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Yess me too… My watchlist is fluff 90% (has to be realistic to a certain extent for my logical brain 😭) and serious/indie drama 10%😂

I also haven’t watch it 😂

Definitely!! SBM is a must watch.. In my opinion, Luo Qiqi in SBM is definitely Mai Mai top characters along with Li Shiqing in Reset… The drama is well written and tackles many themes of youth and growing up in a nuanced, nonjudgmental way…
Given the lack of “pretty actors/styling” & the serious nature of it, I admit it’s kinda intimidating to start.. I also pushed it off for many years & only watched it just the start of this year as well… But it’s absolutely worth a watch; it’s the kind of drama that holds up really well even months after watching it, and the kind where all the characters don’t feel like they’re written or acted but rather real people that existed in the past!!

I love Cheng Huasen (in AJTL and Moonlight mystique) & Dailuwa (super talented but sooooo underrated, I love her in Moonlight Mystique, I’m planning to watch the gaming drama she’s in with wulei and luhan as well…)
& Quan Yilun…. Like, he can act, he plays green flags so well, and his facecard is insanee, like give him more ML role already. He was always in my favorite dramas: Ancient love song, Blossom, Love in the clouds, & his main lead role Echoes of the self… and he was even in I’m Nobody 😭

I definitely agree with all of it! And have u watched Stand by Me? Cuz in my opinion, Mai Mai’s tackling her character there is way more nuanced and even more impressive than Drifting Away (which is already so great)… and it’s a youth coming of age drama that is more of indie genre than idol drama type… and her chemistry there is super great be it with her grandpa, her complicated relationship with parents, her childhood genius friend and the 2nd ML…

Whenever I see ZJM in SBM, Reset & TPR (which even though it’s an idol drama Mai Mai totally nailed a young girl with a middle aged soul character sooo well), I can’t help but think how those roles would have been totally ruined if they’re not acted by ZJM but acted by “some” idol actors who cried, laugh, smile and love in the same exact way no matter which script they are given…

Yes, he was pretty popular but kinda underrated there too until Reset drama exploded… i think after reset, he entered serious actor space and even more recognized by the general public than some of the popular traffic actors… TFF makes him known internationally but kinda unknown by the Chinese GP from what I saw… His drama Mobius was definitely a huge success in Chinese General audience too

For real… Glad that BJT also had a break out role in The first frost.. He was so underrated at the time of Reset

Yesss their chemistry had me squirming in my seat just like AASOL 🫣… I also love that the drama has Mai Mai acting at her full potential just like Reset & The princess royal…

For me, I’m a fan of Thai original of A little thing called first love so I was interested when Chinese version come out: I watched it but doesn’t like the ML as much so I didn’t really paid attention to the cast… Then, Reset came out and it was so critically acclaimed that I watched it despite me thinking “both the actor and actress here looked quite ordinary” 😭 Then, I fell in love with it: story, characters, acting, directing and all (it was my few 10/10 dramas of all time)… then I searched it and found out that it was the same actress from ALTCFL (who totally felt like a different person), Zhao Jinmai ranking first in 2020 & that it’s not that ZJM & BJT “look” ordinary, but rather their acting skill and their ability to blend into a character and not make it about themselves that make me think their character’s looks were kinda ordinary at face value…
Then, I watched ZJM childhood clips (from Go brother, A love for separation, My physical education teacher) and then some parts from Growing pain (which I was super impressed by!)…
Then, AASOL news was announced and my wish of 2 of my favorite outstanding child actors acting together… I watched AASOL ongoing when it comes out, and it become my favorite urban romance of all time… & I’ve kept track of all mai mai new drama rumors & drama releases from that point on… Out of all dramas, my favorite are Reset, Stand by me (I think it’s so underrated and one of the best mai mai chemistry everrr), AASOL… I’m super excited for Irreplaceable cuz i think Mai mai has the best chemistry when she’s paired with “serious/indie/relatively unknown” actors like BJT at the time of reset & SBM Second ML… I was also hoping for Mai mai and Wang anyu to collab since that starlight award and feel like their temperature suits each other so much since they seem like such refined intelligent young people with passion for their acting

Back in 2022, just after Reset, there’s nothing on here… I learnt it from AvenueX videos and chinese articles and add it here.. then, this year, there’re exact points and score from rednote so i try to add them here but was rejected because i can’t provide evidence… so, I put together evidence from CAD original announcement of cut off points, chinese article reporting mai mai ranking first nationwide, and the xhs posts with evidence of her scoring 97.8 in entrance exam…

It’s my pleasure <3

Realizing my favorite idol is Jungkook who is born in September… and I also have a soft spot for mai mai who is also born in September 😂 They kinda resemble each other in terms of personality, talent & goodheartedness as well

I added the part about her ranking first in 2022 after watching Reset… now I’m changing her bio to a more detailed one: “In 2020, Zhao Jin Mai got a high score of 524 in National Higher Education Entrance Examination (Gaokao), 170 points above the cut off marks for the performance major of Central Academy of Drama. In the entrance exam for the performance major of Central Academy of Drama, she ranked first nationwide with a high score of 97.8.
She graduated from Central Academy of Drama in June 2024. ”

I also provided the evidence in the additional notes section… Hope it gets approved…

Mai mai is sooo extraordinary and I want everyone to know that too😭

There’s this consensus going around on Chinese social media that when she speaks, u don’t need subtitles or even see her lips because it’s so clear…

He is also not considered serious actor tho… His filmography consists of mostly dramas … and he didn’t receive any professional training… there’re many famous drama actors from the past who are famous for their acting but all dubbed by certain voice actor… and if they attempted their voice acting themselves, the drama would flop and so on.. I think dubbing is not a problem when it’s kinda acknowledged that actor’s voice acting will take u out of the story especially if u understand the language (just like we find those English sentences spoken by “apparently fluent” character in kdrama jarring)…. Tbf, I find Blossoms of power dubbing quite decent actually… but I do understand why u can find it a bit jarring because the audio quality is so studio like and doesn’t match certain dynamic movements on screen…

Blossoms of power actors and actresses are mostly traffic actors with no training for enunciation and line delivery… We didn’t notice cuz we don’t speak Mandarin but people who speak Mandarin seem to be very annoyed by very muffled non-standard voice acting… Even I noticed it in some characters like I love Lu Yuxiao but lately her acting is kinda affected by her very muffled, and non-enunciative voice (almost like she has some candy in her mouth when speaking)… 😭

But that won’t be a problem here since Zhao Jinmai is famous for superb line delivery since her younger days and she’s trained professionally in Central academy of drama (which is famous for training serious actors).. and she has always used her real voice in all her dramas… and Wang Anyu’s line delivery is also good judging from his past dramas… plus, the cast has a good amount of “serious actors” and even the traffic actors have a good line delivery

Some directors can ruin even a good script by shooting very poor sequences (to ruin pacing/emotions) and interfering with the actors’ acting to be more exaggerated and one dimensional so that characters sometimes ends up looking like caricatures instead of real people 😭… So, I’m kinda afraid the director might play a role in ROTF being bad… but then again, I totally skipped ROTF because the characters seemed annoying from the clips so I had no idea about the directing… maybe it is due to bad acting and bad script (which this drama absolutely didn’t have: the actors can definitely deliver and the plot will surely be good)… So, I’m hoping for the best….

So excited to see him in A Journey to Glow… I liked his acting in pursuit of jade but I thought he was one of those “caricature” actor who is only good at repeated playing similar characters but he proved me wrong with his role in The first jasmine (Moli)… for me, even though those two roles have the same face, they felt like real people that existed at that time…

I trust the screenwriter cuz she ate with A Journey to Love (a compelling plot with great characters and camaraderie between characters)… but I’m not that sure or thrilled about the director 🥺 I didn’t enjoy Romance on the Farm

Omg.. i didn’t know Lin Muran is also in the cast… So excited for him and Mai mai to share a scene cuz they’re my favorite child actors growing up to be stellar actors