Love O2O is on Netflix but I recommend that you watch the show, particularly this episode, elsewhere. The subs on Netflix are only about 4 levels better than Google Translate. To get the nuance and the flavor of the show, go to another source.
For instance, on Netflix, the guys have been calling Weiwei “Mrs Nai.” No no no no no. Although it sounds awkward and cumbersome, the better translation is “Third Sister-in-law.”
At first glance, “Mrs. Nai” is good enough. For me, it’s simple and concise. It gets the message across that Weiwei is Nai’s online wife. She’s his. Their relationship as a couple is established, and that’s all I need to know.
And like most Americans, we tend to see marriage as an independent choice. I marry you. You marry me. Just like in Pride and Prejudice, all the other considerations, like family and friends, come secondary to our individual desire to spend the rest of our lives with one particular person.
“In vain I have struggled…”
However, if I want to get a better understanding of Asian tradition and culture, then “Third Sister-in-law” is the more accurate title. It communicates the familial aspect of Weiwei and Nai’s relationship. It’s not just about the two of them. Their “brothers” and “sisters” — and now, even Nai’s parents, are connected and involved in their online marriage. The decision they made at the Red Sparrow Bridge in Episode 1 to “couple up” has rippling effects on the people around them. The community or a communal aspect of their union is displayed in the nomenclature “Third Sister-in-law” that isn’t similarly demonstrated in “Mrs. Nai.”
These are the highlights for me in this episode. Just tell me if I’ve forgotten something.
1. Third Sister-in-law???
His parents overhear his friends wondering what happened to “Third Sister-in-law” and they too end up wondering about this “Third Sister-in-law.” Like, who IS this “Third Sister-in-law” that they keep mentioning?
The mom immediately pounces and asks her husband, “Is he seeing somebody?” But dad rejects it because of Nai’s quirky temper.
Quirky temper??! As Tina Turner would sing, “What’s love got to do, got to do with it?” Do we really care if Yang Yang…errr… Xiao Nai has a quirky temper?
The dad claims he’s never seen his son get close to a girl so he can’t have a girlfriend. At the very least, he’ll be 40 when he marries.
However, the mom uses logic and points that since Nai’s friends call him “Third brother” and they referred to this mystery person as “Third Sister-in-law,” then they must be referring to a girl in his life.
The dad again dismisses it saying that young people nowadays are creative with their names on the internet. He tells his wife in full confidence, “Don’t read too much into it. We won’t get a daughter-in-law so soon.”
To me, this a cute scene because they have no inkling that Nai has lovelife. It’s funny, too, because they’ll soon find themselves helping their “daughter-in-law” move in to her dorm on Move-In Day.
On a side note: I find it sad that, although Chinese have such a rich vocabulary for designated names of each family member, like “second brother,” “third brother,” and “third sister-in-law,” these words are rendered literally useless because of the One-Child Policy. The extended family is dwindling down and soon this complicated family tree will be lost in memory. The brothers in Love O2O are sworn brothers, not germane brothers or brothers-german or full-brothers.
credit: ninchanese.com
I’ll update this once I discover the terms for third brother, third sister-in-law, wife and husband.
2. Girl Talk
WW: Do you have a good friend in the game?
ER: Yes. Yes, I do.
WW: Do you ever think of meeting him?
ER: No, what’s the point in that?
WW: What if he suddenly disappears one day or never come online anymore? Every day, the two of you go to the instance dungeon together, and you spend a lot of time with each other, but he simply vanishes, and you don’t know who he is, or where he is. Even if you see him in a crowd, he’s just a stranger.
ER: But isn’t gaming like that? Newcomers arrive every day, and some others leave every day. I might have just started gaming, but that seems to be normal.
WW: Yes, it’s normal in gaming. I thought I got used to it. (inwardly) But why do I feel so upset this time.
The problem for WW is that she considers Naihe as a virtual friend. It’s difficult for her to leap from an online friendship to an offline romance. She doesn’t flirt with him when they’re together in the internet. It’s understandable that Naihe’s absence hit her hard after he’s filled up a big chunk of her time and focus.
3. The Video
Instead of logging on, Weiwei watches the video that she and Nai created. She’s afraid to log on and confirm her fear that he vanished on her.
To me, she’s obsessed with video because she identifies with both characters.
One, she’s like the Bandit girl whose partner “betrayed” her by not showing up at the final tournament.
Two, she’s also like the Musician who’ll have to face living by herself with just memories of her good times with Naihe to comfort her.
Sure enough, alone in the library, she ponders, “Would Naihe disappear like that, too? In the long, long days to come, would this video be the only proof of me ever knowing Naihe?
But she tries to reason with herself. “But maybe Naihe was simply held up somewhere? Why am I making a big deal out of it? As for whether Naihe has vanished, I only have to log on to find out. Why am I afraid to log on?”
She tears up as she watches the video. It struck a chord in her and that’s why she keeps replaying the same scene.
“Oh, no, I’m being sentimental. Oh, no, I seem to be…I seem to be in love.”
4. “I got it.”
In a way, Nai and Weiwei’s story imitates their online game. In Episode 6 when they did that Couple Challenge, it was Weiwei who disappeared and Naihe had to work to search for her.
Now, in real life, it’s Nai who disappears and Weiwei doesn’t know where he is. She’s naturally upset and worried. She’s unaware that he just woke up from his concussion and is now looking for her.
In the game, he had 16 hours to find her but they could chat. He asked her a couple questions and he said, “Okay, I got it.” He went to work on their mission.
In real life, he also goes to work as soon as he can. However, he’s in the hospital and can’t contact her so, he had to mine information, just like in the game. Instead of NPCs, he reaches out to their online friend Nini to find out what happened to Weiwei the previous night.
From Nini, he learns that Weiwei waited until 8:03 pm. Remember that the game allows the couple a grace period of 3 minutes to show up to the battle. This means that Weiwei waited but left immediately after their 3 minute period was up. According to Friend #1, insults were heaped on Weiwei while she waited and that must have bothered Nai.
Nini: That day Weiwei waited alone by the NPC outside the gates of Jinling City until 8:03 pm. You didn’t show up after all. Then Weiwei logged off and hasn’t logged back on since. That’s all I know.
Nai: I got it. Thank you.
lol. Don’t you just love it when somebody says “I got this” confidently? Like, “I’ll take it from here. You can rest easy now. I know what to do.”
My instant reaction is “Okay, babe.”
@agdr03, @phoenix and I were recently talking about oysters as aphrodisiac, but to me, the greatest aphrodisiacs are wit and competence. Well, kindness, too, but holy people are kind and I don’t find them sexy. Whenever Nai says, “I got it.” my heart makes a little flippity-flop.
4. Chatting with Nini
Anyway, to continue…
Nini: YiXiao Naihe, why didn’t you show up that day? When it was almost 8 o’clock, she even told me she trusted that you will come.
Nai: I’m sorry. I’d like to tell Weiwei first.
This response is swoon-worthy, too. It’s easily overlooked but it definitely earns him brownie points with me. I like it because it tells me that he’s discreet. He shows that any internal problems they’ll encounter will be dealt with as a couple, rather than divulged and broadcast-ed to others. He’s loyal to Weiwei and he respects their privacy as a couple.
To me, it’s a sign of “irreconcilable differences” when a couple begins to air their dirty laundry in public. Of course, I’m not talking about relationships with incidents of domestic violence and abuse. In those situations, it may be helpful to talk to somebody either confidentially or anonymously.
5. When hacking skills come in handy
I like how his friends have utmost confidence in his ability to find her. But I really like it more when Nai SURPRISES his friends. His friends just don’t anticipate his next move because they’re 10 paces behind me.
It’s kinda like surprising the holder and kicking him instead of the ball. It’s wickedly funny.
Friend 3: I think the key problem is that she’s no longer online. Say, would Mrs. Nai never log on again after the blow she took? If that’s the case, would Nai be single again?
Friend 2: Why worry? If it’s internet-related, Nai will track her down. Unless she never uses the internet again.
lol. Nai is ignoring them because he already knows who she is, where she’s staying, what her class schedule is. I’m sure if he has her class schedule, he can get her phone number, too. Sigh. Who do these kids think they’re dealing with? A newbie? This is Nai the Hacker.
Friend 3: That’s true. If that’s the case, won’t Nai have to meet her in real life? Would you do that, Nai?
Friend 1: What are you doing? Watching the “Girl Bandit” video?
Nai: Weiwei’s watching it.
Friend 2: You hacked into her computer?
Friend 3: You found her in real life?
See that? While his friends are still chatting about his plan of action, he’s already gone and done it. He already found and tracked her watching their video.
I must say, however, that his actions may be perceived as creepy if Weiwei isn’t in love with him. To me, the primary difference between creepy stalking and romantic hovering is the feelings of the recipient of all that attention. Stalking is nonconsensual behavior. To the recipient, the attention shown to her are threatening, frightening, rude, lewd, aggressive, troubling, predatory, unwanted, intimidating, etc.,
Nai: Hao Mei, put a little code in the game for me to send an automatic message to my cell phone once Weiwei logs on.
Ahem… Code? I don’t know much about computers but isn’t “code” another term for a spyware or malware or a cookie that will track her computer activity and transmit the data to Nai’s cellphone? Isn’t that illegal??!! Hey, dude!
When you think about this, Nai is badass, like Patrick Verona, but in a geeky sort of way.
6. Watching the moon
Long-distance lovers are often depicted gazing at the moon because no matter where they are, they’ll be gazing at the same moon and missing each other.
Well, for Nai and Weiwei, their video is their version of the “moon.” This screenshot of the moon is the only time viewers got a glimpse of it outside Nai’s and Weiwei’s window that night.
In her room, Weiwei watches their film over and over again while in his hospital room, Nai too watches the film over and over again BECAUSE she’s watching it.
This romantic moment is something I’ve seen before in kdramas but normally the directors film this moment with a split-screen. For Love O2O, I think the montage works better because it shows his perspective first, then hers next.
He’s trying to figure her out…
See that? Same scenes.
And hes keeping her company.
She thinks that she’s been abandoned just like the characters in the story and that she’s the only one replaying their video. That’s why she’s stuck on the ending scene.
She doesn’t know that he’s right there with her all along.
Hmmm… This reminds me of that time he created the video for her. She didn’t know either that he stayed up thinking of a better finale and rewrote it FOR HER.
Now, he’s doing it again. He’s trying to understand why she’s avoiding logging on but replaying their video until late at night.
And he just smiles, “Is that really that good? You’ve watched it so many times?”
I think this is a swoon-worthy moment because of his reaction. She’s being sentimental and he ALLOWS her to be sentimental. He’s indulging her.
…which is pretty much the reason for his revision of the video. She wanted something romantic: the heroine being killed and the hero killing himself in sorrow afterwards. So Nai edited it and upped the level of sentimentality by making the hero lived in loneliness for the rest of his life, separated and longing for the “love of his life.”
He did all that for her. He admitted as much: had it been him, the ending would have been played out differently. But he went along with the story because it was hers.
And now, he’s doing the same thing.
He knows who she is and where she is. As I said, it would have been easy-peasey for him to contact her anytime HE wanted. But since she’s avoiding the game and de facto him, he bides his time and waits for her next move. If she wants to wallow in this moody and sentimental feelings, then he allows her the moment. He’s going with her timetable, not his. Her schedule, not his.
I consider their separate beds here as foreshadowing. 😀
Later on, we’ll find out that he’s even willing to wait longer for her. Two years, in fact.
So, now when you think this through, when she told him in Episode 6 that she was going to be his planner,
it didn’t mean ONLY for the game. In their love life as well, she’s his planner, too.
7. She accepts that she loves him.
After spending the whole night mooning over their couple video, she finally gets taht the nature of her feelings for her online buddy has changed.
“Now I know how I feel, I should rush to log on, and nail Naihe down by any means necessary. After all, I’m single and so is he. But why am I afraid to log on? Oh, no…An alien must have taken over my body. Or is this the so-called shyness? Whatever. I’ll study for the exams first. I’ll log on after the exams. I’m sure he won’t disappear. That’s right.”
lol. I like how she can shut him out of her mind with the closing her laptop. Cool. Mind over matter. Out of sight, out of mind.
8. The phone call from the Operations Division of the “A Chinese Ghost Story”
It’s hilarious that the game was adding a “Marriage by Abduction” feature in the game after their video and they want to use their video for the marketing campaign. Weiwei and Naihe’s online marriage isn’t at all an abduction. He approached her and asked her permission; she consented.
But that phone call was her “excuse” for logging back on and contacting Naihe.
A second or two after she logs on, Naihe texts her.
The “bug” that Friend #3 put in the program worked perfectly.
Whether it’s the case of the aliens or just shyness, she hesitates to see him.
But Friend #1 also contacts her to explain Naihe’s disappearance from the game.
“Where are you Mrs Nai? I’m the one at fault. I’ll shoulder the blame and ask for your punishment and forgiveness. Mrs. Nai, it’s all my fault. You can beat the heck out of me. I was driving on the way back from the business dinner, and the car crashed.”
She learns that Naihe had a concussion and didn’t wake up till the following afternoon. She rushes then to talk to Naihe.
What I like about this scene is that guys got Nai’s back.
9. The Reunion
He waits for her at their happy place, their Scenic Overlook. She forgets all her awkwardness and shyness because she scolds him.
WW: Why are you online? Why aren’t you resting?
YN: I’m fine now.
WW: You still shouldn’t be playing. It’s very tiring.
YN: I’m not playing. I just have it on.
WW: Just have it on? Why did I receive your text as soon as I logged on then? (suspiciously)
He didn’t answer. Girl, because he put in a spyware in the program.
WW: Does your head still hurt?
YN: (shakes head) I’m sorry for standing you up that day.
WW: Compared to your injuries, that was nothing.
Inwardly, she’s thinking: I haven’t logged on in days. Has Naihe waited for days? Does he think I’m mad at him? I’m not mad. At first, I was afraid he wouldn’t be online, and then…
WW: I have exams coming up. That’s why I didn’t log on for days.
He stares at her. I think he knows that the truth. Methinks exams were just her excuse. She was avoiding him.
YN: (turning away) I know.
Inner monologue again: “You know? No, you don’t!”
Girl, he’s been watching your video with you all this time.
WW: By the way, Feng Teng Technology called me today. They want to buy the rights to our video. How should I reply?
YN: That’s a bit complicated.
WW: It is?
YN: Yes.
YN: So let’s talk in person. (Gasp!) This is my cellphone number.
Xiao Nai’s # is 13585904041. I googled it and sure enough a lot of fangirls noted this number. Good grief! I hope that number didn’t belong to an actual person because it would have been a pain-in-the-neck to wake up in the middle of the night with some girl professing undying love.
WW: My cellphone was stolen. I haven’t replaced it.
YN: It’s okay. Just take down my number.
WW: Sure. Where shall we meet? I’m at Qing University. You’re in Beijing too, right?
Incoming rant: I don’t understand why the subbers on Netflix used “Capital City” instead of Beijing. I know that we Americans are lousy with geography but come on, subbers, we know the capital of China! Here, if we superimpose China’s map on North America, this is where Beijing is.
source: CIA factbook
YN: Yes, I’ll pick you up on campus. When are you free?
WW: I have an exam tomorrow. I’ll be free after 11:30.
YN: I’ll wait by the university’s east gate as 12 noon.
WW: Let’s do 11:35 so I don’t have to wait for half an hour.
Gasp! I can’t even wait for half an hour? That shows how eager I am.
WW: I’ll call you tomorrow. I have to go now. Bye-bye.
10. Buying clothes for the meeting
No comment on the bust size.
Well…maybe a teeny one. I honestly didn’t get why the campus chatroom were posting that Nai only liked her for her boobies or something. Did they see the size of those anthills? pwahahaha.
This morning I noticed VIKI has added Love O2O but they’re in the process of doing subs, so don’t know how long that will take. It would be interesting if you’d watch Viki and compare subtitles! btw, my favorite boy is the one pictured in the blue shirt.
Sorry, no way to edit: Viki usually has good subs. They’ll mention sister, brother, 2nd uncle, 3rd uncle, etc., and they include names of real cities. Netflix is kinda weird sometimes. It really bugged me that even though Mr Sunshine had English subs, when they spoke English there were no subtitles. And I needed them!
Yes! I noticed too that Love O2O is showing up on Viki. That would be just my luck if that show was marked “Not available in your region”!
I know he’s your favorite guy. I googled “Oriental Odyssey” and — hey! I’m NOT that bad — I recognized his face in the line-up.
Speaking of faces, it just dawned on me that the DalMoon, the mysterious guy in the marketplace, in “Haechi” is the bad guy Cha HyungSuk in “Memories of the Alhambra.” (facepalm)
Haha…I read your quandary in point 1 and went to watch that bit in Ep 9. I understand Chinese so for once I didn’t need to read subtitles. I have no context coz I haven’t watched the drama at all but yes the 3 friends are probably so close that they have terms of endearment for each other. So the guy in the bed (Mr Best Boyfriend Yang Yang) is referred to as ‘Lao San’…Chinese often attach ‘Lao’ in front of Surnames as a term of endearment (usually between bosom buddies)…I used to call my bestie ‘Lao Cai’ (her surname was Cai). This is usually a boy thing but we girls were really boyish in our youth so we didn’t care. 😂 So I assume of the 3 boys there’s some sort of hierarchy happening…maybe age? Again I don’t have context…is Yang Yang the youngest of the 3? If so then he would be ‘Lao San’. Is one of the others ‘Lao Da’? He’s number 1 then in their group. And the middle guy would be ‘Lao Er’ which is number 2. Usually they would go by age. Which would imply Lao Da is the oldest, Lao Er is in the middle and Lao San (Yang Yang) is the youngest. So yes when they refer to ‘San Sao’ – they are referring to Sister-in-law number 3 (ie Lao San’s Wife).
Kudos to PM3 for working it out in spite of the woeful translation on Netflix. 👍
hahaha. Of course you understand Chinese!! With a handle like “nrllee” I thought “Lee” could mean that you were one of the Asian Lees like Ang Lee, Taiwanese-American director, or the Irish/English Lees like Robert E Lee, confederate general of the American Civil War.
Oooh. THANKS for that explanation. Yes, there’s a hierarchy in the dorms. Friend #1 is the oldest so he’s the “Lao Da” that you mentioned. Then there’s Friend #2 who’s “Lao Er” then there’s Friend #3 who was supposed to be “Lao San.” But Mr. Best Boyfriend Xiao Nai didn’t want to be the runt of the family so he “dueled” online for that spot and won the title of Third Brother.
That must be exhausting having to remember all the titles for family members. But at the same time I like the idea because everything’s organized. For us, everybody’s a cousin or a sibling. The name only tells you the gender (lol but nowadays even THAT is confusing, too) and generation. But from this show, I’m seeing that Chinese has demarcations for gender, generation, birth order, and lineage (if you’re on maternal or paternal side), too! lol. It’s like a Dewey Decimal System of classifying families. lol.
Btw, is there a special name for the onlys? Like only daughter? And only son?
I went by the name of “Princess” but it really should have been “Juggernaut” when I was naughty or “Cordelia” when I was nice. (Cordelia is that goody two-shoes daughter of King Lear.)
No not really for only children. Not a distinct generic one that applies anyway. There’s a descriptor like ‘Dan Shen’ (literally meaning ‘lone born’) in front of ‘Er Zi’ (son) or ‘Nu Er’ (daughter). There are pet names of terms of endearment (like your references above Princess, Little Emperor, Precious) but they are more general in nature and do not slot you into the family hierarchy like those above. And btw, the term ‘Lao’ is very informal. So in a normal real family setting it is unlikely to be used…most would resort to a more respectable version ‘Da Ge’ (Eldest Older Brother) instead of ‘Lao Da’ and ‘Er Ge’ (Second Older Brother) where ‘Ge’ literally means Older Brother. And to confuse you even more, the youngest brother is ‘San Di’ (Third Young Brother). So similar to Korean ‘Hyung’ (older brother) and ‘DongSaeng’ (younger brother).
Chinese is similar to Korean in that the formal terms for ‘calling’ someone immediately slots you into your familial hierarchy so you ‘know your place’. The youngest is usually the worse off in the family hierarchy. The eldest son like all patriarchal society gets all the glory and attention.
PS as you astutely pointed out, a lot of this hierarchical name referencing is going the age of the dinosaur with the nuclear family revolution (and yes the one child policy in China). Language is living and morphs with the culture and societal changes. So if not used it will die. For example, these references have pretty much died with my children who have been born into a Western culture. The referencing stays if enforced by the person you are referencing. So my kids would call their paternal grandmother ‘NaiNai’ and their paternal Grandfather ‘YeYe’ whereas they refer to my Mother and Father as ‘PoPo’ and ‘GongGong’ respectively (that is because the grandparents insisted on it). My generation has pretty much done away with all those hierarchical terms and kept it simple by referencing Uncles and Aunties on both side just that…Uncle and Aunty (In English). That was plenty enough formality for us brought up in the West 😂.
Some families however are real sticklers to tradition and will uphold all these inbuilt hierarchical systems. And they will insist on these hierarchical terms being preserved. My mother’s side of the family is like that (I think it’s because they are from a higher socio-economic background) so I still refer to my mum’s younger Brothers with their proper familial titles of ‘Oldest Uncle but younger than my Mother’ (Da JiuJiu) and ‘Second Uncle but younger than my Mother’ (Er JiuJiu) because they insisted on it. And to add to the confusion, my paternal Grandfather (and Grandmother) were farmers (lower socio-economic background) so they kinda made up their own familial referencing for some reason. In reality I was supposed to call him ‘YeYe’ but he insisted I call him ‘GongGong’ instead from a young age (which placed him on the maternal side). 😂 I think he just got confused but it stuck with me and that was how I referenced him evermore.
I love it!! “Oldest uncle BUT younger than my mother” cracks me up. The “but” is very critical there. It means your mom is still supreme bec of the birth order. Thanks for sharing. 😀
Yes, it’s sad when you lose this aspect of your tradition and culture. But I don’t see how you can preserve it. It’s inevitable that the language will fall into disuse bec there simply isn’t any more second, third, of fourth brother or sister to call.
Yeah sad part of losing one’s culture and homogenising (assimilating) with the surrounding one. ☹️ Pros and cons.
When we do have those large family gatherings (usually weddings) when I was growing up (my dad’s side has 13 siblings 😳) and my mom’s 4, that’s when there’s a frantic brush up lesson on how we address so and so… 😆 Doesn’t happen nearly often enough for those hierarchical terms to stick…so there’s usually a side bar brush up session in the car before we get to the venue. Fun times. 😂
I love this family name for each member of the family 🙂 We actually have it too. But for most of the Uncles/Aunties that joins the family we only call them by Uncle or Aunty with their names. But for each sibling in a family, we have different names for them.
I noticed that Viki will have LoveO2O as well. Nice!
Oh Xiao Nai was always way ahead of everyone. I agree, whenever he says I got it, you can relax, everything will be taken care of. 🙂
I’ve kept getting emails about posts about this show so this weekend I finally found some time and watched about 15 episode. I’ve finished episode 20 last night and read through your posts until here. I’ve been having lots of fun reading about all the fangirling. I suppose at this point you can count me as one too.
Xiao Nai is amazing to the point of being unbelievable, I’ve laughed or watched with one eyebrow raised so many scenes. He’s so over the top most times. Like after he sees her after she was caught in the rain. He treats every little thing like it’s extremely serious. It’s both endearing and surreal. These dramas and the expectations they create of real life interactions.. :)))
WeiWei is a pretty cool character too.
Anyway, I enjoy a lot the lesson here on Chinese names for relatives, actually that’s why I decided to leave my first comment on this drama here. Lots of thanks to @nrllee <3
😂 Aren’t you glad @oli that you already have a special someone?!! I’d hate to be dating while watching this show. The poor guy will have nothing on Xiao Nai.
Another poster, @helen, also explained the word the girls use to call Xiao Nai. It’s “Da Shen” (or something like that). Netflix and KissAsian translate it as Lord and Master, respectively. But @helen said it could also be “god” as in campus god.
I guess we can use “da shen” in the same way we use “oppa.” 🤪
Wait! How long did it take you to finish watching 15 episodes? Did you binge on it too?
I did, yes, I binged on the first 15 episodes on Sunday :))) Then watched until episode 20 Monday and Tuesday after work because I wanted to read that post about the bite in episode 20. Not regretting it. I love WeiWei when she taking steps of her own towards more intimacy. Like the bite or when she pulled him closer so he won’t get rained on either.
And yes! I am glad I found my special someone before this. But my “Da Shen” can be quite intense too. Speaking of which, I was puzzled by everyone calling the dude Lord in this drama, what’s with that? And everyone acts like it’s super normal to call someone Lord/Master. Probably a cultural thing, I love it anyway.
dàshén =deity, whiz, expert, (Internet slang) guru