Youku Modern Romance C-drama The Early Spring with Jing Bo Ran and Sun Qian Becomes Unexpected Summer Hit and Notches a Respectable 6.7 Douban Ratings
All the C-drama buzz and chatter the last three weeks have been solely on Youku romance drama The Early Spring and boy was this a controversial watch with the differing viewer opinions/arguments on the leads romance almost as entertaining as the drama itself. It’s also rather apropos that the first modern hit C-drama after The First Frost last year is called The Early Spring. This drama is a short succinct 24-episodes and stars Jing Bo Ran and Sun Qian as coworkers at a marketing company, or more aptly boss and subordinate, who embark on a secret after work romance that is first friends with benefits and then a whole lotta push and pull and jealousy and lack of communication. One of the biggest reasons this drama is a hit is because the leads are gorgeous looking in the show and make out a lot, like a lot lot. Jing Bo Ran’s character is controlling, often an asshole, jealous, but also very very sexy and manly and Sun Qian’s character is just swept up along for the ride until she grows a brain and a backbone and finally leaves him. Then he redeems and wins her back. The end. Lol, I’m kidding, the drama is actually a lot more than that but the core issues do leave a very split camp as to whether this was just a hard fought romance or a really toxic relationship. Check it out for yourself and it feels like a person’s own boundaries will dictate how you feel about this story. Bonus points for catapulting Jing Bo Ran back to top level nearly twenty years after his debut.
The show single-handedly pulled me back into watching c-dramas. It’s so freakin’, addictively good. It’s set a new standard / become the blueprint for modern romantic c-dramas.
I’m aware 井柏然 existed before, but was did not know he was THIS ATTRACTIVE or THIS GOOD at acting. He really elevated the source material, which easily would’ve been cheesy or cringe in the hands of most other actors.
I’m going to be chasing down all of JBR’s old works. FINALLY we get a properly hot c-actor and not those flower vases.
AGREED! My list of DNF or FF through C-Dramas have only been getting longer because they keep putting pretty actors/actresses on screen who cannot act to save their life. It was so refreshing to watch a good looking season actor who really brought it!
Jing Bo ran carried this drama hard. His acting saved it from being a trainwreck, deserved the success.
This drama has a completely empty, frivolous plot. In real life, the “hot” boss’s behavior would easily be legally classified as workplace harassment. LMAO, I actually just finished an on-job training session covering all types of workplace harassment, so it really stood out to me. Personally, I don’t find the ML sexy outside of the bedroom scenes either. lol. I had to drop the show after a few absolute snooze-fest episodes. Nonetheless, audiences obviously crave those sexually intense scenes. The drama completely wiped the Netflix non-English charts in certain regions, especially in Latin America. lol.
This marks yet another huge success in the global market following Pursuit of Jade. I personally think that without the trailblazing global success of Pursuit of Jade, far fewer international viewers would be paying attention to newer C-dramas today, including The Early Spring. C-dramas have huge potential to dethrone K-dramas in specific genres like romance and costume historicals. However, before that can actually happen, there is still a lot to be desired when it comes to the directing and, specifically, the general quality of the writing.
Oops! *swept the chart….not wiped the chart! lol
The summer in cdramas seemed slumpy, so I’m glad there was a hit, though this sort of story doesn’t quite appeal to me in longform . I feel like as much as we say we love green flags (and I do love them), handsome red flag guys really get the attention by being just intriguing. You’re more likely to be curious about why someone is acting out than someone who is behaving well.
I waited to binge the whole thing and it was fun. Their lack of real communication was annoying (from both sides) but for once the supporting characters pulled through and didn’t make me hate them. I didn’t think the show was sexy (Boran is just too skinny for me personally) but they’re both great eye candy and when they were together, their chemistry was good enough.
Jing Boran hard carried the drama. Sun Qian is very forgettable in this and has absolutely 0 eye acting skills. The 20 years in the industry experience leading to acting disparity between them was very, very noticable. Like it was micro expressions in one side, blank, emotionless stares on the other end. The story was mediocre but chemistry was good though. They put in a lot of effort to show the intimacy and that was evident. Male lead got better writing too, female leads arc was uneven for me. I enjoyed the debates, opinions were very divided but it was shaped by individual experience and boundaries like you said and that made live watching more enjoyable. Congratulations to the team. Solid hit drama home and abroad.
I have to agree that Sun Qian disappointed me. I liked her in Meteor Garden (2018) and Islands (2024) and am aware of her limitations. But she is quite wooden especially in the later episodes of The Early Spring when she is supposed to be more mature yet there are highly emotional interactions between her and Jing Bo-ran. It’s so jarring when it’s cutting between the two of them and he’s IN IT with red eyed, red nosed from emotions, and she is prettily wiping shallow tears with her hand. I joke that when she returns to Harbin, she’s literally frozen from emoting. Lol. I mean, the ending eps did feel rushed so that proabably did no favors.
Jing Bo-ran did carry this show, even though he can skew “oily” and posey in certain scenes.
If anyone can get their hands on the audio/podcast drama version (廣播劇) of The Early Spring, it’s actually really well done, while taming the toxicity of the original novel (sorry, Jing Bo Ran didn’t voice it). They didn’t rid the f-ckbuddy aspect of plot which justify Flora’s character, her flaws/conflicts, and development. Imho, the drama version cutting this resulted in some of her insecurities and emotions not flowing or supported. My two cents.
I have watched quite some dramas by Jing Bo Ran, and he was mostly in the stoic/quiet, smart type roles.
This is the his sexyiest, most flamboyant role yet, and it was fun to see him channelling Christian Grey-ish vibes, with hints of darkness and yet not.
It will be interesting to see where this hit drama takes him.
It’s crazy to me that people watch this. The plot is horrible. Are you all so horny that you will watch any garbage for a few sexy scenes? Smh
One of the sh.ttiest dramas of the year. Even top-tier vertical short dramas have started and make effort to display solid plots. This one has no sh.t. only relying on make outs
Must be so nice to be with Enlight Media. There have been dramas that rated higher but, because of poor marketing and promotion, never really got to be called a “hit.” Meanwhile, at least this agency seems fair when it comes to promoting all of its artists from Zhang Ruonan, Ren Min, Sun Qian, to Ding Yuxi, and others. They actually make sure their projects get the exposure they deserve.
as a novel fan, the female lead acting is bad.Like really really bad.She can’t cry when she need to,all her expressions are dead.I just feel frustrated everytime i see her in drama. Thank god,Jing Boran acting save the whole drama. I don’t like male lead in novel because he is totally blackflag in there. But when shooting this drama, they change the script a little and make the male lead nicer to flora. So i think it is one of the good change from novel to drama lol
lol black flag?! Not just red flag? They always tend to do this with adaptations though and either take main points and make up the rest or keep the plot and just fluff it up and eliminate the bad qualities. But it’s my first time hearing some one call someone a black flag 👍🏻
I read parts of the novel and I think the novel version is the biggest red flag. The better version in my opinion is the 廣播劇 version where their relationship and character developments are more complete/fleshed out without all of the toxicity lol
I started watching it after always seeing on my feed but gosh the pace is so slow and the acting is so wooden! I don’t know how this became a hit?!!
Because of all the flirting and sexually intimate scenes. lol. Character development, My a$$ !! lol
I’m watching it, for him. Both characters have flaws. Him probably more but she annoys me more. She starts dull and dopey, which he knows but is physically attractive and has that faux innocent/ actually sexual thing going for herso well…. I really dislike faux innocent, naive acts. She’s already had a longterm relationship and anyone who is up for sex that early in a new relationship, isn’t, by definition, innocent.
The acts that had me eye-rolling were the bag-leaving in his appartment – possibly accidental but really? What woman leaves her bag, with all her stuff in at a one night stand place!!! THEN, after she said she didn’t want to continue, I think, requested a team transfer and was asked by her new boss to get files from Lukas which he declined to give her. DID she report that back to her new boss?-Nope. Instead she went to Lukas’s apartment late at night to do what? Something that she couldn’t do on the phone, in the office – the customary places you ask a fellow colleague for something wotk related.
Anyway, I’m still watching and the two characters are still annoying but I’m in it for him. Yes, I find him hot and he’s a good actor, judging by his performance here. I’ll check out more of his work.
I couldn’t get past the second episode. I knew before I watched that their relationship was toxic so I went in with zero expectations. But even expecting nothing, I still found it such a snooze fest. Maybe I’ll jump to the last episode to see how it ends. But yeah, unpopular opinion from me: I don’t get the hype at all.
I think the women watching this show and frothing at the mouth n getting so excited n calling it the best drama ever are just horny. Just admit it, it’s ok.
There is nothing worth watching abt this show if u take away the ML and the so called sexy scenes – which is the 2 things ppl are watching for.
The characters are both red flags, their romance is literally workplace harassment n the plot is so thin.