Love Beneath the North Star

[Cool, Confident Female Director VS Warm, Passionate Male Star]

Mai Siwei is a demanding perfectionist when it comes to filmmaking. When investors force top-tier star Song Shijia on her, her impression is that he’s “decent-looking, I guess,” and her verdict is that his acting is “so cringey, you could dig out an entire three-bedroom apartment.”

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The films she directs give their leads a sweet beginning and show them falling in love and standing by each other, but never promise them a happily-ever-after together.

It’s not that she refuses to give them a happy ending. She simply believes love cannot withstand the trials of human nature.

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Song Shijia finds her contradictory and mysterious.

The love in her films is never melodramatic, but has a distinct flavor. Its soul-piercing blows and faint, sea-salt sadness linger in the memory, while its free-spirited vastness, like the ocean, is its very essence.

And she herself is just like one of her films...

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In her films, she dictates the ending.

In real life, he is determined to change it.

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She says, “I can love you, but I love myself more.”

He replies, “That’s all right. I’ll love you as much as I love myself.”

She looks up at the stars, unimpressed. “Just as the stars shift and the sun and moon take turns, all love has an expiration date.”

He argues, “But they only change places. They never disappear. My love will be eternal, just like them.”

She simply smiles and points to the vast sky. “The Big Dipper seems close, yet it’s light-years away. Its love is like the Big Dipper itself: something you can see, but never reach.”

He turns to look at her as she gazes at the stars. “The Big Dipper is always there whenever you look up. Its love is like its light: bright, dazzling, never fading, and unchanged through the ages.”

[Clear-Eyed Heroine VS Warmhearted, Tender Hero]