#Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty

[movielosophy]

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2 - the monks are not monks, the wall is not wall.

[swiftletinthecloud]

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 唐朝诡事录 (2022)

@asiandramanet july bingo: free choice | S01E01

[dangermousie]

Every costume cdrama ML summed up in one sentence omg ahahahahhahaha

[marilearnsmandarin]

一路平安

('Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty', episode 21)

[lostinadrama]

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐲 (2022)

[waegashi-tofu]

[roseunspindle]

New ships I've stumbled into

Yalex - alex rider x yassen gregorovich (more book than show)

Bingqiu!

Hualian

[moononmyfloor]

Not many Cdramas caught nor retained my attention in the 2nd half of 2022, but the few I did watch were pure gems. However I didn't think I have enough entrees to fill 30 days with, so I cut the number down and also conjoined some. Without further ado here we go!

My C-Drama Review of the 1st Half of 2022

(Concept loosely based on anniedelavoye' s. I did hers last year but then realised I simply cannot submit only one entry per day NOR wait a whole year to do a review. I do things by bulk 😆. So I broke the reviewing into two halves so I can do this with fresher memory and also more dramas will get the spotlight.)

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1. First Drama I finished in the 1st half of 2022

Love Between Fairy and Devil! Lots of praises have already been sung about this show, I don't have anything new to add.🤭

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2. New Favourite Actor/Actress

Zhai Zilu, Zhou Dawei, Wang Youjun, Chang Long.

All caught my attention this year, all very promising! I hope they have successful years ahead! (And please don't end up being evil people :( 🙏)

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3. Best Performance

Wang Xiao and Yan Bingyan as Zhou baba and mama in Examination for Everyone. These two veteran actors brought this two characters and their dynamic to life SO realistically and endearingly, you could almost touch it. It was like seeing my own parents onscreen. Mad respect.

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4. Favorite Drama OST

This is an odd answer but the first few seconds of the opening theme song of Fei Teng Ren Sheng captivated me. I was like: "Hold on. That's one BEAUTIFUL melody?" And I replayed and replayed that part over and over. The rest is good too but it was really the part before the verse that I felt was quite unique.

I also liked this song from Side Story of Fox Volant.

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5. Most Watched Genre

I think I should remove this question here onwards. I never pick a drama by genre, I have no aversion to almost any. I do have a preference to Period dramas and Slice of Life but they are not really taken to account if everything else about the story doesn't appeal to me. So this question goes nowhere and indicates nothing in my case.

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6. A Drama I Dropped

Light Chaser Rescue. Its first episode was one of the most annoying I have ever seen in my life. The ML cool-hero driving and the FL sassy-heroine force hitching a ride and the entire sequence of the car crash rescue had me 🙄. A show either has to own up the wackiness or should be full on realistic, for me. This was neither here nor there.

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7. Favorite Character of 2022 2nd Half

I don't think there was anyone I fell head-over-heels for this time, but did like Madam Danchuan in New Life Begins a lot. I just love her aura of power, how fiercely protective she's of her women, AND how she will always allow you to have the final choice. She never forces her authority to make decisions for others, no matter how good she might internally think it'd be for you.

I also liked Bai Lu a lot, she's just a minor character but she stood out most to me among the Solar Term girls. She's sassy, and I think if I am to travel into NLB verse I'd like to be Bai Lu. Just like her I don't particularly care for men, I want to mind my own business and just chill with my jiejies lol.

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8. Best Cinematography

I should remove this question too because I feel like I'm not professional enough for this, haha. Sometimes I love the visuals of some dramas only to find out that from technical aspects it actually sucked.

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9. An Older Drama I Watched

Red Sorghum (2014). It's a CRIME that Red Sorghum's drama version has only ep 1 eng subbed, but also, having watched the movie I know how brutal it can get so maybe its a good thing only ep 1 is subbed, and after all ep 1 ends in a kind-of conclusive place so it does feel like a standalone story of its own, and I HIGHLY recommend watching it.

Do yourself a favor and watch this single ep because baby Zhou Xun and baby Huang Xuan are SO CUTE! Like toe-curlingly cute, I was squealing the whole time! 😍😍😍😍😍😍

Also it has some GORGEOUS backdrops!

https://youtu.be/zh55pwzBNag

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10. A Drama that kept Me on Edge

Nothing really. I mean I did eagerly wait everyday for new eps of NLB and Da Kao but that's not the same.

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11. A Drama Location I Want to Visit

I kind of want to visit Hengdian replicas of real locations, then visit the actual thing (such as Forbidden City) and try to compare and contrast lmao. I wonder how similar they are!

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12. A Popular Drama I Didn't Enjoy

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty. Not due to any particular fault of the drama itself, the production and visuals and aesthetics all were excellent, and all the ingredients were right there. I simply felt it didn't particularly offer anything I haven't already seen. The first ep reminded me strongly of Legend of the Demon Cat, which was a movie I loved a lot and still had a pretty fresh memory of. Sometimes strong acting and unique execution will carry a story that is otherwise pretty tried-and-tired, but unfortunately that was not the case here either.

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13. Best Scriptwriting and Directing

Though I wouldn't say they were the best overall scripts, New Life Begins had the BEST female character writing I've seen in ages, and Da Kao (Exam for Everyone) had the most thorough writing of family dynamics.

Directing-wise, I liked what I saw but nothing that particularly blew my mind.

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14. Best Production

The Long River. Even though I didn't get to properly see it yet, I heard they made an artificial Yellow river simulation for all the flooding scenes and there are LOTS of those scenes in this drama and... whew. It's not often you get a proper serious historical drama and when you do, it's usually difficult for any other drama to beat them production scale wise anyway😆.

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15. A Drama that Made Me Laugh

Mr. Bad. The "character from a story comes to real life and messes with the other lead's life" premise will always be full of potential for unhinged shenanigans, and Mr.Bad doesn't fail. The main leads are so fun and the dynamic never boring, and Chen Zheyuan is SUCH a hoot with his expressions.

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16. A Drama that Made Me Cry

NLB and Da Kao did, but they were more like tears of exhilaration. Instead lemme share this very good crying scene by Wang Yibo and Wang Jinsong in Being a Hero haha.

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17. Most Satisfying Drama

New Life Begins owns my whole heart and soul! You can read my review for ep 1-14 here, and my current opinion of the drama remains the same if not better!

Even though it is a fluffy and ahistorical drama, lots of "proper" period dramas could learn from NLB about how to write your women as intelligent, dimensional individuals and not caricatures fallen victims to irrational jealousy and hatred. Since it's a feel good romcom everything always turn out for the better and that may not always be the case in history, yes. But this approach that these women tried to make a difference still holds valid regardless the genre.

You should learn that Past =×= 100% Oppression, 0% fighting back when it came to women, the same way Modern times doesn't mean 0% Oppression and 100% feminism (laughs in sarcasm). The foundations of how far we have come has been laid since centuries ago, AND there are lots of fronts that we have actually backtracked/regressed in compared to the past as well. Progressiveness is rarely linear.

Ok I digressed. Back to review 🤭.

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18. Most Dissapointing Drama

Hu Tong. Life in Beijing hutong neighbourhood across eras told through 3 women of 3 generations of a family is quite possibly one of of the most interesting premises I've heard, but the first episode dissapointed me thoroughly with its unconvincing, in your face and over the top characters and storyline. Such potential, gone down the drain. If the drama didn't take itself seriously, neither would the audience.

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19. Favorite Wardrobe

Hao Jia's wardrobe in NLB and Dongfang Qingcang's in LBFAD. The fine details and embroidery are 😘🤌. 100% would wear both styles, depending on the day lol.

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20. A Drama That Deserves a Shoutout

Our Times. An omnibus type of drama where you'll be told slice of life stories of people in such interesting and niche jobs that you rarely get to see portrayed realistically in dramas. Such as traditional Chinese theatre dancers, or a sports coach in a rural area with minimal facilities. Also if you get uninterested with one story you can jump few episodes ahead to the next, so that's kind of a plus too, haha.

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21. A Drama that Taught Me New Things

Are You Safe. Taught me lots of valuable tips about cyber safety. Unfortunately that was the only positive thing about this drama and I think it won't be presumptuous to say literally 99% people who watched it will agree with me.

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22. Best Relationship

The care and nuance all the families were written in The Examination for Everyone was through-the-roof excellent. Unnecessarily stereotyped toxic Asian family portrayals out, empathetic and 3D Asian parent-children dynamics in! Gosh, I saw myself, my family, my society, my culture in this drama. Thank you and much love.

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23. A Drama I Wanted to Watch but Couldn't

The Long River. No subs 😭

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24. An Upcoming Drama that I'm Excited for

JoL 2 and Under the Microscope! 🤩 (Please come 😭)

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More posts by me

[heedodo]

The third season of Strange tales of Tang dynasty ! IM HEEERE FOR IT ⚡️💥🔥💥⚡️🔥💥⚡️🔥💥⚡️

I’m so happy that the cast will reunite for another season!

[deng-yi-deng]

I love you su wuming but you need to stop being mean to my girl ying tao.

And ying tao, sweetie, we know he would die if you stopped magically appearing to save his scholarly ass, but at least next time be a little late.

[movielosophy]

Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2 - Hermit Jiang

[swiftletinthecloud]

STRANGE TALES OF TANG DYNASTY II TO THE WEST (2024)

@asiandramanet august bingo: poster design

@asiandramanet event 10: scenery

[dangermousie]

I decided to check out Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty and am a couple of eps into s1. I like it (which is surprising, given that it’s largely a period procedural) but the thing I love the most is that the two investigator protagonists fight over jurisdiction and threatening to complain to their superior and not giving up paperwork in their control and who’s in charge even more than they spend time solving cases.

ANCIENTS, THEY ARE JUST LIKE US!

[chineseredcarpet]

Yang Xuwen for Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty II To the West promos

[lostinadrama]

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐠 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐲 (2022)

[roseunspindle]

Lads of the Screen