Love Song in Winter | Open Thread

A doctor is reunited with her police boyfriend but her friends keep dying.

Notable Actors/Actresses

Huang Jing Yu: Jiang Cheng Yi

Sun Qian: Lu Yan

Director

Yu Zhong Zhong

Chinese Title

冬至

Winter Solstice

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense, Contemporary Romance

Network: iQIYI

Year: 2024
Episodes: 36

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Cast

Huang Jing Yu: Jiang Cheng Yi	Sun Qian: Lu Yan
Wang Tian Chen: Wen Peng	He Hong Shan: Deng Man
Xiao Kai Zhong: Yu Bo Feng	Shi Shi: Yu Zheng
Guan Zi Jing: Zhong Wen Xuan	Li Jia Qi: Tang Jie

Screencaps

He proposes.

She accepts.

He's asking for her ID to go to a hotel (;

She confesses!

And confesses!

And score!

The pinkies ~

They actually kiss quite a bit

His big smile :D

And here is the prettiest smile from the best actor.

Romcom/Romance Checklist

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How much of the plot is angst/romance?

0 / 1.9 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

The ML:

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

The FL:

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

Describe the Relationship (the tropes):

Annoying Love (F/M) Rivals +++ / Bickering Start / Childhood Connection / Cohabitation / Contract Marriage or Fake Couple / Enemies to Lovers / Hidden Identity / Harem / Love Triangle / Married Couple (Real) / Rebirth / Secretly in Love (F/ML) / School to Adulthood / 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

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

Ending: 

Happy / Sad / Open Happy / Open Sad / Bad / Rushed+++

Reviews

Submit Your Review | Rating Guide

Five (5/5)

Four (4/5)

Three (3/5)

Two (2/5)

One (1/5)

Reviewer: cynlynn

Hearts: ♥

Date: January 2025

I’m honoured to share that I’ve had the miserable fortune of happily watching every single one of Huang Jing Yu hetero romances. Every single one! I know it’s mediocre entertainment, but I am entertained nonetheless. I’m not even this stupidly loyal to my biases. Don’t worry about saving me. I’m a lost cause and will willingly sip his poison again. There’s something about his not-so-good-looking-face smiling with his uneven teeth because of love.

The romantic flashbacks were the drama’s heartbeat. I love her bold confession and determination. I love his sturdiness, unwavering love. Shame the romance beyond the flashbacks barely showed up!!

Romantic thrillers in cdramaland are always reliable – at sucking. This lives up to every bit of that standard. And actually this genre’s bar is so low, you’re not going to find much that is better than this, and you’ll definitely find heaps worse than this. With these expectations, I find that Love Song manages to hover just above the abyss. I actually found parts of this palatable, particularly the criminal’s performance. He was disturbingly good. But he was like fine wine served in a styrofoam cup. Sir, your talents are a bit wasted in this bargain-bin thriller.

Now how do I wrap this up positively because I didn’t hate my fthriller watch. Aim low, and cruise through. It's the better Huang Jing Yu romance-thriller. I can promise you.

[Note on my rating: I’m not as vehement about my 1s for 2024. This year, I’ve finished a handful of average ones and less terrible dramas, and so I’m just spacing out the lower-averages and better-averages (between 0.1s – 2.5) vs pretty decent averages (~3s).]

Remarks

[Drama Info]

• Yu Zhong Zhong is a romcom director:  Love Is Sweet, DT. Appledog's Time, Follow Your Heart, Everyone Loves Me, My Unicorn Girl, Love Crossed, and many more.
• Aired the day before Winter Solstice (Dec 20, 2024).

[Ending] Happy. 

Recommendations

Genre List:

Contemporary Romance Central / Work/Life/Family ≥ Romance

Doctor FL	2nd Chance	SWAT ML