Chinese Dramas

[Glitter]

Show Rec!!! My Roommate Is a Detective

Set in the mid-1920s. A resourceful young police officer named Qiao Chu Sheng is on the trail of a brutal but devious killer. Realizing that the police force will need some extra help with this difficult case, he decides to form an elite crime-busting detective team. He reaches out to a young man who has recently returned from studying in Great Britain, Lu Yao. Qiao Chu Sheng has learned that Lu Yao has remarkable powers of deduction and a brilliant mind – and believes he can help crack this difficult case. To round off the team, he enlists the help of Bai You Ning, a focused young female reporter for a daily newspaper. A free-thinking, independent young woman, she has a strong sense of justice – and pledges to help catch the killer. The trio form a small detective squad that specializes in solving strange and unsettling murder mysteries.

which sounds like a perfectly fine summary but it is SO not how it happens.

Qiao Chusheng - high level and resected mob enforcer gets placed as a police inspector in the English Concession section of Shanghai by his mob boss
Bai Youning - the mob boss' daughter who is childhood friends with Chusheng, she's left the family in protest and is working at a tabloid newspaper like the weekly world news
Lu Yao - third son and fourth child of a wealthy family from some other city, he studied in Cambridge for years. He's SUPER smart, a super foodie with expensive tastes and when he gets fired from his bank job- always in need of cash

Chusheng picks Lu Yao up as a suspect in a case and after Lu Yao solves it easily, just keeps coming back to him for help. Bai Youning moves herself into Lu Yao ridiculously palatial apartment to annoy him and to help pay the rent and thus she can trail after them and get all the good scoops. The two guys are adorable together which makes one wonder if this was adapted from a BL novel (I have no idea). The supporting cast are great and what REALLY amused me was that the villains are the British - which was fine but the show then dubbed the actors, who were Western, with new British voices, which were terrible. AND when Lu Yao spoke English to them he spoke in a very posh English accent which makes sense because - Cambridge. ANYWAY - the endgame is Lu Yao and Bai Youning in the old trope of roommates who fall for each other but honestly this would work SO SO SO much better as a poly, an equal sided triangle because they all have such strong bonds by the time the show is over.

The show was smart, clever, and came up with some VERY unique crimes and science and I HIGHLY recommend!!

You can watch on either Viki or YouTube!
https://www.viki.com/tv/36771c-my-roomm ... ab4d168b2f
https://youtu.be/TqlFlGkCsoI

TRAILER

[Glitter]

Show Rec!!!!! HEROES

The short summary: The kind Wang Xiao Shi leaves the mountain for the first time to travel. He encounters Wen Rou, Bai Chou Fei, and Su Meng Zhen who become his lifelong friends. In the capital city where the capable succeed, he experiences brotherhood and romance. Squashing evil with his friends transforms him from inexperienced youth to responsible hero.

What the show is actually about: The martial art world is dominated by two sects: The House of Sunset Drizzle and Six Half Hall at least in the capital. And the capital is where you have to go to make your name. Wang Xioashi is sent to deliver a message to the House of Sunset Drizzle and on the way meets the girl Wen Ruo who is cute, smart, sassy and pretty much useless at fighting despite being a disciple of Sunset Drizzle. Immediately thereafter they met a wandering swordsman named Bai Choufei and they immediately are found family. Then they meet Su Mengchen, the best swordsman in the world who runs Sunset Drizzle but is terminally ill from at least 3 things and still a massive badass who sees these 2 wandering duck and instantly says MINE! So they swear brotherhood and make an instant enemy out of Six Half Hall. In a lovely twist, Su Mengchen is HUGELY in love with the daughter of the lord of Six Half Hall Lei Chun and she with him and they've been engaged since young but have never married.

So - enter the fighting between the sects and a corrupt official HIGH in the government who wants to control the martial arts world and you have huge amounts of political intrigue and personal dueling. Then the ladies get Assaulted in an alley, Lei Chun starts a slow slide into an unstable mental state, Su Mengchen's health worsens, Bai Choufei is imprisoned for his brother and the torture breaks him. This show takes a dark turn but is still so so worth it.

The visuals are stunning as is the camera work of the fight scenes. The characters are deep and compelling and the story telling pretty tight. I've watched several shows with ambiguous or unhappy endings and this one if right up there but SO worth the journey. And of course it's not all bad as the bad guys ALWAYS get what they deserve. The only thing I really didn't like was the lack of being able to tell how much time had passed. At one point it feels like at least a year had gone by but there's no solid mention of it - just a feeling.

Watch it on YouTube
https://youtu.be/fKJVoBbTjOs


The romantic trailer!!!


The action trailer!!!

[Glitter]

SHOW REC!!!! KinnPorsche

The Short Summary: The second son of a mafia family hires a bartender as his bodyguard when the bartender saves him and they fall in love.

So......... this is a new area for me in that this is THAI drama. And wow, I'm used to Japanese and Chinese at this point so Thai is an unusual sounding language. Also the Thai people generally use nicknames, frequently in english of whatever the hell they like. Four of the actors use the names of Build, Sprite, Bible and Barcode.

This is MUCH more like American television especially something you'd find on HBO in terms of violence and the amount of skin in the sex scenes. This is definitely a hard R for sex and violence. I'm not calling language because even though there was some, the subtitling cleaned it up with hilariously placed fudges and darn its.

The bigger summary: Kinn is the middle son and heir of a mafia family. One night, as he's being chased, he gets separated from his bodyguards and is saved by a bartender named Porsche. Kinn's dad Korn tells him to recruit this boy because they can be sure of his alliance as a nobody and in the usual trope, Porsche's uncle, (raising Porsche and his younger brother after their parents died) has huge gambling debts which force Porsche to become the bodyguard. Then there's the Minor family which is run by Korn's younger brother Gun who want to take over, shady business deals, spies and other mafia sorts of things. All the while Kinn and Porsche are slowly figuring out their working and other relationships and the new mystery regarding Porsche's parents' deaths.

Interspersed with the violence are some delightfully hysterical points when we deal with Kinn's older brother, traumatized by a childhood kidnapping, who dresses in high gay fashion and chews all the scenery. And also the heartwarming romance of Kinn and Porsche when they get their shit figured out and Porsche's younger brother Chay getting into music college and falling for his tutor.

This show was a roller coaster with some definitely questionable behavior including some really cringeworthy dubcon- noncon sexual situations both between the main couple Kinn and Porsche (who was once drunk and once roofied) and the third couple Vegas and Pete which was definitely .......er...... well they end up together and happy but please someone get them a LOT of therapy.

It was, however STINKING brilliant in terms of writing, plot, visuals. Just DAMN!!!!!! The only other thing it was lacking was female characters. There was really only one even though she was massively incredible.

If you are interesting in watching this - only 14 eps long, it's on a platform that you need to pay for. A one month fee was $7-10, I don't remember sorry or I could lend out my account, depending.

https://www.iq.com/play/kinnporsche-the ... lang=en_us

[Glitter]

And because this was DAMN AWESOME!!!!!

[Glitter]

Show Rec!!!!!! Love Between Fairy and Devil

Summary:
According to legend, in order to obtain terrible power, Dongfang Qing Cang of the Moon Tribe became an emotionless monster. He killed his father, seized the position of Moon Supreme and led an army of 100,000 Moon Tribe soldiers on a path of devastation. Shuiyuntian (the immortal fairy realm), Cangyan Sea (the Moon Tribe), and Yunmeng Lake (the mortal world) were in grave danger.

To save the world and stop Dongfang Qing Cang and his army, the first God of War of Shuiyuntian destroyed her primordial spirit. Dongfang Qing Cang’s army and primordial spirit were sealed and his body was locked away in Haotian Tower under the immortal bonds of the Haotian Matrix. However, if his primordial spirit was restored and Dongfang Qing Cang were to break free from his tower, the world would be in danger once more. Legend says that only the Goddess of Xishan can prevent this catastrophe, but she vanished without a trace.

30,000 years after the first God of War’s sacrifice, there was a disturbance in the Haotian Matrix. While attempting to help the new God of War reinforce the Matrix, Orchid, a weak and low-ranking flower fairy, accidentally finds herself inside Haotian Tower and face-to-face with the Moon Supreme himself. Their encounter sets off a chain of events that threatens to change the fate of the world once again.


This show is mostly a romance- sliding into romantic comedy at times, but can a little cringworthy in a couple of places (mostly secondhand embarrassment). HE is adorable and huge kudos to both the leads for the acting!!

A more readable summary is this. Dongfang Qingcang is the Moon Supreme, leader of the Moon Tribe (we know they are evil because they wear black and have pointy armor), known and feared for his ruthlessness, cruelty lack of feeling and in the past war with the fairy realm (who wear white and more rounded armor). The old God of War destroyed herself (go badass women!!) to seal his soldiers as statues and seal his power. He was then imprisoned for 30,000 years. The current God of War Lord Changheng is beloved by all, even a little orchid fairy who works in the Arbiter hall taking care of Destiny Books (leaves with a person's destiny written on them). She has a HUGE crush on Changheng and wants nothing more than to work in his palace to be near him. SO she follows him to the prison tower where the forcefield is acting up and gets sucked inside. There Orchid meets Dongfang Qingcang. She ends up freeing him by accident, tying his life to hers by accident and having a delightful body swap for a short while by accident.

Now this evil man is tied to the innocent orchid fairy who he has to protect and nurture until she's strong enough to try and break the spell tying them together. Also there's the mystery of her past, the reason Dongfang Qingcang is such a tyrant and the small issue of a missing goddess who is supposed to marry Lord Changheng. And of course Qingcang and Orchid's growing love. Oh and Changheng has decided that he's not waiting around anymore for any missing goddess - he's in love with Orchid.

There's the dragon best friend of DFQC who is one of THE most PERFECT Himbo characters I've ever come across, the bully bitch who grows into someone great, and the shady emperor, the Changheng's best friend who's hiding something, and the plucky girl bestfriend of Orchid with the tragic past. And seriously - the three main leads would all be happier in a V relationship since both the men love Orchid so much. Though I think the guys could make it work between them at the end for a true triangle.

TRAILER


WATCH IT HERE!!!!
YT https://youtu.be/g3b8_rjvJjE
Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/38664c-love-bet ... -and-devil
Netflix

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[scooter]

So @KikisIslandLife just finished The Wandering Earth, which has a plot that...well, makes little enough sense that it does not interfere with the actual movie - which I saw about five minutes of before deciding that this was not my thing at all....

[Glitter]

SHOW REC!!!!! Love Like the Galaxy

Ling Bu Yi, foster son of Emperor Wen and a talented & ruthless general of the Black Armour Army, was on a personal mission to uncover hidden truths about the past which had led to the massacre of an entire city & of his clan, when he met Cheng Shao Shang during a mission to apprehend a fugitive in a rural village.

The young Cheng Shao Shang had been left behind because her parents had gone off to fight in the war. Neglected and uneducated, she had been a thorn in her aunt's and grandmother's side until the unexpected return of her parents after many years at the frontlines. Having always lacked a loving family, Shao Shang had been looking forward to being reunited with her parents but the many years of separation inevitably led to some estrangement. Shao Shang, however, is unfazed and determined to live for herself, and her unruly and audacious nature, and her quick wits, begin to catch the attention of quite a few people in the capital, including Ling Bu Yi.

THIS IS ACTUALLY A FAIR SUMMARY. Shaoshang (nicknamed Niao Niao) was left in her grandmother's care just a few hours after birth when her mother and father (both general) were called off to war. Her parent's return 15 years later was both a blessing and a curse. Her mother tries to make up for Shaoshang's shortcomings with an overly heavy hand and an obvious preference for Shaoshang's ladylike cousin. But her dad is an absolute delight as are her 2 older brothers. And she's now allowed out of the house, something her evil aunt wouldn't let he do and so she meets 3 young men, Lou Yao a sweet cupcake from a family with problems, Yuan Shen an arrogant top level scholar and Ling Buyi the 11th prince. The first half of the show is pretty funny, the actress playing the grandmother took this as an opportunity to chew on as much scenery as possibly and it's great. The second half gets into to mysteries and palace intrigues that were set up in the first half. Her relationship with Ling Buyi is difficult as politics, personalities and other people get in the way.

This is a long haul in episode length and could probably half lost about 6 or 7 eps but.... I really enjoyed it.

The serious trailer:


The comedy trailer with SUBS:


Watch it on YouTube or Viki
viki https://www.viki.com/tv/38649c-love-lik ... 380ff8f8df
YT https://youtu.be/aDvUn2Vm-EE

[Glitter]

SHOW REC! Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty

The official summary:
When the dark evil immortal descends from the heaven, and the mysterious underground ghost palace was revealed, a strange herb named the Black Tea suddenly took Chang'an City by storm. However, no one knows whether it is a healthy medicine or one that could harm people. Cases of missing brides in Chang'an City began occurring one after another, which seems to be inextricably linked to the black tea...
Lu Ling Feng, general of the Jin Wu guards was tasked to investigate these cases. On his journey, he meets his strongest opponent in Su Wu Ming, the disciple of Di Ren Jie. The two of them work together to solve these mysterious cases.


Wow - that's terrible

My Summary: General Lu Lingfeng crosses paths with a newly appointed sheriff Su Wuming as they investigate the previous sheriff's death. Su Wuming is a disciple of the great detective Di who is apparently ancient Chin's answer to Holmes. They are forced to team up to investigate the disappearance and subsequent deaths of brides around the capitol city. This leads them both into trouble with their royal political backers who at odds with each other. Both are arrested and demoted - sent way out into the country to far away town posts. Su Wuming hires Lu Lingfeng as his aide since the poor man is just lost and the go around solving crimes together.

The crimes are complex and occasionally have a hint of magic and a real feeling of folktales to them. Along the way they pick up Pei Xijun who has run away from her father's house to chase after Lu Lingfeng, bringing only her servant boy who is a budding martial artist. And they pick up a perpetually drunk and disgraced doctor who's actually a medical genius - as you do. They solve 5 or six cases going from town to town before their exploits again bring them to the notice of the Crown Prince (who Lu Lingfeng worked for) and the Princess Royal (who Su Wuming worked for), and pulls them back to the capital and back into politcal intrigue and of course mysteries.

What I liked was the story telling and the mysteries and even the tiny bit of romance since it was so NOT the focus. I also love that there is a trope in CDramas that the women just seem to find and guy and go "yeah - him" and proceed to just act like they're married and the guys are like O.o and go along with it until they actually get married This is like the 4th time I've seen it happen ad it's hysterical.

You can watch it on YouTube and iQiyi
https://www.iq.com/album/strange-tales- ... lang=en_us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkUbbsV ... ZD&index=1

[scooter]

I also love that there is a trope in CDramas that the women just seem to find and guy and go "yeah - him" and proceed to just act like they're married and the guys are like O.o and go along with it until they actually get married

Happened to me. Three times.

[Glitter]

SHOW REC Back From the Brink

Official Summary: Tian Yao is the incarnation of a centuries-old dragon demon who once loved a woman – a woman who ultimately betrayed him. She exploited his love for her in a bid to rob him of his power-bestowing dragon bones, hiding them in a range of different locations. His heartbroken spirit, however, escaped. Reborn in a new guise, he hopes to regain his power by finding his bones. And has vowed never to love again.

When he encounters a young woman named Yan Hui, Tian Yao realizes she is in possession of a special seal. This seal has powers that could help him retrieve the all-important bones. But she is no willing helper in all this, so he holds her captive. Although she first tries in vain to escape, the two start to develop a bond of friendship. As they attempt to complete Tian Yao’s quest, could this bond one day turn into love?


My Summary: That's not a bad summary but it is certainly the barest top of the plot. Tianyao is mostly murdered (powerful spirits can be separated from there spirit selves and reduced to powerless mortals according to some lore) by his fiance who want's his scales and Heart Scale for her actual husband. Tianyao pitches the Heart Scale over the mountains before he "dies" where it lands in an abandoned infant girl with a heart problem. She is picked up and raised as a Taoist (essentially a cultivator) a chinese warrior wizard who uses magic either from a golden core or in this show a mind's eye and can fight with swords or whatnot.

Twenty years later Tianyao is finally strong enough to start putting himself back together and get revenge. He is drawn to Yanhui and his Heart Scale and together along with the cheerful third wheel Bai Xiaosheng, who wants them to be a couple for his own purposes, they go off to find his dragon pieces, get revenge on the terrible woman who killed him and eventually take out the Dark Lord who wants to destroy the world.

Thoughts: There is some absolutely DELIGHTFUL comedy in this, some charming (though not fabulous) CGI, and golly jeez did I LOVE LOVE LOVE the costumes and then ALL the drama. General consensus was that the show should have ended 5 minutes before it did, but all in all this was a delight. I watched it because- dragon, also I'm followed both the main couple in from other shows.

Trailers:
This one seems to be the same trailer just played twice - weird..........


And the serious one


You can watch it here:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/I5TQ4z_jDUs
Viki: https://www.viki.com/tv/39093c-back-from-the-brink