Soooo.... I sort of lied in my last post. There is only one numbered list, but I also decided to create a post about the highs and the lows of cdramas in 2021.
Presenting flash2351's Best and Worst of 2021!
(with a bonus question at the end!)
The Good
Favourite Cdrama OST
(Surrendering to Love, Crush)
Where better to start than the very thing responsible for this list? Crush was narrowly edged out of my 2021 top 10 dramas list, but that is no reflection of the song quality. If anything, this song by Wei Chen is perhaps one of the reasons it's so high to begin with. It's my second most played song on Spotify! The melody is great, but the lyrics are out of this world. It's hard to translate it because there is so much subtext and implied meanings with each line. Below, I did a loose translation of the chorus.
谁愿沦陷 放弃了主动权Who is willing to surrender to love, to give up all initiative?
交出岁月 只交换一句抱歉I gave you years of my life, only to receive a single "sorry" in exchange
是偏执 是坚决 不听旁人的劝Reckless and stubborn, I refused to heed anyone's advice
眼看回忆里 烽火漫天Now I'm only left with the burning memories of our turbulent past
甘愿沦陷 却逃不出生天I rather surrender to love, but I couldn't escape my fate
沿途的伤 准撰写不准磨灭My wounds are recorded in my heart and can never fade
微蓝的从前 回头已被覆盖大雪Our beautiful past is now buried under layers of snow爱怎么溶解How can we melt it with love?(Has our love dissolved into nothingness?)
The last line of the chorus is amazing, because it can be read both in hope or in despair. In hope, it's asking if we can use our love to recover our past, while in despair, it's mourning the loss of our past and wondering if our love has disappeared alongside it. Ahhh....
Honorable mentions:
续写 (Continuation, Forever and Ever)
一直一直一直，喜欢你(Always Loving You, Our Secret)
Favourite Couples
Shi Yi and Zhousheng Chen
Mi Ka and Xing Ke Lei
Second item on my list and I'm already cheating hahaha. I am honestly hard-pressed to pick my favourite couple, so I'm going to cheat and list two (It's my list anyway so I can do whatever I want :P). This is already super tough, since all the honorable mentions only lost by paper thin margins.
I think Shi Yi (SY) and Zhousheng Chen (ZSC) is probably going to top most people's lists of favourite couples, and for good reason too. I loved how unabashedly Shi Yi approached Zhousheng Chen at the airport, because she knew, he was her Zhousheng Chen. I loved how tentative he was and how she took the initiative more often than not (the first kiss, the nightgown...). And while our nerdy professor was shy and withdrawn initially, he slowly warmed up to her and let his little actions showcase the depth of his love for her (driving hours just for supper with her, taking note of what cosmetics she uses...). Watching the two of them together is like cracking open easter eggs. You never know what you are going to get: cute (him trying to carry her little handbag for her)? romantic (their first kiss)? funny (ZSC riding a pink scooter with a pink helmet to get her pomegranate)? steamy (like the night after the rain)? Regardless, each scene is sweet and loving in their own way and I loved every time they light up my screen together.
I remember in one of my comments I mentioned that it felt weird to have ZSC going to his ancestral home to pray for SY. But now, I understand. Sometimes, when you lose (or are at the brink of losing) someone that you really care about, all reason, logic and rational thought goes out the window, it's mere desperation that keeps your body going and you grasp at any strand of hope, not matter how improbable or insane it seems. Watching the scene a second time round just made me tear up even more. Truly, it shows the unbelievable depths of ZSC's love for SY and the desperation that he must have felt. It was that moment that cemented ZSC and SY as my favourite couple.
Mi Ka and Xing Ke Lei is probably a more unexpected favourite couple of the two, but I really do enjoy their interactions and their dynamic. I love how they both have demanding careers, but they make an effort to carve time out for each other. They also respect each other and each other's jobs, never throwing childish fits like making the other choose between work and them. But more importantly, I love how much fun they have together, in their own way, like him flashing his abs while she "tries" to mediate, her bossing him around with a finger wag, her making him eat raw pig brain for being jealous =P. Even their awkwardness is cute in their own way too, like how he left a message for her with the nurse just saying "The mission is complete." LOL.
If relationships were drinks, ZSC and SY would be a glass of fine wine or whisky. It's a relationship with lots of depths and richness. It's something that gets better with time and age, each time you take a new sip brings forth new layers of flavour and emotions. It's elegant, and timeless. On the other hand, MK and XKL would be like your favourite can of soda. It's cute and bubbly, refreshing and sweet. It's your guilty pleasure that you pretend you are too mature for, but you secretly crave it, and perhaps even have a hidden stash of at home.
Honorable mentions:
Ding Xian and Zhou Siyue (Our Secret)Yu Tu and Qiao Jing Jing (You Are My Glory)
Sheng Zhen Yi and Shao Bei Sheng (To Fly with You)Favourite Secondary Couple
Shu Wen Bo and Ruan Qing Xia
I mean.... Is there really any competition for this spot? I have two honorable mentions, but honestly, neither of them come close to how cute this couple is. I love the stark contrast of her proactiveness with his stoic thick-headedness. See below on how she tries to seduce him while his mind is razor focused.... on training. LOL.
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| Pretty sure she has a different form of exercise in mind xD |
Honorable mentions
Zhou Cheng Cheng and Wen Rang (My Little Happiness)
Scientist Ouyang and Jing Jing (Fall in Love with a Scientist)
Favourite Supporting Character
Li Tian
Watching the first 10 episodes of My Fated Boy, who would have thought that Li Tian would become my favourite supporting character? She even edged out Mr Huang from Delicious Romance, who I thought would be a sure-in for Favourite Supporting Character.
She starts off as a naïve and reckless little girl, but she grows so much throughout the show. She slowly learns from her mistakes and matures, learning to accept the reality that Lu Zheng An is not meant for her and slowly moves on, bit by bit. She even has the courage to go back to her office and work again after embarrassing herself like that. I can feel her hurt, from her sobbing upon seeing his ring, to her taking it out on the printer and then to her holding back tears as she talks to Lu Zheng An for one last time. She is healing, but she isn't there yet.
And yet, even as she is broken herself, she manages to help others. She teaches Xie Nan Ke to let go so that he can heal. And she also saves our 2 leads with her proposal. I loved that. I loved how she became the one to save them. In a sense, it's karma isn't it? Though she was spoilt and childish, our leads never intentionally hurt her and even protected her somewhat. I loved this message that drama sends here. Be kind to everyone.
I love how real her character feels, and how relatable. I never thought I would cry with her as her heart shatters, but I did. IMO, she is the perfectly written love rival, not some ridiculous woman flinging herself at the male lead, but just another person trying to find her own way in this harsh and cruel world. The only negative? I'm probably going to get so much more annoyed at female love rivals in future dramas now that I have her as a comparison.
Honorable Mentions
Mr Huang (Delicious Romance)
Funniest Supporting Character
Driver Lin
Yes, in case you were wondering, I did create this category specially for him. Turns out when you are making up things as you go along, you can pretty much do whatever you want =P. As a self-certified connoisseur of dry humor and wit, I cannot do a best-of list without including Driver Lin. My conscience won't allow it. There is just too much to love about him, but I'll just leave you with this one scene:
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| Our dear Driver Lin "accidentally" lowering the divider as our leads have their first kiss. |
Honorable mentions
Ma Le (My Fated Boy)
ZSC's support club (Our Secret)
Favourite Scene
Let me set the scene. Our leads are together, but the jealous ex-lover is eager to tear them apart. Knowing that the FL is returning, the ex-lover pretends to have an asthma attack and fumbles with her shirt buttons. The soft-hearted ML tries to help her, but struggles to unbutton her shirt. Click, Clack, Click Clack, our FL approaches... The situation ripe for misunderstanding...
But NO, our FL has full confidence in her man, instead, she rips the ex-lover's shirt apart, claiming to help her with her asthma attack. LOL, just the show of dominance here is too epic.
Honorable mentions
Fang Xin's takedown of her ex-husband at the registry the second time round (Delicious Romance)
Embracing in front of the ambulance (Love at Night)
The three adults uniting to protect our couple (My Fated Boy)
Favourite Line
"This is OUR Auntie"
The shock. The horror. The mortification.
Honorable mentions
"One or two sentences cannot explain it" (The Imperial Coroner)
"Will you let my genes influence yours?" (You Are My Glory
The Bad
You can't really have the good without the bad, the mountains without the valleys, the highs without the lows.... So to "celebrate" the dramas that destroyed our hopes and dreams, here's what I hated most in cdramaland this year.
Biggest disappointment overall
There is literally no good plan by our leads. Every single time it's we pretend that we failed, died, lost, get banished, but in reality we know everything so we are just setting it up so that each baddie confesses to all their crimes before they kill themselves. Oh, and the entire harem? Committing literally every crime in the name of love.... I don't even... Tan Song Yun is pretty here and delivers a good Shi Yi Niang, but that is like a the most miniscule of silver linings, especially when half the time she has to pretend to get bullied, banished, beated up and what not. Seriously, who the hell thought this was a good script?
Most Disappointing Ending
It's hilarious how many cdramas had a disappointing ending this year... So much so that it was tough to choose. Even coming up with the shortlist was hard. But at the end of the day, The Day of Becoming You edges out the competition because it was the show with the most promise pre-ending. It's also more disappointing while To Fly with You is more infuriating and Fall in Love with a Scientist is just nonsequential....
Honorable(?) mentions
To Fly with You
Fall in Love with a Scientist
Most Ridiculous Villain
Xie Ming Hao
(Lie to Love)
Let me summarize his masterplan to make FL fall in love with him. He pretends to fall in love with the FL's sister, embezzles all the funds from FL's dad's company, forces FL's dad to commit suicide, drives FL's sister mad, kidnaps the same sister, frames FL for a financial crime, organizes a hostile takeover of FL's boyfriend's company and blackmails FL into breaking up with her boyfriend and becoming his girlfriend... Oh, did I mention that he loves her? Lol. I dislike 2D villains, but like... if you want to make a 3D villain, at least make one that has a basic character consistency.... Or you know, one who's actions actually match his goals?
Most Ridiculous Conflict
He Xi Ya and Lu Man
(Live Your Life)
He Xi Ya was engaged to Lu Man's sister, who cheated on him, dumped him and subsequently got into a fatal accident. For some reason, Lu Man just decides He Xi Ya is responsible for her sister's death and He Xi Ya refuses to clarify or say anything to defend himself, even to his girlfriend. This drags on for 39 out of 40 episodes, until finally, a random bystander decides to spill the beans, and then everyone is like.... oh, ok. Thanks for letting me know. Byeeeeeeee. I... feel like I just lost brain cells typing this. I apologize for any brain cells of my readers that I've killed.
The Question
Are you ready for more cdrama to love and to hate in 2022?
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