This particular story had a following before it even had a drama, the novel had a dedicated fanbase, infact i'm…
A following is not always the best thing. Take my case : I read both books. HL first, TFF later. Liked them both. Preferred the drama adaptation of HL to the book.
Looked forward to watch TFF, so can be counted in the "following" there, once it started after HL publication and later, drama airing; Albeit with some trepidation after it was clear the new production was recasting all characters that appeared in the original first drama adaptation, for the spinoff. Liked the drama version less than the book, now. But everyone sees things differently.
If I had not read the book before and followed the planning and shooting of the new drama (not closely, because to me BJT was not best choice, although I was not clinging to Victor Ma, once he made clear his reasons why he would not play the role even if it had been offered to him), perhaps I would have been more lenient then. I still came in with half a favorable bias and even reassured a few who doubted Zhang Ruonan as a choice there. The promotion and hype was normal, as was the curiosity from HL fans who wanted to see the spinoff, and boosted the heat index. I don't mind normal hype and I am happy that a drama gets positive ratings instead of having to battle vicious down-ratings and cyber-bullying of cast (like HL suffered, still rising to heights despite those hurdles that did not touch TFF which came in, surfing on the appeased waves, not ground breaking.)
The OST is good, so I added more info in the relevant thread.
This is not a bad drama, I was happy for Zhang Ruonan that she at last found a role that fit her perfectly.
To boil it down : I was disappointed that I did not enjoy the TFF drama as much as I expected I would... Glad that I could be brought to tears with laughter from the wonderful FILTER drama on the side (one that did not benefit from proper promotion and hype, but also, like HL had to rely on a totally new-won fan base after it aired, to get known and rise to good Douban rating : 7.4 today. Well, I like "dark horse dramas" when I find them 😊 Stuff like The Imperial Coroner, The Forbidden Flower, To The Wonder, Escape from the Trilateral slopes, in various genres ; HL and Filter were among those.).
I watch a lot, so, TFF is behind me now. I only came back because I wanted to check one song in the OST that I will mention in a companion piece for a wholly different drama : the slice-of-life and period piece Northward (it's not ready yet so don't rush to read it, besides that Northward drama is also very long, so there's time to catch up later for those who might be interested, but didn't dive in from start; my Companion piece may help then, although the story is not very complicated nor the cast too numerous). I like music a lot, and there are old songs as bgm in that drama, even some tunes that did not get mentioned on the official OST, but which I could recognize: very satisfying for me.
Btw there still is one tune in TFF that I could not find definitive answer for: the dreamy tune on the dance parts of Shuangjiang and her popping bubbles in Sang Yan's Overtime bar. If anyone finds the answer, I'd like to know. 😊
This particular story had a following before it even had a drama, the novel had a dedicated fanbase, infact i'm…
@LovelyDramas You are just wrong: you need to check some facts before you dive in like this. Hidden Love was the author's first published novel and drew on the author's personal story with an imagined adult arc....
Stayed up until 3 am last night making gifs of Sangyifan for my MDL profile page 😭 the brainrot is still brainrotting.
Oh my goodness, your page is even better than the drama : very very cute and appealing! Myself, I have unfortunately not liked that drama as much as you did (ah well, I stay with HL, so would have preferred all those characters from HL to be plain erased from TFF to focus on the story and not be annoyed with comparisons, also some superfluous arcs felt like fillers for me), but I always admire true fans who do nice stuff like you did there. You cut/found the best Gifs to extract as much sweetness as possible and showcase both BJT and ZRN. I probably will not rewatch TFF, but I may come back to admire your page once in a while! Sending a flower to you, since I can do it 😊 umm did you receive it ?
Nanwu is the community they leaved in and Beiyu is were Yifan transferred to so sang yan used to take the bus…
Ummm not "community they leaved" but the large town in which they live and lived. Beiyu looks like another satellite town, or distant suburb, or upgraded small town with decaying parts. Nanwu in TFF is modeled on Chongqing (China's largest city or municipality, which also encompasses small towns and even countryside and mountains!)
sending 77 flowers for JC-T's role as Tang 7 🥳 That was the best drama I watched in the light category since a long long while ! 8.2 rating ? people are stingy.... He's got my 10/10 wholeheartedly.
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.
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Looked forward to watch TFF, so can be counted in the "following" there, once it started after HL publication and later, drama airing; Albeit with some trepidation after it was clear the new production was recasting all characters that appeared in the original first drama adaptation, for the spinoff. Liked the drama version less than the book, now. But everyone sees things differently.
If I had not read the book before and followed the planning and shooting of the new drama (not closely, because to me BJT was not best choice, although I was not clinging to Victor Ma, once he made clear his reasons why he would not play the role even if it had been offered to him), perhaps I would have been more lenient then. I still came in with half a favorable bias and even reassured a few who doubted Zhang Ruonan as a choice there. The promotion and hype was normal, as was the curiosity from HL fans who wanted to see the spinoff, and boosted the heat index. I don't mind normal hype and I am happy that a drama gets positive ratings instead of having to battle vicious down-ratings and cyber-bullying of cast (like HL suffered, still rising to heights despite those hurdles that did not touch TFF which came in, surfing on the appeased waves, not ground breaking.)
The OST is good, so I added more info in the relevant thread.
This is not a bad drama, I was happy for Zhang Ruonan that she at last found a role that fit her perfectly.
To boil it down : I was disappointed that I did not enjoy the TFF drama as much as I expected I would... Glad that I could be brought to tears with laughter from the wonderful FILTER drama on the side (one that did not benefit from proper promotion and hype, but also, like HL had to rely on a totally new-won fan base after it aired, to get known and rise to good Douban rating : 7.4 today. Well, I like "dark horse dramas" when I find them 😊 Stuff like The Imperial Coroner, The Forbidden Flower, To The Wonder, Escape from the Trilateral slopes, in various genres ; HL and Filter were among those.).
I watch a lot, so, TFF is behind me now. I only came back because I wanted to check one song in the OST that I will mention in a companion piece for a wholly different drama : the slice-of-life and period piece Northward (it's not ready yet so don't rush to read it, besides that Northward drama is also very long, so there's time to catch up later for those who might be interested, but didn't dive in from start; my Companion piece may help then, although the story is not very complicated nor the cast too numerous). I like music a lot, and there are old songs as bgm in that drama, even some tunes that did not get mentioned on the official OST, but which I could recognize: very satisfying for me.
Btw there still is one tune in TFF that I could not find definitive answer for: the dreamy tune on the dance parts of Shuangjiang and her popping bubbles in Sang Yan's Overtime bar. If anyone finds the answer, I'd like to know. 😊
Myself, I have unfortunately not liked that drama as much as you did (ah well, I stay with HL, so would have preferred all those characters from HL to be plain erased from TFF to focus on the story and not be annoyed with comparisons, also some superfluous arcs felt like fillers for me), but I always admire true fans who do nice stuff like you did there. You cut/found the best Gifs to extract as much sweetness as possible and showcase both BJT and ZRN. I probably will not rewatch TFF, but I may come back to admire your page once in a while!
Sending a flower to you, since I can do it 😊 umm did you receive it ?
That was the best drama I watched in the light category since a long long while !
8.2 rating ? people are stingy.... He's got my 10/10 wholeheartedly.
""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.