Drama Recs

Since I've been so lax about updating here, I'm dedicating this post to attempting to remember all the shows I've been watching while knitting that I think are worthy of recommending. (* to indicate a show I'm not actually done watching.) Let's see if I can pull the whole list together before I have to go to my dental appointment.

Chinese

• Who Rules the World (fantasy historical, Netflix, Viki) - swooshy xianxia with great costumes and cinematic wirework fighting, coupled with the most staunchly egalitarian m/f romance I've ever seen on TV, and a political plot that mostly exists to interrupt the male lead's attempts to flirt. Confirmed good ending! There is even a successful wedding where no one dies. (Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi)

 

• Love Like the Galaxy (historical, Viki) - watching this one right after WRtW was a little odd, because we go from Zhao Lusi as a hypercompetent and extremely independent badass to Zhao Lusi as a genius but extremely not-independent 15-year-old trapped by all the expectations of upper class ancient China. Fortunately she does change and grow and get revenge on a lot of people who deserve it, and her love interest is played by Wu Lei (aka Fei Liu from NiF), who I also enjoyed greatly. Lots of sword fights and political intrigue.

 

• The King's Avatar (modern, Netflix) - a ridiculous and yet strangely addictive esports drama about professional teams playing a made-up MMORPG (no romance, very big on the power of friendship) (Yang Yang)

 

• You Are My Glory (modern, Viki) - aerospace engineer/idol romance (Yang Yang and Dilraba), former high school classmates both going through a career slump reconnect when the idol asks the engineer to tutor her in an online game she's the spokesperson for but is making look bad when someone anonymously posted footage of her playing extremely badly. The show then grows beyond that initial set-up and actually shows the whole satisfying arc of their relationship growth, very fic-like in its domesticity despite her continued idol career. (Why does Yang Yang of all people have an esports show oeuvre?)

 

• Under the Skin (modern, Viki) - police procedural (with surprisingly little patriotism even in the office decor) with the twist that one of the main characters is a forensic artist (Tan Jianci), and many of their cases end up being solved via a connection to art, so I was of course immediately all in. Really interesting repeated themes of external appearance and identity.

 

• *Are You Safe? (modern, Viki) - okay, look, this one is kind of dumb, but I needed to watch Tan Jianci in something else and the Sha Po Lang adaptation is delayed indefinitely, so. This show is really just a long-form cybersecurity PSA, but I care about the characters and their backstory/broken friendship despite myself. I haven't actually finished this one yet, but if you need something light that won't require a lot of mental investment, it's here.

 

• Rainless Love in a Godless Land (modern, iQIYI) - urban fantasy drawing on a Taiwanese myth base, Fu Meng-po of Sleuth fame stars as a rain god & guardian spirit who loses his powers. Starts as a fairly straightforward romance between him and the woman he's been guarding for most of her life, but then somehow also becomes a rather mind-bending thought exercise on the nature of reality. Also extremely pretty. And I could listen to FMP's voice all day.

Korean

• Semantic Error (modern, Viki) - artist/CS major academic enemies to lovers, I love everything about it, I have watched the entire thing at least 5 times now, if I make this description any longer it will get too long, please watch it

 

• My Country: The New Age (historical, Netflix) - best friends continually torn apart by powers beyond their control and yet always fighting back to each other's sides is the most succinct explanation, but please know I saw so many gifsets for this on Tumblr before ever watching it and was still somehow completely unspoiled for what actually happens in the plot. What happens? Everything. What will you feel? Every possible human emotion.

 

• The King's Affection (historical, Netflix) - did you enjoy bisexual Shang in the Disney Mulan? Then this is the show for you! A woman grows up impersonating her twin brother as the Crown Prince after his untimely demise, her royal tutor falls in love with her and has a few confusing days of questioning whether it's attraction or just an excess of loyal devotion, decides it's love either way, and then politics happens. Happy ending with a nice epilogue scene! Very gender.

 

• The King: Eternal Monarch (modern, Netflix) - parallel worlds fairy tale-esque love story ft. a king, a detective, a long-suffering bodyguard and his doppelganger, and a little bit of time travel, extremely pretty, will lightly take over your brain.

 

• Tomorrow (modern w/historical flashbacks, Netflix) - guy in a coma due to trying to do a good deed gets offered the opportunity to shorten its length if he'll work as a grim reaper for 6 months. He's put on the team whose job is to prevent suicides. (Obvious related CWs there.) Through the power of empathy, he saves a bunch of regular people and also helps his bosses deal with their own respective historical traumas from 100+ years ago. (I will forever be thinking about his boss-boss's backstory.)

 

• Ghost Doctor (modern, Viki) - in which a cardiothoracic surgeon in a coma discovers he can possess the body of his least promising first-year resident. Life-saving hijinks ensue, personal growth and introspection happens on both sides, etc. (I am a sucker for a coma ghost story.)

 

• Devil Judge (modern, Viki) - revenge! suit porn! competence! extremely homoerotic manhandling and eye contact! Technically this show is billed as a dystopian AU, but it's not a far step off from reality. If you enjoy watching someone who exists in a state of constant ice-cold rage take down an entrenched upper class cabal, this is definitely the show for you. We are all in love with Kang Yohan. I am fannish about this one but have yet to write anything except in friends' DMs.

Japanese

• Old Fashion Cupcake (modern, Viki) - the show that actually got me to write meta again! (I'll link my own writing endeavors in another post.) Office worker about to turn 40 has stagnated in life and decided he'll just coast until retirement, it's fine, but his younger colleague/friend is determined not to let him. They fall in love about it, but their romance was secondary to how personally attacked I felt at several points.

 

• Don't Call It Mystery (modern, Viki) - genius college student gets falsely accused of a murder and has to prove his innocence, which he does, but now the police know how good he is at solving impossible crimes and they keep calling him. All he wants to do is finally get to eat some curry in peace and go to an art exhibit. Also along the way he finally makes some friends, a new and weird experience for him. Really hoping for a season 2 for this one. Very autumn/winter vibes.

 

• Ishiko to Haneo (modern, dramacool, hopefully elsewhere eventually?) - in which a genius lawyer with an eidetic memory joins a small local law firm and they take on small but meaningful individual cases. (The initial set up makes it look like there's going to be an annoying love triangle BUT THERE'S NOT! Instead we get an exasperated sibling-I-never-wanted thing between the paralegal and the lawyer, and an very low-key, hilariously formal courtship between the paralegal and their first client, who becomes their office gopher for a while and has had a crush on her since high school.)

 

• *Silent (modern, Viki) - I talked about this one in the last post, actually. Still on air, but going well enough I'm feeling optimistic it will have a good ending.

 

• *Reibai Tantei Jozuka Hisui (modern with fantasy elements, dramacool so far) - a mystery writer who consults with the police meets a medium who has become very isolated due to her powers. He becomes determined to help her use her visions to solve crimes and possibly even prevent them, rather than just always being subject to visions of sadness and death. This one is apparently based on a book that won every mystery award possible in Japan. Still airing, leads are very nice to look at, excellent fashion choices, I'm enjoying it.

I really wish Japanese dramas would more regularly actually license their stuff to internationally accessible streaming services. Anyway, I feel like I've left some things out, so I'll undoubtedly have to do another post at some point soonish, but please come talk to me about any of these shows!