438. Love Unexpected 不可思议的爱情 (2021) Chinese

Fan Shi Qi, Qi Yan Di, Wang Xu Dong, Shen Yao, Zha Jie, Wang Xu Dong

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

I started this one because I wanted something fluffy, and then stopped it because it looked too cheesy and Ke Si Yi seemed annoyingly cheerful and air headed. But for some reason I went back to it the next day because I had nothing better to watch. After getting further into it, it totally surprised me with the premise, which wasn't what I expected it to be at all. I knew it was about an emotionless man and an overly emotional girl, but it's totally sci-fi because they get it switched so that he ends up feeling her physical pain and she can feel his emotions. Suddenly, it became super interesting. I also grew to love the overly emotional mess that Ke Si Yi was, and was super impressed with the dead pan, emotionless acting of the male lead Xu Nuo (props to Fan Shi Qi, he did a great job). It was a very interesting concept to have a couple fall in love when he literally can't feel emotions, but she can feel his. Interesting in how she distinguishes the two emotions and how they can also get confused. It definitely surprised me as it became the show I was looking forward to every week, which was hard because it wasn't getting subbed fast enough for me. It would thankfully be done by the end of the week (right before the new episodes came out), it's just that when you know they are there, taunting you, not getting subbed, it was hard to be patient. But I guess my impatience speaks to how well I loved this show.

440. Forever Love 百岁之好，一言为定 (2020) Chinese

Wang An Yu, Xiang Han Zhi, Pan Mei Ye, Chen Ze

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

I started this drama because the male lead looked normal guy hot instead of pretty boy, with his buzzed head and all. I hadn't paid any attention to be before seeing in while browsing. It definitely lived up to that expectation. He was way normal guy hot, with lots of charisma too. The main couple in general was way cute and I loved them. However, there was also too much to hate in the drama because of that. Because the main couple were such cute and nice people, it made the offending people all the more despicable and I spent the entire drama filled with anger for the people manipulating and trying to manipulate them. To the point that while the main couple deserve a 10/10, the "antagonists" of the drama deserve a 1/10. I thought I would be fair and keep it at a 7, but I am still feeling anger and the desire to punch senior brother's face because I just imagined his face, so maybe it really deserves a 6. I don't know, it just makes me so angry.

431. Jiu Liu Overlord 九流霸主 (2020) Chinese

Bai Lu, Lai Yi, Fang Yi Lun, Xu Mu Chan

Drama Rating: 4.5/10     Neck Score: A

I started this one 100% for Lai Yi, having love him since he was Senior Disciple in 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms, and Heavenly Doctor in Legend of Fuyao, but I stayed (at first) because the couple had good chemistry. I loved that they were both super business nerds, and that she could press his buttons and break him out of his stuffy shell to try new things and improve his business even more. Sadly, that wonderful chemistry wasn't enough to carry the whole drama, because there was serious dragging issues. There was a mystery plot about corruption and the evil magistrate (father to the second female lead) obviously trying to kill our leads. But what is worse is that plot was super secondary to the unnecessary drama of the romance. Obviously the main couple liked each other and had enough reason to know that the other did, but still they were both too awkward and quick tempered to say it or stay on good terms enough to be vulnerable with the other, and so it dragged on needlessly long, giving fuel to the two second leads to be increasingly more annoying. Then it got even worse when the entire drama suddenly changed plots and became absolutely ridiculously bad. They literally made him allergic to women at the beginning and then just forgot about it later on. Honestly, I'm still not sure why I finished it, but I did, so here is a full review.

439. My Little Happiness 我的小确幸 (2021) Chinese

Xing Fei, Tang Xiao Tian, Huang Yi Lin, Li Chuan

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

I started this one because I needed a modern Chinese romcom to help me be more patient while waiting for Love Unexpected to be subtitled. I had been hearing good things about it, and I was curious to see Tan Xiao Tian be the male lead after watching him be the second lead in Put Your Head on My Shoulder (also seeing him have a serious glow up since then too, rawr). It's the same girl too, which is always funny. Something for all those SLS shippers, I guess. Totally different characters though, which gives props to Xiao Tian. I really loved the dynamic between the leads. They had great chemistry and also it was a much less misunderstanding filled plot than most. Which means that yes, there were a lot of misunderstandings (the biggest one was annoying but manageable) but that they were solved really quickly. Mostly, I loved how mature the main couple was for the most part. They were both working professionals (she was interning to become a lawyer and he was a surgeon) and respected the other's profession a lot.   In fact, their proficiency in their professions was even an attraction for them. The fact that she fell for him at first sight because she saw him save a man at the airport and he had that competent doctor glow is just cute. I really love how much they supported each other in their jobs too, and supported each other with their jobs too.

435. Legend of Fei 有翡 (2020) Chinese

Zhao Liying, Wang Yibo, Zhang Hui Wen, Chen Ruo Xuan

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A

Oh my heck, I loved this show, and not just because I'm a bit obsessed with Wang Yibo, but because this was a show with really bad-ass women. Like super strong, awesome women, and their men who respect and love them in all their awesomeness. Zhou Fei (Zhao Liying) is just an awesome female lead, who is strong but also chill. Who stands up for justice, is stubborn, but also soft and loving. Her relationship with Xie Yun (Wang Yibo) is just beautiful. The fact that they have different strengths, and she is usually the one protecting him, but he's just like: ok, be careful! And then helping her from the sidelines. The fact that they would both do anything to protect the other, but also respect each other's skills and know when they don't actually need to be protected. Chef's kiss. It's wonderful. Also, all the characters. I just loved everyone, even the ones who were bad, overly evil, or started off as annoying or stupid. This is a show about some serious growth, and for pretty much everyone. Even the elders learn a thing or two and become more open to the strengths of the younger generation, or get wrecked because they don't.

434. A Little Thing Called First Love 初恋那件小事 (2019) Chinese

Lai Kuanlin, Zhao Jinmai, Wang Runze, Chai Wei

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A+

While I really like the high school to college dramas, they are all pretty formulaic. The male lead is always smart and popular, the female lead is awkward and has bad grades. Maybe she is openly chasing him, maybe it's a secret crush. Sometimes the male lead is a nice smart guy, sometimes he's a jerk. There will usually be a goofy friend or two who will make up the secondary couple. I swear there is usually a chubby best friend too. A third of the drama will be in high school and then it will reset in college, where suddenly the evil second leads will appear. I said reset because there was enough angst in high school to assume that they would just immediately get together in college, but because of second leads, misunderstandings, etc., it will instead drag out for forever and I usually get impatient. The male lead will always be the troop leader in the military training episodes, and will secretly help the female lead. A Little Thing Called First Love is no exception to this formula. But that doesn't mean it's not good in it's own right. It was very charming, and had just enough differences from this formula to make it more than worth it. And besides, I really do like this genre, so bring on those high school crushes.

429. Princess Weiyoung 锦绣未央 (2016) Chinese

Tiffany Tang, Luo Jin, Vanness Wu, Mao Xiaotong, Li Xinai 

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

Princess Weiyoung is just a hot mess of drama. It was a delightful hot mess, but also happened when I had my drama anxiety explosion that made me literally pause everything I was watching in favor of binge watching We Bare Bears. Sometimes the ridiculous drama where everyone is evil except the leads is fun and sometimes people's mothers are dying and I can't deal with that in the middle of a pandemic. However, after taking some time, I still came back and finished it, because it was ridiculous and I had to see the train wreck at the ending. It actually had a better ending that I expected. More... realistic, if you can believe that when everything was so over dramatic that it wasn't ridiculous. I just like that they didn't force a completely happy ending and were able to give us some tragedy that also wasn't forced. I had a whole thread on Twitter about this, because it was so 😲😲😅😅😂😂 that I had to shout out my feelings to the Twitterverse. You can probably get more details and spoilers from that thread then here. But at least you can know that it was crazy, dramatic, and I generally loved it, even then rolling my eyes and laughing every two seconds.

421. Love Designer 爱情高级定制 (2020) Chinese

Dilraba Dilmurat, Huang Jingyu, Zhang Xinyu, Yi Da Qian, Hu Bing, Zheng Shui Jing

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

Love Designer was an interesting show in the fact that I never loved it, but I never hated it enough to drop it. It was kind of meh, to be honest. I liked how it was about a bunch of adults who communicated pretty well and generally worked things out maturely, and were looking out for each other, putting their partner's needs before their own, not getting in the way of each other's careers, etc. But at the same time they also got caught up in really weird things, which cause random drama. But for the most part, since they were so mature and cool, it came off as really blasé some times, like they had to really did for ideas to make it dramatic and that they would then act out of character to make those situations work.

423. The Love Equations 致我们甜甜的小美满 (2020) Chinese

Simon Gong, Liu Ren Yu, Li Ge Yang, Julio Wan Yan, An Yong Chang, Gao Qiu Zi

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

This completes all of the current dramas based on books by Zhao Qian Qian, the previous two being A Love So Beautiful and Put Your Head on My Shoulder. While I loved them all, I think this one ranks slightly below Put Your Head on My Shoulder, with A Love So Beautiful as third. Not that my ranking them was that important, I just felt like it. All of them have the same basic premise, with a smart stoic boy who falls for a spunky girl. But why knock a proven fun plot, I'm super into that trope. The reason this one only hits second place is that I really dislike misunderstanding breakups and while this one wasn't the worst I've seen, the year gap soured me just enough. It might also have to do with me watching PYHOMS first... maybe. See those reviews for more details though. But ultimately it was super cute, the couple had lots of chemistry, and I was very invested in everyone's happiness and binged watched the whole thing very fast.

409. Well Intended Love 2 奈何BOSS要娶我 2 (2020) Chinese

Wang Shuang, Xu Kaicheng, Ian Yi, Liu Jia Xi, Huang Qian Shuo, He Qian Ying

Drama Rating: 5/10     Neck Score: A+

If I thought I was too morbidly curious and a glutton for punishment when I watch the first season of this, I only confirmed it by watching the second season. But I was curious to know how they were going to change it when I heard it was more of a reboot than a sequel. So there is really no way for me to talk about this with out some spoiler type deals for both season. But you need to be fully warned before you actually watch these shows, so you know what you're getting yourself into and aren't betrayed.

Basically season 2 is a peace offering to everyone who hated the betrayal of the first season, to give us anyone worth liking, while banking on the fact that the main couple has crazy good chemistry. So, it was a redo with the same characters in an alternate reality where he doesn't fake her medical record to make her think that she has leukemia and that he's her bone marrow match so he can trap her into marrying him. None of that. Instead he's just a stalker. The least of his crimes from before. A low key stalker who takes advantage of them getting into a scandal (because he is rich and she is famous) to trick her into an engagement to "save face" when it's actually to get her to actually marry him... so it works... kinda. At least he didn't cause the scandal. You have to then look passed the references they make to the original, like him cancelling the plan when the scandal happens, hinting that he was still capable of that, he just didn't need to this time (face palm). Whatever, I guess it's something of progress.

405. Three Lives, Three Worlds: The Pillow Book 三生三世枕上书 (2020) Chinese

Dilraba Dilmurat, Gao Weiguang

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A++

This drama was like crack. It was all my favorite characters from Peach Blossoms, and none of the characters I hated from Peach Blossoms, and relatively low on the craziness for the most part. But my obsession with watching it made me make some very poor drama decisions while waiting for episodes to be released and subbed. Oh well, I never actually regret what I put myself through, because at least I get write the review after (no, I regret it a lot, some of those were really terrible). Ahem. Overall, it's three (or five) different "lives" filled with misunderstandings and more misunderstandings, and really bad luck until the couple can finally get on the same page, but as misunderstandings go, the only one that really bothered me was the one at the end, but that was because all the stakes were higher at the end.

Anyway, Dijun and Feng Jiu were actually my favorite couple in Peach Blossoms, but that was probably because their romance didn't have anything to do with Sujin. Thank goodness. Also, Dijun and the Third Prince were like besties, and I really loved their dynamic. So when I heard that they were actually going to do their full story, I was on board. Plus, more Dijun means more Third Prince and Siming. I'm still waiting for the spinoff/mini drama or whatever when they let Third Prince finally successfully woo Cheng Yu. Maybe get some backstory there.

413. All I Want For Love Is You 满满喜欢你 (2019) Chinese

Lu Zhao Hua, Liu Yu Han, Xie Zhi Xun, Han Ting Yu, Liu Yin Jun, Sun Yan Qing

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I don't usually skip this many scenes... honestly I don't usually skip any scenes. I don't know if I was just not in the mood for this type of drama or if was just too invested in the main couple that anything delaying their already too delayed confessions and getting together was too much for me to handle. It might also be because of the sudden entrance of new players. I usually don't take too kindly to those at all. It's the typical high school drama with the smart/stoic boy and spunky/low graded girl that starts in the junior year and goes into college. Which means the second leads change as well. In high school we just had the best friends as love rivals, and everything was innocent and fine. Then all the sudden halfway through the show they enter the bigger world of college and meet even more annoying rivals that we didn't want to have to deal with. They probably weren't as bad as I'm making out, I just didn't want to deal with them. But the main couple was so cute that I kept coming back, even though I was skipping almost all of the episodes, since I refused to watch anything that didn't have the main couple interacting, or more accurately I probably just skipped through the scenes as soon as one of my hated love rivals appeared.

406. Well Intended Love 奈何BOSS要娶我 (2019) Chinese

Wang Shuang, Xu Kaicheng, Ian Yi, Liu Jia Xi, Huang Qian Shuo, Yang Hao Ming, Sun Jia Qi

Drama Rating: 4/10     Neck Score: A+

Sometimes, my morbid curiosity gets the best of me. In this case, I was in a bad mood (partially because I realized I had to wait another week for the next Pillow Book episodes) and was bored and I just wanted to watch something terrible. I had seen enough spoilers on the T-list to know exactly what I was getting into, but that really only scratched the surface. This might have been the most ridiculous piece of makjang I have ever seen. It was a terrible show about terrible people (with maybe one or two good ones) and you just have to sit back and let the terrible happen. Or just not watch it, which is probably what I should have done, but I guess sometimes I'm a glutton for punishment [insert some cat meme here].

Warning, serious spoilers. I guess I watched this so you all could satisfy morbid curiosity too, if that's a thing:

401. Pretty Li Huizhen 漂亮的李慧珍 (2017) Chinese

Dilraba Dilmurat, Peter Sheng, Vin Zhang, Li Xirui

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A+

I knew I probably shouldn't have started Pretty Li Huizhen when Vin Zhang was the second male lead AGAIN, and he was just going to make me get SLS just like Siwon did in She Was Pretty, but I for some reason just did it anyway. Also, I probably should have looked up how long it was, because I struggled in the middle as they took a 16 episode K-drama (She Was Pretty) and turned it into a 40 episode C-drama. I did the math, removing the 5 minutes of intro and credits all C-dramas have, that's adding 10 hours to the story.... yeah, it got pretty draggy in the middle. Especially since I felt like all 10 of those hours were BEFORE he finally figured out who she was. Um, he's a very gullible, trusting dude, I guess. This did mean that there was way more time for character development for both our male lead and second female lead, but it also meant that there was a lot more time for them to stew on their life choices. She spent a lot of time feeling guilty (or justifying) about her lying and stuff. We did know what he was thinking more, but he spent a lot of time talking about his feelings with his friend and feeling like a cheater as he fell in love with real her while dating fake her...

357. A Love So Beautiful 致我们单纯的小美好 (2017) Chinese

Hu Yi Tian, Shen Yue, Gao Zhi Ting, Wang Zi Wei, Sun Ning

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

I watched this one because of how much I loved Put Your Head On My Shoulder and that probably made it harder to like this one. It's the same basic plot, spunky girl/stoic genius, but this one should have been called "A Love so Frustrating" because it quickly became obvious that they both liked each other, but for some reason they still weren't getting together. It did make sense why, but that didn't make it any less frustrating. She's the typical spunky, artistic, but not any good at school, girl who is in love with her neighbor and is constantly following him. Her determination to win him over is the entire plot of the show. He is the stoic genius who is super handsome so everyone loves him, but he's got some severe emotional and trust issues, which means that her devotion to him is actually attractive to him, but he's got so many trust and abandonment issues that he's too scared to actually voice his feelings. He's also a tsundere, which is like a double whammy.

356. Put Your Head on My Shoulder 致我们暖暖的小时光 (2019) Chinese

Xing Fei, Lin Yi, Tang Xiaotian, Zheng Ying Chen

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I guess I really liked this one, or at least it was what I wanted at the time, because I literally finished it in one weekend, starting it right after my last one and finishing it like two days later. That was not great because I was supposed to actually get things done that weekend, but oh well. I guess that's what this weekend is for... But it was super cute, and addictive, and I really enjoyed it. It was seriously cute from episode one. It was very slice of life and coming of age, with a cute romance between an ambitious to be in advertising accounting student and a genius physics student. I think that dynamic is literally one of the oldest tropes (spunky girl/staid genius) but this one did it much better than most because he wasn't the classic stoic genius kid, but he was a fairly realistic scientist. She was also not the typical spunky girl, because she also super practical and had all the street smarts he was lacking in his academic smarts. I absolutely loved how they portrayed him in that aspect, because he was so clearly in love with her for the start, but his approach to it was so logical and scientific that you wondered if they would ever be on the same page.

353. My Girlfriend 我不能恋爱的女朋友 (2019) Chinese

Timmy Xu, Bridgette Qiao, Zhou Yi Xuan, Wang Jia Ning

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A

This honestly wasn't amazing or anything, but I still really enjoyed watching it. Not quite sure why because the story was a mess. It was very typical and full of those classic tropes, such as him having a temper and her having a "curse" so she couldn't find love. Of course she also has narcolepsy so every time she gets rejected, or something super awkward or stressful happens, she falls asleep. Which of course makes them meet under the worse circumstances, so she ends up owing him money and he can trick her into being on his show. All of it very typical and fluffy. But it also had some weird things that made it not typical. Yeah, Chi Xin had a bad temper, but he wasn't the typical possessive or jealous guy. In fact, I really liked how he actually never chased after her the entire time but became, instead, a best friend or even best frenemy, since they fought all the time. I also loved that during their brief time of forced living situation, she accepted those terms because of a misconception that was caused by his one moment of jealousy, which led him to jump into a kiss cam moment in the opposite way he probably intended. Kiss cams are also apparently the new accidental kiss, they seem to be happening a lot in Chinese dramas lately.

350. The Untamed 陈情令 (2019) Chinese

Xiao Zhan, Wang Yibo

Drama Rating: 9/10     Neck Score: A+++

Oh my gosh, obsessed! I literally watched it as fast as my schedule would allow, because it is very addictive. I am a bit glad that I waited until it was over (just because I was drama lazy and in a funk in general) because I could binge it as much as I wanted, but I am also a bit sad because I was late to the game and didn't get to join the live tweeting and conversation. I also knew a bit of what was going on because I had followed it so closely on Twitter. But it is totally worth all the hype. I haven't seen such a compelling story line in a while. Also didn't hurt that it was full to the brim with extremely handsome men, the major portion of which were also decent actors (there is also that handful that are not, but whatever, it's fine).

So it is a fantasy cultivation genre, where everyone is an immortal hero in training, so if you've seen any of those types of dramas, you'll be familiar with that, but what I like is that it spins that on it's head, since the story is about the "Untamed Hero" who isn't conventional to this cultivation and it raises the question of what is true. So there is a lot of mob mentality as people fear what they do not know, and also a lot of power hungry jerks who are willing to throw people to the mobs for their own gain. Basically there is a bunch of injustice and you might cry a time or two as crap happens in abundance. But, the storytelling of it makes it worth it. I remember wishing and wondering why certain villains had stayed alive as long as they did, but the pace was nice and there were several different arcs with different villains, so no one villain stayed alive for too long. Just longer than I wanted sometimes.

347. Go Go Squid 亲爱的，热爱的 (2019) Chinese

Yang Zi, Li Xian, Hu Yi Tian, Lee Hong Chi, Li Ze Feng, Chen Xi Jun, Wang Zhen Er

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A++

I had to see what all the hype was about. I'm admittedly on one of those weird blah watching kicks where I'm not motivated to watch or especially start much of anything, but this manages to hook me fast enough that I kept watching and then I quickly knew exactly what the hype was about. It's super addictive because you really just fall in love with everyone and especially all the relationships. I mean ALL of them. It's just as much about the friendships as it is about the romance. Also, the romance is absolutely fun to watch because it's two super awkward first timers who don't know what they are doing despite the age difference, and to see them bring out the best in each other and struggle to figure out what to do is pretty darn satisfying.

In-Flight Film Time: Big Brother 大師兄 (2018) Chinese

Donnie Yen, Joe Chen, Kang Yu, Jack Lok, Lin Qiunan

Movie rating: 6/10     Neck score: A

I knew what it would be before I started it, but my love for Donnie Yen made me watch it anyway. I would have probably preferred a movie with more fighting in it, but what fight scenes there were were definitely good. This movie is more about the schmaltz. It's 100% feel good and social commentary. It's about an unorthodox teacher who turns a class of loser misfits around and makes them care about life and want to try again the way that only an unorthodox teacher can. He's not only ex-military, he's also an ex-trouble maker and alumni from the school. He's basically the perfect problem solver. That's probably the schmaltziest part of the film, he manages to solve everyone's problems with his magic caring. Well, a lot of that is just talking through things and actually giving a darn, so it does make some sense, but it also is a bit too simple. There are of course difficulties. Bad decisions and consequences that lead to our teacher taking out a MMA champion to save a student (got to get a fight scene in somehow) and later a gang of thugs because of course some evil rich dude wants the school to close so they can make bank on a redevelopment scheme. But they also had to comment on the school system which drives students to give up caring or to commit suicide, so there was plenty of heaviness too.