The thread is open.
You must know that I’ve always liked this actor, Li Xian, ever since “Go Go Squid.” I also liked his character in “Meet Yourself.” “Meet Yourself” was a slow-burn drama which went very well with the rustic setting of the story. In my opinion, the countryside could have been designated as the third leading character in the drama. Lol.
Wait a second….@Fern, did you see the kiss?
Whoa. Is this cdrama for General or Mature Audience? I’m not going to upload all the gifs in case there are unsupervised minors lurking on this thread. (What are you doing here, anyway? Isn’t finals week or something? Go study and make your parents proud!)
Enjoy the show.
Kalispera @Packmule3 and thank you for the thread! I do hope you are okay. We are currently in Holy Week.
I am also watching this, but I am far behind the other gals. I am currently in Episode 4! 😊
This kiss does not end at all as expected for any of the characters or the audience. Taking a page from growing beautiful -I’m being cryptic.
Thank you @pm3! I’m loving this cdrama. I kept saying I learn some new job while watching cdramas and I like the reverence of the embalmer character (ML) and the fighting and creative spirit of the FL. The series is “bingable” and I like being in their world.
First kiss (train Kiss) in ep 6! I have not reached the 🔥 GIF kiss that @PM3 posted above. Will share more later.
Annyeong –
Will be watching this for sure…
Oooh lala sexy sexy.
😘
Thank you, @packmule3. I think it’s 12 rated, so although there are kisses, there’s nothing explicit. I think that’s what the 12 in a little box means on the Viki listing below:
“Will Love in Spring9.7(973) 2024 12 ”
The cinematography is rather different for a C-drama. There’s a lot of (I have no technical vocab) slurred movement in certain scenes to add to the intensity of the moment. Some flashbacks are in black and white. My only complaint about the score is that sometimes the orchestral background music is too instructive, like patronising or preachy, to tell the viewers how to feel, when no music at all might be more effective. Still it’s not as bad as some dramas. The songs, however, are really good and unique and the sets are very good. The cast was VERY well chosen imo.
EPISODE 3
@Fern and Everyone,
Having watched 3 episodes, I can understand what @Fern means. Unlike the cdramas I’ve watched, this one does not give out spoilers in the opening and ending credits. In fact, it starts of with a cold open and it’s only some minutes into the episode before we get the opening credits.
The ending too does not show us what will happen in the future. Of course we know that with a title like Will Love in Spring, the couple will get together, but although there’s no surprise in the end really, there may be surprises in how our OTP get there.
MILD SPOILER
MILD SPOILER
Another thing: a plot point that distinguishes this romance from cdrama romances… from the get go, the boy’s elder is in favour of the girl who has likely been left on the shelf for obvious reasons. So we will NOT have a romance where the conflict comes from gaining acceptance from the boy’s elders. As for the girl’s parents… that remains to be seen.
Currently the conflict comes from the ML himself, but that may change swiftly since he has come to know that he’s been a crush of the FL. And LOL their great ‘scandal’ in school was merely that he agreed to be a ‘tree’ after she suggested him for that role to the teacher.
I like the idea of these 2 rigid trees coming around to bending and giving each other some nice shade. 🤭😋😝😎🥰
@GB I am almost finished this drama. I think there are four more episodes to go. It actually goes quite quickly because the episodes are relatively short and there are only twenty one episodes.
I may be left wanting more.
Your thoughts are right on.
mild spoiler
There is also a significant amount of internal conflict for her as well which plays out later.
UP TO EPISODE 5
SPOILERS
So, the question that is automatically raised is why there is so much aloofness and resistance from Chen Mai Dong, when he obviously was not indifferent towards Zhuang Jie.
Likely reason 1: He had been abandoned by his parents, fought off mean kids who made remarks about them and had chosen not to befriend anyone because he believed that sooner or later, people would leave.
Likely reason 2: As a teenager, he may have made assumptions that people would not like him because he had his Granny’s hot temper and was prone to fighting when provoked. As an adult, he assumed that no one would want to come close to him because of the stigma of working with the dead.
His behaviour was defensive, to avoid the pain of losing people who became dear to him, he ensured that the people who would become most dear to him should not be encouraged to come near. In fact he got so used to pushing others away that he may not have realised how nasty he had become, especially in front of ZJ. He chose the lonely route to avoid the pain of being abandoned again.
In Episode 5, the question that CMD and ZJ both asked… did they treat anyone else the way they were so at odds with each other made it clear that their relationship was particular or special. She was the most warm and cloying with him to offset his aloofness and he was more unwelcoming and repugnant towards her than towards others.
It took ZJ to shift from being friendly to being angry to wake CMD up to that fact that he was going to lose her again. And also, to the fact that he deserved it for being so rude.
It took so much to get him to start talking more about himself before he could speak and laugh freely. And ZJ had to initiate being closer at every step to break through the barriers he had set up.
It was lovely to see how ZJ accepted everything about him and how both she and Granny eroded those walls he’d built before she left Nanping.
Granny’s advice: “Only kids who cry get candies (take the initiative to get her attention, silly!) Those who leave fear they may remain too long. (ZJ did have a job to get back to and staying on was not bringing CMD any closer to ZJ anyway, so she might as well leave). This gets CMD thinking.
He finally makes the moves in line with ‘courtship’. He goes to see ZJ off without admitting it openly. He shows his concern over her getting her luggage down later. ZJ knows it at once that he’s finally caved but he’d be too proud to take the risk of being rejected. She chose to take the last steps to confirm the romantic tension that had been there between them all along.
Pretty nice kisses and in front of so many people!
Thank you for your thoughts, @Growing Beautifully. Dong uses his job as an excuse to not get close to people now. We hear from his grandmother that he had a girlfriend, but she left him for another, so he’s ‘gun-shy’, possibly still stung by her leaving him.
He is very intuitive about outsiders, but less so about ZJ. ZJ likes to rock his boat. He has a hard time equating her extroverted, flirty personality with the girl he knew in secondary school. He tells his grandmother that ZJ is ‘noisy’ like her. The attraction and tension between them was certainly already there 12 years earlier and they are now repeatedly thrown together. As @monmor indicates, they both have problems.
I have watched all episodes through 18. Viki releases one a day now, so I may be spoiler-proofed. There are some continuity problems, but it may be simply that the translation is less complete than the real audio.
@Fern, thanks for the reminder… yes CDM is also ‘traumatised’ by the gf who left him and married someone else. It might be an interesting tidbit to know if ex-gf was fed up with CMD for refusing to quit his job or because he was slow to make the right moves or for other reasons. They remained politely on ‘wedding invitation’ and ‘wedding gift giving’ terms.
ZJ as a teen might have been quite the extrovert but didn’t show it after her move to a new school and the loss of her father. She might also be compensating as an adult because she’s determined to do super well in whatever she has put her mind to, to prove her abilities despite her disability.
One of the things I like about this show is that they do not resort to some standard childhood or relationship trauma to explain the difficulties the 2 characters have. Their conflicts are more internal.
@fern I am curious about the continuity problems you observed. I guess we could wait until others have caught up or just indicate spoilers before discussing it. I have also Completed all of the episodes so far on vicki.
I don’t mean to say that they are not affected by what has happened in their lives. What we see though is how each of them perceives him/herself and the other in light of their past trauma.
I have completed watching all episodes today! The last 2 had their English translation.
Spoiler kinda Alert: *****
@GB – you have noted the 2 rigid trees, I especially like the laughter they shared by looking stupid in their costumes! This will be a core memory for CMD and will be featured in future episodes.
There is a deeper story on the ex-gf situation.
********
I love the overall story, cast and the locations. It mirrors realistic situations on being differently abled and how it affects dating, career, and coping; discrimination, generation gap, staying local vs city life. And the kisses were great! 🔥
But why do they call the full names every time, especially Chen Maidong? 😁
Also a few familiar faces which means I’ve been watching too much cdrama lately. The FL I’ve watched with Leo Wu in Nothing But You. She had a fantastic BFF similar to this show as well! Girls are great! Her sister Niaoniao in the show was the young Zhao Lu Xi in Hidden Love. Young CMD actor was also in Nothing But You.
@Janey, 😘 thanks for the info and for assuring me that I was wondering and guessing along the right lines. I’m going to binge the next 5-10 episodes this weekend!!! 😆😋🧐🥸😏🫣🫢
@GB The image of them as trees Becomes Symbolic of their relationship, As you have expressed.
@janey I enjoyed your above post and Having made some of the same observations,agree with your comments.
OMY-GYAD!!!!
WLIS has an OPEN THREAD!! YAY
I am chuckling as I see all the guessing and predicting going on (tee hee).
Ya’ll be quite surprised at how it’s beaten usual Romance drama ‘tropes’ SO fabulously.
(Just like in L&P) LOL (These two are both in my 11/10 category
Have watched – rewatched ALSO, even as the Drama was airing, during the time I had to wait for the 2 episode DROPS – ALL 21 episodes.
The last three out of UGLY GREED with machine translated RAW upload on Kisskh (monkey palm face).
I will do a fresh ENTIRE show rewatch once Ep 21 drops on VIKI with proper subs
Ohh the thread is finally here. I came to see if someone replied to my message when I posted about the show. I’m glad the people here like it. I really liked it overall, yes there were some moments which could’ve been avoided during the last episodes but in the greater scheme of things I didn’t mind them as much as I liked the show.
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