a lot of excellent Vertical Dramas these days, but you need to know how to properly sort the trash to find them.
Some of them are even tackling serious issues surprisingly well, like the one drama I enjoyed a lot, where the female lead, after multiple rebirths, had serious PTSD from her oppressor.

It's also a low 5.0 at Douban, which is much more reliable than MDL

I like Wang Chu Ran too and I lowe Wang Chu Ran walking/running in tight Qipaos, but I don't like Wang Chu Ran playing a character who is a terrible decision-maker trying to execute her revenge, and who, without ML, would die a gazillion times.

"This is one of the best Cdramas that came out this year, considering that there were very few good productions this year"

Purposely or not; what a beautiful backhanded compliment :).

Yes, they had elephant-level subtlety.

Okay, I found a surprising issue with Douban - foreign dramas' ratings are incredibly inflated there. Pretty much every Korean/Japanese drama I enjoyed is around 9.0 there, crazy compared to the harsh standard of judging Chinese shows.

That surprises me a lot, actually.

Your numbers are a bit off, but:
- Legend of the Female General is 5.4 at Douban (let's say it's correct)
- Pursuit of Jade is 6.4 at Douban (also correct as it's clearly better than the former)
- The Double & Prisoner of Beauty are 6.6-6.7 (too high IMO, would like them below PoJ, maybe around 6.0, or maybe with reversed rating)

Not sure if the difference is big enough to discuss. I consider the LOTFG to be the weakest show among them, and Douban ratings clearly show it too.

It's one of the shows that I always wanted to watch with English subtitles.
Unfortunately, they never arrived, so I only enjoyed the action scenes watching them Raw.
Btw, it has a surprisingly decent Douban rating (6.3).