Dear Mingdao and Li Qin: “If I love you”, I would tell you to bury this series forever.
Round-up of new TV available recently per request. English link is original streaming, Chinese is YouTube streaming.
Drama
Battle of Sing & War 唱战记 aka eeMedia musical – The music is great and the cast is pretty good looking, but the show really needs to get more fast-paced to be a weekly series. You can listen to the songs featured each episode here.
Boys studying room 男生学院自习室 (subbed) – I find it kind of disturbing how purposefully shippy these sit-coms are for a show with minors, but the show and TH Boys have succeeded where no other boybands have done so in China.
If I love you 如果我爱你 (Mingdao, Li Qin, Godfrey Gao, Hu Bing, Dijie, etc. ) You have to give Mingdao credit for his selflessness, because both of Zhang Han’s series produced by Mingdao are infinitely better than the ones starring Mingdao himself. The cast is gorgeous, but the story and characters are awkward at best. I ended up rewatching SOP Queen (also available subbed!) instead.
Peony 牡丹 – If you liked the stories in A Bite of China, then Peony is a must watch. From the story of a gardener who devotes her life to breeding the most pure yellow, to the man who scales cliffs to search for the rare wild peony, to a battle against ice and heat to keep the peonies alive, the team of A Bite of China focuses on the strengths and aspirations of individuals through their common love of a flower.
Bu Bu Jing Qing (subbed), Perfect Couple, and Gong III are all coming to an end. I still highly recommend Perfect Couple for the first twenty or so episodes of pure cuteness and also because this is the only series where I can’t help but ship the lead actors without even watching them interact in real life. BBJQ and Gong are just so incoherent throughout. Also watch the BBJQ cast on A Date with Luyu, Period’s Show and High! 2014, the Gong III cast on Happy Camp, and the Perfect Couple cast on really boring Internet interviews (unless you count Lu Yi’s cameo as being a cast member).
Olie wants you!
Variety
Flowers and Youth Divas Hits the Road 花儿与少年 – See how Liu tao is a grown-up version of the kind and hardworking Cindy and be angry for how poorly Zhang Han is treated. Also a lesson on what not to do on a trip in Italy and Spain. The cast was also on last weekend’s Happy Camp, where Zhang Han is the cutest thing ever when Zheng Shuang was mentioned. While you’re waiting for ep3, you can also play the 2048 game.
Daddy’s Home 爸爸回来了 Episode 2 – Watch Li Xiaopeng‘s daughter Olivia on the “balance beam” and breaking hearts of twin brothers while Wu Zun tells us his requirements for Neinei’s future boyfriend. Guest star today is Jing Boran, who serves up the daily gossip of Andy Lau with Wang Zhonglei. Next episode will feature Calvin Chen from Fahrenheit, the Chinese national gymnastics team, and other famous friends.
Flashback
Like the fog, the rain, and also the wind 像雾像雨又像风 – A decent version of the Chen Baogang classic starring a future all-star cast of Chen Kun, Zhou Xun, Lu Yi, Li Xiaoran, Sun Honglei, Luo Haiqiong, and Liao Fan is finally available online. Zhou Xun and Chen Kun are potentially the cutest things ever here.
Zhang Han is adorable when he is embarrassed squeeee!!!! Also loved how Xie Na didn’t get the joke LOL!
yaaaaaaas, perfect. i was looking for a chinese drama to pick up for the summer :)
I really dislike the chinese title they have for daddy’s back because it’s actually a remake of the korean show superman is back but because they changed it to daddy’s back, it sounds like a replica of dad, where are we going.
Anyways, the kids are cute, Olie and neinei are damnnn adorable. I feel bad for the boy, his dad is always so busy and kind of neglects him. I feel like they have the potential to be the most emotional pair of the show because once his dad understands the importance of being by his son’s side, it will be satisfying to watch.
William was super cute in this episode! I don’t think Wang Zhonglei will ever be emotional since he’s going for a “tough” image. I loved how he was so intent on holding his dad’s hand, and how he got a spider even though he’s scared of them.
Also, some netizens figured out that William and Cindy are going to be in the same elementary school, and now people are now strangely shipping William and Cindy in a typical “Cool CEO falls in love with fiesty girl” plot.
LOLLLLLL!!! It sounds like some kind of romance novel!
Peony sounds really interesting, I doubt it will ever get subbed though. X_X I also didn’t even know about Ming Dao’s drama this season. o_o That’s too bad it isn’t matching up to SOP Queen, where I last saw him.
Well, Peony is a CCTV documentary, so CCTV9 might dub it for fun.
Holy moly, idarklight, how do you find the time to catch up on all these shows? I couldn’t even handle BBJQ + Perfect Couple together. xD
I’ve pretty much just watched the trailers for the last half of Perfect Couple (I did watch the finale in whole, though!), almost all of Gong. I stopped even watching the trailers for BBJQ …
Ahahaha. I “watched” Gong 3 by passing through all the trailers…and hated Yuan Shanshan every second she appeared.
Liu Shishi is so pretty in BBJQ, but I only got up to episode 3 :( saving perfect couple for when I have a little more free time~
Thanks again for the updates. Wow, they are more shows I can follow.
Thanks for the updates! I will definitely check out “Daddy’s Home” (absolutely loved “Where are we going Daddy?”). I’m currently watching “Perfect Couple” and really enjoying the chemistry and romance between Wallace & Tiffany.
Just watched the first 3 episodes of “If I love You” last night and don’t think I’ll continue with the drama. I don’t mind the cliche and recycled plot/romance, but there isn’t any chemistry with the Ming Dao and Li Qin (who tends to be matched with men who are 10+ years older). I never understood the appeal of Ming Dao. He’s neither attractive nor a particularly good actor in my opinion. I must be more superficial than I realized because I am distracted by how he looks whenever he is on the screen. I automatically zero in on the bad hair, bad wardrobe and odd facial features. Not sure if they didn’t get him a good wardrobe or he just doesn’t have the body to wear the clothes well. Contrast him to Hu Bing, Dijie and the cameo by Godfrey Gao, and it’s even more evident that Ming Dao is the least attractive, charming and stylish actor in the series. Hu Bing and Godfrey Gao looked so good in their scenes together. They should play brothers in a drama!
Li Qin looked the best with Yang Yang. She was also pretty cute with Li Yifeng. Her
I don’t understand why Mingdao has such a bad wardrobe in this drama when he’s the producer and the main lead. Back when Zhang Han was the lead, Zhang Han had a new, slick outfit pretty much every scene. Mingdao’s a slightly more natural actor than at least Godfrey Gao (which is a pretty low standard), but yeah, I don’t find him good-looking at all. …
Love these posts, it’s so hard to find actual updates for when dramas begin! :D Thanks!~