Cool, sober, sexy, intelligently handled drama on insecurities
This is the best Chinese 'vertical' dramas that I've seen. Another one of the ML's dramas, 'Love Lost and Found' (also known as 'Divorce, My Happily Ever After'), also has a very good story and execution as well. And both are a pleasant surprise. Unlike the usual C-short, V-dramas where the primary goal is to show a cold 'CEO' being hot and cold towards the 'cinderella' FL or makes an alliance with her to bring someone down, with those hand grabs and pushes and make out scenes splintered about, 'Summer Rose' actually HAS depth and a deeply moving story and character arc for both ML and FL. And it's been shot and edited really very well.FL is an artist, she is a talented photographer and is a bit of a hippy, mercurial, having colorful friends and associations. She is a cynical and jaded young woman whose tycoon father had an extra marital affair, which ruined her mother's already fragile mental health (mother was bipolar). Her mother killed herself, while the father married his mistress and had another child with her. So the FL's biggest desire is to be loved but her biggest fear is that the husband won't be faithful, and this thought process makes her accept an arranged marriage with someone who has been rejected by her step-sister. This thinking also leads her away from that man when she sees herself falling for him.
ML has been raised to be a serious, responsible, sensible, studious professional (I think he is heading a bank). He is a typical workaholic who went from education to work and has neither had time for 'girlfriends' nor had the inclination by the looks of it. He is called 'dull' 'dry' 'robotic' by various people in the drama. He is definitely a quiet person, not a chatter box. To the FL, however, he is stable and sexy. I've watched both the version with music and the one without background score and I think the story works better with the silences than with the music, because FL's fears and ML's desires are unspoken but apparent. And it is good to hear his side of the story in the second half of the drama.
These two are a classic example of how two people may not be perfect for others, but are well-suited and well-matched for each other. FL's insecurities and assumptions; ML seeing FL having a life around him and beyond him, in her travels abroad for work; His realization that he is not seeking FL out of duty or an arrangement between their families, but because he likes; Her high opinion and regard for him; His passionate steadfastness towards her, and their final heart-to-heart communication about expectations from love and marriage, etc. are all handled in a subtle manner.
The entire cast is fine but the FL and ML are excellent. I've seen a few other dramas of the FL and she's a naturally beautiful girl but she is picturised exceptionally well here. She shines in this role and proves she can act. The ML is a brilliant actor who can actually emote, and has a face that actually moves (no obvious fillers / cosmetic work like other MLs). No matter what his actual or reported age, he looks 32-35 and that's ok. In my opinion, he is prettier in 'Love Lost and Found'.
Highly recommended.
Was this review helpful to you?
VIRTUAL REALITY ESCAPIST FANTASY GAME HELPS ROMANCE & CHARACTER GROWTH, DOES NOT OVERTAKE REAL LIFE
One of the most handsome, good looking, and masculine-looking pretty boys working in Chinese drama industry right now is paired with Lu Yu Xiao in Love Between Lines, the 28 episode adaptation of web novel (Ya Xi) “Ga Xi" (轧戏) written by Zhang Zu Le (张祖乐). I did not like the novel that the series is based on. The novel’s 92 chapters are available in English language on 2 separate sites. The story in the webnovel is completely around and in the immersive virtual reality game and its players. The day jobs are standard fare fillers. This is the world of Live Action Role Playing Game. The male lead is a top-ranked NPC i.e. non-playable character not controlled by any one else, whereas the female lead buys a ticket to get a spot on the game to get closer to him. I did not like either of them in the novel, Hu Xiu is looking for a job as an interpreter (translating Chinese to English) and she lands in a hospital working under surgeons. She has a fiance’ who dumps her and her parents are getting divorced. Her father works as a music teacher who calls her mother a ‘morally bankrupt whore’ (Chapter 10).The 2 things that the drama took from this webnovel is a) the virtual reality or live action murder mystery set up (it was never clear to me whether they were in an actual game or just role playing on a large real set because they suggested use of VR in one episode and a few episodes later, it was live action role play.) The other thing the drama gets right is how the male lead is described in the webnovel.
In chapter 10, Hu Xiu describes the love interest - Qin Xiaoyi aka Xiao Zhi Yu as “Qin Xiaoyi’s face was firmly etched in her memory—a different Qin Xiaoyi from the one in a suit. Sharp brow bones and deep-set eyes, thin eyelids and tapered corners shaping a bewitching gaze; large, dark pupils flickering like a fawn’s; slightly protruding yet perfectly shaped lips that appeared haughty when pressed together—not conforming to a ruler’s standard, yet intensely distinctive. His jet-black short hair and sharp angles heightened the contrast of his face. Under light and shadow, his features were cleanly defined, veiling curiosity about the world with aloofness, gentleness, and kindness. In the game, he was dazzling; outside it, he left only silence for others. He truly didn’t seem like a boy who belonged in this ordinary urban life. Hu Xiu felt his romantic life must be far more extravagant than imagined. This was a face torn straight from a comic book—one that could easily attract admiring glances with the slightest indulgence, experience a thrilling, roller-coaster romance. A gentleman like him would never leave things unfinished—ah, it wouldn’t even matter if it ended heartbreakingly—After burying his heartaches to cultivate a more storied face, he still had youth to spare.” In Chapter 20, she thinks of him as “The Qin Xiaoyi she saw up close had fair skin and delicate features, sharp cheekbones and translucent eyes—yet his qualities felt distinctly different.” In chapter 40, his height is measured: “He stood proudly in front of the 184 cm mark (that’s 6 feet), his smirk in the photo both roguish and mischievous.” She is identified as being 165 cm tall (5 foot 4). In chapter 88, she describes him as “this large camel, astonishing in looks and extraordinary in build.”
The drama has nothing else in common with the webnovel and to call it an adaptation of the written word is wrong.
The drama can be split into the real world work environment and challenges the leads face as co-workers in the field of architecture, designing housing projects, sky scrapers, shops and parks and their interactions in the world of virtual reality games or live action role playing in which you are transported into a fantasy where you get to experience adventure quest in a different time period and get to be someone else for a few hours.
I am allergic to the trope of traveling to past, the transported to past, time travel genre in which the hero or heroine spends majority of the drama in an unreal setting and is back in the present day only in the last scene of the series finding the other half in present day as the credits role in. I also don’t like the born again reincarnation avenging dramas for the same reason.
I’ve heard on online forums that Chinese censors actually ban productions from mentioning rebirth or past life or second life and productions are supposed to reference these kinds of elements as dreams because a number of gullible impressionable Chinese teenagers killed themselves thinking they’ll be transported back to some glorious time period that they actually belonged to. In fact not just China, but all over the world, internet gaming disorder is a very real thing. Depression, insomnia and self-harm is on the rise. I know I’m talking about some very dark news from around the world on impact of virtual or fantasy imagery on young minds.
Even though I’m not a fan of this trope, I understand why transmigration of soul or past life would be attractive as a genre - an ordinary person gets to live an adventurous life that tests their mettle, their strength, their perseverance in extraordinary circumstances, where everything is glamorous and treacherous and exotic than the dull drab normal real life, and the person gets to be appreciated for his or her brains, looks and actions. They get to be a larger than life hero or heroine. They don’t think about their real life, profession, self worth or self-esteem. They also get the hottest, most eligible guy or girl without any effort.
However, I think Love Between Lines uses this trope in a very intelligent and realistic manner. Instead of sending the couple to a far off land as soul changers or shape shifters or past life crusaders, they simply get them in a virtual reality role play murder mystery game for a meet cute of a few hours and then they go back to their day jobs and that’s where their story arcs, action and character growth is. They find common interest in the field of architecture and work on projects together, so romance is slow burn. Later on in the drama, this game play is used as a prop to show the progress of their connection in real life. Hence,‘virtual time travel’ or fake life is used as a tool to show their progress as a couple, but doesn’t override real life and never becomes a substitute for real life challenges.
There’s a very good article written by Huang Wei and translated by David Ball, posted on Sixth tone website on 30 Dec. 2025:
‘According to market analysis company IDC, China has become the core growth driver of what it expects to be a $12 billion global market this year (of immersive experiences — also called location-based entertainment virtual reality, or LBE VR)....
A wide range of domestic institutions and companies — including tourism sites, museums, and game developers — are also getting in on the act by developing their own VR experiences......However, most VR experiences in China still have a limited understanding of interactive concepts to take full advantage of the medium’s potential, preventing people from becoming fully immersed.’
So Love Between Lines combines a trending consumer-driven virtual extended reality dimension of Shanghai and China, the location-based entertainment virtual reality, or LBE VR. Plus, the male lead is an architect who designs the game’s structure matrix and his work enhances the VR experience for not just the players but for us, the viewers as well. All of this is weaved it into the drama as a prop, and I liked it.
The drama is shot beautifully (and it reminded me of those cozy South Korean romances with great BGMs and OSTs that have disappeared from that country in recent years.) Love between lines has very good songs: My favorites are ‘Start Over’ sung by Jin Wenqi, Closer sung by Baby J, Special Night sung by Wei Li’an and an Expectation named you sung by Yan Renzhong, At Dusk sung by Fangdong Demao.
I think Lu Yu Xiao is a brilliant actress with long term potential. She looks a bit like South Korean actress Kim Tae-ri. I first saw her in the 2023 drama ‘My Journey to You’ where she was paired with and in the tub with Ryan Cheng and had a side role. She was excellent in 2024’s ‘Blossoms in Adversity,’ another side character. Here she’s the female lead and very good as the female lead. She looks gorgeous, vulnerable, feisty, smart and emotes like a real person. This Hu Xiu had to give up her dream of studying architecture at university level because her father was ill and money was needed for his recovery. So she got a job as an administrative assistant in an architecture firm. But she continues to study privately and doesn’t let go of her passion and dreams. I did not like her parents. There’s a fine line between being overprotective and being overbearing and unfortunately you’ll see such parents in real life more often than not who put their own kids down for selfish reasons or because they don’t believe in their kids. Her parents used her all her life and were always meddling in her life. When she takes a risk and wants to try for an entry level job working as a graphic designer for architectural firm, her parents discourage her on the pretext that she had a safe future as a secretary or manager. Even at the end when she wants to be with the male lead, her parents, especially her father, wants her to break up with him because of their family’s past history with the male lead’s father. I mean, this South Korean makjang, Chinese and Japanese over the top noble idiocy expectation from children is a headache to watch. Also, it's refreshing to see the young woman as having a fiancé before she meets the male lead, instead of the puritanical tropes usually used in Chinese and South Korean romance dramas, where no one has dated anyone ever, certainly not the girl. Of course, the fiancé quickly turns to ex-fiancé because he dumps her right before the wedding to snag an heiress.
This journey is more about the female lead than the male lead in my opinion though there are some interesting elements given to the male lead’s character arc as well. His mother remarried after his father’s death - there’s a whole lot of Hamlet happening in his story line, but the unique thing was that he was disconnected from his own mother and vice versa. The mother’s husband’s son - the male lead’s love and work rival - is closer to her than her own son, he knows what she likes in food and gifts than the male lead. So that was a nice touch to show a blended broken family with secrets and resentments bubbling beneath the surface, in-spite of all the wealth, health and privilege. The other thing was the fact that male lead’s father had been an engineer who got blamed for the collapse of a stadium, and so, since the son chose a similar profession, building stuff, he used a fake name - to not get marginalized or blacklisted because of his father’s reputation. In a respect he could only live out his real name in the virtual reality location based entertainment setting. And I think that was a nice touch too because it added layers to his arc that his expressions didn’t.
The drama is nothing new minus the VR LBE and nice production frames and shots and great music. All of the generic tropes and eye candy moments we are used to seeing in Asian dramas are still there, it’s nothing new, but it’s well done, and that has made all the difference.
Was this review helpful to you?
Waste of time
SYNOPSIS: Two tribal mindset groups have been at war & each other's enemies forever. One group is comprised of the 6 sects (who like to think of themselves as the cultured & righteous people). The other is the demon-art practicing set of human beings (call them demon sect). FL is from the 6 sects. ML is from the demon sect. Both are trained in martial arts. Twenty years ago some mysterious thing occurred between 6 sects and the demon king that resulted in FL's aunt killing ML's uncle to save her sects. The shadow of what happened at that time carries to this day in the lives of FL & ML & everyone else, including the survivors of that time period on both sides. FL & ML set out in search of the truth, have adventures, some cool fights, next to zero romance. ML is a long suffering, unhinged, crazy, manipulative & secretive lover boy with ambitions of ending the enmity & uniting all people, while FL is a practical, non-committal girl who believes there can never be peace between the 2 factions. They find out what happened all those years ago & who is creating unrest in present day.PROBLEMS: This is a lame duck drama that was ambitious to conceptualize & produce because of all the story arcs from previous generations & ramifications of actions & how it spills into the personal dynamics of ML & FL.
1) The Hypocrisy of FL, Her Parents & 6 Sects: In the beginning of the series, FL is shown to be capable, strong, intelligent & practical. By episode 10 it is clear that she is shallow, thin-skinned, blind, opportunistic and flip flopper who cannot make up her mind or change but wants perfection in everything & wants ML to change to suit her, her greedy parents & her corrupt sect ideology. By episode 33, you are left scratching your head as to her motives & actions: Of course, the greedy parents of FL lapped up the gold & treasures (& thoughtful gifts) ML brought to be on their good side - forgetting he is from the demon side & forgetting that both had tried to kill ML in an ambush, and then agreed to his crippling in front of everyone even though he had done nothing wrong, AND that their daughter got the beating of a lifetime over saving this guy.
These same greedy parents were ecstatic when Song (SML, who will be lord of 6 sects after 'Master' current lord retires)'s father (SML's father) had provided them with keys to shops & lands as proposal for their daughter. These greedy parents were very okay with their daughter having a rich fiancé, son of a sect leader, who brought gifts whenever he showed up. Every single time, this good-for-nothing poverty stricken jobless parents and their daughter family is glad to attract the attention of upscale families, while pretending to be morally and ethically upstanding.
Usually such grifting is done by villains. For FL herself to use the love ML has for her & for her parents to use a 'daughter' for advancement, money & social status is pathetic. So much for the morals of Luoyong Valley!!!
2) Inconsistent Female Lead: You'll run out of times & ways in which FL keeps stringing at least 2-3 men around for majority of this drama, though other commenters disagree with this assessment. She continuously refuses ML's proposal (for one reason or another) despite claiming she loves him (it's never clear what she wants other than that she wants peace in the world even if it kills him or she kills him, she wants ML to come over to her sect, become a matrilocal husband, and give her and her family all of his riches! He agrees because he is shown to be totally obsessed with her).
In this drama, a woman who has no identity of her own & no accomplishment of her own - or at least not on an equal level with the man, is shown to use the affection & devotion of the said man to her advantage to usurp his wealth, identity & privilege in the name of 'female empowerment or liberation'.
In this series, ML has his own agenda - he wants to bring peace & get revenge at the same time - and wants an end to enmity between sects because he wants to 'marry FL honorably in open'. He keeps giving her suggestions as to how they can have a life together. She keeps saying no, she doesn't get it, she doesn't support him, she doesn't say she loves him.
He did use her unforgivably in one particular episode (in Ep. 29-30, when he willingly got caught in 6 sects web, threatening his own life, her life & the life of standbys all to achieve a result, which was to bring his own enemies out in the open & to force FL to make a choice to rescue him because he wanted her to show that she secretly loves him & she does rescue him because she loves him & will not watch an innocent man pay for the crimes of past generations). After the rescue FL tells him she loves him, dumps him, and continues to dilly dally with his feelings & time by never being clear about her wants. This continues till the last half hour of Ep.37 (the last episode!!!!)
In Ep. 33, FL says no to ML's proposal yet again, despite accepting the gifts, and her parents giving him a room in the house (which they did because of his gifts). She could've said no I don't trust you or you just came to get info on my aunt + Master + Jade to get MIB out of hiding (which was his goal apart from proposal anyways - even I had guessed he had 2 things planned for this trip) or let's not announce it yet or thank you but I need time, but no, she said expressionlessly, 'no, because you are from a prominent family' - height of hypocrisy & double standards because all that she and her family ever did was try to get a rich husband. And she does this to a person for the nth time whom she claims to love......(but no harm in accepting his gifts while giving him the cold shoulder).
FL also keeps repeating that 'all that I want is a peaceful life' but she continually inserted herself in dangerous situations, usually with ML or SML or both in tow. Lady, if you like living a peaceful life, just go back to Luoyong Valley and let grownups and guys fight it out between themselves.
Maybe it's a fantasy of some viewers (teenagers?) to see 'Cinderella' moments, to see rich powerful handsome men brought to their knees by talentless, loud, confused village belles who have no goals in life other than to snare the most eligible bachelor & emasculate him while 'peacefully' enjoying the privilege & freedom that his wealth brings. 'The Double', 'Blossoms in Adversity' & many other C-historical-dramas balanced conspiracy with slow burn aesthetically pleasing romance. This drama is a pill and a headache.
3) Obsession is bad: Yes, ML's obsession for FL is bad because he is clearly used and exploited by FL and her greedy parents. FL is obsessed with her aunt and not intelligent enough to understand that she is not her aunt, ML is not his dead misguided uncle and their life is their own to choose and make - not to be lead by her 'Master' lord of 6 sects, her greedy parents, or ideas of her aunt. Time and again, she tries to kill ML because she does not trust him or thinks he's doing something wrong - even though ML is always clear about his objectives that he wants to end the enmity between 6 sects and demon sect & to take revenge for the deaths of his father, friends etc. - just because he didn't tell her everything didn't mean his goal was bad or evil. But FL never gives him grace, never partners with him to fight forces together, instead keeps him insecure by roaming around with other guy (SML - who clearly wanted to marry her, while she did not, but she kept him around just the same). It was ML ultimately who was open with her and showed more character growth than she did. She remained the same obstinate, holier than thou hypocrite from start to finish, praising her corrupt sect & corrupt and murderous 'Master' (lord of 6 sects) and 'Luoyong Valley ways' (which were nothing more than praising her for finding 2 rich suitors). The 'Master' is obsessed with aunt, so is every guy from older generation (aunt also had 3 bonafide suitors), FL keeps talking about and thinking about her aunt, so does everyone else. And by the end of it all, you'll be sick of the aunt, her name, her role, everything. Aunt's lover is played by the ML from 'Blossom' drama 2025, LRY before his big break in Blossom, and you almost feel sorry for him to be reduced to empty flashbacks.
4) Unforgivable Betrayal of Memory & Personhood: I found it unforgivable that FL placed the ashes of the main villain, the ultimate source of murder and mayhem in the series, next to her aunt, even though he neither was the aunt's lover nor friend nor had he been good for the 6 sects or the demon sect. This felt like the ultimate betrayal by a so-called 'righteous' FL of aunt's memory who if anything would've preferred to be buried alone or maybe have the Zhangyang (man she wanted to marry and then killed) beside her but certainly not the 'man in black' who was responsible for so many massacres. It was further proof that FL just couldn't see straight for entirety of drama, running off into the sunset with a hen-pecked and emasculated ML.
4) Editing is Okay but Choice of Material is Not: Many commenters have disliked the fast-paced flipping from one scene to the next (calling it choppy editing). I did not think the editing was choppy, but I did think that the screenwriter and director should've changed the story arc of the FL to show some depth and growth. They also should have changed the original novel's story to give a better reason to the main villain for all the rampage and killing he did over the course of decades. His reasoning & actions didn't make sense & sounded like a juvenile crybaby tantrum. And since FL and villain arcs dragged out over the course of 37 episodes, it felt like a hot air lead balloon, not good dramatic storytelling.
PROS: The only thing good in the drama is ML's voice. The cast is full of young actors and they all did well with the material they were given. Big budget 'production'.
I cannot believe I watched 33 episodes (and then read the ending) of this mediocre drama.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Why not ditch this book-world & just date in the present day?
The comedy ‘How dare you?’ is adapted from the web novel "This Is Ridiculous" (成何体统) by Qi Ying Jun (七英俊). And its premise is that 2 people from the modern world are transported into a book as villains - but they end up changing their destiny, fate and character arc - by doing good, saving people, and the kingdom, they also fall in love, marry, etc. etc. - all the while still being in the other world of a book. So whatever action you are likely to see is within the construct of a preordained written word and the leads change their fate essentially - the message for viewers being you are in charge of what happens to you and can change your life.In the book, the heroine comes to believe that this is another dimension or alternate universe and not just a book, because they have treaded far beyond the confines of the book’s original trajectory and story line.
In the web novel, the heroine is from the year 2026 and is an unexceptional worker in an office, the hero is a boy from year 2016, is still in high school. So the trope of older woman and teenage boy is used as well.
Plus, as villains in the original book their lives were short and insignificant, but since they changed everything, he lives as a good king, dies first and goes back to being the high school boy from year 2016, the heroine lives on as the reigning queen, in the end leaving everything to her son and roaming the earth meeting friends old and new, sees what she was able to build and accomplish, and then dies a natural death at which point she is back in the modern world - year 2026 - in the same subway train in which she fell asleep - and that’s how the 2 star crossed lovebirds meet in the present timeline.
In the web novel, in present day he’s the lawyer for the production house that is making a drama on the book and he has been waiting for her for 10 years. She recognizes the rest of the cast as people she met in the novel’s timeline.
If you are watching the drama, you’ll notice that there are some changes from the web novel early on: the male lead says he’s a CEO in 2026, so when they go back, they’ll be the same age and he most probably will be the owner of the company she works for or CEO of the production company making the drama.
But watching the first 2 episodes, all I could think was why are these two people sticking around in this fake make-believe world when they can get out through some door to the present day at any time, or die, and start courting each other, because I wanted to see their interactions as actual people in present day. What’s the use of all that energy and maneuvers and ambitions in a fake place? This is the bit where such dramas lose me. Because why would anyone want to stay trapped in a make-believe world with a real person? So it’s a no-watch for me.
I understand why transmigration of soul or past life or time travel or dream world would be attractive as a genre - an ordinary person gets to live a larger than life treacherous adventure that tests their mettle, their strength, their bravery, their perseverance and their humanity in extraordinary circumstances, where everything is glamorous and chaotic and exotic than their dull real life, and the person gets to be appreciated for his or her brains, looks and actions and noticed by the hottest guy or girl. Issues of self worth or self-esteem won't come up because in the fictional world they have the answer for everything.
This is escapist fantasy world has a lot of fans. The cast is good, the costumes are good, but the story has by now FOUR real people duking it out in palatial politics. My question is why? Go back to your day jobs and hook up with the girl you met in the dream book world!
Was this review helpful to you?
