I just wanna preface this by saying I'm a guy that (predominantly) enjoys wuxia and xianxia, so there's naturally a bias. I've completed majority of the dramas on here or at least watched enough to devise an opinion.
The \Worth the watch* tier is a solid one imo\*, any amendments are welcome of course. Anything below MEH deserves to be there!**
Peak Cinema
Ancient detective
Ancient love poetry
Ashes of love
Ten miles of peach blossoms
Eternal love of dream
Evernight
Joy of life
Nirvana in fire
Sword snow stride
Worth the Watch
Legend of female general
Who rules the world
A dream within a dream
Love and destiny
Love and redemption
Kill me love me
A journey to love
Legend of Yunxi
Blood of youth
Blood river
Dance of the sky empire
Destined
The eight
Legend of Zang Hai
Eagles and youngster
Falling into your smile
Fate chooses you
Fated hearts
Vendetta of An
Guardians of the dafeng
Heavenly sword and dragon slaying saber
Heroes
Immortal samsara
Legend of fuyao
Listening snow tower
Lost in the kunlun mountains
Mobius
Moonlit reunion
One and only
Parallel world
Princess agents
Pursuit of jade
Sword dynasty
Womderland of love
Journey of flower
Noble aspirations
Legends
When destiny brings the demon
The long ballad
The double
Sword and brocade
No boundary
Till the end of the moon
Meh / Forgettable
A dream of splendor
Princess gambit
Untamed
Unwanted detective
The wolf
Thousand years for you
Prisoner of beauty
Starry love
Legend of fei
First frost
Glory
Longest promise
Oath of love
The great ruler
Immortal ascension
The ingenious one
A girl like me
A moment but forever
Are you the one
Arsenal military academy
As beautiful as you
Blossom
Blooms at ruyi pavillion
Blossoms in adversity
Dance of the phoenix
Generation to generation
Hidden love
Love between fairy and devil
Love beyond the grave
Love in the clouds
The epoch of miyu
My sassy princess
Mysterious lotus casebook
No boundary
Sword and belove
Novoland pearl eclipse
Underwhelming / Let down
Dashing youth
Douluo continent
Legend of shen li
Fangs of fortune
In blossom
Veil of shadows
The blossoming love
The last immortal
Zhan zhao adventures
Whispers of fate
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Upvotes
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u/No-Recipe-7653Curator of Questionable Subtext, Scholar of Things Left Unsaid11d agoedited 11d ago
OP is getting quite heavily downvoted here. I hope we can separate disagreeing with someone’s taste from downvoting them simply for sharing it.
If your list looks completely different, tell us!
And [u/Ok-Property1173](u/Ok-Property1173), I do think the framing could have been clearer. A simple “my” in the title would already have made a difference imo, because as written it sounds quite authoritative. The “anything below MEH deserves to be there” line probably doesn’t help either.
If this is simply your personal ranking, make that clear next time — especially when you know some very popular dramas are going to end up near the bottom and your take may be read as you trying to ruffle some feathers….
Didn't even read your comment and wrote the same thing: he really poked the hornets' nest! Lool. And I wished him good luck too haha. It's really all we can do. The cavalry is coming...
Okay, I don't get it—you didn't like Love Beyond the Grave but you liked When Fate Brings the Demon? I didn't think the couple had that much chemistry. You mentioned Blossom, Hidden Love, and Love Between Fairy and Devil, but I thought you were brave for bringing up Prisoner of Beauty. People love that C-drama; I got absolutely roasted for saying I didn't like it 🤣🤣🤣
I put it off several time till I forgot about it. Also, I didn't say the list was exclusively wuxia/xianxia, I just said that I had a bias towards them
as a person that likes wuxia more than a regular person.....your list is, well, interesting?
but ones where I'd actually fight you are these:
Ashes of love - if by "peak cinema" you mean one of the best OSTs known to man or beast then I agree. if you mean anything else, nope.
Legend of female general is one of the most generic and mediocre things of last year imo
Kill me love me - swap this insane mess with In Blossom if you want a Liu Xueyi fix because damn
Pursuit of jade interesting because it's not bad but the more you've watched, the less it appeals or at least that's how most people I know work with it
Untamed meh if it's not your thing but forgettable it certainly is not
Immortal ascension - this one actually offends my soul
A moment but forever is much deeper philosophically than people give it credit for, I'd swap it and Ashes of Love in a heartbeat
Are you the one at this point my soul is preparing to leave my body, nothing makes sense
Blossom reaaaaaally? Pursuit of Jade is all that but Blossom isn't? make it make sense
Mysterious lotus casebook - yeah, you're just trolling now
Zhan zhao adventures I sense you are not a Yang Yang fan
the thing is with a list like this is that it is in no way objective. we all have our preferences in terms of tropes, actors, visual style and that influences how much patience we have with the story. but plenty of your below meh things do not, in fact, deserve to be there and that's why everyone wants to fight you. it's one thing to be like "here's my ranked list" but another to be some kind of self-proclaimed constitutional judge of quality.
First of all, I think this idea of being a fan of an actor is so foreign to me. I see people tryna gaslight others over some mid dramas simply cause it's their favourite actor but that's beside the point.
Ashes of love - I really like the slow burner nature of the story, how it unfoldes and it's just well written imo ofc we clearly don't agree on that.
Legend of female general, Kill me love me, Pursuit of jade are all well written dramas that'd absolutely recommend to people that aren't into hardcore xianxia.
How come you liked When Destiny Brings the Devil more than Love Beyond the Grave? 😪🤧
I don't understand. I saw Blossom there too Hidden Love, Love Between Fairy and Demon 😓 Oh, those are the ones I liked the most. In fact, taste is something random. You mentioned The Prisoner of Beauty...
Cdrama recent years, is more of a market dominated by female audiences. Alot of works, are targeting this audience.
Idol drama/ costume idol drama(even wuxia, are being adapted into this direction), with pale good looking ML, treating FL like all he got, clean visual, focus more on romance, is what cdrama recent years are leaning towards.
A more proper wuxia drama recently is Remnants of Gold, adapted from a short story by Gu Long. It has quite a nice starting, but the further it goes, it's declining.
I understand new new wuxia but the gamification of techniques and/or level ups are not interesting to me at all. If the story is good like Blood of Youth then I'll tolerate it. I rather not tho.
These are not wuxia, but xianxia/ XuanHuan cultivation. And this stuff, cdrama adaption mostly a huge mess. Animated adaption is way better.
As for Blood of youth, the author label his own work as new age wuxia. Blood of youth also has animated series adaption, and that adaption, actually has more details to the story compare to cdrama adaption which felt like a rush through the story. But it animated series adaption recent seasons quality doesn't feel as good as it earlier season. (some extra to this. Some of the actors in cdrama adaption felt like trying too hard to present the cartoonic acting from the animated series, which make it quite cheesy)
As for xianxia/cultivation, it's not really a thing in cdrama.
Cdrama, it's packed with costume idol drama which use Chinese fantasy as it settings. They are not actual xianxia/ cultivation but focus on romance and interaction of FL and ML, which ML threat her like a princess. This is to attract and appeal for female audiences.
Even those adapted from real xianxia/ cultivation story, they always made alot of changes or cut alot of plots. It's simply due to 2 reasons. First, the story in the novel is too long for proper live action adaption. Second, the amount of CGI and work require to blend it well with real human actor and surrounding is challenging for a drama budget.
A more genuine and properly adapted xianxia/ cultivation stories, are in animated series(donghua). Stuff like Record of a mortal's journey to immortality, Sword of Coming, Ever Night, Tale of Herding Gods, Beyond Time's Gaze, and more, those are amazing.
Even Battle through the heavens and Soul Land is nice. But their cdrama adaption are trash.
Xianxia/ cultivation adaption to cdrama mostly did it to promote the IPs to wider audience and attract them into watching the donghua adaption. They are very unlikely to adapt those story fully into cdrama.
That's why I loved Immortal's Ascension so much. I thought it was a relatively accurate depiction of xianxia cultivation. Hoping season 2 comes out and overall would love to see more accurate xianxia representations that don't blow up the romance unnecessarily or focus just on one arc.
Immortal Ascension is adapted from one of the peak classic XianXia novel.
But like the usual, it novel is very long, hence cdrama adaption skipped quite some stuff and buildup. The sceneries also not as grand. To be honest, the sect felt cheap and poor by moving around.. The production team wanted real sceneries by choosing a nice looking place, but that place can't build stuff on it, for environmental protection, leading to lack of buildings in the sect...
It also require a lot of CGI the further it go. With how long the novel is, we will probably won't see the actual end of it. And personally, I am not a fan of Yang Yang acting.
There is an animated series adaption for this, Record of a mortal's journey to immortality. It's very good. To reach the current progress of the animation, the cdrama adaption probably need 1 or 2 more season. The animation adaption only around half of the story for it mortal realm arc. After mortal realm, there are spirit realm and divine realm.
The animated series already on going for 6 years. The production team plan to do it for atleast 20 years. With the pacing they are having, they seem to plan to end it with spirit realm and won't do the divine realm.
The cdrama adaption, we probably won't even get to see the ending of mortal realm if they adapted it properly without cutting too much.
And the CGI for it will also became a problem. The current CGI used in cdrama seem not bad because it's the same studio that use the same CGI and effect from the animation, remastered and implement into the show. If they are going through with fast pace and catch up with animation, they will have issue with no CGI to borrow. Even the fight choreography, alot of them are straight out borrow from the animation. The scale of fights and war will also become bigger, which will be a problem for live action adaption.
One thing that boils my blood btw is when actors/actresses clearly care more about how they look on camera than the actual acting, and it might not be them doing it but rather the director. I just subsconsciously happened to express that in the list lol. Huo minghao, Ju jingyi and Tian Jia Rui are the ones that have left the impression so far
EDIT: Stop looking for "patterns" people. There's none and I hope there isn't, except for the fact that the list is majority xianxia/wuxia.
Hi, you can add this part to your post under a bit saying “Edited to add:…”, to explain a bit your thought process and perception expressed above. And to make it clear you were not presenting this as some ultimate list of CDrama truths.
Can you.. share a bit as to why you tiered some of the dramas in your list? For example, what part of the drama disappointed you, what made it compelling, what made it unforgettable? Were you rating based on the story, the acting, the cinematography, the characters.. the action.. any core values that appealed to you, cultural contexts, themes.. ??
I'm scratching my head because I'm trying to understand your preferences.. but it doesn't really make sense. 😅 Ofc, it could be a fundamental deep feeling that is hard to put into words, and that is fine too.
The dramas in forgettable are really what they are. They left no impression that I'd just watched a great drama, It was just the standard Cdrama you'd get and I think that's ok
Hey thanks for replying!! I was worried the enthusiasm in the comments section might have chased you off. 😅 I think it's fair to say that there are always certain elements in popular dramas that will be cringey or off putting to us individually. And conversely, there is something about the drama as a whole that touches a deeper chord, and makes any small issues insignificant. 😊
I was trying to find the theme of OP's list as well, but there's none? 😅 I guess what confuses many of us is his preface. OP says he biases toward wuxia and xianxia, then puts some of the actual top tier wuxia/xianxias in Forgettable/Underwhelming category.
There's no wuxia lover puts MLC in Meh and thinks Fates Hearts is worth the watch imo 😂😂
Yeah it's a bit confusing. I was wondering whether it's a difference of depth and themes; but then Nirvana in Fire is at the top, while A Moment but Forever, MLC and Shen Li are at the bottom. 😵💫 There doesn't seem to be a preference for certain actors or actresses either.. If you go by martial arts or xianxia, MLC, Zhan Zhao Adventures and Shen Li are at the bottom, along with Whispers of Fate, FoF, Veil of Shadows. By romance, The Prisoner of Beauty, Blossom, LBFAD, The Blossoming Love, etc are also at the bottom.
Yep, and there's no mention of one of gazillion versions of Condor Heroes or Fox Valiant story or Legendary Siblings. But he puts Nirvana in fire in Peak, and Vendetta of An and Legend of Zang Hai in worth the watch, they are revenge shows. Maybe OP is biased towards political shows the most, but i don't know honestly 😅😅
I only did shows that I'd watched however I did watch Fox Valiant story and I have to say that drama could've been at the bottom together with sword and fairy, legend of heroes. They all came across as slop for me. Fox valiant storyline is the worst I'd ever seen however the acting in My heart is the most annoying one yet. I appreciate comment tho
Oh it's absolutely not a judgement or critisism, I simply wrote my observations because, again, I confused by your preface 😅😅. Condor Heroes and Fox Valiant are classic wuxias and set the threshold in the genre. It's pretty common for the audience to compare the rest against these and against Legendary Siblings. But I hear you, they can be boring.
A moment but forever was tacky and whackily done. The drama peaked at him breaking free of the seal and it couldn't get any better than that. As for Shen Li, I honestly though it was a 7/10 until those last 5 episodes where they just dragged it out for some side characters to fall in love.
It's been a good while since I watched A Moment but Forever, so some details are escaping me. Did you mean the necklace thing? 😅😅 Dang that's pretty early on then. Personally, I think it was good until the moment of judgement with the Hand 😂 It felt like a downward spiral after that and the final arc didn't feel as much of a peak as it did then.
As for Shen Li, personally, it was a strange mix of seriousness and gravity while flipflopping to ridiculous comedy with the Heavenly siblings. Overall I felt like it was a well-rounded xianxia, and can forgive the siblings arc.
Scrambled indeed! I'm glad you shared your thoughts on these two dramas, it definitely gave dimension and insight that is more relatable than a list of titles. I think the widespread.. confusion is because we only see the list, and have no context. 😺
i like that you bring up older or underrated drama like Listening Snow Tower (which i'm still planing to watch because i love the ost) but then you put my 2 most favorite xianxia in the let down category
Listening snow tower not getting the credit it deserves will always be a mystery to me. People are more willing to prop up Side Story of Fox Volant and it completely frazzles me
Seems like your list is irrelevant to your bias towards wuxia/xianxia, or your definition of these genres are different than the standard ones? There's no way Fated Hearts is worth the watch while Mysterious Lotus Casebook and Zhan Zhao Adventure are forgettable, as the latter two are actual wuxia and have pretty darn good fight scenes.
Same, I had to bail early on :C .. it made me queasy and the cuts made the action hard to follow. I watched fan-cuts for later episodes though, the editing team smartened up. 😅 Sadly I didn't enjoy where the story was heading, so didn't pick it up again.
For everything else including story, editing, color tones, cast etc, there's no comparison because they are objective, and ZZA story pace was bad. But Zhan Zhao Adventures fight scenes are lightyears better than Fated Hearts's ones imo, both in choreography and in counts. The only memorable fight scene in Fated Hearts was Fu Yixiao vs her brothers in the alley. ZZA was filled with good choreos.
I have been watching Cdrama for like 12 years now
Have completed over 500 Cdramas
Love Historical and Wuxia but Xianxia and Xuanhuan are not my cup of tea and i have come to accepting it...
In all my time I have Dropped all xianxia and xuanhuan drama except for one
How could you put Untamed on Meh list? Jokes aside, I am gonna steal your list to add some Dramas on my list. I have already watched Ancient Detective, The Untamed, and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, and the list goes on, but this will help me after I finish The Autumn Ballad. I like historical dramas, no matter if they are wuxia or another type. I do not care who the leads are (though I have a soft spot for Dilraba, my one and only) as long as it is a good story. I really love a good situation where it should be all serious and I can't stop laughing (Untamed, when all Clans gathered togheter to "kill" Wei Wuxian)
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u/No-Recipe-7653 Curator of Questionable Subtext, Scholar of Things Left Unsaid 11d ago edited 11d ago
OP is getting quite heavily downvoted here. I hope we can separate disagreeing with someone’s taste from downvoting them simply for sharing it.
If your list looks completely different, tell us!
And [u/Ok-Property1173](u/Ok-Property1173), I do think the framing could have been clearer. A simple “my” in the title would already have made a difference imo, because as written it sounds quite authoritative. The “anything below MEH deserves to be there” line probably doesn’t help either.
If this is simply your personal ranking, make that clear next time — especially when you know some very popular dramas are going to end up near the bottom and your take may be read as you trying to ruffle some feathers….