Chinese Dramas Airing in Dec/Jan 2025
First up is 猎罪图鉴2 or Under the skin 2. This 28 episode drama stars Tan Jian Ci and Jin Shi Jia and began airing on Dec 10 on both iQiyi and Tencent. Here’s the premise, police sketch artist Shen Yi 沈翊 檀健次 and criminal police captain 杜城（金世佳 饰）establish a small task force in BeiJiang and continue to solve murder mysteries while unveiling the twisted nature of humans and their own past. I watched 4 episodes of the drama and honestly was quite surprised at how quickly the cases were tied up. It was 1 for every 2 episodes so the pace was very fast. Essentially cases pop up. The police captain Du Cheng and his team arrive on the scene and then 沈翊 as the artists sketches what he sees. It’s more than just sketching, there’s actual painting and different colors. It was good! I just didn’t have the motivation to continue.
This is the second season to the very popular surprise hit in 2022 and reunites the main two leads of Tan Jian Ci and Jin Shi Jia. This drama also came out REALLY fast. This second season began filming in March of this year and finished in June. It only had a 6 month turnaround before airing in December. This drama also did very well viewership wise with over 35M average views per episode. I can’t find the official numbers – like either over 35M or over 40M but regardless for a drama that didn’t have much marketing, it performed very well. I believe the goodwill from the first season, coupled with the return of the main two leads, AND having interesting cases pushed this drama to perform pretty well.
清明上河图密码 – Karen 12月16日 央视八套 张颂文、白百何 You Ku
Riverside Code at Qingming Festival
This is a 26 episode historical thriller mystery set in the northern Song dynasty. The name of the drama is based off of the famed painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河图) that captured the daily life of people living in the Northern Song dynasty. This drama follows the lives of ZHao Bu You played by Zhang Song Wen, his wife, Wen Yui played by Bai Bai He and his family as they become embroiled in a number of brutal and grotesque murders. Zhao Bu You and Wen Yue are just plain civilians living in the Capital City of the Song dynasty. They each have important skills and mysteries in their past that help them partake in solving many mysteries in the capital with the help of Court official Gu Zhen played by Zhou Yi Wei.
This is a drama that aired on CCTV 8 and on Youku and became the last drama on Youku to breach 10,000 on its popularity index. I watched it all and will write a review for it. ONly 26 episodes so it’s very manageable but I actually wished it was a little longer. This drama shines in the focus on replicating the historical scenes shown in the painting of Along the River During the QingMing Festival. You can tell there was a lot of thought and effort put into showcasing a living and breathing Song dynasty to us. We’ve seen other dramas set in this time period such as A Dream of Splendor or The Story of Ming Lan. This drama is even more focused on the ordinary person. The main characters are normal every day people who lived in the alleys of the city and go out to see different shows and entertainment present in the capital. At the end of each episode, there is also a brief clip that tells you some of the actual history that was recreated in the show such as the fragrances used, the bridge, the clothing.
This show also has a plethora of rather interesting side characters. These characters may have only appeared for an episode or 2 or sometimes even just a scene or 2 but they make quite a strong impact to move the various cases along.
As someone who loves Chinese history, this drama was fantastic in immersing us in that world. I also appreciated that the focus was on ordinary citizens because to me, the takeaway here is that ordinary citizens can make a huge impact. It’s an escape from the princes and princesses or dukes and duchesses we’re used to seeing from other dramas.
However, the chemistry between the main couple, as they are a little older, falls a bit flat and the drama starting especially from episode 21 starts to falter. The cases are more outlandish and the drama doesn’t have enough time to breathe. Plus it is rather gruesome so some people might be turned off by it. Take that as you will.
灿烂的风和海 Begin Again 2024年12月18日 湖南卫视、央视一套 钟楚曦、孙阳、陈昊宇、韩东君 20 集
Here’s a short drama that I wanted to talk about because I was seeing a few clips on social media. 陈嘉慧（钟楚曦 饰）is a free yet mysterious arts event coordinator or designer and has spent the last few years living in Macau. She’s gradually come to new understandings for her ambitions and her relationships. The carefree 徐君乐（孙阳) seems to live the happy life with loving parents who own a small restaurant but he also is facing tough decisions. The ambitious yet responsible 麦又歌（陈昊宇) was sent to macau on business from her company. However after being shut down multiple times from potential clients, she reassess her own choices and career path. Lastly, professional driver 韩俊豪（韩东君饰）arrives in Macau for a GT cup race. Ever though he’s on the downward slope of his career, he still believes he has enough for one final race.
This drama was filmed in Macao and at only 20 episodes, I think I’ll go take a look. I’ve been to Macau once when I was a teen and apart from the casinos didn’t even have time to enjoy all the local culture and food there! I also saw some really fun cameos from famous Hong Kong actors including Alex Fong Zhong Xin and Carman Lee 李若彤. I didn’t know that Alex Fong was actually born in Macau so that adds a nice touch.
钟楚曦 appeared in 4 dramas and 3 movies this year, so she’s been making the rounds BUT without much splash. I think the buzziest was Her Story or 好东西 with Song Jia. She continues to slay on the red carpet but I’m perplexed as to why she doesn’t headline bigger dramas.
冬至 36 2023 12月20日 爱奇艺
Next up is a modern day romance drama starring Huang JIng Yu and SUn Qian called 冬至 love song in winter. Ugh – this english name isn’t great. The literal chinese translation is Winter Solstice so why couldn’t they just used that translation.
Anyways – here’s the main premise. Anesthesiologist 陆嫣（孙千饰）encounters her long dead friend 邓蔓（何泓姗饰）on her way to her evening shift. Perplexed, she didn’t think much of it but then seemingly supernatural things kept occurring to her. Lu Yan is determined to get to the bottom of these events. During her investigations, her ex-boyfriend the policeman 江成屹（黄景瑜) reappears in her life and becomes embroiled in this interesting case.
This is another policeman and doctor pairing and the main leads were selling their ship all throughout the promotions. The promos also made it seem like this drama would be rather raunchy to attract eyeballs. Word of mouth hasn’t been that great for this drama BUT it has held up surprisingly well against the other dramas that have aired, especially the next drama that we’ll talk about. 黄景瑜 has had a very steady output this year headlining 3 dramas and appearances in 2 movies. He sticks to his lane of policeman, military man, fireman, or a variation along those lanes. He doesn’t vary too much from it and honestly there aren’t that many people who stick to those types of roles so he’s just gonna keep chugging along.
大奉打更人 – Karen 40 2023 12月28日 央视八套(18:30) 王鹤棣、田曦薇 Tencent
Guardians of the DaFeng
Ok – this is Dylan Wang He Di’s return to the small screen. It is what is called a Nan Pin Ju or a drama focused on the male lead. Wang He Di plays a man who is playing a murder mystery game with his coworkers and gets sucked into the world the murder mystery is set in. This world is Da Feng, a fictional historical time frame. The character Wang He Di plays? Is Xu Qi An.
Xu Qi An wakes up in jail and is first utterly confused as to what’s happening. He finds out that his uncle was jailed because he, as a government official, lost a ton of treasury silver and must be punished for it. Xu Qi An requests from his cousin to learn the details of the case to see if he can solve it and indeed, he figures out that the silver must not be real silver but was replaced by another element. He solves the case and his entire family is released. He partakes in his usual job as a detective and now is able to exhibit more skills in solving cases. Xu Qi An brings his modern day knowledge to try to survive in Da Feng and learns about the Da Geng Ren, or the Guardians, a strong group that helps protect the safety of the city. He vows to join their ranks.
We talked about this drama briefly in our last podcast episode on male actors for the year. This drama had exceptionally high hopes to do well with the cast and crew holding marketing events and Dylan Wang even writing about this character Xu Qi An in one of his songs. This was something new that I didn’t know about but his fans and production company paid for 144,000 slots of 云包场 which essentially means that if you watch 10min or so of the first episode of this drama, you can fight to get a free month of tencent membership for free. I believe that’s about 30rmb a month for the monthly viewership so about 4million was paid to help boost popularity numbers. That 144,000 free membership buys was leagues more than any drama that aired in 2024. That’s how much Dylan’s fans and the production company wanted to the drama to perform.
They were expecting this drama to be as big a hit as Joy of Life. Both are in the same category of Nan Pin ju or a male focused lead and Dylan Wang was such a big hit following Love Between Fairy and Devil. However, the drama has not met those expectations. Despite all that money that was spent on promoting the show, Guardian of the Da Feng only breached 26,000 on Tencent on its first day. It took another 5 days for the drama to breach 28,000 on Tencent. For context, The Legend of Shen Li breached 30,000 in the first 28 hours airing. Joy of Life Season 2 hit the ground running with 32,000 on its first day. We’ll see if this drama breaches that coveted 30,000 given Dylan Wang’s massive fanbase. However, reception to the drama has also been middling as there have been many negative trending topics on the show since it started airing.
I’ll leave it to you the listeners to decide how you feel about the drama. I will write a short review for it. Remember, this drama is supposed to be just as good as Joy of Life.
张彬彬新剧 – Karen 千朵桃花一世开 The Blossoming Love 2023 1月2日 优酷 张彬彬、孙珍妮、张雅钦、吴宇恒、陈牧驰、王子璇、汪铎、韩栋 40 集
During the time of the gods, the People Emperor 昭明 sacrificed himself to save the humans from the gods. After he died, his partner 混沌珠 saved one piece of his soul and set a spell for the soul to be reincarnated. After thousands of reincarnations, 昭明 is now the Spirit Alliance leader 谢雪臣 (张彬彬). 混沌珠 has also reincarnated to become the Saintess of the Dark Realm 暮悬铃 (孙珍妮). They reunite in the human realm but have forgotten their past lives and are now enemies. By chance 暮悬铃 rescues 谢雪臣 and the two set off on a mission together. They develop feelings for each other but are faced with differing loyalties. They both want to capture the all powerful 混沌 pearl but this tests their limits. They must decide who to save and what to sacrifice.
This is Zhang Bin Bin’s big fantasy romance drama in several years and this drama kicks off the 2025 slate of fantasy romance dramas. Surprisingly he doesn’t have too much in the pipeline either. He had a big hit a few years ago with Rattan but hasn’t really seen a big hit since. Sun Zhen Ni folks may know from her turn in Till the End of the Moon or 长月jin ming. I really liked her in that drama so we’ll see how she fares here.
杨紫新剧 国色芳华 2024 1月7日 芒果TV/咪咕视频（首播），FLOURISHED PEONY
1月9日 湖南卫视金鹰独播剧场（上星） 杨紫、李现、魏哲鸣、张雅钦 32 episodes
This drama is set in the Tang dynasty and features Yang Zi and Li Xian in a second pairing after their major hit from 2019， Go Go Squid! (亲爱的，热爱的)
Merchant daughter He Wei Fang featuring Yang Zi was able to secure a divorce from a marriage that only focused on benefits with the help of the city’s most corrup official, 蒋长扬 feat Li Xian. The two were able to bump into each other a second time in the capital and He Wei Fang used an exceptionally rare peony and her business talent to create a business partnership with Jiang Chang Yang. Her skill is growing beautiful peonies and she is able to use this skill to help change the lives of other women with difficult backgrounds. She teaches them how to create flower shops and create brands. In the process, she learns that the man with the corrupt reputation is actually a kind and caring person with thoughts of improving the kingdom. The two work together to help the kingdom and help quell a coup.
This is a big production for Yang Zi and as we discussed, sees her with a second pairing with Li Xian. The hairstyles and make up look fantastic with a heavy emphasis on Tang dynasty styles. We’ll see how this drama does since it does seem right up the alley of people who like historical romances but it is also yet ANOTHER drama featuring a woman focused on business. I gotta say, the turnaround time for this drama is rather fast. It started filming this time last year and ended filming in July and is now brought to the small screen. THat’s quite impressive.