November 23rd – Updated information at bottom of the article — the C-drama itself is now called ‘Tang Dynasty Mysteries: The Poison Conspiracy’ and is streaming all 56 episodes on the iQIYI app,
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, Season 3 spin-off drops this week
There’s a spin-off of the currently airing historical mystery drama Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, Season 3 that’s heading our way in a few days.
Called Strange Chronicles of Tang: The Chang’an Detective (or 唐诡奇谭之长安县尉), instead of the usual cast we are used to in the main series, it stars Wang Zi Yi who appears in Episode 26 of Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty: To Chang’an, as Chang’an county sheriff Wei Tao.
The short drama also stars Zhao Jia as physician Jiao Yu, with supporting cast members Lu Jia Ni, who appears in Season 3 of the main drama alongside Wang Zi Yi as Ju Niang, and Ren Dong Lin.
Surprisingly, with little build up to its premiere, and after only beginning filming on September 29th and wrapping that filming on October 10th (yep, less than a 2-week filming period), the short drama will be releasing on iQIYI on Sunday, November 23rd.
Like the original Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty drama series, The Chang’an Detective follows several mysterious cases but, in this series, we have County Magistrate Wei Tao and female physician Jiao Yu attempting to solve them.
How many episodes is Strange Chronicles of Tang: The Chang’an Detective?
We did get an official premiere date announcement poster earlier today, but there is still no word yet on how many episodes Strange Chronicles of Tang: The Chang’an Detective will end up becoming, or how long each episode will be. (And no, none of my Chinese sources seem to know either).
But likely, if other short dramas iQIYI streams are anything to go by, this one is probably a drama with 20-plus episodes, and with episodes running anything from 1 to 20 minutes each, depending on if it’s a true short form series or a vertical drama.
Considering its very short filming schedule, though, it’s likely to be a vertical drama instead of a mini drama.
Nothing much has been released about its plot either. So yep, this mystery-themed Chinese drama looks like it will continue to be mysterious itself right up until the minute it drops.
(BTW, Asian drama site MDL is listing it as an 80-episode drama, but a Chinese source tells me it’s scheduled for 56 episodes, so we’ll see who’s correct soon, eh?)
Its plot is also supposedly connected to the sixth case in Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, To Changan — the serial murder case.
Update: November 21st – it has now been announced Strange Chronicles of Tang: The Chang-an Detective will be a 56-episode vertical drama — with each episode being around 90 seconds.
Update: November 23rd — The vertical drama dropped all 56 episodes (yes, it’s 56 episodes) on iQIYI in China this morning, with the first nine available free-to-watch, and the rest for members only. There is no sign of it on iQIYI international as yet, however.
(Update: It has now appeared on iQIYI International’s app (only) under the title ‘Tang Dynasty Mysteries: The Poison Conspiracy‘).
The production quality is beautiful, the performances are excellent, and the plot looks interesting. As you would expect though, no English subtitles.
I will keep you posted as to its status for an international release. Sorry, I don’t have any more information than that right now. (Update: All 56 episodes are now available on the iQIYI app internationally).
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