1. Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜)
Nirvana in Fire created an uproar in the competition between the various drama series aired and airing, making its way to the top of the list of must-watch novel-turned-drama series of 2015. With leading actors such as Hu Ge (胡歌), Wang Kai (王凯) and Liu Tao (刘涛), alongside with a handful of young eye-candies (typically named as 小鲜肉/xiao xian rou). The historical drama infused with politics, revenge and a tinge of romance began airing in September 2015 and has currently completed all 54 episodes.
The story revolves around Mei Chang Shu / Lin Shu (starred by Hu Ge) on his journey with a whole new face and identity to take revenge for his family and their army troop that were wronged and massacred more than a decade ago. He recuperated from a deadly illness after falling off the cliff during the battle that killed the whole troop, thereafter tactfully blended into the royal court as Mei Chang Shu and became an advisor for Prince Jing (靖王), also his childhood friend, in hopes to aid him in ascending the royal throne in order to reinvestigate the case – without exposing his real identity as Lin Shu. Who will win the mind game of disguise eventually? The ending became another hot topic amongst netizens – did Lin Shu survive or did he die in the end? Tell us what you think!
Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜) Baidu page: http://baike.baidu.com/subview/1562685/12093740.htm
Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜) Official Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/langyabangdrama
2. The Disguiser (伪装者)
The Disguiser’s titled has been well-heard of prior its airing with more than half of the original casts from Nirvana in Fire (琅琊榜) – Hu Ge (胡歌), Wang Kai (王凯), Jin Dong (靳东), Liu Min Tao (刘敏涛) and Wang Ou (王鸥) just to name a few.
The drama took place during the turbulent times in Shanghai amidst the Japanese occupation. Ming Tai (starred by Hu Ge), the young master of the Ming family was abducted on the plane while he was on his way to Hong Kong to pursue further studies. He was brought to a hidden military camp to be trained as a secret spy of the Communist Party. This series revolves around undertaking missions with different identities to defeat the Japanese government in hopes to chase them out of Mainland ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX51S8yzvMI
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3. Love Me, If You Dare (他来了，请闭眼)
“Love Me, If You Dare” is another highly anticipated criminal psychology drama starring Wallace Huo (霍建华) as Criminal Psychologist Simon Bo (薄靳言), Sandra Ma (马思纯) as a foreign language graduate Jian Yao (简瑶), Wang Kai (王凯) a policeman Li Xun Ran (李熏然), Yi Zheng (尹正) as Simon’s best right-hand man Fu Zi Yu (傅子遇) and Edward Zhang (张鲁一) as the disguised mastermind and psychopath behind all the serial violent murder cases. Wallace Huo rose to further fame with the on-going “Love Me, If You Dare” after “The Journey of the Flower”. Despite the difference in his roles for the two series, he’s rapidly gaining hearts of the audience with his professional acting skills in bringing out the best in both roles as he has always did.
The animations and sound effects are set to send chills down your spine as you watch how the serial murder cases are cracked and leaving clues for them to track down the mastermind behind the insane game of murder. Amidst all the suspense, watch love bloom between Jian Yao and Prof. Simon who has high IQ but zero EQ.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l36UU_zMbgw
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4. Legend of MiYue (羋月傳)
Directed by Zheng Xiao Long (郑晓龙), the same producer as “The Legend of Zhen Huan (后宫 甄嬛传)“, “Legend of MiYue (羋月傳)” is undoubtedly another historical drama of the century with Sun Li (孙俪) who has formerly acted as Zhen Huan (甄嬛) taking up the female lead role as Mi Yue (羋月) once again. On the other hand, Jiang Xin (蒋欣) who had formerly acted as the Imperial Consort Hua (华妃) took a break from being the main antagonist. In this series, Jiang Xin acted as a consort who’s raising MiYue after her biological mother has passed away. Despite the short screen time in the first few episodes, Jiang Xin’s role definitely left a deep and positive impression on the viewers.
The series is set to be completed with 81 episodes and has started airing since end November 2015. Revenge, politics, romance – all in one. Born a princess of the Chu dynasty, MiYue was never liked by the Empress. What’s more waiting for her ahead given that her mother and father the Emperor died in the early episodes. Her chase after love, truth and equality changed her bit by bit through the rough times to fight for survival. Torn between three different countries and three different men – who will MiYue end up with in the end?
Need to be further convinced to catch this series? Hit on the play button to watch the 26 minutes trailer of “Legend of MiYue”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWp_CbcLKrc
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5. Taste of Love (唯一继承者)
“Taste of Love” is a modern romance drama revolving three childhood friends from the same village: Ye Xiao He (starred by Vivian Sung), Xia Qiao Ling (starred by Yang Qing) and Shen Jun Hao (starred by Dai Zu Xiong). The fourth main lead Wen Feng (starred by Zhang Rui Jia) heads to Taiwan to find the original sauce recipe for his family restaurant after his mother has fallen into a coma and met Ye Xiao He as his tour guide during his stay in Taiwan. In the midst of finding the recipe, the four leads got entangled into a 4 sided love ‘square’ from a broken up couple, a childhood crush and two one-sided love – it’s complicated, really.
Rising to fame with the recent “Our Times (我的少女时代)”, Vivian Sung (宋芸樺) who has acted as Lin Zhen Xin took up the role without much change in her visuals – still as adorable and lovable as before. This series is still on-going, check out the official Facebook page for more updates!
What’s your Top 5 Chinese drama of the year? Let us know if the comments section! Also, if you’ve already watched the dramas mentioned above, tell us who’s your favorite character!
Article by Xuan Lin @ KAvenyou.com
Images from various weibo and online pages.
