Remembrance of Things Past

A Look at Real Life

This was a pretty well-told story about an important issue facing many societies worldwide. Mental illness is often the elephant in the room, but it touches so many lives. I think this story portrayed that sentiment very well. In twelve episodes, I hoped there would have been more time to develop the personal relationships between the three couples and not just their friendships. A lot of time was wasted on the young couple who eventually called it quits in such a bittersweet way. As much as I disliked the female character and liked the male character, theirs was a fitting end for them. I wish more time had been spent on the development of the lead couple and especially the second couple. A lot was just taken for granted in that last relationship - but there were more complexities that could have been explored.

I liked that what villainy there was, was not the main focus of the drama. The friendship that the girls had, the things they misunderstood, overlooked, took for granted - are all understandable when relationships happen. In hindsight everyone sees things they wish they knew before. This story certainly proves that.

The relationships with the parents were also quite realistic. I liked that the main emotion underlying all of the characters and their families (and even their friends) was love. At the end of the day, these are the relationships that most people want and cherish, and this story showed that.

I wish we could have had a better follow-up at the end - so much is just left to the viewer's imagination, and that was short-changing the commitment we had to the characters. For a 12 episode series, a great deal of time was wasted which would have been more valuable at the end, but hey - I'll take a happy ending any day.

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Wow! Superb Drama.
This Cdrama was on my list mainly because of Zhou Yu Tong.
Surprisingly, from ep 1 all the cast already got my attention. All of them has superb acting! Very raw and natural. They were perfectly casted for each role I must say. Acting is on point. No character was left behind. Each of them stands out. Each character is important.
Even supporting /small characters were great.

ZYT always left me speechless with her excellent acting. Can't forget her rooftop/crying /drunk scene in ep2 how many time I have rewatched it.

Plot is amazing. So much have been tackled in a 12 Ep. drama. Spice of life, ordinary people's stuggles in daily life, Relationship, romance/ Friendship, Home, family, work, depression etc. So much emotions and So much to ponder from this drama.

The chemistry of friendship between the 4 girls is so genuine. I also like how filial they are to their parents.
QiaoXiChen chemistry with JianYiFan is so cute, simple and true- i like how they settle their relationship problems , very smart and logical.

XuYuan and ShenZiChang - they are so cute.  just heartbreaking as well to see them on the last ep. I like how they sort out their relationship. It was so clean. (Spoiler)

HuJingJing- we all want to have a friend like her.. Always there when you need a friend. Just sad how she ended up. Depression is serious- that even who looks like a bubbly person (outside) like her suffered from this.

Music/ BGM- perfectly suits each scene.

Directions/Script/Production crew /Camera works: Wow.
Scenes were well executed and showed on screen.

I can still say more but I leave it up to here.
Highly recommended Cdrama for sure.

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a not so simple slice of life drama that is well worth the watch

First I want to let people know that there should be a warning of some kind before you start the drama if you are depressed or suffer from SI, this is not a show you can probably safely watch. I think it could be very triggering for people if they have zero clue that there are multiple scenes dealing with those issues and not really any warning that it's going to happen before they start watching it. Literally the first scenes of the first episode starts and the final scene of the first episode ends with that issue.

This drama really was a small clip of a year in the life of these people, it made me feel like we were a part of their friend group by the end of the series. Very well done and I really felt connected with their lives, emotions, dreams, and pains.

Each episode is about an hour and 15 minutes long, but to me they sped past incredibly fast, so much that I needed to pause and take it all in instead of bingeing it rapidly like I normally do. There are only 12 episodes but there is so much story packed into each one that it feels like you've watched a movie and a half by the end of each episode.

There was only 2 things I felt could have been done differently. The first episode or two included some flashbacks that were a little confusing and I wondered it the whole show was going to be like that, jumping forward to the present and then a scene later jumping back. It wasn't like that, just they needed to fill in some of the background and that's what the writers chose to do, it did feel a little out of place at times but thankfully that feeling only lasted a brief time in the overall drama. The second thing was in episode 10 or 11, there was big fight between two different couples that was basically occuring at the same time. The director chose to jump from one scene to the other, one couple to the other. The two couples were fighting about different things, so it didn't make sense to me why they kept jumping so quickly back and forth. I had a hard time connecting emotionally with the feelings of the couples because I was trying so hard to figure out what was happening between each set. I think this probably didn't feel jarring or out of place for those who speak the language, but for those of us who have to read the subtitles and then look up at the character's faces to gauge the emotions ect, it felt there wasn't enough time to read and then look and then suddenly we were at the scene of the other couple. Maybe it was just me that had that problem but I did have to pause the big arguing scenes to break it down and figure out who was mad at who and why and if they were or weren't justified...that was a little bit that took me out of the drama and more focused on the editing choices.

Even with the heavy topic and the 2 editing decisions I might have chosen differently, I still have to give this a VERY high score and also highly recommend that you give it a try. It's worth the emotional investment in my opinion.

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A disappointment

I was not impressed with this drama and found it boring and depressing. I didn’t care for the characters except for the boss the one female lead fell in love with and his assistant. The two older female leads were dull and not the least bit feminine. The young one was a greedy, immature, materialistic, gold digger. I don’t understand the rave reviews I have read here and haven’t found any redeeming qualities in this drama. I can’t really identify with any of them. I guess opinions about this drama are geared to the culture you come from and can better identify with the plight of these characters. It must be getting a lot of high praise for a reason, but reason eludes me.

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Beautiful modern drama about friendship and finding your path in life

Remembrance of Things Past is a near-perfect show. If you like realistic modern dramas, this is a must watch.

Brief synopsis (spoilers for Ep. 1):
When Hu Jing Jing dies by suicide on her birthday, her friends and family are shocked. Jing Jing was bright, cheerful, and seemingly carefree. Why would she kill herself? Her best friends, Xiao Xi Chen and Xu Yan, and her older cousin, Ji Nan Jia, are lost without her. Jing Jing was the heart and soul of their friend group, and without her, the three women must learn new ways of supporting each other through life's challenges.

Review:
It's a beautiful show. The story is thoughtful and well-paced, giving enough time to somber and thoughtful moments without becoming slow; and tackling serious issues while maintaining an overall sense of hope and grounded optimism. It's well-directed and well-shot. The music is much less repetitive than most Chinese shows I've watched.

The acting is superb. I picked up the show because Zhou Yu Tong's acting impressed me in the past (Will Love In Spring), and she is phenomenal here. Ren Su Xi and Sun Qian are excellent too, and the cast overall performs at a very high level, with even supporting actors bringing nuance and power to their roles -- Li Cui Cui is especially memorable as Hu Jing Jing's mother.

I won't summarize the full plot, but I want to discuss a couple aspects of the story (minor spoilers ahead). The story is relatively balanced between the three main characters, although I think Xiao Xi Chen (played by Zhou Yu Tong) gets slightly more screen time than the others. All three women face challenges with work, romance, and their personal lives; but their personalities and struggles are distinct, and therefore so are the paths they take to overcome them.

Xiao Xi Chen is a marketing specialist working hard to avoid layoffs and maybe even get a promotion, who finds herself in a budding office romance. I found her character the most relatable. Her romance with Jian Yi Fan is healthy, mature, and full of moments of real support and connection. (Although he is her direct boss for much of the show, this does eventually get addressed.)

Xu Yan dreams financial success and material comfort while working an unfulfilling customer support job, and her attempts to chase the lifestyle she wants cause repeated conflict with Shen Zi Chang, her boyfriend of several years. Their relationship was the most frustrating to watch for me, although it is definitely realistic. Xu Yan is very focused on external validation and material success, and often makes poor decisions because of that. She and Zi Chang keep having arguments in which he is basically right (they really can't afford that vacation!) but every time, she pouts at him and he backs down and ends up apologizing. They feel very immature compared to the other characters, and although they do both display character growth, it really takes a while. Both characters have enough heart and charm that even when I was frustrated by them, I still liked them and wanted the best for them.

Ji Nan Jia is several years older than the others, a successful business woman who put her love life on hold to take care of her health. She eventually finds herself being pursued by Ou Yang, one of Xiao Xi Chen's coworkers, who I think is about 10 years younger than her. Their relationship ended up being one of the best age gap relationships I've ever seen portrayed in a drama. In many shows, especially when the woman is older, the age gap is mostly an issue because of how it's perceived by other people, and is basically forgettable inside the relationship. Here, Nan Jia really does seem older than Ou Yang -- she is more established in her career, and she is grounded and secure in herself in a way that most people only achieve with age. It takes a while for her to see Ou Yang as an option for a real relationship, and by the time they get there, you can really see how they complement each other and can't help but root for them.

Warnings:
Love triangle - NO active love triangle. One character's ex comes back and ask her out, she is obviously uninterested. We find out in flashbacks that at one point in time, two of the friends had a crush on the same guy, but there isn't ongoing drama from it.

Horrible moms - NO horrible moms in this show, all mothers (and fathers) are loving, supportive, not controlling. One of the moms says something unkind early on that made me worry she was going to be horrible, but it was a one-time thing.

Suicide - A character jumps to their death in the first episode, but no gore is shown. A secondary character considers suicide later but decides to live.

Sexual harassment/assault - Some scenes of one character feeling unsafe walking alone in the city at night. A plot line dealing with mild harassment in the workplace.

Alcohol/drugs - One scene where characters are pressured to drink at a business meeting, relatively mild as far as this goes in Chinese tv.

Happily ever after - The three romances don't all end in a traditional HEA, but each main character makes decisions that are right for herself and that she can feel satisfied with.

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