Modern Billiards and Romance C-drama Amidst a Snowstorm of Love with Wu Lei and Zhao Jin Mai Wrap Run and Gets Douban Opening Ratings of 6.8

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• The drama is hard to love but easy to like. I enjoyed it but don't plan on ever re-watching. Angel Zhao is natural in her acting which suited the theme of the drama very much, but Leo Wu was way too intense to be natural, even for an introvert. He was intense in LLTG but that was okay for the plot of a historical drama. Here, it was a tad too much. It kind of gave off stalker vibes in the beginning. And Angel Zhao's character's constant shying away from intimacy even after dating over a year is a tad unbelievable. The drama is a solid watch though, so I don't regret the time I devoted to it. I particularly like the games, they made it easy for a billiard novice to enjoy the gaming aspect of this and I really like the supporting characters. I think the Douban score is in line for the drama. It was good, but it wasn't a great drama.

• I'm currently still at episode 12, too busy recently so lesser time for dramas. I would say this drama is kind of slow-burn? Both leads are introverts so things developed slowly in the beginning, don't know how it's like in the latter half of the drama though. I do enjoy the set designs, i can see that the quality is there, just that the story progression and drama characters aren't gripping enough. And yeah Wu Lei is a tad too intense in the wrong way when it comes to romantic scenes. Imo he's more suitable for dramas with little or no focus on romance.

  • Ur last sentence absolutely 💯 true

• I hope he falls in love for real during his time away from dramas and realizes he doesn’t have to intensely ogle his beloved every freaking second lol 🫡🤞

  • I love Wu Lei but this is so true! Lmao. It worked in Love Like the Galaxy when he played a wounded soul pining for the girl who (initially) wants nothing to do with him, but here in a romance modern drama, not so much. The intensity is too much for a relationship where the attraction is almost immediately mutual and where there aren't any real obstacles between them.

  • LOL haha so much agreed. His intense gaze at his love interest was kinda creepy to me. I would call a cop if I were his target of attention in RL. LMAO.

    LLTG is a completely different genre from Amidst a Snowstorm. The former is a idol costume drama that oftentimes entails dramatic tropes with emotional intensity to tell interesting stories. The latter is a modern sport-focused drama that viewers should expect to see something more realistic than cringe-worthy. Although Wu Lei in LLTG is much appreciated, how he romanced the girl in this modern drama is a bit creepy. Perhaps some viewers enjoy watching his all touchy-feely scenes with his girl that may pump up adrenalin. Not me though. I think the lovey-dovey scenes are excessive and cringy. LOL.

  • 🤣💀

• Just curious if any of you actually read the novel? I think he did a good job portraying the character as he is intense in the novel. She was literally his saving grace and brought him back to the things he loved, which is snooker and his Billard club. The novel also will explained a lot more about his behaviors and why he is so interested in her from the start. When you watch this and nothing but you, you can see the contrast between his two roles (young, more outspoken vs introverted with a painful history) and he does a good job portraying the difference.

  • Agreed! It definitely helps to understand his apathy towards life and how the trajectory of his life completely turned around after meeting and loving her.

  • Thank you for that bit of info. I love his intense gazes, kind of like a modern Ling Buyi.

    I might have to check out the novel too.

  • IKR! It was allll about the stares!! The guy was a socially awkward rebel who was even afraid to come off rude if he said more words to her, and then she became the center of his world. THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE CHARACTER,LOL!and people are actually comparing him to the actor's real life persona😳

  • That means the drama did a poor job of telling the story. Viewers shouldn't have to read the novel in order to understand the story in the drama.

    • 100 percent agree!

      In my opinion, it’s all about balance. You can be intense without being creepy. I think Wu Lei’s life experiences are not on par with his acting in this case. A more seasoned actor with enough life experience with romance would be able to convey the right balance of attraction and intensity without coming across as creepy. A good example is how Namgoong min romanced Ahn Eun Jin in My dearest. You could tell he was deadly serious about her, but he didn’t creep the audience out.

      And this has nothing to do with Wu Lei’s real life persona, as he seems to be a down to earth, relaxed and friendly guy.

    • Well I didn't have to, I don't understand chinese and the english translation of novels usually just frustrate me. But I did get that about his character and the story. I just felt that LYY didn't know any other way to convey his feelings, he wasn't a man of words and even he himself was surprised by the way he was feeling after years of feeling empty and living a sleepwalker. It was like he saw her and finally woke up, beautifully portrayed imo.

    • You didn't have to read the novel in order to understand the story in the drama. If you actually watched the drama and the male lead character slowly open himself up and reveal his past history, you would have easily understood. I doubt any of you complaining actually watched the drama or tried to understand the characters though.

    • Xoxo,
      I'm sorry but I don't get the comparison. May be it was the same kind of affection or process of falling in love, but with different personalities. The key difference being the fact that Namgoong min played a more mature character and personality than LYY here. It is not about just being dead serious about the woman. It's about two different people being dead serious about their women which makes the expression of affection also different. Ofcourse, you are entitled to your point of view if you believe these two personalities should behave the same way in love.

    • @Celeste I did mention that I'm only at episode 12 in my other comment here. Even so, I think the drama could have revealed his past history less slowly. Most people don't have the time or patience to wait, if the story doesn't make sense or is not compelling enough to keep them interested to find out more about the backstory, they will drop the drama.

    • @Rooney

      I understand your point but you seem to misunderstand mine. At no time did I infer that the expressions of falling in love played by two different people should be the same. I merely used Namgoong Min as an example of a way an actor can convey passion and intensity without overwhelming the audience. If you would like me to point out other examples, how about Jin Boran in Road Home?. He too played an intensely in love youth who was introverted. But he did so in a way that convinced his audience without overwhelming them. To me, what is missing in Wu Lei’s expression of the character in this drama is a bit of nuance, and the ability to dial back a touch when needed. There’s no need to be so intense in every scene, moderation is key in making it realistic. It’s like he transplanted the romantic mannerisms of Ling Buyi to modern day Finland and China, and while that intensity would work very well in a historical setting, it doesn’t suit modern day sensibilities. This is my opinion. Everyone can agree or disagree as they will. Different perspectives is what makes drama discussions so interesting.

• Leaving my lurker status behind to say that I absolutely adored this drama, I could have started watching all over again the second I finished it (and in fact did rewatch several episodes). Their chemistry was so fantastic in my opinion! I really loved every single thing about it from start to finish. If he ever gazed at me in that intense way I would spontaneously combust on the spot. 😂🔥

• Cdramas have really a weird pacing because of their weird editing. I had no idea that 2.5 years happened...

  I liked both actors and I think they had a great chemistry. But it's true that the ML was really intense and the FL was on the shy side. I was wondering if she had a special clause about kiss in her contract because her character stopped so many of them... Their romantic scenes like the hugs were enough so the no-kiss scenes made their love story awkward.

  The Finland and France scenes were really beautiful.

  I really liked the 2 other male characters (very handsome too). The bromance was really nice. I liked their scene together.

  I liked the OST.

• I was highly anticipating this drama given the main leads that I know both are decent actors and the beautiful trailers filmed in Europe. But bang! I started to fast forward @ 3X speed until the end after loyally following each single screen for quite a few episodes. The love lines between Wu Lei and Zhao Jin mai are cheesy but boring, nothing to elaborate other than Wu Lei's touchy-feely behavior towards the girl full of sexual desire even at the initial stage of their dating life. It's cringy much. LOL. Other than the pool games which were shot brilliantly and fun to watch, the plot is pretty empty. That being said, I respect Wu Lei for playing a genius snooker and billiard ball player so professionally. He exuded that professional aura at the pool tables, confident and smart. He did also hit some shots successfully. LOL. I think that's a basic ethic for someone to be considered a good actor - convince viewers of you being a professional in real life as the script describes. He did that.

• i liked it for what it was which was a very low-stakes romance kind of hang-out drama. it was a nice show to wind down with, not what i would consider priority but still one i enjoyed getting around to. the no chemistry angle i disagree with because i think it was the saving grace of the show especially once they get together. although this might be an unpopular opinion, i found her performance much easier to swallow than his. she fit the genre perfectly and felt incredibly natural on-screen whereas i felt he was overcompensating more than needed (hence the intense staring criticisms lol) in the beginning. i do think they ended up being able to meet each other in the middle once they start being a couple.

  'd like to see then in something together that has a bit more in its bones than this one because i thought they had good synergy on-screen (and seemed to get along well enough off-screen). and i'm looking forward to seeing zjm in her new drama with zlh.

• I loved this drama... at first, I was actually on fences with this one because I had read the novel before and really adored it but I thought it wasn't really drama material due to the introvert nature of the two characters and how soft and delicate the whole thing was, besides I had been disappointed by modern cdramas before and believed they just couldn't do justice to some modern stories...I was afraid the drama version would ruin it for me, but I was very pleasantly surprised by it. The drama perfectly captured the feel and aura of the novel, and the leads were excellent and natural in their portrayal of their characters.( about the male leads portrayal of the character, it is in fact very accurate according to the descriptions of the novel, his intense stares and the way he inspects every single movement his ladylove makes are the highlights of his character)

  • Faye, I wrote a reply to your post, but it ended up appearing way below. I'll repeat the question I asked here, but won't copy the rest of the comment.
    The question was: As a reader of the novel, what do you think of the FL's body language during their close contact scenes (in the drama), particularly after the time jump?
    (For me personally, it soured the romance a bit, which I explained in further detail in my original comment below.)

    • In the novel, I think you can best describe yin guo as quite a shy nerd with a passive aggressive attitude towards intimacy, in that she wants and sometimes even initiates intimacy in her own 'I don't know what I'm doing to you...' kind of a way. She's just never gonna be that person who says I need to have u now, lol ( probably even after marriage), that being said, the novel describes their sessions in a pretty detailed manner, in the drama however the most sexually active parts of her personality kinda get lost in translation. Which is why we are left with only her shying away parts ( also she's usually very cautious about intimacy because of her family environment and young age).
      Sth else I want to point out is the fact that almost immediately after their first time, they went long distance and saw each other only a few times in between ..the times apart and the insecurity that comes with it didn't really help her shyness and anxiety around him. So I could understand why the actress chose to act the way she did with the material she had.

• Him being too eye intense and her being the nervous shy rabbit ? So they basically have complaints about them being the novel characters as they were supposed to be! The chemistry... well probably subjective but maaan they were on fire🔥😁
  Also, those who have read the source material probably know how sexually charged and intense it is...this was actually a muuuch toned down version of that, So the leads had rightfully tried to convey the same feels and vibes without actually ummm...showing things lol