Since the commenter on FILTER forgot to re-post here, I will do it :
""it is Li Landi's 15th anniversary year as an actress since she debuted on 3/12/2010 at the age of 10 years old! 🎉🎉🎉 Congrats to her commitment as an actress and may she have many more years to come with amazing work and roles."
FILTER was fabulous, playing on all emotions and delivering a very wholesome message. Li Landi was great there, alongside Tan Jianci, and a support cast that also had interesting characters and actors. I awarded it wholeheartedly my 10/10 for rating.
I've only watched through episode 27, but I did wonder about the invisibility arc, and figured it was something…
When you get to TQ and SCC watching the program about squids, you'll find that there is even more to it than banal psychological explanation of low self worth. This drama is really perfect. The real science observations woven in add a lot without feeling ponderously hammered in.
What a beautiful drama with a nice message. The last few ep were a bit dragged but overall this was still a wonderful…
oh, last episodes were fine in my view. All loose ends were neatly tied, the future taken care of, and the happy end just beautiful without too much fuss, nothing was shortchanged. ❤️
It's a very satisfying end, not a protracted drama full of fillers (well I am not going to rant about THAT other recent drama which stands at top, only not on top of my personal list, now: it has its own audience which is happy with it, come partly because they love the "sister" drama, so why review the spinoff, supposedly more "adult", to spoil their pleasure. I stay lenient, did not gun it down but awarded it my 8.5 so as not to drag it down. Filter: if if was possible to go over 10, I would, not leniently but wholeheartedly. There were high times in several episodes when I though 100 or 1000 might be in order!!)
Prince Rupert’s drops have been around for over 400 years. The glass is all about beauty, pressure, surface…
We learn so many interesting things through these adorable dramas ! about squids, about science, about focus in photography, about alpacas, plants, ancient make up, birds, people, a new version of the god(dess) of love, colors meanings and how to cope without them, even with invisibility! how to make a tent crash down opportunely (can't believe Tang Qi the scientist made a mistake, haahaha!)... This one was not wasted time, even though it was meant first of all for entertainment, next for a wholesome life message ! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Oh what a delightful and inspirational journey this drama was. I just finished and loved to bits every moment of it, the fun, the seriousness, the sweetness and the hope and ease of mind to face life's ordinary challenges with confidence. And the inscription in the end. It was perfect !! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Try "Filter" (Tan Jianci with Li Landi are awesome : fun fun fun, and romantic finally) !!!"The Best Thing" is…
All the other dramas quoted by previous answers are excellent too ; there's one song in "Time and Him.." that you can recognize in HL ; all the Zhao Lusi dramas of course are beautiful each in their own way, and Wu Lei who played with her in LLTG also has so good dramas, like the very romantic billiards champions drama "Amidst a snowstorm..." 15 episodes "Reset" with Bai Jingting alongside excellent Zhao Jinmai is among my top favorites: BJT plays a very different Sang Yan in "The First Frost" spinoff to HL which is slow, has quite some fillers, but is good nonetheless with an excellent happy end. "Ashes of love" remains my favorite old light xianxia with its three successive parts going from comedic to tragedy over 63 eps. it has an only 4 song OST, but unforgettable ones. "Lighter and Princess" is tougher, albeit a wonderful college and business romance, but brace yourself for moments of pain (like in the long must-see, my favorite romantic epics "Love Like The Galaxy"/LLTG , "A Journey To Love", or Ashes of Love which play on every emotion- warning though : only LLTG and L&P have a happy end); L&P also has a fabulous OST, with many haunting tunes, like "The Forbidden Flower", in which Xu Ruohan (now also FL in "The Best Thing") plays a girl seeking life at all costs as time is uncertain for her. "You Are My Glory" is memorable for some extremely romantic moments ("reaching for the orange", "making pillows lower"...) and is very realistic, as is also "As Beautiful As You" where Seven Tan play with a sizzling Xu Kai. Seven Tan also plays in a very romantic drama, "The Road Home" which aside from the tons of love and kisses has stunning landscapes. "Miss Crow and Mr Lizard" was a nice science fiction romance with Ren Jialun, who I think remains most fabulous in the linked dramas "One and Only" + "Forever and Ever" where he played with Bai Lu, who was the romantic partner of Luo Yunxi in "Love is sweet" (in which they got along so well that they decided to do the flamboyant "Till The End of The Moon" which may be not everyone's cup of tea as xianxia, because bitter ending, but TTEOTM also has a fabulous OST. The most romantic and easy xianxia remains "Love Between Fairy and Devil"/LBFAD played by Dylan Wang Hedi and Esther Yu Shuxin, who is presently starting a new romance called "Ski Into Love" which I plan to give peek too - some images in trailer look very cuddly! If you crave momentarily for a dose of fizz sugar sizzle bridging over nonsense, turn also to "Embrace in the Dark Night", a short episodes series with a fun OST in English, but don't look for too much else than sheer skinship there. I laughed a lot, watching that one until the happy end. For a more serious and quietly beautiful drama, there is indeed "Meet Yourself', with 40 eps. set in beautiful Yunnan; and there is also the unusual and truly wonderful short drama 8 episodes "To the Wonder" which got sky high rating on Douban, the picky Chinese ratings platform. Have a nice time drama watching!
To put it simply HL and FF are the stories of two siblings Sang Zi and Sang Yan.Hidden Love focuses on the love…
remember HL was written first. SY was indeed just a supporting character. TFF was not even planned as drama when HL was filmed, in very difficult circumstances and having to battle a stupid controversy that even the official Beijing written news beat down until one of the more prominent online "critics" backed off and admitted she just was "howling with wolves".
And indeed TFF is making Sang Yan different, maybe not perfect, which would be boring. Just as Duan Jiaxu is an ideal lover albeit not perfect either. Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu are so different that it is very difficult to see them as friends in TFF, but it is easy to understand their connection in HL. It is not "about the same character" : they have like nothing in common, not only in behavior or appearance, and even friends circle (which don't seem to align much from one to the other drama except for some points which work as alibis but can't convince anybody to "recognize" either Sang yan, Sang Zhi, Duan Jiaxu, Qian Fei, Mrs Sang, Mr Sang.... for the people and friends that should connect the dramas).
The two dramas are totally different, like sunshine and stormy weather. Even if they use supposedly "same lead character". In fact, their psychology is totally different and there are too few overlaps to feel a real connection, also with the rearrangement of Sang Zhi's crush story in the drama version as compared to the nondescript occurrences of her in TFF.
It is not simply different phases in life. Or beautifying one girl who in her brother's view would be unremarkable and making her crush more attractive because "seen through her eyes". Duan Jiaxu is almost non existent in TFF, he just serves to turn away from screen to give the general direction of Yihe to Sang Yan when SY toys with the idea to travel to Yihe to see what is happening to Shuangjiang. As supposed best friends the way Sang Yan concealed his own crush and even name of crush to Duan Jiaxu in TFF is unbelievable. It only works if they are passing classmates, not as intimately connected through debts and frequent visits like in Hidden Love.
The purposes behind the dramas are also totally different. HL is a sweet story about accepting age difference in relationship, with a nurturing family which is at times almost over protective, from which the fledgling girl flies temporarily to test her own wings, finding renewed support, focusing on college years and career aspirations, TFF is about violence in families focusing on young adults at different work.
The two dramas are about totally disconnected views of the world and characters that only superficially share a name and supposed family background. The author and scriptwriters must have had reasons to make them so different, when it would indeed not have been too difficult to show the characters as more 'of same family'. They clear did not want too many cross references but wanted to focus on "new characters" while banking on attraction from the former hit. It is not really satisfying there, as a results. It would have been better to give Sang Yan another name, and not drag in Sang Zhi, Jiaxu etc. and the partly repeat scenes which were not necessary for the story anyway.
To put it simply HL and FF are the stories of two siblings Sang Zi and Sang Yan.Hidden Love focuses on the love…
Have it your way, but it really at bottom is two completely different stories. Since you are only comparing dramas, you can't help feeling the glaring differences. Yes TFF is NOT ABOUT Sang Zhi or even the Sang family.
No use trying to compare timelines, since the HL script differed from the timeline of TFF at several points The rest is like comparing what happens in two different countries : even the moments of supposed "overlap" when Sang Yan goes to check on his sister in Yihe have no common feel.
Actually, while TFF drama starts in media res after a prologue about SY and Shuangjiang's breakup, it does get back earlier to find deeper roots to his attachment, and I think it is the drama version which adds the moment when "baby" Sang Zhi played little lost girl bribed by her brother to get Shuangjiang closer to him near school bridge. (when she is 8 or younger, just starting primary school : but in HL, we heard she had long been of fragile health, so this is also a new drama addition, I think, trying to connect with the other drama for obvious marketing reasons).
Once again, I don't feel any connection between the characters as portrayed in the two dramas. It's not a simple "perspective" from female and male view. It's simply two different stories, using some points of superficial overlap to remind there is more to the author's work than one novel, one drama. And it really is no use trying to reconcile timelines and to quote ages in order to force a connection.
I think it is OK to just appreciate both dramas as different.
To put it simply HL and FF are the stories of two siblings Sang Zi and Sang Yan.Hidden Love focuses on the love…
It's Sang Zhi, not San Zi.
The stories are intentionally different, and the scriptwriter for HL decided to emphasize it by also cutting two years from Duan Jiaxu so he would be closer to Sang Zhi. Therefore, the timelines do not align whether in book, manhua, or drama. I read somewhere that the story of Sang Zhi was written first, from the memory of a childhood crush by the writer, so it does feel quite real to those who have experienced such crushes. The HL drama version is rather fairy story, with the older partner totally angelic from start (he is a smoker and more sarcastic in book and manhua), focusing on studies, work, repaying debts, being kind to all the younger who need help, for instance on the sports field.
Sang Zhi had an annoying older brother whom she liked to tease, because she knew she was her family's darling after some childhood serious health trouble that were over by the time the story started. She had not many interests in common with him and he was mostly absent, coming home for holidays or weekends to just dump himself into a sofa and play video games occasionally with Duan Jiaxu
The latter was his closest friend among a bunch of university classmates (who seemed to view university as hunting ground for dating) perhaps because Sang Yan had come to admire DJX's drive in studies (DJX got top grades and was accepted early in a top program) while DJX outwardly still seemed easy going, joking with everybody, liked by everyone, chased by girls but not interested in romance.
The Sang family helped DJX with money after he lost his mother and was overwhelmed by hospital, funeral debts for her and also for his father, for whom he needed to pay both hospital bills and blood money for a hit and run. DJX had had hell in his last years in school, faced with the hit and run's daughter who kept hounding him until he chose to get away and study in Nanwu, where he met Sang Yan, sharing same dorm.
DJX was already clear on his career goals as developer in the video game industry, Sang Yan looked like he just studied to pass time, had enough money not to worry, could open a bar as a side job for something else, but looked like the bar was his focus rather than career.
So Sang Yan appeared not exactly childish, but like an overgrown adolescent at times, but also as having a tender heart when he comforted his sister on her return from Yihe, where she had covertly tried to check on Duan Jiaxu, having heard a quip from her brother about him being in a relationship. Sang Zhi had disguised her intent under a fake Internet date story, with an imaginary scum boyfriend asking her over, and finding him two-timing and rejecting her. Sang Zhi had been heartbroken over mistaking the older woman who showed up with DJX at her arrival in airport, for DJX's girlfriend. Back in Nanwu, her brother (who was the one who had called DJX to find Zhi at the airport and make sure she got home on next flight) comforted the heart broken adolescent, who next stored away all that reminded her of her crush, and next focused on studies, but still chose Yihe as the best college to study on her chosen career path; from there on, she reconnected more or less happenstance with DJX and the love story slowly started, through her finding him in a time of need where she took him to and cared for him in hospital, once rising up to defend him against the awful woman who stalked him...
Next appearances of Sang Yan were when Zhi came home for Qian Fei's wedding, where there was the mocking "Gege" scene, and left with Duan Jiaxu who had managed to change flight tickets to travel with her on the way back after the wedding, Again later, on a brief holiday, and most notably when Sang Yan showed up to punch DJX in the face for seducing his sister, and the three made up in a restaurant. There was no mention of Sang Yan being himself smitten by the god of love.
The stories although happening at same time in the book and manhua, do not show the same kind of girl Sang Zhi or friends. The Sang Yan in TFF is focusing on his love first, his bar next, we get a fleeting moment when he gets into another more well paying and less risky business. In Hidden Love, his character seems more like that of a performer who likes to sing and appear unconventional, closer to Victor Ma's personality (like here : https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=EfAGTNLtE18 - so removed from the Sang Yan in TFF who dresses totally different, is totally different.) In TFF, the sister appears as close enough to know about Wen Yifan, but not that family minded. She uncharacteristically helps her brother attract the attention of Wen Yifan as a tiny child, which is completely opposite to what she would be doing in the story of Hidden Love. She supports her brother's love when she meets Wen Yifan in the shared apartment of SY and WYF (a moment that is not included in Hidden Love where she appears totally unawares that her brother could be have a serious love life, and does not seem to know about Shi=unagjiang)... No way this is same mindset as the girl from Hidden Love.
Both Sang Yan and Sang Zhi should simply not be looked as same characters in the two works. The author's intention was clearly not to have them aligned, but to focus on a darker story, around parental abandonment and broken dreams, family violence. The warm and supporting family of the Sang home in HL is totally forgotten, and Sang Yan looks almost as if his parents don't really love him, contrary to HL where the elder boy is a balancing force, kept in check by the mother who makes sure the much younger sibling does not get bullied at home despite the older boy likes to tease her. The mothers in HL and TFF are as different as day and night.
The author toyed with yo-yo-ing the story between Nanwu and Yihe, throwing in a third location with Beiyu in TFF, that we never hear about in HL. (The Hong Kong part I'm not sure I remember from the novel: was it in?) It's a long time since I read TFF, after HL which I thought was simple but delightful. I found TFF more ordinary, with its focus on the dark story to be resolved, and much less romantic, more heavy, when HL was not exactly always light, but focused on finding ways to overcome hurdles and past hurts without a necessity to bring in police and law in it: DJX only has to face the stalker with a copy of the law before she caves and disappears (to seek psychiatric treatment probably as Sang Zhi suggested, but the story of the horrible Jiang girl there stops at her weeping over the legal warning).
There is no mention of Wen Yifan/Shuangjiang/DianDian in the Hidden Love book, manhua, or drama. In TFF, she appears at the end of friend Qian Fei's wedding when DJX first ascertained his and Zhi's interest for each other, and some though that was also in HL but it simply was not : there is no scene in HL showing Sang Yan and Wen Yifan together with Zhi or Duan Jiaxu.
But it does give commenters a ball to try to reconcile what is deep down just two fantasies of the author using partly same or similar trappings, like children who deck out Barbie dolls in different clothes and invent different stories, different boyfriends, with the same doll. For some like me, we just watched them as separate stories, in a way comforted that the Sang Zhi, Qian Fei, Duan Jiaxu, parents, and Sang Yan in TFF are played by totally different actors emphasizing the different feel. Victor Ma expressed that he did not want to play the different San Yan The actors chosen for TFF are a better fit for that story; Zhang Ruonan got a star role there, which fit her image as reluctant to coax, and Bai Jingting was the good fit for the tall protector forced to stay looking from afar, but ready to rush in as "white knight" (his fighting for her in the book felt more highlighted there, although the drama started satisfactorily with the fistfight with her first "roommates" in Nanwu ; I was less happy about the portraying Sang Yan as seeming clueless about her family after having stalked Shuangjiang all the way to her door to bring back the book she had forgotten: it is one of the things that made suspension of disbelief harder in that drama, still quite good for me).
No one updated the calendar yet here on MDL as the new calendar of the drama is not yet released for episode 11.
It's a bit frustrating, but hey, it left me time to really enjoy the three other dramas I'm watching (The First Frost, more from curiosity, but is an ok drama albeit nothing unexpected ; Filter: a fireworks of fun morphing now into more serious and fluffy, my primary go-to everyday ; Si Jin, which I started out of curiosity)
and since Northward is still in limbo, I will give a peek at The Best Thing, apart from my various older items re-watch. Will enter those I finish in my watch list whenever. At the moment, I only firmly commit to Northward, Filter, adding TFF for Bai Jingting faithfulness and for Zhang Ruonan who is, as I suspected, perfect in her role - but that drama is way too slow. I will let some episodes pass there, before I get back to that one.
Looking forward to see what XWH got back from his trip to Zhongguancun. Fond memories of Haidian came back there. And what's going to happen back in Suzhou/Kunshan along the Grand Canal, now that the neighborhood committee takes action for Ma Siyi's grandma.
SCC would have made a fab lawyer too, with QSTs reaction to the bracelet malfunction and TQ saw her face. It runs…
I wanted to send you this as answer, also themed for Women's day, but time went too fast : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c1BThu95d8 "Have you seen her all in gold, like a queen in days of old, She shoots colors all around.... She's like a rainbow" Anyway, hope you'll like it. Golden oldie. 😂
Don't worry, since there are so many who spilled the beans on this page already, I can't hold it against you 🤭 Let's enjoy what's upcoming, known or not ! 😂
Ok, hope you are enjoying as much as I do. Although I'd say I generally agree with your words, when you decided to put them in here, I'd say this is fantasy rather than science fiction (it's nothing like the Three Body Problem :) and I am a long standing SFF fan so would not mislead readers... It's not because of the strapping of "updates" like a computer that the bangle is not magic and fantastical. Scientific alibis as once supposed by TQ are just another disguise and filter of the Filter... It's good fantasy AND humor, and not just empty-headed slapstick fun. It's full of references to other works too, there's a lot to dig there, so much that it's almost overwhelming although it's not hammered out ponderously. To me an 8.5 overall rating is way below the worth of this gem of a drama. But you can perhaps soon correct that when you really reach episode 32. Looking forward to episodes 26-32 :)
Oh wait some people see that chengcheng is toxic ??? Lol she is one of the nicest sweetest characters ever, he…
But now even what we thought might have been his cold despising of her with the comment about her picture in first episode was turned around by getting another perspective from him... This drama really shows how preconceived ideas "filter" and color our vision of people in dark and unforgiving colors they did not deserve.
Reserving harsh judgement is best, especially when there was no real violence. The outlandish "death" of Su Miao was so clearly "unreal", cinema, as were the alpaca from the zoo, the going away on rainbow steps, and the comic strip character demise : Tang Qi's inner logic felt there was something off with all this and he eventually unraveled the tangled web he had unwittingly caused to create, to find the true core and align with it. Could they have cleared the air before? I don't think so. The filter stories had become part of Su Chengcheng and products of circumstances ; Tang Qi was man enough to live through them, accept to face his own shortcomings in matters of appearances, accept all versions of his sweetheart : so sweet!!
Will the filter help again, now they have resolved "differences"? Can there still be more? Eager for the continuation of the fun and delicious story that has a feel like going through a large jar of differently colored and flavored addictive jelly beans. We got it all : spicy, spiky, meaty, cloying, salty, sweet, durian smelly, childhood pink spun sugar reminding, before discovering new tastes. This drama is such a treat !
2 
4 
1 
""it is Li Landi's 15th anniversary year as an actress since she debuted on 3/12/2010 at the age of 10 years old! 🎉🎉🎉 Congrats to her commitment as an actress and may she have many more years to come with amazing work and roles."
FILTER was fabulous, playing on all emotions and delivering a very wholesome message. Li Landi was great there, alongside Tan Jianci, and a support cast that also had interesting characters and actors. I awarded it wholeheartedly my 10/10 for rating.
It's a very satisfying end, not a protracted drama full of fillers (well I am not going to rant about THAT other recent drama which stands at top, only not on top of my personal list, now: it has its own audience which is happy with it, come partly because they love the "sister" drama, so why review the spinoff, supposedly more "adult", to spoil their pleasure.
I stay lenient, did not gun it down but awarded it my 8.5 so as not to drag it down.
Filter: if if was possible to go over 10, I would, not leniently but wholeheartedly. There were high times in several episodes when I though 100 or 1000 might be in order!!)
about squids, about science, about focus in photography, about alpacas, plants, ancient make up, birds, people, a new version of the god(dess) of love, colors meanings and how to cope without them, even with invisibility! how to make a tent crash down opportunely (can't believe Tang Qi the scientist made a mistake, haahaha!)...
This one was not wasted time, even though it was meant first of all for entertainment, next for a wholesome life message ! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
15 episodes "Reset" with Bai Jingting alongside excellent Zhao Jinmai is among my top favorites: BJT plays a very different Sang Yan in "The First Frost" spinoff to HL which is slow, has quite some fillers, but is good nonetheless with an excellent happy end.
"Ashes of love" remains my favorite old light xianxia with its three successive parts going from comedic to tragedy over 63 eps. it has an only 4 song OST, but unforgettable ones.
"Lighter and Princess" is tougher, albeit a wonderful college and business romance, but brace yourself for moments of pain (like in the long must-see, my favorite romantic epics "Love Like The Galaxy"/LLTG , "A Journey To Love", or Ashes of Love which play on every emotion- warning though : only LLTG and L&P have a happy end); L&P also has a fabulous OST, with many haunting tunes, like
"The Forbidden Flower", in which Xu Ruohan (now also FL in "The Best Thing") plays a girl seeking life at all costs as time is uncertain for her.
"You Are My Glory" is memorable for some extremely romantic moments ("reaching for the orange", "making pillows lower"...) and is very realistic, as is also
"As Beautiful As You" where Seven Tan play with a sizzling Xu Kai. Seven Tan also plays in a very romantic drama, "The Road Home" which aside from the tons of love and kisses has stunning landscapes.
"Miss Crow and Mr Lizard" was a nice science fiction romance with Ren Jialun, who I think remains most fabulous in the linked dramas "One and Only" + "Forever and Ever" where he played with Bai Lu, who was the romantic partner of Luo Yunxi in "Love is sweet" (in which they got along so well that they decided to do the flamboyant "Till The End of The Moon" which may be not everyone's cup of tea as xianxia, because bitter ending, but TTEOTM also has a fabulous OST.
The most romantic and easy xianxia remains "Love Between Fairy and Devil"/LBFAD played by Dylan Wang Hedi and Esther Yu Shuxin, who is presently starting a new romance called "Ski Into Love" which I plan to give peek too - some images in trailer look very cuddly!
If you crave momentarily for a dose of fizz sugar sizzle bridging over nonsense, turn also to "Embrace in the Dark Night", a short episodes series with a fun OST in English, but don't look for too much else than sheer skinship there. I laughed a lot, watching that one until the happy end.
For a more serious and quietly beautiful drama, there is indeed "Meet Yourself', with 40 eps. set in beautiful Yunnan; and there is also the unusual and truly wonderful short drama 8 episodes "To the Wonder" which got sky high rating on Douban, the picky Chinese ratings platform.
Have a nice time drama watching!
"The Best Thing" is also very good
... on the present platter of tasty dishes, yum !
https://kisskh.at/discussions/722171-first-frost/135380-the-first-frost-full-ost-with-eng-subs-lyrics
SY was indeed just a supporting character.
TFF was not even planned as drama when HL was filmed, in very difficult circumstances and having to battle a stupid controversy that even the official Beijing written news beat down until one of the more prominent online "critics" backed off and admitted she just was "howling with wolves".
And indeed TFF is making Sang Yan different, maybe not perfect, which would be boring. Just as Duan Jiaxu is an ideal lover albeit not perfect either. Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu are so different that it is very difficult to see them as friends in TFF, but it is easy to understand their connection in HL. It is not "about the same character" : they have like nothing in common, not only in behavior or appearance, and even friends circle (which don't seem to align much from one to the other drama except for some points which work as alibis but can't convince anybody to "recognize" either Sang yan, Sang Zhi, Duan Jiaxu, Qian Fei, Mrs Sang, Mr Sang.... for the people and friends that should connect the dramas).
The two dramas are totally different, like sunshine and stormy weather. Even if they use supposedly "same lead character". In fact, their psychology is totally different and there are too few overlaps to feel a real connection, also with the rearrangement of Sang Zhi's crush story in the drama version as compared to the nondescript occurrences of her in TFF.
It is not simply different phases in life. Or beautifying one girl who in her brother's view would be unremarkable and making her crush more attractive because "seen through her eyes". Duan Jiaxu is almost non existent in TFF, he just serves to turn away from screen to give the general direction of Yihe to Sang Yan when SY toys with the idea to travel to Yihe to see what is happening to Shuangjiang. As supposed best friends the way Sang Yan concealed his own crush and even name of crush to Duan Jiaxu in TFF is unbelievable. It only works if they are passing classmates, not as intimately connected through debts and frequent visits like in Hidden Love.
The purposes behind the dramas are also totally different. HL is a sweet story about accepting age difference in relationship, with a nurturing family which is at times almost over protective, from which the fledgling girl flies temporarily to test her own wings, finding renewed support, focusing on college years and career aspirations, TFF is about violence in families focusing on young adults at different work.
The two dramas are about totally disconnected views of the world and characters that only superficially share a name and supposed family background. The author and scriptwriters must have had reasons to make them so different, when it would indeed not have been too difficult to show the characters as more 'of same family'. They clear did not want too many cross references but wanted to focus on "new characters" while banking on attraction from the former hit. It is not really satisfying there, as a results. It would have been better to give Sang Yan another name, and not drag in Sang Zhi, Jiaxu etc. and the partly repeat scenes which were not necessary for the story anyway.
No use trying to compare timelines, since the HL script differed from the timeline of TFF at several points The rest is like comparing what happens in two different countries : even the moments of supposed "overlap" when Sang Yan goes to check on his sister in Yihe have no common feel.
Actually, while TFF drama starts in media res after a prologue about SY and Shuangjiang's breakup, it does get back earlier to find deeper roots to his attachment, and I think it is the drama version which adds the moment when "baby" Sang Zhi played little lost girl bribed by her brother to get Shuangjiang closer to him near school bridge. (when she is 8 or younger, just starting primary school : but in HL, we heard she had long been of fragile health, so this is also a new drama addition, I think, trying to connect with the other drama for obvious marketing reasons).
Once again, I don't feel any connection between the characters as portrayed in the two dramas. It's not a simple "perspective" from female and male view. It's simply two different stories, using some points of superficial overlap to remind there is more to the author's work than one novel, one drama. And it really is no use trying to reconcile timelines and to quote ages in order to force a connection.
I think it is OK to just appreciate both dramas as different.
The stories are intentionally different, and the scriptwriter for HL decided to emphasize it by also cutting two years from Duan Jiaxu so he would be closer to Sang Zhi. Therefore, the timelines do not align whether in book, manhua, or drama. I read somewhere that the story of Sang Zhi was written first, from the memory of a childhood crush by the writer, so it does feel quite real to those who have experienced such crushes. The HL drama version is rather fairy story, with the older partner totally angelic from start (he is a smoker and more sarcastic in book and manhua), focusing on studies, work, repaying debts, being kind to all the younger who need help, for instance on the sports field.
Sang Zhi had an annoying older brother whom she liked to tease, because she knew she was her family's darling after some childhood serious health trouble that were over by the time the story started. She had not many interests in common with him and he was mostly absent, coming home for holidays or weekends to just dump himself into a sofa and play video games occasionally with Duan Jiaxu
The latter was his closest friend among a bunch of university classmates (who seemed to view university as hunting ground for dating) perhaps because Sang Yan had come to admire DJX's drive in studies (DJX got top grades and was accepted early in a top program) while DJX outwardly still seemed easy going, joking with everybody, liked by everyone, chased by girls but not interested in romance.
The Sang family helped DJX with money after he lost his mother and was overwhelmed by hospital, funeral debts for her and also for his father, for whom he needed to pay both hospital bills and blood money for a hit and run. DJX had had hell in his last years in school, faced with the hit and run's daughter who kept hounding him until he chose to get away and study in Nanwu, where he met Sang Yan, sharing same dorm.
DJX was already clear on his career goals as developer in the video game industry, Sang Yan looked like he just studied to pass time, had enough money not to worry, could open a bar as a side job for something else, but looked like the bar was his focus rather than career.
So Sang Yan appeared not exactly childish, but like an overgrown adolescent at times, but also as having a tender heart when he comforted his sister on her return from Yihe, where she had covertly tried to check on Duan Jiaxu, having heard a quip from her brother about him being in a relationship. Sang Zhi had disguised her intent under a fake Internet date story, with an imaginary scum boyfriend asking her over, and finding him two-timing and rejecting her. Sang Zhi had been heartbroken over mistaking the older woman who showed up with DJX at her arrival in airport, for DJX's girlfriend. Back in Nanwu, her brother (who was the one who had called DJX to find Zhi at the airport and make sure she got home on next flight) comforted the heart broken adolescent, who next stored away all that reminded her of her crush, and next focused on studies, but still chose Yihe as the best college to study on her chosen career path; from there on, she reconnected more or less happenstance with DJX and the love story slowly started, through her finding him in a time of need where she took him to and cared for him in hospital, once rising up to defend him against the awful woman who stalked him...
Next appearances of Sang Yan were when Zhi came home for Qian Fei's wedding, where there was the mocking "Gege" scene, and left with Duan Jiaxu who had managed to change flight tickets to travel with her on the way back after the wedding, Again later, on a brief holiday, and most notably when Sang Yan showed up to punch DJX in the face for seducing his sister, and the three made up in a restaurant. There was no mention of Sang Yan being himself smitten by the god of love.
The stories although happening at same time in the book and manhua, do not show the same kind of girl Sang Zhi or friends. The Sang Yan in TFF is focusing on his love first, his bar next, we get a fleeting moment when he gets into another more well paying and less risky business. In Hidden Love, his character seems more like that of a performer who likes to sing and appear unconventional, closer to Victor Ma's personality (like here : https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=EfAGTNLtE18 - so removed from the Sang Yan in TFF who dresses totally different, is totally different.) In TFF, the sister appears as close enough to know about Wen Yifan, but not that family minded. She uncharacteristically helps her brother attract the attention of Wen Yifan as a tiny child, which is completely opposite to what she would be doing in the story of Hidden Love. She supports her brother's love when she meets Wen Yifan in the shared apartment of SY and WYF (a moment that is not included in Hidden Love where she appears totally unawares that her brother could be have a serious love life, and does not seem to know about Shi=unagjiang)... No way this is same mindset as the girl from Hidden Love.
Both Sang Yan and Sang Zhi should simply not be looked as same characters in the two works. The author's intention was clearly not to have them aligned, but to focus on a darker story, around parental abandonment and broken dreams, family violence. The warm and supporting family of the Sang home in HL is totally forgotten, and Sang Yan looks almost as if his parents don't really love him, contrary to HL where the elder boy is a balancing force, kept in check by the mother who makes sure the much younger sibling does not get bullied at home despite the older boy likes to tease her. The mothers in HL and TFF are as different as day and night.
The author toyed with yo-yo-ing the story between Nanwu and Yihe, throwing in a third location with Beiyu in TFF, that we never hear about in HL. (The Hong Kong part I'm not sure I remember from the novel: was it in?) It's a long time since I read TFF, after HL which I thought was simple but delightful. I found TFF more ordinary, with its focus on the dark story to be resolved, and much less romantic, more heavy, when HL was not exactly always light, but focused on finding ways to overcome hurdles and past hurts without a necessity to bring in police and law in it: DJX only has to face the stalker with a copy of the law before she caves and disappears (to seek psychiatric treatment probably as Sang Zhi suggested, but the story of the horrible Jiang girl there stops at her weeping over the legal warning).
There is no mention of Wen Yifan/Shuangjiang/DianDian in the Hidden Love book, manhua, or drama. In TFF, she appears at the end of friend Qian Fei's wedding when DJX first ascertained his and Zhi's interest for each other, and some though that was also in HL but it simply was not : there is no scene in HL showing Sang Yan and Wen Yifan together with Zhi or Duan Jiaxu.
But it does give commenters a ball to try to reconcile what is deep down just two fantasies of the author using partly same or similar trappings, like children who deck out Barbie dolls in different clothes and invent different stories, different boyfriends, with the same doll. For some like me, we just watched them as separate stories, in a way comforted that the Sang Zhi, Qian Fei, Duan Jiaxu, parents, and Sang Yan in TFF are played by totally different actors emphasizing the different feel. Victor Ma expressed that he did not want to play the different San Yan The actors chosen for TFF are a better fit for that story; Zhang Ruonan got a star role there, which fit her image as reluctant to coax, and Bai Jingting was the good fit for the tall protector forced to stay looking from afar, but ready to rush in as "white knight" (his fighting for her in the book felt more highlighted there, although the drama started satisfactorily with the fistfight with her first "roommates" in Nanwu ; I was less happy about the portraying Sang Yan as seeming clueless about her family after having stalked Shuangjiang all the way to her door to bring back the book she had forgotten: it is one of the things that made suspension of disbelief harder in that drama, still quite good for me).
and since Northward is still in limbo, I will give a peek at The Best Thing, apart from my various older items re-watch. Will enter those I finish in my watch list whenever. At the moment, I only firmly commit to Northward, Filter, adding TFF for Bai Jingting faithfulness and for Zhang Ruonan who is, as I suspected, perfect in her role - but that drama is way too slow. I will let some episodes pass there, before I get back to that one.
Looking forward to see what XWH got back from his trip to Zhongguancun. Fond memories of Haidian came back there. And what's going to happen back in Suzhou/Kunshan along the Grand Canal, now that the neighborhood committee takes action for Ma Siyi's grandma.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c1BThu95d8
"Have you seen her all in gold, like a queen in days of old,
She shoots colors all around.... She's like a rainbow"
Anyway, hope you'll like it. Golden oldie. 😂
Let's enjoy what's upcoming, known or not ! 😂
Although I'd say I generally agree with your words, when you decided to put them in here, I'd say this is fantasy rather than science fiction (it's nothing like the Three Body Problem :) and I am a long standing SFF fan so would not mislead readers... It's not because of the strapping of "updates" like a computer that the bangle is not magic and fantastical. Scientific alibis as once supposed by TQ are just another disguise and filter of the Filter...
It's good fantasy AND humor, and not just empty-headed slapstick fun.
It's full of references to other works too, there's a lot to dig there, so much that it's almost overwhelming although it's not hammered out ponderously.
To me an 8.5 overall rating is way below the worth of this gem of a drama.
But you can perhaps soon correct that when you really reach episode 32.
Looking forward to episodes 26-32 :)
Reserving harsh judgement is best, especially when there was no real violence. The outlandish "death" of Su Miao was so clearly "unreal", cinema, as were the alpaca from the zoo, the going away on rainbow steps, and the comic strip character demise : Tang Qi's inner logic felt there was something off with all this and he eventually unraveled the tangled web he had unwittingly caused to create, to find the true core and align with it. Could they have cleared the air before? I don't think so. The filter stories had become part of Su Chengcheng and products of circumstances ; Tang Qi was man enough to live through them, accept to face his own shortcomings in matters of appearances, accept all versions of his sweetheart : so sweet!!
Will the filter help again, now they have resolved "differences"? Can there still be more? Eager for the continuation of the fun and delicious story that has a feel like going through a large jar of differently colored and flavored addictive jelly beans. We got it all : spicy, spiky, meaty, cloying, salty, sweet, durian smelly, childhood pink spun sugar reminding, before discovering new tastes. This drama is such a treat !