Instagram Update: A Very, Very Happy Ending for Simon Lian's 連晨翔 character, Qing Feng, when Puff Kuo 郭雪芙 makes an appearance in the final episode of Lost Romance 浪漫输给你

I am so so so happy and satisfied for the conclusion of Qing Feng's story in Lost Romance. It's surprising because mid way through the series I couldn't see how they were going to save that much loved second lead character from his tragic plot line. On top of that, I spent the entire series worried that they would pair him up with the (evil) second female lead. And Qing Feng was the main reason I was still watching the drama. There were lots of fans who even talked about boycotting the show and whatnot! I'm not one to do that and I'm glad it's paid off. Once they revealed that his character had a past love and that he'd suffered because he was a character from a book that an author had neglected to finish, I was feeling much, much better. 

My theories were:

a) Xiao En was going to get the author to finish off his story and give him a happy ending

b) They might get an actress to make a cameo as his first love (Hopefully someone cool)

c) His first love might be another character who looked like Xiao En

Aaaand I got my first two guesses right because, Lo and behold, they brought in a cameo for Qing Feng's first love and it's Puff! Puff Kuo! Y'all know how much I love Puff right? Simon just posted a picture on his Instagram about it.

Simon's Instagram

Caption: Qingfeng finally doesn't need to drift sadly into every novel world anymore...The Lost Romance Finale is on 10/18. Qingfeng is back online!

Really, I'm just so grateful that they did not pair him up with Chu Chu, the evil second lead. Then I might have smashed my laptop. But as it stands, I like this ending even better than him getting with Xiao En (who really frustrated me in the last episode for her treatment of Tian Xing). 

I'm also pleasantly surprised that SETTV did a cameo...my experiences are they often haven't really done cameos because of their huge star casts in each drama, but hey, I'm so glad they did it for this one and that they chose an actress I really liked. I guess maybe I should have seen it coming because Puff and Simon were talking about how they'd hopefully be able to collaborate for some project sometime soon at his birthday fan meet earlier this year (You can read the translations for that fan meet at the bottom of this post about Simon Lian)

It's also nice to know that they tried to give Qing Feng a happy ending in the book, although in a different way. For those that don't know, Sanlih often release books for their dramas just before the show ends. The funny thing is the dramas are not based off the books, and the books may not even necessarily have the same endings as the dramas. It's crazy right? But it's another type of merch for fans to buy. Anyway, in the Lost Romance books, the ending is much, much more bittersweet compared to the drama and I feel like a lot of people who are Marcus/ Aoran/ Tian Xing fans would hate this ending so so much. But I'm just trash for Qing Feng. And I actually like a bittersweet ending, especially ones which make sense logically and have a air of realism about them.

Someone on Weibo scanned the ending of the book, so if you can read Chinese you can read the raw pages here. For those who can't, the wondeful Orenji_neko on Soompi kindly did a translation of the pages:

Translation of the Lost Romance Book Ending

Situ Aoran said his wedding vows, followed by Zheng Xiao'en.

Right after he was told, "You may kiss the bride," she woke up into the real world.

........................

Chuntian was at her bedside when she woke up. The news on TV was about Tianxing waking up from his coma. Apparently, the both of them had been unconscious for 2 months. 

Just then, a guy who looked exactly like Qingfeng came into her room. Chuntian introduced him as Jiang Sheng (Johnson), author of CEO, You're So Naughty. Jiang Sheng and his sister were co-authors. Dongfang Meng was the corresponding author when they published novels for women, and Jiang Sheng was the corresponding author when they published novels for men. According to him, he was revising the manuscript for the novel, CEO, You're So Naughty, as usual when suddenly he started having dreams about the story's world 2 months ago. He was Qingfeng in the dream. Coincidentally, he found out that his editor (Xiao En) was in a coma. He said that he had helped Chuntian to look after her since she had no family. Even though they had only communicated through email and had never met face to face before, he considered her his friend.

After coming back to the real world, Xiao En's memories / feelings of the novel's world started to fade away. She did consider contacting Tianxing but she felt that the two of them were too far apart. Even if she managed to see him, she wouldn't know what to say to him. Meanwhile, Jiang Sheng was always by her side when she went through rehab, so they got closer. (Note: Jiang Sheng is a shy otaku and that's why there was a story about maid cafe in the novel world). She asked him whether he liked her and why he liked her. Then she told him that she liked him too. 

Later, Xiao En went to the medical facility where Tianxing was having rehab. She requested to see him, saying that she had a video recording that could help him. He let her in and asked her why she wanted to meet with him personally. She said because she wanted to ask him whether he remembered her. He said that he didn't remember a lot of things because he had been in a coma for quite some time. She gave him the memory card with the video recording of what had happened on the roof that day. Then he asked her why she had only come forward now and why she wanted to give him the evidence. What was her intention? That's when she realised that the distance between them was a whole universe. She left without saying anything. It was a dream that she should woken up from long ago. 

Xiao En heard the news about what had happened to Tianliang Group. In her heart, she wished Tianxing well and said goodbye. Xiao En was happily in love with Jiang Sheng. 

The end

Bittersweet, right? Aren't you glad that they're giving a happy ending to everyone nice in the drama? 

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Simon Lian and Vivian Sung still being cute for fans as their characters go separate ways

TV station & Lost Romance actors promote the show with fun behind the scenes photos

Pictures: Puff Kuo 郭雪芙 starts the Promotional Rounds with co-star Riko Xi 席惟倫 for New Drama, Falling Into You 因為我喜歡你

It always feels a little sad when they only have one main star promoting the drama, as opposed to the pairing. It looks like Jiro is in China filming for his 2 upcoming projects, so hasn't been able to join the promotional events. Nonetheless, Puff, who has been in Taiwan taking it slow this year to rest up from her illness, has been around to support the promotions. Instead of Jiro, she's been doing press events with her other co-stars from the drama. The first event was a Taekwondo showcase press conference on the 1st of September. The drama wrapped up filming last year, so it had been awhile since the stars had done full training - so they said that they were stiff once again!

For Articles and Picture Sources:

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China Times

SETTV

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New Drama Premiere: Puff Kuo and Jiro Wang star in Falling into You

Instagram Updates: Pleasantly Surprised 喜歡·一個人 Drama Crew Still Catch Up 6 Years After Drama Has Ended

It's so rare for drama crews to hang out regularly together after finishing a series because they often move onto new projects and meet new friends and so forth and so forth. This is why I think it's so precious that the drama crew from one of my old favourite dramas, Pleasantly Surprised, still hang out regularly, catching up at least once a year. Lene Lai posted this last hang out picture 2 days again and even Vic Chen was there! Usually Puff joins in these catch ups, but she might be getting busy again promoting her soon to be released drama with Jiro Wang, Falling into You. But she was definitely there last year when they made their visit to Buono Bella, the restaurant where they filmed Pleasantly Surprised  at. (You can see the pictures below) It's a shame that Jasper can never make it anymore. It's probably not because he doesn't want to, but because his schedule is flat out these days. Hopefully one day in the future!

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Pleasantly Surprised Reunions

Spotlight: Who is Simon Lian 連晨翔?

Have to admit having developing a new Asian celebrity crush on Simon Lian (or Simon Lien) of late from watching Lost Romance, where he plays the second lead Qing Feng.

While I do have to admit to having Second Lead Syndrome, it's more than just his on-screen character that's charming.

He's such a fun character in his interviews. Very cute, lively, and he has such a pretty face, that can be both haughty, but also puppy dog-like! And there's a lot of interesting projects he's attached to...so let's do a deep dive into his background.

Background: Who is he?

Simon Lian (or Simon Lien, both spellings accepted) is a 28 year old singer and actor born on the 3rd of January 1992. He's been making more of the headlines this year - While he's been in the industry since 2014, he's an up and coming rising act both in the music and acting world. His current Agencies include Warner Music Taiwan and Top Fun Entertainment - Warner did a summary video of all his music, music video, film and TV credits when he rejoined with them last year (below).

Music Career: Crazy album & Crazy Love single

Simon Lian started his career in the boy band SpeXial in 2014 after being scouted. Not going to go into the SpeXial years, as I'm not really a big boy band person, but he left the group in 2017 and released his own solo album Crazy towards the end of 2019. 

The main single released from that was Crazy Love which is pretty catchy song about a love triangle and features the rapper Marz23.  

The music video was shot in the UK and Simon developed a good friendship with Marz23, despite not thinking they'd hit it off initially. He's also still apparently close to the guys from SpeXial, even though he's now a solo act.

Here's a behind the scenes video from the shooting of the music video in London:

He also did some photo shoots, a round of interviews and a fan meet for the Crazy album promotions at the start of this year. I think he looks so damn cool most of the time!

But sometimes they style him in such a questionable way in terms of weird fuzzy jumpers etc. Maybe I just don't understand street wear, but he definitely does pull of a lot of the stranger choices which makes him a decent model as well

Acting: Leading roles, Lost Romance Second Lead & That kiss from Someday or One Day

Simon Lian has been the main lead of a number of dramas that he was in, some under his SpeXial contract, including Angel 'n' Devil and High 5 Basketball . He's gained a lot of attention for his role in the Chinese coming of age drama, Youth, where he was paired with Li Mo Zhi. This is a fan video with a good cut of scenes across the drama.

He also had a cameo role in Taiwanese drama, Someday or One Day, where he plays a student who is kissed by another male student who has been crushing on him. This is an official clip from episode 8:

Most recently though, he's been playing second lead, Duan Mu Qing Feng on his first SETTV drama, Lost Romance. Even though Marcus Chang has a strong following in all his dramas, Simon has been winning quite a few hearts according to all the comments on both Western and Chinese Social media. This is an official teaser for episodes 2 and 3:

I think the charm he brings as the second lead is that he's cool and easy on the eyes, but also warm and friendly to the female lead, Xiao En. He's also the character that is quick to figure things out and easier to get along with compared to the male lead.

Family: He's a Proud Uncle!

Part of his personal charm is that he spends a lot of time with his niece and nephew who he's obviously very fond of. I feel like some guys with street cred do not go around posting about their families, let alone any kids they know, so it's kind of sweet that he does on a regular basis!

Friends: He's Friends with some big names including Puff Kuo 

That's right! Puff Kuo celebrated his birthday with him at his 'Super Crazy Birthday' Press conference/ fan meet at the start of this year. SpeXial and Puff have performed together and done interviews together before as they were all signed onto Warner Music Taiwan (See above for Simon and Puff back in 2016), so it's no surprise that Puff would be there as a surprise birthday guest. It's cute because Puff said she thinks of him as a little brother and he joked that he wished that Puff would look upon him 'As a man.' 

In this clip, they're talking about Puff doing a collaboration with Puff. Puff asks Simon if he's thought about what he'd like to collaborate with her on. Simon says, "Your last drama...with Jasper Liu [Before We Get Married]..." Puff is like "Yeahhh, what about it?" He says "Jasper's role is not bad!!" (For those who don't know, Before We Get Married had some pretty intense make-out/ sex scenes between Puff and Jasper's characters!) Puff laughs and calls him gutsy as the fan girls squeal. Haha, I would like like to see these two do a romance drama together - it would be the second best thing to another Puff and Jasper collaboration. I'll end this with a few cute pictures of Puff and Simon here.

For Picture Sources and more pictures:

UDN

SETTV

UDN

UDN

Niusnews

StarShangChina

Some Future Drama Pairings I'd love to see Jasper Liu 劉以豪 with

Do you ever try to come up with drama pairings for your favourite actors? Sometimes I like to think about who might look good together for some potential future dramas with Jasper. I've been meaning to write list for yeaaaars, so since then Jasper has collaborated with some of these actresses in some form - but it'd be nice to see them in a longer series.

A Wish List of Taiwanese Drama Pairings for Jasper (no particular order)

Jasper Liu + Puff Kuo drama

Obviously, I would love, love, love another Puff and Jasper drama. Not going to lie. I do think the chances are slim since they're probably booked in for lots of other projects and Asia is big - there's so many other actors they could work with. But a girl can always dream. Although I really liked both their previous projects together, it'd be nice to have something that was different - Sexy, but not as dramatic as Before We Get Married and Pleasant, but with better costumes and story line to Pleasantly Surprised. 

Puff and Jasper also have a pretty good friendship and lots of natural banter and chemistry so watching them on a project and in interviews is a lot of fun.

Jasper Liu + Vivian Sung drama

Jasper collaborated with Vivian Sung for the film Take Me to the Moon which I saw and liked. I probably should have wrote something about it here, and maybe I will if I give it a re-watch soon, but I think I couldn't help comparing the school dramaness of it to Our Times for a Vivian Sung project and it fell a little flat in comparison. But I've always liked her as an actress and she definitely looks good with Jasper.

They also seem get along pretty well and comment every so often on each other's posts with Jasper recently tagging her in a post of him goofing around from a behind the scenes video. 

Jasper Liu + Ivy Shao drama

Jasper and Ivy have actually worked on 2 dramas together in the past which include Confucius in 2012 and When I See You Again in 2015. Since then, both have really propelled their careers in both Taiwan and Mainland China, with Ivy having a major drama break through in her lead roles in both Back to 1989 with Marcus Chang and The Perfect Match with Chris Wu. I haven't seen Confucius, but she's plays the second lead in When I See You Again. 

It would be nice to see Jasper and Ivy both in a project opposite each other in the coming years.

Jasper Liu + Lyan Su drama

I'm not sure if I've ever blogged about Lyan Su. Again, Jasper and Lyan have worked on a project together in the Chinese Epic, My Bittersweet Taiwan, but their stories were not aligned. I quite like her as an actress after seeing her episode in Rock Records in Love, an anthology of mostly bitterweet Romance stories based on 20 famous songs in Taiwan (Puff Guo, Annie Chen, Lego Lee, Chris Wu and a whole bunch of stars also acted in various stories). She's known for dramas such as Fabulous Boys with Jiro Wang and The Man From the Future with Derek Chang. Both Jasper and Lyan have baby faces and fun personalities that I imagine it could work well.

They recently attended the same event and were in a few photos next to each other - I think they'd look nice in a drama.

Jasper Liu + Vera Yen drama

Jasper and Vera have also worked together before, but as old school friends rather than a couple in the film Take Me to the Moon. When I first saw, Vera Yen, I thought she was tiny and young. But it turns out she's 31! I think the reason I like her looks is because she reminds me of Rainie Yang, so I suppose the baby face is part of that. They paired her up with Jolin Chien for a long 50 episode drama called Just for You - And not sure if it's because Jolin is quite manly (midnight shadow beard and muscles) or because of the way they styled her as a tomboy...but she looked super young! I feel like Jasper's baby face could match hers and if they styled her as a slightly more mature character, it could be cute. Aside from that, they both have such a chill, indie vibe that it'd be fun to see them on a drama that reflected that side of them. Also, they would be perfect together in a drama which flashbacks to high school or college.

They're pictured next to each other here at the premiere of Take Me to the Moon and they both look quite nice smiling together.

 Jasper Liu + Mini Tsai drama

It doesn't seem like Jasper and Mini have worked together before, but would love to see them collaborate together. I feel like Mini tends to get paired up with some really mature looking guys - her newest drama pairing is with Danson Tang in My Fearless Youth (Lyan Su is also in this project). Admittedly, I first saw her in Back to 1989 where she played a single mother, paired with Yorke Sun. I think she's quite pretty and seems like a fun and low key actress.

 Jasper Liu + Lorene Ren drama

As far as I know, I don't think these two have worked together in a TV show or film just yet, but I feel like it's a matter of time before they pair them together. Lorene Ren, is the the younger sister to S.H.E's Serena Ren and an established actress. Most people have said very good things about her drama, In a Good Way with Lego Lee. Her latest project Amensalism with Prince Chiu looks interesting (And super dramatic. What does Amensalism even mean?!). I think she's very conventionally pretty - I'm not sure why, I haven't always been keen for this pairing, but the more I see her around, the more I'm drawn to it! She seems really fun and down to earth on her social media channels and have been a fan of her sister, so why not?

Are there actresses you don't want to see Jasper paired up with?

Yep, there's some pairings I'd rather not see. I don't have anything against these actresses, I'm sure they have loyal fan bases and do well with their own projects, but I guess I'm not a particular fan of theirs. Sometimes it's just a bias I have due to not liking their past projects and I change my mind once I see them in a better role.

I'm indifferent to some pairings. Like I guess I don't mind, but also don't particularly care for a drama with Joanne Tseng or a drama with Aviis Zhong. They're probably good actresses, but I'm not keen unless the whole package - story line, chemistry, characters etc look good.

I'd really rather not see a drama with Tia Lee. I suppose it's a combination of things - I find her to be rather expressionless in her acting, there's that weird history with her and Puff (They use to be in the same band together called Dreamgirls, but it seems they've broken up) and she just seems rather conventional and bland overall, no offense to her fans (you may also not like the actresses I like and that's not a problem with me).

I'd also rather not see a drama with Yao Yao. I know she's doing some good acting on a HBO show called The Teenage Psychic and reinventing her image as a sex kitten and lingerie model turned actress. But unfortunately I'm still not a fan. Maybe it's superficial- the shrill voice, the height difference. Or maybe it's just the past image sticks. I mean, if it happens and the project looks good I will gladly eat my words. But I guess I'd just rather not at the moment.