微微一笑很倾城/ Love 020 (First Impressions)

So I have been crying while watching Godzilla (yes, I cried buckets of tears but don’t judge me!) and 四月わ君の噓 (which I can totally relate to and which is about music so I really am bound to cry!) and every Saturday I go to the municipal library to use their free WIFI and watch Youtube videos.

the virtual wedding of Yixiao Naihe and Luwei Weiwei

I stumbled upon Love 020 (a.k.a. A Smile is Beautiful/ 微微一笑很倾城) one day while randomly watching videos on Youtube. It kept appearing in my feeds and so out of curiosity I clicked episode 1, thinking it’s another one of those wuxia or fantasy dramas. (My sister also said she often sees it on Youtube… Hmmmm…) It turned out to be a good mix of both, except that the period stuff is limited to the virtual world of gaming while the characters are actually university students. It’s hard to believe that Mainland China has made this series. Previous attempts were a flop, like the Mainland version of Meteor Garden, which I never bothered to watch even an episode. So maybe what they say about China finally being serious with strengthening soft power is true. Also, what a fine way to finally showcase how well-off Chinese citizens are now. Love 020 is, in my opinion, a successful project because of the following elements:

1. good-looking actors and actresses so one can’t help but go KYAAAAAAAAAA~ (Compared to previous drama series where they fielded in common-looking actors… ugh!)

2. Excessive use of computer graphics which is sending out a message that China is now technologically advanced (After all, they now have the four modern precious inventions which are very relevant in today's digital age as the four precious ones were in the past. Indeed, we are seeing the revival of China in this century.)

3. The cutesy plot is similar to J-Dramas which feed on female fantasies of the ideal man (KYAAAAA~ again… My Domjouji ideal will soon be overshadowed because… Yangyang, why look so hot either as 肖奈/Xiaonai or as his virtual alter ego Yixiao Naihe 一笑奈何!!! *insert smiley with hearty eyes) Xiaonai is not just the top player in the online game, he is also a basketball player, a swimmer, a budding technopreneur, a go player, and a heartthrob to boot. (They should have added that he is a talented pianist or violinist, too! *sarcasm) If a person is that kind of a package, he will surely have large eyebags, but no, they packaged him as everything you can look for in a man, except he’s not a musician. BOO! (Coz damn it, the Chinese have a very long musical history, why not bank on that??? Come on!)

On the romance part, I find it really superficial that Xiaonai falls in love with Weiwei upon seeing her play, because she plays calmly and with grace, her swift fingers confidently pressing keyboard keys and effortlessly defeating her virtual alter ego’s adversaries with poise. (As in many shallow TV series, the characters fall in love because of superficial things, not because of virtues and values. Ugh!) It just so happens that Weiwei is an equally strong character. She is the top female player in the game, the Computer Science Department Beauty Queen, a brilliant techie who knows how to fix her own laptop, and is a loving friend. So in a way, it is refreshing to see a strong independent woman in this series unlike the those we usually encounter in K-Drama (Goblin anyone?). Her only “flaw” is just she “was an old shoe”, having “married” in the game to complete a quest and getting divorced by the asshole so he can “marry” a different female player. So when the super popular top player 一笑奈何 proposed to her, we see people’s double standards who think 芦苇微微 is not good enough for him but nobody condemned her previous “husband” for requesting “divorce” in the game. But 一笑奈何 acts as the perfect gentleman when he ensured that there will be a lavish wedding ceremony and that those who badmouth his wife are horribly punished. KYAAAAA~. And they really are a perfect couple because they both are so well-composed and sensible, both are well-respected and looked up to in school, and both are good-looking.

Luwei weiwei on her second wedding day--- this time to someone who will become his real lover

Yixiao Naihe on horsebck leading the wedding procession

First date as husband and wife... KYAAAA~~~

Notes:

1. The characters study in one of China’s prestigious universities, Tsinghua. I am astounded at how different the dormitories look compared to the ones I visited in Xiamen (not Xiamen University). I don’t know if these are just edited but I find Tsinghua University a beautiful place and the dormitories are very clean, tidy, and full of cute stuffs, like the ones you usually in Taiwan or Japan. So is this China’s way of luring international students to one of their best schools? If that’s the case, I WANT TO GO (and perhaps find my Xiaonai there KYAAAAAA)!!!

2. Is this China’s way of encouraging its youth, especially women, to take up Computer Science? I’ve watched one interview after Xi Jinping’s super lengthy speech during the last National People’s Congress and the Party openly says that science and technology are top priorities for the country’s continuous development. After that, a female scientist was interviewed about the pros and cons of working in the science sector because apparently female scientists are only allowed to work up to a certain age, a limiting factor indeed for women who have brilliant minds (and needless to say, an unnecessary loss to China’s booming tech industry.) So maybe they are lifting constraints for women after all?

So anyway, I will have to watch all 30 episodes to know. But this early, after watching two episodes, I already formed some observations and hypotheses. LOL. It’s the month of love (except I am lonely in a faraway country IN WINTER season) so I am allowing myself to partake in kilig moments in this series… while trying to shut my hyperactive mind up coz my overthinking often overshadows my [frail and fragile] heart. 

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Trivia: Yangyang played the role of Jia Baoyu in the 2007 remake of Dream of Red Mansions. *hearts in eyes.