Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Love Under the Moon
( 山月不知心底事 / Shan Yue Bu Shi Xin Di Shi / The Moon Doesn’t Understand My Heart)
MyDramaList rating: 6.0/10

Hey-hey-hoo! It’s been a while! It feels so weird not to write a review at least once a month. Anyways, I’m back with one now! As you can tell from the date of my last review, it took me nearly two full months to finish this drama. It was very lengthy and very slow-paced, and I took a lot of time in-between episodes. Still, I wanted to give it a proper review as I do with everything I watch. This is the third drama series my Wheel of Fortune app picked out for me, and I honestly can’t even remember putting it on my list but it must have been there for a reason! I like that so far the app has picked out three completely different shows from three different countries – it’s getting bonus points for variation for sure! Apart from that I just want to stress that since it took me such a long time to finish this show, not every single detail may be as clear in my memory as I’d like. Having said that, let’s go!

Love Under the Moon is a Chinese Youku drama series with 48 episodes of each 45 minutes (excluding the opening and ending sequences). It follows the development of a couple that grew up in the countryside together, Ye Qian Ze (played by Ou Hao) and Xiang Yuan (played by Victoria Song/Qian Song). Xiang Yuan and her younger sister Xiang Yao (played by Lin Tian Yuan) lost their parents at a young age. Qian Ze and his younger brother Ye Yun (played by Xia Ning Jun) grew up under the care of their single mother, as their father had left them behind to go study and live a new life in the big city after the Cultural Revolution. Qian Ze’s mother (Yang Tong Shu) basically raised all four kids under her own roof, and so they grew up as one big family.
The connection between Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan has been undeniable ever since childhood. Even though they’re not going around telling everyone they’re a couple, there’s just this understanding between them that they’re going to end up together no matter what. As soon as they finish high school, they start referring to each other as their boy/girlfriend matter-of-factly, and no one bats an eye.
One day, Qian Ze’s father, Ye Bing Lin (played by Ding Yong Dai) suddenly turns up with the intention to take Qian Ze back to Guangzhou with him because he’ll have better chances of education there. Qian Ze, who initially doesn’t want anything to do with his father, still ends up moving away with him after being strongly persuaded by his mother and Xiang Yuan. Xiang Yuan is determined to pass her exams with stellar grades so she can come to Guangzhou and study in the same city as Qian Ze. They’ll be together, no matter what. However, tragedy strikes when Qian Ze’s mother passes away while he’s gone, and he ends up having to move in with his father and his new step-family permanently. He initially can’t really get used to his new life in the city, away from Xiang Yuan and his hometown. He’s awkward with his dad and stepmother Jiang Yu Shan (played by Wen Zheng Rong). He only starts to open up because of his step-cousin Dong Ling (played by Sun Yi/Sun Lan Xiu Mei). Dong Ling, also referred to as Ling Ling, was adopted by her aunt (Qian Ze’s stepmother) after her parents passed away (due to an accident I believe). In other words, Dong Ling is Qian Ze’s adopted step-cousin (🤔) but basically she becomes like a little sister to him. Dong Ling is very eager to meet her new ‘older brother/cousin’ and helps him get settled. As she gets to know him better, she eventually starts falling for him, and gets increasingly jealous of his relationship with Xiang Yuan.
Through the years, Xiang Yuan, Ye Yun and Xiang Yao all start moving to Guangzhou to start a new life there, and a lot of things happen to all of them that make them mature, face hardships and create new bonds and connections with people, both professionally and romantically.

The funny thing is that while I was watching this, I was also reading a book on Chinese tea culture that actually referred to a couple of the same places as this drama did. It also started out with an introduction on the Cultural Revolution and it also partially took place in Guangzhou. I believe even the name of the province the main characters grew up in was mentioned, although I don’t remember the name now (something with an ‘A’). Anyways, it did feel like the stars aligned in that respect, as I was suddenly watching and reading two different stories that took place in the same area. The book is ‘The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane’ by Lisa See, in case anyone’s interested.

Honestly, I liked the concept of this series. I’m usually keen on slow-paced stories that focus on the development of the characters and see how they mature as they graduate, become adults and start shaping their own futures. Some examples of series like this are Love til the End of Summer, A Love So Beautiful and With You and for instance First Love: Hatsukoi and Twenty-Five Twenty-One. I love when series have a nostalgic feeling to them and this one had that as well – it starts in the late 1990s, without mobile phones and advanced technology or transport. When Qian Ze moves away to Guangzhou, he and Xiang Yuan initially don’t have a direct way to contact each other. I believe he calls her at school via a payphone once, and that takes a whole lot of time and effort, with an operator and all that. I also really loved the fact that Xiang Yuan had to pass her hand-written letter to a truck driver so that he could bring it to Guangzhou, and how emotional Qian Ze got when he finally received it. It just perfectly captured the pure nostalgia of not knowing when to expect a letter from a loved one and then being completely elated when it finally arrives. Those aspects made it really nostalgic and warm, also because the relationship between the two just persevered so naturally. They would always find a way, no matter how much time it would take, to get in touch with one another.

While I understand that the main message was about showing how strong the love between Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan was and that it could overcome any obstacle, the lack of a storyline beyond that definitely made the show feel very long and dragging. I think it had to do with the pacing as well. Some elements felt a bit random or added-on with the purpose of filling time while the story could’ve been wrapped up much more concisely in my opinion.

Let me just go over the main characters and analyze them a bit more thoroughly.
To start with Xiang Yuan. By the way, I’m aware that she has a two syllable name and ‘Xiang’ is her last name so I might as well call her ‘Yuan’. However, she’s only ever called by her full name ‘Xiang Yuan’ throughout the entire series, even by Qian Ze, so I’m just going to keep it that way. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews as well, it feels weird referring to a certain character by a name that wasn’t used to refer to them in the series. In any case, Xiang Yuan is a very smart and rational girl/woman. She initially studies finances, and throughout college it becomes clear that she has a real knack for business. At some point she starts selling items in her dorm, for example, to earn some side money. She also excels at any internship or job she manages to land. As an adult, she definitely became more serious and she also started challenging Qian Ze more by not choosing his side on every single matter. Still, it was nice that her love for Qian Ze never wavered and their disagreements never reached a point where they would actually consider breaking up.
There were a few times when I didn’t agree with her, even though I understood where she was coming from. The first time was when she persuaded Qian Ze to go to London under the promise that she’d go with him, while she wasn’t actually planning to. It was an agreement she had with his dad to get him to study abroad because Qian Ze wouldn’t listen to his father. The way she went about that was just not right. I mean come on, she literally went all the way up to the gate with him and only fessed up when he noticed she didn’t have any luggage with her. I think it was right of her to be the one to make amends and start emailing him afterwards to show that she was sorry, but I definitely didn’t blame Qian Ze for being angry with her about that. That was just plain betrayal. Also, the time when she walked out of their home-viewing appointment because work was more important to her. Like, I know she was busy and dealing with important things, but it was just a very inconsiderate move. Again, she kind of redeemed herself but it did take her some time to realize the mistake she’d made and how anxious she’d made Qian Ze feel by showing so little interest in their marriage and future together. So yeah, while I generally liked her as a person for her morale and rationale, and I totally understood that she didn’t want to depend too much on the Ye family’s financial support, I did feel like she could’ve been a bit more considerate and thoughtful about Qian Ze’s feelings at times.
I liked the scenes where they would discuss issues together, because they eventually became partners in business as well as in life. I liked how they ended up communicating about things, even though there would be some tension between them and it wouldn’t always end in a hug. I think their relationship, in that respect, was very realistic because it showed that it wasn’t only about the intimate and romantic moments, It was also about actually living together and facing issues together, be it on the work floor or in a more private setting.
I did judge Xiang Yuan a little bit for getting so randomly strict with her younger sister Xiang Yao. I could understand that Xiang Yao was feeling pressured. She didn’t feel as ‘accomplished’ as her older sister, she couldn’t find a proper job to stick to, and then there was also the awkward situation with Ye Yun where she just felt like she didn’t live in the same world as him anymore. And then, when she finally landed a stable job (thanks to Qian Ze) and finally felt happy because she started seeing someone, Xiang Yuan even started criticizing her dating life.

To be completely honest, I felt a bit uncomfortable myself regarding the pairing of Xiang Yao and Teng Jun (Zhao Zhi Gang), but it mostly had to do with the fact that he literally looked like he could’ve been her uncle. I just don’t understand why they couldn’t have casted someone her age. After looking it up I discovered that there’s actually a 15-year age difference between them! When this show aired he was 39 while she was 24! So yeah, that doesn’t really sit right with me.
But it seemed like, in the show, Xiang Yuan’s dissatisfaction with him didn’t even have to do with his age, per se. Other than that he was really sweet and treated Xiang Yao really well, so I didn’t really understand what Xiang Yuan’s beef with him was. Maybe she was just overprotective, which I’d understand, but it just came out of nowhere, especially considering she wasn’t really that involved in her younger sister’s life.

It may have become clear from the previous paragraph, but I was mainly Team Qian Ze during this show. Honestly, what a guy. He definitely took a longer time to mature compared to Xiang Yuan, but I couldn’t really criticize him because I was too softened by his love for Xiang Yuan 😇. Seriously, get yourself a man like Ye Qian Ze. I do think it was good for his character development that Xiang Yuan wasn’t always just agreeing with everything he said and did. Their dynamic would’ve been a lot less interesting to watch if they were just lovey-dovey all the time. The fact that they fought and spent time apart only to realize they really needed each other definitely worked in their favor.
What I liked about Qian Ze was that he was really just living his own life without paying too much attention to other people and their opinions of him. I always really admire this in people, mainly because I’m someone who always, even though I hate it, pays attention to what other people think and say. Qian Ze was a really simple guy and only paid attention to what he was interested in. In the beginning this stood in contrast with Xiang Yuan’s ambitions, as he didn’t really want to take over his dad’s company as long as he could just be happy with his girl. But going through so many experiences and studying abroad and meeting all sorts of people and taking on the responsibility of his father’s company really made him mature.
The only thing I criticized him on was that he could’ve acknowledged the Dong Ling situation way earlier. He was too bent on proving Xiang Yuan wrong and thereby let it escalate a bit. I mean, fair enough, Dong Ling still persevered even after he’d clearly rejected her a couple of times, but it could’ve saved us so many painful situations caused by Dong Ling’s delulu state. I did like how, when he eventually acknowledged the truth, he did everything he could to stay away from her and reject her approaches. Not because he particularly cared about it himself, but because he knew it made Xiang Yuan uncomfortable. He was fine with letting it slide because it didn’t mean anything to him. He’d made clear that he wasn’t interested in her like that, so it didn’t matter to him whether he kept something she’d given him as a present, for example. But what matters is that he was willing to go the extra mile and tell Dong Ling to back off because he wanted Xiang Yuan to feel at ease about the situation, and that was also a big green flag about him.

Dong Ling was definitely the cause of a lot of my frustration while watching this show.
First of all, because it was annoying how persistent she was in trying to woo Qian Ze and kept believing that she could actually break him and Xiang Yuan apart despite facing rejection after rejection. I honestly couldn’t even watch it without feeling secondhand embarrassment at some point. I also just didn’t understand why she kept doing this to herself. She knew Qian Ze loved Xiang Yuan and that he wanted to spend every free moment he had with his girlfriend. Still, whenever she heard someone say they were together, her face would drop and I’d be like, ‘for the umpteenth time, what did you expect?! 🙄’ I can’t believe she kept expecting to hear something different. It got even worse when she went after him to London. It was just so painful to watch that she kept expecting Qian Ze to be happy to see her, while he literally went, ‘what the fuck are you doing here?’ when she suddenly appeared on his doorstep. I really applauded the fact that Qian Ze immediately started looking for a room mate for her because he was not going to live in one house with her, that was really sharp of him. But then she would just chase every single potential room mate away, of course. The final drop was definitely that cup (no pun intended). Seriously, that was next-level obsessive stuff. She literally made Qian Ze a cup with the engraving, ‘you are in my blood, you are the sin of my life‘. 😬 Yikes forever. I’m just glad that was about the last of it before she finally realized she was the one who needed to wake up from her delusion.
Secondly, when she finally got over Qian Ze and finally moved on to live her own life, she just ended up with the worst ending ever. I just couldn’t feel satisfied with how her storyline ended. Honestly, the only thing I wanted was for her to find her own happiness after coming to terms with her own inability to let go of a fruitless pursuit. She was a talented young lady and I honestly believe that she grew and matured a lot, in her own way. It was a very good call to move abroad for a while to get herself together, too. But then what, she ends up offering herself into a transactional marriage just to get the company out of trouble? Was that really the only way to go? Was she really just destined to be miserable? It just didn’t feel fair. No matter how much she annoyed me while she was pursuing Qian Ze, I honestly didn’t wish this kind of ending for her. She deserved better than that.

I have to admit I did end up changing my mind about Qian Ze’s father and stepmother. In the beginning I was worried that they would only care about the company and the family’s reputation. At one point it even seemed like they intended to break Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan apart because they saw how much influence Xiang Yuan had over Qian Ze – in the sense that he always listened to her, not that she ever tried to manipulate him or something. But I liked that they turned out to be good people, and they naturally came to acknowledge their relationship as more than just a youthful infatuation. It was nice to see how Bing Lin came to see Xiang Yuan’s work skills and allowed her to become part of his company not just to do her a favor or hold something over her, but because he actually started trusting her. Heck, he entrusted his entire company to Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan together because he trusted that they would be able to run it. He became much more of a family man throughout the series and I liked that.
I also came to like Jiang Yu Shan more. While I first thought she would get a bit of a nasty streak and maybe start feeding Dong Ling’s delusion by helping her out to break Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan apart, in the end I was kind of touched by her character. Despite her initial stoicness, her true colors really came out after Dong Ling left for Europe and she started missing her so much. I think it was also good of her to slowly start dissuading Dong Ling to stop going after Qian Ze because she saw how much it was damaging her niece. She had such warm motherly feelings for her. Seeing her reaction when Dong Ling phoned her to say she was offering herself up for that marriage only proved that. It was nice seeing her transform into a warmer person.
The only thing I still don’t really understand is why she had to go through that car accident while her husband was recovering from his heart surgery. I assume it was because they needed a reason to call Dong Ling back, but I still found it quite drastic, especially because they dragged it out for so long that she wouldn’t wake up. The only touching moment that came out of it was that we got to see Ye Bing Lin’s genuine sentiment towards her, which he would probably never have expressed in a regular situation.

One other key character that I need to discuss is the main ‘villain’ of the story, Ye Bing Wen (played by Li Chong Xiao). He is Bing Lin’s younger brother and Qian Ze’s uncle. He works as a sales director at Jiang Yuan, the company that belongs to the Ye family and that his older brother is the CEO of. From the very first time we are introduced to him, it is foreshadowed that Qian Ze will ultimately have a fateful but inevitable confrontation with him. Bing Wen himself is recently divorced and is now seeing a younger woman who used to be his assistant, called Liu Yang, also called Xiao Liu (played by Lu Zi). As soon as Bing Lin introduces Qian Ze to the company and starts suggesting that he might take over from him, Bing Wen starts getting nervous. After all, he’s a direct Ye family member who’s worked at the company for so many years – where’s this boy suddenly coming from? Even if they’re directly related, Qian Ze was raised by his mother and only recently brought to Guangzhou. Moreover, he doesn’t even express any interest in running the company. Gradually, as Bing Lin’s health worsens and he keeps depending on Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan more than his younger brother to take command of Jiang Yuan, Bing Wen starts getting more and more annoyed and even starts pulling strings to cause the company trouble so Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan are put in jeopardy. He orchestrates a fight in the factory and a potential hostage situation. He even goes as far as to use a small factory’s steel beams for a big bridge project which leads to actual casualties, as the construction breaks due to the poor quality of the beams. As this project was secured by Xiang Yuan, sabotaging it was just an attempt to make her look bad and cause the company to lose credibility because of her. He even gets his girlfriend Xiao Liu, who has started to work for a different company in the meantime, to aid him in his actions.

Besides these characters, there are also a couple of recurring supporting characters that made up the social circles of the main characters and make several appearances throughout the story. I just want to go over a couple of people that I liked and want to mention.
First of all, Ah Can (played by Bob Li/Bo Li). I don’t exactly remember his relationship with Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan, but he was also someone they grew up with in the countryside. I believe he was like an older brother figure in their neighborhood. He stayed behind after Xiang Yuan left for Guangzhou, and then later suddenly turns up as an assistant to a big business partner Xiang Yuan has to persuade. I believe it was about a bidding which she needed to secure for Jiang Yuan. In any case, she meets Ah Can there and he helps her out a couple of timese. I initially feared that he might get romantically interested in Xiang Yuan, but he never approached her in that way, luckily.
Then there’s Mao Zhi Jie, nicknamed ‘Panzi’ or ‘Fatty’. If there’s anyone I want to give a shoutout here, it’s Zhi Jie. I’m going to refer to him by his actual name because it didn’t sit right with me that they kept calling him ‘Fatty’, even way into adulthood when he became an accomplished businessman. Mao Zhi Jie was probably one, if not the purest character in this story. He was so sweet and naive, and I really hated Dong Ling for taking advantage of him. Dong Ling basically offered to date Zhi Jie because he was Qian Ze’s dorm mate and college friend, and the only reason she kept in touch with him was to ask him about what Qian Ze was doing. I know she ultimately realized that she wasn’t being fair to him, but I’m still mad because she never genuinely apologized to him or confessed that that’s what she used him for and that she never actually liked him. It was so sad to see Zhi Jie get mad at Qian Ze when he started questioning Dong Ling’s intentions with him. It was just so obvious that she wasn’t sincere with him, but he chose not to see it because he liked her so much. He deserved so much better. I was really happy when he came back and turned into such a well-established businessman, and that he even got married to another one of Xiang Yuan’s former college dorm mates. At least he found someone who came to like him for who he was, and didn’t get stuck on him being a bit chubby. Honestly, the fact that, when they were reunited, Dong Ling still referred to him as ‘Fatty’ made me pretty mad. Like, at least look him in the eye and acknowledge how well he turned out. At least feel sorry for doing him so dirty.
The only college dorm mate Xiang Yuan keeps in touch with is Zhang Yue (played by Wan Tong). Zhang Yue is initially the kind of student who never comes back to the dorm, skips all her classes and is more outgoing than bent on studying hard. She and Xiang Yuan first collide when she brings a drunk person with her to the dorm to let them sleep there. After that, when Xiang Yuan starts running a little business within the dorm, she starts helping her by providing her own clothing and accessories as merchandise.
After graduation, Zhang Yue even provides Xiang Yuan with her first job. She’s managed to get her hands on a fiancé who works as a director and Xiang Yuan becomes his assistant. This fiancé, Shen Ju An (played by Danson Tang/Tang Yu Zhe) initially seems like a good enough person and boss, but at some point Xiang Yuan starts getting suspicious of him because he seems to be tied to another woman (I’ll talk about that later).
In any case, I really liked the friendship between Xiang Yuan and Zhang Yue, all the more because you’d never expect these two to remain so close after seeing how they were in college. I also found it an interesting choice of Xiang Yuan to keep quiet about her suspicions towards Shen Ju An. On the one hand I understand that she probably did it because it was something between the two of them and she didn’t have conclusive evidence that anything was going on. But when Zhang Yue started confiding in her that she feared her fiancé might be hiding something from her, I thought it was interesting that she didn’t say anything. I believe she even dissuaded her from having suspicions. But then when it ultimately came out that Xiang Yuan had had her doubts, Zhang Yue also didn’t really get mad at her for keeping quiet. I don’t know how to explain it, I just liked how their friendship worked despite the fact they didn’t even discuss every little thing with each other.

All in all, I generally liked all or at least the majority of the characters. There weren’t too many that it became too chaotic, and it was also nice that not everyone made a comeback because that in itself emphasized how sometimes people just come into your life and leave again without coming back.
For example, Xiang Yuan’s former college classmate Xiao Hua, who chose to let herself be sexually harrassed only to get a permanent position after interning at this finance company.
Then there was that other intern – I believe her name was Su Li? – who did come back after being pretty nasty to Xiang Yuan. She was actually prepared to use the fact that the manager was stalking and sexually harrassing Xiang Yuan against her in case they would choose to keep her when their internship would end. That really made me go, excuse me what? What happened to “girls got to have each other’s backs”?? Anyways, she eventually came back as an ally. I guess it was a good personality trait of Xiang Yuan’s to hold no grudges, but I personally wouldn’t have felt the need to see her again.
There were also a couple of instances were people made a comeback or were re-introduced that I didn’t even recognize anymore. Maybe too much time had passed since their first appearance and I just didn’t remember them, or they were people that hadn’t actually made an appearance before but just happened to be someone the main characters had known from the past. It could get a bit confusing, to be honest. For example that guy that Dong Ling apparently pushed down the stairs when they were kids, the guy she ultimately ended up marrying. When he was introduced, it was in a way that made me think ‘Oh, am I supposed to remember this guy?’ only for it to be revealed that this was his first appearance. To add in a new character to establish a past/childhood link so late in the show was a bit much. I wasn’t really waiting for any new people or storylines to get introduced at that point.

To get back to the ‘Shen Ju An being tied to another woman’ thing, this was probably the one storyline that I could’ve done without. I honestly have no idea what made the writers think it was relevant to show that Shen Ju An had some lingering attachment to his ex. His ex who apparently still thought they were together until he suddenly proposed to Zhang Yue. And instead of cutting ties, he kept claiming he felt sorry or responsible for securing a happy life for her? Seriously, what was that about? He kept going behind Zhang Yue’s back and made up business trips while he was dealing with getting his ex settled somewhere or something. I don’t know what that was about, but in my brutally honest opinion it didn’t need a storyline of its own.

Now that I’ve discussed all the characters that I wanted to mention, I’m going to comment on some elements from the show and my watch experience in particular that contributed to my opinion of the series, from sequences that jumped out to me and details that I liked to things that didn’t make much sense to me or that I found a bit random.
Despite the fact that there were a lot of things that I found a bit chaotic or messy, I thought the overall acting was pretty good and I liked the scenery shots a lot. Especially from the beginning, when they were still in the main characters’ hometown, I think they did a really nice job presenting it as a place they’d always think back on. I always love to see lots of green and mountains compared to typical busy city stories. One thing I always like about Chinese dramas is that their sets always look really neat and clean and they have a lot of beautiful shots of landscapes and skylines. They definitely used a lot of nice-looking sets, and I’m guessing there must have been a significant budget considering the story changed location so many times.
Another point that I’ve already mentioned is that I generally like stories that build over time, where you follow the characters through the years and see the times change, for example through the advancement of technology, the emergence of mobile phones, etcetera. I really loved that karaoke club manager that was always walking around with that unit of a portable phone, that was iconic.
I don’t know the exact time period in which this was set because at the end they were still using flip phones. I guess it must have been from the late 90s to the early 00s, then? I remember having a flip phone around 2004, so I’m guessing it must be around that period. While I generally like this kind of development, I did get confused with the time jumps. There wasn’t really an indication of when time had passed or how many years. I remember for example one time after Xiang Yuan had come to Guangzhou and Ye Bing Lin was like, ‘when I brought you here three years ago’ and I was like, wait, three years have passed already?! The time period between the late 90s and early 00s isn’t very extensive, so it actually seemed like they lived out an entire life in a couple of years. I would’ve liked to get a timeline that was just a little bit clearer.
One thing that also struck me as peculiar was the sporadic narration. Every so often, silent acting was filled in by a female narrator who would explain exactly what the character depicted on screen was thinking and feeling at that moment. It’s not that I minded it per se, but I felt like it wasn’t very consistent. Also, in many cases, it was a bit overkill as I could’ve guessed myself what was going through the character’s head. One time, I believe Bing Wen was making a worried expression and the voice would literally go, “Bing Wen was worried”, so yeah, it wasn’t always necessary. Admittedly, in a way it was nice to have it clarified in detail what the character was thinking, but it also took away from some nice silent emotional acting and it basically filled in spaces that otherwise would’ve allowed the viewers to interpret it by themselves with their own imagination. Also, as I mentioned before when Qian Ze and Bing Wen met for the first time, the narration basically ‘spoiled’ that this encounter would change their lives forever – only for Bing Wen to double-confirm this in the final episode by saying, ‘from the first time I saw you, I knew I would end up doing something like this’. Yeah, we knew that already, because the narration told us so. It just took the option of interpretation and surprise out of a couple of scenes, which was a shame.
Then, and for some reason I find that this always pops up in Chinese dramas in particular: the addition of foreign (aka non-Chinese) cast members. Qian Ze is sent to study abroad in London at some point, where he meets some friends. I don’t know why, but this one guy (I think his name was Blaire?) was for some reason dubbed over in English even though he was originally (probably) also speaking in English. What was also weird was that, when he came to visit Qian Ze in China later on, Qian Ze and Dong Ling were just talking in Chinese in front of him and to him and he was suddenly able to understand everything and even speak Chinese himself while he’d only just spoken in English with Qian Ze before 🤔. Kind of a weird inconsistency thing going on there.
I don’t even think this series used as much dubbing as Chinese dramas usually do, but for some reason, when speaking English, even the foreign cast members were dubbed over. Seriously, how hard is it to find someone who can speak English that doesn’t need to be dubbed over in more English? Now it just looked and sounded super unnatural. I remember there was this one guy at the pub (the one who got shot maybe) who talked in his normal (Irish?) accent without any additional dub, but for the rest… Even Qian Ze himself was dubbed over by himself when speaking in English. These things always seem to happen especially in scenes with foreign characters and it will always baffle me.
Speaking of that intense shooting scene at that bar in London, I’m also not sure what exactly that added. I assumed it was just something that Qian Ze and Dong Ling had to go through together that would maybe bring them closer (or that Dong Ling would keep using against Qian Ze to express how much they’d “been through together”), but other than that I felt like it was pretty much a shock value scene. I also didn’t understand why Qian Ze didn’t tell Xiang Yuan about it, because I’m pretty sure it would’ve shaken her up quite a bit and might’ve even prompted her to come visit him or something. I don’t know, this series was full of random dramatic scenes that didn’t really have much purpose once they were finished. To give another example of this, I specifically remember a scene in which an employee came running into the office, completely covered in blood. Apparently he’d crashed his car in a hurry because he needed to convey the good news that they’d won a bidding or something. Anyways, the whole office just started cheering and I was like, ‘okay so no one is going to acknowledge this guy is literally covered in blood?’ 🤨 Like, why was it necessary for this guy to make such a dramatic bloody entrance when they didn’t even pay any further attention to it? The scene just ended after he announced the good news and that was it. It was just weird to add such an unnecessary dramatic element to that scene.

In terms of my watching experience, it probably wasn’t the best either. I watched it on KissAsian with very poor quality subtitles, which would at parts even be omitted entirely, so I’m sure I missed stuff as well. What also bothered me in the case of this particular fansubbing was that the subtitles contained a lot of typos and spelling errors in the characters’ names and places. This was particularly frustrating because all the names were already so similar and this actually made it hard for me to follow sometimes. I mean, I also don’t know whose idea it was to name the company Jiang Yuan while the female lead’s name was Xiang Yuan, because this in itself already created errors in my brain. So yeah, not a great experience with the fansubs, but of course that stands separately from the series itself. It’s just everything combined that didn’t make it the most enjoyable watch experience for me, I suppose.

Finally, I just need to give a shoutout to Auntie 13, aka the Ara parrot 🦜that refused to move from the balcony of Dong Ling’s late parents’ terrace. It was nice to include that parrot and also have it talk. I love seeing animals that you don’t usually see, it was a nice variation from a pet dog or cat for a change.

Before I go on to the cast comments – I honestly don’t have much more to say about the series – I just want to make one last comment on the title. The English title of this show is ‘Love Under the Moon’, and I couldn’t find a conclusive translation of the original Chinese title apart from ‘The Moon Doesn’t Understand My Heart’. In any case, I don’t really know what the title refers to. If anyone who reads this has an idea, please comment below to let me know! I always like it when the title refers to an aspect that becomes clear throughout the story, but in this case I find the title kind of generic and it also doesn’t really add to my experience of the entire series.

I like going through cast comments of Chinese dramas because I don’t know many Chinese actors and I always like discovering new people.
To start with the main characters, I want to mention from the get-go that I really liked the pairing of co-stars Victoria Song and Ou Hao. I’ve seen comments saying that they didn’t feel any chemistry between them and their love for each other just felt dry, but I really want to disagree. On the contrary, I LIVED for their relationship. Just because they didn’t really have passionate make-out scenes or physically intimate scenes doesn’t mean love has to be dry. I personally found the way they displayed intimacy in such subtle ways very endearing. The way they held hands and arms, the way they smiled while looking into each other’s eyes, the (back) hugs and the way they cuddled up, the way Qian Ze always brushed a strand of Xiang Yuan’s hair out of her face… Those were all extremely sweet and heartwarming displays of affection, and I loved them. I think they had excellent chemistry in their scenes together, and they looked so natural in acting it out, even without the explicit physical intimacy. The only thing that slightly bothered me in the end was that their marriage was rushed in the sense that they got married to settle their assets for the company. I would’ve liked for them to get married without any worries.

I thought Victoria Song was a very nice casting choice for the character of Xiang Yuan, because she had that variety to her that made her appear to be such a mature person. I’d personally say she was a bit more serious than spontaneous, but she definitely balanced out Qian Ze’s whimsicality and in that aspect I thought they were a really nice match. Despite the fact that I didn’t agree with all of her actions, I also had to keep in mind that all she wanted was to just establish a future for herself and her family with her own hands. She could’ve definitely skyrocketed even faster if she’d taken up all of the opportunities that the Ye family presented her with, but she chose to make her own decisions and try to make it by herself even if that meant not spending all of her time with Qian Ze. That should also be rewarded as a gesture of maturity. I thought she balanced the different sides of Xiang Yuan – the one that wanted to be with Qian Ze and the one that knew that she’d had to go against his family in order to keep living her own life independently – very well. I see that there’s at least one other drama with her on my to watch list, and I might add more because it seems like she’s done several romantic comedies 😇.

Ou Hao is the actor I want to compliment the most in this section because I simply adored him. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a male lead act out his love for a woman so genuinely without ever losing his cool. He literally never became cringy and as he also didn’t have the appearance of a guy who’d lose his head over love, I loved the contrast he brought to the table. He portrayed such an endearing combination of boyish naivety and mischief and managed to gradually evolve that into a much more mature and thoughtful man. I honestly fell for him a little bit myself, haha. When I said earlier, ‘get yourself a man like Ye Qian Ze’ I was talking to myself 😂. I really liked his acting and I hope I get to see more of him in the future!

I could’ve sworn I recognized Sun Yi from something, but I haven’t seen anything with her. I think she did a good job as Dong Ling. I don’t want to vent my frustration towards the character onto her, haha. She did a good job portraying Dong Ling’s persistent nature in trying to get out of the ‘little girl/younger sister’ mould. I think that it’s safe to say that she, of all characters, had to work the hardest to be taken seriously, even within her family. I think that it was because she was ‘just a little girl’, that her aunt also didn’t take her crush on Qian Ze as seriously as she should have. I mean, I wouldn’t say it’s uncommon for little girls to develop a crush on an older brother figure, especially if he displays as much protectiveness as Qian Ze. He really cared about Dong Ling as his little sister, and that’s all it would ever be. She should’ve been snapped out of her delusion much earlier. I think it literally took her up to almost 40 episodes before she was finally able to wish Xiang Yuan the best and officially backed off. Her character was probably dealt with in the least satisfying way, as a tool to save a company, so that was a bit of a bummer. But still I think the actress did a good job, particularly in how Dong Ling slowly but surely started to slip deeper into her delusional thoughts – I’m glad she managed to finally see the light in the end.

I know I haven’t talked that much about Ye Yun in my review, but I still want to acknowledge Xia Ning Jun in the cast comments. It seems like Love Under the Moon was only his second drama acting project. I kind of feared that Ye Yun would be forgotten as ‘the second son’ but I’m glad they also brought him to Guangzhou eventually and he managed to secure a proper career of his own. It was so funny to see his arrival at the Ye family house in comparison to when Qian Ze arrived – Ye Yun was super polite and kind even to the housekeeper while it took Qian Ze such a long time to even acknowledge his father’s new family as his own. Ye Yun was definitely a lot more pure and innocent than his older brother, but the two got along great and there wasn’t as much disagreement between the two of them as there was between Xiang Yuan and her younger sister, for example. I did find it a pity that he and Xiang Yao drifted apart though, but I guess it also proved that growing up together doesn’t guarantee a lifelong friendship. I liked how his role developed and how he, in his own way, became a useful asset to his family’s company even though he started his own business. I think Xia Ning Jun did a nice job playing such a contrastive younger brother to Qian Ze.

I honestly really liked Xiang Yao and I think Lin Tian Yuan did a very nice job creating her persona. I feel like her character going her own way away from her childhood family and finding her own happiness despite the fact that she couldn’t secure a lot of money was very meaningful in itself. I liked that there was at least one character who kind of ‘separated’ from the rest to find her own path and who really came to realize that she didn’t belong in the world of the wealthy Ye family. She may have gone through the most tribulations in terms of finding stability in her life, but she was always the most determined to pave her own way and I respect that about her. Just as with Ye Yun, I’m glad they kept her character in the story and fleshed her out more as an individual rather than keep her as ‘the younger sister’. I liked her performance!

I think Ding Yong Dai made a very fitting casting choice as Ye Bing Lin. I honestly came to like his character more and more throughout the story. In the beginning I couldn’t help but think he was this stingy guy who just cared about the succession of his company and didn’t even feel bad for leaving his wife to care for their two sons all on her own. The audacity of him to just turn up and claim custody over his eldest son while he hasn’t even bothered to come see him grow up. But in having Qian Ze over in Guangzhou I believe he also learned a lot and he proved to be a good person through his actions. He even started feeling bad for using Xiang Yuan to talk to Qian Ze when he wanted him to do something he knew his son would refuse. I also found his acting quite enjoyable, with the occasional funny expressions. He also had a really wise look in his eyes, if that makes sense. I liked how he shaped the character of Qian Ze’s father and how he remained optimistic and involved in the company even after he’d retired. I really liked his performance especially in the scene when he scolded Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan for not keeping him in the loop regarding the construction failure disaster. He was really good.

In hindsight I really liked Wen Zheng Rong’s performance as the step-mother as well. As I mentioned earlier in my review, in the beginning I feared that she might become this evil step-mother figure, but she visibly softened and became a much warmer person throughout the series. I especially loved her relationship with Dong Ling, she made it so obvious that she’d adopted her out of genuine care. I honestly found her performance during that phone call at the end 👌🏻STELLAR👌🏻. I think that was the most dramatic but also most sincere expressional acting I’ve seen out of her in this series. How she just started sobbing when Dong Ling told her she’d accepted the marriage proposal. She was literally a mother hearing that her daughter would get something she’d never wanted for her.
I also liked how the relationship between her and Bing Lin was emphasized, that he actually admitted that he was nothing without her eternal support. It was nice to get a bit of ‘inside’ information about their relationship that wasn’t specified in the series itself.

Li Chong Xiao honestly made me laugh a couple of times because his voice occasionally squeaked when he talked 😆. My issue with his character was that his transformation into a bad guy who knowingly did bad things only to spite some youngsters felt a bit forced to me. Sure, his annoyance with Qian Ze’s increasing influence in the company and how he kept feeling undermined by his own family was made blatantly clear throughout, but it just felt like in the end he started to lay it on a bit too thick that he was sick and tired of everything. Also, why did he end up going for Xiang Yuan? He intended to kidnap Xiang Yuan, not Qian Ze, but honestly what would’ve made the difference? He was annoyed by both of them, right? It was clear that he was pissed off at his whole family, brother included, so why take it out on Xiang Yuan of all people? I felt like he just got a bit lost in the end. In the beginning he seemed like a pretty nice guy, and he was also still on good terms with his ex-wife, which suggested he wasn’t an absolute monster. Anyways, I think the actor did a good job all in all.

As I mentioned, I really liked the character of Mao Zhi Jie, and the actor Bai Zhi Jie made all that possible. He just portrayed him as such a genuinely sweet and pure guy. I felt so bad watching him get played by everyone. I really didn’t like how everyone kept calling him ‘Fatty’, it’s just not a cute nickname. I’m really glad he managed to find someone who appreciated his good heart for what it was and he managed to become successful in his own way. I really liked his performance!

Wan Tong was another actress that I thought I might have seen before but I was wrong. I really liked her portrayal of Zhang Yue. She brought a very refreshing energy with her, even though she was only a supporting character. I think that, just as Qian Ze balanced Xiang Yuan out in her seriousness, she too may have been a good friend match for Xiang Yuan for the same reason. I liked that, despite her worryfree attitude and debatable college reputation she still came up on top and scored a rich guy and a good job. I liked how uncomplicated her character was, she just said whatever she felt and I appreciated that. She was a really nice casting choice for the role!

I’m not sure why Danson Tang is listed on top of the supporting characters list on both MDL and DramaWiki, because he wasn’t by far up there with the Ye family members and the most frequently recurring characters. 🤔 Anyways, I had mixed feelings about his character because of his weird lingering relationship with his ex. When he was introduced I was like, there he is, the ‘hot guy’ that’s going to stir up trouble, lol. When Xiang Yuan started working for him I even thought he might start coming on to her as well, but luckily he remained fairly loyal to Zhang Yue. I was just so confused by his deal with his ex and that kind of ruined his character for me, no matter how good his intentions were. Still, can’t blame the actor for the weird writing, of course.

I think that was it for all the characters and cast members I wanted to mention. As I said, this was a pretty tedious watch, it took me two months to get through it and the only thing that kept grabbing my attention was the #goals relationship between the main leads. I really lived for the love they shared, I got butterflies every scene they were together and when they were apart or had a disagreement I just yearned for them to make up again. As summarized by the final narration, it basically came down to the confirmation that, yes, these two must really share a very strong bond of love and trust with each other. Other than that, apart from some attempted scheming and jealousy, not a lot happened. The development of Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan’s relationship throughout periods of time apart and always coming back to each other was taken over by a very lengthy arc that only focussed on work and business and that’s when it kind of stopped grabbing my attention. The way I see it, they could’ve either made it shorter or paced it better so it wouldn’t all lead up to one final dramatic event in the final episode. Admittedly, in the beginning I was wondering if Qian Ze and Xiang Yuan would break up, even for just a little while, due to their differences in ambitions, and would then find their way back to each other again in the end. But even as it neared the end and it became clear that that wasn’t going to happen, it kept giving the confirmation of their love over and over again, until the point where I just thought, ‘i get it! their love is invincible!’ So yeah, as much as I loved their relationship and their unwavering love for each other, there could’ve been more to the story, and the supporting characters and minor additional storylines just didn’t really give me that. All in all, I’d say it’s a decent show, just way too long. If you have 48 episodes, you need to know how to pace it in order to keep the viewers’ concentration span high, and that just wasn’t adapted very well in this series, in my opinion.

I’m really curious as to what my next watch will be, the Wheel of Fortune shall speak again and hopefully it won’t take me too long to finish the next one!

Hopefully until soon, bye-bee! x