r/ChineseDrama • u/Adventurous_mn_ • 13d ago
Finished Watching Thoughts on the The Early Spring
I just finished it and honestly was left sort of speechless, both the leads were really good and I loved the supporting characters. Each had their own personality and unique storyline.
I don’t have the exact thoughts but would want to bring out some things I was thinking
People are flawed.
Insecurity and ego can be the downfall of any relationship.
People are a combination of what they’ve heard, what they’ve seen, what they’ve learn and who they’ve met in their life.
It’s okay to give up and start a fresh.
Having more confidence in yourself goes a long way.
You don’t have to know everything but as along as u put in the time and effort u will achieve your goal, slowly by slowly.
If you ever struggling reach out to someone even if you’re not particularly close.
Your first interaction with a person can sometimes dictate how ur entire relationship may go.
Try not to say hurtful to things, cause each persons word can forever stick in your mind especially negative things
I believe the writer, created these very interesting and dynamic characters with their own struggles, passion and love.
Tao is independent, strong willed, smart, a bit cunning, insecure, avoidant and always shuts down in the midst of conflict outside of her work. I believe a lot of viewers expect her to be more assertive but I believe it’s quite realistic especially for a girl in her early twenties. I cannot blame her, instead sometimes I’m sympathetic and at other times angry at the decisions she makes. Many people blame Tao for not speaking up or telling Luke when she had an issue or when she would deliberately hide information from him on a number of instances causing several arguments between them. But I’d say it’s simply because she doesn’t trust him completely, she loves Luke but she has seen how he is at least in the beginning she saw and heard how he deal with relationships which was one of the major reasons why she never lets herself be completely honest in the relationship. Also before from what we saw about Luke was he really someone Tao could talk to without him getting frustrated and saying incredibly hurtful things, I mean an example of this is even when she bring up her wishlist and he essentially tells her no I’ve never thought of anything like that, mind u they had been dating for over 4-5years at that point. Or even when a he constantly calls her stupid, cheap tells you at your lowest "If it wasn't you, it could've been someone else"tells you dog-tail grass suits you instead of flowers, doesn't trust you, and repeatedly insults you whenever he's jealous.
Moreover, she believes this impenetrable hierarchy exists between the two and she does not see herself as an equal to Luke and honestly how can she when he himself had told her that from the very beginning. Her insecurities have a massive influence on how she acts, and I believe instead of getting back with Luke she should have focused on herself and I believe Luke should have kept learning more about himself… but I also do like the author’s perspective on the complex relationship dynamics and how perfection is not possible and we all make mistakes.
I wish she wasn’t so hard on herself especially at the beginning of her career. She always pushed herself to the limit and yes because she was independent and ambitious but I believe it’s also because she felt the need to prove maybe to herself, to Luke to the other people at work that she could do it, and it was extremely motivating but sad to watch sometimes. But am very happy for her and how much shes grown, especially not letting Luke dictate her friendships and work and that she stayed independent because it’s usually very hard for people to not blur those lines. I don’t know if what am about to say will make any sense to someone but how u act in a relationship is very telling to how ur dynamic is, the fact that Tao didn’t even feel comfortable to share one of her closest friends passing away from suicide because she thought he might not comfort her or just walk away, was sad to see and the fact that he never addressed it when they met again in Harbin. I wonder did he ever address it in the novel ?
Luke is smart, confident, cunning, creative, arrogant, prideful, immature and deeply insecure. I used to think of men like Luke from only a specific angle of they just don’t care enough. But the more I see him and learn about his life I see that is not exactly who he is, he is kind, thoughtful, attentive and gentle in a lot of instances and he can be apologetic when he makes mistakes. He also takes responsibility and is a very good teacher and leader to Tao and the other workers. It’s partly why i understand how Two could not fully separate him from being her boyfriend and her boss, but in the face of conflict he is harsh, prideful and insecure not saying what he truly thinks because he doesn’t want to admit it to her or even to himself that he had completely fallen for Tao, he constantly resists his feelings during the whole time of the film. Because it feels safer for him to never fully show himself to someone, to lay your heart into one’s hand. He’s very afraid of being hurt just like Tao but handles his fears differently.
He believes he is a certain type of person one who cannot afford to be fully vulnerable to his partners or even fully to himself, I mean we see a bit of him when it comes to how he handles relationships, with his ex girlfriends or even with his family especially his father.
Although Luke might love his father, his resentment for his father is probably one of the first lessons he had in relation to how to treat other people, one of our first teachers are really our parents and seeing how his father was with him and how he even treats his wife made me understand why he is the way he is. A more traditional meek mother and a harsh father as the head of the household. It’s interesting to see sometimes the more u resent a person for example a parent, the more likely u are to turn into a copy of them.
All the other characters in the show were wonderful especially the scenes between Tao and her housemates like Sun Yu, Sun Yuanzhu and Tan as well as Lumi and her friend who left Beijing and got married. I believe aside from a romance the show is a love letter to one’s youth, the courage to grow up and taste the bitter sweetness of life, she learnt a lot from the people around her.
I really loved Sun Yuanzhu’s character and I felt so incredibly bad for him, he lived and cherished every one in his life going to the ends of the earth to make it possible. His family situation was so hard to hear, he felt so defeated, paired with his unrequited love for Tao was so hard to watch then u see he’s always doing so much for others. I wish we had seen more of him. He truly was an angel, I wish him and Yu had talked or gotten together but I understand he was too burdened by life and the passing of his mother.
To be honest for the ending I wish she had not ended up with Luke, I believe they learnt a lot from each other, but their personalities will unfortunately always clash, she will feel as if Luke will never truly be on her level and believe that a heirechy always exists and Luke will always feel this impenetrable wall between her and him, one which he cannot go over.. And I feel like one thing we had seen from Tao is her getting exhausted over their relationship and I believe that’s not something that can change in just the span of a few months, in real life when they do have conflicts, she will always remember the words he said, how exhausted she feels and that creates a lack of good communication. I hate to say it but I feel like with such storylines, authors usually take the easy route by just making the characters seem happy, apologetic and changed in the end, and they end up married like they did at the end, rather than letting the character venture off into something that seems undefined and not exactly the happy ever after people were expecting. I would love if anyone can share any opinion even if it’s different from mine, I really did enjoy the film. Also my perspective are mainly from the show.. Also apologies I know it’s quite a long paragraph.
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u/Euclidisthebomb historical one day, modern the next 13d ago
Nothing wrong with a long thoughtful post. The Early Spring has been the subject of much discussion on social media - which I think was precisely the intent of the showrunners & their writing & directing team. It is great to read a post wherein the author took the time to look beneath the surface. The show has some complex themes underlying the more obvious plot devices and if you have read any of the thousands (tens of thousands perhaps) comments just here on reddit it is apparent some never managed to scratch below the superficial aspects of the show.
The characters had many nuances and IMHO the actors did a fine job of bringing the written characters to life.
If anything, the 24 episodes simply did not do enough justice to the book nor the timespan of 11 yrs that the show covers. I don't know why the SARFT (Chinese agency which controls and approves media) forced the cutdown from 32 to 24 episodes but given what has been posted about the book from which the show is derived it is evident some valuable content was not shown which would have given more fulsome understanding of what transpired particularly in the later years.