Frost_edelweiss

yes, I got it that this won't be torrid romance 🤣🤣 🤣🤣 🤣🤣
The Mai family is one big bag of mismatched crayfish of various hues that ML would like to cook to his taste, perhaps. The Mai mother is relentlessly crabby 🦀🦀🦀🦀
Hairy crab is a delicacy in China, btw.

Yao never was entitled or deserving to get anything he wanted just because of bloodline or work abroad; his grandmother had every right in China to dispose of her property as she saw fit. She had found out he had come only to squeeze the Xing An Li hotel from her to hand it over, "streamlined" and "rid of obsolete personnel" to be handed over to the larger international group under which her grandson was just a pawn. So, she wanted to protect the people first, and grandson had to learn his lesson there ; Grandma had been grooming her "heart" granddaughter for the task so she had no qualm making it into title for Chenghuan. Giving the house to Yao was a test : if he tried to oust the Mai family, or even exchange inheritance, he would totally lose any trust from Chenghuan, because despite difficulties she would not back down, faced with challenges.

"He could have had it all, rolling in the deep", to paraphrase a famous song, but he "played it to the beat", almost losing all confidence from Chenghuan. She knew well that he had helped her before, but his last lie to her tainted everything he had done with the color of greedy dishonesty.

I finished watching in 2 sittings today and added a rather descriptive review. I like Edgar Poe's work enough to have gone reciting the Raven and toast him in a group at his grave in Baltimore, back in another century, when fellow Poe admirer Stephen King was not the legend he has become ! That was one of my most treasured World Fantasy convention going days. So yes, Ligeia, MS found in a bottle, all that, does ring an attractive bell.

The booking by Chen Zheyuan of a movie theater to support the airing (when he was busy with Gucci duties in Shenzhen) had eluded my radar then, but since I found the link in comments section here, I had to add it in one section of my Profile of CZY ; here is the link :
https://kisskh.at/discussions/an-ye-yu-li-ming/119875-profile-of-chen-zhe-yuan?pid=2762209&page=1#p2762209
(that profile is housed under Discussions of upcoming Dark Night and Dawn series, only for convenience's sake. It is easier for me to add and modify in Discussions sections than it would be in a fixed Article...).

I had also done a mini profile for Tan Jianci in Discussions of LYLMV (because I and some others here among commenters, do "love his voice" lol ! ) ; that one is here : https://kisskh.at/discussions/really-miss-you/121599-love-you-love-my-voice-playlist-and-more?pid=2904475&page=1#p2904475 (updated with same piece of news).

Since Zhang Jingyi is now also starring in delicious Blossoms in Adversity, I was toying with the temptation to add a mini profile for her in Discussions there, but it is a lot of work, and these days I'm busy with other stuff too. She is in my list of preferred actresses, of course.

Yes, that script : so bad it destroyed and destoried the show.

I agree the two leads were hot and often sweet. Will remember them (cutting off memory of the hot mess end scenes not really redeemed by the "happy end") if they play in other roles.

yep, stay for the hot kissing scene. And go with the nice dreams after, turning off the rest, good idea. You will at least leave with a positive impression of hot chemistry between the main leads who probably deserved a better story to act in :)
Off my hat, it's around 19-20, but this is one I will not re watch to check.

fell into a sewer and got mangled by the recycling machines?
(I am harsh, but this drama ended up tiring for me).

Although I liked the drama until ep.19-20 or so, and especially the very hot office kissing scene, I grew very disappointed and bored in the last third of the drama, when the conundrums took over with the SFL psycho step sister (daughter of ML's adoptive father) and the "best friend" of FL (step brother of SFL with same father, still wanting to possess FL when she had made clear she loved ML only). ML "CEO", who lacked acumen to see through the jealousy of his "secretary" cum "amnesic hidden sister", became increasingly boring, despite a few randomly thrown in kissing scenes, break ups and make ups. The over repeated "I can do everything for you" bgm song grew on my nerves, so I almost slammed computer shut. But being a completionist, I stayed to watch the drag and chore of last episodes. They are not worth purchasing into express package, btw; it was a tedium for me to stay until the "happy ending" with SFL standing in a field of flowers facing the ex hostile scion of the antagonist family, to accept his proposal! while a drone brought a white head veil to be plucked from the sky by ML to accompany his proposal, said drone operated by "best friend" who had taken over the role of CEO at ML's company, to push it into merging with the once hostile competitor. The unraveling of the unnecessarily convoluted knots of the story ended up devoid of any meaning, so, I can't leave a nice rating any longer and will cut it down to 6.5. (which is lenient all considered)

This drama, which was filmed last year, April 1 to May 28, 2023. had won attention to be in the top 10 web dramas previous week, and was still #5 in the top ten ratings for last week ending 2024.04.14. But I doubt it will get a high Douban rating, now. Relatively high ratings here on MDL are very lenient, in my opinion.

The ML Zhao Zhiwei and FL Lu Yangyang had good chemistry, and SML Brian Chang, looked good, that's all. I hope the leads will get better roles in the future.

It was filmed April 1 to May 28, 2023.

You are describing the surviving clan traditions. I think this is much more constrictive in South East Asia than in China proper, where many historical movements bashed some of this outlook, although yes, it does survive in part for the "very rich" and connected.

If it is just "common folk", 老百姓，it is somewhat easier, although not always. If the partner is eldest son even from working or middle class : he'd have to be assertive and set boundaries clearly to go about with personal choices, which is not necessarily unfilial.

What is more unusual is to keep the daughter so much "on the leash" when she is past 25.

Also that said daughter agreed complacently to such a situation, so we can say Chenghuan is indeed in part responsible for what happened. Sure, she could not demand independence when she was 9 years old as the mother shouted, but she could have, at 22, or 23, shortly after she started working and earning her keep, instead of keeping her baby room at home, forcing her brother to make do with a folding cot between a window and a curtain.

Sure, renting an apartment to live in, in Shanghai, is outrageously expensive, but it is not a valid excuse for a courageous person.

Zhang Jingyi has risen meteorically (as I foresaw since Fall In Love and Lighter and Princess).
Yang Zi (not Zhi) is top too, but a costume romance does not necessarily top a modern one. It just happens that the modern one is, this time, less easy to binge watch than the costume one for various reasons, not so sweet as say, The Oath of Love which overtook costume dramas in the race to #1 at the time it aired.
Both Xu Kai and Hu Yitian have fans and haters. Since I hate no one, I watch them all, with pleasure, even mentioned in TLoSL comments that I was moving on from zhaozhao to aoao for next watch (and from dear Lin Gengxin to Xu Kai who is maturing and seldom shy, lol).
But I agree that BIA (and TLoSL) are the most outstanding for a good time drama watching, at this moment.
I believe Best Choice Ever will rise in ranking, once interaction between Xu Kai and Yang Zi reaches something different from now, with more than budding chemistry at least. To me it is already a story that I am eager to watch unfold.

Right. I had taken note of Zeng Li who also did "difficult mother" roles (she can also play deliciously doting one) or surrogate mom like the Immortal leader of the Legend of Shen Li.
Now I will also remember the name of He Saifei.

I was wondering if the still wet sheet had slipped from her hand when she waved the drops away, to fall on the ground so they'd have to re-wash it ! lol

of course, this is drama and not at all slice-of-life.

You mean the Xin sister? She wants the father and brother-heir to keep supporting the family with money, so that's why she meddles shamelessly, despite being married in another family (why she keeps living and eating at home with the Xin is somewhat of a mystery : perhaps she hates her in laws, after she did that business alliance marriage?)

you are watching BIA too, right ? :)
well other times, other mores, and pretty independent ladies in both.
BIA ranked #1 for this week and BF remains in the top ten webdramas :))
TLOSL remained top in the TV category to my approval, although as I wrote elsewhere, I would not mind it if WOF got top, just still content with its remaining #2 in that category, despite both have finished first run.

I find this drama very interesting in its direct use of some dialogues in Shanghainese! (ep.13-15 between Chenghuan's dad and mom when they get "heated up" lol)

Shanghainese is a form of Wu language, which is not at all that close to Yue (" Cantonese"). Perhaps the familiar feeling for some comes from the fact that Wu is a 5 tone language whereas Cantonese has 6 tones. Putonghua "Mandarin" has 4 tones, the "Meixian" dialect of Hakka which is spoken in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, also has 4 tones, but that does not make it any closer at all to putonghua...

Here is a map of the main "dialects" or languages in China btw :
https://ai.glossika.com/blog/introduction-to-tones-in-asian-languages#tonetable
(to which should be added the "minority languages" that often coexist.)

First time I noticed some slightly familiar Wu (I don't speak it but have family in the Jiangnan, so can understand some, from elders talk between themselves) was in "Forever and Ever", when the ML was speaking half and half with his teacher in Zhenjiang and with others in Wuzhen. But. It is well known that Wu is one of the most "dialectal" of the language areas. Each town has its variety!

Shanghainese is one -- or was, traditionally, because putonghua, like in most areas has been largely introduced as the language to learn in schools, so it is mostly old or peasant people who speak it now, despite (contrary to a fluctuating period where it was looked down on and discouraged in schoolyards) there now is some movement to preserve the unique language heritage. Young adults may understand it, but might answer in putonghua even inside family.

Still, a language never keeps isolated and in a time stasis : it is always evolving, whether it is dialect or recognized language. Depending on type of employment etc, there will always be variations.

Available now on the YoYo English channel with English + Chinese double subtitles :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4iwS4Juxf4
(ongoing new release)

Interesting theory. There will be some suspense to look forward to ! 🫢

Glad to see we both enjoyed XK in AMA 🤗.