Anne: Hello theater lovers! I hope everyone is enjoying the last days of 2023. Now…I know Chinese New Year won’t be until February 10th (so late!), 2024, but I’m very excited for next year …because it’s back to the year of the dragon. I don’t know if it will be a good year or not, but I hope that next year opens new avenues in my life that will provide those around me with what they will need most. And me better dramas and get me out of this bad situation! Because what I ended up doing a lot in the second half of this year was immersing myself in crafting. I know…I’m always late…I’ve been through two years of Covid restrictions where most people are resuming projects. I end up getting into these things in 2023. I’m currently building a greenhouse and all the little “things” that might go into it.
I’m only a third of the way there… I still have 20 plates to make… and obviously the “building”. I’m fighting with the 7 year old over who gets to keep this when it’s finished. This is still not resolved…
Now that we’re at the end of the year, I thought we should also take some time to discuss some of the ups and downs and what we enjoyed most about this year drama-wise. If I miss anything interesting that someone came across this year, please recommend it in the comments section.
Let’s start with what I’ve been watching over the last two weeks…
The Truth Season 2
I was browsing the apps when I came across this crime drama. Because it was season 2, and because Liu Yi Tong is also in this one, I was wondering if season 1 was somehow related. So I spent a day watching season 1 (which is only 12 episodes)…but they’re not related. It’s a Chinese crime drama, so it’s littered with smaller stories tied to a larger plot and villains. Season 2 revolves around Xiao Yi and his team. Xiao Yi is looking for a watch that belonged to his deceased girlfriend, which could reveal the identity of the man he was looking for a few years ago.
I’m only on episode 7 so I have no idea what role Bai Zhe plays here. Bai Zhe is currently a mysterious character who has apparently placed a bunch of hidden cameras in specific characters’ homes. I’m still figuring out what all the pieces are connected, but I really appreciate the well-drawn characters, even those who only appear for their small arc in the overall story.
I highly recommend it if anyone likes crime dramas. Season 2 is better than season 1.
Derailment
I really liked the synopsis of this drama when I read it on MDL. And I’ve enjoyed the latest shows adapted from Priest’s novels. Now, I won’t recommend you read the novel if you haven’t, and just take the drama as is. The drama begins with a very exciting and confusing sequence.
Episode 1 begins in 2025, we see a pink sports car speeding across a bridge and ending in an accident that caused the girl (Jiang Xiao Yuan) and her car to plunge off the bridge. As she and the car head toward the water, a strange cell phone suddenly announces welcome to a system and that they are opening a “tunnel.” The next scene is Qi Lian in 2012, accompanying his best friend to the hospital, after his friend fell off a construction site during some sort of fight. His friend’s life was saved, but he now sits in a wheelchair on the roof of a building (assuming it’s the hospital), while Qi Lian talks to his father on the phone portable. When he returns to his friend, he has disappeared, with that same strange cell phone lying in the empty wheelchair.
The story then jumps back to 2025, and we witness the events that led to Jiang Xiao Yuan’s fall on the bridge. The story then begins in 2018, when Jiang Xiao Yuan found himself in the middle of what looked like a stone courtyard. She finds herself in another time, where her father died before she was born. Her father’s cell phone number now belongs to Qi Lian. And Qi Lian, who obviously knows herself in 2018, continues to follow her everywhere.
The story is intriguing, I just have one small complaint. The actress who plays FL… I see she’s in her twenties, but she looks so much younger on screen. I feel like I’m watching a teenager trying to become an adult with scary men everywhere. Regardless, I’m still going to continue. But I’m not sure I can get rid of the creep factor between tracks.
Highlights of 2023
Let us now turn to this year in reflection. Let’s start with the positive side.
My favorite show of the year is still My strange destiny, which actually aired at the very beginning of 2023. The story is a romantic comedy set in a fictional historical period and involving the two warlords from neighboring towns, who hated each other to the depths of their being. I loved everything about this drama, from the silly comedy of errors, to that famous “bathtub”, to the bizarre side characters, the romance and the music! This is truly a comedy, so don’t watch this show with reality in mind.
Under the microscope, was by far the most exciting drama (it was also quite short at only 14 episodes) about the most boring topic (taxes) I have ever seen. The story was about Jia Mo, who is clearly on the autism spectrum, and his discovery of an accounting error. Everything went pretty well and I always enjoyed watching Zhang Ruo Yun. And I think they made the right decision to keep it at 14 episodes longer and it would have dragged.
And one of my most anticipated sequels…Taxi Driver Season 2, where we could all watch the new adventures of Kim Do Gi (so hot!) and his team bring justice to the bad guys. But his resurrection of his alter ego Wang Tao Chi was the BEST scene ever!
Now I know it could have been better, but the only full length fantasy drama I really enjoyed this year was Until the end of the moon. Yes, I know this mainly because I have a soft spot for Luo Yun Xi and Bai Lu, but I also loved the novel. For the most part, the story was pretty relatable, and he was just SO pretty, and therefore a tragic character.
The best remake that fixed the abrupt appeal of a BL drama was stay with me. It was a remake of Addict, and anyone who tells you otherwise is only looking at the surface. It was the perfect completion of what should have been, told in a way that managed to pass the censors while still keeping enough things “suggested” that anyone familiar with the original story could read between the lines. The main cast is a bit younger than the original, but given that this was supposed to take place in high school, I think this remake had the correct ages represented for the two main characters. I really hope they make a season 2 and continue the story.
My obsessions this year were short web drama series, and I ended up watching quite a few of them, including those on YouTube. Of all that, Love forever, introduced me to my new crush, Dai Gao Zheng…sigh…such a hottie. And my YouTube story gave me my other obsession, Shen Haonan. Check out these short dramas if you want a fixed period of time where everything in the room is just a little warmer than it should be (and no, I don’t get hot flashes… at least not the age-related kind…)
Lowlights of 2023
Most BL dramas except the one mentioned above. Even Taiwanese BL dramas didn’t do very well this year. Everything was so perfect, with plots that made almost no sense…or not much sense anyway.
Most feature films, Korean and Chinese. I’ve started more shows than I’ve managed to finish this year, and I almost always quit because I wanted to get through the scenes that were dragging. I’m not saying I agree that we should never have a series beyond 40 episodes, but come on! Give me something that makes me want to keep going! Maybe I just don’t want to spend the time invested in the trip. It’s just not worth my emotional time.
And that’s it for 2023! I don’t have details on the weak points because there’s really nothing I regret spending so much time on, mainly because I didn’t… hahaha. I look forward to what 2024 will bring both in the world of theater and in everyday life.