Chinese Dramas to Expect in 2017

I love to watch Kdramas, but sometimes some Chinese dramas just manage to capture my attentions with their incredible plots and casts. What differentiates them from Kdramas is that they air almost daily and each episode length is only ±45 minutes. So, say goodbye to those agonizing waits ;) Here are the six Chinese dramas that I simply cannot wait for! 

1. Nirvana in Fire 2

If you have watched Nirvana in Fire before, you will understand how good it is. In a nutshell, NIV tells the revenge story of a young general’s son (Hu Ge), and his methods in bringing bad guys down were just so brilliant and unpredictable. Go watch it now, if you haven't! The 54 episodes will be done before you know it. [You don't have to watch the prequel in order to watch the sequel.]

According to the newest update, the sequel will have the same producer and director team, but the casts will totally change. So, unfortunately, there is a high probability that Hu Ge and Wang Kai won’t make any appearances in the sequel. The story will focus on Prince Yu's biological son, Ting Sheng (Liu Hao Ran). And it will be divided into two parts with each having 15 episodes. 

2. Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace

Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace is the sequel of Legend of Concubine Zhen Huan. LCZH is the best Chinese historical I have watched -- I can give the plot a 10/10 without any hesitation. However, I do not expect too much from its sequel. Why? Despite it having the same writer, they have a different directing team and actresses. Moreover, people’s reviews on the second novel were not as good as the first (fyi, lots of Chinese dramas are adapted from novel).

The story in this sequel will again focus on harem survival, as well as having romance as subplots. Female lead Wulanala Ru Yi will be played by Zhou Xun, and the emperor will be played by Wallace Huo. A great cast to look forward to so far.

This sequel is a stand-alone, so you can watch it without having seen the prequel.

3. Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy

This is the drama that I am most excited about! The great news is that this will air around January. YAAASS!!

A little information on two of the leads: our first male lead, Mu Yun Sheng (Huang Xuan) [top left] is the sixth prince born from a human emperor father and a spirit mother. (Basically there are six living species in the story). The second lead is Miao Ru Han Jiang (Dou Shawn) [second top left], an abandoned son of a Miao Ru general. He entered the palace when he was young. Even though he’s stubborn, he becomes good friend with Mu Yun Sheng.The royal family has a 300 year agreement with the Miao Ru family, however, due to a prophecy, their relationship has broken up. The prophecy predicted that the world would become chaotic once the sixth prince pulled out the Di Wang Sword. 

Basically the story will follow the brotherhood of a imprisoned half-human half-spirit prince, an abandoned son of a general, and the heir of a slaughtered tribe as they uncover the secrets of their past and seek both revenge and justice for the ones they love. 

Adapted from a popular novel, this historical fantasy drama has an enormous budget which will hopefully help in creating the breathtaking fantasy themed landscape described in the original novel. The drama began shooting in 2015, and has more than 1,000 staff, 5,000 actors, 12,000 military tools, 500 horse sets, 170 characters, 20,000 costumes. The preparation stage is just beyond me.

And the trailer looks freakin' amazing.

4. Ode to Joy 2

Another sequel to expect in 2017! The directing team of this drama is the same one from NIV; thus I do expect a lot from their sequel. It will continue season 1's story of five women who happened to coincidentally live on the 22nd floor of the Ode to Joy apartment. The sequel will still have the same casts, same writer, and same directors. It was actually going to air sooner, but because of perfecting the script, they delayed the shooting till late September. 

Unlike season 1 that focus on friendship, this upcoming season places more emphasis on their character development. In addition, for Bao Yi Fan (Yang Shuo) x Andi (Liu Tao) shipper, we will have more of BYF screen times ;). And the director has spoiled the fact that Guan Guan (Qiao Xin) will no longer wear her glasses, and will have a major character change.  

You might need to watch the prequel before starting the sequel.

5. Nothing Gold Can Stay

See the cast? They are Sun Li (LCZH) and Chen Xiao (Yun Zhong Ge and The Romance of Condor Heroes). This drama will be a total of 40 episodes. It follows the story of Zhou Ying, who was sold by her father, Zhou Lao Si, to the Shen family as a maid. And yet, she escapes and hides inside the sedan of Wu Young Master, Wu Ping. With her business trade talent, she's recognized by the Wu family and was allowed to stay in their household. In order to save Wu Ping who’s in a coma, she married into the family (according to Chinese's superstition, marriage is a good thing so it will be a great help in healing somebody's illness) but unluckily the young master passed away. The Wu family becomes bankrupt, and Zhou Ying has no choice but to build up the business. She faces many obstacles but becomes successful later on.

Even though it has a great cast and the plot sounds interesting enough, my expectatons are not super high since I have never watched any of the previous works of the directors nor the writers.  Hopefully, this will turn out good as many people are excited about it!

6. Drunk Exquisiteness

Ever since Scarlet Heart and Sound of the Desert, I have loved Cecilia Liu so I am quite excited for this to come out. It will have time travel/two dimensions, along with some romance, political struggles, adventure, and war. This drama delivers a message that "if we were to create another dimension, life could restart but we would still value the things we currently cherish."  It wants us, the audience, to live in the present and cherish all the things we have now.

Female protagonist, Feng Qing Chen (Cecilia Liu), is a sorceress of Mingyi Tower, the secret organisation tasked with protecting the royal family. Yuan Ling (William Chan) is a prince from Western Wei, a ruling kingdom during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. He is described as an “untamed wolf” who appears to be cold and calculating, yet actually cares deeply for his loved ones.

After getting to know each other, Feng Qing Chen is impressed by Yuan Ling’s abilities and suppresses her feelings for the sake of seeing him ascend his rightful position. Despite Qing Chen’s contributions to the kingdom, the court is vehemently against Yuan Ling marrying a woman who dabbles in black magic. Yuan Zhan (Xu Joe) launches a coup on the day of the wedding ceremony, and Qing Chen uses her powers to reset the universe in an effort to prevent further bloodshed. Qing Chen is eventually able to heal the rift between Yuan Ling and Yuan Zhan, allowing them to join hands to overthrow the corrupt officials and return peace to the land. 

This drama is expected to be great because it has an extremely strong team consisting of the director of Scarlet Heart, a popular writing team, a costume director who has received a LOT of awards, a famous wushu director, and the art director from LCZH.

---

What 2017 Chinese Drama are you most excited about?