Coming full circle. Back to Chinese dramas since April 2023.

Be it wuxia, xanxia or historical, my first love is Chinese dramas that have beautiful flowy costumes. At times, I crave it so much that I am willing to watch simple story lines but at the core of it all, it must have actors or actresses which I enjoy looking at. Then what brings it to the next level for me is their chemistry and smart natural dialogues that I remember to this day like in Rise of the Phoenixes.

Having watched so many dramas, I can spot most twists so when a drama can surprise me, I am over the moon. Dramas that use common tropes in a smart way makes me happy. Dramas that overuse misunderstandings and jealousies turn me off.

My thoughts when I first joined:

Drama crossroads as at 18.01.22... Starting off with Chinese dramas and moving to Korean dramas a few weeks back, I was recently deeply touched by Mr Sunshine even days after finishing the drama. It made me want to dig deeper into Korean history and leave a review for the drama.

My drama journey started mid 2021 thanks to some Facebook trailers for The Romance of Tiger and Rose. This playful romantic drama reignited my love of historical dramas with martial arts and beautiful flowy costumes. My journey continued with longer dramas that tugged at the heartstrings... memorable ones include Untamed and Ten Miles of Peach Blossom.

Many more were just so-so and after exhausting the Chinese options, I decided to try Empress Ki, a Korean-made Chinese story. There were differences in the style of story telling and pacing and I got hooked. A few Korean period dramas later, I stumbled upon Mr Sunshine which moved me in ways I never felt before and compelled me to join MyDramaList.

18 January 2022 marks the day I started writing reviews here. Mr Sunshine, Flower Crew and Saimdang were more descriptive as I had just finished watching those dramas recently. The briefer reviews written on the same day were of dramas watched further back in time.

Looking forward to more dramas with gorgeous flowing costumes, visually stunning scenery and well choreographed fighting sequences, be it historical or wuxia, be it Chinese, Korean or even Japanese.

So for now, it’s still no modern day dramas for me.

oops... so much for that thought. Crash Landing On You was my second modern Korean drama and I enjoyed it! And I’ve continued to seek out more modern Korean dramas and am enjoying my drama journey so far.