I started watching ASSOL without any background information. At the beginning of the first episode, I thought that the blizzard city could be from Finland (by default, some place in China). After a while, I realized that the series was partly filmed in Finland. The cities of Helsin and Hel(l) in the story is Helsinki. Thus, as a Finn, the interest in drama rose all at once.

The drama itself is very slow-paced, yet it absorbs with its narrative. The male lead in his role is very convincing. The female lead is certainly a talented actress, but the image of women in Chinese dramas is annoying, to say the least, from such a European perspective. This time, shyness has been taken to extremes. Extra points for the following points: Due to Arctic conditions, this time there has been no need to look at the microskirts of female actors. In addition, the number of soft toys is kept to a minimum.