A fascinating subgenre of the fantasy genre is time travel. It subverts the world known to the characters and allows them to explore what’s supposed to be beyond their reach. Chinese Dramas have always had a way with the fantasy genre, and it is no surprise that they’ve mastered time travel dramas. These dramas work to fuse the past, the present and the future to create an enthralling sense of the ultimate destiny of our characters. As they face the trials of time, they encounter love, heartbreak, death, struggle and all kinds of problems that come with being the wrong person at the wrong time. Following are 10 Chinese Dramas that are renowned for how well they depict the feature of time travel in their plots. Watching them will leave you enchanted and wishing you too could travel time with the characters!
1. Hello Dear Ancestors
Hello Dear Ancestor is a Chinese drama featuring time travel. The story follows the journey of a General of the Han Dynasty who travels to the future after his death. Chen Zheyuan plays the role of General Zhen Jun. He is an actor who recently starred in the hit drama Hidden Love, which gained much recognition. Brought to life in the future, he falls in love with Zhen Keyi (Played by Dong Qing). She is a beautiful woman resembling Zhen Jun's past life. What's more, is that the two become roommates!
2. See You Again
See You Again is a Chinese drama starring Hu Yi Tian and Chen Yuqi. The story follows a familiar pattern in the time travel subgenre, as evident in death being a prime cause of it. The male lead, Xiang Qinyu, is an actor from the 1930s who gets shot on his set and finds himself in the body of his reincarnation years into the future. In the 21st century, he falls in love with an unknown screenwriter, Jin A Yin and together, they uncover the truth behind his murder all those years ago.
3. Lost Love In Times
If you like romance stories based on historical backgrounds, this one is for you. Lost Love In Times is a story about the love between a sorceress and a Prince. Entrusted with the secret duty of protecting the prince, the sorceress, Feng Qingchen, is set to wed the Prince. However, she is not liked by those at the palace. A revolution takes place during the Prince's marriage with her. Having no choice, Fend Qingchen puts all her efforts into resetting the universe, hoping to prevent the tragedy from escalating.
4. Crazy Queen
No story is as unconventional and exciting as Crazy Queen. The story overturns the usual pattern and shows a woman who travels back when things were not quite what they are in the present. She finds herself in a period where matriarchs reign supreme, and she is a monarch. Furthermore, it is a world where she can impregnate men, and she suddenly has a harem of 30 of them.
5. Love Weaves Through A Millennium
An excellent Chinese remake of the Korean Drama, The Queen and I, Love Through A Millennium, is a drama where two individuals from different periods fall in love with each other by some stroke of fate. The story is of an Imperial scholar, played by Jing Boran, who accidentally travels 2000 years into the present world and falls in love with an actress (played by Zheng Shuang).
6. Till The End Of The Moon
If destined love stories that cross the boundaries of time and haunt again and again are what you're looking for, then Till The End Of The Moon is the best drama to watch. In the story, Li Susu, a woman from an immortal sect, faces tragedy as her world ends under the damnation of the powerful Devil God. She travels 500 years to turn around the world's fate by killing the Devil God before he achieves godhood. But 500 years ago, the Devil God was a weak mortal, and Li Susu's past reincarnation was his wife.
7. Love Better Than Immortality
Love Better Than Immortality is a drama featuring a time in the future when human beings have become so advanced that they can live forever. The only con remains that they no longer feel human emotions. Under such situations, a woman decides to abandon immortality to travel to a time in the past in search of her true love. That is how she eventually finds herself caught in a love triangle and learns to feel and make decisions based on them.
8. My Assassin Girlfriend
My Assassin Girlfriend is a story that uses an artefact— a mysterious watch— to undertake time travel. It is the story of the King of Sumeru, who has been constantly facing life threats. In one such instance, his royal guard loses his life while trying to save him. At that point, the assassin, a woman named Yu Yan, the King and his guard travel years into the future.
9. The Eternal Love
The Eternal Love is a rather humorous drama which attempts to make two distinct souls— one from the present and one of the future— in the same body. The story is of a woman who commits suicide before her wedding day, but, instead, the soul of a real estate agent from the 21st century gets transferred to her body. Both coexist within the same body, but the moment their words or actions reveal any con, the soul that controls the body switches up. This situation makes the eventual love story plot more interesting.
10. Legally Romance
Legally Romance might give you a break from the usual time travel stories that transport characters centuries forward or backward. This story is about 2nd chances. A woman and her boss have had bad blood between them since their student days. After the woman gets into a tragic accident and enters a coma, she finds herself in a dream world built upon the past. This was the past she shared with the man who is now her boss. However, in this dream, she finds a chance to get to know him in a way she never did in the present time.
