Frost_edelweiss

Hello Richel, did you give up subtitling or are episodes 9 to 13 subtitled on the members only bilibili youtube channel? Wishing you all the best in 2023.

Totally agree.

While I am now laughing at the comedic The Starry Love, I am still at times clicking on some favorite scenes (and cut scenes) of TFF and adding my two cents on its MDL comment section.

So now, following suit to my favorite music & story-edit you-tuber MK916 who wrote that she was starting on The Starry Love, I am now watching that one. It is a really nice xianxia. At first, I was worried that it would be too much a rehash of Ashes of Love (even to borrowing the palaces and color-codes), but fortunately it veered away to another story, only faintly hinting at the other opus in the Honey series. I started too late to be co watching the finale on March 11, or to spend much time on the comments section of MDL for that one, but I am really enjoying it.

Are you also enjoying something you'd recommend next ?

You all think it was his voice only? Methinks it was the gentle stroke to her ear.
Touch is always more powerful as a turn-on. Some words with a mellow or deep voice may be a spark, but the real tinder is always the touch. She came back for an unnecessary hair wash not for the voice, but hoping for words that might be out of the ordinary (Cat is in love) and for making sure that touch was still electric : that's why she left her phone to be back for more...
That part was very well done.
About communication, as a One and Only (Allen Ren Jialun) fan, I don't need lengthy perorations and vocal ratiocinations in a romcom. Gazes are also a mighty turn-on. Both Xiao Han and He Ran had secrets they did not want to expose too quickly ; that some of those came to light without having to voice them and were simply accepted was a relief for them. (Example : "How many women have you had".. "A few. They were all ordinary people." He did not need to voice to her that she was extraordinary and that he did not want to remember other women, even if she was "curious".)
The epiphyllum photograph was to me a symbol of all this : hidden night flower ascertaining through its short bloom that the promise and feelings were both fated and true, but would be enjoyed only in the short life-span : so they couldn't afford waiting to "know each other better" or "grow up and prepare for the future". Knowing that "epiphytic plant grows on other plants, not in a parasitic fashion but as hosts" also adds to the meaning of that flowering, since Xiao Han is a horticulturist: he is the host, she is the flower. He had kept the photo secret, hidden in a book, but was delighted that she searched his room and found it, adding to the fated love component. Triggering that too-hot-for-you scene when they can't keep their hands from each other, so hot that production decided to show the cat strolling by unconcernedly instead of that part of the scene that is to be found in the cut ones.
As for the "daddy issue" idea, I strongly disagree. He Ran was an orphan who had admired her genius painter father before he died, but was in no way looking for another father, even when she jested with Xiao Han about being his "child" (yes, she meant : "treasured" as a lover, also playing on the acknowledgement of age difference that did not deter them). Her condition had made her too mature in some ways to tolerate the idea of hanging out with the insufferable people of her age group (who were prying, judgemental, idiotically intrusive and even almost made her sick when they fumblingly tried to please her).
She wanted someone who was experienced, considerate, not too powerful, but still an alpha. Not a young rookie and absolutely not a virgin (these are often irl the worst choices for female virgins, so her instinct was spot-on there). She sensed that his touch was what she needed, and that his voice belonged to someone from a different age group, with a life history and possible scars to understand her own without ripping them open to "communicate". (2 years or 20 years older was irrelevant). Xiao Han fit the description perfectly.
If she wanted a surrogate father, she had Mr Han who was benevolently watching and protecting her, but she never was attracted to that handsome older man.

Gracie Slick's answer :
When the garden flowers
Baby, are dead, yes and
Your mind, your mind is so full of red

[Chorus]
Don't you want somebody to love?
Don't you need somebody to love?
Wouldn't you love somebody to love?
You better find somebody to love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EdLasOrG6c
(morning maniac music, Woodstock 1969 classic)

Yes, Meet Yourself is "feel good". Try also "Hi Venus".

If a dose of angst and illness shoved away to enjoy red-hot sensual passion is your cup of tea, try also The Forbidden Flower. It's not to everyone's taste, but me, that was the one that carried me most away (wonderful colors and landscapes too) since end of 2022.
SAHPH left me : meh, despite my admiration for Yang Mi and Xu Kai.

Conversely, Jerry Yan, who I had almost forgotten since his Daoming Si of ages ago, left me : wow!!! I even found myself exploring his Loving Never Forgetting (predictable but sweet romcom) which I found okaaay... (amused that in the end episode of that LNF one, I found an answer to my wondering for ages why the first Hana Yori Dango adaptation to Chinese drama was titled Meteor Garden).
Now about TFF ending, it is somewhat cryptic, so if you watch it, you can choose whatever you like to believe. I rather found it a good way to end. Not like this Love Heals drama here which is indeed unsatisfactory to many. The music is excellent and the Lucid Dream song in its new English version, is quite haunting, an ear-worm that still stays in my head, tied to the lovely colors and smooth moves of the main couple. It is (aptly and renewed) borrowed from a Korean drama that I did not watch, but may do now, because of TFF. Except for two songs, the ones used in TFF are original to that drama.
The comments section on MDL has a special feature that leads to cut scenes of TFF which are a must-see: the production was daring, but still too timid not to use scissors too often in self-censorship so as to "pass review" .It was not even that they were ordered to cut all that : therefore, it is findable and enjoyable, and some of it has been included in a sort of super BTS (which could rank as extra episode that's posted also to YouTube).
TFF can be watched on WeTV or on Viki, among other places. YouTube may have it too, although dramas posted there often have other form of censorship : cut music... I did not watch it on YouTube, so perhaps it is less maimed there than Loving Never Forgetting.

He was good, yes! He's included in the cast list, that I just checked.
Thanks for your eagle-eye watchfulness, if he had been forgotten on the list.

There are quite a few loose ends and even inconsistencies in the story.
It is plain too long, also.
At one moment, I was even looking forward to take note of product placements (Chlitina: TW beauty care brand, Coke: anti-ads, electric car brands), to keep attention going, but there were perhaps not enough to enjoy an ad festival for more than a few episodes of genuine "soap opera".
Anyway, my attention was almost totally taken by The Forbidden Flower wonderful sensual drama and addictive music. I had focused on reactions there, so did not come to this section to check how Love Heals / Have a crush on you was received, until I saw it was (to my surprise) one of the top dramas on Marcus Here's weekly top of the charts for March 2 (losing to Journey of Chong Zi).

Love Heals /HaCoY is definitely not my top drama of 2023, whereas I love TFF enough to keep a place for it on my personal "memorable items" virtual podium, despite not being a Jerry Yan or Daoming Si fan - btw, this HaCoY drama also has, at times, hints to the old BOF/MG story, and I found it amusing to see the self-same quote "If apologies were enough, we would not need the police" pop up here too. It did also in TFF!! But in TFF, we knew the director was a fan of MG and that Jerry Yan was the original Daoming Si, so that was just like an insiders' joke, more or less expected. Here, I thought: "wtf! do they need to remind of the classics with no real reason in ALL the new modern time c-dramas, now?"

I am often watching quasi simultaneously several dramas, new airing ones for variety, and older ones related or not by theme or cast etc. It had been a while since I had clicked on a medical drama, and a Chinese-African cooperation or aid drama or movie, so the beginning looked good despite the silly title.
Either the production should have stuck to that, Ebola Fighters type, or Operation Red Sea type, or they should have stuck to medical romance in China only, even cutting out the covid time footnote. Or do a thing in the line of LYX's early Children's Hospital Pediatician.
Trying to fit it all in: poor orphan story, Oath of love- type dad's cancer, silly brother's embroilment with debts, etc, just made the drama too messy.
But I am not dissatisfied with the cast : most did fine as far as I am concerned.
Not that they made me cry or feel much moved or reflective (well, perhaps a few times, or I would have dropped the whole thing completely).

As of 2nd surgery (tumor relapse motivated) his birth mother decided to move from Guangzhou to "Jiangzhou" so they'd be closer to the hospital in case his condition deteriorate again, and so that the boy would not be too far away from his "previous family" that he loved so much, despite "blood running thicker than water" was why he had chosen to go with barely responsible post-adolescent poor worker birth mom who had abandoned him at 6mths because she was 20 then and had no money to pay for his care and brain surgery.
Some plot hole is that when another child needed cranial surgery, if I recall correctly, Dr Ning thought that other one needed to be taken care of by a specialized Children's hospital.
That beloved adoptive son of Dr Ning seemed to fade off totally from the story after ep.30.

I have not started on that one yet. Probably will soon, then.
It is still airing until March 11,
40 x 45': sounds very long, although length should not deter me since LLTG, and some other "impossibly long" c-dramas like Ashes of Love (which I was wild with at the time, rooting for "Run Yu" and become instant luoshifen!!
Btw, among the other dramas LYX starred in, there was one with a tragic end : Broker, but it is clear why that one could not get approval from a large part of audience, so I am not going to recommend it to all, even if I enjoyed it (die-hard luoshifen me, yes 😂) .

And now I see that this Starry Love is described as 3rd volume in the "Honey" trilogy so I certainly will pop over to see whether this is still my cup of virtual pink flower sweet flavored baijiu (to be invented, although there's the alcohol free Hibiscus tea which is nice to control blood pressure).

Now which new one are you working on??? So curious, me, as you said you thought we have somewhat similar tastes 😂

Btw me too, I accompany my days and nights "in deep space" with this OST playlist, after the L&P one and other playlists including one around the "luo 落” (which means drop or fall to the ground) theme.

Yes I remember. It caused, reportedly, quite a momentary stir in Chinese social media because many thought Jerry Yan somehow had a baby on the way with someone, maybe a secret marriage too. Until he apologized for the misunderstanding and made it clear that it was in reference to the drama that was upcoming.
So, "my child" was also perceived as quite an ambiguous statement in Chinese too, away from context!

Ep24 is the final secrets revelations. He did not know, but when he did, it was like he found one more fated string tying them together forever.

Yes she did change the painting when she pretended to come with a frame for it. It was in her family safe previously.

The airport scene was before she flew to Chuanxi, Aba county, to get married.
She said somewhere that she did not want treatment.
Perhaps she wished to die of hypothermia + hypoxia instead of suffering living decay.

Sleeping in ice and snow without an insulating blanket (and sometimes even with one) in high altitude can be lethal. Many climbers and mountaineers know that. If that was her choice, Xiao Han would have accompanied He Ran, knowing that this was her last wish: to die a natural death, instead of in hospital where she would be reduced to powerlessness. Also, lack of oxygen would cause a sort of drunk state numbing her pain.
It even ties in with Mongol-Tibetan culture where the dying often would go far into the wilderness to seek death there without more active suicide (leaving it to Nature), and be exposed for "sky burial" (there are also similar customs in some Native American cultures) .

That lying in the snow somewhat reminded me of the movie sequence about the Cheyenne chief in Little Big Man, where Jack Crabb accompanies Old Lodge Skins who went up in the mountain to lie down and wait for death (but that movie has a sarcastic end there, when the old chief who had decided it was "a good day to die" gave up waiting for death and admitted, "Well, sometimes the magic works. Sometimes it doesn't." before they returned to have dinner together).

So perhaps it was He Ran's "good day to die", but not Xiao Han's yet and he had to return, unaccompanied and sad, to wait elsewhere until they'd be reunited in the afterlife.

I think that for some reason you mistrust and misunderstand even worse than when Zhang Yuanqi was talking to He Ran about the keys after Han Yu's birthday. Nvhai 女孩 (litteraly female child) is a common term to talk about a younger female (less than 30-35, depending on appearance) ;我的孩子 (my child) or baobei 宝贝 (baby) is a common endearing term for a younger loved partner, even if age difference is only in months.
As they say in Chinese : "你想太多了" (you overthink)

It does exist in French, but as a very cheesy endearing address "mon bébé en sucre (mon adorable petit)..." All depends on context. In the drama, I found it appropriate and not in the least condescending & raising my hackles as the cheesy French might do in too sweet romances.
Besides, a young lady is termed routinely as nvhai in Chinese. Even when she appears to be reaching 30! So yes, nothing untoward with the "you can remain my child as long as you want to", implying also that Xiao Han accepted by saying 'as long as", that He Ran might have to go, but might be able to come back if she so decided. Xiao Han was leaving freedom and the power to her in the relationship. She was so lucky to have found one who would do so, stay loyal to her whatever she did, and be charmed by her endearing bouts of selfishness and scorching jealousy when she would claim ownership.

You did it again! Your edit was spot-on, although centering on He Ran and Xiao Han only .
Two songs from the drama: the most ear-worm ones ; you distilled it in tune.
One small regret: you zapped the flower-boy painting with the triangular church? (I liked that one)
But you've got an eye for just those frames and meaningful dialogues that are purest gems, with the exchange of glances, the scratch on Xiao Han's arm when He Ran falls, the cat, the fish, the colors of Xiao Han's skin paint...
How to cut those frames with precision must have taken lots of time and thought.
Noticing also the recent edits you did of dramas that I also watched with a smile since L&P : Hi Venus, Time and him, Meet Yourself... You are so busy pleasing us with those condensed souvenirs!
Thank you again!

The end did not feel sad for me, but hmm I would also prefer a death while young and beautiful than protracted suffering, losing hair and no guarantee than new relapse will bring more suffering.
He Ran has a short, but almost complete and happy life in this drama; managing to make lasting art, starting Xiao Han's daughter on a path for a future, teaching, winning a gorgeous man, having loyal friends, even a doting mom... Taking in lots of beauty and sensuality on the way.
The only thing that is certain in life, is that it will end in death. Even if a swift death may be preferable, old age is not the less painful and swift end, so, I understand her choice of living a good life as long as it can last.
The part at the end of the drama is, to me, very soothing and conveys a feeling of completeness. Be it in dreams or real afterlife.
Xiao Han is left a widower, but he accepted that fate from the moment when he told Mr Han that he would never leave He Ran, so he had time to prepare his mind while giving to her all that she still needed, including impossible and unreasonable promises, because fulfilling them was less important than the love he gave in accepting to give them. I find this very touching and reassuring, that some people may think and act this way even inf it is fiction, instead of forcing unwinnable battles and imposing unbearable pity on the sufferer; like Han Yu unwittingly did several times.
Of course He Ran is selfish. She has the right to be so, having no time for pleasant and polite nonsense. She wants what she wants. Xiao Han is puzzled for a long while because he can sense that she is unusual, not just ordinarily brazen and with no sensibility. He should have guessed earlier that he was dealing with a "sick betta", and perhaps he had, since he undertook to try and heal the fish that he purchased. Whatever: he had accepted to take charge of his new "child" as long as she wanted to stay as his child.
But he also had stated and had everyone he told so accept that he would also give her a wedding. That was so sweet.
The "bonus" collection is like more icing on the cake. A very nice drama. And in a way, we did get the 3 endings promised. So I am very satisfied, and not stingy about it, rating it 10. The nitpickers will probably keep it down below 9, but maybe they want a drama to conform to their norms. I am particularly glad when it is unusual and as beautiful, as well-made as this one. The music that some complained was too much replacing dialogues was doing exactly what it should, so this drama was to me a feast for the eyes, the ears and all the senses through imagination, together with an almost daoist message. Perfect.

That 24'44 minutes collection almost qualifies as bonus episode for speed watchers ! Is anything missing? Not much, perhaps. There are a lot of endearing collected BTS with bloopers there. Also plain BTS like the punching the watermelon to split it open (Jerry Yan does have strength in his hands and wrists! Shaolin kungfu practitioner used to splitting bricks perhaps? lol, I'd end up with a broken bone if I tried such a stunt!) ; lifting lady practice and playing games to kill time, learning the proper way to shampoo and do scalp massage ... Much more.
But the title is a bit weird and there are no English subtitles.
Anyway it was nice watching. Thanks for having spotted it and posted the link.

Having previously done research into the MG/BOF/HYD phenomenon (watched them all +spinoffs etc ) and having more recently watched less than a handful dramas starring or including Jerry Yan does not in my opinion automatically qualify me to fan status.

But I will not be tepid in my view of the Forbidden Flower drama, which I like almost as much as I did the movies "In the mood for love" and "Lust, caution" which explored other difficult love stories with colors and music that resonate with the theme.