Forget all that you watched before. Clear your mind from jaded gazing through heavily lead-tinted dark old-hand "grandma- who- knows- better" glasses of disbelief and suspicion. (Btw chuckle along when you get to the part with the monstrous and hilarious asymmetrical sunglasses presented to the big brother Sang Yan). Or nitpicking about colors, dress, or technicalities : these are anyway very good despite the short-changed budget it came from.
Even if this doesn't remind you of the crushes you might have had, all those treasured or awkward, sometimes suppressed and forgotten, childish memories, it could let you be moved or reminded of what it felt like to imagine love. You will thus get the added bonus of personal connection to the youth and coming-of-age story better than anything you watched before. Even those who had not so good experiences , even horrible ones, in love, recognized how wholesome this drama was and remains.

I suggest you watch on just as if you were admiring and expecting a small seedling break the soil and grow : first frail, then strong, until the rose bud flowers and engulfs you in its heavenly perfume : enjoy !

This drama is very special and we are many who knew it even from the beginning, with the young child actress Zhang XiWei who was not bad, ,but did not steal or represent the show. The continuity between her and older Sang Zhi (played by Zhao Lusi), was quite good : she was acting a role older than her real age, but represented well the difference between an overprotected and childish girl of 13-14, before the older actress took over to portray the evolution of the pampered 16-17 years old that suddenly broke the glass ceiling to experience her first real wound in love, and rebuilt herself into a more independent young lady of 19-20 in a different city. 20 is the minimum age for marriage in China btw. So, the dating had to take its time. And there were other smaller or bigger hurdles to overcome, that many watchers could relate to, one way or the other.

That's why it is on top of the wave of popularity in this summer season laden with blockbusters from Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible ... to long expected heavyweight c-dramas such as The Longest Promise : Hidden Love is not just a little appetizer story for fangirls of a manhua. Netflix does not look to China to purchase a drama idly.

Zhao Lusi ("ZhiZhi", Sang Zhi) and Chen Zheyuan (Duan Jiaxu) have elevated the "classical love story" from ordinary to work of art : it is that good!

The rest of the cast played along well or remarkably well :
- Sang Zhi's big brother was played by Chinese-American Victor Ma BoQian, who entered the world of Chinese entertainment by taking part in a song battle in 2017, where he was a strong competitor of Mao Buyi (who performed the famous "Drowning Sorrows" song that you can hear the tune of, when Duan Jiaxu went with colleagues to a karaoke where he bumped into Sang Zhi , now a freshman student at Yihe university.)
---- You will also find :
- an understanding and doting modern mom in Li Ping, Mrs Sang (played by Zeng Li, different from the at first traumatizing one she played in Love Like the Galaxy, but with whom Zhao Lusi had already many good memories of interacting on and off sets),
-a concerned but relatively generous dad in Sang Rong (played by Qiu XinZhi).
- faithful friends such as Qian Fei (played by "chubby" Hu YuXuan who has been remarked in many supporting roles since Ever Night), or a trio of sisterly university roommates, each with their own individuality :
- independent Yu Xin (played by Qi Tian Ting),
- bubbly Ning Wei (played by Smile Wei Xiao)
- and diffident Wang RuoLan (played by Wang YiLan) who has her own crush on
- a tall basket ball player university student, Jiang Ming (played by Lu DongXu) who himself had at first set his eyes on Sang Zhi.

There are understanding and supportive office superiors, such as :
- Li Xun (played by Guan JiTing) who is the director of a game design studio to which he invited Jiaxu when they were both interning in Nanwu in episode 4 (and no, this Li Xun is not related to the one in the drama Lighter and Princess, if you were wondering!) who is married to
-Jiang SiYun (played by Wang Yang), who is the motherly and big sisterly figure that makes the game designer studio a sort of home for the staff.

Since an antagonist of sorts is needed, we get the obsessive Jiang Ying (played by Xu ShiXin) who has a suspicious-minded friend in Shi XiaoYu (played by Shi XiYue) Xiaoyu also acts as superior to Sang Zhi during the student's internship in a design company in Yihe. But these two are barely a threat for the blossoming love story between main leads, so they are like the necessary mists and clouds that make the azure blue skies uplifting. That said, even rain on a day devoted for a project transforms the day into a very special camping opportunity, in the lovely story : it will remind some of the audience about the make-believe grand travels and explorings they did as kids on rainy days.

The background music and songs are sweet counterpoints to the moods and change in those.
Zhao Lusi sings two songs, the intro one, 只想把你偷偷藏好 (Just Want To Secretly Hide You), in duet with Silence Wang Sulong 汪苏泷 , and the solo song, 我有喜欢的人了 (I Have Someone I Like) -
Five other songs also contribute to make the OST pleasing and memorable :
- Be Your Light (sung by Victor Ma Boqian 马伯骞);
- You Are My Only Wish - 你是我此生唯一所愿 (sung by Diamond Zhang Bichen 张碧晨, famous singer and unconventional unwed mother of a daughter with ex-companion "Martian"musician Hua Chenyu 华晨宇),
- Forever Star - 张洢豪 (sung by Zhang Yihao 张洢豪),
- I Have You - 有你 (sung by Zhao Lei, but , not the Beijing born singer 赵雷 best known for his Chengdu song, but the Chengdu born younger 赵磊 who was a member of R1SE and X NINE), and
- Star Thief - 偷星星的人 (sung by yihuik 苡慧).
Some other tunes in addition to the Drowning Sorrows one (消愁) that I mentioned before, can be noticed. Such as a Zhao Lusi song from the Oh! My Emperor! drama (that also starred her), a snippet of a Coco Lee one (Di Da Di) sung by Sang Yan (The iconic Hong Kong singer passed away at 48 very recently on July 5, 2023. She is remembered for many songs such as “A Love Before Time,” from "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that almost won an Academy Award in 2000. Also for the "Reflection" song and voicing Fa Mulan in the Mandarin-language version of "Mulan,")
Also, in Ep12, student Jiang Ming sang and played on the guitar the song " I've Liked You Since The First Day I Met You"遇见你的第一天起我就喜欢你 by Zhāng Yīháo (張洢豪), from the OST of the recent youth c-drama 《时光与他，恰是正好 》Time and Him are Just Right. The tune is repeated in background music in the last episode bar scene.

Hidden Love, despite all the complications it went through, in its making (that you can learn separately about it, in interviews, if you are curious), is already an international phenomenon, breaking many mental and geographical boundaries with its soft and refreshing, healing message, based on humanity's most powerful sentiments to change the world for the better : hope, confidence, benevolence, trust, courage, persistence, and love.

The drama has an "extra" episode 25.5 after the 25 scheduled ones. This extra one is, like for Lighter and Princess, a compilation of various footage such as jokes, humorous BTS and making of iconic scenes, fashion parade, interview, cut scenes, more, and ends on a wish that touches the audience too, written by Jiaxu on a strip of star paper : 只只的 所有的 愿望 成真 (Zhǐ zhǐ de suǒyǒu de yuànwàng chéng zhēn) : May ZhiZhi's wishes come true

Also, don't forget to play along with the episodes' end snippets to find clues about where they belong and why they were added.