Standardized Life (2021)

Nothing new here

The typical dog blooded corporate drama about cosmetics, with the political and romance elements. Score of 5 is generous.

You should only watch this drama if you like the cast, else the dialog and dubbing is really very hard to swallow and digest.

Watching such corporate dramas, especially for western or korean dramas, there is always a theme. Schemes, politics, corporate espionage etc, but these are not elements thats fullfilled in this drama. Especially when its all about how Lin rui wants to be the CEO of this cosmetics company called SW. But when she finally got the position, she decides to resign, all of this happening in the last episode, so it felt very rushed and patchy, also in that last episode she then agrees to go back to the cosmetics company .... hey welcome to the carousel, more round about we go. On to the romance elements.

Romance spoilers Lin rui played by Yin tao ends up of cos with Jin xiao bei played by Zhang tao. While Zhang xiao yu played by Wu Jin yan ends up with Dan ding played by Hong yao. But its filled with the usual rollercoaster of does she likes him or likes him not, does he likes her or likes her not, yes, maybe, dont know, its happening. There is nothing wrong with such rollercoaster, only problem is this isnt an enjoyable rollercoaster ride, because it just goes round and round and feels more like a carousel than up and down. The reasons for breakup or not being together is soooo lame and the script dialog doesnt help.

Meng Zhe played by Peter ho has the hardest time I feel in this drama, he got to keep appearing in speedos (since they like to show that he is always swimming) and be the third wheel in both couple's romance. He got to have a kiss scene with lin rui and a proposal rejection from zhang xiao yu. So he is the ultimate desperado here.

So should you watch this drama?

Reason to watch:
Only if you are a fan of any of the casts.
Zhang tao /Jin Xiao bei as the perfect handsome and rich young kid falling for the older Yin tao /Lin Rui
Hong yao /Dan ding did well in his sad scenes but really the romance logic for him is so flawed
Wu Jin yan .... i feel she has too many ups and downs, that made me believe her character got some sort of personality disorder or she is just crazy, because she is suddenly cute, loud, offensive, intelligent, dumb, sales genius etc. This is not her best work or the right script for her.

Warning : Do not watch if you prefer intelligent and interesting story plot, this is not the drama.

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They should rename it to "Immature Youth"

I went into this drama thinking it would be terrible, but I kept watching it out of my love for Wu Jin Yan. I was excited to see her as an Office Lady in a modern drama. But the poster of the drama and the actual story were rather contradictory. The title of the drama is not fitting at all. Firstly- none of the cast seem "youthful" nor are they that young. They just confused me as a viewer a lot of times. I maintained a love-hate relationship with this drama from beginning to the end.

STORY:
Like many stories, it started out great. The story was a little farfetched and unbelievable right from the get-go but, why complain when watching fiction? This drama started as a rookie salesgirl with a lot of talent to a plot with backstabbing, office politics and boring romance lines. I remember reading a comment as this drama being a modern wannabe of Yanxi Palace drama and that fits the description of this drama somewhat. I think its main flaw was its length. It was unnecessarily draggy, repetitive and uninteresting towards the end. Had it been shorter, I would have appreciated it a lot more. The 47 episodes are a stretch and it would been decent as 30 episodes maximum.

ACTING:
I think this is one area this drama is strong in. I don't think Wu Jin Yan did an awesome job but she is a charming lady no matter how annoying her character was. I'd blame the writing and characterization here. The actress who played Lin Rui was awesome and she had me dreaming of being a badass boss lady like her at her age. All the other supporting cast was fine as well. I was surprised to see Peter Ho in this drama and looking as young and suave as ever. I think he will make the viewers have a SLS although he is much older than Wu Jin Yan in age. Her chemistry with Dan Ding was a lot more believable and I think it's due to the two stars dating irl.

WHAT WORKS:
The cast, some interesting plots till episodes 30ish, women being main players in the workforce and the premise. I really like the sisterhood between Xiao Yu and Lin Rui but Xiao Yu was unbearably immature and ruined their dynamics a lot of times. Peter Ho's portrayal was nice and funny- almost like a parody of CEO characters in dramas. His character never really fit in the drama storywise but still did his best as an actor.

WHAT SUCKED:
Lead girl was immature (her way of talking was very funny), bad people turned out good in an unbelievable way, the romance was meh after few interactions and the plot dragged on forever. It was a struggle to finish this drama.

OST:
Nice opening theme. Rest of OST was forgettable.

OVERALL:
Like I said- it was a challenging watch. It wasn't rewarding in the end but not completely pointless. I had some enjoyable moments and a lot of boring ones. I'd say it is not worth a watch but if you don't mind skipping some scenes, it isn't that bad. In the end, it is never a bad thing to see women being successful in real life or in fiction.

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