April 22, 2024

Will Love in Spring | Short Review and Gallery

Will Love in Spring
A city girl flirts with an embalmer. 
Notable Actors/Actresses
Li Xian: Chen Mai Dong
Zhou Yu Tong: Zhuang Jie
Screenwriter
Chinese Title
春色寄情人
The Colour of Spring Sending Love
Year: 2024
Episodes: 21


Table of Contents
Just pics:

Cast


Li Xian:
Chen Mai Dong		 Zhou Yu Tong:
Zhuang Jie
Liu Lin:
Liao Tao
(FL's Mom)		 Fang Fang:
Grandma Chen
(ML's)
Wu Jun Ting:
Zhuang Yan		 Zhang Xi Wei:
He Niao Niao
Wan Peng:
Wang Xi Xia		 Zhang Chi:
Cui Ge

Niu Chao:
Ci Wei


Review

This is how good all romantic dramas should be. 🖐. Drama feels so natural and made “deep and thoughtful” so easy. 

Cyn-opsis

→ Li Xian brings another girl back to her hometown! (Well, almost?) 
→ A man, who hates farewell, works as an embalmer. (He's honestly way too serious about his job). 
→ A woman, who has to leave, flirts with this man who cannot leave. (His poor tantalized heart).
→ A morbid drama that's soothing, healing and filled with love. 

Romance

Why does it seem so hard for Cdramas to cast the right people for insane chemistry like this? 

But damn. The major gripe I have with this show is that on more occasions than one, the FL gets on my nerves for the things she does. Their chemistry was just so good that I'm heart-over-mind.

There's two train of thoughts for the ending: 
  1. Accepting that Chen Mai Dong loves Zhuang Jie for who she is – all of who she is. 
  2. Rejecting Zhuang Jie for Chen Mai Dong. Chen Mai Dong deserves better. 
I'm more of a 1. 

Episode Notes

I'm just lifting my comments (from disqus) so I don't have to repeat myself. 

Women.
Show did really well understanding women in different walks of life without making a big deal out of it: Our kid, Niao Niao's powerful line “Even if we were both 12, father-less, you’re still not me, [you cannot diminish my feelings]”; FL’s mom, all of her, all the time; FL’s mom’s friend too, the one who wants her daughter to have a child but just gave up and focused on her own life instead; Wang Xi Xia as the independent career woman with active desires for a simple married life; the grandmas 🥺 No one is stereotypical.

Ending Conflict.
The final conflict stems from the MCs problems: 
  • ML doesn't know how to hold on to his loved ones even if they're right in front of him (e.g. the time when he walked away from his mom in hs, the farewell that he missed with FL in hs)
  • FL knows how to love everyone, but not herself (e.g. the experience with her uni bf traumatized her and that's why she acts all tough and flirty). Revised: FL hasn't achieved the basic sense of security to move on to the next stage: to love properly.  
The ending resolution: 
  • FL having that confidence that she can be loved and pursue her dreams anywhere, regardless of the city. 
  • ML having that confidence to love someone who may not be physically with him, but knows that she won't leave him. 
The final conflict between them really should have been solved by her telling him before it's too late. If she did, CMD would not have held her back, especially not when there were flashbacks of her telling him his dream already (improve medical care). She doesn't realize how much he loves her already. 


The Meaning of Shanghai in Ep16+
I quite like the unsaid attachments to Shanghai. I felt that Shanghai gave Zhuang Jie a false sense of security – a place where her shame, her low self-esteem can be hidden. She wasn't going to show her flaws to anyone. 

Then she got Chen-Mai-Donged.

It's Chen Mai Dong's unconditional love that unearthed her ugly, low sense of self-esteem (i.e. the ep she accused him of forcing her), but he also gave her courage to dissociate from "Shanghai". He enabled her to feel that she could be secure anywhere.

FL's Mom in Ep15.
In Ep15, Mom and Daughter have more issues for themselves than for each other. (I’m not sure mom ever came out of her husbands’ death. She only silently suffered so far.). The argument they had comes from the mom's love. *Groans* I know. 
  • When there’s a daughter who’s (close to) 30, a lot of (Chinese) moms are grateful for anyone who takes her. But this Mom is picky for her daughter (bc of CMD’s overbearing grandma, and career with the dead when their family is already “cursed”).
  • On top of ZJ"s age, there’s her disability. I think it's touching that the Mom is still so picky. She doesn’t want her daughter to compromise just because she’s someone without a second leg.
  • Zhuang Jie is her precious daughter regardless of her age and regardless of her physicality. She doesn’t deserve any less than anyone.
It's still totally unfair though that Mom took it out on Zhuang Jie, and Zhuang Jie took it out on Chen Mai Dong.


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Childhood Connection

The teenagers are so different from the adults (even if they were supposed to change over time). But that's okay. Their scenes were lovely and rebellious. I wished there was more to reveal about the childhood though. 

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Meddling Grandma

I love the meddling-grandparent-tropes in all of Li Xian's dramas (Go Go Squid!, Meet Yourself). His FLs always get along better with them than he ever does. ("You have no right to sleep!") 

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Li Xian with children melts my heart too. 



Family

Other than Ji San, I'm in awe that Zhou Yu Tong has chemistry with all her family members, plus the unofficial twin sister: Wang Xi Xia (Wan Peng). 

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The siblings:

With Xi Xia, the unofficial daughter/sister:

With mom:
All the back-hugs~

With dad:
They're flying dad's kites :')


With Vacuum Cleaner:
Cute Niao Niao vacuums all the negativity.


With Ji San!
We will always remember him (...her?).

Friendship

Zhuang Jie and Wang Xi Xia have chemistry too. Wang Xi Xia is the voice of reason and an angel who does her best for everyone around her. She deserves the best. When she tells Zhuang Jie that she's dating, they both teared up, and I thought that reaction was brilliant. 

The grandmas have a beautiful friendship too <3. 


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<3


2nd Couple

East-Meets-West couple <3. (Cui Ge is in Traditional Chinese Medicine ("Eastern"). Xi Xia works with Western Medicine. Her name is also West (Xi 西)).

Zhang Chi had a stellar performance in There Will Be Ample Time, and he does it again. Guy is effortlessly hilarious. I never figured out why Cui Ge needs to bring his gang members (everywhere) again?


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Xi Xia feeling her angry-acupuncture point (Ep13)
She's wearing the ring!


More Stop and Stare Scenes

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Kisses

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Counting to 7 for another kiss


Better Than Kisses

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The most aggressive "ah"

Cold?
(Warm!!!)

Lipbalm-ing


Recommendations


"Iconic" "Similar" Random
Go Go Squid! Fake It Till You Make It Make a Wish


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