Frost_edelweiss

Joyeux Noël et bonnes fêtes de fin d'année ! 😁

I agree. I like tall and distinctive Xing Zhaolin (isn't he the tallest among the c-drama actors?) but came to somewhat like Li YunRui too, after My Idol where he played "Du Wang", although I barely noticed him in Rebirth for You. He had a passing role in the Oath of Love as the violinist with an international career, and a more difficult one in Love Like The Galaxy where his character as "Yuan Shen" first repelled me, until I came to better understand why Ling Buyi and Cheng Shaoshang tolerated him. He seems to be only doing supporting role now, but his face has become familiar enough to me that I recognize it.
I clicked on Accidentally Meow... somewhat randomly, only noticing the name of Xing Zhaolin in the cast, and not reading synopsis or opinions till now, first watching a couple of episodes.
So I don't know where Li YunRui's character will go and how he will deal with his friendship for FL and the newly introduced cat café attendant Ji Nian (played by Hu JiaXin who was also playing in LLTG, as Wang Ling, Cheng Shaoshang's vocal enemy, that CSS went to formally complain about.).

Come on! He is not sporting long hair like in Eternal Love 1-2-3 🤣🤣🤣
Or in Zhong Kui...
As for the modern romances, it looks like he's been type cast since the remake of You Are My Destiny. It must be difficult to get away from the cold CEO look, if that's all he gets offered? Perhaps because he's too much involved in his side career as fashion model?
Still, I liked the dramas he was in that I watched (not all but more than a handful): they were entertaining fluff, not always with the complete array of romance tropes that we get in others (broken heel, piggyback carrying, spoon feeding....)

I love your list! Have seen most of them, and you know I'm enthusing about Reset that has most everyone agree is a masterpiece, and some that have audience divided between ravers and people who can't get into them... My favorite list for 2022 includes "Reset" as no.1, "Lighter and Princess" as no.2 (L&P also has an extraordinary wealth of good background music and songs, deftly and not overwhelmingly woven in), "Ordinary Greatness" as no.3 (but that one is no romance slice-of-life, with superb actors --I was watching because of Bai Lu, whose dramas I like most of, including the 2020 romance "Love is Sweet" where she was paired with another of my fave actors, Luo Yunxi. But there were really many other actors who were excellent In "Ordinary Greatness" and the stories were very realistic.)

Among the other workplace stories in 2022, I rather liked "Master of My Own" (starring Seven Tan and Lin Gengxin). Btw Seven Tan is often noted for her role in 2020 remarkable c-drama "Go Ahead".

"Love In Time" and "Legally Romance" shared a sort of time travel theme, which I am always interested in, and I remember both with pleasure.
The latter featured actor Z.Tao who I loved as idol Bo Xu in "The Brightest Star In the Sky" which was an excellent workplace drama and romance with a wonderful OST of many songs that steered me to become a fan of Z.Tao C-pop 😁

"Because of Love" and "The Oath of Love" in 2022 were among the most realistic sweet (TOOL) or bitter sweet (BoL) romances that were much discussed and worth watching. They do have boring parts in my opinion.

"The Romance of the Little Forest" was an unlikely festival of dress and make up with talented leads (but annoying SFL and SML) and beautiful cinematography. Part of it is wow! sweet!, part of it can be safely skipped... Watching c-dramas has many become adept at using the "fast forward" button 🤣, although in fact I rarely do. I just note down somewhere which parts or whole episodes might be skipped in case I go back to rewatch (but I seldom do, except for my raves like "Reset" or "Lighter and Princess" which I have rewatched several times) : for TROTLF I think I would have cut out a goodly half.... despite thinking the drama had some merits and should not be discarded off-hand as utter garbage.

Among the other 2022 modern day c-dramas that thrilled me, there's "Unexpected Falling", and a few other less romance and more mystery ones.

I was hoping that "Double Love" this month would bring back the thrills of e-game romances like "Love 02O", "Go Go Squid!" and "Falling Into You", but was somewhat disappointed, putting the blame partly on the editing which reportedly massacred and deleted key scenes. Anyway, it was too fluffy (and choppy) romance for me. I would have preferred to get a rest from all that lovey-dovey stuff, such as in the no-romance 2017 "The King's Avatar" which is perhaps my preferred e-competition c-drama.

At the moment, I clicked on this c-drama because I like cats and because of Xing Zhaolin, for whom I have a soft spot since 2017 with the xuanhuan drama series "Eternal Love 1-2-3" where he paired with actress Liang Jie, who I have been following till on-air "Hi Venus" starring Joseph Zeng and Liang Jie in yet another workplace romance, not sappy at all, but very funny. Awaiting further episodes of "Hi Venus" after Dec27. Am up to episode 14 in that one, it is giving me big smiles and hearty laughs, all in all a feel-good drama with a non toxic CEO (rookie president of a private hospital) and his unlikely Doctor assistant!

Maybe I watched way too much 😂

You are right, young Ye ShiLan in Hi Venus and YiYi in Unexpected Falling were both played by 9 year-old child actress Xu Yixuan.

Thanks,
(and btw also thanks for the ZZH zhongyingpin MV of 忧伤的晴朗 Melancholy Sunshine)

Well, Ye ShiLan did not fall in love directly with Lu Zhaoxi.
And Lu was held back by his assistant's remarks !
I found Dr Ye's character quite funny in the "torturer" episodes and it was no wonder she would be afraid of consequences when she realized that Lu indeed was who he said he was to start with. So chemistry should be displayed later, after some episodes despite the guzzling medical wine relaxation scene.
I was looking forward to it in the coming episodes. It is going to develop ! 😉

Don't try to bring down my favorite Li Xun and his Zhu Yun !!! ⛔
I just loved L&P (which was as removed from the typical cdrama as could be in its depiction of a realistic coder business environment and two computer specialists coming differently from self-learned passion and from academic training, faced with the risks and dangers that can happen in such business, and supporting each other to overcome them together with the consequences of their personal grudges.).

But I am also into fluffy stories with Liang Jie when she can get as comedic as in Eternal Love 1 - 2 -3. (Btw hope you did not brand Mo LianCheng /played by XZL as "toxic" ?) Actually, even in lesser successful and more serious roles, I still like Liang Jie who is a very professional actress.
And Zeng Shunxi.
Happy to find them paired in this delightful Hi Venus comedy !

I did the same, lol Such a feel-good, fun story !

😂😂😂

Bitter? She was so funny with Xing Zhaolin in Eternal Love 1- 2 -3 !
But of course she can play serious too, did very well in Side Story of Fox Volant.
She was also playing very well in the other dramas I followed her to : You Are My Destiny, Handsome Siblings, The Day of Becoming You.
I have seen less dramas with Joseph Zeng but am catching up, since Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre, Rebirth For You, TFAYAH, Heroes. Looking forward to Mysterious Lotus Casebook, upcoming, so clicked on Hi Venus in waiting. Not disappointed !
So I clicked for both Joseph Zeng and Liang Jie and already have a big grin on my face when they appear on screen as "mogui" devil and ex torturer 😂 Fun drama.
Screenwriter and director are also good references.
And Joseph Zeng and Liang Jie played together already in Time Flies And You Are Here (TFAYAH) : a bit lengthy one with too many misunderstandings, but I still liked that one which was my first introduction to the mystic whale in the sky that has been a hallmark of many fantasy c-dramas since, lately Thousand Years For You. Details that link c-dramas make this type of drama quite interesting : it can also be theme songs that get reused, or snippets of past dramas that appear on a background television or other screen. I am starting to look out for such details that also contribute to enjoyment!

😘

There is something repellent in loving a twin in a different way from sibling love and loyalty. Ren Di and Li Xun are like twins in a way, so they cannot ever be more than good friends, in my opinion. Her life style was quite alien to him. he could not stand to stay too long in the live houses where she performed, and him staying in the Urban Hideout suite was like staying in a hotel room, not in his home. She needed the excitement and drama of stage, whereas he needed the calm of his rooftop or office for his analytical work. There was no heavy metal or other encroaching music in his base.
All coders don't necessarily hate loud music, but everyone is not the same : among the coders that I know, one is into heavy metal, the other into anime music, one dislikes music except some classic music tunes from Bach or Holst ; I am the only eclectic one who revels as much in 16th century motets as I do in Philip Glass operas, The Peony Pavilion kunqu, Beijing X underground, Carsick Cars, Mongolian rock, Pink Floyd , Nine Inch Nails, Teresa Teng, Guang Liang, Jay Chou, Luo Tianyi, Genshin Impact tunes, Adele sad songs, Naxi or grassland folk tunes etc 😁. [ I was, just before I read in this forum, amusing myself listening to 'Set The Controls for the heart of the Sun', with its Chinese Tang poem references lyrics after having sung 'Betwee'n from L&P]
Li Xun seems not that interested in music. Only in investment to support someone who looks like she has the same type of drive as his own. Nothing romantic. No shared intellectual or musical interest with Ren Di.

RenDi's dropping out is irrelevant : she was aiming for and applying different resources than academics to build her success. Even Li Xun was not finding it necessary to spend overmuch time in university. Not that he looked down on formal training. He did not need it.

But in my view, he thought Zhu Yun needed more academic training, so his way of pushing her away was to make her unable not to go abroad (thus obeying her parents who would support her when he could not), through smashing her views of him to smithereens as hard as he could. If he had given her an inch of warning, she was not going to believe she could not stay waiting for him and could not take care of the company herself. Maybe he was too hard in his evaluation of her incompetence then, but what he did made her grow into a potentially powerful specialist, which she probably could not have become without the additional training she had been ready to sacrifice for the comfort of sentiments that she took for granted. So she needed a cruel jolt to change and further grow.

He never adapted to Zhu Yun's life style, btw. It is more her who did the adaptation to his way of life: she came to the lab, the rooms and the house he chose and she worked on the projects and in the line he chose: she was his follower, more than she ever became his boss.

But I can't really dislike Zhu Yun. She was a cutey pie and did have enough chemistry with Li Xun to make the romance satisfactory for me.
Still if I have to choose which character I like best, it is undoubtedly Li Xun. He's much like some people I knew and still know and admire, spikes and all. Not toxic, not narcissist : conscious of his worth and with a relatively clear view of his life path. Neither are role models, but they are types of people that exist and can in real life become friends or good business acquaintances.

😉 Plurality of likes and opinions makes the world more interesting.

Thanks for reply. That confirms my infos: as you say, paparazzi follow this family every step. So we get to know waytoo much that we really should not bother about even when interested in fandom groups . Let's hope the young man stays level-headed and never get entrapped into something unpleasant in the years to come , I also want this young actor to continue giving us good value for our time watching his work 😊

My own dad was a heavy smoker too ; it finally caused him to die earlier than he should have after three bypass operations. And I also did smoke for a while, until I decided to stop long before he died. I have a strong willpower, so it was easy to give up and not stay addicted - so yes I know how smokers smoke :sigh: Today, cigarette smoke around me causes me to cough.
I don't blame people for being addicted anyway. It doesn't mean they are necessarily evil. Will power is not the same for everybody. Addiction doesn't get people hooked same way, some can take some poisons without too much damage.
I am a caffeine addict 😎 staying with the report I once read that regular coffee drinkers who don't mix it with cream and sugar or unnecessary add-ons, and who keep with certain types and brews, are better protected against heart attacks or stroke. Me: it is Hawaiian Kona, Cuban or Nicaraguan Maragogype and French press with clean spring water not too laden with minerals, frothing in a nice China mug. I feel fine drinking it any time of the day or night: it warms me in cold weather or refreshes me in hot weather ; it neither stimulates me too much or cause me insomnia -but I have "deep space alien genes" unlike common Earthlings so it might work differently for other people 👽😁

It is indeed nice that they aren't too perfect and that neither Li Xun nor ZhuYun are saints in this story. Ren Di is psychologically alike the Li Xun character : cold, goal oriented, apt to push away a lover but still getting back with the singer ; that's why Li Xun and Ren Di were instantly good friends, but nothing more. They were not working in same field, whereas Zhu Yun was really interested in what Li Xun did, so of course Zhu Yun was a better companion, also because she attracted his protective bent further to the unmeasurable chemistry. So their love was rewarding to both, despite the hurdles they had to overcome. I also think Zhu Yun like Li Xun was indeed a one-person only lover: she never let a chance to Gao, always treated Tian as just a dear brother.

And of course it is natural that Zhu Yun inquired why he had repaired and kept the photo she had taken on the mountain and ripped apart when she was pushed away. But it was not so natural that she argue about her ownership of the picture. It goes without saying that, if Li Xun kept it in prison and after, the meaning was clear that he was thinking about her, missing her, torn that he could not tell her if she was going on to marry Tian. It is one of the things she did not need to do: argue about the picture at the hot springs episode. It did not bring any good for either of them. She ought to have been more explicit about her time abroad and her exact relationship with Tian, as soon as possible, not have Li Xun guess and find out at the hospital.

Ah the incriminating video where ZY exited the L&P office where she met Xu Lina &Gao, wearing a different coat from the one she got in with because Xu Lina deliberately spilled (coffee, tea?) on her . The one that Gao had made to set her up as "cheater /homewrecker" and wanted to use to discredit her and Li Xun.
Gao was going to use it anyway.
That it came from ZY's own Weibo account was puzzling enough so the set-up would be evident, especially after the company was recovered. So I think she gambled that her "loss of reputation" would be temporary anyway. I think she thought hard and quickly about the pros and cons of taking preemptive measure against Gao, that way.
Yees, maybe ZY was better suited than I thought. She did grow a good bit, and managed to talk to Li Lan, so the sister thought he had "changed for the better" (well I think he already had, high achiever and all that, accepting university, launching business according to laws.) also since he'd remembered his promise about the Pu Shu concert (but that just shows he always cared about his "extended" family and was indeed warm hearted though cold blooded and not showing his affections, not to have people like Gao or Fang use them to hurt him or them, and he was right about that.)
Anyway, Li Xun was not going to hunt for a better deal, and we never saw one that could fit among the other "contenders" (Ren Di: too much like him, Liu Sisi, so pitifully empty-headed, Fang Shumiao, Xu Lina... impossible in their various ways) so it had to be Zhu Yun.
I like what you say about Li Xun 😘
We spend a lot of time about this drama...Maybe I should move on, now. Looking for some old ones on my tbw - since this week's avalanche of new ones is not as spell binding as L&P.

CFY is perfect ? Not addicted to tobacco, alcohol, little ladies or worse? Polite, talented, well connected and well educated.... 😃😎😋
Btw I think he was too young in the States, yes, so he would indeed have been carefully watched by caretakers or parents. Did he also attend a Beijing international school like his elder brother did ?

You got some points there, although I think Li Xun and Ren Di are too alike to be a likely pair. Zhu Yun also annoyed me at times,but "love is blind" so if Li Xun was into her, I was in to see how he'd find his path, and the sweet scenes of tickles, falling on the camping bed etc punctuated the story well. Tian Xiuzhu was necessary as a buffer and shield between Zhu Yun and her mom and to show that Li Xun was not a saint but could feel jealousy, more than in the karting episode with the volleyball champ that was pure college romance drama type. Fang Shumiao was necessary as the faithful friend who eventually played a role in the legal recovery of the company. So I do not mind the side characters.
Lack of chemistry in the first part? No from my pov I for once thought there was a lot of chemistry both on and off screen 😁. But the unforgettable love was, yes, maybe not enough emphasized, perhaps because of Chinese cultural timidity there. It is all in allusions, isn't it? Rain on windows, cut flowers blooming, kettle boiling...
To me the pacing was generally Ok and I did not mind it was 36 episodes : less daunting than the 40 or 65+ we got in other dramas, anyway. Perhaps I've gotten inured to those "impossibly long c-dramas". Well, I was also on board for other long ones before starting to "specialize for a while here", like previously watching Friends, Charmed, The West Wing, House of Cards, Desperate Housewives, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Six Foot Under, GoT, etc etc..... so length never was much of an issue for me, anyway.
Perhaps we should have got an episode showing (better than flashbacks) ML and FL time apart from each other. The mutual but not simultaneous inquiring about how they lived and felt did not bring satisfactory answers from either party. We may admit Li Xun is a taciturn one who relied on guessing what ZY thought and wanted.
ZY could have shown better female sensitivity but the character was all considered okay to me. Not a role model : no !! So, maybe Li Xun could have looked for a better"deal" in companion. But nobody's perfect, so to me, this conforms to the"realist" stance of the drama. Unlikely pairs do end up together and that also "makes the world go round".
I still like that drama very much. Not just for the romance.

😘