 A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (2021)Wang Ruichang, Hu Yixuan 36 episodes |  |
A River Runs Through It is a nice school to university and coming-of age drama, although Lu Shiyi the ML is consistently ignored and rejected by Xia XiaoJu (FL) for the greater part of the drama, and suffers an unrequited love because of a love triangle, so it is only in the end that they get together. But the drama is cleverly organized, the emotions ring true, and the friends group remind somewhat of those in Hidden Love. I liked it very much because of the ML "Richards" Wang Ruichang who played ML.
 |  FOREVER AND EVERAllen Ren Jialun, Bai Lu 30 episodes |
Somewhat reminding of Duan Jiaxu and his tender care for his only love, despite a troubled past with complicated things to take care of, I liked the character of Zhousheng Cheng, the one who Shi Yi had recognized as her destined reincarnated warrior prince from a very distant past, in the dark tragedy One and Only. The modern drama Forever and Ever shows a very wholesome married life between two adults who are already working. Like Duan Jiaxu who gives his card and money to Zhi to manage their assets, Zhousheng Cheng endows his wife with riches beyond her imagination, since he turns out to be the head of a powerful and numerous clan, albeit reluctant to shoulder that responsibility. His dream is in the stars, and he is devoted only to Shi Yi, who is an award winning voice actor, engaged in telling the story of.... ancient Zhousheng Cheng.
The cinematography is beautiful, with footage of Zhenjiang and Wuzhen, which are stunning Jiangnan towns, and Shanghai and Xi'an, also a short time in Bremen, Germany. It is one of the best roles of Allen Ren Jialun and Bai Lu, with absolute fiery gazes but also some uncharacteristic skinship and humor from the very special actor in the late 2010s period. ---- Touching each other was forbidden for them in One and Only because there, ancient time Shiyi was his child ward, to raise out of her mute condition, cure her of it, and prepare her to marry a crown prince, as a tribute and pawn from her clan, although she never wanted anyone else than Zhousheng Cheng. There are a few episodes of near bliss when the prince and his kidnapped ward escape for a short time their tragic destiny in the lovely cultured Jiangnan, in that prequel, but the rest is mostly battles and bloodbaths, so not for everybody's taste (although it is a masterpiece). -----Whereas Forever and Ever is much less harsh, set in peaceful times of the end 2010s, despite a few incidents that will finally bring the couple together in the city where the prequel ended. Liberated from their crushing responsibilities, they will be ready to start a new life after a very beautiful traditional dress marriage. The drama is 30 episodes long and also showcases a lot of Chinese culture and poetry, plus some snippets of Wu dialect.
There's need for every taste, but A Romance of the Little Forest is the weakest above, because of the humongous amount of time for the secondary couple which was, shall we say kindly, meh ? So use ff a lot, stay only on the parts with Zhang Binbin and the end which is moderately educative, but as for real fluff and good feelings like in Hidden Love, this is not it, for me. I'd rather forget it.
In fact there is really not much that compares with Duan Jiaxu's tender care. Although some things appear in Falling Into Your Smile (ML Xu Kai taking care of FL Cheng Xiao whose character is violently sick and aching, worse than Sang Zhi in the claw machine and lunch episode with her two "brothers".
Love O2O (online to offline), Falling Into Your Smile, and You Are My Glory all feature MLs who are e-gamers or game designer, and they are different but nice romances with a lot of chemistry, although LO2O may have suffered from the scandal caused later by the actress and may feel somewhat dated now.
 LOVE O2O (2016)Yang Yang, Zheng Shuang 30 episodes university to business romance |  FALLING INTO YOUR SMILE(2021) Xu Kai, Cheng Xiao 31 episodes workplace &competition romance |  YOU ARE MY GLORY (2021)Yang Yang, Dilireba 32 episodes reunion after long separation |
Perhaps we can add those fluffy numbers with cute and devoted ML :
 TIME AND HIM ARE JUST RIGHT (2022) Wu Junting, Lu Yuxiao 25 episodes high school to university Fun fact : The song performed by basketball playerJiang Ming on stage in Ep12 of Hidden Love was « I've Liked You Since The First Day I Met You » (by Zhāng Yīháo from this OST of this 2022 c-drama here) So Zhāng Yīháo got two songs features in Hidden Love: this one and Forever Star - 张洢豪 |  ASSISTANT OF SUPERSTAR (2022)Sun ZeYuan, Lu YangYang 24 episodes workplace romance Unpretentious and nice fluff around an actor who gets targeted by a rival but stays true to his History private coach. |  PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY SHOULDER (2019)24 Episodes Lin Yi, Xing Fei 24 episodes university to coming of age |
