Only for Love

I didn’t enjoy this drama, I suffered it

I'll start by saying that it's not a bad show. In fact, it keeps you hooked to see what comes next. And I loved the chemistry between the three couples.

But I have so many things to say about this, so let me start with a question: is this about a journalist who doesn't understand the importance of good communication? Really?

Isn't discernment (the ability to evaluate what is good, and what is bad) one of the essential skills of a journalist? However, the female lead blindly followed the awful advice she got from her best friend. Did she really believe that starting a relationship with lies and pretending was going to have positive results in the future? I think that's what bothered me the most about this series.

And I really hated the friend. With so many tricks, secrets and lies in her relationships, she didn't deserve a happy ending.

Another thing that annoyed me was that sometimes the FL was very bold and when he responded, she ran away like a scolded puppy.

Now, let's talk about the second female lead. She was so cute and persistent. I understand that the idea was to fight for what you want, but to what extent do you have to “beg for love”? To what extent do you give up your dignity to try to attract someone who is not interested in you, even pretending to be something you are not? Was the idea to pursue him until he accepted out of exhaustion? In any case, I liked the evolution of her character, going from a shallow girl to a woman with interests and goals.

On the other hand, there are the three male characters, which I thought were good, and I loved how they looked together in one of the scenes in the lasts chapters.

The ML was pretty deadpan, but I guess that's how the character was written. The teacher was my favorite, with his serenity. The third, who carried a certain sadness within him, matured as the plot progressed.

Another issue that bothered me about the series has to do with journalism. I don't know what it's like in China, but as a journalist, you don't give the interviewee the draft of the interview to approve, unless it's an advertorial. You're also not afraid to interview someone because you might suddenly fall in love if you get to know him better. This is just a professional interview, not a date.

In any case, it is better not to analyze these professional issues too much and enjoy the drama.

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It couldve been better....

First off, this was ok. I liked the potential of the plot and the acting was amazing. However, I dont think it needed to be 36 episodes long... especially if you take into account that most of it was filler... And I hated the filter they put on it that made them look even paler.

The plot had a good base, but it was executed poorly. It had potential, but it was lost. I mean, Zheng Shuyi got with Shi Yan to get back at her ex and the homewrecker. The ex out of nowhere wants her back, and the homewrecker has some weird hate for her. They couldve spent more time on that rather than the side characters getting into relationships out of nowhere. Miss Homewrecker couldve tried to ruin her career when she realized the ex still liked her. She couldve found out sooner and tried to ruin her relationship with Shi Yan. Or the ex couldve. There were so many options... but what we got was... eh...

I find it crazy that out of every adult in this show, the only one with SOME sense is Shiyue. Like girl knew how to communicate, express her love, and she didnt hold back. Its so odd that a 22-23 year old can do that but not a 25, 27, and 30 year old. AND OLD PARENTS.

Even Yi Yang was better at doing that, and he just saw everything as a competition with Shi Yan!

What I also found odd was the strange plotline of Mr. Guan (Shi Yans friends dad) and Ms. Tang (Shuyis boss)... like why are they a thing? Why is it important enough to be a plot? Because I dont see it.

Another thing I hated was the fact that Shuyi was an idiot. Youre telling me that youre listening to your single friend, who only has flings for relationship advice? WHEN EVERY PIECE OF ADVICE SHE GAVE YOU ENDED UP MAKING THINGS WORSE!!!

And now when its all gone to shit, shes like... "maybe you shouldve confessed sooner..." WHEN SHES THE ONE THAT SAID IT WAS A BAD IDEA. Like oh my god. No hate for the friends relationship history, but cmon now... shes never had a boyfriend... But even if she never did, she wouldnt have been that bad if she gave SOME solid advice.

The only good thing about this show was the cute scenes, the beginning bc at least it was interesting, when Shi Yan and Shuyu found out thr homewrecker was a liar and Shiyue. Overall, the actual plot got lost.

And they patched things up out of nowhere... I was confused... But Ive spent my time watching 32 episodes... so Im going to watch the rest.

Dylan and Bai Lu nailed their characters though, and carried out the show amazingly despite the questionable script.

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Disappointing Script. Great Actors.

It's frustrating to see the leads with such extreme split personality of hot/cold, nice/mean, flirty / awkward stranger between scenes, it's too forced and looks like chunks of scenes are cut between what is shown. The sudden emotional flip flop is hard to relate to and follow in both leads.

Typical Chinese drama scripts to have the leads unable or unwilling to communicate, constantly lies and manipulate others, to create the misunderstanding and tension, to drag out the storyline, no smart plot to solve their misunderstandings or show how the couple grow closer together until the last 5 eps. This same-old script formula is waaaaay over-used.

It's too unrealistic how intellectually and emotionally mature adults would handle situations so badly. And why would anyone stay in love with someone who constantly lies, manipulates and use you??? It really shows the screenwriter's lack of life skills and low emotional IQ. Character development is a disaster. Director is in the bad as well.

Bai Lu and Dylan Wang are great. Screenwriter and Director are the worst. So overall, not worth watching. If you love the leads as I do, just watch the last 5 episodes. Skip Ep 1-31.

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They could have done better

I cannot understand that I’m already on the 15th ep and the FL and ML are still flirting - that’s at least 40mins per ep “spent” watching the leads flirting and flirting and flirting. Character development is non existent. Story development is extremely poor. The personality of the FL is confusing if not incomprehensible. I understand not all chinese drama could be at par with Hidden Love, Put Your Head on My Shoulder, The Love You Give Me - and these dramas I mentioned have areas for improvement still - but I hope they make ones that are at least not too cliche and engaging for the viewers. They spend money to produce these dramas anyway so why not take an extra step or two or even five to make them good.

You are not missing anything if you decide not to watch it. You may feel like you missed (reads: waste) time that you could have spend on other things if you decide to watch - lest finish - these drama.

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selling artificial sugar

the writing of this drama is so so bad.... Obviously it's only relying on selling romantic slow motion scenes between main couple. Story wise, it's just a mess, unnecessarily drag the storyline just to make the drama longer, characters written so inconsistent. Financial journalist, acting so clueless and made very stupid choices all through the episodes. FL and her friends were all like high schoolers with googly eyes trying too hard to act as an adult. Why can't writers just write a normal independent modern woman that knows what they want and mature enough to make their own choices. Not gonna continue to waste my time on this...

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Disrespectful to all working women

The FL's overtures to the ML in the begining are to get an interview ; she is advised to and keeps the conversation simmering at flirty inappropriate advances to ensure she gets ahead. Ifthat is not perverse, I dont know what is.. Her late night inappropriate messages if dotn by any man would have made us run screaming SA to high heavans. I am sorry if this is how things are done in China, maybe there is a cultural subtext I am missing, but to me it just sounds plain wrong that a woman needs to do all this just to get an.....interview. There are literally millions of hard working women winning milestones and getting ahead without adopting any of the coy tactic adppted by the FL..... and they are the real heroes who deserve to be lauded.

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Boring

I havent read the original book series.

For the show as a standalone, I found it very hard to sit through. The central romance plot is a guessing game/ misunderstanding. In this quest sometimes it seems as if the FL is trying to scam the ML. This plot point was dragged throughout the show, when they should have wrapped it neatly earlier on and then focused on something else. And the score make everything worse, adding a 'humour' sign to everything. I was cringing and face palming almost the entire time. There was a lot of 2nd hand embarrassment that i felt because of the FL. Someone had commented that the title of the series should have been "only For Work" instead, and i agree. The makers tried to portray FL and ML as aspiring hard working career driven people, and so the viewers have to sit mostly scenes about their projects, and work related drama. It seemed like how they show random hello world code and keyboard tapping to represent programmers and hackers. aka, im not sure of the credibility of the info, so how is it of any use to me? Is needed tutorial on how to take a business interview, run a large corporation or write a economics article i would be looking it up elsewhere, not watching your show.
We have 3 couples in focus. 3 girl-friends and 3 guy-friends. The friends give wrong advice, and misunderstandings keep getting prolonged. The 2nd lead couple has some commitment issues. The 3FL is a little naïve but has her heart in the right place. There are some other side couples too, and everyone is falling in love.

The FL doesnt really have a personality, she's just reacting to things happening in her life, and taking bad advice from her friends. Its almost as the makers made it such that the target audience may live vicariously through the FL (almost?).

The ML is a kind of secure man, who is very calculative and smart. Which makes the misunderstanding plot device more frustrating because the whole humour point is supposed to be "you thought he didnt know but he knew all along" type. He is a man of a few words, little snobbish. "Always watching you from behind", "got your back" kind of attitude towards the FL. And there is a lot of manhandling in the show. It is supposed to appear romantic.

I gave it a chance only because of Bai Lu and Dylan Wang.

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I'm So Disappointed

While I'm not familiar with the lead actress, I'm a big fan of Dylan. So, I was very confused at his stiff and dry acting in this drama. I kept hoping for something to get better but everything was frustrating me. The dialogue was just dragging so much and often times just didn't make sense in relation to what I was thinking was the plot. But then there's that -- I really didn't understand the plot.

The business part was absolutely nonsensical. It's obvious that not only were the actors very much not familar with the topics, but also whoever wrote the script. The acquisition vs investment bit was just comedy. That's not how any of this works. Same with the part about trying to get a talented highly sought-after person to work at a startup that's in dire needs of funds with a timid CEO-founder leading. They were just spouting off a bunch of vague jibber-jabber. Much like kids would do when playing pretend.

Once I realized I was paying more attention to my phone, as well as skipping past painful scenes of pointless staring and the FL talking out loud to herself, I decided to drop.

I could ignore the goofy business stuff if there at least was a cute romance dynamic happening, but even that was nonsensical. Just not a show for me. Out of all of Dylan's dramas I've watched, I've only not liked "Miss the Dragon". So this thesecond one to make the dislike list. I guess I really can't expect to like every show he does.

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