TTFeb: Favorite cdrama

[superborb]

spatz prompted: Favorite/least favorite cdrama? Or if that's too hard to pick, favorite rewatch/favorite one to recommend?

I find it very easy to drop cdramas (and I know a lot of people who simply never finish any cdramas, but start plenty, so it feels a bit inherent to the medium?), so I don't think I want to say anything is a 'least favorite'! If I finished it, there was /something/ redeeming about it, even if it fell on its face in the end.

 

But I think I have different favorites vs rewatches vs recommendations! ...okay by splitting hairs, because obviously those are overlapping categories. 

 

Favorite: Qi Hun (my review). An adaptation of Hikaru no Go, but one that took enough creative liberties to feel fresh. The premise is sports anime vibes, where the sport is go/weiqi: Shi Guang discovers a haunted go board that gives him a go playing ghost that pesters him to play all the time. The show tracks his growth as a player into more elite circles of go and the friends (and RIVAL) he makes along the way. 

 

Hikago was the first fandom I was in, and Qi Hun is arguably the fandom I'm currently the most active in, because I mod a discord server for it, so I have a lot of FEELINGS about like, the fandom around the show if that makes sense? And those interactions enrich and add layers to what might otherwise just be a very good show. Certainly there are frustrating issues (definite pacing problems, potentially censorship caused plot holes), but I just love the characters so much. 

 

Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire. Revenge, politics, and conspiracies, what more could I ask for? Mei Changsu is bent on getting redemption for the unjust dead, so that justice will prevail. Step one: getting his former BFF, the emperor's least favorite son declared crown prince. Very good balance of political intrigue with harem drama, and enough outrageously improbable "MCS wins by having all the people" to lighten the mood. 

 

I rewatch shows rather infrequently, but despite seeming like intrigue might not have a lot of rewatch capacity, this show really stands up to it, because ultimately the character interactions are the core of what is so excellent about the show and that never gets old. TBH, the plot is not /that/ complicated (people are on the side of justice or MCS, and it's a matter of them falling in line or being creatively manipulated to fall from grace), but the balance of character personalities is so good. 

 

Recommendation: Imperial Coroner (my review). Mystery period drama is still how I'd sell this show. Excellent core group of four main characters, whose interactions are so fun, and a solid mystery to investigate, with many parts to solve. 

 

The reason I tend to recommend this first is that it is well paced and is not too complicated, making it a good starting point for those who might expect... 76 episodes of intricate plot and character development. 36 episodes is long enough to sink into, while being not a huge commitment, and it really does move quickly so it's easy to keep watching. And the framework of the mystery means that it's pretty easy to keep track of what the goal is. 

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Comments

[halfcactus]

Oh yes those are also the top 3 dramas I think of when I think of recs (that are to my personal taste, ie. strong gen canons that are character-driven and fun), since the other ones that stood out to me in terms of quality tend be so much heavier (ie. Horizon Tower and The Bad Kids—the latter is really not my type but it was just so beautiful and cinematic and visually/mentally stimulating and I was SO ATTACHED TO THE KIDS when it wasn’t stressful, it remains close to my heart).

Qihun in general was one of my most personal and satisfying experiences, both as an adaptation and as a fandom 😭 It was just so nice to experience it all over again with fellow dormant fans that grew up in the same time period as the drama, AND also watch new fans check out the animanga! I remember keeping my expectations so low when I first saw the posters which looked kinda dubious 😂 And when the show was airing I had so many issues with Shi Guang’s character and Yu Liang’s acting at the beginning and was preparing for the worst, but it turned out to be such an interesting reinterpretation????

[superborb]

Way to call out my taste too, A, haha. The Bad Kids is still on my to-watch list!! Someday... I just watch shows so slowly.

I think Qi Hun stands up to watching it without the animanga, but that extra layer really does add something! And yeah, we were so skeptical sdjfklsj at any point, ready for it to just take a turn for the worst...

[halfcactus]

I mean, major content warnings for child harm in The Bad Kids: an adult women attacking the main character, an adult man trying to drown the main character, not to mention the main villain/murderer. Also when the main character visits the Children's Palace in ep 1 or 2, a child suddenly falls off the building, and then the adults examine them--that's the scene that upset me the most, I think. Tbh I speed-watched most of the second half but I still think it's a very beautifully shot and well-executed show, and I loved the code-switching.

[superborb]

Ahh, I'm just so slow at watching shows lately... Takes so much longer to watch something.

[genarti]

We just started watching Imperial Coroner yesterday, so this is delightful news! ("We" = skygiants and me and our friend T who is our Asian drama marathoning friend.) We're four episodes in and I'm enjoying the heck out of it so far.

[superborb]

It's so good!!!

[skygiants]

Yes, so far SO much fun, I'm really looking forward to watching more!

[superborb]

I'll be curious what you think once you finish!

[spatz]

Yes, Imperial Coroner!!! It's just so *cozy*, despite having a lot of gruesome dead bodies and things, but you're also right that it's quite accessible as a drama. (btw did you see the recent short that they released?)

Ahahaha, I kinda thought NIF would be a rewatch fave if you answered that. I swear, literally every person I've gotten into the show watched it and then immediately rewatched it. It's bizarrely common - and then of course you just keep rewatching it whenever the mood strikes after that lol.

I keep meaning to finish Qi Hun, but I got bogged down fairly early in the series. Does Shi Guang stop being so misogynistic, or at least do they stop showing it so much? I loved the anime and I've heard such good things about the drama from many people but I really hit a wall by the sixth episode.

[superborb]

Aww the short is so cute!

Yeah, the cdrama does try to ameliorate the misogyny of the anime to varying degrees of success; the resultant misogyny takes the form + level of what I consider standard for cdramas of this time. I vaguely recall that the episodes immediately post timeskip were quite meh and we weren't really sure if we trusted the show to handle it well, but ep 10-12 was the turning point where people got more into it.

[spatz]

Thank you, that's very helpful! I can wade through a few eps if I have a goal to move towards.

[lirazel]

Oooh, thanks for the rec re: Imperial Coroner. I still don't think I'm quite ready for Nirvana in Fire even though I really look forward to watching it at some point.

[superborb]

It's good! And complicated enough to be interesting without being... NiF haha.