In one word: cdramas. I’m watching mostly cdramas this month.

Here are the dramas I’m watching.

1. Perfect Match

Cast: I don’t know the actors but the first couple to be matched had cute actors: Wang Xing Yue as the rich merchant Chai An and Lu Yu Xiao as the witty heroine.
Episodes: 36
Start Date: The series ended in Feb 2025 so you can watch the whole thing already (and fast-forward through the boring storylines)
Where to Watch it: Netflix

What appealed to me?

This reminded me of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” where there’s a scatterbrain mother dead set on arranging “perfect matches” for all her five daughters. The story begins with the mother and her brood of daughters traveling to live with the Darling Daughter #2 (DD2) who’s conveniently married to a rich but rather spoiled only son. DD2 turns them away – out of embarrassment for her marital woes – so they find residence in front of fanciest restaurant in town. The restaurant happens to be owned by DD2’s cousin-in-law, Chai An. This Chai An and Darling Daughter #3 (DD3) hit it off, literally. At their first encounter, he hits her on the head with what passes off as a soccer ball in these Chinese historicals. And in return, she smites him with love at first sight.

As the story continues, we see that the “perfect” matches don’t come easy for all the sisters. DD2 needs to train her hubby to become more of a family man and less of a man-child. DD3 has to overcome the socioeconomic/class divide between her and Chai An. I’m reminded of Mr. Darcy’s disdain for Lizzie’s indecorous and tactless family, especially towards her mother’s mercenary attitude towards marriage.

Darling Daughter #1 (DD1) has the noona romance. She’s a widow and she’s paired off with a newly minted scholar (with a closely guarded secret) who needs her wisdom and foresight to navigate the royal court. Darling Daughter #4 has the tsundere romance with a touch of amnesia on the side. She marries a rigid, forbidding magistrate who feared putting his wife in harm’s way because of the nature of his work. Along the way, she teaches him to be more emotionally receptive/available. As for the Darling Daughter #5, her romance is the…???… I don’t know really; I stopped watching because I had to be out of town. I’m guessing it’s the reverse trop romance because DD5 comes out as the dominator – complete with a golden rod to beat up unruly people – in the early stage of her marriage to royalty.

In my opinion, DD3’s love story is the most entertaining, but it ended after Episode 10 to make way for the other sisters’ stories. I fast-forwarded through DD1’s saga because of the actor’s wooden acting. Even their kissing was awkward. DD4’s plotline is the most cliched one. Of course, her husband would have some traumatic experience to explain his tsundere-ness.

I don’t know if I’ll have time to continue with DD5’s plot with so many cdramas on my schedule now.

2. Youthful Glory

Cast: I don’t know the lead actors, too, but they’re both easy on the eyes. Song Wei Long plays the Prince Xu who in the process of investigating the embezzlement of military funds for his men uncovers a government-wide corruption. It’s a good thing that he and the emperor are tight buddies because in a typical cdrama, his exploits would have incurred gory punishments.

He agrees to marry Ming Tan, played by Bao Shang En. She reminds me of a younger Zhao LuSi.

Episodes: 30
Start Date: Series ended in June 2025. So feel free to fast-forward through extraneous plots. I did.
Where to Watch it: Viki and Youtube

What appealed to me?

Their looks. lol.

This is one of those dramas where the guy clearly loves the girl more, and he realizes it early on. He wonders whether he agreed to marriage because the exigencies of state matters demanded it or because he created the exigencies as an excuse to wed her.

As for the heroine, at first, I found her self-absorption and superiority complex grating. But I get that as she was forced to manage the family household by her absentee father, she developed an independent streak early. She may be spoiled but she isn’t inherently bad. I tolerated her impetuousness and half-baked schemes because I wanted to see how her husband is going to clean up after her.

3. Reset

Cast: Bai Jing Ting (“You Are My Hero”) and Zhao Jin Mai (“The Princess Royal”)

Episodes: 15
Start Date: This was released in 2022. I’ve been meaning to watch this but kept getting interrupted.
Where to Watch it: Viki

What appealed to me?

The time loop. I want to know how it works in the story. Usually, I get impatient with the perpetual reboot, but this cdrama has me invested in the two leads’ search for time-loop mechanism. The process of understanding the time-loop is more intriguing to me than the identity of the bomber.

4. Coroner’s Diary

Don’t confused this with the anime series on Netflix called “The Apothecary Diaries.”

I wrote my First Impressions here: Coroner’s Diary: First Impressions

Cast: Landy Li (she’s the cutie in “GO Into Your Heart” which I enjoyed watching. She looks like Zhao LuSi.) and Ao Rui Peng (He was the male lead in “Wrong Carriage, Right Groom.” In some angles, he reminds me of Wang Hedi of “Love Between Fairy and Devil.”)
Episodes: 38 (oh goodness gracious!)
Start Date: Sunday, July 13. It’s still ongoing.
Where to Watch it? iQiYi

5. Our Generation

Childhood friends meet up again in adulthood.

Cast: Zhang Ling He and Zhao Jin Mai. Remember that cdrama “The Princess Royale”? The two main leads team up again to do this modern (aka non-historical) drama.
Episodes: 24
Start Date: Monday, July 14. On going
Airs everyday
Where to Watch it: Netflix and Viki
Network: Youku

I’ve yet to start this.

6. The Apothecary Diaries

This confused me at first. It’s a Japanese anime but the setting seems to be in Imperial China. I finished the series

Characters: MaoMao and Prince Jinshi
Episodes: 24
Start Date: Season 1 is already out
Where to Watch it: Netflix

I have to write about this. Who recommended this on the blog? Thank you! That was a fun watch, and so many different points to discuss.

7. A Calm Sea, and Beautiful Days With You

Cast: Never heard of Yoshine Kyoko and Honda Kyoya before. But that’s because I don’t watch a lot of dorama nowadays.
Episodes: 10
Airs on Fridays and Saturdays
Where to Watch it: Viki already has up to Episode 6.
I think all 10 episodes are available on *other* sites.

I hope to write about this, too.

It interests me primarily because the setting is Japan in 1936, and the hero is an officer in the imperial navy. We know that during this period, Japan a) was dealing with the rise of nationalism, b) had grown bellicose with its military agenda and foreign policy, c) had aligned itself with Nazi Germany. Although WW2 started when Germany invaded Poland on Sept 1, 1939, Japan was already at war with China in 1937. But its attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 proved to be the turning point in WW2 because it dragged USA into the conflict that USA originally didn’t want to enter.

Knowing the future events made watching this dorama a bittersweet experience for me. I’m happy for all the couple, but I know that their happiness is going to be short-lived. I think that’s the whole point of this dorama: to revel in the impermanent, transitory beauty of calm seas, halcyon days, and cherished ones.

8. Head Over Heels

Cast: Cho YiHyun (I liked her in “The Matchmakers”) and Choo YoungWoo (I liked him, too, in “Once Upon a Small Town”)
Episodes: 12, 8 episodes are already out on Amazon Prime.
Airs on Mondays and Tuesdays
Where to Watch it: Amazon Prime
Network: tvN

I’m au courant with this kdrama, @agdr03. Episodes 7 & 8 are my favorites yet so I finally have something to write about. Wait for it, please.

So, what are you watching this month?