Somewhere Only We Know (2019)

Great drama-go watch the extra episodes.

Since I want to watch more Cdramas I watched this and was pleasantly surprised. I enjoy a slice of life drama and this truly felt like a students slice of life. It was slow and steady and built the relationships and the friendships quiete well. When I finished the episodes on Netflix, I felt that something was off - I was left a bit disappointed because there were many many loose threads. Come to find out there are 3 extra episodes that tie the story up nicely- before finding these episodes I would've been disappointed in the time I spent watching the drama - but the extra episodes really made me enjoy the show even more.

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This is a story worth watching

I definitely think it can be a bit slow and hard to get into during the first few episodes, but after that it's so good. You really don't know what to expect with this story, it is so much more raw and heartfelt than it appears to be. I really liked the main character, and the story didn't feel so unrealistic that it took me out of the immersion. I would watch this again for sure. I watched this a long time ago so I do not remember the exact things that I disliked about it, but I know there weren't many things to dislike. Maybe the pacing could be off in some areas, but other than that I only have good things to say. If you enjoy stories set in the university environment, this is a perfect show for you.

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I absolutely adored this show. I must thank Netflix for bringing this beautiful show on because otherwise I would’ve never known about it.

Firstly the drama is a slice of life. It felt quite realistic and the pace is slow but satisfying.
Each character was endearing and relatable. portrayed. The actors all did an amazing job. From the four friends, we can all find someone who is most like us since their personalities are so varied.

With many Chinese dramas I’ve noted they follow the infamous trope of arrogant lead leads. Here the male lead was so pleasant and soft spoken. He seemed pure at heart albeit some flaws but that only made him more humane and relatable. The chemistry between the leads was subtle but unique.
I never felt the age difference with the leads as a hindrance or disadvantage to development of romantic relationship. I felt both characters brought the best of each other and they were soul mates.

Usually I seldom care about plots of supporting characters but in this drama I found myself caring for them just as much I did for the leads. The drama definitely had some subtle surprises in store. Whilst I didn’t agree with some, it did not disappoint me enough to even contemplate dropping the drama. And I’m the queen of dropping dramas, if I can say so myself.

For those loving dramas with romance, this is definitely one to go for. I wholeheartedly recommend this. I truly hope the cast achieves greater success because they were all very talented. I will end my review here.

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Somewhere I Don't Want To Go °5.4° °avg, & not a romance°

Xue Tong's father died a hero as she was preparing to enter college. “I found a new burden being added onto my shoulders,” she explains. “I must score well in exams because I'm the hero's daughter. I have to be considerate all the time because I'm the hero's daughter. I can't afford to make any mistakes because I'm the hero's daughter. I can't bring shame to my heroic dad… I realized that this burden has become a part of my personality. For the past few years I've been a timid coward. Today, I decided to put down that burden to become a brave yet ordinary person. Only by doing so can my dad's bravery bring light into my life.” She's crafted an extraordinary manifesto.

Xue Tong was framed. All she did was pick up a piece of paper. But the exacting exam monitor, Mu Cheng He, accused her of cheating. XT's Professor knows she's not the type to cheat, so he does not render a verdict, but rather takes time to look into the issue. Ep1 is about how she goes on a quest to clear her name & find the true culprits, but even moreso, it sets up a clash between her & Mu. She “doan” like him. Notta bit.

Li Ting Ting from Unique Lady plays FL, XT. Without a sense of style, she's no fashionista. More Sporty-Spice than any other, she walks, talks, & quacks like a jock, but they didn't put her on any team ~ other than the infamous dorm room 323. She is smart, down-to-earth, & she's girl-nextdoor cute. Protect yourself & hit the mute button when she sings. She & her two beasties, Bai Lin (Baby-Spice) & Song Qi Qi (Surprise-Spice) remind me of the 3 friends in the amazing 💘anime Maid Sama(10). The FL is a tough, smart overachiever, then there's the studious, bespectacled QiQi, & finally the ponytailed fan-girlie, Bai Lin, who always seems to make trouble. Unlike the rule-enforcing Misa from MS, XT is not a great rule follower. She's downright disruptive sometimes.

At some point they get Scary-Spice as a roomie. She's a model, she looks like Joan Jett, & she's as cool as her too. They are in their 3rd year. 21 year old XT is really popular this year. All kinds of guys are approaching her - to pass messages & gifts to her new super-hot rommie, Zhao Xiao Tang. As it turns out, the guy XT is interested in only sees her as a buddy. Tang is his kinda tangy, he thinks. But, YO! Tang is totally Tangsta.

XT's thing is languages. She's an English major, but she's also learning Russian. When she shows up to her first Russian class of the semester, guess who's filling in for the professor who is out of town? The show teaches us about the alveolar “al ‘vee lar” trill, or rolling of the r’s. Those w/ ankyloglossia (tongue-tied) aren't able to do it, but ethnicity is not a risk factor for that condition. Asians simply aren't used to making that sound. (How many of us in the USA can reproduce most of their consonants? According to Google translate I'm hopeless). Anyway, XT's alveolar weakness is exposed promptly. Extra homework. Mu will be keeping a close eye on her. She ends up as the class representative. She'll be in his office daily…

Zhang Chao is ML, Mu. He looks like Michael Crawford's Cornelius Hackl from Hello Dolly. He's not a bad guy, he's just a physics major. They're precise & rely on what they see. He's been skipping grades since he was young, So he's always been surrounded by people older than him. Nobody played w/ him when he was little. “I didn't care. I don't need others to play w/ me. Because I knew in my heart that physics was the most interesting topic,” he insists. When he wants to speak romantically it might be something like this: ”Time is irreversible in general relativity. The only ruler of time is the transfer of heat. But when the heat begins to pass, What happened can no longer be erased.” Just fan yourselves, ladies, before you pass out! Left-brained folk aren't known for their touchie-feeliness. As a physics PhD student & teacher, Mu is in a position of authority at school. He & XT end up clashing many times. He even has to pick her up at the police station. So when he needs to break into the lab, who's he gonna call?

SOWK is tagged as a romance, but it's more a college drama about XT & her roomies. The romance is low-sizzle. This isn't where you get your dopamine fix. (For that I recommend Well-Intended Love-7.5, which is rom-porn. Just be warned that the ML pulls a very offensive stunt. The two best modern-day Cromances I've seen are, A Little Thing Called First Love-8.5 & Find Yourself-9.2) The show sort of acts like a scientist in that we observe these characters more than identify w/ them; our emotions are not fully pulled in. The viewer might get irritated w/ Bai Lin, but our feelings are not subjected to intense wind resistance. This isn't hot love, it's cool fusion.

While XT remains oblivious, the viewer sees Mu start to smirk at her. Next, his gaze lingers on her. She's been helping him as a way to apologize & say “thank-you” in the aftermath of their various run-ins. He invites her to the planetarium. She's in bummy pants & a t-shirt w/ an oversized plaid button shirt hanging like a moo-moo over the ensemble. She skips & scampers from one exhibit to another. When she sees all the tweens making a model she wants to do it, too. She just had her heart bruised by being placed in friend-zone by another dude, yet here she is doing it to Mu. Or is she? Soon it's obvious that they are each attracted to the other & they are self-aware. They aren't people that talk about feelings though. They keep it lowkey.

For a nerd, he does a nice confession. Once they are dating, XT gets frustrated because he's slower than the sea turtles they observed while diving. Not only is he a scientist, but he's 10 yrs her senior. Who can blame him for moving slowly? Her youth & inexperience make her look like a bomb to him. Does she really love him? Will another guy catch her eye? Is she going to stay? That coupled w/ his old-fashioned tendencies & the deference he shows to her don't pave the way for anything hot-&-heavy. In fact, when they go on their trip, the couple next-door to them asks for a condom & he claims he doesn't have any. Is he even attracted to her? Little does she know, they are one good scare away from getting much closer, until… “He can't accept anyone in his world.” When his experiment runs into problems, He becomes obsessed. He abandons XT on Mars.

Thematically, there's no central message here. To the extent that there is a central theme, it's growing pains. “Your life belongs to you. People like your parents, best friends or even your partners can't be held responsible for your life.” QiQi may have the hardest time w/ that concept. For a girl w/ her nose always in a book, she perhaps has the strongest emotions & the toughest time sorting through them.

XT is upset at one point because she & one of her close friends will have to compete for a scholarship. Her friend’s been going through hardship & XT almost prefers to lose. The pragmatic Tang breaks it down: “You are not showing kindness by avoiding the problem. That's hypocrisy. If I was your competitor, the way you were behaving now would only make me think that you were looking down on me.” In the USA, individualistic nature makes us think that we have more importance & influence in situations & we actually do. We have a drive to fix things. Before we act we should look at our intentions from all sides.

There's lightly sprinkled quality tidbits. In ep15 he says they can brave the rain together. He's talking about the weather, but it feels portentous… They go on a trip to Malaysia & it's gorgeous. They even take out a transparent kayak. Mu Hai (Li Jiu Xiao) proves that hair does make the man. Bai Lin is disappointed by yet another guy. She's on a school outing so she climbs up the mountain. It's an overcast morning. One of her classmates close out to her & she raises her head. “Look, the clouds have parted! “ Maybe the one who won't disappoint her is right behind her. Or is something else going on? It's a nice little scene. The music is well above avg but I couldn't find any of it by way of Shazam or spotify.

Here's a quote from the show: “Scriptwriters these days aren't reliable at all.” Just as Voyager 1 will soon run out of battery & transmissions to earth will cease, SOWK ends up doing the same thing. SOWK isn't deeply flawed, but these characters don't draw the viewer in sufficiently to make up for what it lacks. We don't dislike them, but are they likable enough? There was a promise of more. I'm writing this as ep20 closes. 20 hours in & I'm starting to feel disappointed. The show hasn't given me enough to compensate me for my time. Instead of floating higher, it's gotten water-logged. Now I'm looking at 4 episodes to go, & I'm already done.

Update: At ep23’s close I started to actively dislike SOWK. XT is hard to read - does she care at all? It's impossible to tell. At times I think she's horrible. She goes too toxic on one character without sufficient reason. I'm starting to find her distasteful. Bai Lin is frustrating. The urge to slap her is making me frustrated. (To be fair, she does mature before the credits roll). QiQi is a big disappointment. SOWK has a low degree-of-difficulty. There's no buildup or foreshadowing or meaning to it. It doesn't make for high quality entertainment. Many viewers love it - for more than half the show I thought I did, but it slipped out of my orbit long before its allotted time.


QUOTES📢

There are many kinds of love but there is only one kind of breakup.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause & reflect.” -Mark Twain. (Amen).

〰🖍 IMHO

📣5.8 📝4.8 🎭7.5 💓4 🦋3 🎨5 🎵/🔊7.5 🔚6 ▪ 🌞4.5 ⚡3.3 😅3 😭5 😱3.5 😯2.5 😖1 🤔4 💤3.5


Age 14+ Violence, sad situations, adult situations
Language: he!!×2, b@$+@rd+1 pr!ck×1 d!(khe@d×1
F💣×1

Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? SOWK is fine for one go-thru but it's largely forgettable, & like a college elective, there's no reason to go back again. I wouldn't opt to watch it again for the first time w/ the benefit of hindsight.

Originally 〰️🖊 May 2024

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A good university series, relatively realistic

Romance between 1 foreign language student and 1 doctoral student / replacement teacher. The series deals with the university life of a group of 4 friends from the same dormitory, in a fairly realistic way.

PROS:
+ slice-of-life where everything doesn't go well: lover of a married man, ex-lovers who can't be together, good reasons for a break-up, etc.
+ the characters are complex, tortured, endearing, and the actors bring them to life with great talent.
+ Fairly well-written story (except the last part which contains quite a few inconsistencies).

CONS:
- Friends of the ML don't know the rule "no drop of alcohol for an alcoholic in withdrawal"? The relationship with alcohol seems complex in China...
- The last episodes are too long (3-4 episodes without the ML)
=> skip 21->23
- Ending which leaves a taste of unfinished business...
+ Fortunately there are 3 special episodes because the ending of the drama is too abrupt!!

*************************************************************************
Romance entre 1 étudiante en langues et 1 doctorant / prof remplaçant. La série traite de la vie universitaire d'un groupe de 4 amies du même dortoir, de façon assez réaliste.

PROS:
+ slice-of-life où tout ne se passe pas bien : lover d'un homme marié, ex-lovers qui ne peuvent pas être ensemble, bonnes raisons de break-up, etc.
+ les personnages sont complexes, torturés, attachants, et les acteurs leur donnent vie avec beaucoup de talent.
+ Story assez bien écrite (sauf la dernière partie qui comporte pas mal d'incohérences).

CONS:
- Les amis du ML ne connaissent pas la règle "aucune goutte d'alcool pour un alcoolique en sevrage" ? Le rapport à l'alcool semble complexe en Chine ...
- Les derniers épisodes sont trop logs (3-4 épisodes sans le ML)
=> skip 21->23
- Ending qui laisse un gout d'inachevé...
+ Heureusement qu'il y a les 3 épisodes spéciaux car la ending du drama est trop abrupte !!

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Overall, this show was good. It's super cliché but it's also unique in its own way. My favourite part about the show was how it showed people with ordinary lives. They didn't try to perfect the cast, and I thought that it was their best feature. I would've given this a 10, but some details aren't too great.

For example, I'm going to start with the ending. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT YET!
So. Xue Tong chose Mu ChengheThe ending...was weird, in some ways. I'd always shipped her with Sir Mu but when they broke up, he was gone for 3-4 episodes...then miraculously shows up, AND Xue Tong chooses him?! It's too good to be true. I felt really bad for Liu Qi because he did cheer her up when Chen Yan died. Anyhoo, I felt like the ending was too inadequate.

I also thought that Xue Tong's friend Ba Lin was in a toxic relationship with her boyfriend. I felt disgusted and shameful about how she treated him.

This is an amazing tv series, but if the producers want to make it better, I suggest they focus on 1 couple instead of all the other support characters.

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Toxic relationship& red flags

Although the character development of the FL and her 3 friends is really beautiful to see throughout the series ( bailin story was a bit annoying but the ending is graceful for her :) ) I am really disappointed in the story.

It would have been perfect if the ML and FL story actually ended when the ML left before coming back by the end of the series.

I feel the Fl needed to fully move on from this guy as he has been a great lesson to her.

We have no clue what happened to make the ML deserve the FL and see them married all of a sudden in the last minute of the series.

The SML had many chances to showcase and present the Fl with a healthy relationship. The show took the time to develop their relationship , I feel bad for the SML. The scene after death of a friend was really well done and how the SML even knew the Xue tong better than Mu were great elements. I thought the show was really about personal growth and lessons from past relationships. -but it ended up being a sucker for love story cliché

Her heart belonging to the ML by the end of the show was not realistically shown. Was she just waiting for him to apologize? Why did the show not encourage a more healthy development for the ML? Or for the Ml to own up to his toxic traits?

While the main love story development leaves me in disappointment, I did enjoy some of it, especially in the beginning where the FL is navigating life and her first romantic relationship.

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Ook so as per i can tell this story was good neither too bad not too good...the main thing i like about the story apart from the love story is the friendship the bond of friendship shown..how they supported each other through difficult times and how they helped each other...which was portrayed very well..coming to the love story it was ook good...the lead characters were both good...i genuinely thought the female lead would end up with the second lead only after the break up with the main lead.. they showed the story almost like that i feel for it..but yea at the end obviously she ended up with the main lead only...and coming to the side characters i know they are not important but still the story could have been better if it was focussed properly on the main leads as well as the side characters..i dont know but why the endings are always absurd in c-drmas which i probably hate it...it almost looks rushed and hapazzard..i feel the endings are very abrupt and rushed in c-dramas...very few dramas i have seen where i can get a proper ending compared to Korean or thai dramas..where the endings are not best but pretty good ..and secondly I feel in c- dramas emotions are not potrayed to the level where u will love it no!!the characters really lack a depth in showing emotions..which is the main flaw of c-dramas,,if comparing to Korean dramas then i would tell c-dramas lack these..this is what i can feel about this..i won't say it's pretty bad or good but can just tell it could have been better from what it was..

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WARNING SPOILERS BELOW

The first few episodes were slow but the way the couple fell in love with each other was sweet and the directors were clever on some parts, like how he revealed his love to her and some small details as well.

Overall, the drama I feel was very good, except for the ending which i'll lightly explain below. There are small storylines introduced in the drama which ends up insignificant anyway. They could've made a second season and taken their time with some of the things that were introduced instead of just mentioning them once.

For example, *spoiler* his mom, and how she didn't approve their relationship, they could've spent more time on that, his medical condition was only a one time thing, and apparently could be deadly after diving but that was only mentioned one time and he never had another issue with that, maybe some flashbacks of how his dad's death affected him like how they did with Xue Tong, and that ending! My God, they just rushed her into another relationship, with the guy she totally hated mid-way through the drama. He just comes back into her life and she accepts him? Until the VERY last episode, then it was only 20 minutes of the OG couple together, barely any dialogue, and then they end up back together. They should've taken their time with that! Instead of him literally showing up at her door 3 years later as they say she's married. The ending was so rushed. It literally made me angry and upset that they didn't take the time to rekindle their relationship or to show how they made up. But i'd watch the first half all over again. I hope they are partners for future projects. They're really good looking and talented.

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