Autumn's Concerto ~10 years on

* Minor Spoilers ahead! *

There are desserts and then there is a chocolate cake. It’s positively insulting to blend them together at a patisserie considering that chocolate can make your heart vibrate in a moment of anticipation at the early contemplation of the overwhelming joy, giggles and teehee hee-haws to be experienced through a mouth-watering ambrosial molten hot chocolate cake bite.

Lusciously rich, delightfully sweet, one surreptitiously tiny touch of chocolate in your tongue stimulates all your 10,000 taste buds into an eruption of enticing pleasure elevating its enjoyment to newfound heights of physical and psychological gratification. Love won’t wait, ti amo chocolate!!!

Autumn’s Concerto can easily be described as one of the best molten hot chocolate cakes one can ever enjoy in their lives! If you want to make it hopelessly decadent you can make it a red velvet but my advice is don’t ruin a marvellous cake with unnecessary accessories.

Take it from Autumn's Concerto.

AC has a rich law student, a poor female student, a university dean, a girl and a boy that like the leads and a child. The molten hot chocolate cake has eggs, butter, bittersweet chocolate, flour, sugar, and salt. Simple ingredients, yet when mixed together they produce a rapturously ravishing alluring exquisite magical palate tasting experience. It's a culinary art reflected in an entertainment visual conception that awakens all five human senses directly and/or indirectly to an indulgent revelry of bliss.

Ren Guang Xi is the emotionally tumultuous son of the dean, hellbent on wreaking havoc around him until he meets and falls in love with Mu Cheng, a strong pianist who harbours the emotional scars of a challenging past like Guang Xi. Their reciprocated love, however, was not one for the storybooks and collapsed amidst the adversities they faced for wanting to be together as if love per se as a feeling was not enough. It never is. Love on its own does not sustain a relationship where each person lives on a different page, unwilling to share it in the same book.

6 years later Guang Xi is a successful lawyer with amnesia, a post-surgical complication of his neurological medical procedure to remove the brain tumour he had on his cerebrum, while Mu Cheng is a single mother that lives quietly with their son, Xiao Le. Guang Xi and Mu Cheng meet again. The result, after an endless array of misunderstandings, trials, and errors is, well... as delightful and special as the hot chocolate cake that cannot, ought not, must not be missed.

10 years on and there is only one Autumn's Concerto, no variations or re-creations or incarnations of the story, just one, the original. You can try and remake it like you can try and recreate the most delectable molten hot chocolate cake you have ever had, but you will never recreate the experience it has given you. 

The ingredients might be the same but you won't be the same. You can have similar experiences with cakes that use the exact same ingredients and awaken different emotions inside of you, feelings that you might not have been aware of before but while it might feel good, it will also feel different. Autumn's Concerto is like that, despite being one and only, it will awaken different feelings inside of you every time you watch it, emotions that you might not have consciously perceived when you streamed it for the very first time.

Ganbei to the best molten hot chocolate cake and to Autumn's Concerto!

Here's what's the main cast has been up to since then:

Vanness Wu

If Vanness Wu was a molten hot chocolate cake ingredient he would be chocolate. The artist can never be anything other than the main ingredient in any dessert even when he is not the main one. His distinctive presence, strong work ethics and determination to succeed in every project he undertakes sets him apart from his peers and is an inspiration to those trying to forge a name for themselves in the entertainment industry.

Already an established A-lister in 2009 with a strong fanbase across Asia, Vanness Wu has one way or another always been connected with entertainment in its essential core due to his versatility as an artist and his drive to continuously go the extra mile in every one of his endeavours. Autumn’s Concerto was the cherry on top of his perfectly executed molten hot chocolate cake which garnered highly positive levels of word of mouth and was extremely loved by domestic and international fans alike.

In the subsequent years, Vanness Wu’s work wouldn’t overall be defined as epic or even memorable except for Princess Wei Young where he successfully portrayed the main antagonist and overshadowed the leads with his state-of-the-art performance. Material Queen and Ti Amo Chocolate were bland which is not a bad thing flavour wise at times when your stomach is full of chocolate cake. Love Won’t Wait was well performed and showcased a riveting emotional depth conceptually onscreen able to enthral the audience in awe. This didn’t come as a surprise considering how staggering Vanness Wu is an artist. His work might not appeal to every single person on earth and his drama ratings, in general, might not have garnered a shelve filled with acting accolades thus far but success is not a measure of awards piled at home like a narcissistic mirror demanding abiding attention. Success is doing what one loves well, evolve as a person, as a human being, mentoring younger generations in their goal pursuits... Vanness Wu has a very successful career, that is as unquestionable as the lush sumptuousness of cocoa.

10 years on, he’s a regular member of Street Dance of China Season 2, which has started airing on the 18^th of May.

Vanness Wu has an Instagram account where he posts regularly and fans can positively interact with him via the comments section of each post and show support for his endeavours. You can check it out here.

Ady An

If Ady An was a molten hot chocolate cake ingredient she would be eggs. In high or low measures eggs are always an essential ingredient in any culinary textbook dessert. With a plethora of dramas and movies under her belt, Ady An represents class and dedication towards enhancing her craft and has made every role she undertook a pillar of admiration and inspiration for those wishing to venture into acting.

Equally an A-Lister in 2009, the actress had a memorable performance in Autumn’s Concerto which would remain in the hearts of the public ever since. None of her follow-up roles has gathered the level of attention the drama has received or the recognition, her name always remembered in association with Autumn’s Concerto rather than her most contemporary works i.e.: The Princess, Female Assassins in the Palace, Royal Sister Returns or The Legend of Dugu.

10 years on and Andy An is the lead in Maritime Silk Road, a drama aiming to premiere sometime later this year.

The actress apparently has an Instagram account, apparently as it’s not verified. You can check it out here and take a look at her posts which fans can comment positively to show support for her work.

Chris Wu

If Chris Wu was a molten hot chocolate cake ingredient, he would be flour. Flour is key, is instrumental in any dessert. The right amount has the ability to elevate it, the wrong amount can destroy it entirely.

Chris Wu’s entertainment career was still in infancy stages in 2009 when he was cast in Autumn’s Concerto. From then on it skyrocketed into the stratosphere thanks to his talent and strong work ethics which have led him to receive more acting accolades over the past ten years than his two drama co-stars combined in all their acting careers.

Emerging Light, a 2013 drama series, has won him the best actor award in a leading role. In 2015, he has received the accolade for best-supporting actor in a drama series/TV movie with the drama Wake Up and a nomination for best leading actor with Long Day's Journey into Light and, in 2016, Chris Wu received the best leading actor award that had eluded him the year before, with A Touch of Green. The best, however, was yet to come in 2017, his year. He won two best actors awards, one of which for White Ant and received three nominations for best actor; one for Love of the Sandstorm and two for We Are One. Chris Wu is now considered an A-Lister and a big bright start within the entertainment sphere surpassing the acting level recognition of his co-stars from Autumn’s Concerto. The student has overthrown the teacher and has become a master in his own right.

10 years on and Chris Wu has been having a busy 2019. His drama The World Between Us has finished airing in April and he has a movie scheduled to premiere sometime this year called The Lady Improper where he takes a backseat role to his leading ones.

Tiffany Hsu

If Tiffany Hsu was a molten hot chocolate cake ingredient, she would be butter. Like flour, butter is also fundamental in pretty much any dessert. Too much butter and the cake will get soggy, not enough butter and it will get hard. The right amount is vital to obtain the right cake texture.

Following the domestic and international commercial success of the iconic drama It Started with a Kiss where she played Pei Ziyu, the second female lead, the actress was hot on her heels. Autumn’s Concerto spiralled her popularity higher and opened an extensive array of entertainment doors for her even further which she has gladly entered making her one of the best actresses of her generation.

Like Chris Wu, Tiffany Hsu’s career has equally skyrocketed, albeit into the mesosphere leaving Vanness Wu and Andy An in the troposphere.

Design 7 Love has received two nominations for the Best new performer, one in 2014 and one in 2015, the year she was nominated for the best actress award for the film Dream Flight and received an accolade as the best-supporting actress for the drama The Way We Were. 2016 was her best year and the year she was lauded as a top actress and an A-Lister in the entertainment industry as she won the best actress award for her three movies, End of A Century: Miea's Story, White Lies, Black Lies and horror movie The Tag-Along, this last one also granted her a nomination for best leading actress that year. The following year, in 2017, she received the best actress award, the best leading actress in a miniseries/TV movie for Rock Records in Love – Infatuation and a best-supporting-actress nomination for The Tag-Along 2, the film nomination she would equally receive in 2018. Tiffany Hsu has also worked with Chris Wu in Wake Up and Wake Up 2.

10 years on and the actress has also been busy with two projects slated to be released this year in 2019: web series Dear Diary and movie Home Sweet Home.

…and now to satisfy everyone’s curiosity at how Xiao Le has turned out… 

Benny Wen

Following Autumn's Concerto, Benny has appeared in a couple of movies i.e. Perfect Two and Poor Rich Dad and in a few dramas i.e. Love Keeps Going and Lovestore at the Corner. The child actor, now a teenager, hasn't appeared on screen since 2016, therefore, it's unknown what he is currently doing but it's thought that he might be focusing exclusively on his education.

Time flies but good memories remain forever inside everyone's hearts like Autumn's Concerto, a beautiful story that has delighted South East Drama fans and continues to enchant those that time and again go back to it and re-watch it with warm feelings and an overabundance of joy in their hearts and souls; similar feelings to those produced by the enjoyment of a molten hot chocolate cake.

Congratulations to everyone who has made this drama an epic one for everyone to enjoy! Fans are immensely grateful!