mione

you can try:
- put your head on my shoulder
- my little happiness
- go go squid
- chef fang
- chef hua (kind of like a spin-off of chef fang)

an upcoming drama written by author of love o2o, and also starring yang yang, called you are my glory is coming out soon.

i just finished a drama called go ahead. very well written with great character growth. but it’s more of a familial drama than romance. ML and FL has little to no misunderstandings after they become a couple.

you can also try le coup de fondre (main leads are a couple in real life now) and love is sweet (chemistry and kisses are bomb).

hope this list helps.

this drama sets high standards for chinese dramas. the story was simply well-written and very heartwarming.

to be fair, the chinese title translates as “in the name of family”, so it makes sense for the drama to make emphasis on the familial relationships (esp with the fathers, and more specifically father li because he essentially was the character that brought the 3 kids together and gave them the ultimate family love).

personally, i didn’t find jian jian and ling xiao’s romance forceful. there has been many foreshadowing throughout the story that hinted they were meant to be.

i’m probably in the minority, but i actually like that zi qiu did not get a proper love story, simply because his character was not ready for it. he already had so much insecurities to be solved, adding romance would’ve been mentally too much for him. in fact, without the romance, his character had the most character growth and being the most independent.

in comparison, ling xiao’s romance with jian jian fit in the story because their love has already started blooming since they were kids (more specifically high-school era). with that said, even though ling xiao had character growth, part of his sense of security comes from leaning onto jian jian, making his EQ independence not as high as zi qiu.

there are pros and cons to each characters. i think the drama wrapped up the story pretty well with the subtle vibe of “life moves on” as the characters found closure to their problems, be it a sweet or bitter ending.

slightly. it gets resolved pretty quickly.

[MAJOR SPOILER]
i personally wouldn’t even call it a love triangle because the second brother (zi qiu) never really loved FL in a romantic sense. he only regarded her as a sister. the reason why he wanted to form a romantic relationship with her is because it will make him become a ‘closer’ family to her. zi qiu is a character who was always insecure about himself because he feels he is always the one “being left out/abandoned”. growing up, he placed his sense of security with the FL’s family and is always afraid of losing it because he’s only an adoptive child from outsiders pov, making him ‘unworthy’.

they were very brief moments. the first was when ML was at her house and then her ex came (for i don't remember what reason), and the last was when she met her ex at a restaurant.

in the drama, he never bedded her. while in the novel, yes, he slept with her because she actually got pregnant and then had a miscarriage.

do you mean like a proper romantic relationship? because no.

i also think in some way or form, he tried to make it work with his first wife and concubines. but after getting to know them and seeing through them, he realised that they're not on the same page as his (=unattraction), so he keeps a distance from them so that the family can still live in harmony and avoid big arguments (it fits with his personality to choose to act this way ffrom my point of view).

i think he gave up after so many attempts (i mean, 1 wife and 2 concubines = 3 women in his life) and got tired of trying to commit himself to a relationship (he was a career-driven man from the start anyway).

and so after shiyi came into his life, he probs became intrigued because it looks like she shares the same ideologies and beliefs as him, and he only got more attracted because she was not seeking his favour.

with qiao, i think he was too experienced with his three other women, so he doesn't want to go through the tiring process to try to make the relationship work...cause he knows it won't (plus, he saw through qiao's detestable personality lol). i actually like that they changed from the novel and didn't make him engage in any sexual intercourse with qiao because that would just make his character very stupid for committing the same mistake (but also because the screenwriter changed qiao into a very detestable character.... so tbh, i don't feel bad for qiao for being 'unfavoured'....he did give her an option, but she insisted to become his concubine....)

i wish MDL has an option to pin comments on top. this comment makes a good ‘caution’ note to new viewers.

then MDL is just slow haha

i believe they’re counting based on subbed eps? i might be wrong haha

so i just started ep 1....

the vibe of the story and the comedic elements feels like those old hong kong dramas (if you watch hk dramas you will know what i'm talking about), so i'm okay with it (it's srsly not the worse plot that i've watch). BUT given that this was a recent release, the directing is awful. there are wannabe-directors online who are better at directing than this...

in addition, they should've picked another dynasty instead of qing (could've done something like chef fang or cuo dian yuan yang, which were both made on low budget with simple directing-style). perhaps it's the choice of actors or the directing style, idk, but setting the story in the qing dynasty seem very out of place in this drama.....

from a few angles, wu jia yi kind of looks like a younger version of jenny zhang :')

re: "wanting a monogamous romantic story when in fact that romantic ideal was totally alien to traditional Chinese culture"

can't really blame them since many idol dramas these days are feeding this ideology that monogamous can be the norm in ancient times ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ it's a nice fantasy, but definitely unrealistic.

your point about xu lingyi is very interesting and i agree. i'm gonna add to that: while he doesn't seem to appreciate having a harem, he still acts like a man of his time by actually consummating his relationship with his concubines and was willing to bear the responsibility of making sure he has offsprings for his family. frankly speaking, it would be very unrealistic for him to not be engaged in any sexual relationship with them after they 'became his [objects]'. the idea behind his action would also fit with his personality of a man who values respect and virtue (e.g. accepting concubine wen). the only fault of his concubines and his first wife would be they don't really understand him as a person, which leads to the fallout of their relationship (e.g. with his first wife), or that their relationship just seem impossible to escalate and bloom into something more (e.g. with concubine wen and qin).

with the experiences from his previous relationships, i think he's more aware of his ideal type now, which gives us a reason why he becomes attracted to shiyi and why he unfavours concubine qiao and does not want to have any sexual engagements with her. i also think shiyi's personality somewhat inspires him to have more courage to be confident with his feelings too and to be more outspoken, which is why he begins to stand up for her in front of his mother.

...from a man who behaves like the men of his time to a man who becomes the uncommon type of his time, we can argue in a more cliche perspective by saying that love makes one blind and xu lingyi is definitely getting the lovestruck lol (because we can also argue that finding true love was rare back in those times as marriages were decided by the parent(s) and not the child(ren).)

edit: and, at the end of the day, this only a fictional drama. while we want for it to have some authenticity, people shouldn't be too serious about it to the point of bickering in the comment section :') ....although i do appreciate those comments because i'm rather amused reading them HAHAHAHA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v22S_kI7ZV8&ab_channel=WeTV%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3

^ oh damn, can someone explain what is happening/what is going to happen? :o
who was the one handing xu lingyi the tea and why was she shocked when shiyi walked into the room?

lol, reading the comments, i think im going to officially drop this drama.

it looks like some characters who deserve death did not get death, but some of those who did not deserve them somehow died. the story itself has some moral issues to the audience lmao

adding to how oppressed the women were back in those ancient times: after marriage, women were basically only allowed to stay at home to help their husband manage the household and take care of the children. the ordinary citizens had it easy because most of them were poor and so had to be involved in doing hard labour in order to survive. it's worse for the women who were from noble/wealthy households because they cannot afford to be tainted or exploited by outsiders, especially by those of lower-status than them. once their reputation is ruined, the reputation of their clan would also be ruined.

these noblewomen were mostly convinced that they're supposed to stay within their manor/estate because they're too noble to be seen by outsiders. truth is, this was a method the men used to restrict their women from understanding what is happening in the outside world because, well, men believed that whatever was happening outside the household was none of the women's business. as the ancient belief widely spread: a man is always the breadwinner of the family.

i agree.

tbh, i laugh at the comments that say characters like shiyi is weak. physically, yes, she is weak, but i think she is quite an emotionally strong character. and the way she presents herself, her views and agendas, they're really not the norm for women at such patriarchal times (and can be a taboo).

there are viewers claiming that they're not judging the characters and story from a modern perspective, but i think many of us are doing so unconsciously because the kind of society that we're living in today has evolved so much and those modern ideas have already long been instilled in our heads that we automatically categorise things as "this and that are wrong" and "this and that are right" as we watch the story unfold, disregarding the fact that what we believe in today's society was viewed as scandalous back in the ancient times.

we can actually see, in recorded history, that there has been women who have stood up for themselves or went out to venture into business or politics, but because they were women, they were not very respected and were pretty much oppressed by the men who has more power than them in the business or political system (...and we're still struggling in today's society, except we've improved a lot compared to those hard times).

from the recaps people are writing about this drama, i see shiyi as a strong-headed woman, but she remains low-key because people from her era wouldn't give value to a strong-headed woman like her, and she knows it (she will however talk back if she finds someone too detestable, lol). i mean, look at her, she sacrificed her marital status in order to find her mother's murderer. let's imagine a scenario of her successfully running away after fulfilling her wish to find the murderer... she would be a divorcee with no useful status to back her —basically, she'd be considered a wasted woman. while it's still possible for her to remarry, but men from those time would still prefer to marry someone who is 'pure'. shiyi clearly doesn't give a shit, lol

i wouldn't classify this as a wuxia. but xianxia.

there are fights scenes, but because it's not wuxia-focused, don't expect some badass kungfu work like those from jin yong's stories. and like what the title of the drama illustrates, the story is more packed with romance.