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Coroner's Diary: Dropped Drama Diaries

Aug 15
4 min read

Updated: Sep 23

Coroner's Diary poster with Landy Li and Ao Ruipeng

Title:

Coroner's Diary (2025)

Platform:

iQIYI

MDL & Douban Rating:

8.6 & 6.4

Genre:

Period Idol Romance/ Case Breaking/ Investigative/ Mystery

Episode Count:

38

Last Episode Watched:

21

Parental Guidance Rating:

PG: (IQIYI sure do have them jokes, this is def TV-16 to MA fr). Mature themes, violence against women and children, corpses, severed heads and organs shown. I DNF'd, so there could be more?

Starring:

Landy Li (Starry Love)

Ao Rui Peng (Moonlight Mystique)

Shen Yu Jie (Legend of Fei)

Yu Cheng En (Hard to Find)

Cast From Left to Right: #LandyLi, #AoRuiPeng, #ShenYuJie, #YunChengEn


Synopsis:

The story follows Shen Wan, the daughter of Shen Yi, a high-ranking official of the Supreme Court, whose entire family is massacred after being implicated in the Prince of Jin case. Shen Wan escapes to Jingzhou by disguising herself as Qin Wan, the Ninth Lady of the Qin family; where she learns all about medicine and how to perform autopsies. She not only excels at healing the sick and saving lives but is also skilled in being a professional coroner to investigate crimes. During her investigations, Qin Wan meets Yan Chi, the crown prince of King Rui. Yan Chi is determined to clear the Prince of Jin’s name, an ambition that aligns with Qin Wan’s own mission to vindicate her father. The two return to the capital together, solving a series of strange and mysterious cases along the way. After returning, the discovery of a skeleton leads to the reopening of the Prince of Jin case. As they delve deeper, Yan Chi and Qin Wan gradually uncover the truth and ultimately expose a shocking secret buried deep within the palace. @MDL



Non-Spoiler Thoughts:

How could the blessed screenwriter who worked miracles on Love Like the Galaxy, Rise of the Phoenixes (the ending was not their fault), and Pursuit of Jade betray me in such a fashion?



A Coroner's Diary follows a Mary Sue prodigy who is forced to dodge marriage like it's the matrix, all the while going on case breaking adventures as a coroner with her boo. I really tried to get through it due to the popularity of the drama, but the hype is unfounded. It was one of those times where I genuinely felt like I must be watching the wrong drama.


To start off, so many things are against the law in Chinese entertainment and yet somehow, this dubbing was not amongst them. Truly criminal. The voice chosen did not fit the ML in the slightest. And the acting was truly bland and lifeless. I usually LOVE Landy Li because no matter how ridiculous the story, I always felt her energy, but she and rest of the cast must have been visited by an energy vampire because "dead inside" are the two words I'd use to sum up their performance. You've gone too far Colin (Is What We Do in The Shadows an outdated reference now? lol).


Collin from what we do in the shadows

The drama is somewhat procedural, following case after extremely predictable case with a sparkless romance to top it off. It was frustrating how idiotic these supposedly brilliant characters were at ignoring obvious clues. The cases were all pretty strange and usually revolved around romantic relationships that broke taboos. Content Warning Here: Cases have mature themes (granted, they are cheesily done, but still) and hilariously fake looking organs, corpses, heads, etc. shown. Although an American Girl doll would look more lifelike than the props in this show, I wouldn't recommend if you are squeamish. Also, if you hate throwing up; it’s a running joke in this show. There is literally a vomiting scene that lasts for 2 whole minutes and it is not the only one.


A Coroner's Diary had potential, and I'm actually interested in checking out the original web novel, The Powerful and Favored Coroner Imperial Concubine (lol, these titles take me out), but as for the drama, it's not worth the autopsy. It's best to let this type of show stay buried.



Story=2 (Is there a story in there? I was so distracted by the underweight princess carrying two full grown women with one hand while holding herself and co. up with the other hand w/ arms spread like an eagle that I couldn't tell) Acting= 1.5 (Is this supposed to be a 2D world because the acting is so flat I’m surprised the actors even have shadows. The ML was doing too much with his face while the FL did too little) , Production Quality=1.5 (The FL’s cloaks slayed but what were these props? And the effects? Hilarious. That’s what they were.) Rewatch Value=1 (In the words of Chinese subtitles: “Absolutely no”), Ending=? (Only made it to ep 21. Don’t know how it ended, and I don’t care to find out. Spare me from this weirdness)


Coroner's Diary Poster

Why I dropped:

  • Really bad acting

  • Extremely cheesy fight sequences, sets, and props

  • Darker themes

  • No chemistry in this romance

  • The transition to coroner made no sense to me


Trailer:


Director: #LeeWaiChu (Warm on a Cold Night, Princess Silver, The Princes Wei Young)

Screenwriter: #ZouYue (Love Like the Galaxy, Rise of the Phoenixes, No Boundary, Pursuit of Jade)




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