Chinese Dramas Airing in June 2024
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Welcome back to Chasing Dramas! This is the podcast that keeps you up to date on Chinese entertainment news. We are your hosts Karen and Cathy!
We’re officially in the summer season and it’s time to discuss the latest dramas in CHina! We’ll talk about 4 Chinese dramas that have aired or are airing soon. This podcast will be in English with names spoken in Mandarin Chinese.
The summer season really kicked off with Joy of Life 2 which dominated ratings, primarily online. I wrote up on it online and will finish writing the review over the weekend so check it out but nothing is able to hold a candle to how popular that drama was. We will see what other drama this summer will be able to reign supreme or at least capture the attention of audiences and create the buzz we saw last year.
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact!狐妖小红娘月红篇
Total Episode Count: 38
Initial Airing Date: May 23, 2024
Platform: iQiYi
In a world where the Human Clan and Spirit Clan are in constant conflict, the Leader of the Fox Spirits from Mount Tu, Tu Shan Hong Hong 涂山红红 (Yang Mi 杨幂 ) hopes for a world where the two clans can live in harmony. She rescues the young orphan Dong Fang Yue Chu 东方月初 (Gong Jun 龚俊) whose blood has mysterious powers and raises him along with the other Fox Spirits in Mount Tu. A dark force threatens Mount Tu and the Bitter Feelings Tree that protects Mount Tu. She is tasked with completing successful matchmaking missions to power the tree and finally dispel the evil forces.
This was one of the most highly anticipated dramas of the year, and the first one to set off the Fox Spirit Matchmaker Universe that has at least 2 other dramas in the pipeline. They have either finished filming or are close to wrapping. The drama or the universe is based off of a very popular Chinese Man Hua of the same universe. The other dramas have 刘诗诗, 成毅, and 李一桐.
This drama had everything going for it. The drama has the extremely popular Yang Mi 杨幂 back as a Fox Spirit Tu Shan Hong Hong paired with the very handsome Gong Jun 龚俊. They are surrounded by a star studded young cast of Guo Xiao Ting, Wei Zhe Ming, Zhu Xu Dan, Zhang Ling He, Chen Yao, and Mao Zi Jun. All of them can and do individually headline their own dramas. It’s airing at a prime summer slot and should be going toe to toe with Joy of Life 2 right? Unfortunately, it has struggled to compete with Joy of Life 2 庆余年2 and hasn’t breached 9000 on the iQiYi index. The buzz just isn’t there. The drama is still airing right now so head over to the website to read my initial thoughts! It IS one of the most beautiful costume dramas out there
墨雨云间 The Double – 40 episodes – June 2, Youku
This is another 于正 drama starring some familiar faces including Wu Jin Yan 吴谨言、Wang Xing Yue王星越、Chen Xin Hai 陈鑫海.
Here’s the premise of the drama. The daughter of a local magistrate, Xue Fang Fei 薛芳菲 (吴瑾言) is happily married to Shen Yu Rong 沈玉容 (梁永棋). Her husband though, has caught the eye of the Princess Wan Ning 婉宁公主 (李梦) and the two conspire to have her killed. Xue Fang Fei 薛芳菲 is drugged and left to be buried alive but is saved by Jiang Li 姜梨 (杨超越饰). Xue Fang Fei 薛芳菲 discovers that her father has also been wrongfully imprisoned. To right these wrongs, she agrees to head to the capital as Jiang Li 姜梨. With the aid of the Duke of Su (王星越) and her own efforts, she successfully rescuers her father and appeals his sentence, finding love along her journey.
The drama is based off of the book Dia Jia Qian Jin 嫡嫁千金, which I have read before! The author is the very popular 千山茶客. The book follows the trope of dying and reincarnating into the body of another, but for this drama the screenwriters just had the main female character Xue Fang Fei 薛芳菲 assume the identity of Jiang Li 姜梨.
This drama has done surprisingly well! This is the fastest drama this year to breach 10000 on the Youku popularity index and it has stolen quite the thunder from Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red Moon Pact. I mean, it’s another pairing with Yu Zheng and Wu Jin Yan so we’re basically back in The Story of Yan Xi Palace. This is also another revenge story and audiences love a story where the main character is able to just hand it to the antagonists. Wang Xing Yue 王星越, the main male lead, is also everywhere these days and I personally think he’ll be the next top 流量 (idol) if he plays his cards right. I’ll be chasing this drama and compare it to the book.
The Tale of Roses 玫瑰的故事 – 38 ep/ June 8/ CCTV 8
Another year another drama from one of my favorite actresses, Liu Yi Fei. This drama is called The Tale of Roses, a modern day drama based off of a book and will start airing on June 6. The male lead actor is Tong Da Wei and the cast also features Lin Geng Xin, whom we just saw in 与凤行 or The Legend of Shen Li and Huo Jian Hua霍建华. We haven’t seen him on screen in quite some time and he was such a staple actor in the 2010s so it’ll be nice to see him back in a drama. Other members of the cast include Wan Qian, Lin Yi and Peng Guan Ying.
Here’s the plot – Huang Yi Mei 黄亦玫 featuring Liu Yi Fei was born to a scholarly family and quite protected growing up. From a young age, she showed artistic talents and when she entered the work force, quickly was given prominent projects. She fell in love with her work partner 庄国栋 Zhuang Guo Dong featuring Peng Guan Yin but they ultimately missed each other. This experience at work pushed Huang Yi Mei to change her life plan to return to school. After graduating, she marries fellow student 方协文 Fang Xie Wen featuring Lin Geng Xin but ultimately their life paths diverged and they divorce. 黄亦玫 decides to be an entrepreneur in the art field and it is here she meets her soulmate Pu Jia Ming 溥家明 featuring Huo Jian Hua.
Hmmm this is weird. I feel like the entire drama’s plot was just spoiled to me but then I literally just translated the overall synopsis from Baidu and it has no mention of the main male lead’s character Tong Da Wei’s 黄振华 Huang Zhen Hua. So I guess he has a bigger role in Huang Yi Mei’s life outside of her first love, her first marriage and her soulmate.
We’ll see how this goes as it is airing on CCTV8 so it is available for broader chinese audiences. Liu Yi Fei and Lin Geng Xin plus other members of the cast participated in a premier event on June 6 where they introduced their characters. It’ll be a little hard for me to take Lin Geng Xin seriously since he is such a funny person in real life but this will be an opportunity to show their acting chops!
Golden Trio or 老家伙 – 36 ep/May 14
And the last drama i’ll talk about, and actually it aired earlier in May is called Golden Trio or 老家伙. This drama aired on May 14 with 36 episodes on Jiang Su television and Beijing Television as well as Iqiyi.
To be honest, I have absolutely no idea if any of our listeners will watch this drama. I’m only highlighting it because the main cast features THE “iron trio” or 铁三角 from 2 decades ago. They are Zhang Guo Li 张国立, Wang Gang 王刚 and Zhang Tie Lin 张铁林. The three of them acted in a number of dramas together over the years, most notably together The Eloquent Ji Xiaolan (铁齿铜牙纪晓岚). There were several seasons of that drama and the 3 were cast together frequently in other dramas because they have great chemistry together and because they’re so familiar with audiences who were watching Chinese dramas during the 2000s. So for me, this is a trip down memory lane and I’m just really happy to see these old buddies back in a drama together.
And at this point, I don’t even care really who the character names are because I’m just watching Zhang Guo Li, Wang Gang and Zhang Tie Lin. In this drama, the three old men are retired and finally get together to overcome hardships in their golden years. Together, they establish a warm retirement community where inside the community, the retirees come from all walks of life. There’s laughter and tears with heartwarming stories. They help solve troubles for other elderly individuals in the group while also solving their own issues.
So… definitely gonna watch this with my grandparents because It’s a drama I’m sure they will enjoy.