It is set mostly in the Wangjing Poly International Plaza (保利国际广场) corporate offices. Wangjing is where the production company built the primary consulting firm interior sets. The crew primarily shot the outdoor tracking sequences very late at night or during the earliest hours of the morning to manage the massive flow of local tech workers and corporate employees around Wangjing Soho. "Director Chen Mingzhang deliberately chose Wangjing SOHO’s distinctive curves to emphasize the futuristic, high-stakes nature of the consulting world. The lighting crews specifically enhanced the tree-wrapped string lights along the peripheral sidewalks to construct a highly romantic, visually cinematic contrast against the heavy corporate background".
But the hotel (in which the couple have breakfast on a rooftop terrace scene looking directly at the CBD skyline from across the massive Chaoyang park) is filmed from the high floors of The Bulgari Hotel Beijing which stands on the bank of the Liangma river near the embassy quarter. The boardwalks and willow-lined paths paths along the Liangma river are where Xu Chi and Ye Xinzhi went jogging.
There were drives to and from Capital Airport Terminal 3 .
The dramatic night scene where Xu Chi’s strict idol/mentor Ye Xinzhi drives brutally while aggressively lecturing her about corporate accountability and the ruthless nature of the consulting industry was filmed on the Guangqu Expressway Elevated Road (广渠高架路) and around the East Third Ring Road overpasses. The production team intentionally utilized these high-speed elevated loops at night to visually mirror the suffocating pressure and fast pace Xu Chi was experiencing in her struggle to become a senior analyst despite her mentor's backstabbing and her rich friend pulling the rug from under her feet.
Other noticeable places were the Sanlitun Taikoo Li fashion hub and the honeycomb glass structure of the nearby InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun, : that's where Xu Chi and Ye Xinzhi went to meet people and relax after work (bar, restaurant).
The former home of Xu Chi real location was filmed on-site in Beijing, at an actual, older residential neighborhood in Beijing—likely a preserved multi-family housing block or an old institutional compound—to get the realistic look of a modest, weathered apartment building . However, the "Yong'an Road No. 1" (永安路1号) sign itself is a prop added by the production team, to avoid having fans flocking to the real location (kept secret) and disturbing real life residents.
Bu Tianna's parents home used a building in Caochangdi, down the street from the famous Three Shadows Photographic Art Gallery. The Zuiku International Cultural Creative Park (醉库国际文化创意园) shooting base is located at No. 8, Jiadao 8, Caochangdi, which sits right in the heart of the Caochangdi Art District in Beijing. While parts of the broader Caochangdi village area have undergone demolition and redevelopment over the years, this specific cluster of art blocks and creative studio bases remains heavily used for filming high-end modern dramas like Irreplaceable.
Zuiku International Cultural Creative Park is also where the sets of interior office scenes were created.
The modern, high-end villa communities featured during the executive-level scenes were primarily filmed in the Chaoyang District (朝阳区) and the Shunyi District (顺义区). These areas are renowned for hosting Beijing's premium contemporary architecture, luxury low-rise villas, and corporate consulting compounds.
Ah, I am slow, I am still not up to date there 🤣 I took a "vacation to modern times" mid-way after…
You are right about "Fake it Till You Make It" which used Beijing CBD despite the costs in the difficult covid times of its filming (2022) ;
then as one other recommendation pointed out, there was "All the Way To The Sun" about a trio of working girls, which used 80 recognizable places in Beijing, in 2023. That drama was "a key project supported by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau, and Chaoyang District's government actively facilitated filming logistics — in 2023 alone the district supported over 500 filming locations for multiple productions."
Also, "Love's Ambition" , like "All the Way to the Sun", made much use of Beijing's modern districts (Tongzhou, Chaoyang-area) but also reached into the outer districts for contrast — Fangshan's old village, Miyun's water town, and the Great Wall area.
Same for the Early Spring, which contrasted the Guomao central area with the far residential suburb Tiantongyuan outside the 5th ring and the Wenyu river. This one, although mostly set within the areas of Olympic Park (Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank lobby, Vanke Nava residence), 798/751 Art District, the Gongti/Sanlitun area (the karaoke bar) and Kerry Center, China World neighborhoods, also reached into outer districts with the setting of the exclusive restaurants and bars near Badaling or in high end Commune by The Great Wall.
I am hunting up the real locations feature in " Irreplaceable" too. Will post about them in a comment for those who may be interested.
How long was this drama filmed ? It looks so dated from the female lead perspective if you compare to her recent…
Baidu informs : "The drama started filming in Beijing on August 11, 2025. On October 24, the drama wrapped up."
Since then, the filmography of Zhao Jinmai includes : "The Wandering Earth 3": A science-fiction film where she reprises her role as Han Duoduo; filming for Phase 1 was completed in May 2026. "A Journey to Glow": A historical political drama that began filming in July 2026. "Again and Again": An upcoming film where she plays Meng Xinyue, filmed in 2026.
Audiences are reacting mostly to the somewhat similar themes and setting of "The Early Spring" (starring Jing Boran and Sun Qian) which also uses real Beijing places, but is more romance centered (even steamy although the age and status difference of protagonists and the way the romance evolves with push and pull has been seen as controversial by a part of audience). Some even nicknamed Irreplaceable as The Early Spring 2 (although that name should go to the real "season 2" now being written and planned by the team of TES 1). The workplace is different although competitive too: TES is about an advertising company. But there is less discussion there about how to tackle relations with superiors and colleagues in that industry., than in Irreplaceable which focuses more on the consultant business. But Irreplaceable started filming in Beijing in August while TES was filmed from September 5 to November 26, 2025, with a part in Harbin in November. Despite the shooting time overlap in September and October, there was no reported interaction between the two teams.
However, there was a fun fan-driven crossover moment: Zhao Jinmai's character in Irreplaceable (无可替代) — Xu Chi — has the English name Tracy, which coincidentally matches the name of the HR executive character (Liang Xin / Tracy) played by Peng Yang in The Early Spring. Both are set in Beijing office buildings, and the coincidence sparked a viral Weibo trend (#叫Tracy的都吃这么好吗# — "Do all the Tracys eat this well?"), with fans joking about a "dream crossover" between the two shows.
So, Zhao Jinmai's new character is well anchored in the context of the present trend of "office dramas" in China.
So much causes controversy these days. It can be dangerous to talk about coffee, chocolate, and even osmanthus flower flavored milk ! At least there was no controversial map with a disputed border, here !! But I admit and agree with you that producers and scriptwriters ought to check thin skin reactions from easily offended audiences to avoid unnecessary trouble. Nevertheless I gave my own dispassionate reaction to that minute segment which someone else views as a filler. Hope it can calm down the debate : there are worse trouble to be concerned about in real life... So just zap the scene if it is not agreeing to taste.
if the mere mention of the name of the country offends you, it is your own problem. Anyway, it was a tiny anecdote…
There are many ways to use head movements (or finger, or hand, or body). It's just a cultural fact. If talking about one particular one is viewed as racist, or for mockery, it is only stupid, and adding fuel to fire there is not constructive. I said how I saw it. You want to see something else (or erase it).
I came to this comments section to take a break from Against the Current’s comments page blowing up after episode…
Ah, I am slow, I am still not up to date there 🤣 I took a "vacation to modern times" mid-way after the abduction to see how Irreplaceable weaved in views of real Beijing, the new trend made famous in The Early Spring although the two dramas are very different!
I will try to get back to ATC now (in waiting for more here) but the avalanche of comments there is too much for me on top of watching. I'll appreciate the drama more slowly; the end is soon there but not immediate yet.
There was no need to mention India in that scene. Such an unnecessary filler. Racist in my opinion.
if the mere mention of the name of the country offends you, it is your own problem. Anyway, it was a tiny anecdote that stopped short, and my view of it was that it was a small warning to Xu Chi about how non verbal communications can lead to errors in data, and to stay cool even when the anecdote's intention is not clear. There are enough explicit reasons to get ruffled in communications without some viewers adding an extraneous charge of hidden negative meaning there.
I screamed when I saw the credits at the end of ep 8 knowing there was no ep 9! Frustrating!
yes, and next checking that I need to wait 21 hours (as of now) to find out how Xu Chi will react after having been pulled down into the seat from which she jumped up when she saw the screen! Will she scream, destroy the table, get into a fist fight with Ma Ke ?
btw fun facts:
Ma Ke's Chinese name in the drama is 马科 (mǎ kē) "an established biological term meaning Equidae — the taxonomic family of horses, donkeys, and zebras"; not to be confused with the transliteration for 马克 (mǎ kè) for "Mark" (which would be unsurprising in that business). "马科 does occasionally appear in movie subtitles as a rendering of Marko or Marco, but it's non-standard and would be confusing to most Chinese speakers because it immediately reads as "horse family."
But usually horses have a very positive value in Chinese idioms and symbols (not only as "fire horse" of the 2026 zodiac year) : 马到成功 (mǎ dào chéng gōng = The horse arrives, success follows) is the default success wish in Chinese business and academic life: it doesn't only mean "good luck," it's "go and make it happen."
As for President Pí 皮总, I was thinking of the proximity with the expression "Patting horse butt (拍马屁, pāi mǎ pì): This means to brown-nose or suck up to someone, derived from the literal act of patting a horse's rear end." (some relevance with the attitude of some guys in the workplace?)
It's around timestamp 34:00 into episode 8 when YXC noticed a potential problem in the data pertaining to an "India branch", except the company had none, but YXC remembered having had been in tentative dealings with Indians but briefly said he had had trouble getting on the same page because of a cultural quirk, which from his description seemed to be the "Indian wobble".
(interesting that a worldly consultant, experienced, sophisticated and well-rounded in education, travel, should admit to having trouble with other cultural contexts: I don't read any racist intent there, just a factual digression about one particular possible cause for misunderstandings and errors).
So, for those unfamiliar with that (or Turkish agreements or other ways of signaling puzzlement for that matter), there are countries where body language for agreement is not moving the head up and down, but sideways, and smiles may not signify benevolence or agreements. According to (mildly) trusted AI : "many people in India use a side-to-side head movement, known as the Indian head wobble or head bobble, to signal yes, okay, good, or understanding. It is important to distinguish this from the standard head nod (up and down), which still means yes, and the standard head shake (horizontal side-to-side like a table fan), which means no; the wobble is a distinct, nuanced form of nonverbal communication rooted in South Asian culture." "Turks signal agreement by moving their head up and down. A single, slow downward nod indicates sincere agreement or appreciation, while a quick upward jerk of the head (often accompanied by raised eyebrows and a tongue click) is the standard gesture for "no." In contrast to many Western cultures, shaking the head sideways in Turkey does not typically mean "no"; instead, it is used to indicate "I don't understand."
I suppose these info, often learned from intercultural briefing, may help before dealing with those other cultures, but reality can still lead to some confusion for people not used to these contacts. Having a seminar on the dos and don'ts before going to work abroad is often seen as necessary for business people and diplomats. Even then, there can be misunderstandings without it being caused by faulty translations: body language (hand and head movements, rapping knuckles on a table, using thumb and index to signal 2 in western countries, 6 in China...) and handling of ordinary tools (chopsticks in China etc) can be interpreted differently depending on the culture of the person involved.
Even with AI assistance, btw, we are not free of possible misunderstandings or getting false information. The US military use of AI almost caused a nuclear war with China over an AI hallucination two weeks ago or so (AIs can be misled or have hallucinations: interesting and quite disquieting! and it is even a well-known problem in the tech...) You can read about it here : https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship Tall tales and slander like the one of the "weapons of mass destruction" of Iraq in 2003 (that one debunked now), have caused worse than mild misunderstandings over millenniums, and they may fuel the data which drives AI, so we are still not assured that the future will be peaceful... Shaking (any direction) my "grizzled head" in misgiving, lol !
Abyssal Sentience is the name for the Youku sci-fi drama which MarissaDanelle described below. It has started filming in Ningxia region and posters have been published, official cast announced on August 24. Slated for 20 episodes to stream on Youku. This is mentioned + described on Marcus Here c-drama vlog reporting of September 23.
Chu Nanfei (Johnny Huang) "plays an investigator who looks into a mysterious signal coming from beneath an oil field, decades after a strange drilling accident in the Gobi desert. The investigation leads him and his team to an unknown life-form capable of infecting humans, and causing mutations, as well as to mysterious organization trying to exploit its power."
Why is not it mentioned in the filmography above ?
From what I’ve heard, Sun Yuanzhu was based on the author’s friend - it really happened,
That and the pandemic made many more people aware of life's limits (30,000 days at most, she said!!) and the dark maelstrom of depression, as lethal as a glacier sliding into mud tsunami (thoughts and respect to the victims and bereaved in the August 26 catastrophe which even caused a postponement of drama awards)..
No, Luke's apartment building was in Linked Hybrid, shown both from outside and inside in the drama. The general…
You are RIGHT ! The name was etched into the glass panels when Shang Zhitao exited Luan Nian's dark lair in episode 5 after her drunken night and (almost classic vertical drama style) ravishing by the "dark lord" 😂.
BUT there was a time conundrum. Before exiting the lobby, a voice piped the weather forecast for that exceptionally non humid Saturday... April 12, 2013. That's when the mind boggling powers of our Luan Nian Dark Prince (second only to Lucifer) were revealed : he could not always tweak Shang Zhitao's stubborn resolve to set work first and hide sentiments away. But he could modify time strands and shift to parallel universe where the residence existed like today already before 2013! In our reality, the previously abandoned buildings of the early 2000s were transformed and commissioned for renovation and transformation not before 2016 and marketed to clients only in 2023 (listed on Nouvel's own site as "Vanke Beijing Beixiaoying Project"). 😁
In 2013 our times, the architectural project had not even started drafting! (Wondering why production let out that they chose NAVA as key location, despite showing repeatedly the stills and skyway timelapses of Linked Hybrid building inaugurated in 2006 and fitting the dark color themes). Logic is sometimes difficult to understand.
Incidentally, I could not find another NAVA building closer to the Lufthansa area on 3rd ring road: there is only this Beixiaoying address which is closer to the Olympic park and Bird's Nest on 4th ring road - and this is consistent with the road signs and the bus announcements, to travel to the metro line 5 station at Huixinxijie Beikou (惠新西街北口),which links to Tiantongyuan (Shang Zhitao's shared apartment residence area) in the drama.
Anyway, I've amended my review, with a note that the story has to be in a parallel universe where NAVA existed as today in 2013. 😁 - btw thanks for having read and liked that review!
I am starting a new Discussion piece on the drama page, about the filming locations and the interesting things and places there, to follow the production philosophy which was stated at time of shooting. I will perhaps make into a mini Companion piece to add to the list of those I committed 😂.. Will work more on it in the weekend !
Also looking forward to resume watch of the Miles Wei drama Blossom through the sky which I paused to wrap my notes about The Early Spring, and get sidetracked into writing another "tome" 🤣.
Elvis Han, Liu Xueyi, Johnny Huang, Xu Kai and may Liu yuning
All good actors + why not Lin Gengxin, Wallace Chung, William Chan... 🤩 If JBR had not been available, any certainly could have contributed something interesting, but let's be honest : in this drama Jing Boran literally owned the role to perfection. Chemistry, conflicted and sometimes dark aura, eyes play to rival Allan Ren's but steamy skinship and hot kisses like RJL avoids, and these impeccable clothes and styling choices JBR actively contributed to,as a bonus.
Jing Boran's take on the conflicted , foul mouthed 🌵advertising company boss managed to throw audience into opposing factions with those who could not take his ruthlessness and started flinging "toxic" and even "narcissist" labels among other PC objections (+ vocally clamoring this was not like K dramas 🙄), and those who thought this story was more realistic than most fairy tales and thus, more than just worth the watch 😇. Another actor might have made the drama blander and more forgettable.
The innovative addition to the crew of the "intimacy coordinator" 🥰 perhaps smoothed some tensions which actor pairs go through and rattle dramas where stand-offish tensions are not desirable. In the case of lesser experienced at such scenes Sun Qian, thanks to this support, the ambitious FL role shone as much as Jing Boran's remarkable previous pairing with not-shy Seven Tan in the second chance Road Home romance. Sun Qian will have gained a lot in her career thanks to this drama. She has visibly improved again, since her pairing with Johnny Huang in Love Song In Winter.
But we are not in vertical dramas where alternate casts tackle same story and lines so audience can choose their favorite (Wang Kaimu, Zhao Zhendong, Wang Nan etc). Nevertheless, even when these play "age gap older and wiser than Cinderella" classic drama stories of overbearing CEO falling for pretty employee, these short drama actors are still too young for a role like Luan Nian for whom JBR was in every respect a perfect fit. Besides, the plot was not as straightforward as those model stories and choosing a fashion brand ambassador like JBR added value to the drama.
In a lineup of my now numerous noticed Chinese actors poll, I would have chosen Jing Boran too 😂😂😂
K-Drama 
2 
5 
1 
3 
1 
It is set mostly in the Wangjing Poly International Plaza (保利国际广场) corporate offices. Wangjing is where the production company built the primary consulting firm interior sets. The crew primarily shot the outdoor tracking sequences very late at night or during the earliest hours of the morning to manage the massive flow of local tech workers and corporate employees around Wangjing Soho. "Director Chen Mingzhang deliberately chose Wangjing SOHO’s distinctive curves to emphasize the futuristic, high-stakes nature of the consulting world. The lighting crews specifically enhanced the tree-wrapped string lights along the peripheral sidewalks to construct a highly romantic, visually cinematic contrast against the heavy corporate background".
But the hotel (in which the couple have breakfast on a rooftop terrace scene looking directly at the CBD skyline from across the massive Chaoyang park) is filmed from the high floors of The Bulgari Hotel Beijing which stands on the bank of the Liangma river near the embassy quarter. The boardwalks and willow-lined paths paths along the Liangma river are where Xu Chi and Ye Xinzhi went jogging.
There were drives to and from Capital Airport Terminal 3 .
The dramatic night scene where Xu Chi’s strict idol/mentor Ye Xinzhi drives brutally while aggressively lecturing her about corporate accountability and the ruthless nature of the consulting industry was filmed on the Guangqu Expressway Elevated Road (广渠高架路) and around the East Third Ring Road overpasses. The production team intentionally utilized these high-speed elevated loops at night to visually mirror the suffocating pressure and fast pace Xu Chi was experiencing in her struggle to become a senior analyst despite her mentor's backstabbing and her rich friend pulling the rug from under her feet.
Other noticeable places were the Sanlitun Taikoo Li fashion hub and the honeycomb glass structure of the nearby InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun, : that's where Xu Chi and Ye Xinzhi went to meet people and relax after work (bar, restaurant).
The former home of Xu Chi real location was filmed on-site in Beijing, at an actual, older residential neighborhood in Beijing—likely a preserved multi-family housing block or an old institutional compound—to get the realistic look of a modest, weathered apartment building . However, the "Yong'an Road No. 1" (永安路1号) sign itself is a prop added by the production team, to avoid having fans flocking to the real location (kept secret) and disturbing real life residents.
Bu Tianna's parents home used a building in Caochangdi, down the street from the famous Three Shadows Photographic Art Gallery. The Zuiku International Cultural Creative Park (醉库国际文化创意园) shooting base is located at No. 8, Jiadao 8, Caochangdi, which sits right in the heart of the Caochangdi Art District in Beijing. While parts of the broader Caochangdi village area have undergone demolition and redevelopment over the years, this specific cluster of art blocks and creative studio bases remains heavily used for filming high-end modern dramas like Irreplaceable.
Zuiku International Cultural Creative Park is also where the sets of interior office scenes were created.
The modern, high-end villa communities featured during the executive-level scenes were primarily filmed in the Chaoyang District (朝阳区) and the Shunyi District (顺义区). These areas are renowned for hosting Beijing's premium contemporary architecture, luxury low-rise villas, and corporate consulting compounds.
then as one other recommendation pointed out, there was "All the Way To The Sun" about a trio of working girls, which used 80 recognizable places in Beijing, in 2023. That drama was "a key project supported by the Beijing Municipal Radio and Television Bureau, and Chaoyang District's government actively facilitated filming logistics — in 2023 alone the district supported over 500 filming locations for multiple productions."
Also, "Love's Ambition" , like "All the Way to the Sun", made much use of Beijing's modern districts (Tongzhou, Chaoyang-area) but also reached into the outer districts for contrast — Fangshan's old village, Miyun's water town, and the Great Wall area.
Same for the Early Spring, which contrasted the Guomao central area with the far residential suburb Tiantongyuan outside the 5th ring and the Wenyu river. This one, although mostly set within the areas of Olympic Park (Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank lobby, Vanke Nava residence), 798/751 Art District, the Gongti/Sanlitun area (the karaoke bar) and Kerry Center, China World neighborhoods, also reached into outer districts with the setting of the exclusive restaurants and bars near Badaling or in high end Commune by The Great Wall.
I am hunting up the real locations feature in " Irreplaceable" too. Will post about them in a comment for those who may be interested.
Since then, the filmography of Zhao Jinmai includes :
"The Wandering Earth 3": A science-fiction film where she reprises her role as Han Duoduo; filming for Phase 1 was completed in May 2026.
"A Journey to Glow": A historical political drama that began filming in July 2026.
"Again and Again": An upcoming film where she plays Meng Xinyue, filmed in 2026.
Audiences are reacting mostly to the somewhat similar themes and setting of "The Early Spring" (starring Jing Boran and Sun Qian) which also uses real Beijing places, but is more romance centered (even steamy although the age and status difference of protagonists and the way the romance evolves with push and pull has been seen as controversial by a part of audience). Some even nicknamed Irreplaceable as The Early Spring 2 (although that name should go to the real "season 2" now being written and planned by the team of TES 1). The workplace is different although competitive too: TES is about an advertising company. But there is less discussion there about how to tackle relations with superiors and colleagues in that industry., than in Irreplaceable which focuses more on the consultant business. But Irreplaceable started filming in Beijing in August while TES was filmed from September 5 to November 26, 2025, with a part in Harbin in November. Despite the shooting time overlap in September and October, there was no reported interaction between the two teams.
However, there was a fun fan-driven crossover moment: Zhao Jinmai's character in Irreplaceable (无可替代) — Xu Chi — has the English name Tracy, which coincidentally matches the name of the HR executive character (Liang Xin / Tracy) played by Peng Yang in The Early Spring. Both are set in Beijing office buildings, and the coincidence sparked a viral Weibo trend (#叫Tracy的都吃这么好吗# — "Do all the Tracys eat this well?"), with fans joking about a "dream crossover" between the two shows.
So, Zhao Jinmai's new character is well anchored in the context of the present trend of "office dramas" in China.
At least there was no controversial map with a disputed border, here !!
But I admit and agree with you that producers and scriptwriters ought to check thin skin reactions from easily offended audiences to avoid unnecessary trouble.
Nevertheless I gave my own dispassionate reaction to that minute segment which someone else views as a filler. Hope it can calm down the debate : there are worse trouble to be concerned about in real life... So just zap the scene if it is not agreeing to taste.
I took a "vacation to modern times" mid-way after the abduction to see how Irreplaceable weaved in views of real Beijing, the new trend made famous in The Early Spring although the two dramas are very different!
I will try to get back to ATC now (in waiting for more here) but the avalanche of comments there is too much for me on top of watching. I'll appreciate the drama more slowly; the end is soon there but not immediate yet.
Anyway, it was a tiny anecdote that stopped short, and my view of it was that it was a small warning to Xu Chi about how non verbal communications can lead to errors in data, and to stay cool even when the anecdote's intention is not clear. There are enough explicit reasons to get ruffled in communications without some viewers adding an extraneous charge of hidden negative meaning there.
btw fun facts:
Ma Ke's Chinese name in the drama is 马科 (mǎ kē) "an established biological term meaning Equidae — the taxonomic family of horses, donkeys, and zebras"; not to be confused with the transliteration for 马克 (mǎ kè) for "Mark" (which would be unsurprising in that business).
"马科 does occasionally appear in movie subtitles as a rendering of Marko or Marco, but it's non-standard and would be confusing to most Chinese speakers because it immediately reads as "horse family."
But usually horses have a very positive value in Chinese idioms and symbols (not only as "fire horse" of the 2026 zodiac year) : 马到成功 (mǎ dào chéng gōng = The horse arrives, success follows) is the default success wish in Chinese business and academic life: it doesn't only mean "good luck," it's "go and make it happen."
As for President Pí 皮总, I was thinking of the proximity with the expression "Patting horse butt (拍马屁, pāi mǎ pì): This means to brown-nose or suck up to someone, derived from the literal act of patting a horse's rear end." (some relevance with the attitude of some guys in the workplace?)
(interesting that a worldly consultant, experienced, sophisticated and well-rounded in education, travel, should admit to having trouble with other cultural contexts: I don't read any racist intent there, just a factual digression about one particular possible cause for misunderstandings and errors).
So, for those unfamiliar with that (or Turkish agreements or other ways of signaling puzzlement for that matter), there are countries where body language for agreement is not moving the head up and down, but sideways, and smiles may not signify benevolence or agreements. According to (mildly) trusted AI : "many people in India use a side-to-side head movement, known as the Indian head wobble or head bobble, to signal yes, okay, good, or understanding. It is important to distinguish this from the standard head nod (up and down), which still means yes, and the standard head shake (horizontal side-to-side like a table fan), which means no; the wobble is a distinct, nuanced form of nonverbal communication rooted in South Asian culture." "Turks signal agreement by moving their head up and down. A single, slow downward nod indicates sincere agreement or appreciation, while a quick upward jerk of the head (often accompanied by raised eyebrows and a tongue click) is the standard gesture for "no." In contrast to many Western cultures, shaking the head sideways in Turkey does not typically mean "no"; instead, it is used to indicate "I don't understand."
I suppose these info, often learned from intercultural briefing, may help before dealing with those other cultures, but reality can still lead to some confusion for people not used to these contacts. Having a seminar on the dos and don'ts before going to work abroad is often seen as necessary for business people and diplomats. Even then, there can be misunderstandings without it being caused by faulty translations: body language (hand and head movements, rapping knuckles on a table, using thumb and index to signal 2 in western countries, 6 in China...) and handling of ordinary tools (chopsticks in China etc) can be interpreted differently depending on the culture of the person involved.
Even with AI assistance, btw, we are not free of possible misunderstandings or getting false information. The US military use of AI almost caused a nuclear war with China over an AI hallucination two weeks ago or so (AIs can be misled or have hallucinations: interesting and quite disquieting! and it is even a well-known problem in the tech...) You can read about it here : https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/18/politics/us-military-ai-false-intelligence-china-ship
Tall tales and slander like the one of the "weapons of mass destruction" of Iraq in 2003 (that one debunked now), have caused worse than mild misunderstandings over millenniums, and they may fuel the data which drives AI, so we are still not assured that the future will be peaceful...
Shaking (any direction) my "grizzled head" in misgiving, lol !
Chu Nanfei (Johnny Huang) "plays an investigator who looks into a mysterious signal coming from beneath an oil field, decades after a strange drilling accident in the Gobi desert. The investigation leads him and his team to an unknown life-form capable of infecting humans, and causing mutations, as well as to mysterious organization trying to exploit its power."
Why is not it mentioned in the filmography above ?
BUT there was a time conundrum. Before exiting the lobby, a voice piped the weather forecast for that exceptionally non humid Saturday... April 12, 2013.
That's when the mind boggling powers of our Luan Nian Dark Prince (second only to Lucifer) were revealed : he could not always tweak Shang Zhitao's stubborn resolve to set work first and hide sentiments away. But he could modify time strands and shift to parallel universe where the residence existed like today already before 2013! In our reality, the previously abandoned buildings of the early 2000s were transformed and commissioned for renovation and transformation not before 2016 and marketed to clients only in 2023 (listed on Nouvel's own site as "Vanke Beijing Beixiaoying Project"). 😁
In 2013 our times, the architectural project had not even started drafting! (Wondering why production let out that they chose NAVA as key location, despite showing repeatedly the stills and skyway timelapses of Linked Hybrid building inaugurated in 2006 and fitting the dark color themes). Logic is sometimes difficult to understand.
Incidentally, I could not find another NAVA building closer to the Lufthansa area on 3rd ring road: there is only this Beixiaoying address which is closer to the Olympic park and Bird's Nest on 4th ring road - and this is consistent with the road signs and the bus announcements, to travel to the metro line 5 station at Huixinxijie Beikou (惠新西街北口),which links to Tiantongyuan (Shang Zhitao's shared apartment residence area) in the drama.
Anyway, I've amended my review, with a note that the story has to be in a parallel universe where NAVA existed as today in 2013. 😁
- btw thanks for having read and liked that review!
I am starting a new Discussion piece on the drama page, about the filming locations and the interesting things and places there, to follow the production philosophy which was stated at time of shooting. I will perhaps make into a mini Companion piece to add to the list of those I committed 😂.. Will work more on it in the weekend !
Also looking forward to resume watch of the Miles Wei drama Blossom through the sky which I paused to wrap my notes about The Early Spring, and get sidetracked into writing another "tome" 🤣.
Have a nice weekend on yr end!
Jing Boran's take on the conflicted , foul mouthed 🌵advertising company boss managed to throw audience into opposing factions with those who could not take his ruthlessness and started flinging "toxic" and even "narcissist" labels among other PC objections (+ vocally clamoring this was not like K dramas 🙄), and those who thought this story was more realistic than most fairy tales and thus, more than just worth the watch 😇. Another actor might have made the drama blander and more forgettable.
The innovative addition to the crew of the "intimacy coordinator" 🥰 perhaps smoothed some tensions which actor pairs go through and rattle dramas where stand-offish tensions are not desirable. In the case of lesser experienced at such scenes Sun Qian, thanks to this support, the ambitious FL role shone as much as Jing Boran's remarkable previous pairing with not-shy Seven Tan in the second chance Road Home romance. Sun Qian will have gained a lot in her career thanks to this drama. She has visibly improved again, since her pairing with Johnny Huang in Love Song In Winter.
But we are not in vertical dramas where alternate casts tackle same story and lines so audience can choose their favorite (Wang Kaimu, Zhao Zhendong, Wang Nan etc). Nevertheless, even when these play "age gap older and wiser than Cinderella" classic drama stories of overbearing CEO falling for pretty employee, these short drama actors are still too young for a role like Luan Nian for whom JBR was in every respect a perfect fit. Besides, the plot was not as straightforward as those model stories and choosing a fashion brand ambassador like JBR added value to the drama.
In a lineup of my now numerous noticed Chinese actors poll, I would have chosen Jing Boran too 😂😂😂