#simon lian

Okay guys I honestly have not yet finished my book edits but I need a break from biblio and paragraphing so here’s a drama rec!! I don’t usually recommend like het dramas but I really love this one so far!!!

Plot: Zheng Xiao En is an editor working on some book plot - Chinese romance novels, which are usually centred on an arrogant, rich guy who’s also typically a rich CEO of a company. Anyway she finds herself transported into this very book and plot after fainting one day and she meets the guy of her dreams (in real life) in the novel, who’s also a successful, rich CEO in real life called He Tian XIng. 

In the book however, his name is Si Tu Ao Ran, and she thinks she’s playing the main female lead character but she was transported in as the evil side bitch who’s out to break up Ao Ran and the female lead, named Chu Chu. Cue some rom-com shenanigans, a whole lot of GOOD angst where Xiao En realizes halfway that no matter what she does, she can’t change her fate to become the main love interest for Ao Ran ;-; It’s hilarious AF because she’s watching a standard like Asian love drama where two men are trying to chase after the same female lead - all the terrible tropes man ALL OF EM - and she’s like damn it what the hell is this plot XD 

Side-plots: He Tian Xing, who’s the real-life version of Ao Ran, is also in a coma after his older half sister or something tried to wrestle control and power over the company (after their dad goes into a coma) - They haven’t actually gone in depth into this yet, except for showing how the sister is plotting and scheming and being evil. If Tian Xing was transported into the book for real, I don’t yet see like him being cognizant of it! 

Reasons why I love this: 

IT’S HILARIOUS. Like Xiao En judging every single time the female lead falls down and Ao Ran catches her in some gorgeous and beautiful scene, Ao Ran having some tragic backstory, the other guy who likes the female lead who’s Ao Ran’s secretary/best friend

OMG THE UNREQUITED BUT REQUITED LOVE TROPE IS DELICIOUS. DELICIOUS OKAY!!! 

She’s basically like the audience that’s jaded with dumbass weak-damsel-in-distress plots and she’s watching it unfold before her and going like wtf people actually write it like this (and as literally the EDITOR of this story she’s in, it’s even more hilarious)

MARCUS CHANG AS SI TU AO RAN/HE TIAN XING. Gosh he’s so damn handsome!!!

Have I already mentioned that I am a sucker for the unrequited but requited love thing?!!!

Assuming that Tian Xing remembers his love for Xiao En from in the novel later when he wakes up in the real world, I wonder how everything is going to pan out because he seems to have a mild love interest (a different girl) there as well.

Where to watch: Kissasian for now if you need subs! Not sure if Viki and the other places has it yet. Currently airing episode 8.

Characters!!!

Zheng Xiao En: She’s every one of us. We all want to be in that story where we get noticed by the rich other person and then have a series of coincidental but fated meetings with the person. Her celebrity crush is He Tian Xing, who’s this celebrity businessman (and then also all that inheritance problems I mentioned above with the older sister) because of what he says in interviews (you know that, when all seems hopeless, there is still a reason to keep going, that kinda shit) and because she was in a tough place, she was like YES MY IDOL YOU BROUGHT ME OUT OF A DARK PLACE. So when she gets dumped into her own novel, she feels a (misplaced?!!) affinity with Ao Ran who looks exactly like him (and was probably written in the image of him).

After lying her way into becoming Ao Ran’s housekeeper, spending time with him, arguing with him, trying to break up the romantic atmosphere between the two at the dinner table (below) etc. she realizes after that she can’t change the fact that she’s the side bitch in the novel and stops trying to break them up (not that she was trying very hard or you know being evil in the first place).

And she tries to make sure Chu Chu (who’s of course always bullied and isolated at the office) gets along better with everyone else, and being her friend. But Ao Ran is very sure that Xiao En is trying to harm Chu Chu, hence the angst and unrequited/requited thing going on. She & Chu Chu do get a kiss scene tho XD

I really like her character because she knows what’s going on and like I said  she’s cringing along with the rest of us as the audience at the ‘typical het romance plot devices’ present in most romance shows! She’s the epitome of “I tried” and “damn it who the fuck wrote this in” and I’m all here for it!!

He Tian Xing/Si Tu Ao Ran: As Tian Xing, he’s in a coma right now while his sister does dumb and evil shit outside. Within the novel, Ao Ran has a phobia of the dark because tragic story - he was locked up in the storage basement in the dark for as long as a day whenever he misbehaved by his father, and so he sleeps with all the lights on etc. 

He meets Chu Chu in the novel when she “TRIES TO CLIMB A TREE TO HELP A BIRD” and he catches her when she falls and says “YOU’RE SO KIND” and BOOM they fall in love like all male and female leads of shows/plots do while Xiao En (who was there because she wanted to BE THE FEMALE LEAD AND KNEW SHE NEEDED TO FALL FROM A TREE AT THIS PLACE) watched on and realized for the first time that FARK. SHE’S THAT CHARACTER. Anyway, as Ao Ran he obviously falls for Chu Chu, but he finds his mind all occupied by Xiao En because she literally keeps putting herself in front of him, but he thinks that she’s trying to harm Chu Chu all the time!!! 

It’s episode like 8 next airing tonight though and you can see how Ao Ran now realizes how much he thinks of Xiao En, just when she’s totally given up on him XD

Chu Chu: The typical cute, beautiful, small damsel in distress who comes from a poor family and had to work her way up but is also bullied by the people around her. She KEEPS FALLING. AO RAN KEEPS CATCHING HER. my god, it’s amazing. She’s not a terrible character (cuz we know as the audience that she was written like this as a caricature in a sense, as a character from this novel) and she really is the White Lotus flower type

She keeps dropping stuff too where Ao Ran can see them and that’s how their relationship is supposed to progress XD

Of course, he’s supposed to end up with Xiao En IN and OUT of the novel, I presume, but there aren’t much hints that I’ve seen so far on how they’re gonna explain the novel world + real world between them both!!! Either way I’m loving the angst right now.

Qing Feng:  AHAH! The fated non-requited love male character, who initially likes Chu Chu as well and teams up with Xiao En to try to break Ao Ran and Chu Chu up, but (spoilers, he ends up still a non-requited second male lead because he falls for Xiao En later)!! And he ends up being real sweet and supportive for Xiao En gosh I CRY.

November 2k20 | 📷                                                       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5


Long time no view, but alas here I am and for no other reason(s) than to share with you my two-cents on the existential-crisis-inducing-because-that’s-how-good-it-is series that is Taiwanese drama Lost Romance, featuring Marcus Chang and Vivian Sung. If you must know anything about Marcus (if you don’t already) is that he sure is a charmer and I mean charmer! He’s just so visually pleasing, his persona as a whole has this magnetism to it (especially when he sprinkles in that English when speaking) and he’s just so good at his craft. For her part, Vivian is just so natural and effortless -beauty wise and craft wise. And so their pairing is one for the books -ugh so much chemistry between them someone give them their own (class) room.


Ohkay, let’s move on to plot. As a point of reference, if you have seen “The Romance of Tiger and Rose” the premise of “Lost Romance” is similar. Heroine travels to a fictional story world in where instead of being the heroine of that story she is a secondary (scheming) character. Something to underscore and establish as a noticeable difference to TROTAR, is that “Lost Romance” actively works to satirically exploit a lot of the overused tropes (cliches) so, so, so common to rom-coms. And thus in great part it’s the why behind this drama being such a great laugh. Additionally, as our fictional-world storyline progresses, a real-world storyline also simultaneously progresses. Hence viewers are moved between both worlds. I must say that a lot of the “whys” for the real-world storyline are not addressed until near the end and so you end up enacting a Cardi B., what was the reason! 


Now, let’s be honest with you, episodes one through two are definitely ones that you’ll (might) struggle getting past but do. not. let that keep you from viewing. Once you get to the story world you are in for unforgettable: hilarity, eye-candy, secondhand embarrassment, “feels,” off the charts SLS, romance, and even *cough* you’ll-need-a-cold-shower content (thank you Mr. Director, Mr./Ms. Screenwriter and who ever else was involved in giving us what we never ever considered possible).

Lost Romance. 9-10

Story: 9

Acting: 10

Chemistry: 10 🔥