Suliabryon

I LOVED that whole sequence! I got teary when Zhao came to him, troubled, and his Dad intuited what was wrong and told him exactly what he needed to hear. Despite being an alcoholic, despite everything, at the core they still love each other; he's still the man who took in his best friend's son and raised him as his own. Then he controlled his drinking long enough to actually teach him what he needed. My heart!

This is why I am loving this drama so much. The layers of relationships, flawed, imperfect, but still so real and human.

This drama is a 10/10 for me in every possible way. I love it. I love everything about it. All of the characters, but especially the leads, (and I'm SO over the Esther hate, so if you don't like her scroll on by please.) And the CHEMISTRY. Off the charts. These last few eps, basically since ep 9 through today, holy MOLY. I could write a novel in detail about everything I love about this drama, but trying to keep it short-ish, so: for the ML, just the quiet way he loves her and literally cannot stop himself from taking care of her in a thousand ways even when he's trying really hard (and fooling no one) to pretend that he's indifferent. The way his mouth smiles even when he's trying to frown when it comes to her. For the FL: I love how even though she's young and sheltered, she's actually really perceptive and wise in some ways, and I love how open she is with her feelings. She's just there, saying and showing how much she loves him every day in every way. Also, IMO Esther really works in this role. Her "cute" brand really shines as Jiang Mu without going overboard. It's so cute how flustered she gets every time he puts himself in her personal space and things get just a little too intense for her. Girl, if you can't handle him staring at you from inches away, what are you going to do when he kisses you for real? It's honestly such a charming mix of this bold, brave girl, who gets shy when confronted with her inexperience.

I even love the....SML? Antagonist? Our rich racer who is so obsessed with Jin Zhao. And I'm gonna say....he and Mu had some chemistry! No SML syndrome here, because I'm SOOOOOOO in love with our lead couple, but the two of them had some real natural chemistry, and I actually really love that he's not truly pursuing her and she totally clocked it, lol. Like...they could be friends. He and Zhao could be at least respected colleagues. So glad they aren't making him in love with her.

Side note: Wan Qing should just get over herself and take a good look at Casper right in front of her. I get that you can't always choose who you love, but dude is so in love with her, wants to be there for her, and all she does is coldly shove him away at every opportunity, while comparing him unfavorably to his rival. Like, lady, you had to know in your heart well before FL showed up that Zhao was just not into you. You chose to keep pining for him anyway, even after your father ruined his life. I have a feeling they'll never have her go for him, and just keep her in this space of focusing on Zhao and how he doesn't love her.

Okay, but I've seen the trailers for tomorrow and novel readers, I HAVE QUESTIONS. We haven't even gotten to our "being together" era (apparently tomorrow, though I still have about 30 min of today's final ep to go), and then she sees him in his undercover gig with another girl. TELL ME this is going to be a quick storyline and not disrupt our couple too much and for too long, because my heart was breaking for them both just in that tiny clip.

Oh, interesting! I'm still on ep 3.

Right? Dubbing is SO COMMON, but even then they have her dub herself, so. Clearly it's not a problem for the people making these dramas.

RIGHT?? I have never understood hating something and STILL watching it. Like...why? Plenty of dramas are airing right now, go watch something else. I'm an author and let me tell you, I feel the same way about people who leave 1 star reviews on books but KEEP READING THE SERIES. Like, why? Just do us both a favor and stop. Move on. Not every book or drama is for everyone. No one is forcing anyone to watch.

Personally, I love this trope. I clocked it in the trailers and immediately put it on my to-watch list. One for the "forbidden love", and two because the trailer looked like Esther gets to be a bit of a bada** once her character matures a bit into the series, and she so rarely plays that. I'm here for it. Also, He Yu looks AMAZING as the "had it rough bad boy" vibe.

EVERY single Esther Yu drama, people have to come to the comments to complain about her voice. My gosh, if you hate it that much, don't watch. Simple. And actually, her voice in this one is pretty...normal? Like she's not TRYING to make it cutesy like in the first part of LBF&D or most of LGIEF. Also, she is perfectly cast for this role: the somewhat naive "good girl" archetype, right?

Second, everyone worrying about the "but they're RELATED". Uh, NO THEY AREN'T. SO many comments here already give long explanations so I'll just keep it short and sweet: HE has known their entire lives she isn't really his sister. SHE finds out in episode 1 even though the show doesn't explicitly show that (according to an official synopsis I read, BEFORE she flies to Thailand to find him, so make of that what you will), AND they haven't seen each other since she was NINE. He's a stranger to her now and nothing like the person she remembers from a decade ago.

And finally....all of this was pretty much in the trailers and synopsis before it started airing. You all knew they were (not) "siblings" who later in life fall in love. If you struggle that much with the trope (and it IS a trope)...why are you watching it?

Well, I didn't know I needed this in my life, but here we are! Yan Zixian in a bromance? Wow. I'm so impressed so far with the acting, the storytelling...the chemistry! I'm only a few episodes in, but how did this gem fly under the radar? I haven't heard anyone talking about it in the usual places, and my algorithm loves serving me new drama news and talk. I was lucky to stumble across it on YT.

Right??? It's SO bad, skipping whole lines and sections of dialogue. :(

Imagine being the military pride of your nation, a strong family with seven strong sons who grow into seasoned warriors celebrated for their bravery and proud service, and the calamity that befalls the family of losing them (except one) all at once. That poor mother! Lost her husband and almost all of her sons. 😭

It's actually why the military actively discourages brothers serving together today, because of a situation in the Civil War when it was thought all five brothers of one family died together (later turned out not to be true) but at the time Lincoln wrote that mother a letter of personal sympathy, so now the military has a policy and actively tries to prevent brothers from serving in the same area.

This might be the most visually stunning drama I have ever seen! The cinematography! Does anyone else here game? It reminds me playing Ghosts of Tsushima for the first time, where every frame was just so beautiful. I had to stop and rewind sometimes in the first few episodes because I was too distracted by the gorgeous scenery to read the subtitles.

You guys, the beginning of episode 10 - the jerk husband and the cheater girlfriend - "Baby, were you impressed?" Me: Dude, what was that, ten seconds? The most disappointing ten seconds of her life. 😂

Meanwhile, our lead couple know how to kiss. 🔥

Lots of great recs here! I’ll add Marry Me Again to the list.

+1 to everything you said! Prisoner of Beauty’s scenes are next level because they were directed by a woman (specifically the final love scene) who focused on the emotion, chemistry, and playfulness between the couple. Plus the chemistry between Liu Yuning and Song Zuer is so natural and 🔥. They are very good friends IRL and if someday it comes out they’ve been secretly dating the whole time I won’t be shocked.

I’ll add the scenes in When Destiny Brings the Demon are beautiful and sensual.

IKR? I was like "....and you're just....carrying that around?" I thought he was going to a handkerchief, which is what these dramas normally do, and would have made much more sense, lmao.

Really? Ha ha! Guy did fine for someone who may have never acted before.

I think that about FJ, too! She's definitely come a long way!

The story is not actually all that similar to Embrace once it gets going. Not like Love Lurking that was almost identical but not nearly as good. And really I feel there should be MORE dramas like Embrace in the Dark Night and Mysterious Love, not less. We get 50 million revenge dramas and transmigration dramas, why not more action romance?

🤣 Right? Came here because I'm SURE someone is going to complain about all of the red flags, etc., and me, I'm like "well, you gave us the FL from Embrace in the Dark Night and Yan Zixian who is unquestionably one of the best short form drama ML's for kissing scenes, and then put them together in a WILD and trope filled short form drama that leans HARD into the tropes."

Me: I'm in.

Some dramas you love because of how well done and well written they are (Fated Hearts), others you watch for the chemistry and the hot leads finding every possible excuse to interact in completely improbable but sexy ways.

Right?? That whole thing made me so uncomfortable! And then his attitude after, demanding some unnamed promise from her in the future. WTH was that? No. None of that was appropriate or excusable.

I have to say, I normally really like the actor playing Situ Ling. It's not his fault he's playing my least favorite kind of role in these shows - the obsessed SML who can't see beyond the FL and just honestly makes a fool of himself.

Like, dude, you SAW them walk the path that only appears to lovers! You KNOW they're in love! ALSO, you have Fuyue RIGHT THERE. A beautiful woman totally head over heels for you for reasons that completely escape me, honestly, who you KNOW is in love with you, and you use her anyway. It's really insidious and despicable. I hate it. I hate the storyline for it, I hate that it keeps dragging on, I hate that they are deliberately putting in misunderstandings to keep dragging it out.

She is not into you. NOT. INTO. YOU. Move on. Don't be an obsessed stalker. Nobody likes those.