Big_Red_1011

Will start DH; Filter will have to wait until I finish Tangerines 🍊:) Thanks! If you are into fantasy and liked Love Game…, do check out Love Between Fairy and Devil. It’s the shortest good xianxia (fantasy) drama — only 36 episodes, lol. And both leads (Esther Yu and Dylan Wang) get a chance to show another side to them due to… uh… reasons that I can’t disclose without spoilers ;)

Sorry if I missed some shows in your completed list 😳 Thanks for recommendations :) Filter is on my to-watch list. If you like The Demon Hunter’s Romance, maybe I will make it my ongoing drama now. It just started so I haven’t started watching it yet.

WIFTY is much faster paced compared to Hidden Love and TFF (and it’s only 24 episodes x 30 minutes). But for fantasy… since you’ve watched Moonlight, how about Love Game in Eastern Fantasy? It stars 3/4 of the main four people from Moonlight (FL, ML and SML). It’s slightly lighter than Esther Yu’s previous fantasy hit Love Between Fairy and Devil. For love story with action there are some K-dramas like The K2 (2016; FL is Yoon Ah), Man to Man (2017; like Korean James Bond but with some humor and a bromance), or Vagabond (2019; more vibe of Jason Bourne; FL is played by Suzy).

Yes, waiting until a drama is finished is always safer. Have you watched When I Fly Towards You? It’s by the same author as The First Frost and Hidden Love but it’s a much easier watch (no trauma and things are light & fun). You Are My Lover Friend is also not on your completed list but it’s also great (much, much better than the description would make it seem). P.S. Glad to see I’m not the only one who rates Are You the One as 10/10. It’s awesome! 👏

Trailers for episode 16 & 17 show that breakup & wedding dress scene happen in ep. 16 and switch to the present will be in ep. 17.

Based on trailers: episode 16 is the breakup & wedding dress scene and episode 17 action will change to present day.

SPOLIERS about which episode breakup happens in and in which episode things will shift into present day (see below comment under spoiler tag)

It may not be a good sign for the lead pair when the MDL commenters have dropped their objections to
MM & Qin and are starting to ship them more than ML & FL, lol

Trailer for Episode 15 is out and it’s still The Past. Trailers for 16 & 17 should be out in a few hours and maybe that will give us a clue.

The drama is only halfway through so ratings are not final. But, in general, this drama is a bit formulaic/cliched and not as good as other recent dramas (like The First Frost, The Best Thing or even Wanna Be). It uses a similar structure as Lighter & Princess where we have Present Day (years after breakup) in Episode 1, then Episodes 2 - ??? are The Past (how they met, fell in love, and eventually broke up), and eventually we will get back to Present Day. Many people are not fans of this structure because we already know what happened (breakup), so it might be more interesting to learn about the pst in flashbacks (like TFF).

We should get trailers for episodes 16 & 17 tonight, so hopefully that will tell us more about the timing of the breakup / moving into the present day.

In China, bachelor’s degree typically takes 4 years. When ML & FL meet in the university, she’s a senior (last year; year 4) and he’s a junior (a year behind her; year 3). FL is job hunting for work after graduation. ML is still going to classes but has a side-business in shoe R&D. But he’s not super super-rich, so he has to look for help/funding/investments too.

As of episode 14 we don’t have any answers (and will not have it in 15 either based on the trailer). The gap is definitely going to be shorter though. Maybe 4-5 years? I think it’s only 6-7 from when they first meet in the university to when they reunite.

In ep. 1, FL wears a wedding ring but she’s not married — it’s there to avoid men hitting on her. Some things from the novel have been changed. We also will not have a 10-year break in between past and present. Based on drama timeline, I think it’s only 6-7 years from when they first meet in the university to when they reunite.

TFF = The First Frost. There’s also TBT = The Best Thing. Both finished airing recently and are much better than ERL. People love them both. Highly recommended!

Watch The Best Thing (it was airing about the same time as TFF). It’s not quite as deep as TFF but it’s still very nice and much better than this drama. Also I recommend Wanna Be (also known as Hello, Model). It may have gotten review bombed on MDL but it’s actually very nice and skips most tired drama tropes (and, again, more interesting to watch than ERL).

I agree with you. They structured the show similar to Lighter & Princess (ML’s star role) but there it was 2/3 past and 1/3 present. Here, we might get to the present in Ep. 16-17.

Hopefully, sooner than in L&P :) But given trailer for Ep. 15, breakup is probably coming soon.

In the novel, FL’s parents are still alive and doing okay (based on what someone else had posted).

People said that half of the book was in the past, so hopefully after Ep. 15, we will move to present quickly. But it could have been worse — in Lighter & Princess (ML’s famous role) we spent 2/3 in the past.