I want to share something with you all. So in China any film project needs to get approved by the government before filming is allowed to begin (less alone approved for airing). Depending upon whether the production team wants the film/drama to air only via online platforms or also through traditional digital television broadcasting networks the standards and rules the film will be held to will vary. Getting approval to air in both tv and online platforms (known as a shang shing (上星) drama) is much harder than getting approved to air solely online (aka as a web drama) as the standards are way more strict and there are a lot of restrictions.
For example JOL1 was aiming to air as a “shang shing” drama so that is why the scene of him discovering what was inside his mom’s box was partially cut out and you couldn’t see most of the contents. Yet despite cutting out that pivotal scene and many other ones JOL1 still didnt get approval as a shang shing drama and so ended up airing as a web drama.
The good news is that despite all this JOL1 was a big success. I share all this because last month, it was confirmed that JOL 2 and JOL3’s application to start production was approved and this time they applied for approval as a web drama and NOT as a shang shing drama so there are fewer restrictions the drama is held to. Hopefully this means there will be far fewer scenes...especially important ones like the opening of mom’s box that will be edited out.
Also although the application submitted for JOL2 and JOL3 was for 30 episodes each season (60 episodes total) it doesn’t mean the final drama episode count will be 60 episodes for both seasons as one can always get approved for more. Like JOL1 initial application submission was for 32 episodes but in the end 46 episodes aired.