Deminia

Part of your confusion may be from the race in the first episode. The labels on the runners shirts, as well as some of the billboards keep saying "middle school" and it is even written in English, so it is not just a wonky translation from the subs. Not sure why it says middle school, because it is not about middle school students at all. The track & field competition in ep 1 is for graduating high school students who are being scouted by a college sports team. They are at the end of their 12th year (high school), so around 17-18 at the time of the event. The coaches are there to pick candidates for their college team, with the FL there as an assistant coach from the college. The FL is a GRAD STUDENT at the college. There is no relationship stuff at all at this point.

The next time they meet will be at the start of the next college academic year, with the ML a new college student, and the FL about to graduate that year. She expects to become a full member of the coaching team after she graduates, but at this point, she is still a student as well. The ML would also be either 18-19 at this point, depending on how old he was during the college tryouts the previous spring.

So there is an age gap but not anything improper going on. Both of the actors playing the ML and FL are much older than their characters, so that might also make it seem confusing at first too.

I had to stop and take a break around ep 20. I still want to continue, as unlike many here, I have been enjoying it overall. However, I can understand why so many people are unhappy with the quick edits, jumping from one scene to a time skip or some other weird edit. Some of this may be due to censorship, but it is hard to keep track of the story like that. For me, the story has been getting choppy and I keep having to rewind, thinking I somehow skipped ahead or missed something. I did not like the whole love seed plot point at all and decided to step away for a week, watch something else to clear my brain. Today I plan to resume with the "after the love seed arc" parts and see how it goes.

I am not sure - but so far I have enjoyed the shows he has been in that I have seen already. Besides his role here as a magical human, so far I have seen him in:

Begin Again (he played a doctor, mature romance, medical/business romcom), rather good
The Love Equations (student, college drama) ejoyable but the usual angst and sillyness, he was good in his role
Rising with the Wind (business drama, very good, businessman) - strong drama all around, he was very good in this
Flavor It's Yours (check your brain at the door romcom, he plays a wine expert), he did well in this, but the drama was just ok

Each role I have seen him in was quite different from the type of character in the previous drama, so he seems to be picky out his roles perhaps, even though not all of the dramas were winners for me.

He was very good in Rising with the Wind. He should definitely do more modern dramas.

There are 4 main couples. The top billed actors (Hu Yi Tian - editor and Liang Jie-coach) have a relationship that is constantly "sort of together then sort of not together" then "actually together" then "broken up maybe" then "really broken up this time folks" then "not broken up" off an on throughout most of the show. It is really hard to pinpoint when they were officially together, because the FL constantly kept changing her mind about the status of their relationship.

Of the 3 other main couples, couple #2 (business owner + model) gets together in ep 1, then isn't together almost immediately, but they keep going back and forth as well. Both of those couples are confusing. The third couple(business woman + cafe owner) is already married at the start, The fourth couple (lawyer + sister) takes their time to get together but never break up, they are really together around the last 8 episodes. There is lots of skinship from all the couples whether they are together or not.

I would give the acting for Men in Love a 9/10 because they all did really well even if I did not like all of the characters. I rarely rate anything a 10, so a 9 for me is quite high. However, the story and the script also are part of the ratings, as is directing, cinematography etc, For this drama, I did not think the script nor the story was quite as strong as the acting. That would bring my total score down for the drama as a whole to 8 this time. I am a huge fan of Chinese dramas as well as Korean Dramas and I also enjoy Japanese dramas. Rating only based on the acting leaves out all of the other people who worked hard to make the drama work - the director, the crew, the writers, the designers, etc.

I don't know how she could even look at another sunflower bouquet after that. I felt ill and upset every time he sent her another one after the trash can incident. It must have hurt her even more knowing the meaning she had tied to them.

Couple #1: (coach+editor) yes they made up pretty early on in episode, so there was time for them to spend a little time together. He proposed, she accepted.

Couple #2: (business owner+model) yes they made up,reconciled with deadbeat dad who did NOT take the money from evil mother, sister solved the mom problem for them, he proposed in grand style, she accepted

Couple#3:(married couple) they had sex one night, she got pregnant, they got back together

Couple#4 (lawyer+sister) brother accepted them, sister had plan to solve all of the parental problems & company issues, parents insisted they get married ASAP, they got married

For the annoying side characters:
Ex never showed up again after the previous turmoil. Lawyer lady who had crush on lawyer was put in her place. Creepy work boss got fired after Jia Lin revealed her true identity and job. Evil mother put in place by Jia Lin.

For the non annoying side characters:
Grandmother in nursing home, XX had touching scene with her in one of the final eps
Cycling team won

No last minute traumas or deaths, happy endings dramaland style all around.

10 year difference. She does grow a bit (but still likes to be all cutsie pie girl in front of men for some reason), and she is very mature whenever she is around strangers or at work.

It is an 8 overall for me too. I really enjoyed all of it until 25, then it was still pretty good to 30, got a bit draggy for a bit, but was back on track around ep 35 or 36 onward. Last 4 episodes were mostly very good.

Yes the actress is doing a great job playing a very un-likeablecharacter. All of the acting in this drama has been strong from all of the characters, even the random side characters have been very good at their jobs.

You are not the only one. I love the acting from both of them, but if they were my RL friends, I would not want them to be together because I think they will continue to have the same types of problems.

There were 4 main couples, 3 of them were on again off again most of the drama so there were many near breakups and actual breakups and get back togethers throughout.. One couple did not get together until sometime in the last 8 episodes but had no breakups. The ex showed up for about 4-5 episodes in the early 30s. I liked the ending.

I really liked the ending of this drama a lot. Reason #1: all story lines were tied up with a proper conclusion - no hanging threads or open ending nonsense here. Reason #2: I felt like they gave enough time to each couple's story to make it feel like we had a satisfying ending. Reason #3 no last minute brand new characters come to spoil the day, no last minute deaths/amnesia/torment to drag the ending and sap our energy. I did not find Men in Love to be a perfect drama, but there was still a lot to enjoy, especially the acting.

Personally, I found the best parts to be the buddy scenes and the evolution of the lawyer+ sister story line (despite her many childish moments). While every other female in this drama ran away from her relationship problems, Jia Lin was the only one who faced any of her relationship issues head on (even growing a bit) and never abandoned her work goals. I know a lot of people did not like this character, but that was the only couple I cared about by the end.

Just mom parts specifically were around ep 37 11 min, then the beginning of ep 38 right after XY talks to JC, then again at around 31 min

ep 37 Most of this ep was good, intro is tragic XY backstory scene

almost the entire first 15 min is about the XY and Jia Lin story, all very good, including Jia Lin informing parents around 11 min mark (I cheered here)

around 16:30 is where the XX and YH story picks up again, you can skip

around 22 min is the lawyer lady gets put in her place, followed by JiaLin's confrontation with her brother - both good short scenes

skip to around 25 min mark for the present day grave site part 1, quite touching, I cried here, story is great up until the 32 point when TYW and JC discuss Jia Lin and then more XX stuff picks up again mostly to the last scene

last scene starts at 38:50 and is XY and JC talking again, not bad scene

ep 38 the chat continues right at the start, followed by another confronting the mother part at the lawyer's office, good scene, good brother

at the 8 min mark, you can skip the TYW vs mother argument, after is a long part about the married couple again, followed by office meetings, and XX stuff

around the 21 min mark is grave scene part 2, good part folllowed by Jia Lin and JC talk - good part, after that skip

pick up again at around 31 min mark for meet the parents scene with XY and Jia Lin, good scene, I clapped and cheered again here

36 min mark is when I got angry with TYW story, so skip to avoid throwing things at your screen - it is all them to the end of this ep but...

(optional skip to 42 min mark tiny but cute scene for like 3 seconds before end credits)

She is the most annoying character besides the evil mother. The mother's reasons are messed up and infuriating, but TYW also doesn't seem to be as invested in her relationship as JC is. She doesn't deserve such a devoted guy. The actress is playing her part well, but I really don't like her character.

Jia Lin is the VIP of today's episode regarding the evil mother. Her brother gets a nod as well, but Jia Lin is the only one who came up with the perfect plan to stand up to her interfering parents. She is actually quite clever behind all the cutsie pie eyelash batting. Jia Lin managed to solve her problem and opened the door to fixing her brother's problem with the mom.

Most notable differences: the jobs and lifestyles of the 4 buddies is a bit different, with a lot of family member drama added in this version that did not exist in the Korean version. The FL is a college phys ed teacher/cycling coach with a side hustle of adult basketball team coach in this version, but was a high school teacher in the Korean, with a side gig as a umpire for an adult baseball team.

The age gap between the sister and lawyer characters was a bigger in the Korean version. The main obstacle in the Korean to their relationship was the age gap and the older brother's refusal to accept them as a couple. In the Chinese version, the brother still is upset, but more because of the lawyer's tragic past. The tragic past comes into play for the lawyer in both versions.

Major spoilers below:
The ex character had already married and her son was 19 in the Korean version. She came to China to find him after he left Japan seeking his real father. All the son knew was that his dad was one of the 4 friends, who had all been involved with her in the past. The Chinese version made it clear that only the ML had been in a relationship with her, and her motivation to return to China was both work related and to try to get the ML to marry her after she broke up with her 6-7 year old son's father. (Son is not the ML's kid in Chinese version)

The lawyer's deceased wife Jie, who died 6 years before the start of the story, so probably around 7years by the time of the parts in today's episode. In the opening scene, they showed the past when they got the news of her death and the original funeral , then later they visited her grave in the present, as they do each year.