Hidden Love

Hidden Love: Built on Every Small Moment

I finished Hidden Love two days ago, and now that I’ve had time to sit with it, I can say this: it’s a story that knows how to be loud without raising its voice.

Sang Zhi and Duan Jiaxu didn’t rush into anything, and the drama didn’t force them either. It let them breathe. It gave space for all the small, important moments the ones that usually get overlooked and turned them into the whole foundation of their relationship. You could feel everything building under the surface, even when no one said a word.

What stood out to me the most was how natural it all felt. Nothing was exaggerated. Their feelings didn’t explode; they grew, slowly and quietly, until they couldn’t be hidden anymore. And when it finally happened, it didn’t feel like a surprise it felt right. Like it had been there the whole time, just waiting for them to be ready.

The acting made a huge difference. Zhao Lusi made Sang Zhi’s emotions so real shy, stubborn, sometimes messy, but always genuine. Chen Zheyuan gave Duan Jiaxu this calmness that never felt boring; he made patience look powerful. Together, they made something that felt believable, not just sweet.

I can’t talk about Hidden Love without mentioning the siblings. Sang Zhi and Sang Yan’s dynamic was pure gold. Their constant bickering, the way they annoyed each other just for fun it felt so real. But underneath all the chaos and teasing, you could see how much Sang Yan genuinely cared about his little sister. He wasn’t just a funny character; he was the type of brother who would throw hands if someone ever hurt her, even if he pretended not to show it.
Their relationship added this extra layer of warmth to the drama the kind you don’t always get but makes everything feel even more alive.

Even the way the show was shot soft lighting, warm colors matched the story. It wasn’t just "pretty"; it fit the feeling of growing up, waiting, and finally getting what you’ve been hoping for.

There’s a short poem I wrote after thinking about their relationship. I’ll leave it here, because it says what I think about them better than anything else:

The Quiet Bloom

In gardens where the soft winds weave,
Two hearts found room to slowly breathe.
No sudden storms, no urgent cries,
Just quiet mornings, steady skies.

A stolen glance, a warming hand,
The unspoken words they understand.
Not fireworks, but lantern light,
Leading them safely through the night.

She grew with dreams tucked in her chest,
He stayed with promises unexpressed.
And side by side, they came to know
Love is the gentlest thing to grow.

Hidden Love wasn’t about drama for the sake of drama. It was about growing up, holding on, and learning when it’s time to stop hiding how you feel.
It’s not a story I’ll forget easily.

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A Character-Driven drama for those in the mood of some sweetness and cuteness!

Subjective Gut Rating - 8.75

A 9.1 MDL rating for a romantic drama is no joke as there are many other critically acclaimed ones that don’t reach this milestone. In order to give “Hidden Love” a fair chance to maximize the enjoyment of watching this, I prepared myself and will share my recommendations for those who hesitated. As an ‘older’ and veteran drama watcher, fluffy and cute romances don’t always work on me anymore.

Recommendations/Tips to prepare myself:
1. I am a romance junkie
2. I am in the right mood for a cute, sweet and fluffy romance.
3. I like the main leads.
4. I am OK with and am prepared for a character-driven drama.
5. I am OK with an age-gap that could seem big.

I know if I watch “Hidden Love” when it’s airing or when it just finished airing, I will be extremely critical in finding faults since the hype is real and positive reviews are everywhere. Therefore, I waited until I was ready. And I am ready now.


What I Like:

Acting - I am quite familiar with Zhao Lu Si’s acting and know that she has no problem acting shy or cute. She did not disappoint me. On the other hand, Chen Zhe Yuan surprised me in a positive way. I’ve seen a few of his dramas but don’t recall him having the ability to subtly control his emotions (happy and sad) and his big, beautiful eyes speak volumes in this drama. It’s only been a few years’ time and Chen Zhe Yuan has improved so much since his “Handsome Siblings” days, the first drama I saw him in. The rest of the supporting cast also did a great job. But this drama is about Sang Zhi and Duan Jia Xu. If Zhao Lu Si and Chen Zhe Yuan can’t act, this drama will be a disaster.

Siblings - Many have pointed out the amazing chemistry between Zhao Lu Si and Victor Ma. I echoed the praises that they are so fun to watch. Their banter, argument, and horseplay brought so much color to this otherwise quite mellow drama. Their conversations are fun and witty, and you can still see how much they care and love each other.

Sang Zhi (FL) - At first, I thought I would be very irritated with Sang Zhi. I’ve seen clips of her acting all shy with that baby voice. However, I enjoy seeing her character grow from a spunky 14-year old girl, to an independent strong woman who can think on her own, make her own choices and protects the man she loves. We’ve seen female leads who are supportive of male leads. But Sang Zhi took it to a different level. She not only supports her man, but she’s there to protect him (physically, verbally and emotionally), to dispel any prejudice and stereotypes against him, and stand up for him. In a way, she was more emotionally mature when she’s 22 than when Duan Jia Xu was 22 or 27.

Duan Jia Xu (ML) - How can I not love a walking green flag like him? Yes, he’s too perfect and that could be a criticism. But I am also not going to deny the fact that he’s going to my Hall of Fame for Best Boyfriend/Partner. He is gentle, kind, considerate, understanding, and thoughtful. A unicorn that you can’t find in real life but I can indulge myself in this drama and pretend he does exist.

Main Romance - Chemistry is great. I was actually waiting for the college days to come so that I can finally see them interact as adults. I love the secret confessions in folded stars, the shy-but-in love glances/looks, the courting, the heartfelt yet somewhat awkward conversations by two inexperienced lovers, and of course, the hugs and kisses. This drama is made for romance lovers. I can’t help but smile throughout the drama.

Sang Family - I am so glad to see Zhao Lu Si and Zeng Li act as daughter/mother again. After the traumatic experience of “Love Like the Galaxy”, I am so glad to see them in a much different dynamic. The Sang parents are so lovely as well. Even though they disapprove of Sang Zhi’s rebellious trip, they never yelled at her, but just tried to talk some sense into her. They might have disapproved of the leads’ relationship, but the conversations are mature, reasonable and all come from the heart and love for their daughter. It’s so rare to find such amazing parents in a C-drama. Adding the fun Sang Yan to the mix, it’s no wonder Sang Zhi is able to grow up to be someone worthy of love and can protect her love.


What I have Mixed Feelings:

Sang Zhi’s baby voice - I can understand Zhao Lu Si using a somewhat younger voice when she’s 17, but when she’s a college student, that voice has got to go. She can speak normally with her roommate, so I know she can speak normally to her boyfriend. Towards the end of the drama, she has grown to be a mature young lady, and that baby voice really doesn’t match her. Is that Zhao Lu Si’s over-acting, or the director wanted her to act that way? I would never know.

Sang Zhi (14 years old) - No matter how short Sang Zhi is supposed to be at 14, the amazing young actress can’t convince me she’s 14 years old. She’s 12 in real life but she looks like she’s 10. If you are going to use such a young actress, maybe they should have a different younger actor to play the male lead.

Stalker girl - The side plot about the stalker girl lasted a little too long. I also think her presence changes the overall tone of this drama. I understand the reason for her existence in telling ML’s back story, but I wish that side plot was written better. Luckily, she’s the only annoying character and she’s still tolerable.

Supporting Cast stories - Because this drama focuses on the leads’ story so much that the rest of the side characters are forgotten in the back burner. This can be a good or a bad thing. If you just want to focus on Sang Zhi and Duan Jia Xu, then this is not a criticism at all. But I wanted a more well-rounded approach and wanted to know more about other characters. What happened to Sang Yan’s personal life? Did he really have a girlfriend? What is up with his knowledge of childbirth? I thought he got someone pregnant! What about the romance of the dorm mates? If you don’t plan to give them time, then let’s not start to begin with. Not every single character needs to have a love interest, but don’t start and forget.

Age gap - I don’t know if they have to keep on talking about how much older Duan Ji Xu is. 5 years isn’t really that big of a gap. It is central to the storyline, but it doesn’t need to be repeated and reminded so many times.


Overall, this is a great romance drama if you are looking for something easy, sweet and fluffy. The leads’ acting and chemistry are great and it’s a drama full of love, care and personal growth. If you are like me and like my tips above, that will increase your chance of enjoying this drama.


Completed: 8/27/2023 - Review #346

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Why do people hate it? It's beautiful!

I know, I know, though people might be like " This drama is so problematic" due to its age gap, like an old man dating a teenager, but that's what make it interesting. And besides, the chemistry is just cute and adorable, you can't say anything about that.
People also say about the " adult Sang Zhi" which she said she is already grown up but shows no sign of it, and even says about her baby voice. But like I said, this is an actress, Zhao lusi's natural voice is a baby voice, so you can't just blame the actress, or maybe blame the character. All the character act so well, even the first scene, while they judge Sang Zhi character's appearance, why don't they talk about her acting. She make it pretty funny, and she act pretty well, that scene make me laugh. She even cries pretty easy too!
Overall: this movie is worth a watch, but for people who doesn't mind the ML and the FL's 5-year age gap

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So happy to watch this drama... Fluffy rom-com with a lot of maturity...

Story about a girl named Sang Zhi (SZ) that falling in love with her brother's friend, Duan Jia Xu (JX). First they know each other when SZ still in junior school. Capture by the handsome & kindness that JX give her, the feeling start growing in SZ heart. After SZ start her university day, their love story begin their journey.

What I like:
+ Zhao Lu Si & Chen Zhe Yuan chemistry quite good. Zhao Lu Si with her usual cute & funny character. & what I really like is how Zhao Lu Si can make we sense the growing/maturity in SZ.
+ How JX really respect SZ. A few times he ask for permission when he want their relationship step further. Like how he ask for holding hands, kissing or even when they finally sleeping together.
+ How mature SZ is. Like how she handle JX's dad problem with the past. Although she sometimes quite childish, she's like a little princess in her home, but she show some maturity in other aspect.
+ How they keep communicating & have openness in their relationship. Like JX just telling SZ about his family problem, even when they just start the relationship, nothing JX feel the need to hide from SZ. So there is no such thing silly misunderstanding.
+ And I kinda happy to see Zeng Li played as SZ's mom, that give her love. It's kinda redemption for how she treated Zhao Lu Si in Love Like Galaxy. Haha...

Overall this really one good rom-com that I think I'll gonna keep re-watching... ^^

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This easily shot to the top of my favorite modern Chinese drama list, with my favorite actress in tow. Zhao Lu Si is nothing short of amazing in this romance where her character is crushing hard on her brother's best friend. If it were anybody else, the FL will probably come across as clingy and annoying, but she just does it with the right amount of sass.

First time encountering Chen Zhe Yuan in a drama but he's not too shabby himself as the doting big-bro type who is totally clueless in the love department despite his handsome looks since he's pretty focused on working to clear his father's debts. Of course, the difference in age while one is still a minor in itself is a tricky situation, when treated the wrong way. But we learn that Jia Xu does not even express any romantic interest in Sang Zhi until much later when the FL was in college.

I believe the drama made this distinction as clear as day to make all those accusations of pedophilia or grooming baseless. You can't accuse Jia Xu for encouraging Sang Zhi's affections when he is oblivious and does not even see her as more than a younger sister. The feelings of the FL has always been one-sided until they both got older and the show demonstrates this in several occasions.

In other aspects, the parents are not caricaturally cruel but had the appropriate amount of concern for their daughter's well-being as well as being supportive. There are no over-the-top characters and most are well-rounded. The pacing of the plot suited the narrative, and there was no blinding inconsistencies that I can think of. There was the right amount of fluff, angst, comedy and romance in this drama that I enjoyed watching it from beginning to end without touching the FFWD button.

Last but not the least is the swoon-worthy OST that I barely even notice in other dramas, but here, it serves as a delightful backdrop to Sang Zhi and Jai Ju's platonic-to-romantic journey.

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Pure, Wholesome, 10/10

I love that this drama did not have unnecessary drama and focused on the main couple. Their development was splendid and their moments are super cute. Zhe yuan and Lu si look really good together and their acting was great too The story is relatively simple though I did enjoy Jia xu's backstory and the drama of it, but it's alright this is still an extremely wholesome romance telling of two great characters.
The OSTs are also really good. Wang Su Long and Lu si's duet was so sweet and Ma Bo Qian (sang yan)'s vocals??? SO GOOD
10/10 recommend for those who just want a lil fluff in their life HAHA

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Proving Zhao Lu Si's acting genius, once again

This show has set the bar for Asian dramas for me.
Realistic, sweet, funny, heartbreaking, bittersweet and romantic.
The actors who play the FL and ML are brilliant. The connection between the two is amazing. The interactions are so natural and charming that it looks like entire scenes were ad-libbed by the actors. I wouldn't be surprised. The scenes between the FL and her brother are the same -- completely natural and adorable. The subtle physical comedy that Zhao is able to do, playing off her costars into those scenes is amazing. Just a few tiny examples: the wedding scene with her brother when they're at the table - the look they give each other while they're clapping; her expressions with the missed kiss at the skating rink. Whenever she watches the ML do something, her expressions of confusion are hilarious. I haven't mentioned the actor playing the ML yet, but he did beautifully in this drama too. The ML is roguish, loveable, heartbreaking. Will watch this again.
Special mention to the actor that plays the brother. He made his character hilarious. And the child actress: brilliant. Hope she is in a lot more shows.

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Perfectly describes first love

I started this drama twice. The first time I didnt understand why we were spending time with a middle shcool character, and the second time- I could not stop watching. As someone who has never experienced a first love, or even a crush, the writing and acting done in the show managed to portray all the feelings that come along with it in a way that even i ended up feeling them. It felt as if i was expriencing it along with the FL, the innocence and heartaches of a first love. The time the show spent on that part of the story ended up being my favorite part.
But besides that- i believe most of the cast, especially the leads did a really good job; their facial expressions and body language were on point. Specifically in cdramas i think its the most important part of the acting since the actors get dubbed over.
One thing that did bother me though is that sometimes plot points were dealt with too fast- i wont spoil it, but lets just say that there were never any real consequences to anything, and even if there were they were solved very very fast.
I think that was a real waste, since it could've been used to develop the characters and let the audience have a better understanding of them.

In conclusion- if you're looking for a sweet, healing and worth while drama, this is the one for you!

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If you're looking for something cute, light, fluffy and with almost zero conflicts, this is for you.

My review might feel a little harsh for some people, but understand that that is only so because I'm a real fan of the original material, so I had really high expectations for this adaptation! Some of which were met, and others, unfortunately, were not, so each point not met hurt more than usual for me.

Regardless, this is still a really good drama in general. So, if you're here reading this while still not being sure whether you should give this a chance or not, I would like to say: GO FOR IT.

My first encounter with this story was through the manhua adaptation. Chapters came out really slowly (and still do), but I was immediately hooked because, one, the art was absolutely gorgeous and, two, the story was really fluffy and cute. So when the manhua had only the first few chapters, I found out there was a novel and there was already a completed english translation. From that moment on, my husband only saw me again after I had finished binge reading it all! I'm absolutely crazy about this novel.

Having this been said, I think the drama adaptation failed in quite a few points. Before I get straight to them, firstly I would like to state that I don't mean to spread hate in anyway, but still, I gotta express my opinion.

So, the first thing that the drama adaptation did, that, for me, wasn't really well done, was when it decided to change the age gap between the characters by making drama Sang Zhi older then she actually is during some scenes. It's like they kept novel's SZ age mentality (of a 12 year old) and put them on a 17 year old drama SZ. Because of this, I found Zhao Luo Si's acting in the first part of the novel way too childish and unnatural for a supposed 17 year old girl. Had I not been familiar with the novel, I would probably think that teenage SZ was mentally challenged.

Also, some really important little nuances and scenes from the novel, sadly, didn't make it into the drama version. Two that immediately come to mind while I'm writting this is how they changed the scene and reason why SZ decides to stop the pursuit phase and accept DJX. This scene change really affected one of the most important moments for me in the novel, which is the moment DJX shows his real self for the first time to SZ and opens up about his family situation, while being serious and vulnerable. Though the drama did include this last scene, it didn't really have the same emotional impact the novel had.

What's more, for this drama to be perfect to me, I would change Sang Yan's casting. Though I like Victor Ma, his version of Sang Yan didn't really catch the actual character's essence...

On the other hand, I loved the rest of the casting, in special, Zhao Luo Si, who made me cry with her in both airport scenes, she's really a great actress. Her feelings of first and pure love really reached and moved me. She was able to convey adult SZ's spoiled and cute nature really well.

The OST was good and solid. I expect to put at least 3 songs in my playlist.

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I'm a sucker for a good romance story, and Hidden Love did not disappoint. The story of Sang Zhi and Duan Jia Xu's forbidden love was heartwarming, sweet, and relatable. I loved watching their relationship grow and evolve over the course of the drama, and I felt like I was right there with them every step of the way.

One of the things I liked most about Hidden Love was the way it dealt with the topic of love. The drama didn't shy away from the challenges of being in love with someone who is not your "type," but it also showed the beauty and power of love. I thought the drama did a great job of portraying the different stages of love, from the initial attraction to the deep, abiding love that can last a lifetime.

Another thing I liked about Hidden Love was the way it explored the theme of friendship. The two leads, Sang Zhi and Duan Jia Xu, are best friends, and their friendship is a major part of the drama. I thought the drama did a great job of showing how friendship can be just as important as love, and how it can help us through tough times.

Overall, I really enjoyed Hidden Love. It's a heartwarming, sweet drama with great characters and a beautiful story. I would definitely recommend it to fans of the BL genre or anyone who loves a good romance story.

Here are some specific things I liked about the show:

* The chemistry between the two leads was undeniable. I felt like I was watching two real people fall in love.
* The story was heartwarming and sweet, but it also dealt with some serious issues. I thought the drama did a great job of balancing the two.
* The characters were relatable and well-developed. I felt like I could understand their motivations and why they made the choices they did.

Here are some things I didn't like as much about the show:

* The pacing was a bit slow at times. I felt the drama could have been more concise without losing any important plot points.
* There were a few plot holes that I didn't quite understand. However, these were minor issues and they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the show.

Overall, I enjoyed Hidden Love and recommend it to fans of the BL genre or anyone who loves a good romance story. It's a heartwarming, sweet drama with great characters and a beautiful story.

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