# A Dream Within a Dream (2025)

> A modern woman transmigrates into a novel as a doomed heroine and must fight the fixed plot to write her own destiny.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/168191

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 40
- Episode runtime: 45 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, romance, fantasy
- Network: iQiyi
- Cast: Li Yitong, Liu Yuning, Zhu Xudan, Riley Wang, Wang Youshuo, Wang Chengsi, Su Mengyun, Wang Lina
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32247928/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: playful, romantic, melancholic, tense, whimsical

## Synopsis

A Dream Within a Dream (2025) is a Chinese web romance drama created for iQiyi, a transmigration romcom with historical romance elements produced by Linmon Pictures and Tencent Penguin Pictures. Li Yitong plays Song Xiaoyu, a woman pulled into a scripted story as the tragic heroine fated to be discarded by the villainous male lead, and she also plays her counterpart Song Yimeng. Liu Yuning plays Nan Heng, the cold and calculating lead who keeps being drawn toward her, while Zhu Xudan plays Song Yiting and Riley Wang plays Shangguan He among the principal cast. The engine of the series is her attempt to escape a predetermined ending: each time she strays from the plot she is pulled back into a loop of fatal outcomes, so every episode becomes a new test of how far she can bend a paper-thin world built on fate. The series spans a single 40-episode run of 45-minute episodes that plays as one continuous story rather than standalone installments. Its setting is an invented historical world where characters feel bound by the text they inhabit. The tone blends playful romantic comedy with melancholy and tension, and its theme is control over one's own story. Fans of The Untamed, Eternal Love and Story of Kunning Palace will find familiar resonance in its costume romance and fated-love dynamics.

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