Lighter & Princess

It's a good day when you forget this is a C-drama ...

It's a GOOD ASS DAY when you forget that this is a C-Drama, so you breathe a sigh of relief. What do I mean by that? I'm talking about the friendship between Li Xun and Ren Di. From the first episode, you could tell they had a connection. I was terrified that they might've had a thing, but once I remembered this was a C-Drama, I knew I could relax. This strong connection was friendship. Low key most underrated friendship in this whole drama.

What this drama does well is tell the story of growth. University is a false reality. I know since I'm in it. A lot of things happen here that don't carry on, whether that is success or relationships. Their university journey starts with finding their first love and that going to total shit. We see our FL evolve from a timid good girl to launching into a grenade to protect her man. We see our ML evolve from a self-involved brat know-it-all to a man who knows he is no longer only responsible for himself, but the people in his life.

I love Chinese dramas. Why in particular I say it about this drama? Because they know what we want. They give us that romance build up. They give us that happy ending. They give us that wedding. They give us that baby. Sure, 2/4 of the things are implied (never showed a "real" wedding or the baby) but it happened.

Why only an 8.0/10? ML was such an asshole! Like too much! There's asshole, and then there's Li Xun. He was really a bully, but like I mentioned earlier... University man... But she likes that shit, clearly. I mean, sometimes I too imagine... wait, sorry, this is Goodreads. Anyway...

Final note: HER MOM IS THE FUCKING DEVIL. OH, AND I LOVE THE DAMN SOUNDTRACK.

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Absolute Banger till first 19 episodes.

The first arc of the drama is really amazing and deserves all ten stars. I'd recommend this show just for those 19 ep. The second arc though? Bah 🥴

I'm not saying this because I dislike complications or tragedy but because the writing in the second half is genuinely awful. It seemed like the characters had no development in the span of three years and were just stuck being shadows of their past selves. The consequences of their actions do not seem to inspire any change in their outlook. The story seems to be in a state of complete limbo, it does not move forward but just keeps referencing the past. This kind of lazy writing is what makes the second part feels like a less charming reenactment of the first part with nothing new to add. The ML's character was also really inconsistent in the second half, like they weren't sure what they wanted to do with him.

Moreover, there's no satisfactory resolution of the conflicts that are set up, both in the terms of the romance and revenge arcs. As the audience we are baited into watching these episodes for the epic downfall of their enemies WHICH NEVER HAPPENS. Instead we are fed some sloppy shit about how everyone makes mistakes and all that like!!? That Gao dude is literally a wife beater what do you mean he gets a redemption arc? What was the point of setting up the stage for their battle then? In terms of romance the conflict between the two characters never gets the kind of treatment it deserves. They just sort of brush it under the table with one measly apology from ML. The show would have been much more meaningful if the whole revenge fiasco had made both ML and FL reflect on themselves and grow as people. Especially the ML, the lack of a proper grovel from his side really makes the second part feel so superficial and makes the FL seem like a doormat.

I'd suggest you to stop watching after their graduation party scene in ep 19 and give them a happy ending in your mind.

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Why was everyone pampering Li Xun?!

This drama was quite contrasting... At times, it peaked with its brilliant character arcs and storytelling, and the next moment the graph would just dip and show absolute nonsense. While I really appreciate the story and the whole journey of the characters, I must say the pacing of the series was quite slow. The series opens in the present time, where we see the leads living quite miserable lives. Then it goes full flashback, to show what really happened and how did this misery come to be, and we witness Li Xun and Zhu Yun as freshly admitted college kids. Now while I loved that they took their time to build the story and show substantial character development, taking 19 episodes to show just their college days is a little too much. The episodes were meandering in the middle, with little to no plot development, and after a point, I got impatient seeing baby Zhu Yun chasing behind baby Li Xun, and baby Li Xun throwing a tantrum to anyone who dared to cross him. I really wanted to know what the "big incident" was all about. So imagine my frustrated PAIN when the big incident was finally revealed. It was so anticlimactic. Here I was thinking of the gravest of the grave crimes that the ML could commit, and it just fizzled out like a wet cracker.
Then comes the 2nd half of the story, and I prefer the 2nd part more than the first, mostly because of Zhu Yun's character development. Her transition from a sheltered princess to a boss lady was very well done, and the actress also played her part very well. However, it doesn't mean that 2nd part is flawless. While it made up for the 1st part's often meandering storytelling by having a tighter plot, it wasnt able to capture the nuances of the characters that the 1st part was able to do. This is a sign of sloppy writing, where you forget about the characters to just race the plot ahead to the finish line. The biggest gripe that I will have from the 2nd half and this drama, is how they wrote the villains. The villain's transition arc was so pathetic. This literally ruined all the character development of that guy and made him into a caricature figure who becomes a villain just because the story needs one. One minute he's crying next to Li Xun as his comrade, the next minute he's COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED to a soulless, evil character who laughs at the ML's loss, and then he even cackles evilly to reveal all the villainy things he's done. This transition does not happen overnight y'all. I need more motivation to understand why the villain became a villain. The actual villain though, is left untouched, he becomes a slick weasel, just sneaking past all retribution/punishments through plotholes, the way a rat slips through gaps and holes. Just at the end, one line is narrated by Zhu Yun to say that he deserved what he got. They should've elaborated more on his relationship with Lao Gao. But again, sloppy writing, so they decided to ignore these nuances completely. And towards the end, the villain gets a redemption arc too... Like good for you, but show me why its necessary 😖

Now when it comes to the acting, honestly Arthur Chen has THE MOST wooden face ever. But because he's playing a complicated, unfeeling character, his wooden expressions work. But he still needs to learn how to snap on camera and how to contort his face to show SOME facial expression. The female lead was also lovely to watch. Despite the lack of facial expressions, their chemistry was spot on. And Arthur Chen with a crew cut looks much hotter than the blonde or the black hair. So the wooden looks worked out really well as intense looks. The rest of the actors were also fine, except the actor playing Fang Zhijing was overacting at every frame per second.
Finally, the OST. Both the songs and the background music was good and memorable.

Honestly, this was one of the better cdramas I've watched. There's nuance, there's revenge and there's obsessive love sugarcoated by a lot of computer coding and jargon-ing!! I just wish the series was a little more edited, the watching experience would've been flawless then.

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Don't judge a book by its cover!

After finishing the series, I can honestly say that I misjudged how much I would end up liking it. The first episode was a bit like watching paint dry, mostly because it lacked sufficient context. But things picked up after they met in the cafeteria in episode 2. From there, I was giggling through almost every episode like a silly schoolgirl.

While I don't know how I feel about Zhu Yun having to chase Li Xun from beginning to end, the chemistry between the two was palpable. Li Xun is a complicated character. I found him to be charming at first, then after a few more episodes I grew tired of his arrogant, obstinate behavior, then I eventually found him to be charming again by the end of the series.

Gao Jian Hong is another complicated character, who struggled with his own insecurities and the eventual projection of those same insecurities onto others. His tug-of-war with feeling like he's always in Li Xun's shadow became the demon that he had to eventually confront and defeat, though it took literal sickness to halt him in his march towards self-destruction.

It's rare to come across a modern love-story c-drama as potent as Lighter & Princess. The approach to storytelling is very mature, and hyper-realistic. Ignore anyone who gives this show a low rating, especially if they haven't at least watched the first few episodes.

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Lighter and Princess love despite the scars

First off, the two leads Arthur Chen and Zhang Jing Yi had incredible chemistry. From the very beginning, the way they looked at each other made it impossible not to feel the longing and quiet affection between them. Their eye contact alone carried so much emotion, and it felt natural. You could really see their feelings slowly building over time, from curiosity to trust to deep love. It made every shared scene feel intimate and meaningful, even when nothing dramatic was happening.

As for the story itself, I didn’t care for it that much. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t particularly memorable. I found myself more invested in the romance than in the actual events unfolding. That said, the chemistry between the leads completely carried the drama for me. It was strong enough that it kept me watching even when the story lagged. I’ll admit I skipped scenes that didn’t involve them because I didn't care about anyone else besides them and their coworkers from the company.

Another major highlight for me, besides the leads, was their coworkers. They were absolutely hilarious and so endearing. I genuinely adored them. The dynamic within the group felt warm and natural, like a found family. They were caring, observant, and always subtly aware of what was going on between Li Xun and Zhu Yun. I loved how they would make little comments or tease Li Xun in ways that were clearly meant to push him to wake up and confront his own feelings. They understood him better than he understood himself at times. His past trauma constantly reminded him that he didn’t deserve happiness, especially not with someone like Zhu Yun, and the coworkers often served as that quiet support system nudging him toward growth.

What I didn’t like, though, was how Li Xun would often say incredibly hurtful things to Zhu Yun. My mouth would literally drop when I heard some of the words he threw at her. They were harsh and uncalled for, and it was painful to watch. Zhu Yun would walk away in tears, clearly hurt, yet she always came back to him. When Li Xun thought Zhu Yun was moving on, even after everything he had said to her, he had absolutely no right to be upset. It highlighted how selfish and emotionally unaware he could be. While he did become better once he learned to let go of his past and move forward, the damage he caused still lingered for me especially when Zhu Yun did nothing remain and remained loyal to him despite after their breakup.

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Absolutely worth it

Although some parts of the drama got on my last damn nerves and the win-win resolution pissed me the hell off, I still consider this one hell of a series.
Top notch everything, this series had it all. It was quality all around.
The chemistry between Chen Fei Yu as Li Xun and Zhang Jing Yi as Zhu Yun was so scorching hot it’s was incredible to watch. It’s been a long time I saw chemistry that was this fire in CDrama.
The only thing I didn’t like was that they didn’t make Zhu Yun have any identity, goals, dreams or aspirations that wasn’t somehow tied to Li Xun, he was literally her whole world but if you are going to go all in for someone in the way she did you might as well do it right and boy did she go all in for him and while I can’t be like her I certainly wont knock her for it either. I completely understood why he took the extreme route in propelling her to break up with him because God, him and everyone watching the show knew that she would never give up on him easily but I didn’t like how the writers took his bad treatment of her too far after his prison release, especially in that office scene before her overdose.
But Li Xun was who he was and made no apologies for it. I agree with one reviewer that said how they made some changes to Li Xun in the later episodes just so they could give us a win-win situation that literally nobody asked for and was undeserved to say the least, I also wasn’t happy about that.
If you want to watch a CDrama with real matured make out seshs with a good plot and solid acting then this is for you, I also recommend Falling into You.
Rewatch value is 10/10 (I have already rewatched and planning on rewatching again soon)
Overall is absolutely 10/10
I obviously highly highly recommend.

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SADISTIC ASSHOLE & DELULU MASOSCHIST.

Basic plot:🗯️🗯️
a guy comes out of jail and is about to restart his live. He's on a mission to take revenge against those who wronged hum. We immediately go back to the past and start to see how the events that brought him to jail unfold..

Let's talk about this drama shall we?
I fricking devoured the first 18 episodes.

Initial observations 🗯️🗯️
The start is really strong and intriguing but at episode 19 I had to stop because i was so mad. It took me an entire month to come back and finally finish this thing.

Reason? The 2 main leads were really pissing me off. At the start of the story we obviously meet our ml and fl and they are fine , but in the middle point they become such toxic people I had to pause and take a break.

Main characters 🗯️🗯️
Unfortunately this will be their role during the entire drama. These two are ,frankly speaking ,toxic to each other and other people.

Where they are together the world ceases to exist and they treat everyone like shit. Lao gan, their so called "best friend" is a perfect example.

I know that lu xun is Designed to be a cocky asshole with a "supposed" high moral compass but I couldn't stand him and the "princess" wasn't any better.

She only cares about how the ml feels or if he can help her out. She disregards everyone who ever says anything bad about him.
She is unable of criticisms when it comes to liu xu.

Lu xun knows he is better than anyone around him but keeps humiliating his peers for frankly no good reason.

Lao gao ark gets out of hand at the end but he was kind of justified in his hatred towards Lu xun.

When the main couple is split it doesn't get any better. They are assholes to everyone around them and when they are together they are absolutely toxic to each other.

In the later episodes Lu xun and Zhu Yun are obviously flirting with each other but lu xun, after making a fool of Zhu Yun, gives her the most humiliating speech ever. He says such heinous things about their past love story I personally would have slapped him and left forever.

I know that he supposedly pushing her again to "protect her" ( in a very twisted way) but nothing justifies the amount of mean stuff he says to her in this drama.

Zhun yu is saving his ass left and right and he mistreats her just to avoid giving her any "hope" Romance wise.

At the end of the drama I think he is a narcissist asshole and she is a delusional masochist.

In the 27th episode specifically he lashes on her because of his jeoulosy I was frankly disgusted by what he said.

Is it frustrating to witness all these interactions especially when it comes to Zhu Yu. This guy treats her like shit all the time and she is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone for him.

Later in the drama she is even sorry for "abandoning" Lu xun. What?? You didn't abandon him he literally cut you off of his life. Stop justifying this psycho.

She also has a guy running after her for years and she strings him along never actually putting a stop to his feelings towards her. He is the one to give up.

I think she was just addicted to being the "elected" person of a so called "genius".

Some ridiculous moments🗯️🗯️
Talking about genius, in the drama we see that Lu xun is trying to build his life again and fight against his ex corporation. It was hilarious to see a big tech company fricking out for a 4 member team of a small company. Are u serious? The script really want us to believe the Lu xun is an invincible force. C'mon guys at a certain point it becomes laughable.
A huge corporation with dozen of employees against a single programmer...

Positive:🗯️🗯️
I know I sound crazy but I liked the drama overall. How ? I don't know. It was engaging and the boring parts were mainly b roles which I skipped like crazy. You might hate the characters but still find the drama enjoyable.
The whole battling against one another was decent.

the chemistry between the actors is undeniable. they have a magnetic aura around them.


Music:🗯️🗯️
Pretty good. I even saved same songs.

Would I recommend it? Yes.
Would I re-watch it? Hell no.

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Childish behavior, red flag ml, puppy clingy princess

I could barely finish the drama, started it 3 times and could finish it only on 3rd try with skips at the last 10 episodes. The female lead is just a clingy like puppy to a guy who is always hurting her, lack of proper communication and emotional intelligence:) She is always sacrificing something for him and supporting, while he at the beginning especially was so selfish, the way how he acted with his “friends “/teammates, like yeah, you are smart, but you also think about others’ feelings.
Overhyped c-drama for sure. The only good thing - the main leads’ facecards

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Amazing Chemistry Bewtween Lead Couple!!! [9/10]

Overall:
to be honest, in the beginning I wasn't expecting much. I don't usually watch these types of dramas, but I decided to give it a shot. There were some dumb plots in the beginning and some cliché moments. But I kept watching and at about ep 15 I was pretty interested in seeing this couple get together. I do think that the drama didn't have to be 36 episodes, and they could've shortened it, but I'm not really complaining. Zhu Yun's parents though (ucchh) especially her mom…
I was comparing this to other similiar dramas (I haven't seen, but seen clips of) and in a way it's similiar, but there's just something different this drama has.

Cast:
I haven't seen Chen Fei Yu before, but I think he was the right choice for Li Xun. I've seen Zhang Jing Yi in Fall in Love, and it's definitely nice to hear her actual voice here. These actors have such natural chemistry, that most of their romantic scenes don't feel acted. The supporting characters were well cast.

Music/OST:
I think the ending song sets the whole mood/vibe/feeling for this drama. I like the other OST too.

Rewatch Value:
I might rewatch the whole drama, but probably more likely that I'll just rewatch their scenes and FMVs.

Now on to the Story:
Where do I begin?...
Li Xun comes off as arrogant to some of the characters, but I didn't really think so. In the beginning of the drama he has blonde hair. He meets Zhu Yun who's also studying programming and at first they don't get along so well, but after going through things together, they start to fall in love. (also after he meets Zhu Yun, he dyes his hair brown, which I think was the best look for him tbh.)
They both join the same ''study group''? at college and he starts calling her princess. You find out why further on...
The get together in ep 18 or 19, and they're so cute together!!

Now the drama mostly hits, when her parents meet li xun and her mom doesn't like him (you find out why).
Li Xun starts pushing Zhu Yun away and Li Xun goes to take revenge on Fang Zi Jing for what he did to Zhu Yun's best friend and Li Xun gets put in Jail.

(after like a 3 year gap)

They meet eachother again and after a lot of drama and stuff..they get TOGETHER!!!

- sorry for this bad review, I just don't know what to write without spoiling too much, but I recommend this drama. -

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Interesting story, underwhelming cast

Before starting the review, I want to emphasize that while I do lean towards certain actors or actresses when I dramas to watch but I am not biased when it comes to good / bad acting.

This is a very real insight into the IT industry in today's world. When you're behind the trend, you lose. When you don't understand the audience (in different industries) well enough to cater your product to fulfil their needs, you lose. When you do not have connections, you don't get a head start. Sad, but that's true. I love the progression of this drama. They brought us back to where it all began - university. This is another true scenario. If you see yourself as a kid who is just attending university to get a degree and earn credits enough to get yourself into the job industry, that is a very old-fashioned thinking. University is where people should get themselves equipped with not just academics but connections and experiences enough to get yourself a good start in the job industry (or even get a job at all). I like how the scriptwriter perfectly categorised these different types of people in university.

The story just made sense to me. Whether or not you're a person with natural talent or just a person who is so-so, the decisions that you make will eventually lead you into different pathways. Li Xun and Gao Jian Hong are your perfect example. This is why the story deserves a solid 8.

However, there are parts where I don't quite like or think the drama is lacking.

1. The female lead. I don't dislike the character but this actress is honestly not portraying the character well enough. Is it just me or the female character has a problem showing expressions? She doesn't look angry when she's supposed to, she doesn't look sad when she's supposed to. When she makes eye contact with the male lead, she is just staring at the male lead, but there is no emotion to it. She is quite stiff overall and I don't know about you, but I can't connect with the female lead character at all. In fact, I think the actress playing Ren Di does better than her.

2. How the story ended with no conclusion on Zhu Yun's parents' approval. So do the parents approve the relationship or not? They highlighted the parents' disapproval multiple times throughout the drama, I am assuming that their approval is very important and if you're heading towards a happy ending for the couple, shouldn't there be a firm conclusion to what the parents actually think?

3. You know how there's one part where Li Xun went to jail because he blinded Fang Zhi Jing. First of all, for a villain like him, why is he only imprisoned in the end? Also, his eye looked perfectly fine to me. Small detail but it kind of bothered me during the drama.

Overall, it is a good story. I like the progression but there are too many areas that are lacking. The chemistry between the characters are not exactly off the charts either. Highly recommend to watch but this is definitely not the kind of drama you'd get withdrawals after it's over.

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A very basic School/Varsity but unique of its own way

As saying before it is a basic varsity life romance drama but is different from others.
Even common fight, romance scenes were not boring or skip able.

Firstly telling the bad part.
This is an IT based drama but as an IT person, I was often asking why they showing these are all so easy to work. Some college student can successfully build an IT company in short time but when a genius comes to picture they all just shake. a new game or software making was so easy because hero is genius, here they were showing. The expert will roll their eyes because of these.
The male lead is so arrogant person. He is terrible team player. Some will be coming in his defense that he was just telling others their true ability etc but even if you are Einstein still you need to respect your team member and tell them your plan. They may be can't contribute like you but can help you in small process.

The ending should have more scenes. Some scenes were shoot but didn't broadcast, don't know why.

Coming to the good part...
I had seen a clip of their romance scene which didn't grab me here but somehow saw a clip of their initial college days which made me curious.

An obedient female lead and a narcissist male lead which is very common in dramas. Later female lead fell in love and try to pursue the male lead, its all in here. Now why its different? Female lead was obsessed but wasn't price of her self respect. Time to time male lead needed to go after her. And the major plot began because male lead did something for the female lead's happiness when she wasn't even his girlfriend. She knows her priority even if the whole world is saying the opposite. She is intelligent, well aware, hard working person.

Male lead was genius programmer. He basically look down to everyone. He has backstory of how he was at disadvantages from childhood and that's why he couldn't afford any mistake. He had shown most of his good only to female lead. It was really surprising how sweet boyfriend he is throughout the drama. But terrible when he needed to push her away, he can hurt her to the core. He has some in his arrogance and you will root for him. He was truly a king like their osts saying. He can build an empire and can win over from scratch if anyone snatch it from him. All he need is his personal navigator. I was rooting for him most of the time because of female lead's believe in him. That strong impact she has on his character.

This drama keeps me confused what character should I like and what shouldn't. At some moment I hated a character and after some episodes I felt sympathy for him/her. At the end I couldn't hate anyone.
There were two more couple here. Their story closure were also very well written. Other support characters were also good. Everyone left impact, No unnecessary story or event was in this drama.

The drama beginning keeps the viewer curious which was good move from the script writer. And the ending was cherry on the top. You will find yourself smiling like the main two characters were without knowing.

It was journey of a boy who always think no one can help him to rise until a girl came to his life when he started to waver tough he wasn't distracted. He had gone to astray by his own choice and when he again started to rise he realized all the success would be in vain if the girl is not his side.

If you like college romance and revenge type drama, this is definitely for you.

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