LanLan

There wasn’t any dramatic conflict. They both had bad experiences with their exes and found healing with each other. The heroine had her ex come back wanting to rekindle their relationship as her friendship with He Suye was growing, but he was pretty harmless and it got resolved in a mature low conflict way. He Suye’s ex was only mentioned once in a flashback and then showed up briefly at the end but they were on good terms. It’s very slice of life so manage your expectations lol. I imagine it will feel like the Li Xian and Liu Yifei drama, Meet Yourself.

I saw a screenshot from one of the Chinese fans on iQIYI that this drama is actually 28 episodes and not 24. It didn't show up for me from my end so I can't submit a source to make edits for now. This makes me feel better because the novel was so short, and outside of his interactions with the heroine, He Suye's personal life as a doctor was very glossed over. It felt like she was his only patient 🥹. I'm hoping this means the screenwriter has expanded on his life more and as the first lead, I need ZLH to have more scenes 😂

No problem. I also added edits to the synopsis to match what's on iQIYI's webpage since it's not clarified up there that He Suye's specialty is Chinese medicine.

yeah his acting was more subtle here since his character was the strong silent type. A kind of introverted tragic hero whose one spotlight was the bubbly heroine.

Haha no no no, you need to finish MJTY so you can move on to Flourish in Time. It's one of my favorite ZLH's. It also shows how his acting varies based on the director he's under.

These were just the main cast who were present. Anyone that is not here will probably just be guest roles so they weren't needed to be here. There are a few characters in the novel that appear randomly at different points in the story and not throughout. Liu Lingzi is rumored to play the ex gf, but that character barely had any face time in the novel. I thought Chen Jingke might be the ex bf, but there were 3 male side characters(including the ex) that the female lead had significant interactions with, so we’ll have to wait and see.

No, that one did work on Love O2O as well but I didn't see her credited under Hidden Love on its Douban profile, only Ou Sijia was, so I think MDL is wrong. All the Chinese press release for The Best Thing only named Ou Sijia as screenwriter. I submitted her profile, hopefully it'll get updated.

Just came back here to catch up. Haha thank you for using my profile as a frame of reference. Even if one isn't satisfied with his acting throughout SOKP, one can't completely discredit the emotions displayed in his eyes during the first confrontation scene with his uncle, the arrow shooting scene, and the hand stabbing scene. Imo, those were three of his acting highlights in this drama for me. I really do wish we could post video clips on these messages.

The main screenwriter, Ou Sijia, does not seem to have her own page on MDL. She's the same screenwriter from Hidden Love and she also collaborated on Love O2O's script back in the days. Also, this director spent many years as a cinematographer for QJM's projects before becoming a director, so I have high hopes for his aesthetics. And the production team is the one that made Shining for One Thing drama and movie.

If you feel like it please update with commentaries like you did sokp. I really enjoyed reading your comments 😁

It’s modeled after the Wei and Jin dynasties. You can hear the producer talk about it in the wrap up trailer https://youtu.be/mjIS0qgnYIs?si=s96w1yo3ibB0vyzu

MJTY actually made me notice and become a fan of his acting and SKOP made me a bigger fan. Before that I only thought of him as a pretty face and didn't pay much attention to any of his dramas. After going through "archeology" and watching all his past works I actually think he does subtle emotions very well, especially with his eyes and the control of his facial muscles. This is especially commendable for someone who only debuted less than four years ago, without graduating from an acting school. Too bad we can't post videos here, otherwise I'd share variety of cuts as examples.

As for this drama, it hasn't aired yet but you're already negatively judging his acting. Please reserve judgments until after the drama is shown. If you've watched the teaser from the wrap up video of this drama, you'll notice that during the transitions of the 3 stages of Pei Wenxuan and the princess while they were playing chess, in each stage of their lives, his posture and temperament were noticeably different based on how strained or comfortable their relationship was. So you're right, acting isn't just showing emotions on your face, it's also in how an actor carries himself based on that character's set up. Every character that ZLH takes on, he would write paragraphs upon paragraphs of analysis of that character, so I also disagree that he just throws on a costume and read lines. I've read The Grand Princess twice and I'm confident ZLH will be able to pull off this character well.

I just read it and to be honest it is pretty basic. In novel form it's fine because there's a lot of internal introspection but on screen they might need to amp up and flesh out some of the plot lines. A lot of the dramatic bits were only mentioned in passing and glossed over. I think if the team go the route of healing slice of life in the style of Kdramas then it could be very good. At least for now I can rest assure that this director has good aesthetics since he spent many years as GJM's cinematographer. The casting for the two leads are a perfect fit though. He Suye seems almost as if it's ZLH playing himself lol.

Have you watched Hidden Love? It's the same screenwriter from that drama so if you like that drama then you'll most likely like this.

Official English drama title is The Best Thing.

So the script got leaked recently and people who have read the novel seem to be very happy about how the screenplay has been adapted from the novel. They were worried because apparently the novel is written in a way that’s hard to digest. They’re also going crazy over the character build of Ji Yang. There’s going to be a segment when he loses his memory and become aloof and domineering. He's described as being a more intense version of Yan from Tiger and Crane. This makes me think of how Bai Qian acted towards Yehua after she jumped from Zhu Tian Terrace and erased her memories 😄 If iQIYI is really planning to release it in July then it means they have high hopes for it since those are hot drama months.

Gong Ziyu is the best baby in the world 😭 Fair warning though, only watch up to 42:28 of the final episode if you don't want to end up with a wretched cliffhanger.

Go watch more ZLH dramas 😜

Another one that will be explained as you watch further.

Of course! Minimizing this under the spoiler tag. The thing with past ZLH dramas that came before Love Between Fairy and Devil is that they were mostly lower budget projects so scriptwriting isn't as good as SOKP. So don't expect too much from them. I watched them mainly for him and his acting.
Here's the order of when the gifs appear from top to bottom after SOKP:
- The 2 right underneath is My Journey to You. He's really beautiful looking in that drama.
- The one with the head gear is Love Between Fairy and Devil. Loved him there even though he plays 2nd lead. The modern one next to it is called Love Crossed. He's part of the 2nd lead couple whose story I like much better than the leads'. The plot is a bit over the top, but not so unrealistic now with the current advancement of AI and VR headsets. It's fun to pass the time and I really liked his character.
- The next 2 underneath is from Flourished in Time. It's a high school drama where he plays someone that's missing a leg. There's no kiss scenes because the lead actress was only 16 at the time. This is my 2nd favorite drama of his after SOKP.
- Last row modern one is Sparkle Love. It's a college setting drama with fantasy elements and is cheesy and cringy at times, but his character is adorable if you just want to watch it for him. Next to it is Maiden Holmes, his debut drama. I found it boring but many people seems to like it.

And if you want a modern Cdrama recommendation not ZLH related, you should definitely check out Go Ahead. I'm rewatching it right now and it's still as good as the first time, so just thought I'd throw that in there.