i wonder when this will be available in my country... i'm from germany, but iqiyi still doesn't have it for me…
Yesss. It is still difficult to access from some places. Kiss is the easiest non official platform, although not good quality. https://kisskh.co/Drama/A-Journey-to-Love?id=8251&q=true Some peer to peer share streams have it from what I heard: you have to know the right persons (competent and friendly IT nerds) to access them, although every drama is not available. I was also very disappointed that it couldn't be accessed abroad on iQiyi since I subscribe faithfully to the main platforms and was ready to fork out extra for the advance view of last episodes. It should be available to the world, imo.
Midway I spoiled myself reading a comment not to expect a HE with all of the squad members alive. I even saw in…
If I remember well, a part of the messenger pigeons had been "taken care of" so no news would travel easily that way. First by Ning Tou'er and Liu Dao Tang, when they were escaping from An, and then of course by Second Prince's henchmen, who had to cover up the treason. It has also been shown at the "hunting for the stolen ransom" episode that it was not that difficult to shoot down a pigeon and intercept messages. Sending Yuan Lu was clearly in the hope that he would be spared from the carnage. The distance between He xian and An du is mentioned by Yuan Lu as 300 miles. The nearest outpost with LDT secret outpost was days away from He xian anyway. If the going had been peaceful, yes QZ would have sent a message, that he did not showed there was a problem with communication, not only because QZ had hidden designs. Ning Yuanzhou and LDT were, as most there, believing that news needed cross checking and confirmation: usually a sound policy. So the smoke signal should have been investigated, but there were also cover up from some reasons not to do it.
I was prepared for the ending so the ending was bearable for me but can someone explain the last scene, who's…
Ah the mystery !!!! A vision? a dream? What many audience would like to see as a seed for hope that Ruyi faked her death and that of Ning Tou'er as well? Take your pick.
Clickable links to SOME of my comments for this drama, if anyone is interested they can read those as well.first…
Thank you for your detailed notes and hard work, and your love of this fine wuxia drama! I hope more people will come to like it, with or without the "heroic demise" ending (or did they manage to once more dodge the bullet, fake their death, and escape to the peace and quiet they yearned for, cutting ties with the past? There are clues both for this or that, and I can understand those audience who were sad that so many of the characters they had come to love ended killed off, and would like to dream up, like Chu Yue probably did, a different outcome; I read somewhere that indeed, a sequel is planned! But not with same cast/characters. So the final true demise of Ning Tou'er and Ruyi looks like it will stand in AJTL...).
Before moving onward to new drama excitement, I am listening to the excellent OST that featured such greats in Chinese pop music as Guangliang, Chen Xueran (most bgm and music director for the drama), Liu Yuning (the "prince" of ost could not have less than two songs in, here ; he always interprets beautifully), Tia Ray etc. And to the playlists of Liu Yuning songs, from and before his first non OST song "Imagination" - he covered also many beautiful songs in addition to the almost 90 songs he contributed to dramas!
I added some links to all that and some meat as well (literally!) in my mini profile of LYN (in the Discussion). It's from different angles than the article by Cho Na in 2021 that I finally found after her ongoing chronology of LYN's OST songs. Both are of course linked also, in the Discussion, which I will now leave standing, after a re-watch of the drama to check where characters appeared from the sprawling Baidu list. I added a good many to the list, with pictures from screenshots to know their face.
And some maps for the Journey. Plus some related interviews and show. Enough for the "starving concubines" (or princesses, as one might translate this fan name :D).
Happy New Year to you and those who read until this message!
Well its different. In mandarin, the drama, they call him Ning Tou'er (head), well his fans use "Lao Da"
Yes, but he's increasingly mentioned just like that in Chinese comments about published videos and even Weibo : 宁头儿 Ning Tou'er, so to me, it looks like it could fast become an alternative nickname to NingGe or LaoDa! Happy new year to the 棚妃们 :D
new fan here!! I was hoping someone has an answer i noticed he usually carry something like a beaded necklace…
Many Chinese male celebrities do the same (Z.Tao often does too) ; it's for good luck. It is a kind of Buddhist rosary, wound around the wrist. The "mala" prayer beads (108 usually) can be of dark or red wood, or other plain looking material, and are usually simple but not tiny. (Nothing like the, to me, fake "feng shui" bead items made of gemstones with "charms" that are more fashion with a Chinese excuse, touted by outfits like Falun Dafa, which is a banned cult in China, but has strong backers in the US, where they are known by their "Shen Yun" shows or "Epoch Times" enterprises which are a front for their anti Chinese government propaganda: they are very aggressive, don't believe what they say.)
Wearing such "rosaries" is also a statement: a wish that good fortune will stay with wearer. It may be religious, but for most, I suspect rather it is more cultural and superstitious practice: very religious C-entertainers are not that many, outside perhaps singer A-Lan dawa dolma, who is known to be a fervent Tibetan buddhist advocating peace.
Most jewels have a symbolic meaning anyway. Women may wear a jade bangle or a pierced disk pendant or other symbolic jewel (I have one old "ruyi" -not the whole scepter, but the curled clouds head evoking lingzhi mushroom, carved with other auspicious symbols coiled -in Hetian white jade), for similar reasons: jade carries special superstitions too.
Interesting. But when & where was it or will it be released?
As of Dec28, 2023, there was no info on imdb or baidu baike, that only had a "The Club of Two Heroes" costume historical drama film directed by Chen Huaai , starring Xu Huanshan , released in 1984, "adapted from a fragment of Yao Xueyin's novel " Li Zicheng " and tells the story of Li Zicheng persuading Zhang Xianzhong , another peasant uprising leader who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty , to raise the flag of righteousness again.". Not near the description of a HK story, reminding or not of Maggie's star role In the mood for love... So was the new Jia Zhangke movie featuring formerly retired Maggie Cheung, released under a different title?
Random discovered while trawling YouTube for "light stuff" & fluff after re-watching a grandiose wuxia;). It looked entertaining, after the ML got robbed by pickpockets near the Eiffel Tower in Paris -- something that unfortunately is very common these days, making me remember with nostalgia the better times before the 2000s when such risks were 90% less than today. The title not having been disclosed on YouTube, I am not 100% sure it is this one, although the title translated to "Mr. Ji, your vest fell off" could apply to ML character, who is a CEO called Mr. Ji. The story is light fluff to start with, with a flash marriage to an heiress (Miss Xia) who more or less randomly chose to wed a man she thought was poor, but was in fact hiding his tycoon identity. There were many funny moments with Mr Ji 's assistant playing many roles to cover up for his boss. Second half was less breezy, with antagonists who might have caused the death of FL's mother, and herself suffering an "incurable disease" -- but Miss Xia was still alive in the end, perhaps on the mend. Duration 1h52 (without credits) Not much bgm. The famous love song "Xihuan Ni" was played at one moment.
Random discovered another mini drama of this pair of actors : Xu YIzhen and Sun Yue seem to have been acting together already in a number of mini dramas such as this one. Some links are on YouTube for Sun Yue : https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/%E5%AD%99%E6%A8%BE
There is a comic work created by the author Huoli Panda going with the same title 《恰似寒光遇骄阳》, translated to : "Like Cold Light Meeting the Hot Sun" The description of the story (novel) has transmigration of souls and rebirth ; perhaps this is the same story as the mini drama posted here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfuhzADPHuY featuring Xu Yizhen and Sun Yue. Duration : 1h39 (without credits)
I had already seen Richard Li / Li Fei 😍 in "Seal of Love", which was one twisting story that those who saw it wished would get a sequel. Zhao Jiamin, 😍 , the FL, also has strong stage presence, a sweet face, and it's no surprise that she already was chosen for roles in a series of nice dramas such as "Gone With the Rain", "Scent of Time", "Wonderland of Love", after a complicated start as FL in "Palace: Devious Women".). So, I got hooked after the first quick rebirths/restarts (not bothering about the how and why. Maybe other time strands?) I wondered how it would evolve and end. While admiring the good looking actors and sets. The drama had for me some atmospheric kinship to Gone With the Rain, although they are very different stories. Pulling back and forth, sense of justice, wish for an independent and ordinary non eventful life, if that is at all possible. This could seem like something many would prefer to dangerous life in the public eye, and too much wealth that attracts jealousy and treachery. Resolving the equation with a poster kiss on a snowy backdrop with blurred red lanterns was quite pleasing, if expected, considering the conventions regarding "time travel" and "supernatural" stories now.. After all, this was only a "short drama". The music is nice, too. Totally recommendable for fluff with some thrills. Even if this is not the ultimate masterpiece, it is good enough to be ranked among the very good short dramas. I am generous and this was Christmas Eve watching, so 9/10 from me.
ML started as singer, only these few years focus on acting. Here is one of the collab performance I thought very…
I just added it into the Tan Jianci Profile, together with this piece that might rejoice his fans: the unboxing by JC-T of the Dreams package that contains interesting and exciting goodies such as a shrinking butterfly and lumo cards! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcnu5c25zzg (The video is not subtitled, but easy to understand, and the presentation added this information : "It was also revealed that the new album is also being produced hard. The first single of the new album will be available to everyone at the 2024 Hunan Satellite TV New Year’s Eve Party. Let’s look forward to it together!")
Boring, flat and monotonous drama. The plot is based on nothingness itself, they give us the love story of a Superman…
As for the LMLMV story, no, I was not won over either: Tan Jianci has done and will do better than this drama. Not much wrong with his acting (although the pasted on smile did get on my nerves and also on those of other JC-T fans). I think the trouble was more with the directing and story itself, and perhaps the choice of FL that turned the whole sauce bland and soporific. I had to kick myself to stay awake outside the musical numbers. Looking at it once is fine : next, go listen to the fine OST and bgm OST. And to other JC-T music and MVs including his album. New audiences can find more references to these and to the music style, in the Discussion that I contributed.
That said, new and young audiences who have not seen many C-romances may perfectly like LMLMV on first viewing. It is fluff that does not crave much thinking or understanding of anything. Well, perhaps some sympathy for the music genre and for Chinese cuisine. Nothing very demanding. It is a "non drama" with no antagonists, nothing to be achieved. Worst is the scarcity of hot kisses, for those who demand such. The much vaunted BTS of extended glass wall kiss did not do much for me. I just hope JC-T and Zhou Ye did not get too bored having to perform it, and next seeing their effort cut to size despite there was not much to raise eyebrows there... The sleeping scenes just sent me snoozing, oof! Remembering wrily that Tan Jianci in interview had said he thought this drama would be "good for relaxing" in evening after work: yes, well... Love him love his voice, so I won't bash the drama for everything.
And if later new audiences should be curious about more thrilling stories, they could turn to Lost You Forever, or explore other romances like Hidden Love, The Forbidden Flower - both with age gap - or Hi Venus, The Road Home - with more mature ML engaged in different professions, or Forever and Ever, the sequel to masterpiece tragedy One and Only, where the reborn Shi Yi is working as dubber in a studio and has a thrilling romance with her reborn lover who has forgotten the past and focuses on another profession than warrior. Romances featuring dubbing studios or entertainment are not limited to F&F and LMLMV, but can be more disappointing, story or music wise, so I won't mention more even if I have seen a few already - and there may be a lot I did not have time for, or did not think were worth a try, considering the usually lenient ratings on MDL that were too low for them. Even if I sometimes still watch such items, on a whim when nothing else grabs my attention as an eclectic drama watcher, who equally dives merrily into period, historical, wuxia, xianxia, modern or Republican era, slice of life, or medical, business, time-travel, fantasy and science fiction, what-have-you genres.
Btw, the short dramas are a treasure trove for those who seek "fluffy" only ones, especially those that are limited to 5 to 20 minutes episodes. MDL even has a list of such short dramas, by no means exhaustive since there are tons of them. They can be very satisfying such as Since I Met You, or fraught with tropes and annoying antagonists to make them less bland. But they can be a platform for new actors to get a first try, or even to make themselves noticed, not only in fluff (Maid's Revenge or Provoke were particularly thrilling and memorable for me, and their MLs and FLs have also done other interesting "small dramas".)
So, let's not be too harsh of LMLMV. It has some good sides.... The music.... Watching JC-T sing in other genre that he is used to... Looking into more gufeng/zhongguofeng... Why not go stray over to YouTube to watch Luo Tianyi thrilling Sun Qian song concert, or same Luo Tianyi with Fang Jinlong singing Molihua in a 2019 show combining technology and time hallowed tune?
ML started as singer, only these few years focus on acting. Here is one of the collab performance I thought very…
Yes, Tan Jianci shows that he has not forgotten he was an award winning Latin dancer as well (his initial training when he was sent as an adolescent to art school in Beijing very far from his Beihai, Guangxi southern China home). Yu Wenwen danced prettily with him in that video. Wei Li'an complemented the trio for the performance of "Why do I love you so much". Nice watching, thanks for pointing to it! I shall add this to the short Profile of Tan Jianci (JC-T) that I added in the Discussion section, as an example of his collab performances, since I mentioned single and group performances there. And since this drama was a treat for Tan Jianci singer fans.
I watched it quickly on WeTV phone app. Good subtitling. Predictable story to while away a moment, with time travel back and forth from an "ancient kingdom". But with interesting actors who kept my attention. Interesting FL who will be playing in Dali Temple alongside Chang Huasen who gained recognition as "LI Tongguang" in A Journey To Love, the 2023 star wuxia. Not much is known about that Dali Temple drama, which is a costume web series, different from I Am A Pet At Dali Temple. The director of that upcoming one is the one who directed The King's Avatar and Our Secret, both rather well received in their different categories.
2 
5 
1 
1 
1 
And more.
Kiss is the easiest non official platform, although not good quality.
https://kisskh.co/Drama/A-Journey-to-Love?id=8251&q=true
Some peer to peer share streams have it from what I heard: you have to know the right persons (competent and friendly IT nerds) to access them, although every drama is not available.
I was also very disappointed that it couldn't be accessed abroad on iQiyi since I subscribe faithfully to the main platforms and was ready to fork out extra for the advance view of last episodes. It should be available to the world, imo.
It's two pages: second one starts with the mini profile updated to Dec31, 2023. There are links on first page to hop from one subject to another if you are hunting for something in particular.
Sending Yuan Lu was clearly in the hope that he would be spared from the carnage.
The distance between He xian and An du is mentioned by Yuan Lu as 300 miles. The nearest outpost with LDT secret outpost was days away from He xian anyway. If the going had been peaceful, yes QZ would have sent a message, that he did not showed there was a problem with communication, not only because QZ had hidden designs.
Ning Yuanzhou and LDT were, as most there, believing that news needed cross checking and confirmation: usually a sound policy. So the smoke signal should have been investigated, but there were also cover up from some reasons not to do it.
Before moving onward to new drama excitement, I am listening to the excellent OST that featured such greats in Chinese pop music as Guangliang, Chen Xueran (most bgm and music director for the drama), Liu Yuning (the "prince" of ost could not have less than two songs in, here ; he always interprets beautifully), Tia Ray etc. And to the playlists of Liu Yuning songs, from and before his first non OST song "Imagination" - he covered also many beautiful songs in addition to the almost 90 songs he contributed to dramas!
I added some links to all that and some meat as well (literally!) in my mini profile of LYN (in the Discussion). It's from different angles than the article by Cho Na in 2021 that I finally found after her ongoing chronology of LYN's OST songs. Both are of course linked also, in the Discussion, which I will now leave standing, after a re-watch of the drama to check where characters appeared from the sprawling Baidu list. I added a good many to the list, with pictures from screenshots to know their face.
And some maps for the Journey. Plus some related interviews and show. Enough for the "starving concubines" (or princesses, as one might translate this fan name :D).
Happy New Year to you and those who read until this message!
Happy new year to the 棚妃们 :D
It is a kind of Buddhist rosary, wound around the wrist. The "mala" prayer beads (108 usually) can be of dark or red wood, or other plain looking material, and are usually simple but not tiny. (Nothing like the, to me, fake "feng shui" bead items made of gemstones with "charms" that are more fashion with a Chinese excuse, touted by outfits like Falun Dafa, which is a banned cult in China, but has strong backers in the US, where they are known by their "Shen Yun" shows or "Epoch Times" enterprises which are a front for their anti Chinese government propaganda: they are very aggressive, don't believe what they say.)
Wearing such "rosaries" is also a statement: a wish that good fortune will stay with wearer. It may be religious, but for most, I suspect rather it is more cultural and superstitious practice: very religious C-entertainers are not that many, outside perhaps singer A-Lan dawa dolma, who is known to be a fervent Tibetan buddhist advocating peace.
Most jewels have a symbolic meaning anyway.
Women may wear a jade bangle or a pierced disk pendant or other symbolic jewel (I have one old "ruyi" -not the whole scepter, but the curled clouds head evoking lingzhi mushroom, carved with other auspicious symbols coiled -in Hetian white jade), for similar reasons: jade carries special superstitions too.
As of Dec28, 2023, there was no info on imdb or baidu baike, that only had a "The Club of Two Heroes" costume historical drama film directed by Chen Huaai , starring Xu Huanshan , released in 1984, "adapted from a fragment of Yao Xueyin's novel " Li Zicheng " and tells the story of Li Zicheng persuading Zhang Xianzhong , another peasant uprising leader who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty , to raise the flag of righteousness again.". Not near the description of a HK story, reminding or not of Maggie's star role In the mood for love...
So was the new Jia Zhangke movie featuring formerly retired Maggie Cheung, released under a different title?
The title not having been disclosed on YouTube, I am not 100% sure it is this one, although the title translated to "Mr. Ji, your vest fell off" could apply to ML character, who is a CEO called Mr. Ji. The story is light fluff to start with, with a flash marriage to an heiress (Miss Xia) who more or less randomly chose to wed a man she thought was poor, but was in fact hiding his tycoon identity. There were many funny moments with Mr Ji 's assistant playing many roles to cover up for his boss. Second half was less breezy, with antagonists who might have caused the death of FL's mother, and herself suffering an "incurable disease" -- but Miss Xia was still alive in the end, perhaps on the mend.
Duration 1h52 (without credits)
Not much bgm. The famous love song "Xihuan Ni" was played at one moment.
Xu Yizhen and Sun Yue seem to have been acting together already in a number of mini dramas such as this one. Some links are on YouTube for Sun Yue : https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/%E5%AD%99%E6%A8%BE
The link I followed was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnF2vHZfZ6U&list=PLf6ipCfkkfKFOuFARwObdP5ek-O_NOe4_ It has also been posted with another "title" as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XgFYaMgatc
Not sure if it is available elsewhere. It is really "vertically filmed" : like watching on a phone!
EDIT OF MARCH 2025: the video links above are now "private", but look down comments for a valid link!
There is a comic work created by the author Huoli Panda going with the same title 《恰似寒光遇骄阳》, translated to : "Like Cold Light Meeting the Hot Sun" The description of the story (novel) has transmigration of souls and rebirth ; perhaps this is the same story as the mini drama posted here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfuhzADPHuY featuring Xu Yizhen and Sun Yue. Duration : 1h39 (without credits)
Zhao Jiamin, 😍 , the FL, also has strong stage presence, a sweet face, and it's no surprise that she already was chosen for roles in a series of nice dramas such as "Gone With the Rain", "Scent of Time", "Wonderland of Love", after a complicated start as FL in "Palace: Devious Women".).
So, I got hooked after the first quick rebirths/restarts (not bothering about the how and why. Maybe other time strands?) I wondered how it would evolve and end. While admiring the good looking actors and sets.
The drama had for me some atmospheric kinship to Gone With the Rain, although they are very different stories. Pulling back and forth, sense of justice, wish for an independent and ordinary non eventful life, if that is at all possible. This could seem like something many would prefer to dangerous life in the public eye, and too much wealth that attracts jealousy and treachery.
Resolving the equation with a poster kiss on a snowy backdrop with blurred red lanterns was quite pleasing, if expected, considering the conventions regarding "time travel" and "supernatural" stories now.. After all, this was only a "short drama".
The music is nice, too.
Totally recommendable for fluff with some thrills. Even if this is not the ultimate masterpiece, it is good enough to be ranked among the very good short dramas.
I am generous and this was Christmas Eve watching, so 9/10 from me.
(The video is not subtitled, but easy to understand, and the presentation added this information : "It was also revealed that the new album is also being produced hard. The first single of the new album will be available to everyone at the 2024 Hunan Satellite TV New Year’s Eve Party. Let’s look forward to it together!")
For the Profile, you can check out https://kisskh.at/discussions/really-miss-you/121599-love-you-love-my-voice-playlist-and-more?pid=2904475&page=1#p2904475 and if you have more to add, be my guest to do so in comments!
Merry Christmas and happy festive season to all!
That said, new and young audiences who have not seen many C-romances may perfectly like LMLMV on first viewing. It is fluff that does not crave much thinking or understanding of anything. Well, perhaps some sympathy for the music genre and for Chinese cuisine. Nothing very demanding. It is a "non drama" with no antagonists, nothing to be achieved. Worst is the scarcity of hot kisses, for those who demand such. The much vaunted BTS of extended glass wall kiss did not do much for me. I just hope JC-T and Zhou Ye did not get too bored having to perform it, and next seeing their effort cut to size despite there was not much to raise eyebrows there... The sleeping scenes just sent me snoozing, oof! Remembering wrily that Tan Jianci in interview had said he thought this drama would be "good for relaxing" in evening after work: yes, well... Love him love his voice, so I won't bash the drama for everything.
And if later new audiences should be curious about more thrilling stories, they could turn to Lost You Forever, or explore other romances like Hidden Love, The Forbidden Flower - both with age gap - or Hi Venus, The Road Home - with more mature ML engaged in different professions, or Forever and Ever, the sequel to masterpiece tragedy One and Only, where the reborn Shi Yi is working as dubber in a studio and has a thrilling romance with her reborn lover who has forgotten the past and focuses on another profession than warrior.
Romances featuring dubbing studios or entertainment are not limited to F&F and LMLMV, but can be more disappointing, story or music wise, so I won't mention more even if I have seen a few already - and there may be a lot I did not have time for, or did not think were worth a try, considering the usually lenient ratings on MDL that were too low for them. Even if I sometimes still watch such items, on a whim when nothing else grabs my attention as an eclectic drama watcher, who equally dives merrily into period, historical, wuxia, xianxia, modern or Republican era, slice of life, or medical, business, time-travel, fantasy and science fiction, what-have-you genres.
Btw, the short dramas are a treasure trove for those who seek "fluffy" only ones, especially those that are limited to 5 to 20 minutes episodes. MDL even has a list of such short dramas, by no means exhaustive since there are tons of them. They can be very satisfying such as Since I Met You, or fraught with tropes and annoying antagonists to make them less bland. But they can be a platform for new actors to get a first try, or even to make themselves noticed, not only in fluff (Maid's Revenge or Provoke were particularly thrilling and memorable for me, and their MLs and FLs have also done other interesting "small dramas".)
So, let's not be too harsh of LMLMV. It has some good sides.... The music.... Watching JC-T sing in other genre that he is used to... Looking into more gufeng/zhongguofeng... Why not go stray over to YouTube to watch Luo Tianyi thrilling Sun Qian song concert, or same Luo Tianyi with Fang Jinlong singing Molihua in a 2019 show combining technology and time hallowed tune?
I shall add this to the short Profile of Tan Jianci (JC-T) that I added in the Discussion section, as an example of his collab performances, since I mentioned single and group performances there. And since this drama was a treat for Tan Jianci singer fans.