A Month in Huanzhou

A Month in Huanzhou (Chinese: 環州一月) is a Tsengian television drama that premiered on Tseng 4 on July 1, 2023. Starring Dylan Li, Amira Hanafi, Liu Daquan, and Esther Xiang, it is jointly produced by Redearth Entertainment and the Independent Broadcasting System.

The series received generally positive reviews and unexpectedly gained popularity outside of Tseng, especially in Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, El Kadsre and the United States. It was especially praised for its genre-changing twist from light romantic comedy to a psychological thriller midway through the series. It was also commended for dealing with sensitive topics in Tseng, such as treatment of expatriates and migrant workers, LGBT issues, and tiger parenting.

Premise
The series is based on the 2020 novel Bei Jing Li Xiang by author Hu-xian Tian-fu, which was a Xinqidian Baozhi bestseller.

Nadina Coronel is a student from an unspecified country who has recently graduated from university. Hoping to start a new chapter in her life and earn higher wages, she moves to Huanzhou, Tseng, and gets a job as a waitress at a restaurant owned by the friendly Ma family, consisting of matriarch Corinne (Esther Xiang), her husband Patrick (Liu Daquan), and their sons: the talkative and handsome Théo (Dylan Li) and the mute and reclusive Mathieu (Zhou Shouzheng). However, as the days past, she gets tasked with increasingly impossible and demanding duties to what amounts as near-slave labor, in addition to withstanding sadistic abuse from Théo. Therefore, she plans to escape the Ma restaurant by the end of the month.

Cast

 * Amira Hanafi as Nadina Coronel
 * Dylan Li as Théo Ma
 * Zhou Shouzheng as Mathieu Ma
 * Liu Daquan as Patrick Ma
 * Esther Xiang as Corinne Ma
 * Nicholas Ou-yang as Xu Jianhe