Constructive criticism is always helpful. But there will unfortunately also be malicious trolls that make all…
Thank you for your consideration. I was thinking about what you recently said on another one of my articles, so here are some suggestions (all with good subtitles):
2) If you're talking chinese dramas that are 16 episodes or shorter, I would recommend modern dramas such as "Mobius" (needs IQiyi subscription) or "Beloved" (You can watch eight episodes of "Beloved" free on the IQiyi Youtube channel):
3) I don't know if you watch animations, but this is possibly the best one out there in C-Ent this far (no romance, tight editing and storytelling, and the quality is overall awesome in a post-apocalytica xuanhuan manner) with the first three episodes free:
Everyone's got different preferences, so no worries :)Zhou Ye does nothing for me in her historical costume dramas,…
Thanks for the praise!
"Origin" is going to be totally different, where Wu Jinyan has to be sassy. It's going to be a very different character for her, unlike her previous roles (I am curious how she will carry that off). I'm sure Xiao Shunyao will be awesome, plus you and I have similar tastes in certain genres such as the not-yet-aired "Southern Anecdote" now officially known as "Archives: The Nanyang Mystery", rumoured to air on 10 June:
Liang Yongqi does complex characters well. He was excellent opposite Wu Jinyan in "The Double". I also…
Why don't you share here, about why "City of The City" is one of your favourites?
I understand MDL users (and there are a fair number of silent lurkers unless they feel safe enough to comment) see comments, and some might decide to watch dramas based on what someone shares. Articles are where users of all different types of preferences converge, instead of being separated by drama pages or fan pages.
I do find this genre fascinating, but so far haven't found one short enough to get through. What i love is the…
Translations can be problematic. I am not reliant on subtitles, so that isn't a problem for me.
What kind of dramas do you watch, for historical costume dramas? Do you prefer xianxia? Xuanhuan? Wuxia and if so, classic wuxia or modern wuxia? Romance as the primary focus, or romance as a side dish but with a well-done main plotline and characters? Wuxia parodies are in short supply, sadly.
Idol dramas versus non-idol dramas have different areas of focus.
Here is my comment about "The Heir" (this is in the style of non-idol drama):
Constructive criticism is always helpful. But there will unfortunately also be malicious trolls that make all…
Perhaps you could DM me 2 of those papers :D
There are all sorts of people on every website, especially trolls. A sociologist will have a field day on MDL, especially if they encounter one very unhappy troll who has at least seven sockpuppet accounts by now on, tried to bully actual fans of a specific C-Ent actor off this site while pretending to be a fan of said actor for more than 3 years, and then outed herself on MDL during the airing of his super-successful drama in October-November 2025 to specifically be a fan of another much-lesser-regarded actress in C-Ent.
Then kept attacking his drama in all sorts of ways ever since October 2025, including lying about the novel the drama was loosely based on, lying about the ML character, lying about- A psychiatrist cannot help someone who:
Fantasises about being a fictional character married and sexually involved with a screen husband that they don't own, and sees that screen husband as betraying them because... The main directors of the production team said right from the get-go (way before the drama aired) that it would be a heroism-focused drama. Hence there are no romance tags on the MDL drama page.
As a result, that account and its persona is persona non grata across all the areas internationally and online within China, where that actor's fans exist. Doesn't stop her troll account here from going around to different pages of MDL lying about the actor's fans, who had to put up with her excessive trolling.
And if one goes by engagement being the main algorithms keeping this site afloat and articles trending, then any comment on any article contributes to that. I'm sure CryssyAnne would have preferred actual comments on her article, instead of Mephisto being racist about other countries and also dumping all over her article as more than half of the comments.
Seriously in-depth article. I do hope the actors/actresses don't take the criticism too personally, especially…
Constructive criticism is always helpful. But there will unfortunately also be malicious trolls that make all sorts of comments just to shoot down an actress, or try to dissuade people from engaging in contributions.
For example, Mephisto is a misogynistic troll who goes around to various articles and leaves irrelevant derogatory comments in their desire to be the first poster, which you can see at the bottom of this article, They blocked me months ago after I engaged them in an exchange and they were unable to handle my retorts, where I also sharply pointed them out as a racist anti-chinese troll that goes to different C-Ent drama pages and C-Ent actress pages on MDL spraying hate at females.
Longtime MDL Writer CryssyAnne complained about Mephisto at the Support Forum for spamming her Recap article and also gave examples of Mephisto being racist while spamming other posts, but nothing happened:
I put together three more in-depth articles this year. They are about the movie "Blades Of the Guardians", "Kitakata Kenzo: Suikoden", and two upcoming unaired dramas starring Zhang Yunlong opposite Ju Jing Yi and Esther Yu respectively.
These articles are all voluntary on my part, also because a majority of MDL users interested in C-Ent or J-Ent won't be able to understand the original contents unless someone can do more than translate. I was very happy to do each of them, such as BoTG because of it being a classic wuxia film and not a modern wuxia attempt. And my pre-airing predictions for it have come true, given how it easily broke box office records, rewrote the expectations for wuxia films, and became the highest-grossing wuxia film of all time globally and earned a CPOPwave nomination.
A lovely article that goes in depth about its topic! Finally something of quality! This site could definitely…
Thank you for your appreciation! I had a blast putting this article together for two talented ladies plus the rest of their talented colleagues!
I definitely believe all of them should get more love.
"It's such a shame that posts like this get lost in the sea of clickbaits that don't offer anything." - Lost in a sea of- Why would this article be lost amongst other articles? Is there something you've noticed that I am not aware of?
Liang Yongqi is someone I and another MDL user hope will go into films, as we briefly discussed below. And he will be in this drama plus another not-yet-aired drama with Wu Jinyan. That's a great bonus for watchers like me! The extensive buffet of micro-emoting and tension in "Those Flowers" is going to be delicious, especially with Huang Jue and Tu Songyan and Liu Dan. "The Truth Within" also had all this, and I was so happy with Jiang Qilin and Liu Ya-se in that drama with Luo Yunxi!
I reckon Wu Jinyan will have a positive ending. It's Jiang Shuying's character that I'm more concerned about for…
April was a month of significant news in C-Ent, including Yunhe being rejected for the 7th time in five years by CNIPA for being unable to access raw data (which also means anyone who's been touting Yunhe as a holy grail for validating their dramas looks completely amusing to the rest of us who know better over the past five years), the first longform "AI blockbuster" looking to be released in Q3 2026 which Tencent and IQiyi head honchos are referring to- If you really want to know the exact details of those issues also pertaining to why extras in Hengdian have been experiencing significantly less jobs with AI advancements and IQiyi's approach with AI, this discussion will be illuminating.
If you care about the human element in Chinese dramas and the future, then yes, this will be highly relevant to what is happening right now, and why:
i really enjoyed him in the series "feud". he's a really great actor, and now i'm watching him in "perfect…
His upcoming dramas with him in a leading role are shared in this just-published MDL article I put together, where he also has a supporting role amongst an award-winning cast of "Those Flowers" (and this drama should be airing soon in June):
The wrap-up trailer is very good. It is plot-focused and aims to showcase the acting ranges of the ML and FL.…
Of course I prefer "Above The Wall" to air first. Ai Mi clearly gained her acting improvements through non-idol dramas such as "Minning Town", around veteran actors and actresses and great Directors, such as Wu Er Shan and Cao Dun. After she graduates from Beijing Film Academy, I would like her to return to acting in a non-idol drama. That's where the audience numbers and accolades are, especially for films and professional capabilities.
Liu Haocun's drama "The Lead" has just hit the highest-rated and eye-opening viewership numbers for domestic TV this year, while her main role is lauded as career-changing to boot. She deserves all the success and praise she has achieved with this drama, working for 2 years to get into the role. But the MDL drama page is crickets and low viewership numbers. Grasping the realistic success of a drama based on an MDL page is almost impossible. I'm sure Liu Haocun isn't bothered that she didn't kiss Song Weilong and Wang Anyu or anyone else in dramas.
Ai Mi wants to be a well-respected renowned actress in dramas and films. She has obviously been steadily building her filmography in nationally-watched productions with unique roles, if one looks at it objectively from a professional mandarin media perspective.
Ai Mi was praised for her performance as the younger version of Qu Tong in a non-idol drama lead by Luo Jin. I'm sure more than 95% of C-drama watchers on MDL have no idea how difficult it is to become the FL in a non-idol drama directed by Cao Dun, or get a significant supporting role in a strong ensemble cast of skilled veterans in a non-idol drama directed by Mao Kunyu. It's called serious auditioning that can take several rounds, where your talent and acting chops will help you qualify for the role or not.
All this is not obvious to solely idol-drama watchers. MDL is an echo chamber, where many viewers also have no idea Yunhe has been a joke all along. Yunhe has zero credibility with the chinese government or industry insiders after being rejected for the 7th time in five years by CNIPA due to being unable to access raw data. Watching someone wave Yunhe as a holy grail reference to proclaim a drama is awesome tells me enough about where they stand on the credibility scale for assessing C-Ent drama success.
If you watch "Beloved" (which I did because of the Director and Luo Jin), you'll see how strong her micro-emoting is. And when Cao Dun is in charge, I am looking forward to another level above what she exhibited in "Beloved".
Posting some more Ai Mi 💞...https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSxPv5jS6/https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSxPKVU5s/###(Update) ...…
Looking great! Thank you for your hard work!
The compilation is wonderful emotional and stylistic popcorn, to see how well the leads get along in many different situations. If Youku doesn't want to be in IQiyi's very-dire financial straits for churning out overly-budgeted romance dramas with poor returns in numbers (and shows most obviously in their inability to generate enough revenue but only increase losses until their share price has tanked to a new low), focusing on plot and characterisations should be first for longform dramas to elevate the talents of the cast getting to showcase their acting ranges, and romance only as a side dish.
"A-Chan" is looking very promising. When the drama airs, I hope the editing will also be strong, so the entire production shines.
Looks like a good cast here. Only seen Liang Yong Qi in The Double and part of an ensemble in Under The Skin 2.…
Liang Yongqi does complex characters well. He was excellent opposite Wu Jinyan in "The Double". I also found him to be the best thing about "Feud"(which I watched a bit of and then dropped, also because his acting is severely under-utilised there).
I'm hoping that with these three dramas including the other two I mentioned in the article, he might be able to go into films. Would like to see him opposite Simon Yam or Francis Ng.
Tu Songyan is an actor very easy and pleasant on my eyes. Yu Hewei, him, Luo Jin and Huang Jue shift very easily and naturally between moods and emoting, because they have excellent control over minute details of expression and knowing what to withhold.
You mentioned City Of The City, where I remember he maintains tension and easily dominates a scene without overshadowing the other actress:
I'm in glee with this cast for this drama of "Those Flowers". I will apologise if the airing date for this drama doesn't happen on 2 June, but I wish IQiyi could make life easier for those of us wanting to write and share about their non-idol or non-romance dramas.
I am allergic to Wlu Jin Yan. I watch a few Cdramas she played in just to keep in touch with new actors or with…
Everyone's got different preferences, so no worries :)
Zhou Ye does nothing for me in her historical costume dramas, but I absolutely enjoyed her presence in "Dream Of Golden Years" where she captivated me with her performance. That's a drama I'd recommend with Zhou Ye in it.
I'm also interested in another drama starring Wu Jinyan, and I like how she insists on pushing herself. "Origin: Gate of Rebirth" is where she is a top thief which wrapped in February this year, and the action scenes looked great in the BTS:
Some people have go-to artists. For me, the main creative team plays the biggest primary part in what I choose to watch, unless one of my top must-watch artists are in there, such as Luo Jin. The one time I deviated from those basics, based on a trailer? I learned my lesson.
This sounds interesting, but I hope it's not really tragic. I watched half of Homesick and had to read recaps…
I reckon Wu Jinyan will have a positive ending. It's Jiang Shuying's character that I'm more concerned about for an ending, because she has expressed an affinity for tragic characters.
Wu Jin Yan was great in "The Double". She actually saved certain scenes for me, at times when Director Lu Hao Jiji couldn't be reined in by the other two Directors. And when Lu Hao Jiji has complete autonomy working with a main screenwriter of certain issues, the likes of "Rebirth" with horrible editing, over-usage of full frontal lingering shots making for some awkward unnatural moments interrupting the flow, at least three different endings, eye-blinking characterisation, and an inconsistent storyline is what you get.
The creative team for "This Flowers" at least has me assured, just like the main creative team for "The Heir".
Now, if only IQiyi could at least provide decent promotions instead of having a few of us guessing whenever a specific date comes out... But even before 2025, IQiyi had significant cashflow issues (which is why dramas such as "The Unclouded Soul" dropped in December 2025 also had no promotions). January this year was quite bad. April during the IQiyi World Conference was terrible.
[ But outside this grand event, another screen shows a figure: 1.41 USD.
This is iQIYI's closing price on the Nasdaq screen, with a market value of only 1.361 billion USD, just one step away from the delisting red line. When it was listed in 2018, iQIYI's stock price peaked at 46 USD, with a market value exceeding 31.2 billion USD. From 31.2 billion to 1.3 billion, it has dropped 97% in less than eight years.
While the outside world debates whether AI can perform well, the capital market only cares about whether AI can tell a good narrative. Over the past decade, iQIYI has burned through hundreds of billions in funds but has yet to find a sustainable path to profitability.
In 2025, this streaming giant's content costs still reached 15.45 billion yuan, accounting for 56% of total annual revenue; the annual net loss was 206.3 million yuan, going from profit to loss; operating profit was only 640 million yuan, a 73% plunge compared to 2.36 billion yuan in 2024. Just two years earlier, in 2023, iQIYI's net profit was as high as 1.93 billion yuan, the peak since the company's founding.
It took just two years to go from peak to loss.
More troubling is that iQIYI's free cash flow has plummeted from over 3.3 billion yuan in 2023 to less than 10 million yuan, rapidly degrading its self-sustaining ability.... ]
Li Qin 10/10? Her kissing scene was stiff, on multiple counts. But I'll admit, she's beautiful and acts well otherwise.…
This drama has an A-budget, and ran out of money for drama promotions. They spent it where it mattered, including the styling for male characters.
As someone who read the novel, this drama did a great job of adapting a mediocre novel and also making many characters hugely relatable. I really enjoyed Feng Suige's underlings, especially Lu Ke. Even the villains touched my heart.
Li Qin was great in this! Chen Zheyuan was a very pleasant surprise for me. One kiss was enough for me. Not a fan of kisses in C-Dramas, given what I grew up with for C-Ent.
this is a lovely writeup and I'd love to see more of these. thank you. 😍
Glad you enjoyed reading this! It was great that OK!China shared many awesome details about Jiang Shuying and Wu Jinyan, whose acting I always enjoy. I don't think anybody has shared about Huang Jue and Tu Songyan's filmography or achievements on MDL, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to do so. They are in a league of their own. And so is Liu Dan.
"River Sunset" took 8 years to see the light. 2 June is the first time a specific date was mentioned for this drama. "Those Flowers" wrapped filming in November 2024 and if it doesn't air on 2 June (given what was shared during IQiyi World Conference in April), it should air soon enough with the teasers from CCTV's weibo account late last year and April this year.
This is a good cast. Besides Wu Jin Yan, there are a couple of other very good actors I recognize who gave powerful…
It is a killer cast. The OK!China article providing insight into Wu Jinyan and Jiang Shuying for this drama was fantastic. It was such an enjoyable lengthy article.
After looking through what was available online, I took several days to put together an article to also share what Huang Jue and Tu Songyan have achieved as actors. Many on MDL aren't aware of exact details (plus the chinese sites sometimes get certain filmography details mixed up about Huang Jue), while also mentioning Liang Yongqi's upcoming dramas:
My only grouse is that IQiyi airdrops dramas without warning. And they have done it before, such as with "River Sunset" of 44 episodes early this year: https://mydramalist.com/27149-sunset-in-glory
That production took 8 years to see the light this year. "Those Flowers" is slated to air on 2 June (first time there is an actual specific date in all the mentions of this drama), but could be another date. Either way, it wrapped filming in November 2024 and should see the light soon, given the teasers from the weibo accounts of CCTV and "Those Flowers".
Everyone... is this drama worth watching?The rating kinda worries me but the number of raters is less than 500…
I'm not a Yang Zi fan and I usually don't watch her dramas, but I'll say this drama is definitely worth reveling in. The first two episodes made me so hungry, and the first episode with child actors and actresses is very well done. Between the intricacies of ink-making and food, I really enjoy the build-up and pacing of the storytelling. Li Zhen is very talented, but she also learns to earn her stripes and she makes mistakes. She's not a know-it-all business wonderwhiz, whereby I usually can't stand those types of dramas complete with OTT speeches from the FL that I find to be unnatural.
The family politics doesn't make me bang my head. Some elders are typically idiosyncratic and bogged down by traditions, but the drama will progress to show you how some changes can happen naturally for the better. Romance is a side-dish.
I came for Cao Lei whose acting I always enjoy, while curious about how Elvis would do here because I adored him in the Republican-era "The Guardians". I stayed for the storyline and art, and Yang Zi being able to make me root for her. At one point, I genuinely had tears in my eyes when she had tears in her eyes.
Elvis and Yang Zi have this natural chemistry of slow burn, from friends to more than that. It's beautiful to watch. I haven't watched a majority of Yang Zi's dramas, but still reckon this is her strongest pairing or second-strongest pairing with an ML because Elvis is a very good but under-rated actor on MDL.
Lovely cinematography and apt colour-grading: Soft, warm and soothing. Lots of well-crafted shots showing you how the scale of things and details bigger than the people are most important, as the bigger picture. The main Director definitely knows what they are doing since it is Hui Kai Dong, who directed "Winter Begonia", "Arsenal Military Academy" and "Story of Yanxi Palace" alongside Guo Hao (who isn't directing in this drama). The rest of the main creative team are also highly noteworthy, with screenwriters Gao Xuan and Ren Baoru as examples.
At the 24th Huading Awards in 2018, Ren Baoru and Gao Xuan won Best Screenplay Award of China's top 100 TV dramas for "The Way We Were" starring Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang. That screenplay was also shortlisted for Best Original Screenplay at the 25th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards. At the 29th Shanghai TV Festival in 2024, they won Best Original Screenplay with "Imperfect Victim" while this screenplay was also nominated for best screenplay at the 32nd China TV Golden Eagle awards.
20 episodes have been well-planned. Episode 24 had me mentally saluting-
I usually cannot finish dramas where romance is the main aim. I prefer dramas where romance is a side-dish or non-existent, and storytelling is strong while characterisations are engagingly nuanced and flawed yet endearing ie non-idol drama types. Winning all the time doesn't happen. Negatives happen, but also positives, all natural. Persistence and ingenuity by the female characters is a great reward to enjoy.
Very apt balance of details about tradition, art, developing friendships and characters, all wrapped in a main storyline progressing well with sub-stories. The storytelling is strong, and the editing is good overall. This is one of those dramas where some viewers might not be able to pinpoint why it keeps you here, but I can. Definitely not for romance-only or romance-focused watchers.
after watching double...I just fell in love with this actress. She might be one of the best chinese actress out…
Wu Jin Yan stars in a female-centric non-idol modern suspense drama that as of now, is slated to air in June. IQiyi appears to have unfortunate financial issues as per certain news details, so as per the pattern exhibited with some of their dramas such as "The Unclouded Soul", a sudden airdrop is possible.
The cast is top-notch. The article I put together for her and the rest of the leads has been published today:
2 
8 
3 
5 
1 
2 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1) If you want to try a quality wuxia that is the shortest possible out there, I would recommend this one: https://mydramalist.com/750265-sky-mirage
2) If you're talking chinese dramas that are 16 episodes or shorter, I would recommend modern dramas such as "Mobius" (needs IQiyi subscription) or "Beloved" (You can watch eight episodes of "Beloved" free on the IQiyi Youtube channel):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQeLYT3zGpg&list=PLxuATjN7Z1GetO9xjB-CbCjsmqdQwJwxp&index=2
https://mydramalist.com/766293-give-me-five
https://mydramalist.com/761581-beloved
3) I don't know if you watch animations, but this is possibly the best one out there in C-Ent this far (no romance, tight editing and storytelling, and the quality is overall awesome in a post-apocalytica xuanhuan manner) with the first three episodes free:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKRr0YZFA2U
"Origin" is going to be totally different, where Wu Jinyan has to be sassy. It's going to be a very different character for her, unlike her previous roles (I am curious how she will carry that off). I'm sure Xiao Shunyao will be awesome, plus you and I have similar tastes in certain genres such as the not-yet-aired "Southern Anecdote" now officially known as "Archives: The Nanyang Mystery", rumoured to air on 10 June:
https://mydramalist.com/700335-cases-of-the-south
I understand MDL users (and there are a fair number of silent lurkers unless they feel safe enough to comment) see comments, and some might decide to watch dramas based on what someone shares. Articles are where users of all different types of preferences converge, instead of being separated by drama pages or fan pages.
I would like to hear your thoughts :)
What kind of dramas do you watch, for historical costume dramas? Do you prefer xianxia? Xuanhuan? Wuxia and if so, classic wuxia or modern wuxia? Romance as the primary focus, or romance as a side dish but with a well-done main plotline and characters? Wuxia parodies are in short supply, sadly.
Idol dramas versus non-idol dramas have different areas of focus.
Here is my comment about "The Heir" (this is in the style of non-idol drama):
https://mydramalist.com/776109-jia-ye#comment-26294200
Here is someone else commenting about "Zhan Zhao Adventures" (modern wuxia meets whodunnit):
https://mydramalist.com/749951-zhan-zhao-adventures#comment-26273210
There are all sorts of people on every website, especially trolls. A sociologist will have a field day on MDL, especially if they encounter one very unhappy troll who has at least seven sockpuppet accounts by now on, tried to bully actual fans of a specific C-Ent actor off this site while pretending to be a fan of said actor for more than 3 years, and then outed herself on MDL during the airing of his super-successful drama in October-November 2025 to specifically be a fan of another much-lesser-regarded actress in C-Ent.
Then kept attacking his drama in all sorts of ways ever since October 2025, including lying about the novel the drama was loosely based on, lying about the ML character, lying about- A psychiatrist cannot help someone who:
Fantasises about being a fictional character married and sexually involved with a screen husband that they don't own, and sees that screen husband as betraying them because... The main directors of the production team said right from the get-go (way before the drama aired) that it would be a heroism-focused drama. Hence there are no romance tags on the MDL drama page.
As a result, that account and its persona is persona non grata across all the areas internationally and online within China, where that actor's fans exist. Doesn't stop her troll account here from going around to different pages of MDL lying about the actor's fans, who had to put up with her excessive trolling.
And if one goes by engagement being the main algorithms keeping this site afloat and articles trending, then any comment on any article contributes to that. I'm sure CryssyAnne would have preferred actual comments on her article, instead of Mephisto being racist about other countries and also dumping all over her article as more than half of the comments.
For example, Mephisto is a misogynistic troll who goes around to various articles and leaves irrelevant derogatory comments in their desire to be the first poster, which you can see at the bottom of this article, They blocked me months ago after I engaged them in an exchange and they were unable to handle my retorts, where I also sharply pointed them out as a racist anti-chinese troll that goes to different C-Ent drama pages and C-Ent actress pages on MDL spraying hate at females.
Longtime MDL Writer CryssyAnne complained about Mephisto at the Support Forum for spamming her Recap article and also gave examples of Mephisto being racist while spamming other posts, but nothing happened:
https://mydramalist.com/discussions/support/148162-spam-on-my-recent-article
~*~*~*~*
I put together three more in-depth articles this year. They are about the movie "Blades Of the Guardians", "Kitakata Kenzo: Suikoden", and two upcoming unaired dramas starring Zhang Yunlong opposite Ju Jing Yi and Esther Yu respectively.
https://mydramalist.com/profile/Xiang83/articles
These articles are all voluntary on my part, also because a majority of MDL users interested in C-Ent or J-Ent won't be able to understand the original contents unless someone can do more than translate. I was very happy to do each of them, such as BoTG because of it being a classic wuxia film and not a modern wuxia attempt. And my pre-airing predictions for it have come true, given how it easily broke box office records, rewrote the expectations for wuxia films, and became the highest-grossing wuxia film of all time globally and earned a CPOPwave nomination.
Have fun, if you read those!
I definitely believe all of them should get more love.
"It's such a shame that posts like this get lost in the sea of clickbaits that don't offer anything." - Lost in a sea of- Why would this article be lost amongst other articles? Is there something you've noticed that I am not aware of?
Liang Yongqi is someone I and another MDL user hope will go into films, as we briefly discussed below. And he will be in this drama plus another not-yet-aired drama with Wu Jinyan. That's a great bonus for watchers like me! The extensive buffet of micro-emoting and tension in "Those Flowers" is going to be delicious, especially with Huang Jue and Tu Songyan and Liu Dan. "The Truth Within" also had all this, and I was so happy with Jiang Qilin and Liu Ya-se in that drama with Luo Yunxi!
If you care about the human element in Chinese dramas and the future, then yes, this will be highly relevant to what is happening right now, and why:
https://mydramalist.com/profile/Xiang83/feeds/JBExRjtP#comment-26160468
https://news.mydramalist.com/article/wu-jin-yan-and-jiang-shu-ying-stride-towards-the-light-in-those-flowers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljUKgvP4_rc
Liu Haocun's drama "The Lead" has just hit the highest-rated and eye-opening viewership numbers for domestic TV this year, while her main role is lauded as career-changing to boot. She deserves all the success and praise she has achieved with this drama, working for 2 years to get into the role. But the MDL drama page is crickets and low viewership numbers. Grasping the realistic success of a drama based on an MDL page is almost impossible. I'm sure Liu Haocun isn't bothered that she didn't kiss Song Weilong and Wang Anyu or anyone else in dramas.
Ai Mi wants to be a well-respected renowned actress in dramas and films. She has obviously been steadily building her filmography in nationally-watched productions with unique roles, if one looks at it objectively from a professional mandarin media perspective.
Ai Mi was praised for her performance as the younger version of Qu Tong in a non-idol drama lead by Luo Jin. I'm sure more than 95% of C-drama watchers on MDL have no idea how difficult it is to become the FL in a non-idol drama directed by Cao Dun, or get a significant supporting role in a strong ensemble cast of skilled veterans in a non-idol drama directed by Mao Kunyu. It's called serious auditioning that can take several rounds, where your talent and acting chops will help you qualify for the role or not.
All this is not obvious to solely idol-drama watchers. MDL is an echo chamber, where many viewers also have no idea Yunhe has been a joke all along. Yunhe has zero credibility with the chinese government or industry insiders after being rejected for the 7th time in five years by CNIPA due to being unable to access raw data. Watching someone wave Yunhe as a holy grail reference to proclaim a drama is awesome tells me enough about where they stand on the credibility scale for assessing C-Ent drama success.
If you watch "Beloved" (which I did because of the Director and Luo Jin), you'll see how strong her micro-emoting is. And when Cao Dun is in charge, I am looking forward to another level above what she exhibited in "Beloved".
The compilation is wonderful emotional and stylistic popcorn, to see how well the leads get along in many different situations. If Youku doesn't want to be in IQiyi's very-dire financial straits for churning out overly-budgeted romance dramas with poor returns in numbers (and shows most obviously in their inability to generate enough revenue but only increase losses until their share price has tanked to a new low), focusing on plot and characterisations should be first for longform dramas to elevate the talents of the cast getting to showcase their acting ranges, and romance only as a side dish.
"A-Chan" is looking very promising. When the drama airs, I hope the editing will also be strong, so the entire production shines.
I'm hoping that with these three dramas including the other two I mentioned in the article, he might be able to go into films. Would like to see him opposite Simon Yam or Francis Ng.
Tu Songyan is an actor very easy and pleasant on my eyes. Yu Hewei, him, Luo Jin and Huang Jue shift very easily and naturally between moods and emoting, because they have excellent control over minute details of expression and knowing what to withhold.
You mentioned City Of The City, where I remember he maintains tension and easily dominates a scene without overshadowing the other actress:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/cxKErgzKSJM
I'm in glee with this cast for this drama of "Those Flowers". I will apologise if the airing date for this drama doesn't happen on 2 June, but I wish IQiyi could make life easier for those of us wanting to write and share about their non-idol or non-romance dramas.
Oh yes, here is the trailer: https://www.weibo.com/2949989907/R1Eev0WcD
Zhou Ye does nothing for me in her historical costume dramas, but I absolutely enjoyed her presence in "Dream Of Golden Years" where she captivated me with her performance. That's a drama I'd recommend with Zhou Ye in it.
I'm also interested in another drama starring Wu Jinyan, and I like how she insists on pushing herself. "Origin: Gate of Rebirth" is where she is a top thief which wrapped in February this year, and the action scenes looked great in the BTS:
https://mydramalist.com/777257-chong-sheng-zhi-men-yuan-qi
Some people have go-to artists. For me, the main creative team plays the biggest primary part in what I choose to watch, unless one of my top must-watch artists are in there, such as Luo Jin. The one time I deviated from those basics, based on a trailer? I learned my lesson.
Wu Jin Yan was great in "The Double". She actually saved certain scenes for me, at times when Director Lu Hao Jiji couldn't be reined in by the other two Directors. And when Lu Hao Jiji has complete autonomy working with a main screenwriter of certain issues, the likes of "Rebirth" with horrible editing, over-usage of full frontal lingering shots making for some awkward unnatural moments interrupting the flow, at least three different endings, eye-blinking characterisation, and an inconsistent storyline is what you get.
The creative team for "This Flowers" at least has me assured, just like the main creative team for "The Heir".
Now, if only IQiyi could at least provide decent promotions instead of having a few of us guessing whenever a specific date comes out... But even before 2025, IQiyi had significant cashflow issues (which is why dramas such as "The Unclouded Soul" dropped in December 2025 also had no promotions). January this year was quite bad. April during the IQiyi World Conference was terrible.
https://www.binance.com/en/square/post/315581941972577
[ But outside this grand event, another screen shows a figure: 1.41 USD.
This is iQIYI's closing price on the Nasdaq screen, with a market value of only 1.361 billion USD, just one step away from the delisting red line. When it was listed in 2018, iQIYI's stock price peaked at 46 USD, with a market value exceeding 31.2 billion USD. From 31.2 billion to 1.3 billion, it has dropped 97% in less than eight years.
While the outside world debates whether AI can perform well, the capital market only cares about whether AI can tell a good narrative. Over the past decade, iQIYI has burned through hundreds of billions in funds but has yet to find a sustainable path to profitability.
In 2025, this streaming giant's content costs still reached 15.45 billion yuan, accounting for 56% of total annual revenue; the annual net loss was 206.3 million yuan, going from profit to loss; operating profit was only 640 million yuan, a 73% plunge compared to 2.36 billion yuan in 2024. Just two years earlier, in 2023, iQIYI's net profit was as high as 1.93 billion yuan, the peak since the company's founding.
It took just two years to go from peak to loss.
More troubling is that iQIYI's free cash flow has plummeted from over 3.3 billion yuan in 2023 to less than 10 million yuan, rapidly degrading its self-sustaining ability.... ]
As someone who read the novel, this drama did a great job of adapting a mediocre novel and also making many characters hugely relatable. I really enjoyed Feng Suige's underlings, especially Lu Ke. Even the villains touched my heart.
Li Qin was great in this! Chen Zheyuan was a very pleasant surprise for me. One kiss was enough for me. Not a fan of kisses in C-Dramas, given what I grew up with for C-Ent.
My grouse is that IQiyi airdrops dramas without warning. They did it with "River Sunset" of 44 episodes early this year: https://mydramalist.com/27149-sunset-in-glory
"River Sunset" took 8 years to see the light. 2 June is the first time a specific date was mentioned for this drama. "Those Flowers" wrapped filming in November 2024 and if it doesn't air on 2 June (given what was shared during IQiyi World Conference in April), it should air soon enough with the teasers from CCTV's weibo account late last year and April this year.
After looking through what was available online, I took several days to put together an article to also share what Huang Jue and Tu Songyan have achieved as actors. Many on MDL aren't aware of exact details (plus the chinese sites sometimes get certain filmography details mixed up about Huang Jue), while also mentioning Liang Yongqi's upcoming dramas:
https://news.mydramalist.com/article/wu-jin-yan-and-jiang-shu-ying-stride-towards-the-light-in-those-flowers
My only grouse is that IQiyi airdrops dramas without warning. And they have done it before, such as with "River Sunset" of 44 episodes early this year: https://mydramalist.com/27149-sunset-in-glory
That production took 8 years to see the light this year. "Those Flowers" is slated to air on 2 June (first time there is an actual specific date in all the mentions of this drama), but could be another date. Either way, it wrapped filming in November 2024 and should see the light soon, given the teasers from the weibo accounts of CCTV and "Those Flowers".
The family politics doesn't make me bang my head. Some elders are typically idiosyncratic and bogged down by traditions, but the drama will progress to show you how some changes can happen naturally for the better. Romance is a side-dish.
I came for Cao Lei whose acting I always enjoy, while curious about how Elvis would do here because I adored him in the Republican-era "The Guardians". I stayed for the storyline and art, and Yang Zi being able to make me root for her. At one point, I genuinely had tears in my eyes when she had tears in her eyes.
Elvis and Yang Zi have this natural chemistry of slow burn, from friends to more than that. It's beautiful to watch. I haven't watched a majority of Yang Zi's dramas, but still reckon this is her strongest pairing or second-strongest pairing with an ML because Elvis is a very good but under-rated actor on MDL.
Lovely cinematography and apt colour-grading: Soft, warm and soothing. Lots of well-crafted shots showing you how the scale of things and details bigger than the people are most important, as the bigger picture. The main Director definitely knows what they are doing since it is Hui Kai Dong, who directed "Winter Begonia", "Arsenal Military Academy" and "Story of Yanxi Palace" alongside Guo Hao (who isn't directing in this drama). The rest of the main creative team are also highly noteworthy, with screenwriters Gao Xuan and Ren Baoru as examples.
At the 24th Huading Awards in 2018, Ren Baoru and Gao Xuan won Best Screenplay Award of China's top 100 TV dramas for "The Way We Were" starring Luo Jin and Tiffany Tang. That screenplay was also shortlisted for Best Original Screenplay at the 25th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards. At the 29th Shanghai TV Festival in 2024, they won Best Original Screenplay with "Imperfect Victim" while this screenplay was also nominated for best screenplay at the 32nd China TV Golden Eagle awards.
20 episodes have been well-planned. Episode 24 had me mentally saluting-
I usually cannot finish dramas where romance is the main aim. I prefer dramas where romance is a side-dish or non-existent, and storytelling is strong while characterisations are engagingly nuanced and flawed yet endearing ie non-idol drama types. Winning all the time doesn't happen. Negatives happen, but also positives, all natural. Persistence and ingenuity by the female characters is a great reward to enjoy.
Very apt balance of details about tradition, art, developing friendships and characters, all wrapped in a main storyline progressing well with sub-stories. The storytelling is strong, and the editing is good overall. This is one of those dramas where some viewers might not be able to pinpoint why it keeps you here, but I can. Definitely not for romance-only or romance-focused watchers.
The cast is top-notch. The article I put together for her and the rest of the leads has been published today:
https://news.mydramalist.com/article/wu-jin-yan-and-jiang-shu-ying-stride-towards-the-light-in-those-flowers