The Oath of Love (2022)

Unique storyline, very sweet, but all over the place

This drama had a refreshing and unique storyline. The main leads weren’t childhood friends that reunited nor were they coworkers, classmates, or strangers forced into cohabiting or pretending they are lovers. They were two people whose lives intersected one another at a time when they were both facing some really difficult obstacles. And they found in each other the perfect person to help them overcome their difficulties and they bonded over that. I really liked how unique their story was.

I also really liked the female leads personality, she wasn’t one of those weak helpless types you often see. She didn’t let the second female lead walk all over her and when the male lead screwed up she stood up to him and held him accountable for his actions. She was well educated, smart, confident, and she never gave up despite the many setbacks she faced. I wasn’t crazy about her very conservative and old fashioned wardrobe but it fit her characters situation. Having an extremely over protective, strict, overbearing father with very old fashioned values, it would be very difficult to wear anything even slightly revealing or form fitting. Her biggest problem is that she lacks confidence in her musical abilities and it really pulls her down.

The male lead isn’t your typical rich chaebol with a cold demeanor. He’s a very studious and hardworking doctor that is obsessed with germs and cleanliness. But he’s also very sweet and cares a lot for his patients. Even when they don’t appreciate his efforts or make baseless accusations against him when things don’t go right, he still puts the well being of the patient first. His biggest problem is that he internalizes everything and tries to fix everything himself without asking for help. And when he fails he withdraws from everyone both emotionally and physically.

The character growth is really good in this drama. The main leads really help each other to grow and learn. When the male lead, who never fails and isn’t used to facing obstacles, shuts down and withdraws from everyone, I like how the female lead helps him. She confronts him letting him know how much he hurt his family, his friends, his coworkers, his job, and her by running off to “sort things out.” She gives him some stern words saying that he failed as a boyfriend. It was the wake-up call he needed and it forced him to mature. And when the female lead lacks confidence in her musical abilities, the male lead boosts her confidence and helps her find direction in her life. He’s also a huge comfort to her when her fathers illness becomes severe. I also liked the female leads fathers character growth. He really became a much better father in the end.

The romance was perfect. The main leads had great chemistry. And there’s were lots of kisses, hugs, and cuddles. They didn’t take forever to get together which was refreshing. And I liked that they faced lots of situations normal dating couples face. There’s a slight breakup (if you would even call it that) but it’s resolved pretty quickly and it happened for a good reason. Someone needed a wake up call. But overall the romance was done very well and was the highlight of the drama.

I have to address the acting because it was some of the best I’ve seen. I loved the female lead in Go Go Squid but in this drama she outdid herself. Her crying scenes were so touching they made me tear up and I never cry. And the male lead just stole my heart with his facial expressions when he was hurt or sad. He was a very convincing actor. In fact all of the actors in this drama were way above average. I really liked them all.

So if the drama was so great why didn’t I give it a perfect 10?

1.) The first reason is because even though the storyline was very unique and it started out great, after a while it got slow. The first 8-10 episodes are good then it gets a little slow and I started losing interest. If they had delved more into the music world it might have been more interesting. But the female lead only played a handful of times and we never get to know anything about her school or classmates or teachers. I just didn’t feel her passion for music. Or if they’d dwelt more on the hospital and the medical part of the drama that might have peaked my interest. But the hospital drama was only about how the male lead dealt with the obstacles in his life. I didn’t feel vested in the hospital and what was going on with him and his coworkers. So I took a point off for how slow the middle of the drama was. It got really slow for a good while and almost lost me.

2.) The second reason is because I felt like the drama didn’t know what direction it was going in. Is it a romance? Is it a tearjerker? Is it a melodrama? Or is it a slice of life drama? In the beginning I was sure that it was a slice of life drama. We followed the leads daily lives so religiously, there was very little angst, and there seemed a lot of life lessons being taught. And this went on for long time. Then it suddenly went into full melodrama with a terminally ill character, all 3 couples breakup and someone is suspended from their job. It went from easygoing to full on melodrama. Then things settled down and it was super romantic. But that too didn’t last long because it suddenly became very emotional all the way to the end. Expect to cry buckets because it’s very sad but also really touching. So I took off a full point because the drama was all over the place and the pacing wasn’t consistent. It started out normal, then got super slow for a long stretch, then there was a ton of angst, then it was a tearjerker, then it ended with a lot of sweetness and touching moments.

Overall I’m glad I watched this drama. It’s not an amazing drama but it’s got a lot of sweet touching moments, the acting is superb, and the romance is very good. There are 2 other couples in the drama but their stories aren’t given much time and you’re left hanging as to how they end up. So if you’re really into dramas with multiple couples you might not like this one. I liked it and I would recommend it because of the sweet romance, the acting and the character growth.

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A Must-Watch C-Drama

I just finished this drama and I loved it! The plot might be a little bit cliché, but I must say that the actors did a very great job at making us enjoy the story without thinking too much about the cliché storyline. They have an excellent chemistry together, which really made me "third-wheel" through my screen haha! This drama also portrays different aspects of life and made me reflect on my own life as well... I cried so much in this drama, some scenes really touched me. I guess it is also all thanks to the actors' ability to act sincerely and be dedicated in their acting field. They are truly amazing actors. Anyways, I really recommend this drama to y'all if you like rom-com dramas that also cover the ups and downs of life! :)

*I think it is my favorite C-Drama so far!*

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The Best Drama so far in 2022

I really Love this Drama so far in 2022. It tells about family and love . I cried in the last episode but the end is really good (HE of course)
The Actor and Actress chemistry is really good, I love to see the romance between "Gu Wei" and " Xiao Xiao". At the first time I watched, I rather not like Xiao Xiao Character cause she is too much talk but after more episode I love to see her and Dr Gu Wei interaction, She really love her Father and she is a cheerful person too.
From This Drama we can see the family relationship between father and daughter. So far , this is the best drama I ever see in early 2022. Really recommended for you who like romance plot
The Soundtrack is really good too so overall in this drama is good in my opinion

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Heart-warming and beautiful - and amazing acting all-round :)

Just to make this clear from the beginning: this drama is great and I encourage you to watch it and finish it :)

Initially, I was a little skeptical, because quite a lot of modern romance drama are very cheesy or overly dramatic and pretty unrealistic. I was, however, more than pleasantly surprised to find that this drama is nothing like it.

The STORY is (for C-Dramas) quite realistic and so are the problems the characters have to face. None of it is blown out of proportion. To give you some examples, the parents (*minor spoiler*) of Dr. Gu have issues with his partner - but totally understandable, realistic ones. The way the Xiaoxiao's family deals with her father's cancer is utterly believable within the framework. And even misunderstandings and minor arguments between Xiaoxiao and Dr. Gu are really relatable and not blown out of proportion. I honestly loved that!

The best thing, however, in my opinion, is the amazing ACTING all round. Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan made me love those two characters so much. I cried like a baby and found myself grinning with them. These two really fill their characters with life! And this counts for basically most characters, but most of all for the actors playing Xiaoxiao's parents. These two actors in particular deserve an extra round of applause for their amazing performance!

I also enjoyed the MUSIC a lot, in particular the instrumental tracks are really beautiful. And I personally liked that they used mainly instrumental tracks during romantic or sad scenes. I personally (and others may disagree with that) don't really like overly sweet love songs during romantic scenes. That often really ruins the romantic mood for me. Here it's really well done and I even listen to some of the instrumental tracks for fun now.

IN SHORT: I highly recommend this drama! It is heart-warming, quite realistic and the amazing actors really fill their roles with so much life. I binge-watched the whole thing in 3 days, because I couldn't stop. I cried, laughed and smiled so much - and I hope you will do so, too :)

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Natural act between Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi

watching this drama makes me laugh and cry at the same time.. very very natural act from Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan and all actor and actress... this drama has good plot and ending too. And i love their songs.. build an emotional atmosphere. Yang Zi is indeed a talented artist.. pairing with anyone will give off a natural aura in her acting .. the handsome xiao zhan too

Honestly, i was waiting for this drama since it was announced... and hopefully another drama from them.
i like Yang Zi as Tong Nian (go go squid), as Jin Mi (ashes Of love) and as lin Zixiao (The oath of love)

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Opposites do attract! Rom-com vibes with very realistic and emotional life challenges.

This drama tells the story of two seemingly opposite people who unexpectedly fall in love. The female lead accompanies her father to the hospital where she meets the male lead for the second time. During her father's stay in the hospital the leads heal each other emotionally and fall in love.

The male lead is a surgeon, dealing with his psychological trauma of losing an important patient while the female lead is a college student, striving to become a professional cellist. They are the complete opposites. He is 10 years older than her, mature and responsible, she is free-spirited, goofy and emotional. He is an introvert and a neat-freak. She is an extrovert and a queen of messiness and clumsiness. And yet they find a common ground and slowly fall in love.

The romance is slow burn (but when the leads get together there are tons and tons of cute kiss scenes!!!). The beginning is very angsty and emotional as the story focuses on FL's father who has serious health problems and the ML who is dealing with his past trauma. Around episode 10 the drama switched smoothly to more fun and light-hearted vibes which I loved. From episode 10 till the end it truly feels like a sweet/emotional rom-com but with still very realistic life related issues.

Overall I truly enjoyed this drama, although the beginning was very heavy emotionally. If you want a realistic rom-com, family dynamics and characters who deal with real life issues and overcome life's challenges this drama is for you.

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I WANT MORE XIAO XHAN !!!

What’s with all these C-drama heroines all acting like kids?

I liked it and yet I didn’t like it.
I loved the ML, XIAO Zhan set my ovaries on fire and that’s no joke,
This is the first time I’ve seen him in a drama and he blew me away.

I’m very new to C-dramas but I’m having a lot of trouble with them, they start out so great but then they just seem to drag with unnecessary drama.

I’ve noticed a lot of the FL characters are the same or maybe I just keep on picking the wrong dramas, why are all the heroines dumb/artsy types/and so bloody whiny?
I’ve seen this FL in 2 dramas, this one and Go Go Squid(which I dropped because it was unbearable) she was the same in both. Didn’t show any acting chops honestly.

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Lackluster

Dramas that focus on romance are not my cup of tea, and my review reflects that. I heard that the relationship in this drama is mature and grounded, so I decided to check it out with no expectation, and somehow I'm still disappointed. I only watched till ep 10, so maybe it got better later, but at this point, there was nothing that could make me continue watching.

The main problem I have with OOL is the very forced and unnatural writing and directing. Many things that happened between the two leads and the second couple seemed improbable to me, so their interactions also felt stiff and illogical. The way FL used ML to hide from her dad only to immediately turn around and face dad, how the ML went behind his colleague's back to directly call her patient, how the ML could turn his germaphobia on and off, how the ML's trauma was magically cured by her playing air cello for him, how he 'helped' her practice by pushing her to insert herself right into a group of strangers' performance, and everything about the second couple.

I'm most disappointed by the way they resolved ML's trauma. At first, I was frustrated at how his colleagues kept downplaying the seriousness of his trauma, but then it was cured in the laziest way possible, and I was like, yeah, no wonder they could not take him seriously before. And wow, I know the focus is on their relationship, but a bit more about their work-life could be nice. The drama did not al all convince me that they were hard-working people.

Some of the camera work and editing did not help. It felt like the drama could not decide which it want to be. Did it want to be funny or serious? It could do both, of course, many dramas were successful before. But they had to do it all the way, sincerely. The way it did everything half-heartedly made the result feel reluctant and awkward.

I think the actors did everything they could, but they could not do much with a script like this.

Clips from the drama were very nice though. All the kisses and hugs look very sweet. FL's family story was relatable and touching. And the songs sound super nice.

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The Oath of Love Review

This is just a personal review!

Waited for this Drama for quite long. Since the day i watch YZ the Go Go Squid i notice her and started to watch some of her drama she acted in as for ZX i never really follow his drama but did watch abit.
I like how this drama is very close to reality it something that will happen to anyone and the relationship between LZX and his father is pretty much quite a few families are now especially at this moment when child and their parents do not communicate much and parents thinking may be more traditional and young adults like us have our own thinking and our own dream. it very much relate to modern family now. When you know someone in your family is sick somehow people of the relationship with the person you won’t dare to show your love but in your heart you really love and care for the person but the things you say may not be the things you think. Looking at how LZX relationship react to him father sickness and when she knows her father cannot live for long, her reaction is so real with her character. Slowing became more mature and taking up more responsibility in the family but when facing GW she can be herself the immature side of her and the soft side of her, crying in front of him after knowing his father condition.

There is alot of discussion with regards to how GW handle after the whole incident, do understand that GW’s life has always been smooth until his mentor pass away and because he cant face it he wanted to run away from it. To me is normal as in his life he has never really have to go through since his life is so smooth. He wanted to change department and no longer do surgery. At the end he managed to overcome it with the help of LZX. Her being the bubbly one and told him how much she trust him.
However, he managed to overcome this suitation but he did not learn to face his problem which is running away when something happen and thinking that he can protect everyone in his life and thinking he can solve everything on his own. This is why when the patient accused him of being a bad doctor and no longer trust him he totally break down and choose to run away again. With no discussion with LZX, thinking that LZX cant help him. Knowing that he might really lose LZX this time he choose to change for the better.

The only thing that bother me is just LZX age settings. As a 21 years old girl who has never dated anyone for her to be able to say those more mature/ adult words to GW when he run away from problems I think abit Don suit her age if you were to say she is 25/26 I think is better for her maturity in relationship. At the age of 21 in relationship for you to wait without complain I don't think alot of girls can do it so many times.

But overall can see the age difference between the 2 which I think is well acted by the 2 leads. I really like YZ acting is very natural and less acting element for XZ I Don kno is it my problem but there are some scene that I can't feel or understand some of his impression can see more acting element in him but overall they did well.

Lastly is the other 2 couples, I Don kno is it because they cut out a lot of scene but the ending of the other 2 couples is really like just back together that's all without playing out how they resolve their problems. Which I think is abit abrupt for the ending for them. To me is either you have them as the FL friend or just played their relationship abit more. I understand this drama is more about the leads but still they are part of the drama.

Overall, I would recommend this drama to anyone and will watch it again. To me is not just a romance drama but more of a family orientated and modern issue drama. Also letting others know doctors are really not easy they need make best decision on the spot. Family members of the patient should try to be more understand than complain or put all blames on the doctors.

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There's Crack In Everything, That's How The Light Gets In

First of all, I'd like to appreciate the overall plot in the drama that so far is more interesting than in the original novel. Kuddos to the script writer and all the production team of this drama. It's slow burn romance but not that slow, there's no unnecessary delayed plot where the main leads hesitate to tell the truth, i.e when Gu Wei told Lin Zhixiao about his trembling hands so he couldn't operate anyone in that condition (usually in any other 'healing drama' where the main lead got mental issue, they hide their vulnerability and then caused big misunderstanding).

The relationship between Gu Wei who is way older than Lin Zhixiao is cute but not cliché. Gu Wei is more mature and has calm personality, looks cold but actually very warm-hearted. While Lin Zhixiao who's still blooming in her youth has a bright and positive energy. They're not totally opposite of each other, instead they shared those traits with each other. The romance between them is well balanced. Xiao Zhan and YangZi portray their characters perfectly, they make them alive.

Another thing that i love from this drama is how relatable Lin Zhixiao's family is with mine. As the first daughter in the family, I'm close with both my mom and dad, but also often bickering around over small little things, especially with my dad. He's protective but also supportive. He's quite affectionate in a unique way, just like Mr. Lin Jianguo. I cried during the dinner reconciled talk between Mr. Lin and Lin Zhixiao scene. Then got butterflies when Gu Wei tried to comfort Lin Zhixiao ㅠㅠ The whole episode was so heartwarming. Funny, romantic, touching.

Important highlight of this drama for me personally is: the way some characters dealing with conflict between them and their parents were well execute in very Asian ways. I mean, as Asian I would try to voice out my opinion as gentle as possible (even though sometimes I'd yell at them), I would try not to be too rebellious towards them (even though sometimes I'd come home next morning), I would try my best to prove them that I could take responsibility for all the things I've chosen in life (even though sometimes I'd cry at the bathroom in my workplace while murmuring 'sigh, mom was right then). I don't want to make them sad while at the same time I fight for my own definition of happiness. Thus, I'm excited to see the character development of Sansan (Lin Zhixiao's best friend) and Gu Xiao (Gu Wei's cousin) as well as Lin Zhixiao and Gu Wei themselves ♡

Oh, also, there's no weak masculinity in this drama. The scene where Gu Wei stand in front of pile of sanitary pads section in the market, and then a lady helped him choosing the recommended sanitary pads is just chef's kiss!

Ah, the little actor who played Qiuqiu is so adorable, he deserve much appreciations too ♡

I'm cheering for Gao Xi, i hope this lady could move on from her one sided love. I hope the drama would do justice too to Du Wenjun, in the novel he has quite important role in Gu Wei and Lin Zhixiao relationship, his own story is also heartwarming.

I'm anticipating a lot for the next upcoming episodes, can't wait when the plot is getting more intense and how each characters blooming into their better version of themselves. The Oath Of Love, please advise me for the rest of my life ♡

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A Painful Drag

I was really excited for this one and I know it had gotten huge but goddamn. This was insanely painful to watch.

The main plot of the story is comprised of characters never communicating with each other, whether it's between family members or between the main leads. The family members don't treat each other with respect or talk through arguments — it's just yelling.

As for the romance, I've seen my fair share of nosy second leads but good god, the main leads just made it so EASY. The second leads barely had to do anything before the leads made assumptions, got jealous, and stopped talking to each other. Even after they got together, the relationship was comprised of keeping secrets or "not having the chance to tell each other" things until they found out through other means. It just all got really repetitive and was even more annoying because everything felt self-inflicted.

I also just hate the way they wrote the female characters in this drama — it was like the writers kept forcing their male characters to "take care" of them by making them immensely illogical and childish. Whether it was just being angry at the idea that two people in a relationship need their own space, or just trying to play hard-to-get to the point of messing with the other person's feelings, I just really despised how the women were portrayed. The main lead was really childish and overreactive, and the side characters were the same. TLDR: Nobody communicated. Ever.

Overall, this was an irritating watch and it took a long time for me to get through it — I know Xiao Zhan and Yang Zi are A-Listers but the chemistry was mediocre and the plot really dragged everything else down.

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