3 Top Chinese Drama For Watching During Lockdown, Movement Control Order (MCO)

Stay Home, Stay at Home, Stay Safe.  Yes, during these Lockdown time, we have to keep ourselves occupied. So I would suggest reading books, or do things together as a family such as playing games , or watching movies and dramas. Infact, I have actually started to binge on Chinese Dramas and Korean Dramas during this Lockdown period. 

   As an old fashioned lady, I am a sucker for love stories. But of course the plot and flow of the story has to be reasonable and with some sense of logic. I also judge a drama by the impact it had on a viewer after watching it and how long the impact lasts. 

I watch a lot of historical and palace dramas too. But I do not like the normal usual emperors and palace stories where there are lots of concubines scheming and plot against each other for the emperor's favor.
Chinese dramas are available free from a number of sites such as Dramalist.com, Kissasian.sh, Drama3s.me, Viki.com and others

1. Untamed (陈情令)

The Untamed, a cleverly woven story with plots of suspense, emotions, concealed hatred, gratitude and shades of gray that makes you glued to it and the urge to continue watching. It is made up  of 50 episode, a 2019 Chinese television series based on the BL Xianxia novel Mo Dao Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. The two main characters that binds this whole series is Wei Wuxian ( played by Xiao Zhan) and Lan Wangji (played by Wang Yibo). Untamed is a story that revolves around Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji who are "cultivators" of from different worlds and background forced to work together to protect the peace of their worlds. They fought together against villians, helped the innocents, solve murders and uncover mysteries.

Wang Yibo as Lan Wangji and Xian Zhan as Wei Wuxian 

This two characters really compliment each other well and as the story proceeds, I really enjoy the playful, carefree Wei Wuxian character very much. But I would definitely heap praises for Wang Yibo for the way he just look at Wei Wuxian, without a smile and expression. Yet his mirco expression gives the sense of sometimes of hatred, sometimes care and sometimes I detected that wenny bit of curve at his lips when Wei Wuxian walks in. Infact, he (Lan Wangji) did not talk much through out the whole drama, and his face also stayed monologue. Yet he did it so well that you will still fall in love with him and the added attraction is, wow, he is so handsome!  Oh yes, of course, lots of girls swooned over him and he was very popular and most talked about actor in 2019 when this television series was aired.

There are a number of twist and turns of faith, love, brotherhood, clanship and deceit. Some shades of gray were expertly intertwine into the story to pass the strict censorship of Chinese authorities. I highly recommend this drama as the flow and story was very exciting and unpredictable one.
Rating: 9/10


 2. Ashes of Love ( 香蜜沉沉烬如霜)

A love triangle story that touches the heart with sacrifices, manipulation and scheming. This is a 60 episode series premiered on Jiangsu TV from 2 August 2018. Ashes of Love is based on the novel Heavy Sweetness, Ash-like Frost by writer Dian Xian. 

The lead roles are Jinmi (錦覓) by Yang Zi (杨紫) and  Xufeng, the Phoenix/Fire/War Deity by Deng Lun (邓伦). 

The story revolves in the Heaven Realm and also the mortal human realm.  Jinmi is a sweet innocent young girl, sheltered and protected by the Flower realm in Heaven and brought up as a Frost Flower Fairy. I love to watch her sweet smile, innocent youthful nature speaking up for honesty and truth. She does not know what is love as she was given the 'perishing pill' when she was born, thus causing confusion between her and Xufeng, protrayed by Deng Lun (鄧倫) the Phoenix Deity and also Runyu (潤玉), night god played by Luo Yunxi (羅雲熙)   I am all praises for Yang Zi, she did a very good protrayal of Jinmi. As the show progress, Jinmi has grown from a sweet naive young girl into a mature understanding lady after going through much hardship of loss of loved ones, mistakes, guilt and hardship. 

  

This 60 episode is rather long with many love triangles, and jealousy and manipulation where Jinmi killed Xufeng and then later tries to bring him back to life. But will Xufeng still love her? I do get emotional at a few episodes. How will their life turn out? Do not miss the last episode! Anyway it is an ending I am happy with although a bit rushed. Well this Ashes of Love is so good that there is talk of a sequel of Season 2. 

 Rating: 8.5/10

3. Love 020 -微微一笑很倾城

I do not fancy much about young modern love stories as most are on love triangles and the shooting is done around just a handful of people. The storyline is mostly very predictable story and so does the endings. Having heard so much about this romantic comedy Love 020, I decided to give it a try. I give it a thumbs up as there are a number good values inculcated, such as friendship, relationship with family, a student's time management and also the actual colleges life and scenarios of staying in hostels and no actual love triangle. No wonder Love 020 was the most popular drama in 2017. It is also a drama series highly recommended for those who play online games, because they challenge each other with 'PK' (player kill), rather than the old fashioned 'paper, scissors, rock' method.

Love 020 won the Innovative Themed of the Year 2017 and Yang Yang the most popular quality actor 2017. Love 020 is shown in China Jiangsu TV and Dragon TV from 22 August to 6 Srptember 2016. A 30episode Chinese television series based on the novel of the same name written by Gu Man. The story is about Bei Wei Wei ( played by Zheng Shuang  郑爽 ) a computer goddess with beauty and brains stays in the hostel with a group of close friends who are also her roommates. She spends her time well studying for her examinations and during her free time she played her favorite role-playing game "A Chinese Ghost Story" of which she has attained high level. After she was dumped by her online-husband Zhenshui Wuxiang (protray by ZhangHe), she was shocked to get a message from the top player Yixiao Naihe to be her online husband. Thus it became a beautiful love story of online and ofline (020).  

Wei Wei's Roomates from left, Zhao Erxi, Tian Sisi and Xiao Ling

 Bei Wei Wei initially did not know that Yixiao Naihe was actually Xiao Nai (played by Yang Yang,(杨洋) , a popular senior, athletic and president of his own gaming company. So the surprises and twist and turns give essence to the love story with other girls chasing after Xiao Nai. Yang Yang gave a superb performance of the cool, handsome popular, smart young man who is level headed and handles situations well. His aloof, yet firm character and his commitment and love to only one girl makes a viewer can't help falling in love with him too! No doubt, Yang Yang was one of the most popular Chinese actor in year 2017.  This story  is well complemented their roommates cum best friends of Bei Wei Wei that is Zhao Erxi, Xiao Ling, Tian Sisi and Xiao Nai's roomates. I love to watch Zhao Erxi's (portrayed by Mo XiaoTong) character of the cute bubbly best friend of Wei Wei and she really adds much comedy and fun to this whole drama. It makes me feel like I would also like to MMORPG into online games ^-^. The only cons of this show are the kissing scenes and some parts such as the wedding were not shown.

Xiao Nai's room mates 

 I watch this series free through Viki.com and it took me two days to finish. I am happy with this channel as there are few advertisements and fast loading.
Ratings: 8/10

Another drama worth mentioning is Three Lives, Three Worlds Pillow Talk ( 三生三世枕上书; 三生三世枕上書). A 2020 drama, it is quite long with 56 episodes spaning three lives and three worlds. suitable for those who love wuxia....(I took 3 days to finish it)

Please do leave comments below or any request for review.

Happy Watching! Stay at Home , Stay Safe!
Coming up and stay tuned for Kdrama review soon!