Time Is But an Illusion: Two Romances to Take You Through the Second Half of 2022

Two C-drama productions starring dreamy casts are set to sizzle up your screens – one a modern-day story of finding love in unexpected places, and the other a period fantasy romance that transcends the boundaries of time.

1. She and Her Perfect Husband
Yang Mi (楊冪) and Xu Kai (許凱) play an unexpected couple whose respective parents pressurize them into marriage in She and Her Perfect Husband <愛的二八定律>, which might finally be released after delays by streaming giant Tencent due to the difficulty of securing a simulcast date for a TV premiere.

Yang Mi’s career-minded lawyer character Qin Shi believes that “Love can only last 18 months, but marriage takes a lifetime”, while Xu Kai is Yang Hua, a university graduate whose greatest dream is to “be an ordinary person”.

Qin Shi’s headhunter brother alters her single status to “married” without her knowledge in order to secure her entry into a top law firm. When her fictional “husband” Yang Hua unexpectedly shows up just as she was about to clarify things, the two spontaneously team up to register their marriage on the spur of the moment, to become legal spouses. Bounded by shared obstacles, they go from mutual dislike to gradually falling in love after cohabiting and spending time with each other.

Besides the theme of a noona romance and unconventional notion of marriage preceding love, the plot further explores societal pressures confronting women over 30, in a similar vein with 2021 drama The Rational Life <理智派生活> starring actress Qin Lan (秦嵐).

“She and Her Perfect Husband” Teaser Trailer:

2. Thousand Years For You
Arousing fan interest since filming kicked off, Republican era drama Thousand Years For You <請君> is an original story and will see stellar performers Allen Ren Jialun (任嘉倫) and Sweet Li Qin (李沁) in an anticipated pairing – he as a demon-emperor and she as a domineering but righteous female bandit Yu Chengcheng.

The time-travel xianxia romance is based in the Ming dynasty, where Ren Jialun’s Lu Yan who has an iron will but tender heart, sacrifices himself for love and lays in repose for a thousand years.

Unveiling various romantic plotlines and truths through clever foreshadowing, the central couple’s bondage through their previous and present lives is disclosed, and what appear to be seeming coincidences are actually pre-destined.