Twilight | Open Thread

A cohabitation between an awkward scriptwriter and a psychologist.
Notable Actors/Actresses

Ren Jia Lun: Qi Lian Shan

Angelababy: Liu Xia

Director: 

Li Ang

Chinese Title
暮色心約

Twilight Heart Promise 

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Contemporary Romance

Network: Tencent Video

Year: 2023
Episodes: 40

Jump to: Recs | Comments

Cast

Ren Jia Lun: Qi Lian Shan	Angelababy: Liu Xia
Sun Jia Yu: Jin Ran	Jiang Chao: Yang You Li
Li Jun Yi: Bai Mu Chen	Li Yi Ru: Yuan Yuan
Jia Jing Hui: Jia Zhen

Romcom/Romance Checklist

How much of the plot is angst/romance?

0 / 1 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 4 / 5

The ML: 

Cold–Lukewarm–Warm / Timid / Falls in Love First / Noble Idiot / CEO / General /

The FL: 

Bold / Cute / Cool & Independent / Falls in Love First / Better Than ML / Noble Idiot / 

Describe the Relationship (the tropes):

Bickering Start / Childhood Connection / Cohabitation / Contract Marriage or Fake Couple / Enemies to Lovers / Hidden Identity / School to Adulthood / Love Triangle / Married Couple (Real) / Secretly in Love (F/ML) / Star-Crossed Lovers / 

Relationship Progress (officially together; first (official) kiss; breakup*):

Ep 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33 / 34 / 35 / 36 / 37 / 38 / 39 / 40

(I wasn't paying attention to their first kiss. Don't think they had one)

# of CPs (including main CP):
0 / 1 / 2 / 3

Ending:

Happy / Sad / Open Happy / Open Sad / Bad

Reviews

Submit Your Review | Rating Guide

Five (5/5)

Four (4/5)

Three (3/5)

Two (2/5)

One (1/5)

Reviewer: cynlynn

Date: July 2023

!! Spoilers in review !!

This was supposed to be an optimistic 2. 

I was fascinated that Ren Jia Lun and Angelababy can convey romance. It's light romance though, appropriate for their relationship where she's mature and understanding, and he's shy and socially awkward. It's comfortable watching them talk over food and over work, about stories, and about movies. Even their house looks comfy. It’s an introvert, book-lover paradise. 

Acting is decent across the board. Angelababy is notorious for her awful acting. However, I’ve never experienced it firsthand, and here, she's fine. In fact, I'm impressed that I cannot see her celebrity image at all. The second CP (Ren Bin and Sun Jia Yu) always pull me into their dialogues (even though half the time I don't know why they're arguing. It's a testament to good acting?). 

Jia Zhen is despicable, What's more frustrating is our ML willingly becoming Jia Zhen's Welcome Mat. Qi Lian Shan let Jia Zhen walk all over him and he'd still call him "ge!" GET A SPINE WILL YOU.

As for our FL's world, it's crowded with psychos. Not a cell in me cares for that stalker ex-boss of hers. Unfortunately, he's her main villain. 

Since he's an author, there are stories within stories (i.e. Ren Jia Lun and Angelababy will act different characters). They're fine because I skip them all. It's like they weren't there at all and drama felt like 24 episodes. 

–– !! Ending Spoilers ahead !! ––

It is not fine that the ending is a nested story too!! Show, you mean I should have just skipped all of you? Qi Lian Shan (our pseudo-ML) is just a character in our real ML's script, which we learn in the last minute of the drama. And they wrote him 2 endings. Don't we all hate already it when shows can't commit on one ending? Oh and Drama thinks it's smart that the opening song already hinted the ending: "Main character is you and is me." This is where it's frustrating. The MLs are not the same. Whoever is at the end does not feel like my shy and sociallly awkward ML. You cannot just tell me they are the same, I have to feel and see this man's thought process.

Recommendations

Genre List:

Contemporary Romance Central

Books	Nerd ML	Awkward ML