Michelle Topham

It's a Season 4. And as, for the cast, the entire full main cast stars in this one. So MDL's cast list is completely wrong, as they've mixed up the cast of this one with the recent TOTD mini drama spin-off. Weirdly.

According to iQIYI, it's the exact same main cast list as the three other seasons -- as it would be :)

It literally ended filming less than a year and a half ago, and it premieres on December 17th. So... :)

A reminder. For the love of God, please stop clicking on Tonboriday links. The site is a scam site that does nothing but spread AI-generated lies and slander. And the person who posts them contributes NOTHING to My Drama List except post links to Tonboriday trash articles in topic after topic.

So sick of these vile people trying to destroy actors' lives just so they can make money off their misery.

It's been one after another awful scripts for poor Liu Xue Yi, but The Princess's Gambit is the worst yet. Really holding out hope Against the Current is a far better drama.

Impossible to finish. I finally gave up at Episode 31 as the stupidity of the script ramps up to 100 out of 100.

One of the worst dramas I've watched all year. Horribly written, Meng Zi Yi CANNOT act, and the story is idiotic. The only two good things about this are Liu Xue Yi and several of the supporting actors, and the cinematography. Otherwise a huge waste of about 30 hours of my life.

And poor Liu Xue Yi. He deserves a much better script and an FL who can actually act.

First 10 episodes or so were excellent. Then, as soon as she fell off the cliff and Meng Zi Yi's face looked as blank as it always does, it descended into stupidity. Haven't hated where a could-have-been-superb drama ended up this much in a LONG time. Awful awful awful drama.

And not surprised its rated a 5.4 on Douban -- which, as anything below a 6 means abysmal, you can only imagine how much Chinese viewers and critics hated this too.

Weird, because I felt the same way about When Life Gives you Tangerines :) I've watched 6 episodes so far and, while I like it, it does seem emotionally draining doesn't it. Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty tho is just a fun and fast watch :)

Just in case you missed it, because WeTV didn't do much international promotion, it dropped on WeTV yesterday under the title Supersensory Maze. Watched the first episode and it's excellent so far.

https://wetv.vip/en/play/lxcqx07i9z8c6y0

You're welcome. And, as usual, YOUKU did a terrible job of promoting the drama internationally :) Only reason I even knew it had an English title, as it didn't have when I wrote about it a week ago, I was changing some information on my website for 'Chao Gan Mi Gong', went to YOUKU's front page and that popped up and I thought "That looks familiar". ROTFL

And don't get me started on why Chinese streaming services often don't release the English title of their dramas until 24 hours before they drop. Sooooo annoying :)

And I'm with you on Chinese crime dramas. They don't seem to get anywhere near as many views as wuxia or other genres, but so many of them are so good. Hope you enjoy this one. Like I said, only 1 episode in so far, but thoroughly enjoyed that one.

It's on YouTube LEGALLY -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7SJb873cUc

More and more episodes will be free there as they release.

It's on WeTV -- perfect English subs :) Titled 'Supersensory Maze' -- no idea why MDL hasn't changed the Chinese title yet? And the first episode is excellent.

https://wetv.vip/en/play/lxcqx07i9z8c6y0/p4101t3s2eu-EP01%3A_Supersensory_Maze

EDIT: On YouTube too on WeTV's channel... first ep free, rest for membership only, but will likely also be free as more episodes drop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7SJb873cUc

Douban ratings/votes have nothing to do with whether a drama is funded or not.

Also, Season 1 came out over 3 years ago so of course it has more Douban votes than a series that was released a few weeks ago.

The problem was the change of director, and the directing/story choices he made. Bai Shan is much more skilled than Ju Xing Mao for this kind of drama. I'm only on Ep 8 but not enjoying it anywhere near as much as Seasons 1 and 2. Hopefully Bai Shan will be back for any Season 5 (Season 4 already filmed apparently).

Agree with you. Ju Xing Mao has not directed this as tightly as Bai Shan, and yes, the acting seems far more cartoonish here than in Seasons 1 and 2 where the humor was less over-the-top and more subtle. So much so, so many scenes grate on my nerves as the director has the actor acting TO the camera in this season, which is so amateurish it's annoying.

I stopped at Episode 8 a few weeks ago. Not because I hated it, but because it wasn't grabbing me like Seasons 1 and 2. Am just starting up again as, like you, i will complete it but I'm disappointed with the level of quality difference between Seasons 2 and 3 so far.

Hopefully, with Season 2 just grabbing the Asian Academy Creative Award for Best Drama, any future seasons (after Season 4 which is already filmed apparently) will have Bai Shan directing again. Fingers crossed :)

Fabulous to see To the West winning Best Drama at the Asian Academy Creative Awards, and an exciting announcement considering When Life Gives You Tangerines had scores that were SO close. Loved the looks on Yang Xu Wen and Yang Zhi Gang's faces when the winner was announced too :)

Here's the video, which starts playing right as the award is announced, so you don't have to wade thru the entire 3 hour show :)

https://baozibuns.com/strange-tales-of-tang-dynasty-to-the-west-wins-best-drama-series-at-asian-academy-creative-awards-2025/

Took a break on this, not because I didn't enjoy Ep 1 (I did, immensely) but because I was bogged down with too many dramas to finish.

Just picked it back up again and now 8 eps in and it's so damned good. Funny, smart, very well-written, excellent performances by every cast member, and incredibly pretty cinematography. Loving this so much. Can't wait to see where it goes.

EDIT: Only not so great thing about this so far (now at Episode 11) is there are far too many scenes with the father and son, who are two of the most annoying characters in Cdramas. Would be funny if the scenes were few, but they are often, and go on and on and on for minutes at a time. The actors are superb. The characters? Not so much.

Same. Wish he was the lead.

It wasn't unnecessary though. Xia Xiao was the catalyst that brought Yu Yu and Dr Gu together. Otherwise, they'd both still be circling around each other without admitting their feelings.

I know right. In several scenes in just the first episode of this, I swore I was looking at Cheng Yi. Didn't realize before how similar they sometimes look.

He's dubbing his own voice. All three of them are as far as I know? (also checked all my Chinese sources, and nobody has a voice actor listed for any of them). Could be wrong as I haven't really paid close attention to his voice in previous dramas, but I'm not finding any info on that.

Are you watching it on a dodgy site, as it's completely clear on YOUKU for me? May be your Internet if you are watching YOUKU?