Here are our editors' picks for the best Chinese dramas of 2022!



A Dream of Splendor
Liu Yifei returns to the small screen for her first TV series in over 15 years, and arguably her best performance in as many years. Based on an opera from the Yuan Dynasty, A Dream of Splendor stars Liu as strong-minded and resourceful teahouse owner Zhao Pan'er, who was formerly an "entertainer" of the pariah caste. When her fiancé breaks their engagement after placing in the imperial examination, she heads to the capital to confront him. In the process, she meets Chen Xiao as Gu Qianfan, a notoriously ruthless commander of the imperial guard. Amid court intrigue and political conspiracies, romance blooms between Pan'er and Qianfan, and it's a love built on mutual respect. Refusing to be a damsel in distress, Pan'er claps back against class and gender discrimination in this crowd-pleasing costume drama. Screenwriter Zhang Wei (Legend of Lu Zhen, The Imperial Doctress) specializes in stories about extraordinary female protagonists, and this is her leanest work yet, benefiting from more humor and less melodrama. Under the direction of Ever Night director Yang Yang, A Dream of Splendor also appeals with a strong visual sense and robust pacing that keep the series aesthetic and engaging from start to finish.



In Geek We Trust
Hong Kong's most talked-about TV drama of the year has to be ViuTV’s In Geek We Trust. The sensational sitcom stars Ling Man Lung as an out-of-work IT specialist who ventures into the world of startup with a team of newly recruited staff. They experience a rollercoaster of ups and downs together while developing the mobile app PayPayDuck. On top of the hot-blooded plot and exceptional camerawork that recalls classic sitcoms, In Geek We Trust is filled with wacky and witty in-jokes and puns that Hong Kong audiences found eminently relatable. The series boldly throws satirical shade at everything from radical environmentalists and hypocritical influencers to NFT projects and that "big big TV channel." It even recreates different viral videos and a classic scene from A Better Tomorrow! From TouchWood apps to Peipei artwork, everything mentioned on the show became hot trend topics in Hong Kong.



Light the Night
As a producer, Ruby Lin has never been shy about her strategy of filling the screen with beautiful people that audiences want to see. For Light the Night, she got just about every Taiwan TV star one can name to make an appearance. Divided into three eight-episode seasons that concluded in March 2022, the highly ambitious Netflix series revolves around a Japanese-style hostess club called Hikari in 1980s Taiwan. Ruby Lin is joined at Hikari by Cheryl Yang, Puff Kuo, Nikki Hsieh, Esther Liu and Cherry Hsieh, one of whom is found dead at the start of Season 1. Over three star-stacked seasons, Light the Night reveals the harrowing backstories and complex relationships of the hardy and glamorous women of Hikari, while gradually building up to the truth behind the breakdown. Besides engaging with fine acting performances, stirring drama and an anguished murder mystery, Light the Night offers a feast for the eyes with its lush costume design and art direction that evocatively capture the time, place and mood of the series' unique backdrop.



Love Between Fairy and Devil
Esther Yu and Dylan Wang aren't exactly a combo that inspire confidence at first glance, but Love Between Fairy and Devil ended up being the best romantic xianxia series of the year. Based on a novel by Jiu Lu Fei Xiang, the costume fantasy depicts the intertwined fates of innocent lotus fairy Xiao Langhua and supremely powerful Moon Tribe leader Dongfang Qingcang, who raised war against the heavens 30,000 years ago. The two become cosmically linked when Xiao Langhua inadvertently unseals Dongfang Qingcang, who isn't as diabolically evil as the legends say – at least not in front of the bubbly and oblivious Xiao Langhua. Love Between Fairy and Devil gets in many of the tropes we expect of the genre: cold male lead who softens for the heroine, devoted second male lead, reincarnation trials in the mortal realm, and various celestial secrets. Where this series excels is in its tight, non-draggy script at 36 episodes, and the sweet, amusing chemistry between the protagonists. Thanks to the story's body swap hijinks and incarnations, Dylan Wang's comedic talents are utilized to make his poker-faced character unexpectedly endearing, and Esther Yu gets to unlock a darker, more serious persona while still going all in on her signature cuteness.



Ordinary Greatness
There are many Chinese dramas about the important work of police, but few are as down to earth as Ordinary Greatness. Directed by Ding Hei, the police procedural stars Zhang Ruoyun, Bai Lu, Xu Kaicheng and Cao Lu as rookie officers of different personalities and backgrounds who begin work at a local station. They soon learn that grand notions of justice, pride and heroics don't necessarily apply on the neighborhood beat. When dealing with civilian disputes, smoothing feathers and facilitating resolutions matter more than determining right and wrong. Frustratingly, this may mean that unreasonable complainers get their way, or that police have to go beyond their duties to find solutions. Though there are also bigger cases and dangers to tackle in the series, Ordinary Greatness stirs most with its portrait of the ordinary people, ordinary struggles and ordinary injustices that we come across in daily life – and how everything can change in a matter of seconds because of sudden losses and reckless decisions. Zhang Ruoyun and Bai Lu are charming as always, but the greatest performances belong to veterans Wang Jingchun and Ning Li, who emanate the calm, weather-beaten firmness that can only be honed with time.



Reset
Daylight Entertainment goes high concept with an enthralling time-loop suspense thriller set on a bus! Bai Jingting and Zhao Jinmai play passengers on a city bus that mysteriously explodes on the road. In that moment, time resets and the two awaken on the bus before the explosion. With each reset, the clock moves back a bit earlier, giving them more time to investigate how to stop the deadly explosion from occurring. Along the way, they get off the bus only for the time loop to continue anyway, and engage the police only to turn into suspects themselves. As they learn more about each passenger who may be the culprit behind the explosion, time also begins to run out – each reset may be their last. Based on a novel by Qi Dao Jun, Reset grabs interest from the get go and never relents with its absorbing and impeccably paced mystery that unpeels one layer at a time with twists and turns. Perhaps most compelling though is the empathetic character development that makes you truly feel for the protagonists' choices and the fates of those on the bus.



Shards of Her
Netflix's original series Shards of Her, featuring the all-star cast of Ann Hsu, Toby Lee, Jenny Wen, Alyssa Chia and Chris Wu Kang Ren, delves into the aftermath of sexual violence through a victim's first-person perspective. The Taiwan suspense thriller follows Lin Chen Hsi (Ann Hsu) on her tough journey of living through trauma and dissociation after being sexually abused by a teacher during her high school days. Falling into coma after a car accident, she wakes up in a different world where everyone is patently hiding something from her. As puzzle pieces start to gather in her mind, she is forced to painfully revisit unwanted memories. Lin Chen Hsi's life-shattering experiences bear heartbreaking parallels to the semi-autobiographical best-selling 2017 Taiwan novel Fang Siqi's First Love Paradise that influenced the Chinese #MeToo movement. Placing audiences into the shoes of a dissociative patient and sex abuse victim, Shards of Her calls attention to the cruel reality of victim blaming and discrimination against women.



Twenty Your Life On 2
It's not often that sequels improve on the original, but the second season of Twenty Your Life On does just that. While Season 1 followed a group of friends as they transition from school to workforce, Season 2 checks in on the protagonists after they've gone through a few years of growth and grind in the workplace. Now in their mid-20s, the besties reach crossroads as they reflect on uncertainties, disillusionments and opportunities before them. Whether it's changing fields, seeking professional breakthroughs, or starting and ending relationships, the coming-of-age challenges continue for these young women in the big city of Shenzhen. Bu Guanjin particularly resonates as the conscientious analyst trying to do things right by working hard and saving up, only to often find her efforts come up futile at work. Her frustrating experiences in a soul-draining overtime cycle should strike a chord with many white collars – her alcohol-fueled rant against a two-faced manager is heartbreaking yet super satisfying! Meanwhile, Guan Xiaotong shines in the role of sharp-tongued and soft-hearted Liang Shuang. Her ups and downs as a top livestreamer who falls from grace, and then has to climb her way back up the streaming hierarchy, provide the most exciting parts of the story, as well as an interesting look into China's livestream e-commerce industry.



Twisted Strings
Taiwan arthouse comes to the small screen with this CATCHPLAY+/HBO anthology that swept five awards at the 57th Golden Bell Awards including Best Mini-Series, Best Art and Design, Best Sound Design and Best Costume Design. Hou Hsiao Hsien produces the seven-episode series written and directed by protege Huang Xi. Inspired by a nursery rhyme about a monkey's life, Twisted Strings tells seven stories of death and violence over seven days in the fictional city of Taiping. An eerie sequence featuring a wooden monkey puppet opens each episode that intertwines dark and absurdist elements into various unpredictable stories, from a family going through the motions of funeral rites, to an aspiring dancer tormented by her own mind, to a night that spirals preposterously into murder. Though not for everyone, Twisted Strings intrigues as a conceptual mini-series meditating on life, death and karma, and it does many interesting things visually in terms of art direction, cinematography and editing. In a true sign of arthouse cred, the cast includes Tsai Ming Liang regular Lee Kang Sheng and the legendary Sylvia Chang in rare TV appearances.



Under the Skin
Under the Skin approaches the crime investigative drama from the unique angle of forensic art. Tan Jianci plays art prodigy Shen Yi, who retreated from the art world after drawing a portrait that led to the unsolved murder of a police detective. Seven years later, he joins the police force as a forensic artist and teams up with inspector Du Cheng (Jin Shijia), the protege of the murdered detective. Tan Jianci and Jin Shijia form the appealing core of the series as buddy cops who grow from frenemies to trusty partners. They solve various grisly cases and mind-racking puzzles together thanks to Shen Yi's near superhuman ability to reconstruct and predict the appearances of suspects and victims – be it an unidentified skull used as a drawing model in a high school classroom or a killer who has changed appearances through plastic surgery. Though not always believable, the thought and creative process behind how those police sketches come to be is fascinating, and the overarching crime mystery grips with plentiful twists and red herrings.


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Published December 15, 2022