han

LLTG is for when you want to watch something heavy, with angst and definitely with revenge plot in it; while Road Home is for when you want to look for a watch with similar vibe to AASOL.

I think she was attracted to him physically despite being skeptical after the entire ordeal during the first meeting, then started crushing or at least became even more attracted and curious when she saw him playing billiard. Perhaps somewhere in between her seeing Lin Yiyang's earnest approach and effort (taking her out to meals and knowing the reason behind it, finding out he spent 13 hours going back and forth just to see her every week despite his already busy schedules when they weren't even an item officially) is that she grow to really harbor a feeling for LYY

I've come across some criticisms regarding Yinguo, with some questioning why Lin Yiyang is interested in her, etc., but it's pretty evident that Yinguo is remarkable even before meeting Lin Yiyang. So it's no surprise that he pursued her, right? And re: first encounter; yes, he might have come across as super intense, but it was to highlight the nervousness and awkwardness of Lin in the beginning.

In the drama, Yinguo went from being a popular billiards player to becoming a top-level player in the world, achieving her career goals through her own efforts. Her career trajectory might have been shorter, but it's certainly not nonexistent; she is just as amazing as Lin Yiyang.

Yinguo is mentally strong despite her shyness and everything, especially while playing games, while Lin Yiyang - there is a part of him that lacks a sense of security despite appearing "arrogant" at times on the surface in the beginning of his encounter with Yinguo (hence sometimes he appears a bit pretentious, which I think is very much deliberate; after all, he mentioned it himself that he was living in a 'false world,' all this time), which might be one reason why they are drawn to each other. The parts that Lin Yiyang lacks are gradually repaired by himself after meeting Yinguo

This aspect of the drama - where the relationship between two people improves over time, is something I appreciate about AASOL. It's not solely about fulfilling each other's material desires but more about the way they both respected each other as people and wanted to grow together.

Now I don't know why I am going on this long and it seems like my writing is all over the place but yeah I just hope people would appreciate Yinguo more because I love her a lot and I am absolutely in love with how natural Zhao Jinmai's portrayal is as Yinguo

someone asked this to me before and it's not that this is his last romance drama, but only last romance drama in stock. there was never actual talks about him totally shifting to movies or serious production (although yes there were speculations yadda yadda but those wore marketing accounts talking); he had strong motivations behind taking the other two upcoming projects which just so happened to be films

> dwelling by the west lake - fun fact: wulei needed time before accepting the project because he was not sure that he could do it before because he loved and respected dir. gu xiaogang so much so he was worried if he could really do it but eventually he agrees, even the director mentioned it in the interview that it took awhile for wulei to respond; “I loved Gu Xiaogang’s first film very much. I was touched to have the opportunity to work on this film. I wanted to act in it, but I was hesitant because I wasn’t sure if I could handle such an important role. But with Gu’s encouragement, I decided to say yes and did my best.”

> decent things - though there isn't much info about the film as of now, but it was mentioned briefly in one of his recent interviews that he accepted the freshly completed movie decent things with a genuine eagerness of learning from director xu haofeng. and one thing about director xhf is that he is one of the few directors who have a strong knowledge about martial arts since he himself learned xingyiquan, studied taosim and history of martial arts and wrote novels and non-fiction books about the ecology of the martial arts sphere in china. he was also one of the screenwriter for the grandmaster so at least you can see now why he decides to take on these two movies

i won't comment on the current history drama that he is shooting since there is only speculation and it's a confidential project, but (imo) it's not a matter of him steering out of the genre but rather him possibly wanting to take on more challenging roles + his desire of wanting to grow as an actor and as an artist and with those strong motivation in mind those probably outweight why he decided to take on those roles than a romance script

fyi, dwelling by the west lake is actually filmed BEFORE AASOL (late 2022, while AASOL was filmed in 2023 so this already dispel any rumor that he is focusing on films) so just give it time, people. it has barely been a year since AASOL was filmed, and he's the type who usually films one drama a year that's why we said it's the last drama in stock

He is playing that playful, passionate, sunny boy in Nothing But You though probably not as playful as Wulei is irl

they applied 32 for distribution license but the original script was already 30 iirc? official source never says we're getting 32 too

let's watch lin yiyang special tour guide VLOG: https://weibo.com/6019229199/O07Njfecn

He's actually shooting a drama right now titled 西北岁月 (tentatively), but the project is pretty confidential; it's a major revolutionary historical themes and there has been not much talks on the internet about it because they couldn't. He has joined the filming group since December up until now, even. The thing about him focusing solely on movies was mostly hearsay. It is a fact though that this is his last drama inventory for the time being and he only have two other films inventory with crime and martial arts as its respective genres.

CNY

Dong Zifan (Wu Wei)'s post about the recent episode [https://weibo.com/7454714001/NFCLrfkC4]; translated with MTL so may not be 100% accurate. To add a little context: Dong Zifan himself was also an international student who graduated from UCL.

"Sense of drifting, it's a topic that all international students can't avoid. It's like an assassin, rarely appearing in the midst of storms, but often defeating you on a sunny afternoon. At this moment, you stare blankly at the street, watching shadows of people and cars passing by like shuttles, wanting to reach out and grab something, but grabbing nothing because you know very well that none of this belongs to you.

Suddenly, you want to talk to your parents, even though you've recently had some quarrels. The phone connects, here it's daytime, there it's nighttime, you open your mouth, but find a thousand words stuck in your throat. They line up, the first word squeezed out is "mom," the second word is blurred by tears, unable to be seen clearly.

I didn't have much communication with my dad. When I left, I sat in my dad's car, an hour's drive to the airport. Several times along the way, I saw him wanting to speak, then closing his mouth again. It wasn't until I dragged my suitcase to say goodbye that he said to me, "Be safe over there." The next time we spoke was on that phone call, after my crying out loud, the phone was handed to him, and he said, "It's okay, even if the sky falls, dad is here, you can always come back."

Yeah, nothing is too serious. Security seems taciturn, but every word is strong and forceful. I think this is the antonym of drifting, something that many people, not just international students, once they have, they want to hold onto tightly for life.

But life often doesn't go as planned. Lin Yiyang is an orphan, and the sense of drifting has become his background. Dongxincheng used to be his home, but not anymore. Wu Wei understands better than anyone how much Lin Yiyang longs for a home in his heart. The years he has spent with Lin Yiyang have been his years at the bottom of the valley. And just recently, a ray of light shone in, that's Yin Guo. Today, yes, today, Lin Yiyang told Wu Wei that he's going back to his country.

But what Wu Wei heard was — he's going home."

Some people were wondering why these guy and friends keeps vouching for Lin Yiyang to Yinguo when it was clear as a day for me that they all know Lin Yiyang is a good guy who have been trapped in a dark place for a very long time, ditching a career that he loved so much - going 'without direction' while working, studying his ass off doing everything but pursue a career in snooker again just to fill the voids and prove to people that he can do well without snooker; but then, they saw him changing for the better because of Yinguo's presence so the way they were playing cupid isn't just a mere 'plot' because the sincerity is there. I think everyone were all happy to see Lin Yiyang finally get back on his own feet.

Bcs of CNY

It's his real voice, you can hear him talking in English although just slightly in this BTS + cute baby (https://twitter.com/5051sm/status/1754845628562317461)

So many things to respectfully disagree about her reviews lol and the color grading is one of the things. Location asides, the icy cool tone felt like it was a deliberate choice to portray the coldness as a whole because I can feel the colours are getting warmer now that the leads are getting together.

Also, I've seen LMLV and she said it was better but she said that while dropping this — and I am someone who watched both dramas and I enjoyed this one way more, no disrespect to LMLV but there's something magical about the chemistry in AASOL.

Another thing would be about it getting lukewarm response, because both Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai isn't liulang in a sense that they don't have huge fandom backup. But they are favoured by GP — and this drama became one of Tencent's fastest idol drama to reach 28k, Lin Yiyang's confession scene became a meme of some sort (it was viral in xhs and Weibo)

January to Feb/March 2023

LMAO the interns are losing it

In the first few episodes, the ramen bar owner returned him the money he lent and it was quite a huge sum - there's another part where someone else returned money to Lin but I forgot who, and the part about him buying a billiard club and got broke is on the teaser for Episode 10/11

It might one of the OSTs too, they usually release it one by one and they've only released two so far so maybe wait a little longer?

He actually has money, you can see that he lends it to a lot of people but he got broke since he bought a billiard club and the place didn't make much profit due to the snowstorm that's why there are scenes of people returning money to him too

This show did a great job at giving me bunches of butterflies and while Wu Lei’s absolutely great display of romance is driving everyone (me included) wild as Lin Yiyang, it’s the way that it’s perfectly paired with Zhao Jinmai’s portrayal of cuteness and sweetness (That adorable “No” when Lin asked if he could hug her, and the way she was fumbling after wards was sooooo cute that I melted) and just Everything as Yinguo when facing Lin Yiyang that made their chemistry works so well since the dance goes both ways. They both feel so natural despite the awkwardness the characters experience in those ambiguous moments while getting to know each other. That being said, I really can't wait for the next episodes ✊🏻