The following artists and dramas have been nominated for KISF GLOBAL OTT AWARDS 2026:

Best Lead Actor (Male):
Song Weilong - Shine on Me

Best Lead Actor (Female):
Tian Xiwei - Pursuit of Jade

Best Supporting Actor (Male):
Deng Kai- Pursuit of Jade

Best Newcomer (Male):
Lin Muran - Dead End
Benjamin Tsang - Justice is Mine
Lai Weiming - Shine on Me

Best Newcomer (Female):
Leah Dou - Her

Best Asian Content:
- Pursuit of Jade (🌟Zhang Linghe & Tian Xiwei
- Shine on Me (🌟Song Weilong & Zhao Jinmai)

Best Creative:
Born to be Alive (🌟Yang Zi & Hu Ge)

Best OTT Original:
In the Name of Justice

Best Visual Effects
Love Beyond the Grave (🌟Dilraba Dilmurat & Chen Feiyu)

I wonder how many dramas and names everyone recognizes. Have you watched these all?

Sometimes, I think we do judge a book by its cover. Maybe others don’t but I do look at posters and trailers before I decide what to watch. If you also do the same, then which poster has you interested in checking out the drama?

Names of the dramas and MDL links are here:

1. Where the Mask Ends

2. The Mystic Nine Against The Coming Storm

3. Sea of No Return

4. Ashes To Crown

5. Blood River 2

6. Irreplaceable

7. The Early Spring

8. Snow Trace formerly Jagged Peak

9. Ctrl + Alt + Life

10. The Lotus Secret

11. The Silent Storm

12. Purple Dahlia

13. Rolling World

14. Confessions

Edit: if you are curious about any drama, let me know and I’ll do a future release post. Other mods sadly can’t do them and I’m busy with Wang Duo’s birthday preparations :’) (it’s on the 21st of May).

Wang Duo’s birthday is on the 21st of May. Last year was the first time in his ten year career that fans celebrated on-site with him. Fans are planning activities for this year as well. However, not everyone can be a part of these celebration due to distance so I thought to celebrate it here with all of his international fans.

I will be posting questions but you don’t have to stick to any script. Just share anything you want about him or his characters.

Let’s celebrate his special day

Tan Jianci dancing to the same song with a new female lead and new set of clothes :D I wish they had chosen a different song because this one was used for Dancing with the Tide. Regardless, I’m looking forward to their modern day romance and cohabitation

Here is the list of all the dramas that are going to have a season two as per Youku Spring Investment Conference.

Legend of Zanghai (藏海传)

Status: Season 2 officially confirmed. It was a centerpiece of Youku's 2026 lineup announcement on May 11, 2026, featuring prominently as a (重头戏) major production alongside other titles. A concept poster has been released, and the project is in early planning stages.

Season 1 Star: Xiao Zhan

The Immortal Ascension (凡人修仙传)

Status: Season 2 is planned but not yet officially announced as part of this specific slate. The first season (starring Yang Yang) was produced, with reports that the lead actor had signed a three-season contract pending the success of the first. There is no official confirmation of a second season in the most recent 2026 lineup announcements.

Season 1 Star: Yang Yang

Blood River (暗河传)

Status: Season 2 is confirmed and part of the 2026 Youku lineup. The announcement was made alongside other titles on May 11, 2026.

Season 1 Star: Gong Jun.

The Blood of Youth (少年歌行)

Status: Season 2 is confirmed. The drama is a key part of Youku's strategy to build a "Young Brewmaster" (IP) universe, and the second season is in the 2026 lineup.

Season 1 Stars: Li Hongyi, Ao Ruipeng, Liu Xueyi

Regeneration (新生)

Status: Season 2 is in the works. A Baidu Baike entry for '新生第二季' confirms the series is moving forward as a suspense drama produced by Youku.

Season 1 Star: Jing Boran.

Personally, I have been waiting for Blood of Youth Season 2 for ages as I love the IP. How about you?

Edit: Blue colored text is link to MDL pages of these dramas. I have added all the concept posters. You heard it here first ;)

She is filming the drama, “Nirvana in Flames”. I took a double take when I saw these photos. I genuinely feel that she looks like a fairy from the immortal realm in this outfit, styling and makeup.

This isn’t the first time he will be doing a modern drama but he has done a lot of costume dramas.

He started filming for “Red Moon Appeared” two days ago so it feels like the right time to ask: modern or costume?

I have added another clip from Veil of Shadows for comparison.

Before anyone says that she is being too cocky, this is a stand up comedy act. However, she is indeed gorgeous enough to make that claim!

I will be too star struck to even breathe :’)

Yu Shuxin’s two outfits for the Gold Gala today.

Note: Please click the text in blue for more information on the event.

He is currently filming the drama, “The Noble”. His styling looks quite befitting for Lu Xingzhi who is supposedly responsible for bringing new fashion trends. He may look plain here but there are other videos where he looks absolutely spell binding. After goodbye my princess, I think this is the best he has looked in a costume drama.

These two are filming, “Where the Mask Ends” and I shared a scene earlier as well in this post - Yan An devouring Tian Xiwei

I really like the way he looks at her in some of the scenes and even off-camera, but these two clips show us the intensity of their magnetic pull (at least to me).

Are you excited for this CP?

We just got the wrap announcement for Live in This Moment (此刻的生活), and this cast has me more interested. Five leading women, all carrying different versions of what it means to be an adult woman right now, backed by a director who does not shy away from showing realities of life without sugar coating. Let me break down why I think this one is worth paying attention to.

The drama is adapted from Wang Xin's novel The Unideal Wife (不理想的妻子) which sits at an 8.2 on Douban.

The book made waves because it didn’t romanticize anything. No meet cutes, no last minute windfalls, just two people watching their marriage get hollowed out by financial pressure.

The adaptation seems to be keeping that honesty intact. The official tagline from the concept poster reads: "Social climbing on borrowed money, mortgaging the future, all that glamour is just a disguise." That is the tone. You are not escaping into this story.

Plot

The central couple is Chen Yan and Song He. She works in finance, ambitious and polished. He is a programmer, steady and risk averse. Together they make the decision that will unravel everything: they over-leverage themselves to buy a luxury home, convinced that a better address means a better life for their daughter and a permanent upgrade in social standing. Then the development stalls. Becomes a half-finished skeleton. Delivery date vanishes. The mortgage payments do not. And suddenly every crack they had been smoothing over with ambition splits wide open. Chen Yan has to fight hostile sales offices and broken promises while her husband's quiet resentment turns into something colder. The story follows her slow, painful realization that the life she was killing herself to achieve was never what actually mattered.
- - -
From MDL: Live In This Moment

Chen Yan and Song He are a couple working and living in Beijing. They decide to take out a loan to buy a new house far exceeding their income, hoping to improve their family's quality of life. Chen Yan firmly believes that life cannot be settled once and for all; she must continuously strive to earn a better life.

Some of her female friends are experiencing marital changes, some are facing new life choices, and some are experiencing career crises. Their seemingly glamorous lives actually hide hidden troubles. When the new house may not be delivered on time, Chen Yan and Song He also experience a relationship crisis, casting a shadow over their once-happy life. Chen Yan suddenly realizes that family happiness is the true meaning of life.

CAST:

Tang Yan (Tiffany Tang) leads as Chen Yan. This is her first time playing a mother and her first real dive into the kind of middle class anxiety that idol dramas never touch. After Blossoms Shanghai, she has been making deliberate choices away from the roles that defined her earlier career, and early descriptions of her look here are all sharp suits and straight black hair, the full armor of a woman who thinks she has everything under control until she very publicly does not. (We need to erase A Moment But Forever from our memory!).

Joining her as a leading lady is Yu Feihong, playing an older woman trapped in a gilded wealthy marriage. Yu Feihong always brings a quiet gravitas, and the idea of her suffocating behind a perfect facade is exactly the kind of material she excels at.

Gulinazha plays a young mother rebuilding after escaping a violent marriage, raising her child alone. Zhu Zhu plays a professional woman fighting workplace gender discrimination. Zhang Xinyi plays a full time housewife losing herself in the invisible labor of running a household. Five women, five distinct struggles, all woven into the same larger story.

Peng Guanying plays Song He, the husband. Descriptions from production insiders suggest he is playing against Tang Yan's ambition. He is the kind of man who internalizes everything until it explodes. He will bring a grounded, weary warmth to the role that should make the marital conflict feel painfully real rather than melodramatic.

ZhuZhu isn’t playing married for the first time so she is a seasoned veteran at this point playing non-glamorous (The Bond) to glamorous house-wife roles.

The Director!

The director is Hu Kun. If that name sounds familiar, it is because he made Left Right, one of the most brutally honest dramas about new parenthood and relationship decay. Critics praised that show specifically for refusing to soften life's sharp edges. He also serves as head screenwriter alongside Meng Jie and Xu Dake. If anyone can take a novel about mortgage anxiety and marital collapse and turn it into something genuinely moving rather than cheaply sensational, it is him.

The production is backed by Tencent Video and New Classics Media, which is the same house behind Joy of Life. These are people who know how to support serious, performance driven storytelling. The show runs 30 episodes and is expected to air on both CCTV and Tencent Video, likely in the second half of 2026. No teaser as I was typing this, but with the wrap announcement just out, but it will be available soon.

Note: Please do not downvote or report for manipulated content because someone told you I am copying their content. It’s deliberate misinformation to sabotage a small subreddit and it undermines my hard work. I have reported the issue to Reddit.

Zhang Linghe wrapped up filming for Road to Glory early this morning. Is anyone excited for the drama? He has had many looks: beard and facial hair, clean shaved with short hair and long white hair. I’ll add links in comments to the post if anyone is curious to see all the looks we have seen so far. Let me know :)

Object / prop, skill, location, costume, pet, weapon, the main character themselves. Everything is on the table.

I am taking Nan Xuyue from The Blossoming Love :’) and keeping him safe with me. I will probably wipe all his memories of Mu Xuanling or make him drink a potion to believe I am her (I have very rich imagination).

From which drama would you take something and why?

I really want him to get the girl in one of his costume dramas! Basically, someone like Nan Xuyue: strategic, warm on the outside but cold on the inside for others, marshmallow for his lady love, and ruthless to anyone who threatens her.

What about other fans? Which role do you want to see him play next?

Note: This adorable video was shared by his studio

Liu Shishi looking absolutely stunning (to me) in these photos. If you liked her in A Journey to Love then her upcoming drama “A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains” might be for you! I’ll share details on the drama later today as the official announcement wrap-up is scheduled for tomorrow.

The creatives behind the photoshoot

Creative Director: Han Chong
Art Director: Monica Mong
Photographer: Nick Yang
Hair Stylist: Chen Chen
Makeup Artist: Wang Lu