#be your own light

[positivelypositivethoughts]

[serenagaia]

Individuality

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Liú Tao 劉濤

For the variety show 王牌對王牌

Bringing back my Nirvana in Fire 瑯琊榜 FEELS! Mù NíHuáng 穆霓凰 !!!

(Which reminds me that her character in the Advisors' Alliance is the mother of both Xiao ShùnYáo and Tán JìanCì's characters!)

[sagessge]

You want me to leave even the thought of you behind

My love,the sky still gleams orange even after the sun passes the horizon

And it glows even prettier

Shows all the beauty the sun gave it

The clouds gleam pink

As if done soaring for the separation of the sun

Yet the stars comfort the sky

A thousand small striking shiny things

Yet the sky yearns

For the sun

And when 'tis back in the morning

Delighted it is

For the dawn has arrived

The sky awaits the sun everyday

For it knows,it'll arrive

And here am I, knowing you won't

I still stand at the door

No stars comfort me

I am all alone

While I wait for your light

You shine it onto others

You forgot me,my love

I didn't

I wait for you,still

The night never leaves my face

The dawn never arrives

I think I should be it

My own light

[psychic-waffles]

i couldn't in good conscience see liu yuning say this line and not make a hei xiazi meme out of it

[melodious-tear]

Liu Yuning in Be your own light | 做自己的光

[heymeowmao]

做自己的光 | Be Your Own Light ☼ Liu Yuning as Jiang Junhao E8

[marlo-noni]

No thoughts, just this clip looping endlessly in my head

[moononmyfloor]

My Year End C-drama Review (2023)

Part 1

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17. Actors I newly discovered in 2023

Hong Yao, Wang Yinglu, Marcus Li, Tian Jiarui, Qin Hailu, Wang Ke

Some of these are new actors, some are already very experienced but I discovered only now. All of them provided phenomenal performances in their roles this year.

.

18. Favorite Child Actors of the Year

Wang Haoze (Ou Zimo- Be Your Own Light), Phoebe Sun Yichen (Duoduo- Stay With Me)

Child actors in C-ent always baffle me, I have zero idea how they are SO good. Impeccable performance. I want to take them home. 🥺

.

19. Feminist Cdramas of the year

Be Your Own Light, A Journey to Love

The premise of the first is about women to begin with, the second only partially. Most of the time the self-identifying feminist stories fail massively in realistic depiction of women, let alone idol dramas where the focus is elsewhere.

But these two shows really understood what women think and say, their priorities and what they want in life, how they conduct themselves....and not through the eyes of men who assume women crave xyz things only. The arcs and growths of women in these two shows felt very organic and relatable.

(I hear there were few other such dramas this year as well, eg: Faithful. But this is all I managed to watch huhu)

.

20. A drama that let me down

Destined

The chemistry of the real-life pair Bai Jingting and Song Yi was adorable, but the story just wasn't my cup of tea.

I absolutely loved their spacious bedroom tho!

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21. Favorite BGM

Be Your Own Light- I Only Wish to Face the Light by Liu Yuning

Stay with Me- Stars Shine by Zhang Jiongmin, Xu Bin

I Am Nobody- Sea of Time by Zhou Shen

Young Blood 2- Lending a Ray of Light by WineQ (圈9)

Romance On the Farm- Letters from Spring by Su Yunying

Silence of the Monster- Cross a City Just to See You by Huang Yi

.

22. Favorite wardrobes

Sui Yi (Sun Yihan)'s wardrobe in Silence of the Monster and Pang Hongmei (Peng Xiaoran)'s fits in Unshakable Faith

Oh they looked so delightfully vintage and exactly my style! 😍

.

23. Best Breakups

Moxi and Jiagui (Gone With the Rain), Xiangyi and Wanmian (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

I HAD to include this category simply because of these two pairs. I LOVED those two scenes. So mature! Such thorough discussion about how their feelings have changed over time, the frank admission that there are indeed some remnants left (because contrary to popular depiction, feelings don't POOF overnight), how they'd always consider the other as a special someone that they were lucky to have met in their lives, the wish to remain as tight friends in the future as well.... 🤌🤌🤌👏👏👏

.

24. Worst character designs

Road Home

Gods know I only sat through this for Jing Boran in army gear and snow. The characters were so mind-blowingly flat despite the actors giving their best to "understand" their roles and make them relatable but there was only so much they could do. All the interpersonal relationships happened just because the writer said so. There was a child character who was passed from hand to hand for whenever the writer wanted a "warm childcaring and family moment" but was discarded without a glance the next second, I got second-hand abandonment issues from watching that lonely kid. I did not understand why anyone was doing anything at any given moment.

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25. Most convincing villains aka characters I loved to hate

Yuan Hao (Young Blood 2)- Gotta be one of the most dangerous villains I have ever seen. He was insanely smart, unpredictable and cunning AND strong, and it took all the heroes of the story to defeat him and still it was barely enough. He was so well written and portrayed, till the very end of the show the viewers weren't sure of the outcome of the battle.

Jiao Liqiao (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)- AHH Jiao jie! We all love a good unhinged female villain who isn't uwufied in the name of some weird "women should always be portrayed with tearjerking backstory" notion. Let her go crazy all over the place, we support women's wrongs as well as rights! She always meant what she said and did what she meant and it was terrifying to see.

.

26. Favorite murder kittens of the year

Gong Yuanzhi (My Journey to You), Li Tongguang (A Journey to Love)

Oh these two bois were VERY disturbing individuals and I wouldn't go within 1 mile radius around them but were them such delightful affection starved meow meows with killer (ha!) hair and eye acting? Heck yes.

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27. A drama that I wished was longer

Romance On the Farm

I really appreciate how 3D and empathetically portrayed all the family members are. We are shown all their sides and what made them what they are today without making a mockery of Asian family values, but rather constructively analysing + celebrating the good parts.

And then there is a political thriller story arc.

And then there is "this is all but a game" part which I had to try very hard to pretend like it's ignorable.

And then there was the basic premiere of the pastoral country life story.

Clearly the dramamakers had LOTS of ideas. And you can see none of them were empty bite-more-than-can-chews but had actual potential.

If only.... it didn't try to do all this at once under the guise of a 26 ep lighthearted fluffy romcom genre.... it would've made such a difference.

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28. A drama I wanted to watch but couldn't

SO many! For all sorts of reasons.

Ray of Light, Butterflied Lover, The Road to Ordinary, Pledge of Allegiance, Where Dreams Begin, There Will Be Ample Time, Faithful, Stand By Me

ARGH!😭

.

29. A drama I wish more people watched

Stay With Me

This is a Chinese BL, with Chinese cast, Chinese locations, but produced by a TW company. That's all I'm going to say about it, give it a try. You won't regret it. (Maybe don't watch last episode tho lol)

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30. Most favorite Cdrama of 2023

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Why? Because... well if you are in the fandom you'd know, if you aren't... I can write ESSAYS about it so I won't 😂 In short, it was such a healing watch.

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31. A Cdrama I'm excited to see in 2024

JOL 2. Obviously.

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Conclusion

2023 served to solidify my belief that there's really no 'perfect' drama, what I can do is listening to the stories people have to share and then take what I want from them, and leave what I don't want behind. Some may resonate more with me, some less. Some may teach me new things, some may feel redundant. Sometimes you will enjoy only 50% of a drama and hate the rest, but that won't diminish the impact that 50% had on you. It could be a totally different experience for another viewer and that's fine. I watched all the DMBJ shows this year as well (but didn't speak about them in this list since my focus was on 2023) and it really was an exercise on not being overly critical and going with the flow or you would totally miss out on all the good things DMBJ had to bring.

Overall I enjoyed 2023 Cdramaland a lot. I hope this review helped some of you to try out dramas that you didn't know existed/were hesitant to press play or continue on!

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More Posts by Me

[thepastisapebbleinmyshoe]

In a matter of months, the tides began to turn, an aggressive slight of hand, crooked glances sweep, quietly over my shoulders. She no longer idolizes, kindness or gentle words, disillusioned by compassion, naively she sits a little closer, breathing in the calm, before the storm.

Looking at me intensely, as I observe her disdain, for a phantom reflection, that doesn't exist, so cold, she despises her self- image. I made myself right at home, crawling into this space, with her rage, and bitter hate that's constant and relentless.

Quietly, I begin to feel afraid, disoriented but standing still, who am I in the room with? seated beside her, I feel ill. She feels so familiar to me, with a skewed perception, that's never been my reality.

A delicate web engulfs me, falling into open arms, I am quietly guided away, from her narcissistic grip. I designed my own escape, and the person who returned, was worth tearing myself apart, to uncover the young woman, who's bravery and courage made me who I am today.

Be Your Own Light

[fortunaestalta]

[positivelypositivethoughts]

[serenagaia]

I’m not a type. I’m a vibe.

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Head empty except for this shot of Liú YûNíng 劉宇寧 in Be Your Own Light 做自己的光.

The drama is good btw!

[naughtynanzhu]

ASKALSJSKSDJSKSNDJSKSJ

[psychic-waffles]

2.5 episodes left but we finally got there 😭💗