In the past year many Chinese romantic dramas have been pared down to 24 episodes.
I’m used to watching repetitive plotting and idiotic side stories just so the production can hit 60 or 80+ episodes. I used to think 30 episodes for a Chinese drama was short.
Over the top and unrealistic, but full of genuine emotion. After discovering that tidbit, I could see that the pacing, styling, and cinematography reminded me of the good years of Taiwan dramas. The drama is based off of a novel of the same name and directed by Xu Pei Shan, who is from Taiwan where she worked on idol dramas. It’s one of those rare dramas where I pretty much liked all the supporting characters and wanted to watch their stories play out on the screen as well. Zhou shi’s academically excelling childhood beau, Li Ming cheng, falls for her equally Mensa roommate, Bi Qiu jing. The sophisticated older beauty Lin Fei fei falling for Wei Qing’s way younger adoptive brother, Ning Fei. I also really enjoyed many of the other characters and their sweet romances. While the plot works to unravel Wei Qing’s psychological and family issues, the drama is most enjoyable when Zhou Shi’s feelings turn soft for Wei Qing and Wei Qing changes to be less overbearing and more vulnerable. Not quite the classic Beauty and the Beast but Wei Qing is that tortured, lonely hero waiting for our warm and lively Zhou Shi to save him from himself. Zhou Shi has extraordinary physical strength and while it’s used more as an accent to her character rather than serving as any important element in the plot it makes her specially enchanted. Wei Qing is an OCD clean freak who can’t get close to anyone because he breaks out into hives as soon as he’s touched. Fate has brought them together multiple times – having saved each other from death with each encounter. Does he truly have an affection for her or is he just excited to find someone with whom he can indulge his baser desires? The story tantalizingly leaves his motivations a little open.Įlements of magical realism feature rather prominently in this story. Once Wei Qing discovers that Zhou Shi is his Belle to his Beast he stops at nothing to have her always next to him. I wouldn’t say each on their own make for great characters or show great skills in acting but the chemistry in their pairing elevate this simple drama to one that became a pleasure to watch. His father’s violent death and a yearning for his mother’s love and affection form the crux of his character. Wei Qing’s purposely tragic back story is the main backbone of the drama plot. His character is a somewhat standard arrogant asshole but he redeems himself by convincingly weaving in elements of vulnerability and sweetness. Wei Qing is a young Asian Elvis with his swooping hair and lanky build. She is a poor art student with unending energy to make money and profess her love to her childhood beau. All the things that elevate an ordinary drama to the next level came together here. I’m pretty shallow, so styling is important as you are about to spend 20 – 50 hours with these characters and if the look isn’t right then the character ends up feeling off. It’s worth pointing out that the styling is very nice – wardrobe and hair made everyone look good. The execution, the compatibility of the lead couple, the likability of all the other characters, and the unique touches in the story make this drama one to remember. Complications ensue as he pursues an unwilling Zhou Shi.
This poses a problem for his romantic life until he discovers that Zhou Shi is the one girl that doesn’t trigger an adverse reaction. It’s a standard if a little old school love story between a young college student, Zhou Shi, and a wealthy young man, Wei Qing, who is allergic to being touched. Instead it’s meant to imply that the characters are unsure of this growing feeling they have for each other, and when they are finally forced to label/characterize their relationship they realize it’s love. Thank you production team for not hurting my brain the second time around.Īlthough, syntactically, 大约 means it’s not quite that thing but a semblance of that thing, potentially implying that it’s a semblance of love, but that’s not the intent of the phrase. The 2 nd “season” is called “Maybe it’s love”. “It must be love” or “Most likely it’s love” are closer to the meaning. So, About is Love is technically correct but all strung together it transcends its literal meaning. The second set of characters, 是爱, translates to “is love”. The first two characters, 大约, is approximately or about. It makes no grammatical sense in English. The English title About is Love is basically machine translated and no one put more thought into it. This is an old drama that I heard was getting a second season.