Amidst a Snowstorm of Love (2024)

"Amidst a Snowstorm of Love": Navigating the Depths of Love

"Amidst a Snowstorm of Love," a Chinese romantic drama aired from February 2 to February 14, 2024, presents a narrative interwoven with love, motivation, and the pursuit of dreams.
While the chemistry between the lead actors, Leo Wu as Lin Yi Yang and Zhao Jin Mai as Yin Guo, has been praised, it is essential to critically analyze the various facets of the drama, including its thematic elements, character dynamics, audience reception, and the apparent rating discrepancies on Douban.

1. Thematic Exploration: Love as a Motivator:
I am so appreciating that "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love" explores the profound impact of love as a driving force behind individual aspirations. The romantic relationship between Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo serves as a catalyst for both characters to pursue their dreams, particularly Lin Yiyang's return to professional billiards. The drama portrays love not merely as an emotional connection but as a motivational tool, compelling the characters to overcome challenges and strive for excellence.

2. Character Dynamics and Chemistry:
The chemistry between Leo Wu and Zhao Jin Mai is lauded as a standout element of the drama. Their portrayal of Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo contributes to the overall light, refreshing, and highly romantic atmosphere of the series. The interactions and emotional depth displayed by the actors enhance the authenticity of the characters, creating a compelling narrative that resonates with viewers.

3. Supporting Cast and Storytelling:
"Amidst a Snowstorm of Love" benefits from a talented supporting cast, including Wang Xingyue, Ding Xiaoying, and Chen Jingke. The drama promises captivating and inspiring storytelling, adding depth to the romantic plot. However, a comprehensive evaluation requires a closer examination of character arcs, plot development, and the overall coherence of the narrative.

4. Musical Ambiance and Emotional Resonance:
The lovely OST of "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love", plays a pivotal role in creating a rich and immersive atmosphere. Each musical piece is carefully selected to match the emotional beats of the scenes, amplifying the romantic moments and intensifying the dramatic sequences. The synergy between the visuals and the music elevates the storytelling, allowing the audience to connect with the characters on a deeper, more emotional level. The Theme song Love and Shine, written in English poetry, shows that this C - Drama is targeting the international market.

5. Audience Reception and Douban Rating Discrepancies:
Despite the drama's seemingly positive reception, the Douban rating of 6.9, based on 43,000 reviews, has sparked controversy. While some users express satisfaction, a significant number award only 2 or 3 stars, suggesting a divide in audience opinions. The reasons for this discrepancy warrant investigation, as it raises questions about the reliability and representativeness of Douban ratings.

6. Weibo Response and Public Opinion:
The immediate reaction on Weibo reveals a divergence of opinions, with many netizens expressing disagreement with the Douban rating. Supporters argue that the drama's sweet storyline and impeccable performances deserve a higher rating. Analyzing these public sentiments sheds light on the complexities of audience expectations and the potential influence of online platforms on perceptions.

Overall, "Amidst a Snowstorm of Love" emerges as a drama that successfully integrates romance, motivation, and individual pursuits. While the chemistry between the lead actors contributes to its appeal, the apparent rating discrepancies on Douban highlight the challenges in evaluating subjective elements like personal preferences in storytelling. A comprehensive critical analysis requires an exploration of the drama's thematic nuances, character dynamics, and the diverse responses from both critics and the general audience. As the drama concludes, the discourse surrounding its reception invites further reflection on the intricacies of viewer expectations and the evolving landscape of Chinese romantic dramas.

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Drama para volver a mirar varias veces.

Lo encontré de la nada y sin dudarlo se convirtió de mis dramas favoritos.
Los actores son muy buenos y los main tienen una química increíble, la historia es hermosisima al igual que la cinematografía, el ost completa para que todo sea perfecto, no hay discusiones, ni terceros, nada extra y eso lo vuelve todavía mejor.
Mi escena favorita sigue siendo cuando él se le confiesa en la lavandería y también la cual él ve que los granos de café que le había dado, ella los tenía guardado.. de solo hablar de esas escenas me da muchas ganas de tener tiempo y volver a mirarlo completo así que si quieren ver un drama que los haga sentir muchas mariposas esta es la opción correcta.

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Anything with Leo Wu I'm in

Finished watching it 2 weeks ago but was too lazy to write a review.

The first C-Drama where they actually went abroad to film & didn't fake it.

Lin Yi Yang is a student living in Finland. He is reserved, not a big talker, good with people, hard-working. A snooker player who is good at his studies. He is studying communication but doesn't know how to do it in person.

It was funny to see the way Yin Guo was suspicious of Lin Yi Yang being a fraud & him showing her his IDs.

The way Yin Guo was saying that Lin Yi Yang wasn't that handsome & suddenly he suggested a place to visit was so funny.

The awkward silence between Lin Yi Yang & Yin Guo.

It was cute to see how Lin Yi Yang slowed his walking speed when he saw Yin Guo struggling to match him. And then he switched places with Yin Guo when he saw her struggling to walk.

Lin Yi Yang treated Yin Guo with expressive things when he didn't have that much money & Wu Wei getting annoyed with him. Also, he arranged everything for Yin Guo's room, even taking Wu Wei's things.

It was funny to see Yin Guo & Meng Xiao Tian so scared when they saw Lin Yi Yang & Meng Xiao Dong face to face.

Love the way Meng Xiao Dong talks, he is cocky, not the kind of brother who stops his sister from pursuing her love and even encourages her to make a move. Everyone needs a supportive brother like Meng Xiao Dong.

Loved Lin Yi Yang & Meng Xiao Dong snooker face off. Also, when Lin Yi Yang signaled Meng Xiao Dong to stop playing, because he needed to message Yin Guo.

Lin Yi Yang gets annoyed whenever his friends come & disturb his & Yin Guo moments.

Wu Lei shirtless Ufffffffffffff

Yin Guo gets shy & breathes heavily whenever Lin Yi Yang is close to her.

Meng Xiao Dong changes completely whenever he sees Lin Lin. And how Jiang Yang & Lin Yi Yang push him towards Lin Lin. I want a drama about them with the same cast, obviously.

I wished they had shown more about their friendship, brotherhood.

And I think steamy kissing scenes depend on the director & not because of restrictions of the government. Because there're many dramas where there are a lot of steamy kissing scenes, like Love is Sweet, Till the End of the Moon, Story of Kunning Palace, Dramas that I haven't watched, like Hidden Love, You Are My Glory Destined, New Life Begins and many more. If there was restriction by the government, these dramas wouldn't have steamy kissing scenes.

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The best masterpiece of 2024

Honestly, I went here without any expectations plus I'm not a big fan of Wu Lei. However, I've watched Zhao Jinmai before and she has impressed me in 'Reset'. Months before this show aired, I've read the complete version of the novel so I will make my judgement based on what I watch and read.

The plot, in my opinion, is quite simple. The story basically tells us about two strangers bumping into each other in a bar on a rare snowstorm night. Then, the ML starts having a crush on the FL when they shared the same apartment days later. He also learns that she is a popular nine-ball player and it sparks more of his interest towards her. Because of her, he starts over his already-retired career as a snooker player and becomes a famous player once again.

I can say that the chemistry between the leads is swoon-worthy. I found myself constantly giggling in front of the screen for no reason. Wu Lei and Zhao Jinmai really nailed the role and fitted the description of Lin Yiyang and Yin Guo. I can't imagine any other leads being them. They were just too perfect in being a green-flag couple. Special mention to the supporting characters too, including Meng Xiaodong, Jiang Yang, Wu Wei, Chen An An, and Meng Xiaotian. I also love the master-disciple relationship between Lin Yiyang and Mr. He Wenfeng. I'm usually indifferent when it comes to the angst. However, I shed some tears in Mr. He's funeral scene.

OSTs are quite nice and adds more sweetness in the scene. I like nearly all of the OSTs in this drama. Usually, I would've skipped the OSTs, but this time I'm all ears for them.

I seldom rewatch dramas, so I think I will only watch some clips and try to rewatch it if I have spare time. Kudos to all the casts and the production team. All in all, this the best modern c-drama I've ever watched (the best gift for celebrating Lunar New Year). This is the end of my review. Enjoy your day and happy watching!!!

P.S.
The drama follows closely to the novel except they changed the shooting location from the USA to Finland (and France for a brief moment).

As for the ending, the novel ends after Lin Yiyang proposes to Yin Guo after singing a song. However, in the drama, 3 years later, they return to Finland and take Jiang Yang's son with them. In the last scene, they go back to Redfish (the bar where they met for the first time) and listen to 'Love and Shine' again. The final scene shows that they've left Redfish and walked together side by side. Nevertheless, it's a HE and you won't be disappointed.

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Very awkward romance

Full disclosure. I stopped after the 3rd eposide.

I usually give shows a fair chance to build characters and engage me. But in 3 full episodes, there was zero development, and zero character growth. The worst part, is that in a romantic drama, you want to see the attraction between the leads develop and grow. In this show, they seem to fall for each other by the 2nd episode, with absolutely no reason provided. All we get from them are quiet awkward conversations from the beginning. So when you add the fact that there is no other ongoing story line, i just gave up.

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The drama itself is very slow-paced, yet it absorbs with its narrative

I started watching ASSOL without any background information. At the beginning of the first episode, I thought that the blizzard city could be from Finland (by default, some place in China). After a while, I realized that the series was partly filmed in Finland. The cities of Helsin and Hel(l) in the story is Helsinki. Thus, as a Finn, the interest in drama rose all at once.

The drama itself is very slow-paced, yet it absorbs with its narrative. The male lead in his role is very convincing. The female lead is certainly a talented actress, but the image of women in Chinese dramas is annoying, to say the least, from such a European perspective. This time, shyness has been taken to extremes. Extra points for the following points: Due to Arctic conditions, this time there has been no need to look at the microskirts of female actors. In addition, the number of soft toys is kept to a minimum.

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Unexpected disappointment

I usually don't write reviews here, I use my twitter account to simply send my random thoughts during the watching party, but I am afraid this one deserves a greater explanation than 2-3 sentences I can squeeze in a tweet.

Back when this drama was airing, many of my friends were watching and praising it. I was asked on multiple occasions why I don't give it a try, and at first, it was because I was busy, but later on I found out it's a sports drama which is usually not my cup of tea. Lately, I've been more into cdramas so I decided to finally give this drama a try. Everyone and their mothers loved it, I should too, right?

Hah, how wrong I was.

I won't lie, the first 2 episodes were actually entertaining, I loved the idea of a guy who randomly saw this pretty girl and fell in love with her at first sight. I found their initial awkwardness around each other cute and realistic, but as time progressed, instead of dissipating, that awkwardness became more and more evident.

There was too much staring and almost 0 communication between them. Every time they had one of their staring parties, I had to divert my eyes because I was physically uncomfortable with it. The lack of communication between them was also killing me because how are you so madly liking someone, but not knowing anything about them except the basic info? They could be a total nuthouse, as opposed to their good looks, aren't you interested in finding out more? They even brought it up multiple times, asking each other why are they so quiet and that raised my first red flag because they literally had so many things to talk about (billiards, moving from China, uni life, adaptation to new surroundings, heck even weather talk would do), but they opted to keep their mouth stuffed with food with a sprinkle of bizarre staring on top (the lack of music in staring scenes made it even creepier).

We got a glimpse of ML's traumatic past which could possibly be a reason for his rather cold and seemingly unbothered behavior, but at the same time, he seems to get along with everyone - every random character that spawned out of nowhere had nothing but good words about him, treating him and taking care of him. So, if you managed to make them like you, why are you now blanking in front of the girl you like? Math ain't mathing.

FL's behavior also didn't really make any sense, but I guess it had to be like that for the sake of the plot. Moving in with the first guy you met on another continent seems like the start of a horror movie to me.

And my last, and probably the weirdest reason I dropped it is the age gap. Now, I watched HL before, and for some reason, I didn't really mind the age gap, but I just can't get over it here. I tried multiple times to forget it, but it just kept pestering me to the point that I started associating their lack of talk with their age difference which made me hate it even more.

I know I dropped this early and that there is plenty more room for it to get better, but I literally can't force myself through it anymore. I had a really high expectations and they weren't met so I should stop torturing myself and ruining the image for the people who actually loved it. The cast was actually good, I loved Zhao Jinmai in Reset and this whole review has nothing with them, but their characters, but even they couldn't make me stay. OST and pretty city shots are also a bonus, but they're not the ones I am ready to sacrifice 25 hours for.

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une si grande attente....pour rien!

Ah mais je l'attendais. Depuis Nirvana in Fire, je suis une admiratrice inconditionnelle de Wu Lei.
Il en faut bien. Après tout, cette année, mon chéri Nam Goong Min ou bien les soeurs Hong ont été mes plus grosses déceptions... Je pense, et ce n'est que mon avis, que ce type de rôle ne vont pas du tout à Wu Lei....
Des choses positives? hum....les premiers épisodes sont loin d'être mauvais et j'ai fort apprécié le début de la romance. Les personnages secondaires étaient amusants et drôles.... et puis, au bout de 10 épisodes, voire avant, je me suis rendue compte que cela tournait en rond...
Passons donc aux choses négatives :
La romance! c'est le GROS point noir de ce drama. Mais punaise, l'auteur (si vous m'avez un peu lu vous devez savoir que j'ai aimé "Go Go squid", "scarlet heart" et surtout ADORE " One and Only") a vraiment écrit une mauvaise romance... TOUT dans ce drama tourne autour de ce couple, qui est loin d'être de ce que j'ai pu voir de meilleur dans dramaland. La romance est ennuyeuse, c'est fou, les conversations sont d'une banalité incroyable et les interactions sombre sans aucune alchimie....Pas un seul instant je n'ai cru à leur histoire ou n'ai voulu les voir ensemble. Pire, le couple passe son temps à s'embrasser, à s'enlacer, à se toucher, à se regarder dans le blanc des yeux....AHHHHH mais c'était juste horrible! Je n'ai rien contre un drama 100% romance, mais ici je me suis sentie gênée, les scènes nous implique dans une intimité un peu malsaine. C'est un couple où il. ne se passe RIEN pendant 30 épisodes. Pas d'obstacles. Pas d'évolution. Sans aucun intérêt si ce n'est leur coup de foudre mutuel./ Il n'y a rien à raconter, rien à voir. Et c'est horrible de voir un personnage masculin qui se jette sur le personnage féminin à la moindre occasion : l'embrasser alors qu'elle se refuse, la toucher toutes les minutes, la coincer dans un coin.....Je n'ai rien contre un badass qui se montrerai un peu trop entreprenant (Xiao Liu!), mais ici, c'est too much.... C'est dans tous les épisodes. Je ne compte plus les nombres de fois où la nenette dit "non", certes un peu faiblard, mais un non reste un non...J'ai donc trouvé le comportement Lin Yi Yang trop déplacé et pas vraiment respectueux de Yin Guo....Il a 27 ans, elle en a 21.... Et si Yi Yang est un peu lourd en tant qu'amoureux transi, Yin Guo est la personnification même de la nana qui m'horripile le plus : parfaite, pure, gentille, chouineuse, soumise qui ne connait pas la défaite...j'avoue que sa façon de pleurer et parler m'a vite taper sur les nerfs...
Si vous vous attendez à des scènes intenses durant les compétitions de billards, passez votre chemin. Ici, le billard n'est qu'une façade, une scène pour nos tourtereaux. On n'apprend rien, mais strictement rien du billard. Un peu de "pin pong life" n'aurait pas été de refus, c'est à dire quelques petits explications sur ce monde aurait été le bienvenu. Et les personnages? ahahahaha. Ils sont tellement parfaits, des champions, que cela soit Yin Guo ou Yi Yang, je ne vois pas l'intérêt de parler de joueurs à qui tout réussi.... Ils sont aimés de tout le monde, ils jouent à la perfection, ils sont le couple parfait (sans disputes, sans malentendus, sans rivaux...), Mr et Mme parfait! Aucun intérêt en ce qui me concerne.
Bref, c'est en ce qui me concerne un drama dont l'ennui a eu vite raison de mon envie de voir Wu Lei jusqu'au bout. A la place, je me jette sur le drama de Yang Zi, "love endures" qui sans être la romance du siècle a au moins le mérite de me faire rire aux éclats.

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