It’s not often that actors retweet slash MV‘s of themselves, so when I saw Lu Yi and Ren Quan having an entire conversation reminiscing their friendship over The Blue Lotus 花样的年华 (cut version here and full version here), I immediately went and watched the series.  The Republican era series, featuring custom made couture suits that made the two leads look oh-so-handsome, director-approved shipping, and a compelling heterosexual romance,  is definitely worth a watch.  Also, it uses original voices!

Produced by Zhang Yibai, The Blue Lotus co-stars the two’s classmates at the Shanghai Drama Academy, Lu Yi’s wife Bao Lei and Ren Quan’s best friend Li Bingbing, as the two’s respective female love interests. Incidentally, all of the four leads were on Hunan TV today, with Li Bingbing and Ren Quan on Tian Tian Xiang Shang, and Lu Yi and Bao Lei on Where are we going? Dad.

Really low-qualitied but beautiful opening theme: 

The series tells of a quartet of best friends at the height of their hotness musicians broken apart by the turbulent times. Lu Yi plays the poor cellist who starts off his career as a gang boss in order to feed himself and Ren Quan and for the quartet to perform at the local club, but unknowingly brings Ren Quan’s family to ruins in one of his jobs.  Meanwhile, Ren Quan plays the wide-eyed rich pianist with grande dreams, but drowns himself in alcohol after the group separates and his family comes to ruins.   When Lu Yi returns, he tries to rekindle Ren Quan’s musical dreams and their friendship, but things are no longer the same. Will their musical dreams and dreams of friendship stand the test of the times?

If you want more of Lu Yi-Ren Quan-Li Bingbing cuteness afterwards, I also recommend the Young Justice Bao 少年包青天 series.  Season 1 features Zhou Jie (who appeared  in Dad 2 in an unexpected way), Ren Quan, and Li Bingbing, season 2 Lu Yi, Ren Quan, and Fan Bingbing, and season 3 has Deng Chao, Zhao Yang, and Yang Rong.   I just finished rewatching 3 and is going back to finish rewatching season 2.