My Zhang Xincheng withdrawals got so bad that I had to rewatch Tender Light. It left me as devastated as it did the first time. Fun fact, this was actually the drama that gave me the italicized oh moment that made me realize I was gonna end up stanning him (I had watched him in All These Years first, and he had already piqued my interest. I watched Justice in the Dark after finishing TL, when I could get over the whiplash that PS was being portrayed by the same guy 😭😅). Tender Light is so gorgeous too, Yao Xiaofeng's cinematography is so aesthetic. We need gifs, seriously.
TL is a gritty mainstream drama in which Xincheng performs with a bare face, perhaps another reason why his performance feels so raw and naked. The female lead is written so well that I was ready to lay down my life for her (a character embodied perfectly by Tong Yao). And every scene they share is so charged, so electric, that the chemistry is palpable. These official promo images might suggest that the show simply delivers a sensual, even sexual spectacle, but it's honestly the opposite. Their relationship develops from a one-sided, childish, sensual infatuation to a deeply mature, emotional, intellectual, and mutually self-sacrificial bond, and it kinda leaves me breathless in its realistic understatedness. My other favorite thing? The social critique is excoriating 🔥 (all the way up to the end where the police guy is suddenly redeemed, all hail censorship 🙄)!
