The Rational Life

Absolutely nothing special

Typical plot with predicable dialogue.

Start of the drama I already can see that there will be too many disgusting characters
Office male butt
Overbearing mom you can skip all her lines right away

I am not sure how realistic this is but the office male dominating environment with frequent sexist comments as the norm seems excessive?
Overbearing mom w/ too many lines
The ex insulting her age and income status yet comes back to assume his act can be forgiven?
She gets wrongfully terminated and she doesn't fight back
This is all within the first 3 ep and with zero comedic side kicks aka supporting characters.

What's good about this drama?
Actress - she's 40+ looks 30!! She played her character well just that the script was terrible

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Determination

Okay I did not expect anything wonderful out of this drama, however, I did find myself skipping through some episodes and often fast forwarding a few times.

I love the ML which is probably the only reason I decided to watch it.

The story line was okay, in the sense that the FL was determined to prove her self in a all male working environment and to get a name for her self, the challenges she faced while trying to climbing the ladder. I did at times find that her mother was a bit to much and very pushy, having been a 33 year old and still trying to treat her as a child, and setting up dates etc. for her and just way to pushy for my liking, at the end of the day she was an adult and had the right to choose her own path. The romance was not a big factor for me, but there personal growth, on their life and work.

Dylan Wang finally got a role, where he shines! and shows brilliant acting skill. His expressions, liveliness is very natural as if it's not acting its real self.

Overall an inspirational drama.

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Should Have Dropped

This is actually the first time I've ever written a review for a drama, but after seeing all of the positive reviews, I felt that I had too. I was originally going to drop this drama on episode 11, but ended up continuing because the person I started it with wanted me to keep watching it with them. The drama had so many problems it's hard to even know where to start, but I'll try.

1. The female lead's age is mentioned more times than I could've thought possible. Normally I wouldn't mind so much, but with the female lead clearly looking to be in her 40's (as was the actress in real life), the more I heard them mention her age of 33 and 34, it became harder and harder to believe. I have nothing against age gaps and a 12 year age gap would have felt doable had the actress actually looked her portrayed age. There were several times when they were together that she honestly looked like she could have been his mother. Again not a huge problem if 20 years was the portrayed age gap, but hearing them repeat 12 years a million times just made it feel ridiculous.

2. The dialogue in the drama was pretty bad. Again a lot of repetition with specific wording and there were several episodes where the exact same situation occurs. The female lead is disrespected, it looks like she's going to come out on top, she cries and eventually everything works itself out, but it get's old. It always seems like she's going to truly stand up for herself but instead she somehow manages to control the situation without ever really advocating or standing up for herself. It get's hard to root for a character when they are constantly put down and just take the mistreatment.

3. Misogyny was present everywhere. From the insane mother to most of the male characters it blows my mind that people viewed this drama as empowering for women when it was the exact opposite. Bringing awareness to misogyny and actually speaking out against it are two completely different things. I understand that a lot of it was due to cultural differences that maybe I can't understand, but the way the female lead was treated was absolutely insane, and most of the time she did not truly stand up for herself. The side couple were the worst offenders. The side female lead's husband was so misogynistic every word out of his mouth would have had me ready to sign divorce papers. It was not believable to me that they could work through these differences and stay together, when he didn't really seem like he had changed. There were rarely any times misogyny was mentioned truly in a negative light. Instead it was just presented to the female leads and left as is.

4. The male lead felt as though he changed when the main couple finally got together. There was even a scene where he attempted to get the female lead drunk so he could kiss her and who knows what else. Seeing the male lead attempt to take advantage of her and feel upset when she didn't want to move at the same pace as him, was frustrating. It didn't necessarily feel like the same character that had been presented in the drama so far.

Overall I wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone who supports women and women's rights, as it was incredibly frustrating to see the way the female characters were treated. If the creators meant to touch on the topics of misogyny and highlight how bad they are, they failed. For a drama so focused on the experiences of women and societal pressure, they completely missed the mark.

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I beg to differ

After reading the other reviews of this Drama I was hopeful that this might FINALLY be a C Drama free of the patronising patriarchal propaganda that poisons almost every C Drama I've tried to watch. Sadly, it was not. I stuck it out for 10 episodes, but by then I'd had enough - ESPECIALLY of the way the young rookie ML took over the FL's life

Other reviewers have praised this as a realistic office Drama, but I can' agree. The ML is a rookie, very young AND an intern on probation, but despite that, within a month not only is he quite insanely possessive of his boss, he's also compltely forgotten the concept of "personal space" If any PA physically intruded on their boss like that in any of the offices I know, that PA would not last long.

This is a 35 episode Drama, yet instead of taking its time to develop the romantic relationship, we already see the ML portrayed as the physical saviour of the FL in multiple occasions within the first 5 episodes. By episode 10, we're also "treated" to the sight of HIM telling her how to do her job. It's this which was the last straw for me, because it's SO depressingly common in C Dramas - no matter how skilled and competent a woman is at her job, she ALWAYS needs a man to teach her - in this case a man barely out of college and with zero prior work experience at all.

If you're after a Drama featuring a good looking OTP, then by all means try this one. If you want a Drama that gives token lip service to the idea of female empowerment while perpetuating Chinese chauvinism, this Dram would be PERFECT. But if you want Drama that ACTUALLY celebrates independent women who don't need to be protected and tutored by males, look elsewhere.

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One of the best modern cdrama with realistic plot

What i love about this drama is that they're so realistic and not ridiculous at all for cdrama. For once, this cdrama centred around main characters with COMMON ordinary background (not typical cdrama where one of the main character is rich and fall in love with the poor main character). The story also talk about real life struggle for people nowadays in our society. Also, i like the female character so much. Other people see her as 'perfect' independent woman when irl she has a lot flaws. Totally love Qin Lan's acting as Shen Ruoxin. Highly recommended drama if you want to watch slice of life drama.

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So Comforting and Exciting.

I actually had thought of a headline for my review in myb the 33th or 34th episode but ofc I forgot it when I continued watching this drama until the end. But truly this drama was so comforting to me. I've never been so engrossed in each episode of a drama that every time when each episode ended, I would exclaimed... "wait, ended already?". Like it just suck me in. This drama was about Rouxin's overcoming her difficulties navigating her career and her life with her loyal assistant, Qi Xiao alongside her.

Male Lead, Qi Xiao, a young man that only joined a big company to get a job and got mesmerised by his capable lady boss. He was smart, creative, loyal, hard working and quite a smooth talker. Ended up swearing loyalty to his boss, the FL bcs she tried her best to protect him, her newbie assistant when she was kicked out of her position and slowly he got to know her and fell in love with her as a person. You should see how he described her bcs you can truly see how in love he was with her. (I'm very bad at putting all this into words I'm sorry, but he was so amazing to her). Qi Xiao as a man in love, always be there with Ruoxin together solving problems, willing to do anything she wanted, protective of her, worried so much about her and very affectionate. He was so sweet. The length he went through to make her happy my god.

Female Lead, Shen Ruoxin, a woman in her early thirties that was very goal oriented but got derailed bcs of jealous men in power threatened by her performance in the legal department. At first, it seems like Ruoxin was cold and unapproachable to others but actually, Ruoxin was an independent, straightforward, wise, rational, graceful, righteous and courageous woman that strived to do her best in her field. She didn't back down when she literally was kicked to the curb by the company's vice president but she moved forward, learned her lessons and a bit by bit she succeeded advancing her career to the top accompanied by her loyal assistant later her boyfriend, ML Qi Xiao. She was impressed by the persistent of Qi Xiao to be her assistant and she won his loyalty when she willing to put her career on the line to help him keep his job bcs she knew it was unfair that he got dragged down as her assistant. She didn't desire a relationship and marriage bcs she prioritised her career and partially coz of her parents. Gradually, she saw how sincere Qi Xiao was to her, fell head over heels because of his actions repeatedly showed how much thoughtful he was to her, that he accepted and understands all of her as a person. Ruoxin also protective of ML and wanted to do everything that she could to help him.

I definitely love that this drama also showed other couples struggles and how they got back together , Ziyan (FL's bff) with her husband and Su Yang (Qi Xiao's bff) with Sijia.

Special shoutout to Qi Xiao's mom for being so supportive of QX relationship with Rx, trusting and loving her son so much. Well... Unlike the other mom *eyes rolls* but thankfully she came to her sense bcs she got to witness how they love each other.

Love most of Rouxin's office attires and ofc Qi Xiao, fashionable as always.

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Unpopular opinion, I know

What I liked:
-Strong female lead. She put up with a lot, but she wasn't a whiner and she worked hard for everything she got.
-I liked the development of the relationships between the leads. It was slow and natural.

However, what I didn't:
-I watched 35 episodes in two days, which shows you how much fast-forwarding I did. Too much business talk, propaganda about China and their electric vehicles and how they are the best and flying the Chinese flags.
-Their relationship developed so naturally, that once they got together, I was very disappointed. She'd dated someone before this, and do you expect me to believe they never even kissed?!? So, ML and FL get together but she never allows him to kiss her. This goes on for quite some time, and then the kisses were disappointing. Plus, she became cutesier, always hitting him playfully, etc.
-Her going behind his back to "help" him. She had very strong principles for herself, I couldn't believe that she wouldn't realize that he did as well.
-Her mother, OH MY GOSH! Overly dramatic, overbearing, childish. Although as the end when sat down with both of them, that was a lovely scene, but more for what they said than how she acted.
-"Bad guys" in the company - everyone knew they were evil and did things that hurt the company and would have definitely gotten them fired.

If you like a slow burn and mostly realistic-feeling relationship, you might enjoy this. I know a lot of people don't lower their rating even though they had to fast forward a lot, but I just couldn't let it go in this case.

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I could not be rational.

[I respect other reviewers and their individual choices. There are plenty of dramas out there to suit every taste. Direct your support or lack of to the drama itself. If you support this drama, good for you and please continue to. Please write your own good reviews. If you do not support this drama, please also write your own review. We are reviewers. Not personal attackers. We review. We do not attack. Reserve your opinions for your reviews and not for the reviewer who is responding to the drama itself and not to other external aspects. I am responding to this drama that I have watched and I am not personally attacking any actor or actress in real life as I do not know them at all and have no grudges against them. It is all based on this particular drama only/ this particular reel life only.]


I wanted to watch this drama because the premise looked interesting and I wanted to watch Dylan Wang. However, after sitting through the whole of the first episode, I must confess that I couldn't go on.

What I consider okay:
- The FL is very decent. She can act. She was all right.
- Dylan Wang is pretty cute. I must confess that I have not watched anything with him in it (yet) and I plan to.

What I don't like:
- The plot about the woman at 33 being very old and that she has 'no more market value' and that she has to quickly settle for any available man and quickly get married and settle down and give birth to a kid or two etc. I could not take such annoying ridiculousness. A woman has choices (just like a man). A woman is settled enough with or without a man. A woman is complete enough with or without a man. I could not see how I could sit through several episodes of such old-fashioned thinking / nonsense and so, I had to stop watching this drama for my own sanity.
- Pushy men with old-fashioned thinking. Pushy men who use "because I love you" as rationale for all the ridiculous things that they do. Pushy men who disrespect women. Pushy men who are also self-absorbed, self-entitled and self-serving.
- Annoying parents / elders who use emotional blackmail and who push children / the next generation into unhappy or unsuitable relationships / marriages simply because they think that it will be a disgrace to have such an old and unmarried daughter (or son). It is crazy. Isn't it better to be happily single than unhappily married?
- Irresponsible shareholders who run off and leave others in the lurch. (Dylan Wang's business partner ran off, leaving him in the lurch and creating a complete mess too. Terrible!)


[I respect other reviewers and their individual choices. There are plenty of dramas out there to suit every taste. Direct your support or lack of to the drama itself. If you support this drama, good for you and please continue to. Please write your own good reviews. If you do not support this drama, please also write your own review. We are reviewers. Not personal attackers. We review. We do not attack. Reserve your opinions for your reviews and not for the reviewer who is responding to the drama itself and not to other external aspects. I am responding to this drama that I have watched and I am not personally attacking any actor or actress in real life as I do not know them at all and have no grudges against them. It is all based on this particular drama only/ this particular reel life only.]

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Promising storyline

Love Dylan Wang so much! For being such a young actor, he’s truly promising. Everything he’s done so far has been phenomenal. He’s young yet experienced, unique yet charming, kiddish yet handsome. I find him very entertaining to watch. He seems to play this character pretty well. Looking forward to watching him develop this role and seeing the rest of this drama. This is the first time I’m watching this actress. I hope I like her. So far I like her strong character. She seems like a smart business woman who will stand up for herself. I sure hope she follows through.

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I really liked the story

what delighted me the most is that despite the difference between the age in the drama and in real life, there was no lack of intimacy, as in some who barely had a kiss at the end, I looked at the whole drama in the shortest time, the story was very calm, and you can still develop many things for a second season, although I find it difficult, I liked the couple a lot, things that are not common to see in a society like ours, which judge more than they try to make us happy, I recommend it to anyone , I expect a second season, or at least the 3 extra episodes subtitled on Netflix. (used google translate from Portuguese)

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Autêntico

Não sei se eu mudei, se estava com saudades de doramas com o Dylan Wang ou se o drama é realmente tudo isso, mas só sei que esse é o terceiro melhor drama que eu já vi.
Dificilmente gosto das protagonistas de hoje em dia e dificilmente gosto de tudo em um dorama, mas esse carinha é diferente. Ele rompe barreiras e levanta temas disfarçadamente. A presença do emponderamento feminino é maravilhosa, pois a protagonista passa por CADA situação machista e desprezível. Ao mesmo tempo, também são retratados outros temas como casamento, materialismo, desmerecimento de pessoas jovens, as falcatruas em ambientes de trabalho, sustentabilidade..., mas acho que tudo gira em torno da temática feminina. Questões como "mulheres servem apenas para fazer filhos?", "mulheres não podem fazer o que querem?", "mulheres precisam gostar de crianças e agir com feminilidade?", "mulheres não servem para coordenar empresas?", "mulheres são frágeis e não pensam muito?", "mulheres não podem ficar com homens mais novos?".
Todas essas questões levam a seguinte resposta: NÃO.
Esse drama trouxe um romance lindo e simples, sem nada muito intenso e que me fizesse ficar extremamente presa, mas trouxe muitas reflexões lindas para guardar em meu coração. Fora que essa protagonista é perfeita, MEU DEUS!
Se você só quer algo meio meloso e clichê, não sei se é a hora de ver esse dorama, pois ele não segue a linha de uma garota pobre com um cara rico. Muito pelo contrário! Ela lutou muito para ter o dinheiro dela e o rapaz também trabalha muito todos os dias para ter seu sustento.

SOBRE O DORAMA EM SENTIDO DE ROMANCE:
Demora uns 25 episódios até você ver um só abraço. Sim, você não leu errado e eu não estou me precipitando. Também fiquei um pouco impaciente, mas eles te preparam para isso. Por ser um dorama com uma temática MUITO amadurecida, o romance também é amadurecido. Você consegue ver um romance nascer entre os dois. É quase como se você estivesse vendo uma gestação toda detalhada. Eu sou impaciente e fiquei bem calma até o momento. Acho que esse é um dos pontos fortes do dorama: a espera. Não gosto de romance que não é bem trabalhado e esse com certeza foi bem trabalhado.

Recomendo hoje, recomendo amanhã e recomendo sempre.

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