If you’re hunting for a C-drama that blends quiet heartache with a touch of speculative romance, “Twelve Letters” starring Zhou Yi Ran from “When I Fly Towards You” and Wang Ying Lu from “When Destiny Brings the Demon” should be near the top of your queue.
Released this summer and already generating buzz online, the series centers on a small-town love that stretches across time, space, and a mysterious mailbox that keeps pulling the past and present together. It’s the kind of drama that keeps you thinking about the characters long after the credits roll.
Here are five reasons why “Twelve Letters” is worth the watch.
1. A time-slip romance that feels intimate, not gimmicky
Time-slip or epistolary romances (a story written as a series of letters between characters) can easily tip into gimmickry, but “Twelve Letters” uses its premise to heighten emotional stakes rather than to confuse viewers.
The series opens in 1991, where we see Hai Tang (Wang Ying Lu) writing a letter and placing it in an ordinary-looking red mailbox. This letter isn’t addressed to a friend or a family member but to herself, a reflection of her loneliness as she has no one in the world to call her own. Mysteriously, the letter slips through time and arrives in 2026, where an elderly Yi Xun is waiting for it.
Later, in another scene, Hai Tang discovers a letter in the same red mailbox, this time from Yi Xun (Zhou Yi Ran). In it, he bares his soul, confessing that all he ever wanted was to pull her out of the misery she was trapped in, only to realize that, in trying to save her, he may have pushed her into an even darker abyss. However, Yi Xun in 1991 has no recollection of ever writing this letter.
The series frames its central relationship around 12 letters sent across decades, a device that lets the story explore memory, regret, and the small, concrete details that make two people feel like home to one another. Rather than relying on flashy paradoxes, the time overlap here becomes a way to examine how choices echo, how longing persists, and how people try to bridge distance with words.
2. Leads with layered, believable character arcs
Zhou Yi Ran and Wang Ying Lu headline the drama as Tang Yi Xun and Ye Hai Tang, respectively. They’re a pair whose relationship is established as deep and enduring before the central mystery begins. While Yi Xun is shown to have no parents and works under a debt collector, Hai Tang’s situation is different; she has just lost her grandmother and is left with a good-for-nothing gambler father buried in debt. Yi Xun longs to leave the debt-collecting business behind and join his friends on a fishing boat, while Hai Tang dreams of going to college and escaping both her small town and her father. Despite their different struggles, they share one desire: a life of normalcy.
Both characters are written with enough history and agency that their choices feel earned; they’re not just archetypes in a romantic setup. The writing gives each lead a distinct inner life and a credible path for growth, so when the story pushes them into difficult emotional territory, viewers feel the weight of those choices. This focus on characters rather than only on plot twists is one of the series’ best decisions.
3. Side characters who matter
One of the show’s quieter strengths is how it treats supporting characters: they aren’t just background warmth or fodder for the leads’ angst. Friends, family members, and neighbors each have their own motivations that intersect with the main story in meaningful ways, which expand the world and raise the stakes organically. Because the series takes time to let secondary characters breathe, their actions feel consequential and sometimes surprising. And that pay-off is satisfying, especially when the plot’s mysteries begin to ripple outwards.
4. Cinematography that treats small-town life with cinematic care
If you enjoy dramas where the camera helps tell the story, “Twelve Letters” won’t disappoint. The show leans into warm, nostalgic frames for memory-heavy scenes and uses quieter, observational shots to build the everyday intimacy between characters, whether that’s a lingering shot of a mailbox at dusk or a close-up that lingers on a letter being unfolded.
The 1990s setting enhances the drama by evoking a nostalgia for a time that no longer exists. Even in the scenes set in 2026, there’s a lingering sense of longing that seeps through the cinematography, making your heart ache for the characters before you’ve even had the chance to truly know them.
5. Acting that anchors the emotional core
When a series hinges on silence, on a look, or on the weight of an unsent letter, you need actors who can carry those moments; here, the acting often does the heavy lifting.
Having worked across numerous projects, Zhou Yi Ran’s and Wang Ying Lu’s acting prowesses may come as a surprise to some, but in “Twelve Letters” they go above and beyond in their performances as Yi Xun and Hai Tang. Their portrayals are so convincing that you forget their past roles and begin to believe Yi Xun and Hai Tang could truly exist in this world. Across trailers and early episodes, viewers have praised the cast for bringing raw emotion to the screen without tipping into melodrama.
Both Zhou Yi Ran and Wang Ying Lu convey a lived-in chemistry that makes their characters’ history credible, while the supporting cast provides steadiness and counterpoint when needed.
“Twelve Letters” hits a sweet spot: it’s romantic without being saccharine, mysterious without losing its human center, and cinematic without feeling showy. If you enjoy dramas that hang on small moments and let their emotional truth do the work, this one deserves a spot on your watchlist.
Start watching “Twelve Letters”:
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Javeria is a binge-watching specialist who loves devouring entire K-dramas in one sitting. Good screenwriting, beautiful cinematography, and a lack of clichés are the way to her heart. As a music fanatic, she listens to multiple artists across different genres and stans the self-producing idol group SEVENTEEN. You can talk to her on Instagram @javeriayousufs.
Currently watching: “Bon Appétit! Your Majesty” and “A Hundred Memories”
