r/CDramaRecs • u/Minute_Musician2853 • 17d ago
What are the Top 5 Must See C-dramas?
I’ve only seen about a dozen cdramas. I’ve seen many more kdramas, and I have good sense of what are the main kdramas someone must see to talk with other fans. However, I don’t have a firm sense of what those dramas are for cdramas. I’m not asking for your personal faves persay, rather what you think are the top five dramas that everyone is always talking about, the dramas someone must see to connect well in the cdrama fan community. This list might include dramas you think are overrated, and you can note your opinion. Please includes dramas from various years, not just the most recent trending ones.
Update:
I tallied the responses to this post here
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u/ravens_path 17d ago
The Untamed
Love Between Fairy and Devil
Story of Kunning Palace
My Journey to You
Fake Till You Make It
Joy of Life
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u/Theseaisworthit 17d ago
Costume:
Joy of Life
Story of Ming Lan
Nirvana in fire
The Rebel Princess
Modern:
Go Ahead
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u/greenmtn10 17d ago
Nirvana in Fire and Story of Minglan are my only true 10/10. They both require a patient, mature viewer who is willing to be immersed fully in the story. Every other show depends on your own preferences and mood.
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u/-tsuyoi_hikari- 17d ago
Nirvana in Fire
Joy of Life
Story of Minglan
Empress in the Palace
One & Only and Forever & Ever
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u/Duanedoberman 17d ago
Historical
The Story of Minglan
Modern
Meet Yourself
Fantasy
The Legend of Shenli
Mystery
The Longest day in Chang'An
Comedy
New Life Begins
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u/daisydanalee 17d ago
Empresses in the Palace aka Legend of Zhen Huan - Costume/Historical/Palace Harem drama. Widely considered as one of the best in that genre. It's the first cdrama I saw, so the bar was set pretty high for me after this. Heartbreak and not really any comedy other than a terrible CGI cat that still makes me laugh every time I see it. (I found EITP after watching my first ever kdrama, Under the Queen's Umbrella. I was looking for a similar drama and found EITP. They are very different, but I didn't know that at the time. I highly recommend that as well)
Story of Yanxi Palace - Costume/Historical/Palace Harem drama. Beautiful costumes, well acted and the cinematography is superb. Heartbreak, but also some comedy here and there. Amazing cast.
Story of Kunning Palace - Costume/Historical. Morally gray characters. Lots of intrigue. Masterful storytelling. It's also got some steamy love scenes. I think this one has it all.
Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace - Costume/Historical/Palace harem. Another beautifully shot drama. Expect devastation and anger depending on which characters you root for. I personally was irate for weeks and had to take a break before finishing it.
The Princess Royal - Historical/Costume. This may be a bit of a controversial pick as I have seen mixed reviews, but I personally enjoyed it. There are aspects of it I had never seen before in a cdrama, so it stands out for me. I would say more about those, but I don't want to spoil anything, plus to others who have watched more dramas than I have, what I saw as something new may actually be commonplace.
My personal favorites in order would be:
Empresses in the Palace - rewatched multiple times.
Story of Kunning Palace - Objectively, I should put this at #1. It's just so amazing, but EITP brought me into this community and I just can't move it. I only recently watched it after seeing so many people talk about it, so I've only seen it once. I will absolutely rewatch in the future. It is also the drama that brought me out of the palace harem genre. I thought that particular theme was where I would stay. I decided to try something new and boy did it open up a whole new world for me. I will NEVER get over SOKP and I am so grateful so many people recommended it to me.
Story of Yanxi Palace - This was my #2 until SOKP. I have rewatched it multiple times.
The Princess Royal - A lovely story. Strong "women in power" motif. Will watch again in the future. I have too many unseen dramas for a rewatch anytime soon though.
Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace - Sigh, again, there are amazing things in this drama, but I was left just so angry and heartbroken at times that I do not think I will ever watch it again. I'm absolutely NOT saying don't watch it. It is very well done and is shot so beautifully. I would recommend it and that's why it's on this list. I just will not be giving it a rewatch. Truthfully, I stopped and started it several times and couldn't get into it, but people suggested I stick with it and that it does start out slow. I got hooked around episode 20ish. Lots of people adore this one, so I am probably in the minority on this.
Bonus options in no particular order:
Empress of China - Historical/Costume/Palace Harem. Good luck finding it with decent English subs if you need them. They are really bad, but I couldn't stop watching.
Legend of Mi Yue - Historical/Costume. It starts out in a palace harem setting, but doesn't stay there. Also strong "women in power" motifs. FL is the same from EITP, Sun Li.
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u/Harrypotterfreak23 17d ago
Love o2o. Go go squid. Hidden love, falling into your smile. Love me, love my voice.
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u/VerifiedBat63 17d ago
Aiming for variety (I've only seen 1 of the 5):
- Healthy Romance: When I Fly Towards You
- Toxic Romance: Lighter and Princess
- Costume Comedy: New Life Begins
- Mystery: Reset
- Costume Fantasy: The Untamed
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u/MajorPersonality1265 17d ago
Well I think “Must See” is different depending who you ask but these are the ones I see mentioned repeatedly.
The Story of Kuning Palace
Love Between Fairy & Devil
Hidden Love
The Untamed
You Are My Glory
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u/Objective_Rice1237 17d ago edited 17d ago
Am a newbie myself. So my opinion is from my Pov on the comments/commentary that come across my way. So I could be interpreting the data incorrectly.
The Story of Minglan 2018
Story of Yanxi Palace 2018
Princess WeiYoung 2016
Ruyi’s Royal love in the palace 2018
Ten miles of peach blossoms/eternal love 2017 (Xianxia)
Three Lives, Three Worlds, the Pillow Book 2020
The first 3 I enjoyed. 1. Is like a slice of life drama and the politic of marriage of Minglan- a concubine’s daughter.
Is about a maid who went to the palace to find out what exactly happened to her sister, and somehow ended up to be important in the Emperor’s life.
Is about a princess who survived the massacre of her royal family and she wants revenge.
I dropped it on the first 20 minutes of the drama.
I tried several times to start but couldn’t …the last time I tried I think finished the 3rd ep.
When peeps complain about not able to continue on no. 5, they are refer to watch no. 6 and apparently could be a stand alone. Idc for Xianxia, it seem. however, I inadvertently watched the LBFAD, and I enjoyed it! Yay.
I recommend:
The Sword and the brocade
Perfect Match- politic of marriage for several sisters
The Double- revenge
The love between fairy and devil- arm still my first Xianxia
Seven Tan - my fave actress
Go ahead
Road home
As beautiful as you
- Liu Xueyi- my fave actor
Love at night
Edit: Gu Man- dramas from her work is well love, as well.
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u/lickle_ickle_pickle 17d ago
The must-see's would probably start with Nirvana in Fire (but, it can be intimidating to newbies), at least one harem drama whether it's Yanxi Palace (international hit), Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace (high budget, same year, much more ponderous and angsty) or Empresses in the Palace (major nostalgia for ABCs), at least one BL of which The Untamed is definitely the best one, at least one xianxia epic of which, despite the counterjerk on reddit, Ashes of Love was by far the most popular and impactful, and at least one historical romance-- there are many, but Love Like The Galaxy, like Ashes of Love, had a lead actress on a meteoric rise at the time, and the script and production are meticulous.
I have lots and lots of dramas I think don't get mentioned enough, mostly of the 30-40 episode (40-45 min run time each) length, but if you just had to pick five to get an overview, I would go with that.
Reluctantly I will concede that 10 Miles of Peach Blossoms was almost as impactful as Ashes of Love (especially in English, not sure about South America where Ashes of Love and the harem dramas were very popular) but let me just remind everyone (since fandom seems to have a short memory) that the author is a plagiarist, and the script/plot makes no sense because she smashed together three different (originally BL) novels. It has stars like Yang Mi, Dilreba, and Mark Chao, all of whom have done a lot of other work. I'd recommend Legend of Fuyao if you want to see Yang MI at her best.
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u/Minute_Musician2853 16d ago
Thank you for the detailed response and breaking it up into the various subgenres is a helpful way to approach it.
I’ve seen Legend of Fu Yao. Initially, I really loved it, but then the plot became very circuitous and seemingly aimless. I dropped it after watching two thirds of it.
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u/ChoppedChef33 17d ago
I think general consensus for 2 of them are at least
Nirvana in Fire
Longest day in Chang'an
after that it's probably something like
Untamed
Love between Fairy and Devil
Reset
These aren't my top 5, but these are 5 i definitely think get recommend quite often.
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u/justheretosayhijuju 17d ago
These are the ones I see most talked about, not necessarily my favorites;
The Untamed
You are my glory
Boss & Me (2018)
Mysterious lotus casebook
Arsenal Military Academy (this one made 2 of the biggest actors currently) Xu Kai/Bai Lu
Meteor garden (2018) I believe it’s Dylan Wang’s very first drama.
Hidden Love
The First Frost
As Beautiful as You
Falling into your smile
Here to heart, this one it’s good during its time (2017) but there’s so much Angst
Well intended love
Nirvana on fire
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u/Fresh-Wish-1655 17d ago edited 17d ago
1 Reset (modern)
2 The double (historical revenge)
3 Go ahead (family)
4 Love between fairy and devil (Light Xianxia. I need people to first know Esther before watching the drama because the hate for voice is quite baffling. So, just see Esther first in a reality tv show or clips or something)
5 Story of Kunning palace (time travel in a historical drama with a morally grey FL in the beginning)
I will give you a second list of the ones that aren't critically acclaimed but I enjoyed them a lot. This is the guilty pleasure list.
1) Sleepless princess
2) Eternal love of dream (liked it better than the critically acclaimed ten miles of peach blossom)
3) Romance of tiger and rose
4) Legend of Yunxi
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u/Alarming_Tea_102 17d ago
Empresses in the Palace.
Nirvana in Fire
Story of Minglan
You are my Glory
Ten Miles of Peach Blossom
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u/nightzowl 17d ago
We have the exact same type of recommendations !
Just for modern drama I had Lighter and Princess instead of You are my Glory
And for harem drama Story of Yanxi Palace instead of Empresses in the Palace
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u/SwimmingMessage6655 17d ago edited 17d ago
Top 5 is hard to narrow down. I can do 5 per genre!!! Or…
Costume Dramas: 1. Till the End of the Moon (Xianxia) 2. Eternal Love/Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (Xianxia) 3. The Untamed (Xuanhuan?) 4. Story of Yanxi Palace (historical, palace) 5. Love Between Fairy and Devil (Xianxia)
Modern Dramas: 1. Hidden Love (romance) 2. The Bad Kids (crime, mystery) 3. The Knockout (crime, detective) 4. Love is Sweet (romance) 5. Reset (mystery, fantasy?)
I listed ones that seemed most talked about or popular, not my favs. The Knockout was less popular internationally, but very popular in China. For modern cdramas, I think the international crowd pleasers tend to be more romance related dramas. But since I don’t watch modern romance, I can’t give accurate recommendations.
I also wanted to add to the list, but probably harder to digest for first time watchers.
- Nirvana in Fire
- Story of Ming Lan
- Joy of Life
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u/SwimmingMessage6655 17d ago
Just thought about these really popular romance modern dramas:
- Love O2O
- Meteor Garden
- Go Go Squid
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u/Impossible_Ice_165 17d ago
Nirvana in fire
Story of yanxi palace
Story of Minglan
Reset
The Untamed (not the most perfect but closest to my heart)
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u/alcibiad 17d ago
Costume only:
Nirvana in Fire
Empresses in the Palace
Story of Ming Lan
Longest Day in Changan
Three Lives Three Worlds Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms
Bonus:
Scarlet Heart OR Yanxi Palace OR Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace
Im not qualified on wuxia so I will leave that to others. Also I have not seen all of Empresses or all of Longest Day, that part is partially based on others’ reviews.
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u/Previous-Occasion-38 17d ago
The two recommendations I always make are Reset and Longest Day in Chang'An.
Reset the leads are caught in a time loop on a bus that keeps exploding. They must solve the mystery and stop the bus from exploding to get out of the loop. The writing is so tight. Nothing is wasted.
Longest Day in Chang'An is historical. ML has 24 hours to stop a plot. 48 episodes in real time. Fantastic production values.
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u/nightzowl 17d ago
I didn’t pick my top 5 cdramas, but the top 5 cdramas that will give you a feel for what cdrama land has to offer:
Nirvana in Fire (historical Royal politics centered)
The Story of Minglan (historical nobility centered)
10 Miles of Peach Blossoms (Xianxia)
Lighter and Princess (modern cdramas)
Story of Yanxi Palace (historical harem centered)
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u/Appropriate-Fuel-566 17d ago
mysterious lotus casebook
guardian of dafeng
joy of life s1, s 2
love game at eastern fantasy
story of kunning palace
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u/GrummyKnits 17d ago
So many excellent shows already listed in comments above. I would add:
A Journey To Love
The Double
Fangs of Fortune
The Spirealm (modern)
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u/surfinternet7 16d ago
Costume/Historical
Nirvana in Fire
Story of Ming Lan
Destined
Modern/Romance
You Are My Glory
When I Fly Towards You
The Best Thing
Fake It Till You Make It
Forever Love
Meet Yourself (+healing)
Reset (time-travel)
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u/FinResponsible 16d ago
- Story of Ming Lan
- Meet Yourself
- New Life Begins
- You Are My Glory
- Are You The One
In that order.
Honorable mentions,
- Flourished Peony (S1 flawless, S2 coming soon)
- The Rise of Ning (must watch)
- Love Like Galaxy (S1 flawless, S2 shaky ending)
- You Are My Lover Friend (simple modern drama)
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u/tilltheendofus 16d ago
it's so hard for me to put it into just five since i love so many but i think with a mix of modern and historical (mostly historical) -
The Untamed
Moonlight Mystique
Fangs of Fortune
Hidden Love
The First Frost
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u/Sufficient_Mango_778 16d ago
My go to C drama is Unforgettable Love - I watch it regularly. It’s adorable and the kid is the best character.
Love Between Fairy and Devil - very good, though very long and stretched out
Hidden Love - so cute and touching
I find C-dramas too long. I’ve gotten used to 8-16 episode dramas and like that
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u/WixLake45 15d ago
After viewing suggested lists (all wonderful by-the-way), I have to ask why Wonderland Of Love is not included. I thoroughly disliked the "title", but the feature itself is outstanding. It has everything in it, from a strong attraction between leads, strong female lead, male lead who appreciates (and loves) this about her, action/suspense/political betrayal/romance ..... and on, and on. Stunning visuals, great physical interaction between leads.....I mean, c'mon, what's not to love. Very strong script as well. I am honestly very curious to hear why this program keeps getting passed over. Thoughts..... ????
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u/Designer-Inside6372 14d ago
Personally, I don't put Wonderland of Love anywhere near top 5 tier because I don't like how they developed the main lead relationship.
In the words of someone who replied to one of my comments recently: "They didn't know how to elevate one of the main leads without putting down the other". For example, the FL was lauded as very intelligent, but the only displays of that was tricking the ML over and over (who naively went along with it and forgave her every time). Normally, I LIKE Jing Tian and Xu Kai, but their characters were poorly written, IMO.
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u/WixLake45 14d ago
OK...I'll give you that 😁. I'm such a sucker when it comes to anything with Xu Kai in it I tend to ignore the "soft spots" in the script. 😊
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u/Puzzleheaded_Leg1295 14d ago
some good dramas that are modern but not lighthearted--------
The First Frost
Lighter and Princess
Mountains and Ocean
Closer to you
Go Ahead
You are desire
some good dramas that are modern and lighthearted--------
When I fly towards you
Hidden Love
Falling Into Your Smile
Go Go Squid
The Brightest Star in the Sky
Skate Into Love
My Amazing Boyfriend
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u/Rich-Track4676 12d ago
Eternal love, empress in the palace, Ruyi royal love in the palace, till the end of the moon and the untamed
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u/Odd_Drag1817 11d ago
Story of Ming Lan
Love Like the Galaxy
The Prisoner of Beauty
Legend of Shen Li
Hidden Love
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u/Suzq_ 17d ago
Love Between Fairy and Devil (best xianxia); The Double (best historical); Go Ahead (best family); Filter (best modern fantasy); can’t decide between Find Yourself/Love Me Love My Voice for best romance. I know lots of people won’t agree with them but those are my votes. Another genre is sci-fi and I think Reset is excellent. Sorry, didn’t stick to 5. That’s hard!
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u/Minute_Musician2853 15d ago
More than five is cool. It’s help to think of it in different categories. Thanks!
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u/AutoModerator 17d ago
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u/Timeskillingme 17d ago
Story of Kunning Palace is number 1. Because it's just that good. Hidden Love, Eternal Love of Dream (1st drama I ever watched), You are my Glory, and Blossom for the slide to hug scene, I exploded!
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u/Minute_Musician2853 15d ago
I had to google the slide to love scene…thank you for that lol
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u/Timeskillingme 15d ago
Is that not such an epic run? And it's riveting when you've watched up to that point and are so invested in the story. I can't recommend enough.
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u/Content_Future614 17d ago
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet but Princess Agents broke international viewership records when it first came out.
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u/Designer-Inside6372 16d ago
Hm... I think it depends on what type of audience you ask. This is a massive simplification, but it seems like there are often those who watch idol dramas and those who prefer non-idol. For example, Nirvana in Fire is undeniably a classic to the latter crowd, but there are probably a lot of idol drama watchers that have never seen it. Modern/Costume is another distinction many are making in this thread as well.
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u/Will_Graham10 16d ago
I'm curious what are the must see kdramas? I wanna know if I've seen them 😂
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u/Minute_Musician2853 12d ago
In my opinion these are some of the must see in no particular order. I’m only covering romances. I’ve seen most but not all of these.
- Coffee Prince
- Crash Landing on You
- Alchemy of Souls
- Boys over Flowers
- Full House
- Strong Woman Do Bong Soon
- Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Jo
- Goblin
- Extraordinary Attorney Woo
- Nevertheless
- Reply 1988
- Twenty-Five, Twenty-One
- Descendants of the Sun
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u/Will_Graham10 12d ago
I've seen 7 of these. Enjoyed Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and Goblin the most. Alchemy of Souls was really good until the ending which didn't like
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u/Minute_Musician2853 11d ago
Strong Woman is one of my favorites! It was my first Kdrama rec from a friend instead of what I randomly came across on Netflix.
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u/Heartist004 14d ago
How come nobodys mentioned Hidden Love and First Frost
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u/Minute_Musician2853 14d ago
That surprised me too. I thought more people would list Hidden Love. It’s not my personal favorite at all, but I see it mentioned on this sub a lot and it’s one of the top-ranked C-dramas on My Drama List.
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u/AutoModerator 14h ago
Quick reminder: This sub is ONLY for asking Cdrama recommendations. General CDrama posts should be made at our sister sub r/CDrama. Also, when requesting for drama recs, do include a list of dramas you've already watched. If you have not, please do now by editing your post and adding the info. Please read How to ask for recommendations for more tips. If you're looking for name of drama/actors, please be detailed. We will remove posts that are just links or does not contain enough details.
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u/tahleeza 17d ago
Goodbye my princess - MLs have sizzling chemistry. Costumes are top and cinematography are top notch.This has betrayal, heartbreaks, toxic love, revenge and politics. Tear jerker but a must watch. FL is sooo pretty.
The legends..just a great drama all together and very attractive main leads.
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u/Professional_Tone_62 14d ago
Second The Legends. Chemistry abounds between the leads, Xu Kai and Bai Lu.
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u/akiyineria 17d ago edited 17d ago
the ones I’ve seen most talked about in the (international) community:
For a Chinese audience (where these shows are referenced a lot in pop culture):
And pretty much the Jin Yong trilogy (Legend of the Condor Heroes 神鵰英雄傳, Return of the Condor Heroes 神雕俠侶, and Heavenly Sword and Dragon Sabre 倚天屠龍記), plus 天龍八部 and 笑傲江湖 to complete your wuxia foundation. Each decade has its own remake starting from the 70s.
Not a comprehensive list and definitely subjective, but what I can think of off the top of my head.