Cute Programmer

Not Worth The Time

After watching all the 30 episodes of Cute Programmer, I can only conclude that there is nothing cute about this drama at all. I will try not to rant and be fair in my assessment but I really cannot recommend a watch for this one. There are a few reasons why which I will elaborate below. Anyway, this is not a cross-dressing romance drama like My Unicorn Girl even though it might look like one in the initial episode. Lu Li’s gender is already fully exposed by Episode 5 and the cross-dressing plot stops there.

Therefore, if you like the female pretending to be male trope in your romance dramas, Cute Programmer will not be a good choice at all. Neither does it focus much on the programming aspect or the business side of things unlike My Bargain Queen. It is pure romance with the relationship between the leads being central to the whole drama. There is nothing wrong with a romance-driven drama except that everything just turns out to be mediocre in Cute Programmer.

Recycled Plot
The plot itself is a rehashed of common themes in the romance genre. So, you will find cross-dressing in the first few episodes, then a contract marriage and co-habitation followed by a jealous ex returning. If you have watched enough of Chinese rom-coms and romance dramas, I think you can pretty much get an idea of what Cute Programmer entails.

While it is okay to have recycled plots, they must be done in a way that is sensible to viewers. For this drama, a lot of things don’t exactly appear as sensible or logical. Hence, you will have a cross-dresser masquerading as a male being able to get a job in a tech company without anyone questioning her gender. You will also have the female lead agreeing to marry the male lead when he obviously doesn’t even like her. Basically, it is the type of drama that you have to overlook the details if you want to enjoy it. I’m not too fussy about details at times but when other factors also start to weigh down the overall enjoyment of the story, that is when it goes downhill for me.

Badly Written Characters
I think the way the characters are written is the main turn off that kills this drama. Yi Cheng is someone who is childish and easily irritated. He is not evil or cruel. Conversely, he is a kind man behind all the harsh words and actions. However, he is also an insensitive fellow and lacks communication skills. So, some of his actions towards Lu Li border on petty bullying as he shows his irritation. Viewers’ patience with him will be further tested when his ex-girlfriend shows up as this will then shows his stupidity.

Lu Li’s character is not much better. I wouldn’t say she is like a doormat but simply nonsensical. She has a long-term crush on Yi Cheng but to cross-dress as a man to join his company is simply silly. There is nothing in Yi Cheng that is worth hanging on to for 5 years as he doesn’t even know who she is before she joins the company. But Lu Li is made out to be a girl who is hopelessly in love who doesn’t mind marrying someone who doesn’t like her. She even tolerates his bad attitude towards her most of the time.

I guess the redeeming quality in these 2 characters is that they do eventually grow to be more matured. But you will have to sit through more than 20 episodes to see that happen.

Some of the supporting characters are no better. Gu Mo is a guy who would use his brother status to secretly scare away all of Xiao Qi’s suitors. And he has been doing that since her high school days without her knowledge to chase away his love rivals. I don’t know how this kind of controlling behavior could sound romantic but that is how it is in the drama.

Leads Lack Chemistry
Personally, I cannot detect enough chemistry between Xing Zhao Lin and Bambi Zhu for this romance drama to flourish. Sometimes, even with a simple plot, a sizzling chemistry can make a huge difference in a romance drama as can be seen in You Are My Glory and My Little Happiness. But the couple in my Cute Programmer simply fails to inspire. It is as if they are just going through the motions to deliver their lines without really getting into the feeling of being lovers.

I don’t know if it is the problem with the script, the badly written characters or the acting. Perhaps it is a combination of all 3. If the plot and characters are top notch, the average chemistry displayed could probably still pass muster. But when the other factors are equally mediocre, then the lack of chemistry becomes amplified here.

My Verdict – Watch Something Else Instead
Cuteness is certainly not the hallmark of this drama especially when you have a jealous ex lurking around for about 10 episodes. That is more annoyance than cuteness. There is not much of sugar and fluff either as the love is very much one-sided for three-quarters of the story. So, if you want to see cuteness and sweetness, you are much better off watching Forever And Ever or even a typical rom-com like Sweet Teeth.

Having said that, I understand there are plenty of Xing Zhao Lin’s fans out there who might still give this a go. Well, if you reduce your expectations, this might still be watchable without too much complaints. As long as you can shy away from dissecting the characters’ antics and behaviors, this could work for you. Furthermore, if you see bickering, harmless jealousy, and childishness as romantic, then you would probably be able to enjoy it to a certain extent .

For this Cute Programmer review, I would give it a score of 5.5/10. I’m not going to recommend a watch for this one unless you are a diehard fan of the leads. There are just too many weaknesses to drag the drama down that it is difficult to say that it is worth the time especially when it is 30 episodes long. The whole story is predictable and I don’t think it will resonate with the more matured viewers. If you are going to watch it, just think of it as pure entertainment and switch off your brain for better enjoyment!

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Things you do for love

So many negative reviews about the story line. The thing is you won't know what you will or won't do for love until you're in their shoes.

Yi Cheng wouldn't accept any female programmers working for him because his first love supposedly betray him by selling his work to their competitor and ran away with the money. It may not make sense for you that someone could do that, or call him close minded. But everyone reacts differently to each trauma they face. I think he was just protecting himself from any chance of the same repeating heart break. Him getting into a car crash because of what she did show how devastating it was for him. So I'd give him a break for that.
The fact that he fell for Lu Li even when she was pretending to be a man to get the job, all the little things he did for her in the background, and not wanting to admit his feeling for her. That's what bothered me the most. Why wait until she leaves you and turn around chasing her, when it can be solved with good communication.

As far as Lu Li goes, call her door mat or whatever. But I don't think that's the right word for her. How many of us has fallen for someone so hard for so long that when opportunity presents itself, where you can finally be with that person, you just grabbed the bull by the horn and along for the ride, no matter how it bucks you and finally thrown you off. You can't tell me how far you'd go or how much you'd do to win the love of the person you love. And that's exactly what she did. She finally gave up on him was not because Li Man keeps throwing one jab after another, but because Yi Cheng is unwilling to communicate with her of the reason why he did what he did, causing misunderstanding between them. Like on their last fight before she left, instead of telling her the reason she can't leave is because he loves her, and yet he told her that they haven't reach the end of the contract yet. Yi Ming was so right when he told Yi Cheng he has low EQ.
Yeah Zi Tong maybe annoying to some people, but somehow I think it's cute. Just look how Yi Ming finally fell for her.
The only characters I'm not too happy about are Yi Cheng's parents. His mom is so desperate to get him settled down that she would set him up with blind dates, even when she found out that Lu Li has left him. Really? And his dad would use anything in his power to make his wife happy even if it means that his son would marry someone he doesn't love. What kind of parents are they?
I found my self rewatching certain episodes 3-4 times. I honestly think it's funny every time Yi Cheng gets drunk, especially the second time at his parents house.

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Manipulation...

Although I may love the ML ... this drama was really not for me, however, I did watch this but to be honest, I also did fast-forward some of the scenes ...

Firstly I am not a fan of rom com where we have manipulation and coercing and the very fast part of this drama this is exactly what happened ... although I do understand the reasons behind it, but dressing as a man to work for a male dominating company for me personally is not the way to go.

Secondly the ML parents literally went too far, in order to get there son married, wow getting him drunk was really cheap and deceiving, and the fact that she agreed to marry cuz of a crush she had for those years, guess she didn't have much a life or thought really low of herself.

Thirdly the last half of this drama reminded me too much of his other drama (Your my destiny, with Liang Ji) where she fell pregnant and left him without even telling me, then we had the whole chase and trying to find her ... the resemblance and the story line this second half was way to similar ...

This drama was really highly annoying and had no sense of direction, the fact that I stuck it out, was because the ML was cute and I did like him in other dramas ... but this was just not one of them.

Overall : Watch this at your own risk, while falling a sleep or something cuz there is really nothing you wont miss after fast forwarding or dozing off you will begin the endless torture to continue watching...

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Typical contract type cdrama

First of all with much hesitation I started it as the reviews is so bad it's not as bad as the reviews it's good drama for me don't know about others thought first Luli enter into jianchen company as male programmer as jianchen will not recruit female programmer due to his first love she will be find out eventually nearly 5 or 6 epi I think after ml mom arranged a marriage then begin contract relationship for them as she like her and thought ml is in love with fl but Luli fl will idol ml from her college days then due to intervening of Liman (first love of ml) there will be many misunderstandings when ml start to develop feelings for fl fl will end the contract and will move to other city she will be pregnant already then the intro of second ml will come he s not as toxic he will help in the development of ml and fl relationship to mention the other three couples were too cute zitong and Chen(they will be couples only during last epi) gumo and xiaoqi(too cute and funny ) and yezi and damao also cute the friendship between Luli and xiaoqi is amazing the proposal scene is too cute abd awsome the anime is excellent the ending of all three couples is cute You can try it without regret

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Emotionally draining

This is all I can say about this series. It was so emotionally draining. The FL could have saved herself (and me) a lot of emotional stress if she simply COMMUNICATED. It was so frustrating watching both of them go. While watching, I took out all my frustration on the ML but the truth is he was pretty much clueless 85% of the time. For the remaining 15%, he was just being a selfish, childish, gaslighting narcissist who didn't know how to say "thank you" or "I'm sorry". It's fine if you both have your flaws, I mean, who doesn't? The most important thing is to learn and to grow. By the end of the movie, the ML was still the same selfish, childish, gaslighting narcissist, and the FL was still the same ol' girl who didn't know how to communicate. You can't pay me to rewatch this emotional torture material.

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It's not the best or the worst it for you to judge

At first it was cute and enjoyable until they got married, the amount of misunderstandings that happened in this drama make me sick ang angry to the point that by ep20 I found myself rooting for all the other couples. The main couple are just so inconsistent they gave me a headacheand i nearly broke my computer. Li man's character was very good literally hated her, the actress did a great job though i wanted her character to be actually punished(p.s her ending is making me very curious it was hinting LGBTQ or is it just me). Any ways all the other couples were the best I wished we saw more of Gu mo × Xiao qi and Lu ming × Zi tong they wasted a lot potential on misunderstandings. The drama did talk a lot about some topics that in dramas they approach like mental health and discrimination but they also did problematic things too like when that friend told Li lu to not to tell Yi cheng that he is the father just to test him it wasn't fair or right. Its not a drama to rewatch maybe clips but not the drama again.

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From where do i start.....

I loved Cute Programmer as it was my first ever Cdrama but it was quite confusing at times !


PLOT & ACTING:: The story and the plot was so cute, especially in the beginning, but it slowly got more and more confusing.The actors distributed to it, as they portrayed their roles the way they should to for the drama to play out and they are indeed very talented. So I can briefly say their acting was super satisfying. Also, they delivered their emotions soo well we were able to feel their happiness, pain and excitement through the series. I could feel the pain lu li's colleauge felt when he thought he would lose his precious hair😢😢🤷The drama started cutely but it proccesively got worse. Still, it somehow managed to have a happy ending, with yicheng and luli building a family and living happily together.



OPINION ABOUT YICHENG SINCE EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT HIM: You can't understand the anger I felt everytime yicheng played hard-to-get and embarrassed or bad mouthed lu li in front of everyone. The two of them got married by force, with a contract. Yicheng pretended to be a loving/caring husband, while he always argued with her, made her feel bad about herself and never supported her on anything she would do. He always behaved like a spoiled kid. In the end he got her pregnant, and when she left him behind and runaway(as she should) he somehow started loving her and wanted her back.
Although I agree with everyone saying yicheng was a total j3rk, we all know he came from a rich family so he was always kind of spoiled and egocentric.Of course, this doesn't justify his intriguing behaviour. He perhaps thought lu li was for granted. We can assume he had difficulty expressing his feelings after the heartbreak he experienced in the past, as well.
He showed signs of attraction towards lu li many times thought. You can believe what you want, but in my point of view yicheng tried his best to express his sympathy for his wife, and I deeply appreciate that, although he fails everytime.Moreover how is he supposed to act when they only met some months ago and immediately married each other ???!??!!? All friendly and lovey-dovey??!???!!!? He acts kind of realistically like any average guy would do(nowdays).There was also some character development in the end.




MUSIC: The music was INCREDIBLE. I really enjoy Chinese music and I have to say Cute Programmers osts are always on top of my Spotify playlists! My favourite one is 甜蜜程序. This series titletracks talk about programs and other sh!t but they deliver a deeper messages that people sometimes won't understand (unfortunately).


FAVORITE CHARACTERS: Each character was very charming but I really loved certain ones. After what I said earlier it would be quite hard to believe that yicheng is my favourite character of the series BUT we can't disagree he is the attractive, hot, rich businessman you can never forget about. He just lives in your mind, you can't forget him and think of him all day. I also love the actor playing Jiang yicheng, named xing Zhao Lin but that's not quite the case.
Of course, I couldn't exclude Yiming from my short list of favourites. Yiming is the cute, kind, charming guy every girl has a crush on. I'm sure he was his parents favourite child.The main reason I liked him is because he helped lu li solve her problems, and was the brother she never had.Lucky for her ig.



MORAL OF THE STORY: This drama is trying to teach us not to give up on our dreams, just like lu li disguised herself to look like a guy in order to get into her dream company. Just like how younger yicheng managed to build his business despite his crush abandoning him. It tries to teach us that without risks you won't achieve anything, and that life is very unpredictable.

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Where do i start….

This drama was very fustrating to watch. At first, it started as a cute drama but it started to go down hill after that. I felt so bad for the female lead. The male lead loved to claim that he cares about his wife but doesn’t protect her or defend her when he needs to. I’m so glad, the female lead made him WORK for it. The female lead was really trying to make it work like you can tell but the male lead made it worse. Honestly, the male lead didn’t deserve her. I hated that she got pregnant by him like i don’t why they made that necessary in the drama. Anyways, this drama was okay but very fustrating to watch.

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Expect to lose sleep in binge watch sessions

8,5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 Chinese romantic comedy drama with 30, 45 minute episodes

First I will provide a synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Lu Li (Zhu Xu Dan) has shaped her life to be around the man she fell in love with. Her singular focus to become the type of woman to win Jiang Yi Cheng’s (Xing Zhao Lin) heart, led her to not only majoring in the same program focusing on computer programming but even attending the same college. When she was unable to get Yi Cheng’s attention as a student, her plan shifted to working at his company. That plan hits a snag when it is revealed Jiang Yi Cheng's company does not recruit female employees. Not to be deterred, Lu Li disguises herself as a man to get hired with the intention of revealing her true gender after she has proven her worth. Jiang Yi finds himself attracted to this very feminine looking new male employee such that it is a relief when he discovers “he” is actually a she. Since he discovered it before the intentional reveal he is initially angry that he was duped. But his mother, who was already pressuring marriage, is happy when she discovers her son is not interested in a relationship with a man after all and is happy to pressure her son to make this person he showed interest in her daughter-in-law. To satisfy his mother, and yet not be forced into a relationship, Yi Cheng secretly strikes a deal with Lu Li to do a one year contract marriage and work at his company. Lu Li plans to win his heart and turn their fake marriage into the real thing.

Review

There were so many big milestone events I found this was one I could not stop watching even when I had work the next day. I would be like I am watching it until he figures out she is a girl, I am watching it until they kiss, I am watching it until they are married, I am watching it until she gets tired of his cheating, I am watching it until he discovers where she is, I am watching it until they reconcile, and so on. They did such a food job with the plot there was always something big going in that you wanted to see what happened with this or that. If you like heart warming romances with a strong female lead do not let the early part of this deter you, it would lead you to think she is a push over and simply too nice. But she comes into her own later in the series, so it is worth sticking with it, You might also think in the first half that he is always going to be somewhat cold and unfeeling toward the main girl but when he falls he falls hard. The slice of life of a female in a non traditional job in China adds a uniqueness to the story. I recommend this for those that like romances with happy, well wrapped up, endings and lighter, less complex plots. Those that like characters in disguise, cold CEOs, love triangles, surprise pregnancies, and women in non traditional roles will also like this.

Spoilers
It was cringy early on how little she looked like a guy. She was way too pretty and feminine to pass for a guy so I was glad, at least, they commented about it a lot and we did not go through too many episodes until he discovered she was a girl. The scene in the horse where he would have been cuddled up to what he thought was a guy caused a lot if 2nd hand embarrassment for me. i was super glad she was “discovered” and switched to a woman in like episode 7 or so. Up to episode 20/21 I was getting frustrated she was putting up with his emotional cheating. Even in a contract marriage, you should not do things that embarass the other person. If people think you are in a genuine relationship, having people pity you because they think you are being cheated on is humiliating and hurtful. So he should have realized that. She was so sweet to him and his behavior toward her was cold and cruel at times. I was cheering her on when she ate the stinky noodles right outside his room. And when she would stick up for herself and ignore him or defy him I thought he was getting a little bit of the punishment he deserved. The “other” woman/ex girlfriend was inferior to lead girl in every way. She was way less attractive yet they stated several times how pretty she was. Her personality was seriously lacking so that other men did not seem interested in her at all. It made it hard to understand what he ever saw in her and even angrier at him for the way he treated his wife.

When Lu Lin finally left him I was cheering so hard internally. No one ever needed a lesson more than he did. It showed her strength of character that she went to a new city, far away, and set herself up and was doing well. Her unlikely romantic interest/turned out to be just what she needed was awesome. You could have seen an alternate reality where she was forget Yi Cheng and went for the hottie new boss. He was cute with her and it was apparent he was a ladies man at that stage where he was ready for someone to knock him off his feet.
I have experienced a few guys like that in my life. Hard to catch but when they actually encounter someone who does not fall for their Romeo ways they fall for her. I would have liked to know what happened with him and his forced fiancé.

When the sister saw Yi Cheng with the ex girlfriend at the mall I thought she was going to let him have it. When he told her the girl was just misunderstood previously and she flipped so easy to accepting her excuse and mentioning her brother now had two romantic interests aI was very disappointed. She essentially helped her brother cover up his very bad behavior.

The Lu Jingwen (Pang Han Chen) character gave me serious Siwon vibes (Korean singer with Super Junior). In the show he is the boss who hires Lu Lin and has serious romantic interest in her until he discovers her heart is totally taken by Yi Cheng. You won’t get the Siwon vibe just looking at a picture of him it is more like a slight resemblance but his expressions and mannerisms totally remind me of Siwon. I love the role he plays because he expects a lot of her and yet he protects her and is her biggest advocate, He makes it very clear to lead guy you treat her right or I am right here.

In reality the character transformation Yi Cheng went through rarely happens and if it does it is not lasting. In my experience men and women who are cheaters, whether emotional or physical or both very rarely significantly change. Especially if they never fully understand how what they did was cheating. The show portrayed that Yi Cheng saw the error of his ways and would never do something like that again, but odds are that he would. The fact that so much had to happen for him to understand his actions were wrong shows that, at his core, he feels that behavior was okay. That would not make for a good romance though. And perhaps her showing what would happen to him if he ever did something like that again would deter him.

#CuteProgrammer
#XingZhaoLin
#ZhuXuDan
#YiDaQin
#GuanXin
#TianZiTong
#PangHanChen

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this is my worst nightmare come true ??

what the actual fuck??????
it was decent in the first 10~ish episodes then it became utter bs. I have never been so angry at a FL and ML in my life. ML cant express himself for shit and keeps responding to his ex who is so clearly into him. FL does not communicate at all and basically ghosts ML like his ex
Like wtf???? then FL gets pregnant with ML’s child AND DOES NOT TELL HIM ABOUT THE CHILD LIKE HE HAS A RIGHT TO KNOW GIRL ITS HIS ????SHE EVEN ALLOWS SOME OTHER DUDE TO SAY ITS HIS. WTFFFFFFF
i swear i feel like flying to china to sue the writer for wasting my time with this absolute abomination they call a drama. It romanticises probably the most toxic rs i have ever seen. this drama is my nightmare come to life

i have respect for the actors being able to deliver this piece of crap without making me want to gouge my eyes out.
PLS DONT WATCH!!!!

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