A healing drama about the romance between Shen Xi Fan (Xu Ruohan), a hotel manager battling insomnia, and He Su Ye (Zhang Linghe), a gentle traditional Chinese medicine doctor. Starting off in a doctor-patient relationship, they slowly get to know each other privately, sparking a mature slow-burn love story. Their interactions feel natural and authentic without exaggerated conflicts and their quiet yet intense chemistry shines through.
A slow paced (sometimes a little too slow), heartwarming romcom that also visually projects warmth and comfort with its greenbathing moments and soft lighting. The drama’s focus on traditional Chinese medicine adds an interesting cultural layer and is woven neatly into the storytelling.
It’s a calming, wholesome watch. Just what you need after a stressful day.
A mix of workplace drama, second-chance romance, and personal growth story: Moon Ga-young plays Baek Su-jeong, a high school senior who forms a connection with an online gamer, only to face shock and betrayal when they meet in person. Years later, she meets Ban Ju-yeon (Choi Hyun-wook), her new boss at Yongseong Department Store, who turns out to be her past gaming partner.
It’s a classic enemies-to-lovers romcom with the familiar tropes we like but without the long angsty part (it’s only 12 episodes short). There’s only one villain (the ML’s grandmother) and as usual in K-dramas, she gets off lightly in the end.
Charming and delightful, it hops along nicely and the leads as well as the second leads are fun to watch — and so we sail thoroughly entertained into the happy ending.
A slice of life drama with comforting vibes. It centers around a manager at a five-star hotel (Liu Yifei) who quits her job and takes time out in the countryside to reassess her life after her best friend dies unexpectedly. The young woman ends up sharing a homestay with a group of former city dwellers who try to escape the rat race and gets entangled with the local village beau (Li Xian). Their slow burn romance plays a minor part for the lion’s share of the show before it gets center-staged in the last few episodes.
Most of the drama takes place in a beautiful old village in Yunnan Province, set in a gorgeous landscape — just watching the scenery is already relaxing and feels like virtual green bathing. Village life is presented as rustic, authentic and slow — and so for our friends at the homestay there is always time for a chat or a walk, an opportunity to daydream or meditate. Just watching them, we slow down ourselves and happily spend time with these well-developed characters, listening to their often thought-provoking conversations and watching their relationships form. Lucky for us, acting and writing are top-notch so it never gets boring during the 40 episodes.
The misery of employees in big corporations is often shown in dramas but only rarely are solutions offered. This drama, however, gives us several role models who demonstrate how to get out of these situations. This is not done in a hitting-you-over-the head kind of way, which would compromise the multidimensional aspects of the characters. This show is too well written for that. Still, there’s clearly an underlying message for people considering leaving the big city behind.
For the characters who follow an artistic pursuit as a writer or musician, the village can be seen as a temporary escape from the expensive city. For musicians, however, the lack of audience and colleagues can turn life in a village into a dead-end unless they are willing to use their abilities to integrate into the community — as music teachers, for example.
Clearly the possibility favored in the drama to provide a realistic way out of the career rat race and switch to a quiet life in this gorgeous village is to become an entrepreneur — thereby not only finding a fulfilling and self-determined life yourself but at the same time improving the lives and prosperity of the village people.
While lifestyles with artistic pursuits, e.g. as a writer or a musician, are viewed non-judgmentally, one way of life pushes individualism too far and is criticized as foolish and egotistical: the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. It is symbolized here by former CEO Ma Qiu Shan, who is portrayed as a ridiculous character who spouts existential platitudes. He finds the right way again (and hopefully we do too if we ever had such leanings) partly through his conversations with an uneducated working-class woman who is apparently grounded in the realities of life.
Technically, the writers are employing here a set piece of classic communist thinking: Religion is nothing but opium for the masses, workers are superior in their understanding of life compared to the educated class. However, quite different from its original intention, this argument is not used to restrain individualism in favor of a social class but in favor of a different social group, the family unit. And, in an ironic twist, this Marxist line of reasoning is employed in these scenes to encourage Ma Qiu Shan to found a new company — and thereby become a member of the capitalist class again.
Hunan TV, Mango TV. China. Written by Shui Qian Mo and Wang Xiong Cheng.
Youth drama meets time-travel fantasy. A smart high school student who wants to become a musician clashes with his father who has a more conventional career for him in mind. This classic youth dilemma — to either follow your dreams or fulfill your parents’ expectations — has an added poignancy to it as both parents are deaf, which makes it hard for them to understand their son’s passion for music. Will a trip back in time help resolve the conflict?
An inspiring and moving coming-of-age drama depicting the exuberance of youth while also raising awareness about the lives of deaf people. With fresh actors and a suspenseful plot, the show covers a broad emotional range from joyful moments to tragic circumstances with a lot of heart. A comforting watch and a celebration of the magic of life — viva la vida!
Time-travel fantasy with murder subplot. A fangirl travels back in time trying to save the life of her favorite idol. But manipulating the past always comes with unintended consequences and so plans keep going awry, especially when there is a murderous villain involved.
Usually I stay away from dramas with thriller aspects. In this case, though, the villain is not a randomly added device but is central to drive the plot forward. So I’m willing to tolerate it as the drama delivers in most other regards: a suspenseful plot with unexpected twists, emotional high stakes and cute leads (Byeon Woo Seok, Kim Hye Yoon) with chemistry. Sure, the drama isn’t perfect: Too much time is spent on the thriller aspect in the second part of the drama and side characters are a mixed bag (e.g., FL’s brother was annoying without adding anything). However, in the end it is the compelling romance that matters. So it’s not surprising that it is one of the most popular romantic dramas of the year. A well-deserved success.
A female hobby musician comes to the attention of her idol, a popular voice actor. The female lead is a super sweet, innocent and shy university student (superbly played by Zhou Ye), while male lead Tan Jian Ci embodies the perfect boyfriend: handsome, considerate and … with excellent cooking skills. A simple drama focusing on a very slow burn romance in an interesting setting of a niche entertainment sector.
Be warned, though: The drama has more of a reality show vibe. There is no conflict whatsoever and consequently no real story aside from the lead couple getting to know each other. Instead we are treated to a display of delicious food, eating, cooking, singing, sightseeing and beautiful people staring into each other’s eyes.
While I thoroughly enjoyed entering this rose-colored world, I can see how others might find it boring and overloaded with sweetness. However, if you are in the mood for a soothing and stress-free drama experience, go for it. Just don’t watch it when you’re hungry.
A Chinese romcom that puts the focus on the main romance – in this case, on the relationship between a scriptwriter (Huang Ri Ying) with a massive crush and the initially oblivious CEO (Wei Zhe Ming) of the film production company she works for.
This drama scores high for the things it does not do. There’s no office politics and no evil adversary, no false friends and no backstabbing, no break-ups and no love triangles, no annoying second leads and no evil parents. And – no angst.
Everybody is nice and pretty in this rose-colored world, the conflicts are low-key and the simple plot with the She-Fell-First-He-Fell-Harder trope flows along effortlessly. However, the show does get a little draggy in the second half as the back-and-forth of the main romance goes on for too long and the reluctance of the FL is not quite comprehensible.
So altogether a sweet (for some probably overly sweet) and fluffy escape from the stress and annoyances of everyday life. If you’re looking for a super-relaxing, light-hearted watch, give it a try.
This drama falls in the much-loved chaebol subgenre of Korean romcoms — here it’s about a chaebol’s son (Junho) and a spunky employee (YoonA) working together at a luxury hotel.
Don’t be discouraged by the first bumbling episodes. It’s the script’s fault. Well-intentioned and in line with romcom tradition, the writer aims to portray the male lead’s character development – in this case starting from a traumatized, arrogant spoiled manchild who is transformed by the power of love and later becomes the ideal boyfriend. But the manchild version of the ML often acts so dumb (see e.g., the episode about the rescue mission) that the character comes across as inconsistent and completely “unrealistic,” even in context of the fictional realms of the dramaworld. Luckily, after falling in love the ML’s personality changes, the stupid features fall away and he makes a lot more sense.
Instead of offering its own original artistic vision to the audience, the drama feels like a response to a survey of romcom fans about what they would like to see. And this time, unlike a lot of older romcoms, the creative team indulges us and delivers what we want. Some of us want fluff, and fluff is what the show gives us.
King The Land is a true comfort show, the characters and the tropes are as familiar as old friends we missed seeing for a long time. Look, here’s the goofy assistant and the grumpy grandma, here is the umbrella-in-the-rain scene and, oh yes, here are the close-ups of the gorgeous leads. But we also have improvements over the tradition: more mature conversations, misunderstandings that get fixed in a jiffy instead of lingering for no good reason, and none of the overused tropes of love triangles, breakups, and childhood connections. And we get real hugs (no arms awkwardly dangling) and we get kisses – I mean real kisses, not the weird pecks of old.
So it’s all good? Mmh, not quite. What’s missing is a unique setup that gets things rolling like in Business Proposal with the mistaken identity of the female lead as the blind date or in Lie to Me with its secret marriage pretense. Without that bit of suspense, the show sometimes becomes a bit boring.
Aside from the small fumbles in the first episodes, the lack of a gripping story and PPP (plentiful product placements), the drama is fun and it’s pretty. And the leads have great chemistry. If you like stress-free, supersweet romcoms, check it out.
A sensitive portrayal of a girl’s first crush that turns into a full-blown romance during her college years. This gem of a drama focuses on Sang Zhi, brought alive by Zhao Lu Si’s amazing performance, and how she comes to terms with her feelings for her older brother’s best friend. Male lead Chen Zhe Yuan is a great foil as the straightforward perfect boyfriend to the more emotionally complicated character of Sang Zhi.
Aside from a couple minor over-the-top plot lines at the end, this is a supremely well-written drama – especially when it comes to the roles of the main couple and Sang Zhi’s interactions with her brother. They probably felt so real because they were partially improvised by the actors (see interview with Victor Ma, who played Sang Zhi’s brother). The relationship with her brother shows us a completely different side of Sang Zhi – while she cares about him, she can be mean and obnoxious to him, a real brat. This darker side makes the character much more realistic and relatable – and very easy to identify with. She is a great role model: She knows exactly what she wants and she fights for it – defying her insecurities, social expectations (age gap) and interferences by other people, even family members.
This is a sweet, feel-good comfort drama – heartfelt, with top-notch chemistry, no love triangles, no noble idiocy and low on conflict. A beautiful depiction of the innocence and insecurity of first love that will put a smile on your face.
Youku. China. Written by Shen Fei Xian. Based on a novel by Zhu Yi.
dramaroma update: In the last few years major changes have happened in the Korean dramaworld: The amount of dramas aired on the three big networks KBS, MBC and SBS has been massively reduced while the number of shows on cable channels has increased. As a result, currently more than twice as many dramas on Korean TV are available on cable channels as on the big networks. In addition, the recent expansion of Korean material on worldwide streaming sites like Netflix and Disney has made K-dramas more popular globally. And the growing importance of the global market is influencing the content produced in Korea.
The impact of these changes on the genre we like, romantic dramas, has been quite … mmh … dramatic. First, there’s a much smaller selection of new romantic Korean dramas available. And second: Some of those available favor the currently popular genre blending of romcom + murder (latest example, Crash Course in Romance), which we abhor. In short: Nowadays, it’s hard to find new Korean romantic dramas and even harder to find really good ones from the small pool that’s available.
So, we have done what a lot of other K-drama fans interested in romance have been doing – we’ve started to search more intensively for romantic dramas from other Asian countries. While we have reviewed excellent Chinese and Japanese dramas here and there for several years, we recently started to pay closer attention to the drama scene in China after coming across the great shows written by Wang Xiong Cheng (The Day of Becoming You, Hi Venus).
While we expect that the great romantic Korean dramas will still be center stage on dramaroma in the future, from now on we will review excellent romantic dramas made in other Asian countries more frequently – without any claim of comprehensive coverage, of course.
In the end, it’s all about showcasing great romances – no matter where they are made.
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