#unshakable faith

[succulentsiren]

HAVING UNSHAKEABLE CONFIDENCE INCLUDES

Not caring what others think.

Voicing your opinion whether others agree with them or not.

Staying true to yourself.

Walking into any room and feeling powerful (not insecure).

Realizing you don’t have competition and not comparing yourself to others.

Feeling best about what you have to offer and who you are.

Putting yourself first.

Dreaming big and taking action to make your dreams happen.

Being a master manifestor.

Not needing anyone or their approval to be great.

Laughing at haters.

Presenting your best self to the world.

Having a stable emotional state (remaining hopeful and not allowing doubt to effect you).

Having your own standards and staying true to them.

Having a secure self image and not allowing others to define you.

Never lowering your standards.

Speaking your truth.

Allowing yourself to shine (talents, gifts) without judgement.

Supporting others and being joyous when they win.

Focusing on self.

Speaking highly of yourself.

Creating and doing what you love (not just what's popular).

Remaining dedicated to your goals even when you fail.

[whumperer-86]

Acupuncture procedure on comatose scientist who was beaten by the same guy who is performing the procedure

Unshakable Faith episode 15

[naorende]

[moononmyfloor]

My Year End C-drama Review (2023)

Part 1

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17. Actors I newly discovered in 2023

Hong Yao, Wang Yinglu, Marcus Li, Tian Jiarui, Qin Hailu, Wang Ke

Some of these are new actors, some are already very experienced but I discovered only now. All of them provided phenomenal performances in their roles this year.

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18. Favorite Child Actors of the Year

Wang Haoze (Ou Zimo- Be Your Own Light), Phoebe Sun Yichen (Duoduo- Stay With Me)

Child actors in C-ent always baffle me, I have zero idea how they are SO good. Impeccable performance. I want to take them home. 🥺

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19. Feminist Cdramas of the year

Be Your Own Light, A Journey to Love

The premise of the first is about women to begin with, the second only partially. Most of the time the self-identifying feminist stories fail massively in realistic depiction of women, let alone idol dramas where the focus is elsewhere.

But these two shows really understood what women think and say, their priorities and what they want in life, how they conduct themselves....and not through the eyes of men who assume women crave xyz things only. The arcs and growths of women in these two shows felt very organic and relatable.

(I hear there were few other such dramas this year as well, eg: Faithful. But this is all I managed to watch huhu)

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20. A drama that let me down

Destined

The chemistry of the real-life pair Bai Jingting and Song Yi was adorable, but the story just wasn't my cup of tea.

I absolutely loved their spacious bedroom tho!

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21. Favorite BGM

Be Your Own Light- I Only Wish to Face the Light by Liu Yuning

Stay with Me- Stars Shine by Zhang Jiongmin, Xu Bin

I Am Nobody- Sea of Time by Zhou Shen

Young Blood 2- Lending a Ray of Light by WineQ (圈9)

Romance On the Farm- Letters from Spring by Su Yunying

Silence of the Monster- Cross a City Just to See You by Huang Yi

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22. Favorite wardrobes

Sui Yi (Sun Yihan)'s wardrobe in Silence of the Monster and Pang Hongmei (Peng Xiaoran)'s fits in Unshakable Faith

Oh they looked so delightfully vintage and exactly my style! 😍

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23. Best Breakups

Moxi and Jiagui (Gone With the Rain), Xiangyi and Wanmian (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

I HAD to include this category simply because of these two pairs. I LOVED those two scenes. So mature! Such thorough discussion about how their feelings have changed over time, the frank admission that there are indeed some remnants left (because contrary to popular depiction, feelings don't POOF overnight), how they'd always consider the other as a special someone that they were lucky to have met in their lives, the wish to remain as tight friends in the future as well.... 🤌🤌🤌👏👏👏

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24. Worst character designs

Road Home

Gods know I only sat through this for Jing Boran in army gear and snow. The characters were so mind-blowingly flat despite the actors giving their best to "understand" their roles and make them relatable but there was only so much they could do. All the interpersonal relationships happened just because the writer said so. There was a child character who was passed from hand to hand for whenever the writer wanted a "warm childcaring and family moment" but was discarded without a glance the next second, I got second-hand abandonment issues from watching that lonely kid. I did not understand why anyone was doing anything at any given moment.

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25. Most convincing villains aka characters I loved to hate

Yuan Hao (Young Blood 2)- Gotta be one of the most dangerous villains I have ever seen. He was insanely smart, unpredictable and cunning AND strong, and it took all the heroes of the story to defeat him and still it was barely enough. He was so well written and portrayed, till the very end of the show the viewers weren't sure of the outcome of the battle.

Jiao Liqiao (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)- AHH Jiao jie! We all love a good unhinged female villain who isn't uwufied in the name of some weird "women should always be portrayed with tearjerking backstory" notion. Let her go crazy all over the place, we support women's wrongs as well as rights! She always meant what she said and did what she meant and it was terrifying to see.

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26. Favorite murder kittens of the year

Gong Yuanzhi (My Journey to You), Li Tongguang (A Journey to Love)

Oh these two bois were VERY disturbing individuals and I wouldn't go within 1 mile radius around them but were them such delightful affection starved meow meows with killer (ha!) hair and eye acting? Heck yes.

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27. A drama that I wished was longer

Romance On the Farm

I really appreciate how 3D and empathetically portrayed all the family members are. We are shown all their sides and what made them what they are today without making a mockery of Asian family values, but rather constructively analysing + celebrating the good parts.

And then there is a political thriller story arc.

And then there is "this is all but a game" part which I had to try very hard to pretend like it's ignorable.

And then there was the basic premiere of the pastoral country life story.

Clearly the dramamakers had LOTS of ideas. And you can see none of them were empty bite-more-than-can-chews but had actual potential.

If only.... it didn't try to do all this at once under the guise of a 26 ep lighthearted fluffy romcom genre.... it would've made such a difference.

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28. A drama I wanted to watch but couldn't

SO many! For all sorts of reasons.

Ray of Light, Butterflied Lover, The Road to Ordinary, Pledge of Allegiance, Where Dreams Begin, There Will Be Ample Time, Faithful, Stand By Me

ARGH!😭

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29. A drama I wish more people watched

Stay With Me

This is a Chinese BL, with Chinese cast, Chinese locations, but produced by a TW company. That's all I'm going to say about it, give it a try. You won't regret it. (Maybe don't watch last episode tho lol)

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30. Most favorite Cdrama of 2023

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Why? Because... well if you are in the fandom you'd know, if you aren't... I can write ESSAYS about it so I won't 😂 In short, it was such a healing watch.

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31. A Cdrama I'm excited to see in 2024

JOL 2. Obviously.

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Conclusion

2023 served to solidify my belief that there's really no 'perfect' drama, what I can do is listening to the stories people have to share and then take what I want from them, and leave what I don't want behind. Some may resonate more with me, some less. Some may teach me new things, some may feel redundant. Sometimes you will enjoy only 50% of a drama and hate the rest, but that won't diminish the impact that 50% had on you. It could be a totally different experience for another viewer and that's fine. I watched all the DMBJ shows this year as well (but didn't speak about them in this list since my focus was on 2023) and it really was an exercise on not being overly critical and going with the flow or you would totally miss out on all the good things DMBJ had to bring.

Overall I enjoyed 2023 Cdramaland a lot. I hope this review helped some of you to try out dramas that you didn't know existed/were hesitant to press play or continue on!

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More Posts by Me

[mr-danger-to-my-sanity]

Ji Danyang's glasses, Unshakable Faith.

[lasenbyphoenix]

Ji Danyang vs the East Mountain, Unshakable Faith (2023) episode 12

[chineseredcarpet]

Liu Xueyi for a CCTV drama program for Unshakable Faith

[ivaspinoza]

Always between departs, always the one to go Divided between hellos and goodbyes, until the next time The farewells pile up on my back, a soft burden of love And my heavy heart is ripped apart by it By the beauty of ephemerality By the thorns of this lifetime's imperfections Detached, to attach, to detach I will drink this chalice though, for it reminds me of the end, the purpose, the meaning, when we are no longer swimming in utopias, drowning We will no longer have to pretend to know reality We will be home, singing forever, and finally I will no longer be a pilgrim anymore

[stellahibernis]

Unshakable Faith was genuinely very good, and I was delighted at the somewhat flipped gender roles between the main pair, with Liu Xueyi playing a damsel ...uh gentleman in distress to Peng Xiaoran's heroine :D

[tytangfei]

it's really too bad that unshakable faith doesn't have better subs because it seems like a good production with a serious spy plot (with minimal romance right now). I frankly am here for the visuals of the leads so I want to keep watching but these eng subs are just. too much. They're doable but my head hurts from deciphering what's actually being said.

[yeslordmyking]

The Fear of the Children of Israel

Exodus 14:10-13

[10] And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD.

[11]And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

[12]Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

[13]And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

The poor Israelites were so afraid that they'd rather stay enslaved and never take a stand than for Moses to provoke the Egyptians in attempt to free them, even with God's power and all that He displayed throughout beforehand. It's so easy for us while sitting on a church pew or in the comfort of our own homes to judge the Israelites as faithless, but in moments of fear like this, we are so guilty of losing faith in God, sometimes to the point where we'd rather keep our heads down and stay in a lower state than believe He can and will deliver us. Though it is good to endure and necessary suffering, we mustn't be afraid when God leads us down a difficult path that leads to His promise!

[samafricanreporter]

In Overcoming The Devourer, author Alph Lukau presents an educational and revolutionary look at the Biblical truths about the Devourer who has been destroying your God given crops and the joy of the Lord in your life. This truth shall set your life free. You will recover all that has been stolen from you so that you may begin to see the fulfillment of the promises of God in your life. In this revised and revived version of the divinely inspired groundbreaking message, Overcoming The Devourer, Pastor Alph Lukau opens the secret to enduring the devourer in a manner not yet known to many in the body of Christ today with huge depth and revelation by the Holy Spirit. These days, God is extending himself financial giants that will be pushing his agenda. In this revised and revived version of the divinely inspired groundbreaking message, Overcoming The Devourer, Pastor Alph Lukau with great depth and revelation by the Holy Spirit, unlocks the secret to overcoming the devourer in a manner not yet known to many in the body of Christ today. In these last days, God is raising himself financial giants that will push His agenda.

[whumperer-86]

Thrown out of the cliff, injured and bleeding

Unshakable Faith Episode 13

[naorende]

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

Trust as a love language

[mr-danger-to-my-sanity]

Ji Danyang, from episode 1 to episode 38, having a bad time with guns. Unshakable Faith