Will Love in Spring (2024) A Recommendation

Apologies for not updating sooner but my father passed away two weeks ago now. Because he died overseas, my brother and I flew to the location to deal with his remains.

Li Xian last seen by most of us in Meet Yourself appears to be doing the rounds for regional development/migration in mainland China. His character Chen Maidong in one of his most recently released dramas, is a well-regarded undertaker who is working in his home city of Nanping. He’s a bright light in the funeral industry and could be strutting his stuff on a larger stage like Shanghai and gain wider recognition. Yet he chooses to stay in a third-tier city as a public servant. Indeed he is often called upon to judge contests and conduct training in Shanghai so he’s considered something of a known quantity in that industry. He lives with his rambunctious grandmother and hasn’t had much of a relationship with his birth parents since childhood. Not too surprisingly his abandonment issues hover in the background as he insists on staying with grandma in her sunset years. On the other hand, Grandma is more concerned about him finding a marriage partner and her reputation precedes her as the town’s noisiest matchmaker. She despairs at his disinterest until Zhuang Jie makes an appearance. Even then it’s not a case of love at first sight. The exuberant Zhou Yutong plays Zhuang Jie, a medical sales executive living with a prosthetic leg that resulted from an accident that occurred in her teens. As a result of living with the stigma of being an amputee, Zhuang Jie is determined to make something of herself in the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. It’s a much larger platform than Nanping where her mother, stepfather and half-sister reside and there among the skyscrapers she excels. Her success in the big city may soothe the pain of not being whole or not being seen as whole and acts to mask a festering wound. It’s been a sticking point with the men in her life and the scars conceal deep wounds.

Recuperation from a minor surgery and a breakup sees Zhuang Jie heading back to Nanping. On the way there she finds herself seated next to Chen Maidong on a train, an old classmate. She’s eager to be reacquainted but the introvert in him finds her extroversion immediately off-putting. Their history is told in flashbacks note that he was a high performing student with a short fuse, constantly picking fights with anyone commenting on his parents’ failed marriage. It’s a chip on his shoulder. She, on the other hand, has struggled to gain acceptance as someone living with a disability and career success cannot entirely erase her need to be loved for her ownself.

Despite the ungrammatical (and non-descript) English title, Hometown Lover is a masterclass in storytelling. Not surprisingly it has drawn comparisons with Meet Yourself due to its slice-of-life approach. but thematically, the Korean drama Move to Heaven is the closer companion with its exploration of grief and death. Just the mere mention of death is a taboo for Chinese people of a certain generation with a certain set of beliefs, an environment I grew up around. A show that follows the doings of an undertaker can certainly spark the right kind of conversations if taken in the right spirit. Afterall nothing is more certain than death and few things are less spoken about than death — the undiscovered country from shose bourn no traveller returns.

Zhuang Jie soon declares that she loves Chen Maidong but loves Shanghai more. It’s not hard to see the attraction of a city like Shanghai — to be lost in the crowd and to bask in anonymity. It’s also a place where aspiring youngsters can prove themselves and make it big — if they make it at all. For a beautiful capability woman with a disability, Shanghai is a place to discover your worth in a reality that’s harsh about failure and not fitting the norm. Later on, Zhuang Jie changes her tune. She wants it all. The goodies offered by Shanghai and the man Chen Maidong who loves her seemingly unconditionally. Except no one does. No one can. They’re always testing each other without articulating the rules of the game and so they falter and fail before concluding that they can’t bear to be apart. The push and pull can be frustrating to watch. There are plenty of missteps when two people operate under different assumptions about what love looks like compounding the problems in their poorly defined relationship. Still I’m a sucker for uplifting tales where two broken people find their way to each other for a lifetime of consolation.

With such a thoughtful script, the chemistry between the leads can only be the cherry on top. While it takes Chen Maidong a bit longer to warm up to Zhuang Jie, once he makes up his mind, he’s a man on a mission. Chen Maidong is the ideal boyfriend because he’s willing to accommodate Zhuang Jie’s need to swallow the proverbial elephant. It’s not clear if they’ll settle for a long distance relationship permanently or if it can be any kind of resolution but the show is determined to give the couple a happily-ever-after and insist that they are that miracle that will somehow beat the odds.

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