Celebrity 
A Cup of Soothing Tea, Shattered All Across the Floor
"It's not that [Chen Wan] is bad with words, it's that his heart is clumsy. But a clumsy heart also means one that is free of ulterior motives." In his earnest, desperate, and stubborn way of loving Zhao Shengge without any desire at all for these feelings to be returned, Chen Wan's authentic feelings come from both a pureness in his straightforward sense of love, but also a devastation in that he is willing to set himself on fire in order to keep Shengge warm. And perhaps that's why I have so many mixed feelings about this adaptation of the novel Reply to Keats 奇洛李维斯回信 by Qingming Guyu 清明谷雨 — a story about the sourness of love in everyday life, of a very grounded, realistic, and yet heartwarming romance — especially when it's depicted through the heavy-handed use of generative AI assets.
❁ THE PAIN OF UNFULFILLED DESIRES ❁
If I were to describe Chen Wan and Shengge's relationship in one sentence, it would be "an unrequited love that one never dares to pursue, that represents a devotion born from both extreme selfishness and selflessness." It's a heart-aching work that leaves one with feelings of awe for the all-encompassing forms of love that Shengge and Chen Wan have for each other, but also a bitterness that touches your heart knowing how long of a journey it takes for both of them to find their own happiness. Yes, Chen Wan may be extraordinarily stubborn in his enduring devotion to Shengge, but Shengge is no less steadfast in his loyalty — especially when the one who is always watching from afar doesn't realize that he is now being watched back in return.
The title is a reference to the famous Cantopop song, A Letter From Keanu Reeves by Fiona Sit (2004), which is intended to illustrate the perspective of Chen Wan's feelings. The lyrics focuses on the writing of a love letter to Mr. K — a superstar, but also a metaphor for someone who is indisputably out of one's reach — except the author still writes endlessly, with devotion, and with the greatest love in their hearts knowing how this relationship will never be possible. Like the mundanity and banality of letter-writing, in slowly communicating one's own feelings and waiting for a reply that may or may not return, this story doesn't have many explosive or dramatic moments. In fact, little really happens beyond the kinds of business relationships and interests that Chen Wan and Shengge eventually work on together. But it's precisely because the novel focuses on all of Chen Wan's little gestures, such as his attentiveness towards Shengge's needs, and in return, Shengge's constant awareness of Chen Wan and his attempts to find out what Chen Wan wants from him — that we see two extremely lonely people acquire an understanding and affection for one another over time.
❁ THE PROBLEM OF EXECUTION ❁
As other comments have already mentioned, this is a lower-budget series which received not only little promotion but also struggled when it was announced to release basic information about its actors and production company. The major issue is that this drama is kind of a hybrid live-action/AI series, particularly because of how many art assets, backgrounds, and other scenes are created either with the supplementation of or are entirely generated with AI technologies. This is not exactly a new phenomenon in BL dramaland, as other popular series such as A Prosecutor's Proposal are also starting to use AI content whether in their intro or the post-production process. However, it is to the point in this drama where it is almost difficult to identify when AI isn't used, and most importantly, why AI has to be used in the first place for a contemporary drama which must focus on the romantic development between its main characters in order to succeed.
The makeup, editing, and backgrounds are also extremely strange choices especially when they completely contradict with the novel. Both Yusong and Hanlin actually both look amazing in their livestreams and I can ironically see them perfectly as Shengge and Chen Wan whenever they're doing promotions outside of the drama or dressed in their own casual clothing. So I have no idea why the director decided to go with a very stylized, almost techno-fantastical version of the characters when they had every ability to do without it. Although some other comments suggested the intention of creating a manhua-like atmosphere, the main thing about Shengge and Chen Wan's story is that it's extremely grounded and rooted in the fact that they have a rare kind of love in everyday life. So it seems like this is not only a problem with generative AI use (which is another issue in itself) but the combination of that and an art direction which seems to focus on exaggeration rather than capturing the essence of Chen Wan and Shengge.
Last, although there is a lot of criticism towards Hanlin's (Shengge's) aesthetics, especially the longer hair and overall character demeanour compared to the original novel, I also think this same problem emerges with Yusong's Chen Wan. Although the romanticization and setting of Hong Kong does play an important role in the original story, I suspect what happened is that they decided to try and aim for some kind of Hong Kong triad-esque/old Hong Kong imagery in a contemporary setting, and combine it with manhua-style photography and cinematography, which of course ended up in many ways becoming a messy amalgamation of a bunch of different Douyin-style aesthetics instead. In any case, I think the frustration here comes both from the AI use (and its very obvious camera angles, action/car sequences, etc.) but also the very wonky execution, in which it's as if the drama decided to throw every single trendy aesthetic to see what would stick. Not only does this distract from how the original storyline actually has very few descriptors of things like appearance, aesthetics, and setting (because it prioritizes unfolding the motivations of its characters falling in love instead), but it also just doesn't really make sense in relation to the tone and the intention of the original script.
❁ LIST OF GENERATIVE AI ASSETS ❁
For those who want specifics about the generative AI use, this isn't a comprehensive list and I've probably missed some things, but I'll try. Most of these images/visuals are pretty easy to tell if you've watched both vertical and horizontal short-form Chinese dramas:
(1) Exterior Shots: A lot of scenes where they film big buildings, houses, mansions, intersections that are meant to establish setting (the most obvious example is the exterior of the yacht)
(2) Action Sequences: Anything involving the cars, such as car chases/wrecks/or scenes that capture the cars from afar and at-a-distance. This also includes scenes were we see cars driving on a highway, sometimes when cars are outside a building, and/or the exterior of a car.
(3) Some Table Assets: When they're eating, I suspect that some of the items on the tables (e.g. the moving lazy susan when they're eating the banquet meal) may be generated AI.
(4) Some of the Childhood/Flashback Scenes: Especially the scene where we see Chen Wan as a child
(5) Potentially Some of the Building Details: For example, in the yacht scene the entire sunset background is likely Generative AI, there might be some details in the background (e.g. objects on shelves) that are also either added or edited using AI tools
(6) Newspapers, Phone Texts: Some of these image or art assets that are on screens, phones, or other media forms are entirely AI generated (it kind of looks strange, e.g. when someone's holding an AI newspaper)
The actors are not generated by AI (e.g. there may be some filtering going on, but I think it's more of a stylistic/makeup thing right now because they look perfectly fine in livestreams). Probably the most glaring or obvious sign of AI use is definitely the car scenes and the backgrounds.
❁ LEFT LUKEWARM ❁
Reply to Keats remains one of my all time favourite contemporary BL web novels. The premise itself, of someone having an unrequited love and doing everything they can to make sure the person that guides their affection never discovers their true feelings, is beautifully depicted especially with characters that are so equally competent and well-matched like Chen Wan and Shengge. And while I think Yusong and Hanlin have a lot of chemistry, unfortunately the execution of this drama really marred the original tenderness of the novel. In some ways, this adapation is a reminder that simply throwing generative AI assets into low-budget series, regardless of whether or not they are produced under newer or smaller production teams, does not fare when it comes to the quality and depth of BL series we have been receiving lately.
❁ THE PAIN OF UNFULFILLED DESIRES ❁
If I were to describe Chen Wan and Shengge's relationship in one sentence, it would be "an unrequited love that one never dares to pursue, that represents a devotion born from both extreme selfishness and selflessness." It's a heart-aching work that leaves one with feelings of awe for the all-encompassing forms of love that Shengge and Chen Wan have for each other, but also a bitterness that touches your heart knowing how long of a journey it takes for both of them to find their own happiness. Yes, Chen Wan may be extraordinarily stubborn in his enduring devotion to Shengge, but Shengge is no less steadfast in his loyalty — especially when the one who is always watching from afar doesn't realize that he is now being watched back in return.
The title is a reference to the famous Cantopop song, A Letter From Keanu Reeves by Fiona Sit (2004), which is intended to illustrate the perspective of Chen Wan's feelings. The lyrics focuses on the writing of a love letter to Mr. K — a superstar, but also a metaphor for someone who is indisputably out of one's reach — except the author still writes endlessly, with devotion, and with the greatest love in their hearts knowing how this relationship will never be possible. Like the mundanity and banality of letter-writing, in slowly communicating one's own feelings and waiting for a reply that may or may not return, this story doesn't have many explosive or dramatic moments. In fact, little really happens beyond the kinds of business relationships and interests that Chen Wan and Shengge eventually work on together. But it's precisely because the novel focuses on all of Chen Wan's little gestures, such as his attentiveness towards Shengge's needs, and in return, Shengge's constant awareness of Chen Wan and his attempts to find out what Chen Wan wants from him — that we see two extremely lonely people acquire an understanding and affection for one another over time.
❁ THE PROBLEM OF EXECUTION ❁
As other comments have already mentioned, this is a lower-budget series which received not only little promotion but also struggled when it was announced to release basic information about its actors and production company. The major issue is that this drama is kind of a hybrid live-action/AI series, particularly because of how many art assets, backgrounds, and other scenes are created either with the supplementation of or are entirely generated with AI technologies. This is not exactly a new phenomenon in BL dramaland, as other popular series such as A Prosecutor's Proposal are also starting to use AI content whether in their intro or the post-production process. However, it is to the point in this drama where it is almost difficult to identify when AI isn't used, and most importantly, why AI has to be used in the first place for a contemporary drama which must focus on the romantic development between its main characters in order to succeed.
The makeup, editing, and backgrounds are also extremely strange choices especially when they completely contradict with the novel. Both Yusong and Hanlin actually both look amazing in their livestreams and I can ironically see them perfectly as Shengge and Chen Wan whenever they're doing promotions outside of the drama or dressed in their own casual clothing. So I have no idea why the director decided to go with a very stylized, almost techno-fantastical version of the characters when they had every ability to do without it. Although some other comments suggested the intention of creating a manhua-like atmosphere, the main thing about Shengge and Chen Wan's story is that it's extremely grounded and rooted in the fact that they have a rare kind of love in everyday life. So it seems like this is not only a problem with generative AI use (which is another issue in itself) but the combination of that and an art direction which seems to focus on exaggeration rather than capturing the essence of Chen Wan and Shengge.
Last, although there is a lot of criticism towards Hanlin's (Shengge's) aesthetics, especially the longer hair and overall character demeanour compared to the original novel, I also think this same problem emerges with Yusong's Chen Wan. Although the romanticization and setting of Hong Kong does play an important role in the original story, I suspect what happened is that they decided to try and aim for some kind of Hong Kong triad-esque/old Hong Kong imagery in a contemporary setting, and combine it with manhua-style photography and cinematography, which of course ended up in many ways becoming a messy amalgamation of a bunch of different Douyin-style aesthetics instead. In any case, I think the frustration here comes both from the AI use (and its very obvious camera angles, action/car sequences, etc.) but also the very wonky execution, in which it's as if the drama decided to throw every single trendy aesthetic to see what would stick. Not only does this distract from how the original storyline actually has very few descriptors of things like appearance, aesthetics, and setting (because it prioritizes unfolding the motivations of its characters falling in love instead), but it also just doesn't really make sense in relation to the tone and the intention of the original script.
❁ LIST OF GENERATIVE AI ASSETS ❁
For those who want specifics about the generative AI use, this isn't a comprehensive list and I've probably missed some things, but I'll try. Most of these images/visuals are pretty easy to tell if you've watched both vertical and horizontal short-form Chinese dramas:
(1) Exterior Shots: A lot of scenes where they film big buildings, houses, mansions, intersections that are meant to establish setting (the most obvious example is the exterior of the yacht)
(2) Action Sequences: Anything involving the cars, such as car chases/wrecks/or scenes that capture the cars from afar and at-a-distance. This also includes scenes were we see cars driving on a highway, sometimes when cars are outside a building, and/or the exterior of a car.
(3) Some Table Assets: When they're eating, I suspect that some of the items on the tables (e.g. the moving lazy susan when they're eating the banquet meal) may be generated AI.
(4) Some of the Childhood/Flashback Scenes: Especially the scene where we see Chen Wan as a child
(5) Potentially Some of the Building Details: For example, in the yacht scene the entire sunset background is likely Generative AI, there might be some details in the background (e.g. objects on shelves) that are also either added or edited using AI tools
(6) Newspapers, Phone Texts: Some of these image or art assets that are on screens, phones, or other media forms are entirely AI generated (it kind of looks strange, e.g. when someone's holding an AI newspaper)
The actors are not generated by AI (e.g. there may be some filtering going on, but I think it's more of a stylistic/makeup thing right now because they look perfectly fine in livestreams). Probably the most glaring or obvious sign of AI use is definitely the car scenes and the backgrounds.
❁ LEFT LUKEWARM ❁
Reply to Keats remains one of my all time favourite contemporary BL web novels. The premise itself, of someone having an unrequited love and doing everything they can to make sure the person that guides their affection never discovers their true feelings, is beautifully depicted especially with characters that are so equally competent and well-matched like Chen Wan and Shengge. And while I think Yusong and Hanlin have a lot of chemistry, unfortunately the execution of this drama really marred the original tenderness of the novel. In some ways, this adapation is a reminder that simply throwing generative AI assets into low-budget series, regardless of whether or not they are produced under newer or smaller production teams, does not fare when it comes to the quality and depth of BL series we have been receiving lately.
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