Frost_edelweiss

Already on iQiyi - soon : '"today", still, on Viki. Other places : a while later??

I liked in ep.8 the quick glimpse of the emoji star shower when Gui Xiao received the message that Qin Xiao Nan missed her (who missed who, again?)

The falling emoticons are a fun feature of (and exclusive to, I think) Wechat. I's been around for the past ten years and can be addictive, so should be used sparingly.
It can also be used to shower love or Christmas trees , CNY hongbaos, birthday cakes and more on the receiver's message with different catchwords and time appropriateness.

Now onward to eps.9 &10 !

Yesss. Appropriate reply from gen z (and even from Millennials) would be :
... Go die ! 😂 ! lol

That ash line also grabbed me, lol.
I do like the beginning of this drama despite the sometimes puzzling subs.

Yes, this has us traveling virtually, doesn't it ? I added a thread above the general conversation, for those who want to find out more about places without having to spend too much time googling away from drama, lol.
https://kisskh.at/discussions/gui-lu/91923-where-was-this-filmed-infos-about-places-where-the-action-is-supposed-to-take-place

Thanks for the documents and info! Niseko also looks great. But I thought you were based in HK from your description? Myself, I am just an alien in deep space shyly keeping away from crowds or too much social media. I do agree that crowds can be reckless and dangerous.

Yes near "my mountain" (I am actually doing seasonal travels between that place and another, rather distant one, so home is a relative concept for me) it is possible to do things like those : telemark, cross country or Nordic skiing, downhill Alpine skiing, powder skiing, on easy slopes, blue and black runs, off piste and tree skiing, although there are no Super G or big snow park with jumps. It's possible to hike with snowshoes or to go sledding, even husky dog sledding, or ride snowbikes.

But I prefer to move about with caution, to avoid injuries, and these days would rather enjoy sedate horse sleigh rides with or without jingle bells, where available (remembering some special ones, long time ago, on the frozen Songhua river off Harbin - and another one spotted by Gemini 6 in 1965, heh I was not careful enough doing my alien stunts back then... I'm joking oc). Or just enjoy nice hikes on foot, or horse rides, preferably in cool autumn or early spring weather.
In fact, I am not really a ski nerd, went along to winter sports places more for the scenery and meeting different people, rather than for the sport.
And now, I watch dramas about all that !!! 💀 lol

There are closer places to go to for skiing when you live in BJ. Traveling to Altay is quite some way away!!! Of course, there must be less people around, so if they like a break from crowds, it must be a good place despite the cost and time to get there.

Btw I did not find developed skiing around Hemu per se, but I see that "The main ski areas in Altay City are the ski resorts General's Mountain – Altay and Altay Tyrol (planned). The ski resorts are located between 2.4 kilometres and 12.0 kilometres from the centre of the village. Altay City is located in Xinjiang (China). " That's where they went? Or are they into the winter sports stations development business to be there more often?

I used to often go ski in Nanshan district of BJ or once in the Changbai region because of a friend who lives in Changchun so we went two families together. At the time, Nanshan was getting very crowded; and the 2022 Winter Olympics were a goal to develop other places not too far away from BJ. Fond memories of not so long ago.
Now, alas, I have morphed into an alien sitting in front of too many screens, only occasionally sampling the fresh air, plum flower blossom rain, chirping of birds, cicadas and grasshoppers, flitting of swallows in broad day time and small bats at dusk, on "my own mountain" base. I still heave myself to watch the summer meteor showers...

Thank you! Also for sharing info and beautiful Altay snowy peaks pictures!
Your friends must be happy enjoying skiing out there !

Thanks, that was my bet too after considering a few likely places for that "Qining" (Erenhot in the book?)

Nice listening to !

Does anyone know where shooting took place and/or which remote region is the setting for "Qining"?

Beijing is well known, so 5th ring-road despite its staggering length, I visualize alright.

Rather than southern Xinjiang, which did have homegrown or infiltrated terrorism trouble, I would think the northern part in the Altay, perhaps Hemu Village?
Hemu village in Tuvas area of northern Xinjiang has lots of wooden houses, forest around and snow in winter. It is one area which is looking forward to develop winter sports too and has a reputation as "most beautiful village in China". The typical wooden houses with nailed planks are partly dug into the ground because of heavy snow and cold in winters. It is the most remote and largest of the three habitats of the Tuvas ethnic group, which are related to the Mongols (the Tuvas claim to be descended from Genghis Khan warriors), but they are not reputed as being particularly exposed to terrorist group threats. Perhaps it could be a place where thieves might steal cars. I really don't know.

I pondered whether it might be in the vicinity of Mohe in Heilongjiang, "China's Arctic Town", sitting on permafrost, close to the Siberian border? The town is not very big and has lots of forests around and more than 100 years of history in gold mining : the "Golden Path" and "Rouge River" are famous gold mining areas. There is also a highway connecting Mohe to Harbin and further all the way to Beijing, since 2019...
*
Elsewhere? Okay, the clue in the novel was "a certain gas station in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region." Further in the book, I spotted the name Erenhot.
Erenhot is "a county-level city of the Xilin Gol League, in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, located in the Gobi Desert along the Sino-Mongolian border, across from the Mongolian town of Zamyn-Üüd. There are 74,197 inhabitants". Its livelihood is derived from foreign trade traffic, since Erenhot sits on the Transmongolian railway since 1954 : it is "the only railway border entrance between the two countries, and it provides a shorter line connecting Beijing with Moscow than the one through Northeast China (Manchuria). " (Wikipedia & Britannica)
But still, this does not look like what we see in the drama, so I suppose there's been a change from book to drama?

My bet is on Hemu village, then. Somebody has confirmation ?

Ty, it's just a copy from the platforms, so "authorized info" to attract audience. I find it interesting to compare what two widely used platforms use. 😆

But question yo you or to other music lover : the song that the boy sang in the car in episode 2 sounds familiar to me, but I can't remember title. If someone knows and finds a YT or other recording to enjoy it in full...

I was eagerly awaiting this drama after having watched Seven Tan in Flight For You 💖! Here, after having played other business or skilled professionals, she is the investment director Gui Xiao.
(This Road Home has nothing to do with the eponymous Zhang Yimou movie of 1999 💖 which starred Zhang Ziyi . It is a very different modern story.)

Synopsis is longer on iQiyi for this new Road Home:
"Road Home is a drama directed by Yu Cuihua (Crush 💖, Eternal Love 💖), along with scriptwriter Mobaofeibao (My Sunshine 💖), starring Jing Boran (Up in the Wind, Monster Hunt) and Tan Songyun (With You).

"The drama is based on a novel of the same name by Mobaofeibao. It tells the story of investment director Gui Xiao who reunites with bomb tech police officer Lu Yan Chen after ten years. The two of them hit it off and find their way back to loyalty and faith. The two are each other's first loves, but after graduating from college, Lu Yan Chen went to another country to become a special forces police officer, and at the same time, their family went through a change, so their love ended without a hitch.
Ten years later, the two of them reunite and find that they can't repress their longing for each other again. But the news that Lu Yan Chen's parents had arranged a marriage for him detracts the couple, and Lu Yan Chen made a decisive choice, understanding that he had only Gui Xiao in his heart from the beginning.
After the wedding, Lu Yan Chen was injured during a mission and fell into a coma. The pregnant Xiao Gui rushed to Lu Yan Chen's side and gave birth to her daughter in the frontier city that Lu Yan Chen had been guarding for ten years. The family of three is reunited safely and lives a happy life. "

On Viki, here is the presentation (more or less same as MDL) :
"Gui Xiao (Tan Song Yun) and Lu Yan Chen (Jing Bo Ran) met at school – in a middle school playground. They fell in love with one another at first sight. And as they grew older, their feelings for one another grew ever stronger. They became nseparable and hoped to spend the rest of their lives together. But life has other plans for them.
Gui Xiao’s family circumstances change. And Lu Yan Chen ends up training as a special police officer – which takes him to a completely different part of the country. Lu Yan Chen’s training is tough, physical, and intense. Gui Xiao, meanwhile, ends up on a career path that will take her into the world of finance. Despite the fact that they now live in different worlds, their love is still strong – and they try to keep up a long-distance relationship. This peters out – until one day, years later, Gui Xiao finds herself with a special reason to call Lu Yan Chen once more…"

Watching on Viki & iQiyi international site iq.com lol

+@ Carli, ecstaticeratic ; all : Of course - lol, I was just testing if someone would spot my "alternate realities mixup 💀":
It is Michelle Yeoh who won the Oscar now, but joke aside, Maggie Cheung ought also be remembered for thrilling movies that also stay in memory perhaps even better than the one for which she won Best Actress award in Cannes? Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh are almost same age, the first is born in 1964 in Malaysia and the second in 1962 in Hong Kong.
Let's also enjoy the work of both stars, together in not only The Soong Sisters, but also Police Story 3, and another movie which has been described as being in the same weird spirit of “Everything Everywhere All at Once” : THE HEROIC TRIO (1 & 2), in which Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and Anita Mui starred together some thirty years ago. Super heroines all three! (I ought sometime to complete the list of movies I watched and liked over the years on "my list"😂)

Well, as to TSL, I am also content with the ending which leaves room for imagining.

Reply in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJLtnUpmeOM

https://archive.org/details/spring-in-a-small-town-1948-colorized-version
(no English subtitles)

Link is down.
But try this one instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL5zKdFuC9A

If you are into science fiction, don't miss out on the first science fiction movie to win a bunch of top star awards (now adding 7 Oscars at the 95th Academy Awards to previous distinctions) and which is led by an impressive Maggie Cheung (who deservedly earned her own statuette) : EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. It was my favorite movie of 2022 from the start when I saw it, last year, despite it might not completely be exempted from scissorhands censors when and if it is shown in China and some other Asian countries. That absurdist and hilarious movie playing on cosmic battle and speculative science concepts is worth the (re-)watch.

Thanks, you confirm what I thought about the twin princesses names 😆
I had also gotten the humor of 慢慢 . Interesting that you found the mythological bird's name as a near homonym. 😆
what do you find for the princes' names : Chaofeng etc ? funny that 嘲讽 = taunt, ridicule

Ah OK; I did not get further than quart in of first episode of that one before I decided it was not for me in my current mood. You know, when you have addictive stuff to watch like TFF and TSL and even toiling through last episodes of Have A Crush On You.

I liked HACOY ML from his previous role in Unexpected Falling, so spent probably too much time on that over-ambitious drama that tried to fit in too much in different genres instead of sticking to expected medical romcom - or war and aid in Africa, as the first episode had led me to think, not having read synopsis first.
That's what I do, click randomly, watch through first episode and stick longer if I find it interesting, looking into MDL presentation and comments much later... Sometimes following suit to a recom by someone who replied to me; as here, TSL, since MK916 wrote she liked it, after doing the very nice MV summary-edit of TFF.

MK916 has an unusually sharp eye for details : she only missed the touch to the ear in the beginning of TFF, choosing to keep the telling short exchange about the ML's beautiful voice and the cat . But imo words are sparks when touch is the real tinder that can rise in flames. So everything in that drama is about touch, overriding words as communication, even the songs confirm it, esp the Take The Chance song lyrics ("...There's no time for me to think through ... I can heal you, just from a brush of a hand...") which MK916 could not include in her excellent edit because there were too many good tunes to choose from. MK916 already chose 3 songs, including the one with the "... 'Cause I know that love is pain" chorus.
TFF is a very sensual drama, although many too long or explicit glimpses were cut, so it's necessary to go to the record of deleted material to fully appreciate it (there's a special section for that above the MDL comments section, together with one for shooting locations since the places are lovely). Without the cut scenes, TFF is not crossing the line too much, so PG12 is perhaps OK for the Viki rating. Those who want wild romps and lengthy greedy kisses are always going to be disappointed in C-dramas. Me, I belong to the "In The Mood For Love" crowd of admirers, so gazes and fleeting touch are enough and there was more again in TFF.

You may get how addictive TFF was for me, lol : I'm moving back and forth from TSL to the wonderful TFF playlist. Well in case you'd like to listen, here it is. The songs I mentioned above are number 6 and 9 in the playlist, but the most haunting one is nb10 which is the adaptation to English of a song from an also beautiful K drama. - songs 11 and 13 are to be found through other links provided in description of the playlist :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsPdXeF3Lcg video.

... I'm off for more TSL now ;-)
PS I also like Sa DingDing, since trying to break my voice together with listening to her and Zhou Shen singing Upwards to the Moon in Xi'an in 2020. So seeing her in the credits as Immortal Quan He + songwriter and singer also attracted me to this lovely xianxia.