Eleison

That's honestly kind of sad, though. 🥺

I think we can assume from the plot and characters that there will be no healthy romance (or HE for it) featured in this drama. 😅

She's with her in-laws only for a few episodes.

Sorry, I meant the magnetism of the actors playing Sang Zhi and Duan Jiaxu in HL was better than the actors playing those same characters in TFF.

Yeah, he plays the gorgeous heart throb really well. 😏

Both the leads are way more charismatic and magnetic in HL than the way they're portrayed in FF (I mean Sang Zhi and Duan Jiaxu). I actually would have loved to see the ML from HL match his riz with BJT--they both would have been fun to watch in scenes together!

I didn't like the part as much when she was a child/in high school. It is better when she is in the college. My favorite bits are when they are flirting and he's finding out he's her crush. I think it's around Episodes 12-16 or so that have my favorite parts. I didn't like the end as much because I didn't like how they kept it from her parents.

But Sang Zhi's a a lot more entitled and spoiled than Yifan, right? 😅 Like Sang Yan before he got rejected the first time and realized the world didn't revolve around him, haha.

I thought it was satisfactorily updated and improved in this version! The ML has the best character development in this version in my opinion. This version is the most low budget, but the most satisfying to watch!

Soooo... not a happy ending, then. 😅

The fact that Mr. Sunshine is the first recommended drama concerns me (the ending of Mr. Sunshine was not what I wanted to see...).

Cutely unbearable is a good way of putting it. 😉

Very different from Hidden Love as a vibe, but similar in that it's very main couple focused and not much "plot" outside tracking the couple's entire love story from first twinge of love to happily-ever-after (Hidden Love is similar that way). It totally feels like the same writer, but like a completely different kind of story. I don't know if that makes sense?

There are similar beats and characteristics to Hidden Love, but this drama is about a warm and steady love that heals deep wounds rather than a love that's, well, hidden (and hopeful and young and playful). 😅 It also intertwines with the timeline of Hidden Love and even has Qian Fei's wedding, but with a focus on Sang Yan and Wen Yifan rather than on Duan Jiaxu and Sang Zhi.

There is still pretty amazing chemistry in this at times, but the tone of the couple and the entire drama is completely different. I feel like I can compare this drama to the experience of watching a person (Sang Yan) slowly, and with painstaking effort and care, coax a cat (Wen Yifan) out from under the bed till it's ready to curl up permanently on their lap, happy and content in their person's love. 😅

Didn't expect the proposal to be so similar to WIFTY; is it a modern romance Cdrama thing to propose with a video recording of a highlight reel? 😉

The last episode is sappy sweet/happy but I thought it was the slowest episode because it had so many reused flashbacks from the earlier episodes' flashbacks (and I always thought those parts were kind of slow). I tend to prefer a bit more action, and a bit less reminiscing for the last episode (I am fine with some, for sure, but I prefer the ending of, say, While You Were Sleeping. That has a great final episode.)

Some very lovely parts, and the drama did a good job showing how hard Yifan's life and story was without making the drama full-on depressing, and infusing it with some hope.

P.S. I wanted to see Sang Zhi with Duan Jiaxu and have the four interact as a family with Sang Yan's parents. 😏

Wait till they show the whole backstory. Her life is very sad!

Okay... and WHY did Sang Yan approach Che Xingde when he had already called the police and could have just waited and told Wen Yifan to wait inside the station and not come out? 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ Duuuudddeeee!!!

I was kinda shocked that Zhong Siqiao stopped the kissing session to ask Su Haoan if he brought protection (surprised me in a Cdrama), and was gonna applaud that the assumption was HE should be the one to take precautions instead of assuming SHE should, but then I realized that SHE had to stop the makeout session AND be the one to think of it in the first place. I mean, at the very least, one good thing about how that scene played out was that Su Haoan responded responsibly after she pointed it out, but even better if he had been the more responsible one and either 1) brought protection OR 2) thought of it before she did. Girls/women are still often the ones society puts the responsibility on for making sure "guys behave," and unfortunately this scene was no different (portrayed healthier than it could have been, but still not where it could be). 😑 Lost some points there, First Frost.

Oh, really? Do tell. I wonder if they're anything like mine (though I think I like it better than Hidden Love (it's much heavier and more somber than HL)), I still have some gripes. Modern romance Cdramas sometimes feel a bit... dated? The MLs are often more aggressive than I like, and I have no idea if they dealt with the trauma from SA in FF well since I have very little experience with or exposure to women with a history of it (as far as I know, that is).

I'm finishing First Frost right now, but I'll come back to this afterwards! Once (if?) I finish I'll reach out to vent. 😉

😅😅😅

I've heard people complain about the ending because none of the main couples end up together right at the last minute, yes? I'm not too far, but I don't know why people like the second leads. I don't like Shangguan; she's too slippery for me to root for and her whispery talking kind of grates on me (I don't care for the "elegent," "noble lady" way of speaking in Asian costume dramas (Kdramas and Cdramas both); it gives me the shivers. 😅)

I definitely spoiled a few things for myself already (might've read who Anonymous is... 🫣), and we'll see if I make it through. So far it's pretty gripping and an interesting premise compared to other costume dramas.

The title sounds so much cozier/more romance focused than it is! 😅

Haha, thanks, this is all helpful! So interesting that none of the main Gong family has actual siblings. They're all cousins, but have somehow formed "cousin camps" and see some as rivals and others as allies. Fascinating, but obviously profoundly dysfunctional. 😅