This review may contain spoilers
This review is for both “One and Only” and “Forever and Ever” dramas but the rating is different:One and Only
This drama is really a masterpiece, almost flawless, if it would not be for the poor acting skill and expressions of one of the most significant antagonists, actor Wang Xing Yue as Liu Zi Xing. The production gives the viewer gorgeous costumes, dazzling sets, great cinematography, a leading couple that doesn’t need intimacy to immerses the viewer and evokes beautiful, heartfelt, and sorrowful emotions that leaves anyone breathless even when a romantic relationship between them was forbidden. The action scenes are well choreographed and the chemistry among the soldiers and Zhousheng Chen is strongly fused by their sincere feelings and camaraderie. SPOILER ALERT: Even with the tragic ending, the drama is still worth watching! Enjoy it!
Forever and Ever (SPOILER ALERT!)
If the viewer is looking for a drama that has a nice romance feel but lacks intimacy, then this is the right drama. I would not consider this drama a sequel since there is little connection to the “prequel” apart for the leading couple, flashbacks that give the viewer a glimpse of their past relationship, a leading male that belongs to an old and establish rich family with a matriarch that simulates a sovereign ruler of great power and rank, a leading female that comes from a “noble” family, and some supporting actors that can be somehow compared to others in the past life. Although the leading couple is connected to the past, find each other and fall in love, this drama doesn’t capture the intensity of their feelings like it was portrayed on the drama “One and Only”. For “Forever and Ever” been a modern romance, Zhousheng Chen’s character is almost emotionally handicap with an unrealistic innocence for a man in his late twenties, even if he has spent most of his life been a bookworm. Although the Zhousheng Chen from the past does not kiss Cui Shi Yi, he was not passive at all! So, overall, this is not a bad drama, it is just a failed attempt to bring an everlasting and passionate love to the present times.
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A shared offering of the heart written together, across time
Some stories break your heart… and some, very rarely, come back to heal it. Forever and Ever is the latter.As a companion to One and Only, this drama doesn’t try to recreate the tragedy but completes it. Where the former was defined by restraint, silence, and duty, this one is built on presence, choice, and quiet certainty. It feels less like a sequel and more like a promise finally kept.
What makes this series stand out is its gentleness. There are no grand conflicts or overwhelming twists but still enough to create tension. There are painful moments, ebb and flows, as every story should be. A yet it focuses on the beauty of the ordinary like shared meals, soft conversations, touches and lingering glances. And yet, because we carry the memory of their past life, these simple moments feel deeply significant. Every touch not withheld, every word spoken aloud, becomes an act of redemption.
The relationship here is not dramatic, it is intentional. It grows steadily, grounded in mutual respect and emotional security. This is what their love might have always been, had time and circumstance been kinder. Watching it unfold feels less like falling in love and more like finally coming home.
The symbolic “fu” (上共賦) in the Imperial Park captures the essence of the story. Traditionally a poetic expression, here it feels like a shared offering, something written not just in words, but across lifetimes. It represents what was once left unsaid, now quietly fulfilled. Their love no longer needs to fight to exist; it simply does. “What we could not say then, we inscribe now, not in words alone, but in the life we are finally allowed to live.”
If One and Only was about love constrained, then Forever and Ever is about love realized. It doesn’t erase the pain of the past, it honors it by allowing something whole to grow in its place.
And that is what makes this story so memorable: not just that it made us feel the loss, but that it gave us the rare gift of resolution.
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24 episodes of fan service and 6 episodes of fillers
There are basically two ways to watch this show. Either as a fan of One and Only or a casual viewer. If you are in the first category then this is the best show ever and it will bring you joy and make you swoon again and again. If you are in the later group then you will not understand what all the fuss is about. You might enjoyed it as a romantic melodrama but you will more likely to find it slow, stilted and some scenes do not make much sense. A bit meh, to be honest.But credit where credit is due, the show is good. It is beautifully shot and definitely a high quality production. The sets, costumes, lighting designs are all top notch. Acting was great from the ensemble cast. However, to truly appreciate the plots, sentiments and nuisances of this show, you will need to have watched One and Only or at a minimum a decent knowledge of the backstory.
The reason is that the story is full of direct but more often, obscure references to the prequel. There are literally dozens of them. From names, locations, scenes, music, paintings, poems, food, everything. Yes, you can still enjoy the show without any of that knowledge but it will be like visiting a house full of people who are constantly telling in-jokes and laughing among themselves. You can still enjoy the drama as is but your enjoyment will increase ten folds if you are in on the jokes.
This reference spotting also extends to character spotting. Almost every named characters in the prequel have their counterpart in the present. Some have similar roles while others have their alignment flipped. The show even go as far as stating that the ML seemed to be surrounded by people who owed him a debt from their past lives (an old Chinese saying and quite true in this case).
This brings up an interesting point, the reason why the original book was split into two separate dramas is because it is a no-no to use reincarnation as a plot device in c-drama and this is how the Show got around this "problem". Dreams and references to One and Only is now fine because the FL worked on its dubbing (clever and done well) and the modern ML's is a descendant of the historical ML's clan. So everything is squared away and fated.
Honestly, fate is almost too weak a term to describe their romantic journey. We are talking divine intervention level stuff. From their meet-cute to their growing love for each other, it is all preordained. There is no doubt that our leads are in love. They only have eyes for each other and cannot live without each other once their paths are crossed. This made the rest of the plot seemed superficial. Ditto the 2OTP, they are a nice CP but barely made a splash compared to our leads.
In that sense, the FL is the star of the show. She actually provided the glue between all the subplots in both shows. Even in her modern incarnation, she still subconsciously kept a lot of her qualities from her past life. Her likes and dislikes are all reflecting her past life. Her poise is always graceful, a little ethereal and nothing faze her. She is decisive and forthright when it comes to their relationship. She is sweet and playful with the ML and the ML only. She basically lived two lives without realising it. Ditto for the ML but more subtly.
I suppose it is unavoidable that there would be at least one antagonist and I'm afraid he was not up to the task. He was really a sad and tortured soul who made mistakes and did stupid things which ended up hurting his loved ones more than the OTP. You can't really hate him but a weak, pitiful villain is only marginally better than not having one at all.
If a lot of dramas use the last episode as a reward for their loyal viewers and load it up with fan service, this Show went the whole nine yards and it is filled to the brim with fan service (and Easter eggs) from start to finish. It gave the fans everything the prequel could not. PDA, skinship, loved-up banters and everything swoon worthy. The last episode is particularly egregious but a fan wouldn't care less and is thankful.
OST was good but I think it was a bit overused as there were so many sweet moments that the love ballads were on constant rotation.
I would rewatch some of the sweet CP moments but skip the family dramas.
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Wonderful Drama
I loved this so much I watched it several times.The Acting was brilliant.
I Love the Male lead and the female lead is also excellent. Both are very handsome, highly educated and articulate. The Female leads work was so enjoyable and easy to watch.
The story line was fabulous.
The drama gave lots of insight into chinese History and the present time made it highly relevant and interesting.
The settings were beautiful and the wardrobes were well done, apart from the youngest member of the household of reputable Taiiors, who looked so out of place.
The characters were strong and well defined. Some absolute Horrors you wished to smack. The acting was excellent.
Some lovely scenes. The fractured household of the Male lead was painful at times.
The Male lead worked so hard . He is absolutely gorgeous. Well done all. This was a sequel to a previously sad Drama based on the Historica characters. Top Class. Loved the Lawyer. He deserved better.
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This review may contain spoilers
One & Only was better in terms of story. This is better for romantic moments between the leads.
One & Only was better in terms of story. This is better for romantic moments between the leads. In one and only we all knew and saw the love between the two, but they never really got to take it a step forward. They were always confined by their positions in life and their responsibilities. So, Forever & Ever is a good sequel for their story, however the 30 episodes are a bit much.The one thing that went wrong with the story is that apart from the leads, it has a completely different cast of character. None of them came back to life, I wish her cousin and the general had gotten a second chance as well. Having the crown prince reincarnate would also have been a better antagonist compared to a pain-in-the-ass mother/mother-in-law and shady brother. It would have made the story more interesting. (I read on MDL that Mei Xing is supposed to be the crown prince and Wen Xin princess Xing Hua, but their story arc wasn't all that good) But at least, this time around he chose to let go of his crush on the FL and decided to look at Wen Xin but again that was doomed as well.
The ML's step mother is kinda weird. If you have to take out your frustrations on someone your son is the better candidate, he is the one who went against your wishes and married someone you didn't want him to. She could be less of a controlling harpy and stereotypical mother-in-law as well as step-mother. She has been outright rude to Shi Yi since the first moment they met. I am not a fan of decisions she makes coddling her son when he led to the death of her daughter, how on the earth she could forgive him. Either Shi Yi Or Zhou Sheng Chen would have ended up dead if they hadn't dragged along his punishment for so long.
The prequel had a more powerful impact, but I liked this one for its uniqueness as well. The relationship between the two and their marriage is something that we can all hope for. The easy camaraderie and care for each other was so good to watch.
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Loved it!
There is absolutely nothing not to love in this drama. I wanted to watch One and Only first, but I am not a fan of tragic endings, so I decided to skip that series and directly watch Forever and Ever. I was already a fan of Bai Lu, and it was my first time watching Ren Jia Lun. I loved this pairing of lead characters. The chemistry was great, and the unwavering love between the lead characters was both refreshing and powerful. Bai Lu looks stunning, and Ren Jia Lun looks better and better in each episode. The supporting cast was all great too. The story isn’t too complicated, and I binge watched the entire series in two days. Don’t want to give spoilers, but if someone likes love stories with happy marriages, no misunderstandings, and complete devotion between loved ones, then this series wouldn’t disappoint at all!Was this review helpful to you?
FINALLY HE CAME TO MARRY HER. JANUARY ENDS
DON'T WATCH BEFORE WATCHING ONE AND ONLY ITS PREQUEL.(1st Part of story)The two loving souls meet. He came to marry her. The story continues in 20th century SHIYI reincarnated as voice actress and ZHOUSHENCHEN reincarnated as a scientist and a hair to a rich family. faite makes them re units them in XIN'AR (central state) where SHIYI died. And the journey of finding her lost love ends with a court marriage 🤣 it's funny that they marry before they actually love each other. And they fell in love with each other. Also the monk who reincarnated as ML'S friend also fell for ML'S Cousin sister who has termenatl illness and dies because of her own brother.
ML'S Cousin brother who is actually ANTY MAIL LEAD. who tried to kill ML. Because he believes that his baby died because of him but it's his mistake when he accidentally fell down on his lover who actually came to hospital to see his sister.
When SHIYI almost dies while protecting ML their love is put on test and her family was almost broke their marriage but his care and love for her inspite of injuries her parents allow him to take care of her. FINALLY she wakes up her with MEMORIES OF PAST. They re units again and lives FOREVER AND EVER.
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Refreshing, heartfelt, beautiful
what a lovely drama this was..! With every episode I could feel more and more drive of emotions inside me. This was the most beautiful drama I have watched in a long time. The actors and their acting was just perfect. Everything was upto the mark. Regret not watching this drama sooner. Nevermind, I would strongly recommend this drama to people who like watch Slow burn, and such kind of Romance dramas. Initially was just watching this drama for Allen Ren but I really like the Duo of Bai Lu and Ren. They look just amazing together.Was this review helpful to you?
An Emotionally Beautiful Tale of Love, Sacrifice, and Growth
Forever and Ever is a drama that touched me deeply with its beautiful portrayal of love, emotional depth, and strong human values. The love between the lead characters—Zhou Sheng Chen and Shi Yi—is written with such sincerity and subtlety that it leaves a lasting impression. Their journey is not just about romance but about learning, growth, and understanding each other at the deepest level.What truly stood out to me was how the male lead slowly surrendered to love—guided gently and patiently by Shi Yi. Watching her educate him about emotional connection and relationships was heartwarming. The progression of their bond felt natural and honest, making every scene between them special and meaningful.
The supporting characters also added richness to the story. I particularly loved the male lead's sister—a kind-hearted girl struggling with heart disease. Her innocent, fluttering love for Mei Xing brought such warmth to the series. Her character was designed with tenderness and charm, making her story one of the highlights for me.
Though much of the drama made me happy, there was also heartache. The scenes after Shi Yi fell into a coma, and Zhou Sheng Chen’s quiet, unconditional love during that time, were emotionally overwhelming. His silent pain and loyalty spoke volumes about the strength of true love.
I wholeheartedly recommend Forever and Ever to anyone who cherishes stories of deep emotional connections. It’s more than a romance—it’s a guide to love, respect, and patience in relationships. This drama reminds us of the value of being gentle, understanding, and ethical in how we treat those we love.
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This review may contain spoilers
Mostly really really good. But when it's bad it's really bad.
First off, let's focus on the positives. The two leads, Bail Lu and Allen Ren, are really good, renewing their quirky chemistry from One and Only only this time in a romance that doesn't have societal and imperial forces blocking them from marriage. The two characters are both 'different' from normal FL & ML characters and both are likely somewhere on the autistic / ADHD spectrum. Both characters are extremely high-functioning, but also each has quirky issues. Ren's character, Zhou Sheng Chen, in particular has quirks that at time feel close to debilitating. But strangely, both characters are immediately drawn to each other and fit perfectly together in complementary ways that just 'work' for their characters. This builds into a slow-paced but incredibly solid love story between two souls that, per the premise of One and Only being their 'past life', seemed destined to finally be together.Ren has a difficult role to play, being a very different sort of character that is not always easy for the audience to empathize with. He mostly does an outstanding job though perhaps overplays it a bit at times. Some of that may be the fault of the script and direction, though.
Bai Lu's character is also quirky but at least is a little more conventional. She absolutely nails it as this Shi Yi really feels like a modern incarnation of past life Shi Yi. Outwardly sweet, shy and endearing, yet quietly extremely talented and intelligent. The show is by far the most enjoyable to watch when Bail Lu is on-screen. She is able to bring elegance and grace when needed in one scene and goofy cute silliness in the next and she's always so 'real' with her portrayals because she never overacts. An absolute queen of micro-expressions.
The rest of the cast is solid though I can't really call out any outstanding performances since most of the supporting characters just didn't get a lot to do in the story even though they presented as potentially having more to show. The SML character of Mei Xing, played by Ci Sha, has the only other important story arc, as it is implied that he is also reincarnated from the One and Only timeline. He seems clearly to be the modern life of the psychotic prince Liu Zi Xing who was just awful and caused so much pain for past-life Zhou SHeng Chen and Shi Yi in O&O. Past life Xing brutally tortured and killed ZSC and motivated Shi Yi to take her own life in order to follow ZSC. So this 'modern' Xing has a lot of past life sins to atone for and pay penance for. After initially looking like he, as in the past life, also might become bizarrely obsessed with Shi Yi, eventually shows that he's not going to be the same in this life. He holds true as the most loyal of friends to modern life Zhou Sheng Chen. And eventually finds his way to realizing that he loves Chen's younger sibling. His loyalty and faithful service to ZSC is his atonement for the injustices he committed to past-life ZSC. His acknowledgement of his love for Chen's sister Zhou Wen Xing is atonement for his dismissal of the love that Qi Xing Hua had offered in the past life. And the pain he endures as he has to watch Wen Xing's life slip away from him is his penance to endure in this life. If the whole 'next life' premise of these two stories is to be accepted, then one has to believe that in a future life, Mei Xing and Wen Xing will finally be able to be happy together.
So the acting performances were solid and those two main romance arcs, one ultimately happy and the other sad but perhaps hopeful for the next life were overall good. The production values are all excellent. Some beautiful cinematography, great on-point wardrobes and costumes and beautiful sets. Oh, and really nice musical soundtrack as well. What's not to like?
Well ... just a couple of things. For the most part, when the story is moving forward with the quirky but steady romance, it works well and is very intelligently scripted. But whenever the story decided to add an 'exciting drama event' .... it is just a disaster. In those scenes, suddenly characters just start behaving incredibly stupid and bizarrely, seemingly on purpose to just make the drama event as crazy bad as possible. This happens 3 times in particular.
****SPOILERS****
In one scene, Mei Xing, who is very drunk, is being driven back by side character Lin Fei along a highway. Some 'bandits' stand out on the road holding clubs, with the apparent intention to rob passing vehicles. So what does Lin Fei do? First, he slows gradually to a halt. He could easily have kept up speed and simply dared the thugs to jump out of the way. Or he could have thrown the car into reverse to get away and then turned around to leave easily. But no. for no apparent reason he stops. And then he makes it worse by STEPPING OUT OF THE CAR????? That made absolutely zero sense. He should have stayed in the car and called police. And driven away. So both he and Mei Xing end up getting beaten by the thugs (who of course it turns out were actually sent there by the villain of the story but that's irrelevant to just how stupid this scene played out). The whole scene just drops your jaw as you watch it, wondering how any human could be that stupid. Yes, the plot wanted a scene where the villain had some thugs beat up Mei Xing. Fine. But it could have easily, EASILY have been done without looking comically stupid and contrived like this.
Later, in another 'important' scene, Shi Yi and Wen Xing are sitting in a boat with a boatman paddling them slowly along the canal during a festival. Fine. Then, when they decide it was time to go back, for some inexplicable reason both girls stand up in the boat. Naturally Shi Yi falls into the water. Naturally Shi Yi can't swim. UN-naturally, THE BOATMAN CAN"T SWIM EITHER!!! This forces the chronically ill Wen Xing to have to jump into the water to save Shi Yi. This event puts Shi Yi into a coma for a bit and dramatically worsens Wen Xings already poor health. The 'event' was important to the story. But how it played out was just so silly and contrived. It just, again, seems like any half-decent writer could have written that scene so it would play out more realistically.
Another event that I won't go into too much detail is the 'acute appendicitis' event that again, makes no sense. This gets glossed over with no appendectomy occurring which makes no sense. But whatever. Magic medicine made it go away?
The last major plot event that was just bizarre to watch play out is near the end of the series: Through a combined sequence of just incredibly bizarre behaviors and stupid decisions by multiple characters, the 'villain' o f the story, Zhou Wen Chuan, manages to take Shi Yi hostage and ends up hurting both her and Zhou Sheng Chen seriously in a just totally silly sequence. The end result is Shi Yi falls into a coma. And this leads into by far, the WORSt 2 episode stretch of the whole series. Basically both episodes 28 and 29 are utter garbage. Shi Yi spends nearly all of it in a coma and all the other characters act bizarre and strange and the whole thing just drags incredibly slowly. All you can do is grit your teeth and wait for Shi Yi to finally wake up, which finally happens in Episode 30. At that point, seeing Bai Lu again is like fresh air and at least gives a decent 'bounce back' to end the series. But man, both episodes 28 & 29 are so bad they nearly ruined the entire series for me. They are just shocking poorly written after the first 27 episodes had been mostly very well written. They are just full of things, both little and large, that just make no sense because people simply do not really act or do things in the way these episodes portrayed.
I haven't read the books so I can't say whether these 'drama events' are better, more intelligently told in the book or not. But these events were played out just shockingly bad in this show. They really felt like some drunk college freshman in drama club wrote and directed them. And that was so at odds with the way the rest of the show was written.
Okay. That's a lot of complaints about what amounts to 2 full episodes and parts of 2 others. Aside from those bad bits, I found the rest of the series quite enjoyable and do give it a 'thumbs up'. I do think the show is more enjoyable for folks who endured the painful, beautiful tragedy of One and Only. So that may be an impediment for some viewers. But if you have that behind you, Forever and Ever is mostly a much deserved pleasant treat to watch. Just grit your teeth through the above cringe parts.
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A must watch After One and Only
I wouldn’t change my rating and review on One and Only, but I will say, Forever and Ever is the missing link to my drama low after watching One and Only.You can watching One and Only and Forever and Ever independently, but it will do you better to watch both dramas together. Because of China’s censorship, they can’t say that the characters from Forever and Ever are the reincarnation of the characters from One and Only, since one is a period piece (based on true facts) and one is a modern piece, BUT you have to make major inferences that is what it is.
Suffice it to say, I do watch Forever and Ever, believing the characters are the reincarnation of the characters from One and Only. I can’t really say much about Forever and Ever, other than that, if you were left feeling a little unease or unhappy after watching One and Only, you will feel much better after watching Forever and Ever.
I know that casting was spot on with Allen and Bai Lu, it was just a matter of finding a storyline I could follow and love. I do like Forever and Ever a lot more, but just note the pacing is the same. It’s very slow-pace (despite the quick relationship forming).
I can’t say much happens, but you do have some drama. The ML’s family isn’t very snobby, the FL is very unsure, but the awkwardness between the leads kind of make the drama entertaining to watch. It’s kind of like watching a modern day matchmaking, like finding your husband / wife first and then getting to know them better later.
I was even okay with the single kiss with slightly odd camera angle (was it CGI?) regardless, I’ll take it! We are making baby-steps Allen!.
Overall, I liked the drama much more than One and Only. I thought Forever and Ever had it’s cute and good points. I liked the styling and chemistry between the leads, but still a very slow pace drama with lots of family tension.
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This review may contain spoilers
Expected another beautiful nostalgic happy story after one and only but disappointed
30 episodes (more than one and only) for a drama with nothing going on is too much so had to skip a lot of scenes as it gets boring in later half. First half is fast paced and you still dont know whats gonna come but that leads to dead end.What i really wished we could get that nostalgic feel where leads remember their old incarnation . I came to know this theme is prohibited !! I dont get it how come china has so many fantasy shows but this topic is prohibited. in any case how i wish FL remembered fully and ML also starts remembering and we get those feels back .
And also i wish there was more passion and yearning. that was shown so beautifully in one and only to be here . although it was sweet love story its no way close to one and only. so having that intertwining of past tragedy could have helped the drama get more depth.
Instead we get so much awkwardness between these couple out of nowhere throughout the drama. But have to say their chemistry is still very good specially that crying scene in the batchroom both actors did such good job.
Overall a good watch if you are watching on the side but have to fast forward lot of scenes that doesnt make sense.
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