MikaM

if you like the court/pursue in a romance, you can watch it from the beginning. If you like kissing scenes or whatever you can watch part 2. But this drama is great as it is

I mainly blame the char writing and directing. I loved leads in LLTG and Reset, but I couldnt embrace their story there. FL char is too shy for my taste, looks scared in some scenes, which made poor guy in love look shady when he really isnt. Look at leads how cute they are off camera, but on screen I couldnt feel the same vibes. Couldnt take those scenes with them talking on wechat hours being in the same room. I felt it weird. And honestly, if they are in love for the first time at 21 and 27, give me a good reason to accept it
I didnt like aesthetics (directing issues), colors/filters, the lack of Finland in Finland etc. I also have some issues with the prod team for giving us not original materials: posters like YAMG, a title which is exactly as a western romance novel, marketed as a new HL, Titanic vibes scene, Go, Go, Squid scenes, they licked a bunch of cool romance dramas. Why, coz this is an S+ drama, they had all cards to give us a huge hit, but they didnt

You find those scenes I pointed to in drama as well, I even gave you the dialogue you have in drama, you dont need to know the novel , but you saying those scenes are only in the novel makes me think you didnt pass first ep. I just showed you why they casted a girl who looks undeveloped for char age, coz this is how her char was written by screen writer, too.
You talk about casting a young actress saying costs are similar with costs of other 30+ new actors, I explained already if they would change CZY for those flashbacks, so many other chars should be changed with new actors as well. Also, his screen time and all SLs' screen time would be shorted. For them, for char data this thing matters in China
Millions of ppl who watched drama found it ok, you didnt. I am ok with this, I just tried to explain. You can take it or leave it, but due my experience with posts like this, those who have some issues with age gap, casting, grooming, they didnt understand what they saw, or started to watch drama being manipulated already, or they are simple haters and they really dont want to understand. I genuinely believed you are not a hater., so I made an effort to explain.
I feel you cant understand my explanations and coz I cant explain you better, I will give up
I guess it would be better if you will drop it, this drama should make you love it from the beginning, if it couldnt, why to torture yourself this way. There are tons of cute romcoms you may enjoy more

the age gap is 7 in novel. In drama, the age gap is 5. DJX has 19 years old when they first met, she was 14 in drama
SZ was a child who was ill in her childhood, with an unproper body, too short and too thin (reason for what she grew up as a spoiled child by her entire family, making his brother to nickname her lil demon ). SY told her nobody would ever take her seriously, coz she will always look too young. But the advantage is that at 30 she will look like 18 (this scene is in drama as well). Only this makes me feel the young girl was cast in char. Any other cast of a 14 years old (real age) would be a miscast , out of char unless they would find an actress of 14 looking like a younger, undeveloped one for her age looking like the one they chose
So, I guess you want to see an actor of 19 instead of CZY. Replacing him, SY would also be replaced with a younger actor. Also, all the cast we saw in scenes related to his father accident (school mates who bullied him, the daughter of the man who died should be also replaced). CZY has many scenes related to the accident, many with his mother, SY's family. Actually lot of the ML screen time will be gone. Maybe younger parents as well for this part of the story? I honestly never saw an A drama (low budget) with such a big cast. Also, I never saw in short dramas like this one so big double cast. I rarely saw double cast in S+ dramas with 40 ep or more

I did answer to both of your comments.. The fist one I answered was the one you said the FL is ..."ugh", I answered "actually she was amazing". Then I found this one were you cry you are afraid of haters. Pardon me?
Then I realized my honest comment about the FL shouldnt be there, under a hater comment.
I still believe you can better

same here

You should drop it. LoL. Watch something that can bring you joy.

I dont understand why you forced yourself to watch it, just to write under it: FL sucked, I was a hero, punished myself coz the ML was kinda, but only kinda ok. And not only once, wrote it twice coz the first time nobody gave you a gramm of attention.
In the end....nobody cares

I dropped AASOL

yup. She used at least 2 tonalities when she dubb for the diff stages of her char development
I liked her voice mainly coz it was in char

How is this relevant? Think at her as a girl of 10. In which way is this disturbing for you? She could have problems with her teacher for not paying attention at age of 10, asked his help with her teacher coz his father didnt want to help her. DJX asked SY to help her, he said he would never help the lil demon but he gave him permission to go speak with her teacher. That was all that happened when she was a kid

she could have 3 years old when she first met him. There is no romance, so she can be a child of any age coz it is irelevant.

she admitted she fell for him at 17, so no middle school crush trope here

dunno, but all her haters are pretty silly
that girl really shocked me, made me laughed several times, so I cant take her seriously. She cant find more silly reasons to hate ZLS. Gave 1 to LLTG coz CSS was 15 and LBY was 21 when they first met. She should ask her grandma when her grand grand mother married. LOL
I wanted to tell her about Ji Li (筓禮), the Hairpin Initiation, but I didnt in the end. So she can have more silly takes for our enjoyment

but the lantern festival is the first time he saw her, so it still is love at the first sight

This drama was meant to have 66 eps and they had to cut 10, which they did (mostly from the part 2). What ppl define as slow is just the setting of the chars, family relations. I'm still waiting for the Director's cuts, but honestly I believe we wont get them
This drama is a family, political one. Romance is a bonus. (I remember I read in Global Granary that when investors saw their pics in costumes, they root for their chemistry, and proposed a new project for them after LLTG with full investment...we didnt get it though). All the interactions CSS has with YS, LY , their love interests are there in order to build her char development.

1. Only the 3 of them
2. She was engaged with LY, then with the ML, then with YS and finished to marry the ML
3. CSS, Princess Yuchang, the 3rd Princess, Luo Jitong
4. She is 15 when she first met LBY, so dont expect her knowing something about love (you can see this in relation dynamics with LY even after they decided to engage. So, she showed her love for LBY late, in ep 38. But beginning with the first ep their interactions are built one by one in order to know each other, achieve values, develop their chars. She accepted to marry him in ep 27, but their relation struggled many times, it took her a long time till she fell for him. Meanwhile she discovered him and herself as well, find out she wants more from him than the help to escape from her family.
5. They broke up for 5 years
6. yeah, happy ending, ends with them( with all her family) planning wedding, but after all their struggles we deserved a wedding. They have a happy family life, with children,in the novel, but drama robbed us

when i see a cute lil kitten (cat) I smirk "ohhhhh" as well.....
Young girl/actress was 11, indeed, but even if she was 14 there wouldnt be big diff, coz as u said, asian body stucture is petite. More, her char is described as small and thin, when she'll be 30 she will look like 18, as her brother said when he mocked her, saying nobody will ever take her seriously
We can like and protect a 5 years old kid like as we like/protect a 14 years old kid. That's why whatever her age is when she first met him shouldnt be relevant.

Maybe is more disturbing to see a grown up actress in her 30+ acting a kid of 15 char (and in almost every cdrama heroines are underage when story starts).
We can take it or leave it, their culture, other times

I didnt want to be mean in my previous post, but this drama has so many haters, with such lousy takes, that i was pissed off

I came across with Sang Yan farewell today. It's really touching:

“That little demon who has been challenging me since we were young, the little demon who would argue and threaten to end our friendship, the little demon who would secretly bear the burden of being bullied, finally got proposed today! She's finally getting married!

When we were young, I didn't understand and was annoyed at my you ger sister. Whenever something happened, she would tattle to our parents, and I wanted to dunk on her a thousand times, but I could never bring myself to do it.
After she learned to speak, she called me "GeGe" for the first time. As she grew up, she started calling me "Ge" and when she was angry, she would call me by my full name. Every time I saw her small body with big round eyes and chubby cheeks, she was both adorable and annoying. But I have to admit, she is the best sister in the whole wide world, one of a kind. She is very kind, even ants in the yard are well protected by her. She is very intelligent and used to always come first in exams when she was young. She is very independent.

When she left home for Yihe, she didn't cry, but I was the one who shed tears while facing her backwards. She is very strong. She will do everything in her power to protect the people she loves and she will use love to heal all the unhappiness and past hardships. My sister is someone I will protectfor my entire life. Now there's another person who will protect her with me, and I'm very happy. I'm also happy that this person is Duan Jiaxu.

I won't allow her to cry, I won't let her get hurt, and I won't let her be unhappy. Otherwise, I will dunk on someone directly"

https://twitter.com/wonwoncity/status/1678747442878238722

next month

It's a pure love story, they kept close to the novel, didnt dilute it with unnecessary subplots in order to increase sls' screen time or whatever. His brother has his own story (see First Frost)
Drama is loyal to its genre
However, they enriched it with cute lil details (his car number which means "Sang Zhi I love you", her slippers he bought with lil strawberries coz she loves them, every chapter title- lyrics from songs- which describe SZ feelings), Sang Zhi wore a baby blue white collar dress to Duan Jiaxu’s graduation and Duan Jiaxu also wore a baby blue with white collar shirt to Sang Zhi’s graduation etc. These make it very cute, enjoyable to watch.
It's also short and not draggy

Here you will find a thread with details of the drama, the way the director/prod team care to make the watch so lovely
https://twitter.com/afterrnoont/status/1681703410243112960

I dont know details about his billing issues, sorry. All I know is there was a billing issue (SAF4), both fandoms fought on chinese platforms, then FLfandom took revenge downrating HL on Douban, so its ratings were lowered with 0.2