Ode to Joy 《欢乐颂》 - Jin Dong, Liu Tao, Wang Kai, Jiang Xin

[LuNaR]

I actually prefer NIF, but i love OTJ as well. Season 2 is next year.

Nif had no female character. Even the main guy's bodyguard had more screen time than the main female lead lol

[PrinceKrillo]

haha me too~ I didn't really watch Mainland modern series either...not sure about the quality of mainland dramas improving ... but the director/producer is really good - the same as lang ya bang.

In general, most Chinese consider costume dramas to be cheesy, contrived, poorly acted, etc.

The vast majority of the sophisticated and award-winning series every year will be modern dramas.

Not sure what you have watched, but most modern dramas far surpass costume dramas in storytelling, acting, and writing. Even the cheesy idol ones.

Not sure why costume dramas are so popular on this board, but they sure as hell aren't popular back home.

And most are such poor productions, that it's no wonder.

Nirvana in Fire was only considered one of the top twenty dramas of 2015, and even then I consider it to be overrated, surpassing other mediocre series only in the area of cinematography. If you watch the annual awards shows, you will see that costume dramas are not given nearly as much consideration as their more sophisticated, modern counterparts.

People can relate to modern day situations and conflicts. People cannot relate to imperial Chinese culture and customs, no matter how much the producers try to "modernize" the characters.

[Icha Parvati]

Nif had no female character. Even the main guy's bodyguard had more screen time than the main female lead lol

Just finished NIF last night, and I think it has a lot of female characters. True that Liu Tao's screen time is not a lot, but she was very important there and delivered an amazing performance. Several other female characters were also important to the story (e.g. Xia Dong, Consort Jing, and Grand Princess Liyang).

Haven't seen Ode to Joy. Perhaps will, just for Liu Tao, Jin Dong and Wang Kai...