Negotiator (2018)

A decently entertaining drama despite its undeniable plot holes. The drama is the epitome of a drama where objectively, is probably not the greatest drama out there, but subjectively, could become your guilty pleasure. You should only check out/watch this drama if you:
1) Are a fan of one or both of the lead actors (Yang Mi and Huang Zitao)
2)Like noona-dongsaeng romances
3) Are interested in a brainless drama to watch to pass your time (I used it as a brainless stress-reliever in between studying for midterms, which was fun)

Story:
It tells the story of Xie Xiaofei, a seemingly bratty, annoying and childish young man. However, he turns out to be someone with a good heart and certain opinions/ideas that you may agree with. However, he is quite bratty, although also likable, but also annoying. He's quite bipolar, and a very conflicting character. I had an intense like/hate relationship with his character. However, after the big thing with his family, he kind of starts to mature, so there is change. May not be the amount of change you’d wish he had, but decent enough.

Tong Wei, is a closed-off, serious, strict, career woman, whose life is turned upside down when Xiaofei enters and causes a series of funny and not funny mishaps in her life. However, the pair is very likable, and probably the only likable parts of the drama. I know that most people were kind of put off by the age gap, but they do mention it in the drama that the woman is older.

What I liked:
1. The main couple is very cute (until the last like 3 stressful episodes)! Especially if you like noona-dongsaeng romances.
2. The drama is pretty well-paced. Despite the plot holes, I still found myself wanting to watch the next episodes.
3. Yang Mi’s fashion/clothes in this drama is A+++!! Literally loved most of her outfits
4. That it kept itself together (for the most part) longer than Les Interpretes. It got extremely frustrating for the last 4-5 episodes, but hey, at least not the entire latter half of the drama like Les Interpretes
5. Tong Tiantian was annoying as hell in the begining but redeemed herself about halfway through
6. There were some decently funny parts!!
7. I really like the OST songs

What I disliked:
1. The supporting characters my goodness. Most of them were annoying for a large portion of the drama (although Tong Tiantian and Shang Bichen were more bearable as the drama progressed and Tong Wei's aunt had a reedamable moment LOL)
2. Tong Wei selling her house to make money to help pay Xie Xiaofei's mom's medical bills??? Like girl......I wouldn't do that if this wasn't dramaland
3. Lawyer dude Qin Tianyu was annoying as hell sometimes. Like Tong Wei told him quite a few times that she didn't like him, yet he was still so persistent LOL
4. Zhao Chenxi............my goodness where do I start with this annoying supporting character!!
5. The story did have its plotholes throughout, and were quite bearable most of the time. UNTIL the last like 5 episodes I was basically riding on the wildest rollercoaster ever I was so confused and frustrated lmao.
6. Tong Wei's best friend was such a hassle and obstruction sometimes LOL. Plus she is the kind of women I would NOT want to be.
7. The whole Tong Wei and Shan Shan's tragedy thing in the last few episodes.......I won't say more because that would be too spoiler-y
8. The drama is called "Negotiator" but there really wasn't THAT much negotiating LOL.......maybe they should change the name.

Acting:
So I would say that the overall acting was okay by the entire cast. Many of you may have seen Yang Mi in Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, where she showcased brilliant acting. Her acting in this one was okay. The character itself is very serious and work-oriented, but her character livens a bit more as the drama progresses. I liked a lot of her crying scenes, but even those, she didn't cry like crazy because of how reserved her character was. I especially liked her crying scene when she was arguing with Xiaofei in front of Chen Xiaoxi's house, as well as that scene where she found out about Shan Shan's fate. 

As for Tao, he posted on Weibo when the drama just started airing that this was the first drama he's ever filmed (even though his other drama aired earlier) and I feel that as a debut drama, he did pretty well. I do think his emotional/crying scenes were better than his angry scenes. He makes me laugh when he's angry LOL but his crying scenes were actually pretty good.

Setting aside how annoying their characters were, the supporting actors in this were actually okay too. I must say, Dylan Kuo being the only Taiwanese-accented person in the entire cast threw me off a lot at the very beginning because his pronunciation was SUPER obviously different LOL but I guess I eventually kind of grew used to it. The guy who plays Sun Hao......does not sound like he was dubbed.......his voice sounds really raspy(??) and kind of annoying LOL or maybe that's just me but he's not in the drama that much so it's okay.

Also you may be annoyed by dubbing at times (I thought it was fine since I love dubbing lol). They had issues passing SARFT the first time, so their characters were all dubbed after stuff was changed. The English dubbing might feel kind of whack too since the actors were saying Chinese and then they were dubbed over with English. But I mean......at least there wasn't TOO much of those parts, and it's not like the actors can speak English very well LOL.

Music:
The instrumental music was sometimes quite bothersome….they were kind of too loud at times (which is why I docked off some points)?? But the OST songs I really liked!!! I listen to a lot of Chinese music, so I really liked the opening and ending theme songs, as well as the other OST song sung by Yisa Yu. I have all 3 of these songs on my phone and have been listening to them quite often these days.

Rewatch:
I would rewatch the parts with the main leads!! I really thought they were cute, and I’ve already rewatched quite a few of their scenes. But nothing else aside from the main leads LOL I watched this drama because I’m a big fan of Yang Mi and I often times enjoy noona-dongsaeng romances (thus fulfilling the two bullet points I had listed at the beginning of this review).

Lastly:
I used to think Huang Zitao was kind of annoying (me being a semi-kpop fan and all) but throughout the past month of watching this drama and scrolling through Weibo, my view of him as turned from annoyance to neutrality and a bare liking. His Weibo stories of him watching the drama were quite funny.
I'm hoping Jaywalk Studio can pick better modern cdramas for Yang Mi and her talents in the future.......I feel like they always pick up awful modern cdramas LOL it really wastes the potentials of their talents!! ://

In essence, a guilty pleasure drama XD

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A business romance around Z.Tao

Some parts feel like a travelogue about Hawaii, Suzhou, Shanghai, New York Manhattan...

Z.Tao played impeccably as the Xie Xiaofei spoiled heir of an unlikely America based Chinese group, pushed almost to destitution by internecine business and family strife, who emerged from the ordeal as a more powerful business leader.
His love interest was the negotiator Tong Wei played by Yang Mi (overdubbed here as she usually is, whereas the rest of the cast is not). She let herself be seduced by the uninhibited young man, and went on to help him regain his footing in the company.
But Xiaofei's dad wanted his son to marry heiress Chen Xi, and the father of this other woman always sporting a well oiled head with "elegant" short hair also wanted to pressure his daughter into a marriage for business alliance; she loved Xiaofei since she noticed his selflesness on a plane while they were both flying to Shanghai, but Xiaofei was very clear about his heart already being taken. He still accepted to help her as a friend, and was even tempted to finally marry her because of his falling out with the negotiator. It could have been an unhappy ending but with a last half of episode twist, things got back on track.

But I can't help feeling that Yang Mi often played perfunctorily in this drama and did not feel that much connection to her character and her partner. The tragic death of the negotiator's friend was also unneeded and even made that part feel like the scriptwriters had an agenda to show karmic punishment for those who don't conform to the established forms of relationships in courting leading to marriage and only then, to having children. The fairy tale of the selling and recovering of the town house and the hysterical aunt, the annoying cousins on both sides, many tropes etc and the plot holes were detrimental.

Z.Tao did his best and because of him, the drama was still enjoyable. I read somewhere that this was his very first drama acting, released after another one, for some reason. If so, it is even more impressive : he shows lots of expressions, and spontaneity which redeem the older Yang Mi's competent but not really charismatic acting here. The age difference between the two is not stressed in the drama, instead it is more the class difference and the different ways of leading a large business, which were at the center, with clan leaders clashing and mysterious mentors influencing outcomes.

The music in the OST has nothing to do with Z.Tao. Although the drama is not a musical, and he does not play a singer (though he does perform an impressive flip as a street performer, at one moment, which will remind audiences about his real life martial arts youth training) I regretted that his distinctive take on music and rap were not used here, too.

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