AnthideAgiusMuscat

I will never cease to be surprised how the same images & dialogue can be understood in diametrically different ways. An online reviewer who is Chinese but resides in Canada & is unfailing highly critical of practically every single new CDrama release, has gone as far as to say that the "obscene" narrative of The Early Spring makes her want to vomit. Objectively speaking the narrative of The Early Spring would qualify as age 18+ content but is not obscene by any stretch of the imagination.

Granted the intimacy scenes between Luca & Flora are the most explicit I personally have come across in a mainstream Chinese series but then only in Chinese film footage have I seen actors fake kisses (clearly just pressing closed lips against that of those of their
partner) the way Chinese actors most visibly do. In the film rendering of The Early Spring, we got visuals of love bits (in the web novel, condoms were referred to a couple of times). Just little hints of what real life sexual human activities entail or are, in China & elsewhere. Some scenes are indeed sexually explicit but none can be labelled pornographic.

The Chinese censors rightly green stamped an adaption of a gritty web novel which could have been written by an American author rather than a Chinese one with all the action taking place in New York or Dallas. The web novel was written post the start of the MeToo movement & included a succession of incidents where male senior staff sexually harassed & blackmailed their female subordinates. The resolution of these particular happenings with the perpetuators being held legally accountable & the victims being given due compensation, was an integral part of the film version and the intended message could not be clearer.

The Early Spring web novel did not masquerade as the latest literary masterpiece and contrary to what a blogger/reviewer asserts elsewhere on the internet, it is obvious that the film version was crafted for vision by an adult audience who would not mistake the approximate depiction of the ethos within a large corporate office for a faithfully promo aimed at school graduates with the intention of enticing them to join a particular work industry whilst masking its unhealthy stressful & competitive vibe. The deceptively glamorous workplace ambience is just window dressing for the interactions of the various characters, nothing more.

How can an apparently highly educated 40+ year old woman who claims to have had past direct exposure to the intricacies of the film production process can misunderstand visual metaphors to the extent that she quite obviously has, is one of life's mysteries.

To my mind matters are not so neatly clear cut. Luca is not the arrogant know-it-all who feathered his own nest at the expense of his helpless victim.

Flora believed herself to be savvy enough to tangle with sophisticated Luca & be party to a little rule breaking with very interesting side benefits. There was no arm twisting between the two. Both miscalculated the entity & extent of the risks they were taking. To Luca's credit when things went pear shaped, he struck a bargain with HR: he leaves China for the USA office; Flora keeps her job without any black marks on official her job records.

The true substance of the relationship between Luca & Flora is all in the detail of how & why both of them opted to move in one direction rather than in any of the others also open to them at any point during those six years in Beijing.

If there is one useful thing to remember after following the narrative of The Early Spring, from beginning to end, whether it is the web novel version or the film adaption, is that no person, male or female, should be put on a pedestal. All human beings have their merits & flaws. All might take ill advised decisions.

Flora had gone into the intimate relationship with Luca freely and remained part of that relationship freely until events which did not directly involve Luca made her acutely aware that during that period of 6 years, she had been so focused on her self appointed objective of self improvement to seem more worthy in the eyes of the world (and also Luca) that she had become blind to how her actions would impact other third persons who cared about her wellbeing. These persons could reasonably expect that their regard was reciprocated unless clearly & honestly told otherwise. There is nothing more soul destroying than realise that you are invisible to those whom you wholeheartedly love & selflessly support. This is what happened to Sun Yuan Zhu.

Luca had exposed to Flora his innermost self during what she harshly described as a dirty, ugly & disgusting relationship. Was Luca meant to understand that Flora had been intimate with him for so many times all the while considering Luca, the man, & what they were doing together, ugly, dirty, disgusting? Was Flora really capable of such barefaced duplicity?

Luca had never laid claim to being a "saint" but neither had he to any degree been the architect of the errors Flora committed regarding Yuan Zhu. Yet in the heat of the moment, Flora piled her feelings of guilt towards Yuan Zhu on Luca's tab. After all Flora had been deviously enticed by the much more worldly wise Luca to stray from her self proclaimed intention to diligently walk the path of self betterment, without giving in to distractions. Ignoring that Luca did not hold all the deciding cards at their workplace Flora blamed him for all the missed work milestones & promotions. In Flora's mind Luca obliquely also had some blame for Yuan Zhu's death. Luca had monopolized too much of Flora's limited freetime after all!

Yuan Zhu's extreme action jostled awake Flora's dormant conscience. Suddenly aware of the irreversible nature of some of her errors, the greatest one being that you cannot switch on, switch off feelings & desires on command, Flora had only one option: to extract herself from the self-serving cocoon she had been living in. As Luca was an integral part of the cocoon, he had to be repudiated as well. Even if by doing so, Flora left a piece of her heart behind as Flora was no longer the free agent she had been when she had arrived in Beijing. In thinking that what happened in Beijing, could be left in Beijing, Flora was just fooling herself.

Many will be able to see shades of themselves in both Luca & Flora. The life lessons of The Early Spring was well worth remembering 🙂

In the closing episodes, it becomes clear that several interested bystanders in the advertising agency & Luca's very close knit circle of male friends had known for years of the existence of the "intimate" connection between Luca & Flora which was running parallel to the protagonists' totally above board workplace relationship. The same said bystanders also knew that such special connections breached clear workplace conduct rules which heavily penalized such relationships. Yet everyone kept silent or saw to need to intervene. None thought that Luca had trapped a subordinate in an abusive situation. Nor that behind her innocent face, Flora was the proverbial grasping good digger.

Luca's masculine aura had blinked on Flora's feminine radar when she had no inkling of his identity. Luca was not in the market for neither a protege, not a casual "playmate" but a series of circumstances pushed a gauche innocent whose eagerness to learn the ropes within the workplace kept pushing her into Luca's orbit & to start paying closer attention to the junior's endeavours. When a workaholic pro mets his younger self, his first instinct is to tutor the junior towards success. This was Luca's original playbook which perfectly aligned with Flora's original agenda of going to Beijing in the first place .... the validation of her self worth as she superceded one workplace benchmark after the other, in a competitive but "fair" workplace.

Flora was indeed far from being able to decode that much of Luca's sophistication was principally the smoke screen he had devised to hid from public scrutiny what the man believed were deep personal flaws. Luca had come to believe he was missing all those personal traits that encourage others to treat you with unsolicited affection & care. Always quick to anger, Luca was labelled as "difficult" & weird as a child. The unkind labels were to become the shield behind which Luca would hide his discomfort when he ran into problems ... when plans when askew ..... when he could not really empathize with the reactions or feelings of the other. After all, top achievers were tough, unfeeling. Isn't that the universal truth? Luca could not be "perfect" but being tough was well within his reach! As an adult following well touted conventions came to Luca's aid but also backfired ..... if his poised ladylike mother "loved" being gifted handbags, then a handbag was the most acceptable gift for Flora too! Flora's interpretation of Luca's intention behind the gift would never have crossed his mind 😞

Luca had a deep set liking for devising rules & for biding with them. Life ran much more smoothly that way. Flora believed rules guaranteed a level playing field for all those working towards a single objective.

Anyone who spent just two minutes in Luca's presence realised that his less pleasant characteristics did not include that of being an opportunist sexually deprived ogre. Quite the opposite & this is what lead Flora to agree without all that much hesitation to Luca's unexpected & highly unethical proposal of secretly sharing a bit more than purely business knowhow. Both of them knew that they were crossing boundaries they had before firmly kept in place in their dealings with others, both in the workplace & in their respective private spheres, but they started their "illicit" liaison any way!

So, when years later a disappointed & angry Flora said she wanted to end a dirty, ugly disgusting connection, she was principally admitting that she had not been above taking a few shortcuts towards exploring what for her was still largely unexplored territory, the delights of sexual intimacy, with a partner who had proved a most reliable tutor in other more "irreproachable " endeavours. The person in question could also be trusted to willingly absorb any punitive repercussions should their liaison become "public". Innocent Flora had figured out that much at least & thought she had been quite "sophisticated" having done so. Long before, Flora have correctly understood what Luca was really worth as a man & a human being. It was cowardly of her to fling such terrible accusations in Luca's face, when push came to shove. Flora had never been in a the situation imposed on her by duress.

A notable point is that Flora's report to her parents as to how she was faring in Beijing was modified time & time again to keep what happened in Beijing, quite firmly in Beijing! Flora's parents were modest persons who however would not have hesitated to seek retribution for a daughter who had been victimized by a well heeled, socially well connected scoundrel ... a scoundrel was just a scoundrel in their eyes.

In truth Luca & Flora had knowingly taken advantage of each other's most closely guarded weaknesses. Initially for what each of them respective considered would be a small, temporary gain ... only with time this type of gain was no longer enough for either of them.

Having taken the trouble to skim over the 100+ chapters of the web novel on which the film version is based, I was surprised to discover that the missing essential background details with regards to Luan Nian's character are communicated by the author in "supplementary" chapters to the main novel.

With this rather "gauche" stratagem, the author knows that so much of what Luan Nian will do & say in the main novel will be misunderstood .... that undeserved shadows will darken the readers' assessment of the man's character. Luan Nian is the son of two headstrong individuals who they themselves resisted bending to social convention as much as this was humanly possible to them (in a contemporary China).

The supplementary chapters notably detail several instances of explicit intimacy, first between Luan Nian's parents, later on between Luan Nian & Zhi Tao; in both cases, nature takes its course & babies are conceived by initially less than enthusiastic prospective mothers! But this to me is no surprise, as it has become obvious to me (a woman in her 60s who is native of the Mediterranean) that due to longstanding cultural & political norms, parenthood is a conflicted issue in China. None of the explicit behaviours described (even if inserted somewhere in the main novel) were ever going to be transcribed onto the screen, of course, but at least in print, for once, a spade is called a spade without a speck of ambiguity or hypocrisy.

The greatest surprise however is that the author of web novel opted to detail the self-reflection which leads Zhi Tao & Luan Nian to realise that they are truly each other's life mate in the supplement chapters rather than anywhere in the main novel. IMO this was a disservice of sorts towards the reader but possibly this is a writing style typical of this particular author. What is certain is that little of what is in the supplementary chapters is likely to be part of film version of The Early Spring.

The respective pseudo "English" names of Luan Nian & Shang Zhi Tao are very apt indeed for the two protagonists.

LN is Luke in all the English subtitles but Luca in the Mandarin original sound track. The two are "cousin" first names sharing the same ancient Greek root! Luca is the Italian variant of Loukas, a name which is widely interpreted to mean the "bringer of light". Flora was the ancient Roman goddess of flowers, springtime & fertility.

What is certain is that whatever the era or geo location, flowers do not bloom in the absence of light & springtime is always synonymous with the sprouting of new growth after the reduced activity or apparent decay triggered by the unavoidable arrival of a season denoted by various & often unavoidable adverse events & occurrences.

Flora is years behind Luke on her path towards character maturity. Luke became aware of the many contradictions & compromises social success is often built on, when still only a child. The passing years honed his innate abilities to a level that allows him to prevail over or eventually diffuse most situations.

Luke is a rare specimen .... he is aware of being "gifted" but has also understood that he has a "dark" core. Many sense the dark core but few appreciate that Luke works hard to keep the negativity mostly reined in. Not all have the insight or put in the effort to shield others from their negative traits. Luke does so.

Flora has been incredible lucky to meet her very "particular" wolf .... a wolf who takes a liking for the innocent adventurous lamb that crosses his path; he could so easily have just swallowed up "the innocent" up whole. The lamb gets to learns much from the wolf, even about matters she had no notion even existed. Becoming conscious of the intrinsics of adult sexual desire was not originally on Flora's to do list; it is an unwelcome "complication" that Flora had never dreamed of factored in or making a contingency plan for.

Self sufficiency had been Flora ultimate goal from the moment she arrived in the big city; the real reason she left her caring parents & familiar comfortable lifestyle behind. The self sufficiency objective is eventually met but the achievement is overshadowed by a sense of incompleteness. It takes Flora a bit of time to understand what is actually missing & how to actively remedy the situation but she does get there in the end.

The heavens are kind & Luke has his own epiphany as to how to best show Flora his love so that she understands that his sentiments are true & not a sophisticated attempt to control or dominate ... to rob her of her right to freely exercise her free will in all matters. Luke understands how crucial clear communication is in the sphere of personal relationships & Flora at last becomes cognizant of the social norms that are second nature to Luke but which she has either ignored or grossly misunderstood.

Sharing life's up & downs need not equate becoming g a helpless dependent It more often equates to the possibility of chasing the best outcomes whilst being sure that there are others willing to help & others always ready to applaud your achievements ... that there is someone always waiting for your return home!

Many are losing sight of the fact that The Early Spring is a work of fiction very cleverly constructed to appeal to a specific audience & demographic. The web novel is part of a trilogy ..... does this strike any bells, ladies? A narrative pepped with elements that have been tried & tested on the addictive scale is watered down to justify a series of publications rather than just the one. No prizes for how lucrative such an editorial decision proves to be!

I, myself, am well outside the profile which this Chinese author had in mind as prime target for her output ...... wrong age, wrong cultural pedigree, living in a social context that bears no resemblance to what the author herself would be familiar with or ever be interested in exploring.

The often vitriolic tone of some of the comments posted in this blog set me thinking .... so many seem to approve of unbalanced interpersonal relationships as long as they themselves are the dominant partner. At the slightest mention that neither plot protagonist comes without a baggage of less than attractive traits or behaviours, the response is limited to a potty mouthed exclamation designed to cower those with broader & more lenient views into silence. Swearing is in truth the trademark of the inarticulate who just cannot keep their mouth shut (or in this case fingers away from a keypad) despite having nothing much of worth to express & the anonymous internet is the ideal place for them to let off steam & rant.

I do not discount that the life experience of some commenters has convinced them that members of the male sex are beyond redemption but that is a personal tragedy that should be dealt with elsewhere. It might surprise some to learn that wanting the other to "suffer" is the essence of toxic, unbalanced relationships.

All forms of power play are destructive. None become humane or acceptable if the dominant voice is female rather than male. Subjugation is always subjugation ladies!

You are totally off track and seem to have lost sight of the fact that in this blog we are analysing fictional persons, moving in a fictional context.
In my real life experience, I have encountered good & bad exponents of either sex. Kindness & abuse has come out of the mouth of both women & men. Your posts imply that all males are scumbags while all females are living saints, on principle. Maybe you personally have good personal reasons for this belief. All I can say, I am sorry that your life experience has generated such an unbalanced belief in you.

I also urge you not to abuse the anonymity that the internet affords to us all. Passing judgements on the character of real live persons without a shred of fact to back your assertions is quite a different kettle of fish to debating, for fun, about the merits of a piece of film fiction viewed online.

To all the hard boiled feminists out there, true toxic personalities of either sex generally do not have an insight into their abusive traits. Luke is uneasy enough after his less than subtle attempts to keep Flora from moving out of his "orbit" (changing jobs) to seek advice from a neutral source.

Also be smart enough to stop crucifying Luke for being born to well to do parents for all the dubious good it has done him. It turns out Flora herself is not above dishing out a quick dose of reverse social class snobbery! Flora does indeed have to share accommodation with flatmates & endure long commutes. What Flora is blissfully unaware of, is the phycological hell familiar to those born into money rich but affection poor family setups. And to think Flora has been rubbing shoulders for about two years with a prime example of this very elite group, the "unkind" sharp tongued Luke. Individuals are inevitably a product of the environment that nurtures them. Yet another life fact that Flora ignores.

Kindness of neither deed or action did not feature much in Luke's formative years. The adult Luke has to consciously moderate his off the cuff speech as it too often echoes that of his critical father for whom nothing was ever good enough!

Flora was born into a loving family of modest but adequate economical means. Fate was much kinder to her than to Luke. Flora has never lacked what truly matters & was never subjected to ongoing & random unkindness as part of the natural order of things.

Ambition pushed Flora to seek for herself some thing more than what was already a stable & happy existence. "Obedient" Flora answered the rallying call of the political establishment to rush off into the unknown, to gain fame & fortune. Should things not work out, her loving parents were back home ready to welcome here back from her adventure!

In contrast, from day one, continuation of Luke's privileged life situation was horrendously tenuous. All hinged on submission to & strict compliance to a roadmap devised by his elders. Luke's own desires or dreams were totally irrelevant unless they were somehow part of or compatible with the roadmap.

Small wonder Luke became so possessive of every little treasure that he managed to get into his safekeeping! Flora, in this man's mind, is a treasure he thought he would never find ... someone who was curious about & appreciative of the human essence of the man Luke ..... someone who was oblivious to the lure of wealth ostentation whatever form it might take. Luke knew of no one who belonged to his own social stratum who met this particular criterion.

The Italians say: la verita offende ...
the truth hurts! From both Luke's & Alex's point of view, Flora is indeed "obedient" (it is her default mode) & "cheap" in relative terms in the remuneration stacks (very competent but with a track record of barely two years & just a couple of "wins" under her belt concerning a particular "commodity"). The big difference is how Luke & Alex seek to capitalise on their insight of Flora's capabilities & potential.

Lumi tries to alert Flora that those of Alex's ike lay very clever traps for the "bright new sparks" who will be mercilessly discarded if they stop "sparking". Alex plays the double game with both his team members & his clients. Alex will not put his neck out for anyone other than himself!

Luke is undeniably blunt but in my book his straight speaking is a million times better than Alex's pretty but deceptive words. Unlike Lumi Flora still does not have the street smarts to fully understand this

People are still comparing the Luke of the web novel & the Luke of the film script. Is this a quaint Asian obsession? Why persist in comparing a lime with an orange; both are citrus fruits but there the connection stops!

I have shimmed thru an English translation of the web novel & was not particularly impressed overall. The film adaptation, however, does have the merit of showcasing various life situations in a fairly authentic & relatable manner.

The inexperienced in the audience get to glimpse a number of life or emotional states and/or dilemmas as yet unknown to them. Those no longer so wet behind the ears get to chart the life journey of the onscreen Luke and Flora with the knowing eyes of those who have already lived to see time alters certainties, shifts once iron clad priorities. Onscreen one of life's greatest secrets is eventually exposed .... if you are very lucky, you will cross paths with a person who will love you selflessly and much more than you love yourself!

Toxic parents come in all shapes & sizes .... my heart bleeds for Flora's flatmate. Are Asian parents really so grasping?

Just watched episode 12: the gods have been keeping an eye on our Luke. With a father like his, it is a miracle, Luke is not irreversibly damaged in the emotions department.

Luke learnt early that you have strategize to acquire your heart's desire .... nothing will be offered to you freely. The harsh maxim that there is no gain without pain has proved true in his experience. Small wonder that Luke often attacks, before an opponent even makes the first move .... he has learnt to do all he can to keep the inevitable pain to the least possible minimum 😞

Luke is most definitely not a womaniser. If Luke is afraid of anything is being shut out in the cold by those whose "affection" & attention he craves ....

Luke and Flora are fictional characters but they are both believable & relatable. One might actually knows someone who behaves in much the same way as they do or has been a casual third party witness to behaviours which closely remind you of what is happening on the screen.

This why so many have become strongly invested in the fortune or misfortunes of Luke & Flora. Nothing is particularly "original" about The Early Spring but the pain or joy that we see Luke & Flora experience we have either felt ourselves or have glimpsed in those around us ...... for real 🙂

Flora simply does not know how narrow her life vision actually is. The daughter of loving parents, Flora is happily unaware of the existence of egoistic & emotionally unavailable parents. Like many others, she assumes that monetary wealth equates a supportive & serene family unit.

Luke has learnt to hide his emotional needs so when he enters Flora's orbit, all that is visible to the casual onlooker is his sharp business acumen. Only a handful of intimates who have likewise survived emotionally deprived childhoods might detect or decode Luke's distress signals. Flora is unaware of Luke's lonely & unhappy formative years; she sees what Luke wants the world to see. Razor sharp efficiency. A knack for successfully navigating complex business scenarios & surrounding himself with equally capable professionals.

After a false start, Luke understands that Flora is a rough diamond & that supporting her work objectives might somehow be to his very personal benefit (although this is not so obvious to him at the onset).

Luke quickly proves his worth as a reliable mentor who is well able to guide Flora as she aces successive career objectives & milestones.

Neither Luke nor Flora are actively on the lookout for a sexual partner but their respective "antennas" quiver whenever either of them is close! Luke has long been the target of female predators so he decides to establish what Flora's intentions might be or not be. Luke who had long given up on ever meeting someone who was more interested in sharing his inner world than spending his money was surprised & intrigued by Flora's responses.

Flora begins to understand that there might be much more on offer than job progression but has no clue how to navigate the unfamiliar situations. Winging her way forward by ear, she errs, over & over again, failing to establish what is groundless gossip & what is fact.
Luke is foolish enough to assume that Flora is aware of & has an accurate understanding of the intrinsics of his social background.

The miscommunication & lack of prompt communication will lead Luke & Flora to separate. Absence of the other will cause enough pain to motivate both to change what has to be changed to accommodate the needs of the other!

Luke hids behind euphemisms thinking the Flora can decode them .... only she is not one of his peers or childhood friends 😣. I wonder what will finally push this intelligent man to start using his brain in earnest when it comes to securing his heart's true desire?

Episode 11 proves how true that the road to (relationship) hell is paved by good intentions (& reckless assumptions). Both Luke & Flora are guilt of thinking that by some miracle of intuition, the other will guess what is hidden in their heart & mind! Then there are the ever helpful friends who think that they know what is best .... who think they can boldly push Luke & Flora down paths both or either hesitate to even put one foot forward on. Mostly unsolicited advice is generating a mind blogging degree of misunderstanding between Luke & Flora.

Luke who really should know much better believes Flora is a mind reader. Lacking worldly experience, Flora takes every one of Luke's offhand gestures at face value. Instead of verifying the true from the false, she literally avoids all confrontation & runs for the hills! The consequence: mutual trust is very subtly eroded by Flora's knee jerk reactions .... even though the true facts become known quickly the damage done will not prove easy to undo 😒

The web novel is irrelevant in this context. The discussion here is about what appears on screen not what is written in the pages of the web novel. The two Lukes are different men. Period. The comparison is totally a waste of mental energy.