You Are My Destiny

I'm a fan of these two because of Eternal Love. And I'm happy to see them in a moderm drama. This version has its up and downs.

I watched the Taiwan, dropped the Korean because it became too melodramatic for me and thai version was boring in my opinion.

The chinese version changed some details from the original story but am happy they removed the sick male lead arc from the korean and thai versions.

Although they cheated involuntarily on Anna I can't help but hate her victim mentality and her brother Dylan, I seriously love him and thought of all the versions he could be the best Dylan but no, he had to be the good brother and stop Wang Xoyo from reuniting with Jiaxin even though he had the moment of enlightenment I can't help but think that the siblings are way too selfish.

I love Wang Xiyi's family and I like how this family dynamoc changed with Jiaxin and how intact it was after she left. I love the aunt for fighting to keep Jiaxin as her niece in law. And that outrageous meddlesome grandmother.

Jiaxin's family is okay for me the mom fought for her daughter and saw Xiyi's devotion to her and changed her mond about their relationship.

The story dragged on in the latter part and I kinda hated how Jiaxin became a pushover for the siblings may be because she thought she was to blame but like girl you gotta fight for your love. Right? Although you see the character growth she still has that snail in her.

Wang Xiyi's growth is imminent and although I think he's too nice he never got back with her even after his wife left. But he never drew a line she can't cross which cpuld be the reason she was hopeful they can be together again.

The only ex gf of the main lead I liked is the one in the thai version because after they talked it out I never saw her attempt to get her ex back and understood that he loved the wife.

Although we all know it would be a happy ending given it's the 4th remake but the last episode felt too rushed. Anyways its still good.

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Never wanted a couple to find the way back together more than this one!

This was a beautifully well written story, and I loved it. I cried, got angry, laughed and happy for all. I binged watched from episodes 1-36 for 2 days. This couple deserved to be happy with all they went through. Wang Xiyi really loved Chen Jiaxin and didn't give up on her. Glad he gave up on Anna, who hurt him so many times to find his true love and happiness. Was surprised that XiYi and Jiaxin had never filed for divorce from the Civil Affairs Bureau. So sad that they loss the baby to go through hell to get happiness in the end. So glad Anna lost in the end because she was just evil and selfish, and I truly hated her. Glad Dylan found his sister and hope he helps her to turn her life around and find true love for himself. Glad Anson found happiness with his crazy wife because I was worried with her ego, he might walk away from her.
The chemistry between the main actors is amazing and actually all the characters touched me so much.
Glad the ending scene was on the cruise where it all started. Although the final episodes were a bit frustrating and disappointing, I liked this C-drama mainly because of Liang Jie and Xing Zhaolin. Swoon worthy couple with their kissing and hug scenes.
I also watched the Korean version of this drama Fated to Love You. Same feels.

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#proposal

I appreciated the beautiful locations, like the boat at the beginning or Budapest (not so used usually), the soundtrack well adapted to the scenes, a fantastic cast always well dressed, a singular plot.
Choices, sacrifices, emotions, misunderstandings... all in one.

It all starts when Xi Yi wants to propose to his girlfriend Anna on a cruise boat, but the girl thought well to put her career before her life as a couple and agrees to go dancing in Paris and leaves him alone on the ship. On the other hand, Jia Xin, this simple girl spends all her money to offer this cruise to her boyfriend, but she will be disappointed to find out he was a liar and cheating on her with his lover. So these 2 find themselves consoling each other. They will later discover that they are legally married and that she is also pregnant. He loves Anna, but he is also a responsible man who takes care of others and has decided to live with his "wife" until she has the baby, then divorce and be with Anna.
But... Months pass and the time will come to choose between these two women: one, his first love, a selfish girl who puts her career before him, or the other girl who carries his child in her womb and does everything for him.
When he chooses the second, the first fights strenuously to win back his love.
Jia Xin feels guilty for having "stolen" her boyfriend.
Something bad happens and this boy is left alone, only this so-called "friend" by his side and the memory of his great lost love. A very sad moment.
After 3 years, when he goes on a business trip to Hungary, he will find himself face to face with his ex-wife and try to reconnect with their lost relationship. Very difficult with the memory of the past and two friends like Anna and Dyland, false and manipulative.

What can you learn from this story? If you are a very kind person, people take advantage of you and most importantly, you can't love someone on command.

I liked the funny and combative couple of friends, as well as the grandmother version of cupid. Above all I loved the character of Wang Xi Yi, a man who is upright, sensitive and so in love that he wears his wedding ring even after 3 years since he was dumped. A man who channeled his pain by continuing to write the diary, making her plans come true, refusing to sign the divorce papers.
I was moved when he confessed to her that he had also suffered and had hard times and that she wasn't the only one who had pain. She has always been altruistic but in that case she has been 100% selfish.

I was afraid that 36 episodes were a lot but I watched them in just 5 days, I was really addicted to this series.
A small note: I would have avoided putting the image of their wedding under the opening titles, it ruined the surprise.
Then I would have avoided putting Anna among the wedding guests. The way she behaved, a simple "Sorry" was not enough at all compared to the pain she caused. Even if they are good, I don't think I would have forgiven her.
Instead, I found the final scene on the ship to be the right conclusion, like a circle closing.

NB: The Eternal Love (2017) has the same two lead actors. News from August 2024 says that after 7 years they will also get married in real life.

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Plot and Characters

This drama was very good in terms of casting and production. However, the story had a bit of things to work on and things that could've been exacuted better.

Story: The FL gets pregnant by the ML, however she ends up losing the child. Which the FL blames the ML for over three years not knowing the truth. The ML even spends all those years feeling regret from losing their child yet the FL never takes this into consideration. Furthermore, both of them never really are told the truth about who was really behind their unborn Childs death. Also, they spend 10+ episode on them having misunderstandings that could've been easily solved.

Characters:
Wang XiYi: He was are average typical jerk of a character but I didn't find him that way at all. I was able to really sympathize with him because he had a hard time communicating his feelings at times. I was happy when he had the courage to tell Jiaxin that she could keep the baby instead of having an abortion. You could also tell that he even started to show feelings for her as he was jealous at times. He was one character who really developed into a good person even when making a lot of bad decisions.

Jiaxin: She is a shy, lack of confidence, and low self-esteem character. I felt bad for her in the beginning since her boyfriend cheated on her and blamed her. But, when XiYi came into the picture and he started showing feelings for her. She was really pathetic and foolish for not understanding his feelings while confessing. I hated her character development because she started dressing mature but her personally was very off putting. She even spent three years blaming this man for the death of THEIR unborn baby without taking in account that he felt guilty as well.

Dylan: I hated Dylan, he is your average typical second male lead. To be honest, a lot of people liked him as he was more mature looking. But, nobody realizes how of a real jerk he really is. He caused both XiYi and Jiaxin pain so that he could eventually have Jiaxin to himself. He even helped his sister Anna get XiYi back which backs fires.

Shi Anna: She is a professional ballet dancer and the second female lead. I hated her because she had continued to ditch XiYi every time he was wanted to spend sometime with her. She always put her career first instead of being with her boyfriend which was selfish of her. When she realized that XiYi was no longer in love with her but with Jiaxin she refused to accept it and tried to sabotage their relationship. In the end, she does not admit to having something to do with the death of their unborn child.

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The story did not age well

I really wanted to love this drama. I've watched the Korean version and even though I knew that the storyline was outdated because it's been a long time since it came out, I gave it a chance because I really really loved the very first episodes. However, I was very disappointed.

First, let's talk about the story. Since it's a remake I, of course, didn't expect the storyline from the previous ones to be changed a lot but while watching the first few episodes I was very excited because I thought they had modernized the plot since it's 2020 which led me to get my hope up for a fresh take on this story but boy was I wrong. All the good points the story had made in its first maybe 20 episodes just gradually went downhill until I honestly skipped pretty much half of the last ten episodes of the drama. The way they dragged the plot was unbearable to me and I found myself not even being the slightest bit happy whenever the leads had a moment during those 10 episodes. My biggest let down was that they dragged the last 10 episodes so much with so many unnecessary fillers but when it came to the ending they just resolved everything in the last five minutes of the drama, They could have very well used 4 episodes out of those 10 insufferable ones to give it a better ending.

Now let's move on the acting/cast:
I'm a fan of both the main leads, especially Xing Zao Lin, however, I feel like I've seen him do these types of characters too much. I wish they had both chosen a different drama to be in since I really feel like their acting skills were wasted. They did the best with what they could but the writing was just not there.

I really liked the cast overall, especially Xiyi's family. I think they all did what they could with this script.


For the music, I gave it a low rating because honestly, I didn't even notice it was there half of the time. I can't even remember one single song that caught my attention and I've literally just finished watching this.

Rewatch Value: I don't see myself rewatching this. It made me very frustrated, to the point where I just had to write this even when I've never written a review before. I'd give it a 0 if I could.

Overall, the story certainly didn't age well. There were a lot of problematic things that just ruined the whole experience for me. There were so many things they could have changed for the better without losing the essence of the original but they just went with the same old. I would have given it a lower score but since it's a remake of a beloved story, I'm giving it a 6 for nostalgia's sake.

If anyone is interested for more details (probably with some spoilers) as to what specific things I didn't like, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message.

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Thoughts.

So I completed this CDrama in 2 days.

It was very addicting to watch. The acting was great, defiantly hit the feels in some of the major parts.
As for the last.. hmm.. lets say 12 episodes, the female lead was actually annoying me. Like I understand she changed her personality in the course of years, but I think treating the male lead that was just ... i didn't like it.
It got to the point I was about to stop watching it, but i pushed through and finished it. I love how it ended, but I wish there was more of the main couple in the end rather than less than half an episode. I would recommend to watch it, but with the last 12-ish episodes, i suggest being patient with the female lead.

Other than that, was a great watch. I really enjoyed it for the most part.

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It's not you, it's me.

Oh god. I can't believe I've watched all remakes of this drama.

First of all, this version does add more depth to the characters however... this one makes the ML more selfish than others. You have a girlfriend, you got hella drunk with a girl you barely know and then end up getting frisky, next day, you two wake up realizing the mistake. At least this version, the ML was drugged and did the deed with someone thinking it was their girlfriend. If this was real life, would the secretary really be able to keep his job after poking a hole in the condom? XD The one thing that pissed me off is why would the ML have that way of thinking where it's okay to have a wife and a girlfriend? I LOVE ANNA & JIAXIN IS FAMILY.

Why does the actress for the female lead always play a role where she gets cheated on? XD

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⛴The Sea of Destiny & Its Wild Wave °6.6° °half good°

(To the Brady Bunch theme music)

🎶Here's the story ⛴
of a lovely lady ⛴
who is tirelessly working at her job ⛴
At the office they don't bother much with Thank-yous ⛴
they only holler more ⛴
Until one day the bespectacled young lady ⛴
She decided to sail out on her first cruise ⛴
So did our young handsome bossman Mr. Wang.

But out at sea, they both lost their only la-oves ⛴ (and in misery they partied and married)

Twas a mistake. (Just look at those awful specs!) ⛴
Twas a mistake (Divorce will set this straight!) ⛴
O, the big mistake is sudden pregnancy. ⛴

And that's the way they became the Wa-ang Bunch!🎶

Xin is a plain, subservient girl in big ugly round glasses that she's always pushing up when she's not putting a sticky note on something. Her employer is a high level law firm with high level corporate clients. She's given the run-around at work and constantly barked at, yelled at, and abused when she makes a mistake. She's never thanked when she does things right - which is most of the time. She's thoroughly and completely unappreciated. YAMD is the story of how she earns the appreciation and respect of her boss. She earns his love, too. Despite the ugly work situation, Xin works hard and never complains. She also says “sorry” way too often and never stands up for herself.

Xin doesn't know that destiny is marching towards her… eh, 🚢 sailing for her, that is.

Those who don't consider themselves at least 7/10 on the romance scale, shouldn't expect to like this. Don't expect to even finish it. YAMD is a sweet, but melodramatic romance in 36 eps of 45 minutes each. (It's more like one long movie with the episodes drifting away, sometimes in the middle of a scene, and then the next one drifts back into the frame at the same point. It's typical of Cdramas. Just coast with it.) They manage to float as many good elements as poor ones, so in that way, YAMD manages to be good. Maybe it's on the “good” list by way of a sticky note, but it made it.

There's lots of bad elements to dissect, but first the better half. As a romance, YAMD has plenty of positives. Xin treats herself to a cruise. Yi is planning on becoming engaged to Anna on that same cruise. Skipping from A to D, a mix of misunderstandings and alcohol leads to a one night stand, pregnancy, and the family forcing these 2 into marriage. They, the family, all fall in love with Xin, she's so darling. It takes Yi more time and a trip across the globe, but he'll come around too. They both actually have lots of growing up to do. All Xin's subservience, apologies, and sacrifice were a misguided attempt to use weakness to get people to like her. {Forget that! It doesn't work. Apologizing for everything, particularly things one didn't have a hand in or situations one isn't responsible for, is a weird backdoor way of arrogantly injecting ourselves into situations. It's self absorption. The worst thing about it is that it doesn't work. It never brings a person respect, dignity, or true friends.} Yi will eventually see that he didn't have real love with Anna. He was there to fill the gaps for her, but they were never going to be a team. She was just a pretty possession that he would never truly possess. Yi realized he needed true warmth and an equal teammate.

Xing Zhao Lin (The Eternal Love series, Lucky's First Love) portrays Wang Xi “Yi”, the rich kid who's working hard and doesn't have a head for nonsense. Liang Jie (The Day of Becoming You, and also The Eternal Love series) is Chen Jia *Xin”. She's authoritative, pre-possed, and coy in Handsome Siblings-8.7. Here she's sweet, shy, awkward and endearing. This gurl has range. Jinna Fu (Shining for One Thing) is Yi's ex, Shi Anna. {She's the beautiful bad girl in Dance of the Phoenix, a show that I watched a while back and rated a 6.3. About Dance of the Phoenix: I got behind on reviews and pulled up my notes to complete writing about it and got sucked back into watching it again. I think I may have underrated it. It's one of those shows where the beginning is great and then it loses its way. Now, I'm trying to pin down when it loses its way. I'm currently on episode 27 out of 40 and it's still really good.} Li Jiu Lin (Decreed by Fate) rounds out the leads as Dylan / Di Lun. Director Ding Ying Zhou also brought us The Autumn Ballad & The Love You Give Me.

YAMD mostly takes place in gorgeous Shanghai, and is Chinese in origin. 🇨🇳 produces elevated and stunning programming, and also kicks out shows that are less polished, a little klunky, and of lower budgets. This was particularly true of their modern-day romances produced prior to 2018, though YAMDis a 2020 production. They've come a long way since then. Even some of these weaker shows are worth the effort, as they are relaxing and have a prozac effect. This keeps fans watching despite shortcomings that appear to arise from, at times, near elementary school level filmmaking, or a lack of authenticity regarding what is being portrayed. The hospital scene would be a good example: Medical emergency! A protag gets hit by a car and sustains widespread internal bleeding! They must rush to save her life! We cut to the hospital - the patient is lying on a stretcher with no IVs or telemetry; nobody's in a rush, nobody's working on her, the doc is calm, the surroundings are everyday business as usual... It's hopelessly bizarre. Yet one actor did a great job sobbing while crying for help, like a jewel in a mud puddle.

As cute as the story is at times, one can't help but notice that many scenes aren't fluid. The actors may seem a little stiff or detached, as if they didn't practice the scene enough. Perhaps it's the director's failure to draw human feeling out of the actors, as at other times, they do a great job. So, it's off and on again. Many 🇨🇳 sets are sterile, though in YAMD they did a much better job with contemporary sets. The backgrounds and settings in YAMD are quite pleasant. Much of the filming is pretty. Most of the interiors are also attractive, though some have that model-home feel. The editing is dull; the furthest thing from crisp. It creates a choppy feel at times, like a tiny electric jolt that interrupts the flow. Modern day 🇨🇳 features that take place in the city feel slightly off due to over-staging: There's hardly a speck of dust anywhere, and while Shanghai's cityscape is stunning, there's hardly any traffic - human or automotive - going on. They go to an amusement park. Everything is pretty quiet: Nobody's there! We get no explanation.

YAMD is overly sentimental. That's also common for 🇨🇳modern-day offerings, but the trade off is nuggets of elevated dialogue and words of wisdom that, if heeded, we Westerners would find beneficial. The biggest drag on YAMD is the last 10 or so episodes that aimlessly drift with no purpose, containing too much back-&-forth along with wearisome melodrama. If they didn't have enough content, they should have made the show 10 episodes shorter. YAMD is sloppy. Logic took some long coffee breaks in the show's run. There's some real head scratches. There's scads of missed opportunities. Some scenes were set up to be brilliant, but they never crossed the finish line, letting things fade away instead of delivering a KO punch. Finally, Anna gets pretty annoying.

The makeover? We will get it. When Xin finally ditches the specs, she's amazing. In all, YAMD will pass the time warmly for romance junkies who aren't in the mood to overthink anything. There are better romances out there if your time is limited and, Xin, you don't get out for many breaks or vacations.


QUOTE🗣

There is no "if" in this world.


Age 13+ (unintended 1 night stand that leads to pregnancy. )

👁📺again? Not likely

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First n foremost this is just my opinion.
I don't even know where to beging it started out great. It was weird, interesting and had funny moments then somewhere along the road things just got out of hand( not in a good way). The story flopped, the ending dragged like how do you drag a misunderstanding for like ten episodes! Disappointed with the middle and ending of it.

The acting was fifty fifty they did what they had to do but when they were to show some kind of emotion when needed they didn't .( Reverse reactions if I may call it).FL aargh like I don't even know how to explain it but wasn't my cup of tea. The mL at some point had dead pan expressions when emotions and reactions are needed. The supporting role at least tried their best but still couldn't get past the plateau of their acting.
OST was the only saving grace in this.

Overall, if they didn't drag it out for long, made some realistic misunderstandings and not over exaggerate them. The FL was just childish, Ml didn't progress, like the character development was just lacking something

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Starts out promising but leaves much to be desired

Let me start by saying that I, having watched none of the other 3 or 4 versions of this drama, had absolutely no prior knowledge of the plot, characters, or other elements of the show and therefore have no intention nor ability to compare this remake to the rest of them. Anyway, overall, this drama was a very enjoyable watch. However, the quality of the story decreased tremendously as the story went on.

Chen Jiaxin (Liang Jie) is a quiet, somewhat cowardly girl who preferred to suppress her emotions deep down rather than to face them head on. When she boards the Costa Venezia Cruise, all she really wants is to have a memorable trip with her boyfriend. However, fate has other plans for her. Aboard the cruise, she meets Wang Xiyi (Xing Zhaolin) a businessman with a strong sense of responsibility. After a huge turn of events, the people the two of them arrived with both leave their sides, and before they know it, the two strangers are accidentally legally married with an unborn baby. When I first read the plot description, I was doubtful that such a plot would work. It was glaringly obvious from the premise that the plot would be riddled with misunderstandings, scheming, and hidden feelings, but seeing as there were multiple versions of the drama, I figured it couldn't be that bad. Besides, I heard the chemistry between the leads was wonderful. With that in mind, I embarked on the 36 episode journey called "You Are My Destiny". After the first few episodes, it was apparent that my misgivings of the drama were misplaced. There were so many things to love. The characters, themes, OST, acting, and chemistry are all very solid. Not a single character was perfect, but they were all endearing nonetheless. However, by the last quarter of the drama, I started to notice that it was rapidly losing momentum due to dragginess and dumb scenarios. Not only were the leads in completely different countries, but they were also distanced from each other due to a huge misunderstanding that could have been solved in a few words. All of a sudden, the plot started to rapidly deteriorate from what it had once been.

Let's start with the good things. The drama started out very strong. At the beginning, the pacing was perfect, and there was a good mix of sweet moments and interesting plot developments. I could feel the chemistry between the leads radiating off the screen. They seemed very comfortable with each other and acted very well. Not only were the leads wonderful and intriguing, but all of the supporting characters were also very well developed. Not a single character was ignored. It was so easy to fall in love with all of them. The OST was also one of my favorites. I loved the the song "You Are My Destiny" by Ding Dang. The song is just so meaningful. Ding Dang's voice was great for the song, and it was written to fit the drama perfectly. There were some very good themes and changes from the norm as well. The most obvious one is that the leads are forced together by an accidental pregnancy. I had expected the male lead to be the typical brooding, narcissistic CEO type that looked down on people who didn't have heaps of money lying around. However, the male lead never looked down on the female lead and even encouraged her to be more confident in herself, saying that even the plainest people had their own strengths. He never held the fact that she was a common worker over her head. I was also very relieved that he didn't pressure the female lead into giving up the baby.

By far, the most unpleasant part of the drama was the fourth quarter. At the climax of the drama, many crazy things happened. All of the characters started to act up and became unbearable to watch. Even Dylan, the sweet, sunshine-y second lead, became absolutely terrible, and my prior good impression of him went right down the drain. Everyone acted like small children and went backwards on their character development. The leads were in completely different countries and had a misunderstanding that made them resent each other, so they did not get many scenes together. When they did get scenes, they were yelling at each other or one of them was pretending to be someone else. I would've been able to suffer through these excruciatingly boring scenes and still maintain a high 8.5-9.5 rating if the ending hadn't been so rushed. It was so abrupt and awkward that it left no closure at all. I still can't believe that the second female lead understood her flaws ten minutes before the end of the drama and solved everything over text. It was so stupidly unbelievable that I'm quite convinced that even I, an amateur wannabe writer who sucks at writing coherent reviews, can write a more complete ending than that. It was absolutely distasteful how we got a whopping TEN minutes of "happy ending" after a buildup that took about 4 or 5 episodes to bring it there.

I guess the main takeaway here is that "You Are My Destiny" is a drama that starts out without cliches or flaws but slowly turns into a train wreck. I do not regret watching it because there were so many beautiful moments and lovely characters that brightened up my life, but I am disappointed at how quickly it turned itself into a mess. I am glad I watched this and discovered two more wonderful actors to add to my Favorites list, Liang Jie and Xing Zhaolin. I would not advise people to stay away from it necessarily, but please keep in mind that the ending might not be satisfactory, and it is a good idea to watch the second half at 2x speed because they will drag like crazy.

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Credible effort

There has been many attempts to recreate the original story (the Taiwanese version). Korea, Japan and Phillipines done so. None of the could compete with the legendary Taiwanese version. So, I came into this show knowing it would be below expectation. However, I thought this China version could genuinely compete with the Taiwanese version (perhaps due to this being newer, and probably a higher production cost invested). It got my hopes high as the version don't simply Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V memorable scenes. One notable absent scene was the drugging scene, which are present in all other version. This gave this version a fresh take on the plotline, while retaining some of the original scenes. It has appropriate humor and romance. However, the ending dissapointed me thoroughly, especially with how Dylan character arc went. In other versions, Dylan would always want the best for FL, even letting go of his feelings. However this Dylan is more selfish and just not something I liked. He reunites with his sister, and request FL to step down and return the ML?!?! WTF bro! Not cool! Maybe its the timing of this in the series with it being in the last 3 eps, perhaps if it was earlier in the show, it would have been better? So that we get to see more of ML and FL together after they officially reconciles. However, since it was the last 3 eps, the main couple only reconcile for 20mins before the show is complete. Seems like a last minute idea put in by the screenwriter in my opinion, to spice things up but backfired. Before that the story would have been a 9/10 or even 10/10.

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If you want to laugh, cry and fall in love with realistic characters, WATCH THIS!

This drama starts off extremely light-hearted and funny with very well written characters, soon leading up to a very real and raw plot line. The consequences of each characters' actions are very realistically portrayed especially the way they emotionally and physically deal with tragic/tough situations. I feel like most dramas either brush over things or dramatize situations waaayyy too much but this had a perfect balance of everything. Xing Zhao Lin and Liang Jie are just enchanting to watch - their chemistry is so natural and they don't feel cringe at all to watch (you'll know what I mean if you've watched them in The Eternal Love). Trust me, you will not be disappointed if you watch this! I still cannot find another drama that has left such a deep impact on me like this one!

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