LayarHijau – The Chinese drama The Early Spring (《早春晴朗》) quickly drew attention after its premiere, with its popularity surpassing 10,000 on the platform. Its intimate scenes have become one of the biggest talking points, from a kiss inside a car on a rainy night to a tense, flirtatious exchange between the leads in an office.
Clips of those moments have spread widely across short-video platforms, helping drive both viewership and online discussion surrounding the drama, which stars Sun Qian and Jing Boran.
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The chemistry between the two leads has also emerged as one of the drama’s biggest attractions. Their push-and-pull dynamic gives the romantic scenes an undeniable spark, making many of their interactions easy to turn into viral clips on social media.
However, the attention surrounding those intimate moments has not translated into uniformly positive reactions to the drama as a whole. Sohu Entertainment reports that some Chinese viewers have pointed to weaknesses in the story, particularly in the characters’ motivations and the development of their relationship, arguing that the intimate scenes have not been enough to completely cover those shortcomings.
The Early Spring Takes a More Structured Approach to Intimate Scenes
The attention surrounding The Early Spring’s intimate scenes also comes amid a relatively new approach to production in mainland Chinese television dramas.
The Early Spring is among the mainland’s long-form dramas to systematically bring in a professional intimacy coordinator throughout the filming process. Cai Jiayin, who previously worked on the Netflix Taiwan drama Let’s Talk About CHU (《愛愛內含光》), was brought on to oversee this aspect of the production.
Her role went beyond choreographing kissing scenes. Before filming began, the intimacy coordinator worked with the director to establish the characters’ relationship and the narrative purpose of each intimate moment. She also spoke individually with the two actors about their boundaries before designing movements based on the characters’ relationship and positions within the story.
Scenes that may have been described only vaguely in the script as romantic or suggestive moments could then be broken down into specific physical details, including hand placement, breathing rhythm, and the distance between the actors.
Small gestures, such as brushing noses, briefly touching fingers before pulling away, or subtly changing the distance between the characters, can help create romantic tension without relying entirely on more intense physical scenes.
The approach reflects an effort to make intimate scenes more structured rather than leaving them primarily to actor improvisation or a director’s instinct.
But making an intimate scene more polished does not automatically solve problems at the story level.
Chemistry Has Become a Major Selling Point for Romance Dramas
The Early Spring arrives at a time when chemistry and romantic atmosphere have increasingly become major selling points for modern romance dramas.
Sohu Entertainment cites Love’s Ambition (《许我耀眼》), Deep Affection Eyes (《深情眼》), and Love in the Clouds (《入青云》) as examples of dramas that previously attracted attention through their portrayal of romantic relationships and intimate moments.
Such scenes have become particularly effective promotional material because they can easily be clipped and circulated across social media. A short scene filled with romantic tension can reach viewers who have never watched the drama and make them curious enough to check it out.
As a result, “atmosphere” and sexual tension have increasingly become part of the formula for contemporary romance dramas. The industry is now looking for ways to turn scenes that once relied heavily on an actors’ natural chemistry into something that can be planned and executed more systematically.
The Early Spring takes that approach a step further with the involvement of an intimacy coordinator.
But a more sophisticated production process still cannot guarantee that a love story itself will feel convincing.
Intimate Scenes Aren’t Enough to Cover the Story’s Weaknesses
The criticism highlighted by Sohu Entertainment becomes more apparent when viewers look beyond the viral romantic clips and judge The Early Spring as a complete story.
Some Chinese viewers have questioned whether the leads’ emotional connection has been given enough foundation. In their view, the characters’ changing feelings and growing closeness are not always sufficiently supported by their circumstances and experiences within the story.
As a result, the intimate scenes that have become one of the drama’s biggest highlights have not been enough to completely conceal weaknesses in the characters’ motivations and the progression of their relationship.
The issue is not whether the two leads have chemistry.
Their chemistry is clearly one of the reasons the intimate scenes work so well. But chemistry can show that two characters look good together or are attracted to each other. It cannot, on its own, explain why they fall in love, how those feelings develop, or why their relationship matters to each character’s journey.
That is where romance dramas face a much harder challenge. A romantic scene can make viewers swoon for a few minutes, but the story has to make them care about the relationship over the course of an entire series.
Atmosphere Can Be Crafted, but Story Still Matters
An intimacy coordinator can help answer the question of how an intimate scene should be filmed safely, carefully, and effectively.
Directors can also use camera work, lighting, physical distance, choreography, and subtle gestures to create the desired atmosphere.
But those techniques primarily answer the question of how a relationship should be portrayed.
The more fundamental question is why these two characters should fall in love in the first place.
If the character development and relationship arc are not strong enough, even the most beautifully executed romantic scene can remain just that—a visually compelling moment. Viewers may share the clip, praise the leads’ chemistry, or replay the scene, without necessarily becoming emotionally invested in the entire love story.
Sohu Entertainment places this issue within a broader challenge facing contemporary urban romance dramas in China. The genre, once a reliable staple for streaming platforms, has struggled in recent years to produce new breakout hits capable of connecting with a much wider audience.
This summer, dramas including Love Has Fireworks (《爱情有烟火》), Love for You (《野狗骨头》), and Road to Success (《灿如繁星》) were also cited as examples of productions with substantial scale and a strong focus on atmosphere. Yet various reception and word-of-mouth issues made it difficult for them to achieve a major breakout.
The problem, then, is not simply about making a drama look romantic.
A romance still needs a story that allows viewers to understand its characters and believe in the evolution of their relationship.
Chemistry Can’t Replace the Story
The Early Spring demonstrates just how powerful chemistry and intimate scenes can be when it comes to generating buzz.
The rainy-night car kiss, the charged office encounters, and the romantic interactions between Sun Qian and Jing Boran have all provided highly shareable moments that attract attention.
The involvement of an intimacy coordinator also shows how the industry is beginning to explore more systematic ways of creating intimate scenes while making the filming process more structured.
But the audience response also highlights the limits of that formula.
Once the novelty of the intimate scenes wears off and viewers begin looking at the drama as a whole, questions about characterization and the development of the relationship inevitably come back into focus.
Ultimately, romantic atmosphere can be carefully crafted and chemistry can be enhanced. But viewers cannot be made to believe in a love story through intimate scenes alone.
What truly keeps them invested is the feeling that these two characters have convincing reasons to fall in love with each other.
The Early Spring has turned its chemistry and intimate scenes into a powerful engine for buzz. But for some Chinese viewers, those strengths still have not been enough to completely conceal weaknesses in its characterization, motivations, and relationship development.
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