littleberry09

Hidden Love and The First Frost were definitely the more complex novels, it's much more developed. In the drama it also has much more plotline compared to WIFTY (I'm not comparing to WIMTM when it's not finished yet)But storyline is not the only thing that matters, but also direction and execution when making the drama. WIFTY has a very basic plot, but you would not have thought it because the drama was simply that amazing. Not one boring episode. Not one boring character. You forget the story is actually very simple because the drama was executed that well.

Same my judgement is only on the dramas as the end result. My #1 rating will always be WIFTY out of the drama adaptations for this author and this will not change! Just a great, great drama ❤️

#2 will be HL, and depends how well When I Meet The Moon does overall and whether it beats First Frost to be #3

Yes and I have to keep remembering this - the novel means very little in regards to the drama. Maybe the vibe sticks around for the drama, but I've found this year especially a lot of popular dramas actually have very bad + problematic novels!

It's just because they get turned into good/highly rated dramas that there's misconception that the novel is also something great. When really it's just the director having enough vision to turn it into a much better story lol.

Similarly in reverse, some good novels may end up with not good enough directors so the full potential doesn't come through.

True yes it does include different genre, and I see the comparison to The Best Thing. We still have to wait for it to finish so maybe a little early to pass judgement just yet. I think people are also just comparing it to the author's other novels which got turned into popular dramas. Maybe unfair to WIMTM, it has a high bar to live up to before even releasing. Even more than this drama

When I Meet The Moon had potential due to it's original creator (Zhu Yi) only, the same writer as Hidden Love, The First Frost and When I Fly Towards You. For 2 whole years it was so hyped because how could you not expect it with a writer like that?

But you also need a good director to meet the mark and execute it properly. Those other dramas did, but I don't think it's the same with WIMTM despite all the good casting and original novel.

Yet somehow This drama got the same director as When I Fly Towards You. My 10/10 Cdrama. I can't wait to see how this lives up to it!

It's no surprise why this turned out to be a gem, whilst When I Meet The Moon seems to be more disappointing

Reading the synopsis though it seems very much to do with his character, if not equally shared in the second half. The dramas do not always take the novel route so it's quite hard to tell at the moment. They have promoted his character a lot from other posters from what I can tell.

Agreed, one of the worse break up arcs I've seen. It was so unconvincing and puts you off the rest of the drama, even when they do get back together. It just makes the rest of it feel underwhelming. I thought their romance was doing pretty well until then. The break up just felt so badly written, executed and more like it had to be inserted just for the sake of them having to have problems. The flimsy reasons also made her look very unreasonable and inconsiderate towards him, whilst he came across like an attached looser (which made me sad for him 🫠)

Well actually yes, on the surface and when you first start watching it is one of those dramas. But it also quickly turns out to be different from that. The ML isn't a tsundere and cold hearted as you see in those old clichéd dramas, where a lot of the time they bully and act like they hate the dumb FL. This is more mature than that.

The FL is just as smart and intelligent as the ML, and he never disrespects her like you would used to get in older dramas. He slowly does equally reicoporate her love so neither does it feel unequal in any way. Infact it's probably one of those "she falls first but he falls harder" tropes, he's a sweetheart and ends up giving her MORE. So whilst it does have the clichéd sweet and bubbly main girl, the drama's other aspects is able to make you warm to it in a way that worked for the 2020's (not the 2000's).

But also it's not just the main lead's story, it's overall a fun youth and coming of age drama. There's 2 couples and 5 friends in their group. You do get the FL's POV a lot, but it's *not fully* centered around just the main couple or their high school days.

I may be biased because this is a 10/10 drama for me, but for this genre drama made in 2023 I feel it fully deserves the rating given here on MDL.

Also Zhou Yiran was very stone faced and introverted for his role (Rang Rang) in the authors other story When I Fly Towards You, but people ended up loving that drama and it has a very high rating. So yes it might be still too early to judge here.

I have to say the first half of this drama was surprisingly quite good, even if unnecessarily melodramatic at times and the bad editing of the music being distracting. I did still enjoy the first 10-12 episodes, especially the main leads back and forth + ML's intensity kept a hold on me.

But the second half goes into a sharp nosedive and turns nonsensical. It had a very basic plot that could have been wrapped up in 24 Eps, but they had to drag it out to make the full 30 😒. Episodes 25-30 were just SO POINTLESS and a huge waste of time. It completely forgets about the main leads and goes on to cover storylines no one cares about.

7/10 🌟
In the end this drama becomes forgettable and disappointing, but initially it did have potential. Also a deserved mention for the actor who played Xie Shu, he simply stole every scene he was in, just so good!

Never. To tell you how long it's been waiting, Wu Lei was 14 when this drama would have been filmed and he's 27 now 😂

And this isn't even her only drama left to release. She also did another drama with Zhou Ke Yu (Sweetest Rebellion) that they say was filmed before Love in Red Dust. Everything seems to be focused on TLOA so far, whereas no word about Sweetest Rebellion or Love in Red Dust. They are IQIYI though and they always take their time releasing upcoming dramas. It seems they've chosen When I Meet The Moon next.

This makes it even more funny 🤣🤣🤣 the script direction was probably deliberate in this choice

In my head I still think of November as a while away... Then I saw the date and it's only this Sunday. After so long waiting it's hard to believe we'll suddenly be getting this drama next week!!

TXW can play spoilt characters or Princesses really well so I think she's perfectly cast for this. SWL also suits being a martial swordsman

Over the ML, a lot of the themes in that drama are stressful and traumatic. Not the other person replying, but I liked their chemistry and love story outside all the heavy parts.

Also half way though and fully agree with all this.

Does ML have a free pass to just enter the Xie home? Because he always walks in when they are going through very important issues the main hall lol 😂 I feel like it's just become a way to insert him in every scene when he doesn't even have any impact there.

Right? AtC was so engaging, despite not being a traditional romance like normal. The script and themes were just banger. This doesn't have much of a plot besides FL playing tug of war with the Xie family and the ML. Like I just want them to get married at this point so it would get more interesting 😭

EP 17-18 and all this scheming between the Xie wives really feels like too much and too long now. I'm just waiting for FL and ML's story to get moving 😬