A Journey to Meet Love (2019)

A Journey to Meet Love 一场遇见爱情的旅行 is a 52 episode series telling the story of two individuals and their journey to Shangrila, and to love. Starring actress Jing Tian as Li XinYue, our female protagonist is a white collar worker who comes to the attention of the police when she purchases a painting by renowned painter Chu Hongfei for a lot of money. Police officer Jin Xiaotian, played by actor Chen Xiao, is commissioned to shadow her undercover. Due to circumstances, they both embark on a road trip with the painter’s son to the fabled and legendary Shangrila.

Our two protagonists develop feelings for each other along the way, but Xiaotian is yet unable to confess his affections for Xinyue due to his undercover situation. With the subsequent life threatening situations the pair go through though, Xiaotian is finally forced to reveal his real identity as an undercover officer, and his feelings for Xinyue.

Okay so to be honest, the plot actually brings to mind some similarities with coming of age movies like Chasing Liberty or First Daughter (who remembers these?!) where girl goes off somewhere, girl meets boy who’s actually an undercover agent, they fall in love, then boom! girl finds out the truth, they break up because of the deception, they make up, etcetera, etcetera. What I’d like to see though is how the script plays out the part when Xinyue finds out Xiaotian has actually been shadowing her and hasn’t been quite honest to her about it – does she forgive and forget quickly or will the producers draw out their reconciliation?

As an added treat to viewers, the drama seems to be really selling the concept of going on a road trip so expect beautifully shot scenery of paradise – Shangrila, from director Mao Weining as our two intrepid travellers drive through snow capped mountains along their “journey” to love.

The series also features He Minghan, Qin Shan, Ding Yongdai, Liu Wei, Li Jing, Wang Ce and Guan Zijing.

Release Date: April 20, 2019 Zhejiang TV, Jiangsu TV (two episodes daily at 7:30pm), episodes online iQIYI, Tencent, Youku

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