Hidden Love

Happy Feel Good with Extra Sweetness

This is such a happy feel good drama that gave me the same vibes as Hometown Cha Cha Cha. It’s just a bit more sweet with teenage & college vibes instead of the 30yo adult plot line from Hometown.
The first few episodes covers a young teenager’s first crush on an older boy. Then it depicts a young heartbreak due to a misunderstanding. And finally venturing into adulthood and falling in love. Real love. Sang Zi fell first but Duan Jia Xu fell harder. The drama moves fast and doesn’t have any unnecessary filler scenes. It also follows very closely with the popular Chinese novel with few changes. There are no side plots. Love triangles or breakups.
I’m gonna miss this drama after I stop watching it on repeat. I’m def gonna rewatch it on Netflix so it’ll get some ratings there as well. I love ZLS and CZY!!! What great chemistry and beautiful people inside and out. I hope this drama rockets CZY’s career!!!

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Must-watch summer drama with a unique storyline, oozing with sweetness and filled with emotions

If you are looking for a cute, sweet, and funny romance drama with great acting, this is a must-watch!
(scroll to the bottom for the drama filming incident backstory)

Hidden Love is my favourite school & life romance drama this year, with a familiar type of storyline plus a slightly different twist from the usual. The story revolves around the main characters and how they grow individually to eventually become people suitable and good for each other.

The first thing I loved about this drama was how it did away with the usual sad-life female lead and a rich-with-everything male lead. This drama kind of flipped the roles around but both characters remained on equal grounds and treated each other with respect, with both of them equal grounds throughout.

Next, character growth was great in this drama. I absolutely appreciated how they portrayed Sang Zhi, from when she was young till she grew into a fully grown adult. If filmed badly, it could easily be sending the wrong message about childhood crushes and having underage relationships. However, the Hidden Love crew did fantastic by showing how Sang Zhi saw Jia Xu as a really nice brother and wished for him to be her brother instead, resolving any possible mislead. Same for how Jia Xu was portrayed, as they showed how he only treated her as a young kid until she was in university to prevent misleads. Props to the crew!

Lastly, the actors were amazing. Every sweet scene had me screaming, and every tearful scene made me sacrifice tissues. The actors made the scenes believable, and I could feel the happiness and sadness along with them through the screen. It was so heartening to see how all characters played their role seriously, working together to make the scenes relatable, no matter funny or emotionally heavy.

This summer, Hidden Love brought me lots of happiness and laughter in a short span of less than 3 weeks. As mentioned, there were tears involved as well, but it was all worth it. Although this might seem like a pure romance drama, I deeply appreciate the realistic parts of the drama to balance everything out. Jia Xu's character taught us how hard work can change things, even when your whole world looks like it's collapsing, and days will get better eventually. Sang Zhi showed us how we have to grow and mature as we age, to become our better selves, so that we can care for the people around us who matter.

Bonus; the OSTs were all so good, one of my favourite drama OST list by far.

Just to share, the original director of Hidden Love actually left the crew before shortly before filming started, and the drama faced problems with casting and wardrobe - they only had outfits to last for 2 days.
Lu Si (female lead), invited actors she knew (previous drama partners & friends) to take up the characters appropriately. Also, she went around looking for brands to sponsor outfits for the other characters and helped with their wardrobe styling as well. Lastly, Lu Si even personally designed Sang Zhi's character further by choosing accessories and props that fit the character well. Without all these efforts, the drama could have been unable to push through.

10/10 for the actors' efforts in scenes, 10/10 for OSTs, and 10/10 in my heart, there was nothing in the plot I wanted to deduct points for, so Hidden Love is 10/10 in all!

See you next time, peach

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I wish I can rate 11 or higher ?

If you have experienced romantic crash to older guy in your school days, you can relate to FL in this drama. The emotion and feeling of FL are so well described and performed by Lusi. And the chemistry between ML and FL were phenomenal and they made this drama much more fun and meaningful. At the same time, screenwriter, director, all of supporting performers and staff are amazing to complete this perfect love story. Especial actor who played older brother of FL, he was amazing.

Without any doubt, this drama will attract many viewers around the world. It is rated as TV-G in USA Netflix, so young adults can also enjoy it.

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I have no clue how I am supposed to get over this !

I usually do not watch Chinese drama much. But after watching some clips here and there of the first 2 episodes, this drama had my attention. I was hooked from the very first episode of it.
It is different from any typical drama in my opinion. No toxic storyline, nothing over bearing - just a simple and wholesome story full of green flags. Every relation in the drama is so pure, understanding and refreshing.
The chemistry between the two leads is amazing and truly it made my heart beat faster every single time! Even the friends of both the leads are so supporting and caring towards each other, no jealousy, no competition, no negativity, nothing toxic.
I am in love with this drama, the plotline, the characters, the music - everything ! I have already started re-watching it from the start the very next day I finished it for the first time. Every time it feels like I am watching HIDDEN LOVE for the first time. Every second of the drama is worthy of appreciation. Every little detail is commendable.
Even after finishing it, I still have butterflies in my stomach and my heart feels full.
I have no clue how I am supposed to get over such an amazing, heartwarming, swoon worthy drama.

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Perfection definition of „She fell first, he fell harder“…

After watching hundreds of dramas, I can’t believe I’m writing my first ever review here.
I’ve watched quite a lot of great dramas, so I’m surprised at my lazy self, that I actually took the time to write this and summarize my thoughts.



You know the feeling when you want to describe something and try to convey your thoughts and feelings into words, but no words can actually truly express it right? Yes, that’s how I feel right now. That’s how much I loved this drama.



It might sound exaggerated but every time I finish a drama that I feel so content and happy about, I start to feel immense gratitude for things I usually take for granted. Be it the eyesight I have, to be able to watch and read the subtitles or the hearing that I have to be able to listen to voices and music. I’m so happy to live in a country where I can peacefully watch dramas and enjoy myself. Sounds weird, but that’s how I feel.



Hidden Love was an absolute beautiful and heartwarming drama. One of the best, if not THE best ROMANCE drama I’ve seen. I’m so happy we get to see so many healthy couples in dramas recently. I’m really impressed by Chinese dramas these days. After „Meet Yourself“, I’m happy to rate another lovely Chinese drama 10 stars this year.



I’ve watched great dramas over the years and I can tell you. This drama is PERFECTION. I’ve never felt bored for even a second. This is how romance is done right. I absolutely adored this couple. They made me feel whole lot of butterflies and brought me to tears as if I’m the one in the relationship. Their acting was so incredibbly natural and authentic. It felt so real! I will miss them so much!

I also loved Sang Zhi’s relationship with her brother Sang Yan. It was so fun to watch them quarrel and be ordinary siblings.



I will keep myself short, because I could ramble on for too long. I’m happy to have watched this drama. And I look forward to rewatch it in the future. 

Really thankful for all the people who put this awesome drama together and made it the gem it is. 



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ngl hated it

So cliche. So textbook. and so overdone.

This plot from the beginning was horrible. I hate cliche plots. Give me something unique???

Not only that, the acting. THE. ACTING. I wanted to die. Don't get me wrong, ZLS is wonderful. However, I don't quite understand the hype. Her acting... is only okay. And I think it's because she quite literally sucks at these cutesy girl next door roles. It's way beyond cringe (which is weird because all she needs to do is be herself and it'd be great). Her more powerful and independent roles is where she really shines. This, was just not it.

On top of that..... just not a huge fan of CZY. hes.... just okay I guess....

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Was not totally for me

I shouldn’t have read so many reviews like I did before finally watching this. My expectations were seriously so high but I ended up not really seeing what majority of the people who have watched this were raving about so I guess I am in the minority with this one.
This was a very cute fluff albeit with no bite. I like me some romcom with fluff but I need it to have bite in it and this one didn’t for me, so I struggled to finish this. It took me almost 3weeks to finally finish this drama even with employing the fast forward button a bit.
I did enjoy Sang Yan a lot when he was onscreen. Shame he didn’t have more screen time. The proposal switch out was cute and different, I am not so sure about parents attending a proposal but to each their own.
This is not something I would rewatch but if you are a fan of both leads as I am plus the fact that majority of people love this drama so much then go ahead and enjoy the gooey sweetness.

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underwhelming romance development

I love both Zhao Lusi and Chen Zheyuan... also i am an absolute fan of fluffy love story but to be honest they would both have better chemistry if it was for a different drama. Saying that this show is overrated does not mean it sucks it just doesn't justify for the high ratings in my opinion (FYI my review is also just based on the drama not the novel).

Throughout the show I have a few ???? moments.

(1) I didn't liked how the FL is portrayed in the show.
The show started with FL when she was about 14 years old and she fell in love with ML who was 19 years. BUT the child actress does not look like 14 but 8-10. it looks strange and cringy. Why couldn't they cast a young girl that look more like her 14/15 (or atleast give ML a younger boy actor too).
Also, when FL grows up, she still speaks like a kid in a kiddy tone, the way she behaves is as though she is like 12?

(2) The romance
Throughout the show, their 5 years age gap is heavily emphasized all the time.. is it really such a big deal. I have watched so many drama with big age gaps but i didn't know 5 years is a lot to be a problem. They portray the male lead to be OLD like he is just 24?
I also didn't liked the development from bro/sis to lovers. ML's pov of how he fell in love was pretty sudden to me. In the show, there weren't any progress in how he fell in love but more like a one time and boom "i gonna woo you" the next day. Even ML confession didn't felt wow.

I guess u can dissect this drama into
1st part: FL's pov, her falling in love
2nd part: FL grew up (aka. went university) and met ML again
3rd part: ML fell in love and happy ending

Despite all these, the romance is quite sweet to watch after they got together.. but it's really not my cup of tea. I wouldn't rewatch this.

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A Rom-Com That Can Make Anyone's Heart Skip

Hello everyone!! I know I am VERY late to this show and all it's glory, hence why likely not many people will end up reading this review, but I must write it anyway---even though I'm not 100% done this show myself (which is something I seldom ever do for my reviews). I will preface this review by saying I don't usually watch C Dramas, the only other Chinese show I have seen is The Untamed, which is of course a very different genre from this one. Nonetheless, I stumbled across this show on Netflix and can't wait to give you my review!!

Story: 10/10
Now, I will preface this by saying I have not yet read the English translation of the original novel, but I am aware there are certain differences. Such as in the novel, Duan Jiaxu is 7 years Shang Zhi's elder, but in the show, he is only 5 years older than her. I usually steer away from age gaps in shows and books personally, ESPECIALLY when the ML and FL meet when one is a minor. However, this show does an incredible job of showing both characters, their personalities, and how their dynamic changes over time. The ML, Duan Jiaxu, treats the FL (Shang Zhi) as nothing more than a younger sister for the first several years of their relationship and then slowly he begins to see her as a woman when they meet again.

Although the age gap could slow down any other rom-com show, we never lose any of the chemistry from start to end. The writers do an incredible job of selling the story to us through the FL's innocent, fluttering heart. Even as an adult watching this show, I feel teleported back into my own middle school and high school days as we watch them interact in a heartfelt way. The writers also do an excellent job of showing the FL's innocence without making her unintelligent or unaware of others' feelings, and as you watch, you start to root for her and the ML. Both the ML and FL are kind and honest, and are willing to communicate their concerns to one another. It's very refreshing to watch--no unnecessary miscommunications!

In the second half of the show, when both are now adults, that fluttering feeling only gets stronger for the audience. Only now, this fluttering is accompanied by more adult-like issues. The show shifts to a slightly more "grown up" vibe effortlessly, and we start to see some problems in the ML and FL's lives, how they cope like adults, and how they support one another. It's incredible how almost all of the scenes in this show have just the ML and the FL, but we never get bored as the story is always pushing forward and we can see slow changes in both leads' personalities for the better.

The story itself is a simple brother's best friend situation, but the emotionally mature characters and sweet romance make you feel like you're teleported into their world--it makes you feel like a love like that is waiting for you around the corner! So heartwarming.

Acting/Cast: 10/10
I absolutely love all of the actors in this show despite it being my first time seeing them. Each actor knows their role very well, and conveys emotions in a way that makes you feel like you're truly watching a character be brought to life. One thing I have noticed is almost the entire cast is incredible at micro-expressions, whether it's a smile fading slowly or showing worry with a shift in their gaze. This is especially true for the ML and FL, who are both so good at showing their characters' love and concern for one another. I'd also like to point out the actor who plays the FL's older brother. He makes me laugh every time he comes on screen, and you feel like you're watching a brother bicker with his sister every time, but he does a great job in serious scenes as well. Seeing this quality of acting makes me wonder what I've been doing not watching C Dramas!

Music: 9/10
I'm not really a big OST person, but I truly enjoyed this show's OST. I particularly like the one song which goes "moonlight shines in your eyes", it makes my head beat fast whenever it plays during a romantic moment between the leads. How lovely!!

Rewatch Value: 10/10
This show is incredibly healing. You get lots of comedy and romance, and although there is a reasonable amount of sadness and problems, you don't feel weighed down by it. The writers have done an excellent but incredibly difficult job: making a show that is romantic and fluffy without making it feel plotless or like you can't enjoy the romance because of the heaviness of the problems. I am not all the way done this show yet, but I already know I will be rewatching it in years to come. We all need some rest and peace sometimes, and this show does that for me.

Overall: 10/10!

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Use of aesthetics to cover a lacking story

Honestly, I was not very keen to watch this drama but given the ratings & hype I decided to give it a try. Visually the drama is very pleasing. I liked the first half where it told a story of a young girl having one sided crush on an elder guy who happens to be her brother's best friend. It reminded me of my childhood when I had a similar type of crush. There were scenes which was so relatable such as when she found his name spelling like the excitement was so real! I suddenly recalled those moments when I was 19-20 y.o and my entire day used to be blooming just because I found my crush's info- his full name or fb profile. So yeah it felt so so like a normal crush story.

The second half however was meh and i ff/skipped a lot. There were two reasons for that:

A. The storyline was bland. There was nothing going on plot wise. The leads just met in different clothes & different ambience with flashbacks which was shown like 15 mins ago. Their conversations were like that of a constipated person. The entire line of side characters were made just to make the relationship arc shine which felt redundant. They wasted resources on actors which had no purpose and could have been done by one actor alone. The scope was so limited.

B. The infantilizing of the FL was way worse compared to other dramas. ML attended her PTM, buy pads for her, changed her shoes, cooks and clean for her, picks her from office basically treat her like a 5 yr old. FL parents controlled her too much, yeah one can say this is common in Asian families but that makes you a kid and not a person suitable for romance drama. This portrayal of women is not new in dramaland and has been a constant hit amongst audience so I won't waste my energy on saying like please give us a semi-independent FL or least someone with half a dime of brain, so i'll let it go.

My recommendation- go for a mature plot , there are plenty ones out there. This is not worth it no matter how good looking the cast is and how aesthetically good the production.

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