
Noona-dongsaeng romances that flip the traditional “older man and younger woman” relationship on its head are nothing new in Kdramas. Remember a younger Park Seo Joon romancing an older Uhm Jung Hwa in Witches Romance? Or Lee Minki’s swoony devotion finally breaking down the reservations of Chae Rim’s noona in Dalja’s Spring? The dynamics between strongly confident career women opposite the fun younger men sweeping them off their feet seem to be finally catching on in Cdramaland as another one exploring the genre has just been announced. Entitled The Rational Life (formerly The Woman Who Cannot Fall In Love) 无法恋爱的理智派, the show will be headlined by Story of Yanxi Palace’s Qin Lan and Dylan Wang who played Dao Mingsi in 2018’s remake of Meteor Garden.

The beauty of noona romances lies in the fact that the heroines are usually self possessed and more mature – none of those simpering damsel in distress types that we’ve been seeing a lot of in recent offerings. Qin Lan who portrayed the Empress in the popular historical, plays the heroine Shen Ruoxin to Dylan Wang’s Qi Xiao in The Woman Who Cannot Fall In Love. In a largely male dominated company, Ruoxin exposes her boyfriend’s machinations thanks to the help of her trusty assistant Qi Xiao. He also opens her eyes to other things, like the fact that love is about the attraction between two people and that age is just a number.
When the casting was first announced last month, there had been ramblings amongst netizens that the 19 year age difference between Qin Lan and Dylan Wang was too significant to ignore. Qin Lan herself was also reported to have been a little hesitant playing the older “sister” in a relationship. Nonetheless, let’s all wait to see how the pairing works out once the production releases stills and trailers from the show. After all, Qin Lan looks far younger than her forty one years that she might just manage to pull this off.
The Woman Who Cannot Fall In Love also stars Li Zonghan, Chen Pengwanli, Ma Xiaoqin, Kang Kang, Wei Yibo and Zhang Xiao Qian.
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tsevca
I myself am not interested in this topic, but complaining about the age difference… Isn’t it kind of the point?