MADS

An artistic coming of age story between a sensitive yet strong Xiao Zhi falling for this caring yet hesitant ge Chen Li. Most of the episodes are short, and are really a perfect example of "Show, Don't tell" cinema. There is great symbolism including nature, fruit, birds, and books. You find yourself constantly reading between the lines and get rewarded in later episodes.
In the beginning, there was a youthful feel to the story, but as the characters interacted more, the vibe shifts to ambiguous tenderness, and there are little touches and eye contacts here and there, and it feels like they live in their own world.

Xiao Zhi is just a beautiful soul. He feels a lot, and is the type to cry over books and movies. But, he's also unyielding when he has to be and I really appreciate that about him. Chen Li cares for Xiao Zhi both physically and emotionally, and you can see how he's always paying attention to him. But, he struggles with his identity and it felt like he was fighting his feelings, so it was really interesting to see them being, and I quote, "suffering, yet passionate."

Huge shoutout to the actors. They communicate a lot with their eyes, and I can tell what they're about to do just by looking at their expressions. They also have great chemistry together. And shoutout to the cast behind the screen, every detail mattered and I could tell they took it seriously.

I really enjoyed the music as well. It was a good fit for the theme of the series.

I particularly loved the story-telling aspect of the show. There were quotes by the characters in the beginning and ending of the episodes. I have to say I was put off by the subtitles because till this day I have no idea what was written in the beginning since the font was really hard to read (If anyone has an idea or link pls let me know), but my favorite was,

"He can understand my paintings,
knows I dislike being defined,
and is always considerate of my delicate emotions.
I wish he were just like me."

There are short special extra episodes that you can find as well. They add a lot to the story, I fell in love with the characters again through them. I wish they were longer but I'm also very satisfied as there aren't really any loose ends.