Before 御賜小仵作 The Imperial Coroner, I watched The Day of Becoming You. After reviewing all these dramas, I’ve realized this and the Imperial Coroner are super good and there is nothing I can nitpick about them!
- Age: 18+, adult and up
- Romance: adult romance, tame minus
- Genre: contemporary, romantic comedy
- Episodes: 26x45min (18 episodes)
- Actors: 張新成 Steven Zhang, 梁屆 Liang Jie
- Wiki: Chinese, English
- Watch it on: iQiyi
TLDR for Friends
OMG, so so funny! And he’s a really good actor! You can tell just from his body language whether or not he is a woman or a man. Totally watch it! He’s not the cutest, but because of his acting, he totally grows on you. I’m now stalking all his past dramas to see which ones are worth watching.
Also? I LOVE LOVE LOVE his room. It’s so Chinese inspired. I totally want to get his wooden foot soaker tub.
This is not a drama I would be watching with my kids. They’re at the ewww stage when it comes to romance.
Plot and Quick Review
Through a freak accident, the main lead, 張新成, swaps body with the female lead, 梁屆. They work together to figure out why and of course fall in love while they swap back and forth. He’s in a boy band and she’s an entertainment reporter.
This drama also showed up when I was searching for 2021 dramas that had a lot of views and good reviews. I knew it’s a body swapping story, but I didn’t know it would be so funny. I always consider a drama a good drama if I’m willing to watch it twice. And I totally would.
The plot moves along, there’s not a lot of drag, and like many Chinese dramas, the characters are all nice and supportive to each other, even the potential “evil” ones. There’s no real second leads. They all kind of wish the main leads happiness when they find out about the competition.
And the plot doesn’t fall off the wagon like many Korean dramas tend to due to live shooting, though that last 30 minute reveal in the last episode was a bit eye rolling. But they did it to keep the China review boards happy.
What Parents Need to Know
Do you know what 壁咚 is? You can look up the definition on wiki. There is a bit of that in here.
Do you know what 撩 is? 撩 is a term often used to describe the contents of a drama when the main character, usually male, says or do things that are suggestive or provocative. Except the suggestion and provocation is more, to me, of the romance variety.
This is that kind of drama.
Anyways, there is a wake-up-together in bed scene and lots of un-tame kissing, which many Chinese dramas don’t even do.
But honestly, tame by US standards.
Chinese Aspect or Things to Discuss?
Totally a romance drama, more adult themed. So if you were to really watch it with kids, maybe you’d be learning all about vocabulary related to modern entertainment industry, which is super colloquial. For example, 飯 (rice) is a transliteration of fan. 狗仔 means paparazzi. The drama gives you many different types and names for fans.
You could also potentially discuss the entertainment industries in countries like China or Korea, the concept of idols, how they’re viewed as belonging more to their fans, must set an example, and often cannot date. The way fans, or anti fans (黑粉) works, etc. It’s quite different from Western entertainment industry so it’s a cultural lesson.
China is cracking down in the entertainment industry right now. And there were some scenes that kind of wax philosophically about the roles of fans and stars in the drama. I wondered if their point of view is kind of a propaganda. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It was all very positive and nice.
Can You Spot this PPL?
Teehee, I had to add this section cuz the product placements (PPL) in this drama is so weird! There keep showing the characters playing Candy Crush type of game, what’s up with that? And everyone keeps getting sniffling and then drinking this cold medication.
