coriander in pho

I finally finished C-drama “How Dare You?!” (2026) last week, and just recently, I started watching “Pursuit of Jade”. My friends have been watching it on Netflix and they have been raving about it ever since. I also saw similar positive reactions on /cdrama subreddit, so I’m quite excited!

I usually talked about C-drama series that I’ve been watching on this blog, but I couldn’t find the motivation to do so for “How Dare You?!” Not that the story is bad; it’s actually pretty good. IINM, it was from a donghua (C-animation, similar to Japanese’s anime or Korean’s aeni) and it gained popularity when the story got adapted to short-form vertical videos on social media (Tiktok/Douyin). It’s just that because the series was adapted from donghua then verticals, I didn’t find the cinematography to be impressive. A lot of the shots were close-ups or narrow shots, so I couldn’t brag a lot about it here, hahah. That said, the story is really good and it has a good pace with great build-up and conflicts. A bit of fair warning, despite the series’ genre is “comedy”, be prepared to bawl your eyes out in the middle of the series 💔

So! I started watching “Pursuit of Jade” and I am now at the end of episode 2. While this series is available on Netflix Malaysia, I chose to watch it on IQIYI because only on IQIYI I can pull screenshots of those gorgeous scenes. I also found the translated subtitles on IQIYI to be… better for my nerves. On Netflix, they literally translated EVERY word visible on the scene; so you would see “TEA” and “CAKE” on the screen, and it happens many times. Imagine a serious scene where soldiers marching to the battlefield then the subtitle with hugeass word: “TEA”. Whereas in IQIYI, they only translated the important bits or locations.

So far, I’m loving the series. Tian Xiwei as Fan Changyu, the main female lead, is so pretty! I also love how expressive she is.

As for the main male lead, Zhang Linghe, he’s, well, super handsome as expected. Zhang Linghe is one of the rising stars in C-drama industry, but I honestly hoping more from him, especially on his expressions. Zhang Linghe’s fans would kick me for this, but I found that the more handsome an actor is, the less expressive they are. It feels like they are trying to put up with their “cool” image at all times (yes, looking at you, Ao Ruipeng.) I’m hoping that Zhang Linghe would be more expressive as the series progresses, though!

I also noticed that the setting has always been snowy landscapes. Snowy settings have been quite popular for romance dramas because, well, snow (for example, “Blossom” (C-drama) and “Guardian: The Lonely and Great God” (K-drama)), and I’m actually hoping that we get to see the characters in different seasons. But yessss, some scenes can be so prettyyyy. Some even looked like they jumped out from those classical paintings.

I also love the cooking scene on episode 2. It reminds me of Dianxi Xiaoge, a Chinese Youtuber from Yunnan (please subscribe to her account on Youtube!) The food looks so yummy. I really love series that’s focusing on food and cooking, and I’m hoping we can have more of this.

More screenshots! (I’m weak for pretty scenesssss, hahah!)