Frost_edelweiss

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.

TJOCY = ?? Everybody don't get those codes, yk I am sorry I did not decode that one. So please enlighten me/us like me?
HE/BE: happy end (yk : hearts and flowers and grand wedding HEA happy ever after) / Bad, tragic end (not always bad imho, to each their own, so glad to know y also preferred it stay tragic in IS)
IS = Immortal Samsara drama of 2022
SOTM = Song of the Moon, completed in January. I left it on hold at ep13, considering whether or not I will finally drop it there or be back to toil through to completion. I was too taken with some other dramas including TFF (The Forbidden Flower) which totally commandeered my attention and caused me to be late starting on LWTSF/TSL here (LWTSF = Love when the stars fall, first historic title of The Starry Love)

---- Trivia question for those who like sleuthing and codes: in which TSL episode(s) did you spot hints to “drama classics” like MG or AOL? (MG = Meteor Garden 2001 or 2018 versions, AOL = Ashes of Love)

Wishing you a good drama watching for end episode here.

Hahaha Megumi-H. We have somewhat similar tastes, about C and K dramas, L&P and more. You also were part of the comments-feast for LLTG which fascinated me too, with its in-depth analysis by some learned friends here, exploring the symbols and more.

I could watch TSL on Youku, I suppose, since I subscribed to the app, but I am plain too lazy to watch on my small screen smartphone, esp since I "came to the club" late, because of too deep infatuation with The Forbidden Flower. So I am continuing my binge watch on Viki which is updating today until ep28, whereas YT only reaches ep25. Of course, if I am swift enough, I might switch to the cool site, where it is already subtitled to ep39. Should I or not co-watch final episode today in a few hours : debating with myself. But no, I will stick to my watching it as it should be, episode after episode, and read reactions later.

I had some wariness about the beginning of TSL, fearing that it could be too close to Ashes of Love or Immortal Samsara/Agarwood-like crumbs (I also came late to watch that not wholly satisfying one, watching IS even later than trying LBFAD, because of LLTG addiction). But my holding back from TSL was lifted quickly, when I found that despite some clear hints to the "undying classics" (including MG!!), these were not too numerous and the story still felt fresh and engaging.

Of course, since I like "scoundrels" (in the past I rooted for AoL "arowana" Runyu instead of the "charred crow" XuFeng!!) I am happy to see how the Void princes fare and also that lovely Beast prince (although the puppy pee thing was limits), and the Soul shards, and the secondary characters (ManMan did not annoy me, I was admiring the red line of her eye makeup and the few down-feathers added to her short dress pink outfit: also liked that she could transform into not only a small, fast, twitting bird but also into a large people-carrying fabulous winged one). The Human World emperor is of course delightfully hatable, as are some other ones.
Although juggling with different story lines for the separated characters, I think the drama does not feel disjointed. I am already sold to it!

Anyway, I hope some in the club will take time to answer my query.

Could someone enlighten us about symbolism and humor contained in the Chinese names in this drama (cursed flower origin, flower names of Qing Kui and Ye Tan, names of Chao Feng and Man Man etc) ? Not sure it's been covered already in conversation, since I caught up late and focused on binge watching till episode 23 on YouTube...

Don't hesitate to signal when it's complete, episode by episode is fine. I (and I hope others) will surely be back then ! Thanks for your dedication !

Yes, LLTG, L&P, but also LBFAD, SSOFV, were among my favorite, last year, which started with a bang (Reset). Hi Venus, Meet Yourself, TBOY this year and TFF were a good start and there so much promise to come.

I am both leaning to 罗狮粉 and 鹿茸 fandom (among other ones) so am also looking forward to Till The End Of The Moon. Hoping LYX will not appear as emaciated as in Light Chaser Rescue, which I still enjoyed. Since Ashes of Love, I have watched near to all of his available filmography, learned the Chengdu song from his MV and listened to all the other songs, + watched miscellaneous stuff such as his showing how to cook some dishes, exploring places etc.

Bai Lu first really caught my attention in Arsenal Military Academy, but it was so sweet to hear her wish to do another drama with LYX when they were interviewed about Love is Sweet. Besides, she is from Changzhou, Jiangsu, which is a city I know well.

And there are also the new Zhao Lusi dramas : HouLang (Gen Z) rumored to be broadcast on Apr 19th, and Hidden Love which should air "very soon" probably this month.

The months of March and April will surely go very quickly... And the list of dramas that could be nice to watch seems to be growing exponentially. Hard choices will have to be made !

At present, I am vastly enjoying The Starry Love which I am binge watching for hours almost non stop - except for coffee and the necessary stretching. The humor and the action make it a wonderful watch, up till episode 21, but I see that I may have to switch platforms or watch on the Youku app on my phone (small screen...) for the last episodes.

I have tried several platforms starting with Viki but turning to YouTube because of double subtitles which sometimes enlighten an approximate translation. It also caused me much mirth when Ye Tan (posing as Qingkui) was trying a transformation spell by repeating "Bian!" (Change!) many times. That's a good snippet for learners of the basic Chinese character table! And also a fun reminder of that ganoderma mushroom sequence in Ashes of Love which ended on a fabulous kiss.

I don't mind sad endings, if they are logical and well pictured (like in One and Only and TFF) so I am open to whatever will happen and I don't really crave for a grand wedding finale with hearts and flowers and everybody miraculously brought back to life and dubious "happy ever after". In fact I thought the ending of Ashes of Love dragged a bit and was somewhat too sanctimonious after the cosmic clash where Jinmi self sacrificed. Also, having the AOL story end on the little boy fishing for a wife (while his cousin went hunting for a handsome guy in the mountains), felt like unfinished business, taunting us with a continuation and depriving watchers of the promise implicitly made.

Of course I am not adverse to romance on the way to get to goal. Or action, like in The Condor Heroes, Side Story of Fox Volant, Light Chaser Rescue, Ordinary Greatness etc. It is nice too when the story engages the watchers enough to feel strongly about a villain, too. There was the "mad" emperor Di Xu in Novoland Pearl Eclipse who finally saw the light, too late. In The Starry Love, the emperor also looks very much like the unlikable one that Runyu struck asunder before Xu Feng got stabbed. Flamboyant deaths and betrayals... Open endings are fine too. The TFF one was rather like that: one could stick to whatever one wanted to believe, that's not bad.

Hello Richel, did you give up subtitling or are episodes 9 to 13 subtitled on the members only bilibili youtube channel? Wishing you all the best in 2023.

Totally agree.

While I am now laughing at the comedic The Starry Love, I am still at times clicking on some favorite scenes (and cut scenes) of TFF and adding my two cents on its MDL comment section.

So now, following suit to my favorite music & story-edit you-tuber MK916 who wrote that she was starting on The Starry Love, I am now watching that one. It is a really nice xianxia. At first, I was worried that it would be too much a rehash of Ashes of Love (even to borrowing the palaces and color-codes), but fortunately it veered away to another story, only faintly hinting at the other opus in the Honey series. I started too late to be co watching the finale on March 11, or to spend much time on the comments section of MDL for that one, but I am really enjoying it.

Are you also enjoying something you'd recommend next ?

You all think it was his voice only? Methinks it was the gentle stroke to her ear.
Touch is always more powerful as a turn-on. Some words with a mellow or deep voice may be a spark, but the real tinder is always the touch. She came back for an unnecessary hair wash not for the voice, but hoping for words that might be out of the ordinary (Cat is in love) and for making sure that touch was still electric : that's why she left her phone to be back for more...
That part was very well done.
About communication, as a One and Only (Allen Ren Jialun) fan, I don't need lengthy perorations and vocal ratiocinations in a romcom. Gazes are also a mighty turn-on. Both Xiao Han and He Ran had secrets they did not want to expose too quickly ; that some of those came to light without having to voice them and were simply accepted was a relief for them. (Example : "How many women have you had".. "A few. They were all ordinary people." He did not need to voice to her that she was extraordinary and that he did not want to remember other women, even if she was "curious".)
The epiphyllum photograph was to me a symbol of all this : hidden night flower ascertaining through its short bloom that the promise and feelings were both fated and true, but would be enjoyed only in the short life-span : so they couldn't afford waiting to "know each other better" or "grow up and prepare for the future". Knowing that "epiphytic plant grows on other plants, not in a parasitic fashion but as hosts" also adds to the meaning of that flowering, since Xiao Han is a horticulturist: he is the host, she is the flower. He had kept the photo secret, hidden in a book, but was delighted that she searched his room and found it, adding to the fated love component. Triggering that too-hot-for-you scene when they can't keep their hands from each other, so hot that production decided to show the cat strolling by unconcernedly instead of that part of the scene that is to be found in the cut ones.
As for the "daddy issue" idea, I strongly disagree. He Ran was an orphan who had admired her genius painter father before he died, but was in no way looking for another father, even when she jested with Xiao Han about being his "child" (yes, she meant : "treasured" as a lover, also playing on the acknowledgement of age difference that did not deter them). Her condition had made her too mature in some ways to tolerate the idea of hanging out with the insufferable people of her age group (who were prying, judgemental, idiotically intrusive and even almost made her sick when they fumblingly tried to please her).
She wanted someone who was experienced, considerate, not too powerful, but still an alpha. Not a young rookie and absolutely not a virgin (these are often irl the worst choices for female virgins, so her instinct was spot-on there). She sensed that his touch was what she needed, and that his voice belonged to someone from a different age group, with a life history and possible scars to understand her own without ripping them open to "communicate". (2 years or 20 years older was irrelevant). Xiao Han fit the description perfectly.
If she wanted a surrogate father, she had Mr Han who was benevolently watching and protecting her, but she never was attracted to that handsome older man.

Gracie Slick's answer :
When the garden flowers
Baby, are dead, yes and
Your mind, your mind is so full of red

[Chorus]
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdLasOrG6c
(morning maniac music, Woodstock 1969 classic)

Yes, Meet Yourself is "feel good". Try also "Hi Venus".

If a dose of angst and illness shoved away to enjoy red-hot sensual passion is your cup of tea, try also The Forbidden Flower. It's not to everyone's taste, but me, that was the one that carried me most away (wonderful colors and landscapes too) since end of 2022.
SAHPH left me : meh, despite my admiration for Yang Mi and Xu Kai.

Conversely, Jerry Yan, who I had almost forgotten since his Daoming Si of ages ago, left me : wow!!! I even found myself exploring his Loving Never Forgetting (predictable but sweet romcom) which I found okaaay... (amused that in the end episode of that LNF one, I found an answer to my wondering for ages why the first Hana Yori Dango adaptation to Chinese drama was titled Meteor Garden).
Now about TFF ending, it is somewhat cryptic, so if you watch it, you can choose whatever you like to believe. I rather found it a good way to end. Not like this Love Heals drama here which is indeed unsatisfactory to many. The music is excellent and the Lucid Dream song in its new English version, is quite haunting, an ear-worm that still stays in my head, tied to the lovely colors and smooth moves of the main couple. It is (aptly and renewed) borrowed from a Korean drama that I did not watch, but may do now, because of TFF. Except for two songs, the ones used in TFF are original to that drama.
The comments section on MDL has a special feature that leads to cut scenes of TFF which are a must-see: the production was daring, but still too timid not to use scissors too often in self-censorship so as to "pass review" .It was not even that they were ordered to cut all that : therefore, it is findable and enjoyable, and some of it has been included in a sort of super BTS (which could rank as extra episode that's posted also to YouTube).
TFF can be watched on WeTV or on Viki, among other places. YouTube may have it too, although dramas posted there often have other form of censorship : cut music... I did not watch it on YouTube, so perhaps it is less maimed there than Loving Never Forgetting.

He was good, yes! He's included in the cast list, that I just checked.
Thanks for your eagle-eye watchfulness, if he had been forgotten on the list.

There are quite a few loose ends and even inconsistencies in the story.
It is plain too long, also.
At one moment, I was even looking forward to take note of product placements (Chlitina: TW beauty care brand, Coke: anti-ads, electric car brands), to keep attention going, but there were perhaps not enough to enjoy an ad festival for more than a few episodes of genuine "soap opera".
Anyway, my attention was almost totally taken by The Forbidden Flower wonderful sensual drama and addictive music. I had focused on reactions there, so did not come to this section to check how Love Heals / Have a crush on you was received, until I saw it was (to my surprise) one of the top dramas on Marcus Here's weekly top of the charts for March 2 (losing to Journey of Chong Zi).

Love Heals /HaCoY is definitely not my top drama of 2023, whereas I love TFF enough to keep a place for it on my personal "memorable items" virtual podium, despite not being a Jerry Yan or Daoming Si fan - btw, this HaCoY drama also has, at times, hints to the old BOF/MG story, and I found it amusing to see the self-same quote "If apologies were enough, we would not need the police" pop up here too. It did also in TFF!! But in TFF, we knew the director was a fan of MG and that Jerry Yan was the original Daoming Si, so that was just like an insiders' joke, more or less expected. Here, I thought: "wtf! do they need to remind of the classics with no real reason in ALL the new modern time c-dramas, now?"

I am often watching quasi simultaneously several dramas, new airing ones for variety, and older ones related or not by theme or cast etc. It had been a while since I had clicked on a medical drama, and a Chinese-African cooperation or aid drama or movie, so the beginning looked good despite the silly title.
Either the production should have stuck to that, Ebola Fighters type, or Operation Red Sea type, or they should have stuck to medical romance in China only, even cutting out the covid time footnote. Or do a thing in the line of LYX's early Children's Hospital Pediatician.
Trying to fit it all in: poor orphan story, Oath of love- type dad's cancer, silly brother's embroilment with debts, etc, just made the drama too messy.
But I am not dissatisfied with the cast : most did fine as far as I am concerned.
Not that they made me cry or feel much moved or reflective (well, perhaps a few times, or I would have dropped the whole thing completely).