C-actress He Lan Dou Becomes the Breakout Star Among the Supporting Cast of Hit Drama A Journey to Love

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• I agree with all Koala said in the blog here. The cast of the drama is the most appealing part and strength to rave about. The writer did a good job painting a unique color for each actor in the main cast and all of them are doing fantastic jobs perhaps also thanks to the directing? I'm still watching the drama for that sake although I really feel the plot is getting lackluster with many extra repeated lines, specifically the overkill love scenes between the OTP. I even dozed off through their love scenes in ep 28. LOL. I thought I'm just particularly picky about script writing and directing in general. But there have been similar whines in other forums about the overdone romance between LYN and LSS that took away screen time for a more complicated and interesting plot progression. Fans noted that. The arcs about Ang Nation are lame without many challenges for the envoy and antagonists to tackle so far. No surprising twists or turns to make you excited nor enough suspension to let you sit on the edge of your seat, looking forward to upcoming storylines. I hope perhaps they are gearing up for more exciting development later on.

  The recent Kdrama and Cdrama both have been lackluster IMO. I'm just switching back and forth in between cos there's nothing addictive enough for me to binge watching.

  • Lol I rarely agree with Somebody but it's true, the LYN LSS romance scenes are very "old married couple" it got boring, to the point the annoying disciple has way more 任辛 shippers with LSS because their scenes are exciting with more push-pull tension.

    • Gosh! I already read so many pupil-teacher shippers. LOL. I did enjoy their scenes together and want more. LMAO.

      Too much old school moral preaching from the OTP. It's getting stale.

• I wouldn't say breakout star because she doesn't have that many dedicated posts about her but He Lan Dou has proved her acting ability at least, prior to AJTL she was deemed annoying and people wondered how she became an actress. She's an interesting one because she lacks the typical feminine visuals of a Xiao Hua actress but has a face that tells stories, so IMO she isn't suited for the typical XiaoBaiHua idol actress route like Rosy or Esther but would suit serious modern dramas like Li Landi or Guan Xiaotong e.g. Twenty Your Life On.

  TTEOTM's breakout star Sun Zhenni and MJTY's Lu Yuxiao both upgraded to lead roles so lets see if she will get the same boost.

• I decided to drop at Ep 12. I'm tired of the FL acting like a cougar preying on the ML. The bromance is somewhat cute, but feels forced, like they are just dropped in to tease the ML. The political plot and side casts are mostly meh .

  • This brings back the memories of LSS being equally cringey in her flirtations scenes with Eddie Peng in Sound Of The Desert. Guess I'm not such a fan of her, lol, although I'm excited to see her back on screen.

• Wow she looks so majestic in that poster 😮😮

• She is amazing as YY and she is my fav character in AJTL. Her character growth is great, from a timid neglected princess to a badass who didn't hesitated to twisted a blade into her lover chest plus pointed a toxic needle at his megalomaniac emperor gege.

  • Boring...

    • Nonsense comment from you , as always. Of course it's boring to you because you want all dramas to have the women be way younger than their leading men and you don't want to see empowered female characters, you just want female leads to be damsels in distress because... f*ck knows why you like all dramas to be like that. You're probably some cringe pick-me conservative woman who has a lot of internalized misogyny and gets angry whenever you see women being strong and powerful because you want women in dramas to be meek lmao. Too bad for you, times are changing and you can cry about it 😎

  • This young actress is the most impressive on among all the cast. She stood out to me. I hope to see her as FL in next drama. It's been a while to see such a great talent among younger C actresses acting with ease and nuance. Surely her character was smartly written but an inadequate actor could easily make this role very dislikable in the get-go. I finished ep30 just now and her acting has been pretty consistent all through. She's way better than many popular actresses of 90ers and 95ers who can't act nor have visuals, extremely boring from ep to ep and drama to drama.

• AJTL is getting boring at mid point. I agree there is a lack of angst and the story line does not give much depth to develop a more complex story. Hopefully we can make it to the end, but right now there are so many dramas out, one can just jump to the next, ex. The Last Immortal.

• He Landou gives similar vibes as Chen Yao, really suits roles of girl dressing up as boy. I really like her but I think she will have to pick her future roles carefully as she isn't conventionally pretty.

• Agree now it become so boring without all the fights, the OTP night routine is mehh, they became old married couple. You tought it would be hard to kill a prince and minister but,they just did it easily.I don't know what to look forward anymore.

• Nah. She did well but no where close to a breakout star.

• Atm i still watch AJTL mostly because of her character. Good character development and good acting too!
  The execution of politics n intelligence parts are meh n snort-fest inducing. My brain kept wondering off to chen pingping (of JoL),how silly these people of Wu & An are compared to him, how they will be ground into dust had they met a worthy villain.
  Even the newest development of shisan& princess jinming felt like just an 'eeeh~~' to me.

  • Also romantic scenes between boss ning and ruyi felt too overkill now. Take the sword making in ep 31 for example (🥴), even I know that sword making take days, weeks, even months!, especially for high quality swords. And now they make it like take away KFC or something 😭! and ruyi just stand there the entire time! I thought you were in the way to a deathly mission?? But nah, lets take impromptu pull over to oggling our booboo looking hot making instant sword that surely still take hours to make, who cares about our time-sensitive deathly mission right?!!! OMGG WTH drama!!

    • Bahaha... I laughed so hard about your kfc comment... Comedic gold. Love it!

      But, come on! It's not a documentary or a realistic take of events. If course a sword isn't forged in one night... same as people defying gravity and jumping over roof tops in one leap!

      I love this show! My favourite this year. Maybe some think the OTP's relationship is boring... I kinda love it that it is soo stable and mature. Can't wait for the next few episodes to see how the story unfolds!

    • LOL. That KFC analogy cracked me up too. I recall in Kdrama, Arthdal Chronicles II, sword wielding was considered an antient high tech (IC chips making equivalently in the 21st century LOL) that would critically decide the fate of a kingdom and it would take a master smith at least several weeks to have a fine finished product. This arc in AJtL looked like a make-believe child play and a joke. It's more of a Disney fairy tale, like most of the romance scenes between the OTP, excessive and predictable. When anything is overdone, it certainly gets less arresting to make you flutter. That's the case of the romance overkill between the OTP in this drama. I even found the emerging chemistry between Yu 13 and the fiancé of RuYi's pupil more interesting.

      That being said, I did find the last two eps I watched (ep 31-32) have more interesting narratives of the story except for the Chinese version of Avengers + Wonder Woman for the fighting scenes to rescue King Woo and revenge on King Ang. LOL. I'm still anticipating more development to unfold. I don't think RuYi was really dead by now. That should be a fake death, I guess. Overall, it's still a fun watch so far, although cheesy and lazy writing/directing here and there can't be unseen, far from being epic.

  • And boss ning- ruyi romsntic scenes r too overkill now take the swors making scene in ep 31 for example. Is it a sword or is it a take away KFC??! Even I know sword making take days, weeks or even months to make, especially for high quality swords. But noo, our ahmazing boss ning is also a magician to be able to instantly produce swords like that yo!
    And ruyi just standing there the entire time😭! I thought you were about to go to some deadly mission or something? But nooo, lets take a impromptu pull over to oggling our booboo making instant KFC sword that surely still needs hours to make, who cares about the time-sensitivity of our deadly mission, right??? OMG

    • Wth doible post lol

  • @sylvia
    I like romance between ruyi n boss ning, but i do feel that they trying too hard to sell boss ning as the omnipotent swoon-worthy lover. I get it, completely agree with it;so, drama,please dont keep shoveling it to my face dammit!!
    (I really don't care about screentime war-thing, i think it's BS, but they really dont help the case if they keeping it this way).
    I feel this writer is really good at writing unique flesh-and blood characters and mapping the general plot; but rather messy in executing plot threads. detail n finesse are a bit lacking.

    anyway, i determined to finish this drama no matter what, for the sake of our beloved characters. Now that we enter the final arc, everything should be more exciting.
    (And yang ying's latest development!! Daaang!so,so brave,but also very sad. how hard and lonely her journey is ahead 😭)

    • Also, i agree that a wuxia drama of course is not a docu. I dont have a problem with some larger than life events, afterall what a wuxia without those, however the sequence/ thought process of those events must be logical, which is not in this case. Ruyi already march to her mission, but boss ning just have to choose that exact moment to make a sword to ruyi. Shouldn't it more logic to make it before hand and gave it to ruyi at that time? (Thus,shows the thoughtfulness of boss ning without being annoyingly overkill).
      The sword making scene adds nothing to the story flow except for unnecessary extra hotness points for boss ning. That's why i find it overkill n annoying.