My ratings mean what they mean
☆☆☆☆☆ Literally the BEST DRAMA EVER- I don't think it can get any better than this (at least for now). I cried so much because of happiness. This drama wasn't steered towards youth love or whatever, it was covering the base of friendship, family, and personal values. I loved the whole idea of the theme so much, it's crazy.☆☆☆☆☆ The three main "children" characters came from families with very heartbreaking backstories. It really made me think that everyone has a small piece missing from them, in one way or another. Jian Jian, Zi Qiu, and Ling Xiao are just such lovable characters, they have their strengths and their shortcomings. Over time, the characters start developing and understanding what real love is, whether it is from intimate relationships or family relationships, or friendships. Most of all, the characters have to learn to forgive and forget. That's a hard lesson everyone had to go through, which was a very painful, but meaningful process for them to endure, which is also what made this drama so worthy.
Another thing is that there aren't any MAJOR love triangles, like romance isn't the focal point of this drama, which made it more enjoyable. It isn't the typical "female/male second lead gets jealous of the female/male lead and tries to sabotage the leads' relationship". No one was purposefully trying to kill or injure someone, or anything extreme, which is great.
☆☆☆☆☆ It's really hard to say where this drama could improve since it's literally so amazing. But I guess one thing is that some other characters' stories aren't finished. Like, what happened to Tang Can and Zhuang Bei? Did Tang Can ever successfully pursue her dream career? What happens to the three girls' friendship when Ming Yue goes to Beijing? Does Zi Qiu ever fully forgive his mother and father? How does Ling Xiao think about his mother? The story has a happy ending, so it seems that overall the story is complete, but there are some little things that leave the story incomplete. Maybe that's just me wanting a part two ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
☆☆☆☆☆ Anyways, amazing drama, definitely my favorite by far. Story = 10, acting/cast = 10, music = 10, rewatch value = 10, overall = 10... I really meant what I meant. I would give this drama a 100 if I could. I would for sure recommend this to ANYONE who hasn't watched this yet- you'd be missing out if you didn't watch it :)
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relatable, heartwarming, shows what life really is like
i really enjoyed this show as it has a good mix of genres like romance, comedy, and family. it showed the lives of 3 kids who were not blood-related but became a family.overall, this drama is really worth watching is you like rom-coms or those kind of shows which give you a slice of life vibe.
storyline(no spoilers): what i enjoyed is that the drama really showed what life is like by dedicating the first part of the drama to show their school life, and then showing their work life and romance after. i like how this drama is realistic, letting you learn a lot of good values, yet funny and entertaining. however, i find it a little weird how the “siblings” who lived together can end up falling for each other
acting: i think all the actors did a really good job in portraying their different characters, nothing seemed like they were trying so hard or too fake :)
music: the ost was good and suits each scene well. though it sounds a bit sad, the songs sound comforting
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Endearing indeed!!!
My comfort drama after years!!!This was my first modern cdrama,after this,i never liked modern dramas until shine on me,so im really loving it.
Song weilong held my interest down,His character as Ling xiao is still very memorable to me,i really love and adore him.
Li jian jian is very interesting character,love her too.
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Wholesome Family Drama
I love the storyline! This drama covers family, friendship, love and teaches many many lessons!The 5 main leads has THE BEST CHEMISTRY, They are really comfortable with each other and really come off as a family. Tan Song yun may be the oldest but she really fit perfectly in the youngest sister role! It's just so cute to watch her interact with her 2 brothers! The bromance between the 2 guys is really great as well! The 2 dads are really so cute to watch as they show how love can be expressed differently. They showcase a lot of different perspectives of parent-child relationship which is eye opening. As someone who loves light hearted rom-coms this is one of my favorite dramas, with sufficient romance to satify my little heart.
For those who worry about second male lead syndrome happening in this drama (me), do not worry it is minimal which makes it so much easier to watch!
A must watch for everyone as it is really a heartwarming drama to watch about the importance of family!
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AMAZING DRAMA . STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS
this drama is very good , it shows the struggles of life and how each of them overcome hardships together . The acting is absolutely amazing and i would strongly recommend this drama . The 'sister and brother' relationship they have is rare to see nowadays . i love to see how they all get on so well with one another and the lines they have in the drama match their personality . This drama is a mix of youth , comedy , romance and heartbreak . i really enjoyed this drama and it has to be one of the best dramas out there .Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
I'm finally done with this show. It took me a little longer to finish because life happened but I'm honestly disappointed with how the last episode wrapped up the show. It felt so rushed and confusing. I did enjoy the show for the most part but I think some of the writing choices really annoyed me at times. I know it's a cultural thing and all but I really couldn't stand the way most of the parents (mostly the moms) speak and treated their children in this show. I also didn't like how most of their actions are brushed off and forgiven without clear apologizes and development. Mingyue's mother annoyed the hell outta me throughout the series. I honestly don't blame the dad for divorcing her to be honest. Ling Xiao's mother also annoyed me at times. I know she was struggling mentally but she treats others so horribly and everyone just brushes it off. I was hoping the last few episodes, we can finally see a clear resolution to this plot but they just briefly mentioned PTSD and had her move back to Singapore with the daughter. Speaking of the daughter, I felt bad for Ling Xiao's sister. Her mom is horrible but she doesn't have anyone to turn to compared to her brother. The show did a really poor job wrapping this storyline up and everything just felt so unsatisfying.
Li Haichao was definitely my favorite character in the show. Such a sweet guy and awesome father/father figure. To be honest, I didn't care too much about Ling Heping. He was okay but I lowkey think he's a somewhat absent father to Ling Xiao. He never fully defends him from his mom and seems so distant. I don't know, that's just what I thought. Out of the kids, He Ziqiu was the strongest actor and had the best writing/story arc. I'm happy to see that his wish of having a true family finally came true even though I think the reason why his mom abandoned him for so long was also half assed. On paper, I thought I was going to like Ling Xiao better since his storyline had potential to be really interesting but I don't know if it was the writing or the acting but everything about him kinda felt meh after the second half of the series.
Speaking of meh, the romance was a disappointment. Li Jianjian and Li Haichao had no chemistry. All their romantic scenes looked awkward and it kept grossing me out that they kept referring to each other as brother and sister even after they started dating. I don't ship them together but Li Jianjian had better natural platonic chemistry with Ziqiu. The romance was not needed.
I just hated how they dragged out certain storylines and when things were finally getting interesting or reaching a turning point, they just rushed through an ending. I wanted to know if Tang Can and Zique's friend got together? I wanted to see Haichao have a honest conversation with his mom that ends with her holding herself accountable and apologizing. Yeah, we got that letter but a face to face convo would have been better. I also didn't like how they dropped Haichao's deceased younger sister once his mother remarried and had another baby. It's obvious that both he and his mom still have trouble with the death of his sister/her daughter but it just felt like they brushed things off.
Better writing would've made this show much more enjoyable for me because I did like most of the characters (except for most of the moms... man, the moms are horrible in this show) but I just don't think the show ended in a satisfying note. Maybe I'll watch the Kdrama version of this in the future (hopefully the two leads in that have romantic chemistry) but I wonder how they are going to fit a 40 episode show into just 16 episodes?
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The most beautiful drama that I have ever watched!
Watched it by accident, but in the end, I really hooked by this drama. The drama is really give an impact on me as a human, daughter, and sister. No family has no problems. What makes it different is how we as a family dealt with it together.Story. I don't have any word that can describe this drama except Wonderful! I really thank the screenwriter and all of the staff that made the beautiful story for us. This is one of the most satisfying storylines that I ever watched. You guys own my respect.
Cast. All of the characters are played by the perfect actors with the perfect skill. Especially Tan Songyun, Song Weilong, and Zhang Xincheng, your chemistry is really something. Thank you for making the characters in this drama alive. Also, I wanna bow to the other characters that really did a great job in their own role. Without you guys, the story would never be this well-executed.
Music. Thank you to the music department that gave us beautiful and perfect soundtracks. Without your hard work, the audience will not get the meaning that the story wants to deliver. All of the songs never missed the moment! They are so beautiful.
I can't find anything that made me disappointed with this drama. I definitely will rewatch this drama in the future. If you like family and have deep meaning-kind-of-drama, I can guarantee you will never regret watching this drama.
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Drama with mix feelings!
Seriouslyyyy i think everyone should or must watch this drama! It's such a beautiful drama, i mean it! the story inside this drama is just too awesome for me. This drama get me into mix feelings! In just one episode i can find happiness, sadness, struggle, love, family, fear, and so on! I'm amazed with the child actors, they act awesome! I can get a lot of lesson from every episode. I seriously tear up with the love of the father to all the children. I like all the cast chemistry, they're just too perfect for each other. I can't describe more with words about how great this drama is. I'm really sad that it ended. I need more scenes of the loving brothers and sister and their friendship :(Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A Must Watch
One of my favorite C drama. I frequently go back to rewatch the hilarious scenes. Just can't get enough. When a drama can put you in tears, laugh so hard the next moment, and feeling warm just thinking about at before you sleep, its really considered a classic ...this drama did just that. The only part I don't like about the drama is that there are too many love triangles between the friends. Also, I don't like how they make many of the mothers in the story so bad. But over all, its a good drama and you can definitely see all the casts, directors, and film staff love this story and enjoyed making this project.Was this review helpful to you?
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FAMILY= HOME
*might contain spoilers*I don't want to comment abt the few parts that has been recognized and commonly talked abt by others here, so...
For the positive:
This is a very good family drama. Very well casted and the script is really well made. I really love the depth of each key characters, you can relate to them and feel they are humans too, unlike other dramas that presents characters that has unimaginable actions towards the scenes inside the story. I love ziqiu's story the most, Zhang Xincheng again proved how he is a great actor, and everytime he's on screen i really felt his emotions. I also love the conflicts that reflects the reality of life. I love how they address mental awareness and the importance of the people around a person when he or she struggles with this illness.
However...
I was a bit disappointed with jian jians character, I don't think I saw a part here where I can clearly see her inner thoughts. When lx and hzq started confessing to her and then she started dating lx, i was a bit shocked bcs how come she easily accepted lx confession? I wanna see how she made the decision, or maybe a monologue of her thoughts about the reason why she chose lx, a flashback or realization maybe. after I've seen they were holding hands, i thought wait did i miss something??? it was a bit abrupt for me. Also song wei long is a good actor, but I don't think he performed well here. I mean he embodied lx, but whenever you look at him on screen i felt like there's something missing. Nevertheless, i loved how he's the one who clearly observes the people around him, as he showed the true characters of mingyue and can can.
Their OST is good, will definitely download it. On the other hand, maybe I wont rewatch this, as a watcher I don't really like rewatching dramas and maybe that's bcs.
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Great realistic family-focused drama!
Story:Hats off the the storywriter of this drama. Such a touching and realistic way of portraying the goods, but also not so-goods of life. Really like the different types of dynamics between the lead characters and also how each have their own flaws that are highlighted very well. The ¨evil¨ characters are also not evil for no reason. However, the pacing off some sections of the drama is really off, especially the episodes towards the end is so rushed. I wish they resolved the final problem in prior episodes, so the ending did not feel so rushed. I also did not care about the ¨main romance¨, as i did not feel the romantic chemistry, nor did it attribute anything to the story.
Acting/Cast:
Almost perfect, no one was ¨really bad¨. The actors/actress of the characters ZQ, CT and HC were excellent, with HC(Tu Song Yan) performance being one of the best i have ever seen in a drama. The really lacking actress of the important characters was JJ´ actress. In most scenes she was fine, but in more emotional/intimate scenes, she often looks like a deer in the headlights: just no suitable expressions with just open wide eyes.
Overall:
As the title says, just a solid all around family-focused drama that will make the cry, laugh within the same episode. The chemistry of the main family is amazing and so realistic. I would probably not rewatch this (only would rewatch the episodes prior to time jump), as it does has it notable flaws in the second half. Despite the flaws, every episode ending make me really anticipate the next, as i also watched every episode on release.
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Acting couldve been better, otherwise its nearly perfect in my book
Great great great family/romance Chinese drama, very relatable and believable plot (hard to find in C-drama universe). I found myself crying and nodding along with the series.... and hating/loving/forgiving each character as they were so real, have their due weaknesses and strengths i found endearing and annoying at times. The three siblings are gold... their personalities compliment each other so well it hurts me physically when they grew apart - again, very relatable; you can't fool distance and time differences after all. The gap silently grew and grew even if we try our best to prevent it.Writing is good; I can see the character developments - from the main leads and also their close circle of friends like MingYue. Not so much with LingXiao's mom - i find her personality changed too abruptly toward the final episodes. My only complain is: why ChenTing got SO much plot share compared to Daddy Ling? He was always on the screen but was not given any personal story whatsoever; he was either eating, nagged by Daddy Li, or away at work. He was the one on the main poster, not her mental ex-wife, duh. Need to applaud writer for his/her effort to touch mental health issues :D I wish more and more modern dramas would broach these subjects in the future, as it is the reality we young people do face.
Casting was on point; the kid and adult versions matched perfectly! the child actors were very very very good at their roles I wished the childhood scenes would go on forever :( So sad to part with mini Jian-jian. The dads chemistry were good, they were so natural with each other its insane. Lady who played LingXiao's mom was pretty great - she played the mental role perfectly well. I do agree with some people comment on Song Wei Long's acting - he was too... stiff. May need more acting experience to balance his sculpted look (no kidding his face profile is like roman-statue-perfect) but no worries - time is definitely on his side :D. My first time seeing Xiao Ge (Steven Zhang) on screen... and am satisfied with his acting (thumbs up!) his teary eyes were heartbreaking (watch out for some of his scenes with Daddy Li - prepare tissues).
Soundtracks and BGM are very good. Especially love the closing song. 10/10.
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