luckz

In L&P I was only super offended by what the ML did to the laptop in one of the first episodes; though now I'm watching Perfect Match and the FL offended me just as much in the 4th episode.

The https://kisskh.at/50395-forever-love you watched is like a no-angst low-quality L&P btw.

One thing I learned from watching Hu Yi Tian in ALSB, GGS1 & GGS2 is that he can't stop himself from licking his lips.

In the first hours of BiA, this doesn't happen at all, so someone on set must have kept him on a tight leash, made him re-take scenes many times to get takes without it, and used appropriate amounts of blackmail to make him not do it. There were a number of times where I assumed the editors also helped by deliberately cutting scenes right before it happened.

Ep 12 at 40:40, he finally succumbs let's say 80% of the way.
From then on, mostly in romantic moments, he slightly purses his lips.

P.S.: In Ep 30, at 12:30, no amount of crew minders were able to hold him back and his tongue darted out unhindered.

If I place Lighter & Princess and First Frost somewhere in the 8–10/10 range for chemistry between the leads, this is like a 5/10.

More the "leaning on the shoulder" type.

As a heart-warming family show, this is better than the Korean Reply's: For one because there's no ajummas bickering on the porch. And there's no forced nostalgic "remember how, back in 1980, we used to...". It has fairly high production value as well.

However, the romance side falls quite flat, with the chemistry of the ML and FL being lukewarm at best and there being little romantic affection between them that doesn't just look like their regular family member affection. Even two of their respective relatives have far more convincing romantic chemistry in their scenes. For that, it's just the wrong show to watch.


Judging them just based on their Go Ahead performances, Song Wei Long basically is a bit of an expressionless wooden log (mùtou: 木头), while Tan Song Yun certainly has comedic talent (with a decent modicum of over-acting thrown in), but she looks forced in all romantic scenes, as if it's not her genre or she can't see Song Wei Long as anything else but a brother.

They did, but they're hard to find in the actual scenes.
That they don't have speaking roles in those scenes gives the illusion that they're not around.

Because of https://kisskh.at/33098-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty

The trailer for https://kisskh.at/33098-dreaming-back-to-the-qing-dynasty explains the buzz cut.
It's quite lazy that over 5-6 years it never changes though.

Quite strong boundary delivery.

Re your drop:
The first episode of this is really bad, it gets to a more palatable level from the second on or so.

Since the authors of this show clearly read Lighter & Princess or whatever the original story is, I'll try to offer context based on the L&P drama which you also watched:
(I don't think I have the stomach to read the novel.)


"the instigator of the leak...he should be in jail not running a wedding business"
In L&P the head villain eventually gets arrested for financial crimes without the leads being involved in it.
Here the relationships were moved around (this character has a girlfriend instead of L&P's Gao Jian Hong having a wife) so that he gets a reconcilliation with his partner instead of being sent to jail. And because this is the gentle all-ages version, neither of them experiences any serious health issues either.


"I hated that they did a completely pointless long distance thing right at the end. There was no need. It added nothing, it just made me dislike FL."
I think this replaces the time the ML is in jail (3 years in the drama, maybe even like 8 years in the novel?) where the FL throws herself into work 'like a spinning top, never stopping' and becomes a famous young executive closer to ML in workplace skills. So basically it's a growth period for her in the original story, and the classic 'proof to the mean mother that they still want to be together/marry after years of separation'.
I usually hate when one of the leads is randomly sent away for 1-3 years near the end of a show,


"Why the hell would you pick those two assholes to be your best man and bridesmaid?"
Think this is some 'bridesmaids in China are not supposed to be married/divorced or pregnant' thing, and ditto for best men? Maybe the producers wanted those non-lovebirds to not only have a some redemption & forgiveness thing but to get them back together, and then decided against it. I needed to pause the wedding scene and look carefully to even find Qin Yue in it (he's behind the wedding planners). He doesn't perform any best man actions.

"Or the weird roommate with the glasses, who seems like she's building up to a great big resentment-filled cathartic monologue, but at some point in the last third of the drama, they just drop her and we never see or hear about her again."

She eventually starts to respect and help the FL: She helps her with the schoolboy who makes her life difficult and afterwards had a scene each with the FL and Shi Ying where she was no longer a hater.
Since it's a Disneyfied bootleg L&P adaptation, everybody gets their redemption arc.

The SML is super creepy and often quite disrespectful.

I would recommend watching L&P first and using this as fluffy recovery. (Btw the first episode of this is really bad.)

Seems you dropped both though? :c

The First Frost is an apt comparison with how in-character the two leads are.

IIRC it indicates the general area of the associated scene.

Is it useful to first re-watch Hidden Love, then watch First Frost, or to first watch First Frost and then re-watch Hidden Love, or just watch this on its own as a drama completely unconnected to Hidden Love?
(Watched HL one year ago.)

You didn't even get to the Final Boss™ there, whose contradictory motivations and allegiances defy all reason and aren't illuminated for more than three lines of dialogue.

Or how else Young Master..., uh, tries to master his only objective.

So the novel has crap tons of Su Rong Qing overload too, but the drama adds another 50%?

Dai Gao Zheng has a tiny cameo-ish part (in the first episode or so). Wouldn't take too much time to watch that.

Liu Rui Lin has a quite big part, but I neither liked his acting nor the role much. Definitely overstayed his welcome.

If you like over the top villains and their sometimes comedic antics, you might have a much more positive opinion than I did, and especially enjoy the way he greets his father each time.