In my efforts to dispel the myth that China only produces modern dramas are mostly romantic comedies or “real life/social” dramas, I always like to go digging around for rare, barely-talked-about gems.

China does produce edgy stuff such as sci-fi, thrillers, and dark fantasy but the sad reality is that they’re often not promoted or distributed to foreign markets. And if they are, they are badly subbed. Three-Body was a very rare breakout that went worldwide, thanks to the original novels’ huge popularity internationally.

While it’s understandable why international viewers are drawn to wuxia dramas as it’s a very unique Chinese genre, some of you who are more adventurous and motivated may want to hunt down Pandora’s Box. (And hunt down you may have to, because it’s only available on the Chinese app, MangoTV.)

This 2021 12-episode drama is dubbed “soft science fiction”. It is set in Japan. It gives out a dark, gothic, serial killer mystery vibe, but yet I got really curious about its sci-fi aspects. I did some research on Weibo, and it appears that the drama talks about time travel and the power of human consciousness. Oh mysterious.

I’ll be frank. This is probably not a drama for everyone. It is 100% not for the casual viewer. It’s probably something high-brow like Three-Body, which involves lots high falutin’ concepts and whose writers will not spoonfeed the story to you.

So, if you like dramas where you have to figure things out, this could be worth a try.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTW74rhBB_8&t=13s

According to the synopsis:

Li Tian (Zhang Rui) is ​​a young physics student at MIT whose mother Mei Xueyan (Gong Cien) who works in the music industry, dies in a in a bizarre accident in Japan.

At the same time, he receives a mysterious videotape from Japan and realizes his mother’s death was not an accident.

Somehow Li Xiufu (Liu Xueyi), a punk rocker is involved in this mess.

Liu Xueyi rocks the silver-haired Goth look by the way. In the trailer and pictures, he gives out a very “cult leader” vibe – could he be the ultimate baddy?

As usual, I admire Liu Xueyi’s dedication in playing diverse characters. While his character Li Xiufu is rarely mentioned as a favourite among fans, most probably because it’s a pretty small role, it showcases his ability to play varied characters.

Note: If you happen to go to Mydramalist and saw the comments or the low MDL rating, please don’t be discouraged from watching it. MDL does not review unpopular, out-of-the-box dramas well. (Read: If there are no popular celebs starring in it, no romance or a straightforward plot, MDL reviewers will usually ignore or trash the drama).

https://dramatea88.wordpress.com/2024/11/08/pandoras-box-tianmu-crisis-%e5%a4%a9%e7%9b%ae%e5%8d%b1%e6%9c%ba-a-scifi-drama-thats-worth-a-look/