Only for Love

Misunderstanding, Misinformation, Misleading, Misinterpretation; Just an Overall Miss

Have never seen the leads before this so was interested to see how they did. All I can say is that I hope their past and future work has better scripts than this absolute mess of one. The novel readers made it sound great and interesting with a new concept but instead it was a misunderstanding, with misinformation, misleading, misinterpretation, basically an overall miss.

Pros: Literally the chemistry of the leads and second leads, working relationships. The business aspects of it as it showed how different firms worked. Some comedy. That was it! The actors did as well as they could with the shredded mess they were given. I under no circumstances fault them.

Cons: Who in the 21st century still writes FL's with zilch EQs? Nearly 30 episodes of 36 revolved around a misunderstanding so absurd I don't know how it was even pulled off. FL took some dumb chick's who broke up her already ridiculous relationship words as gospel instead of finding out the truth as she was supposed to be some brainiac reporter and with that proceeded to act cringey beyond belief trying to get close to ML a CEO at new but major company. The bestie with her dumb as bricks advice that made things worse when she couldn't make her own life work made you want to scream.

When the truth came out finally, the FL still didn't reveal it to ML even though both had genuinely fallen for each other. Their relationship was originally built on a lie and once exposed it naturally crumbled. The FL was a selfish, self-absorbed moron that I wouldn't have forgiven as easily as the ML did. This show could have been made just fine with 24 or 26 episodes. The dragging of the ridiculous lies and misinformation, was unnecessary.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely not. This is probably one of my shortest reviews but nothing after the leads got back together even redeemed it for me. I am watching BL in a costume drama right now where she's killing it and I hope to see Dylan in the future in a great written drama. Save yourselves the aggravation and just run.

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2015 female lead in a 2023 drama.

Why are we still writing unprofessional, inappropriate and cringy female leads? I understand if this is a youth drama but FL is in her 20s and a working professional.

The story is like any other tropey workplace drama with an evil coworker, long, endless boring work discussions, a serious CEO and a female lead that’s all over the place.

Perhaps it’s due to the age difference but the chemistry between the leads are of an older sis/younger brother. Even though she acts immature and he tries his hardest to act mature. No amount of filters can fix this.

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7 couples and phones, but still sweet

I came for Bai Lu, and despite the sometimes infuriating story with constant phone interruptions leading progression back to square one, and the plethora of couples to keep track of (almost like south American latin soap operas!) there were many nice moments, and a very sweet ending to this drama, especially for those who got to 36.5 to have the leads wedding ceremony and not only one of less colorful couples' one.

The story has no less than 7 couples :
1/ Shi Yan and Shuyi, of course (Wang Hedi and Bai Lu manage to make their contradictory characters keep interesting, even though detractors will have a ball that a successful capitalist is so little outspoken, and the successful reporter is so flirty, childish, and unable to escape the snares of her own deceptions. Before the satisfying owning up and getting to last episodes, with hearts, flowers, and everything romance audience wish for) ;
2/ Yu You and Qin Shiyue (Miles Wei Zheming and Shen Yu Jie, very young woman and an older university professor, reluctant to accept her forthright requests);
3/ Guan Ji and Bi Ruoshan (Liu Dongqin and Jiang Peiyao ; one of the "three musketeers" of the company, wealthy heir, but profligate, and seemingly butterflying best friend of Shuyi despite working in a different news agency) ;
4/ Yue Xingzhou and Qin Lezhi (from the start, they are despicable and represent the worst of yuppies who rely on schemes and corruption to hide their lack of trustworthiness, of filial attitude, and of work ethics.)
5/ Guan XiangCheng and Tang Yi (Nie Yuan and Zeng Li, the father of Guan Ji and the editor of the financial news company, who have a hidden affair) ;
6/ Chen Sheng and "Nan Nan" Kong Nan (Liu Ming Hao and Vian Wang; Shi Yi's assistant and Shuyi's tablemate in the office, who strike up a sweet acquaintance in the first half of the drama, but don't hog much time) ;
7/ Shi Wenguang and "Song Le Lan" (Kou Zhenhai and Zhou Xuan who has sung a couple of well-received songs in the past, but is not really that well known a pop singer, more known as actress in support roles ; they play Shi Yan's dad and his idol singer mother, who are so discreet that Shuyi does not get to,know their identity until last episodes.)
To these 7 couples, we might add the mother of Shuyi who wants her to get married asap, perhaps wanting more security for her daughter Shuyi, who also has a stepdad (played by Shi Yu) This couple is not much shown together.
Yu You's dad and mom are also not much shown.

Some third wheels, either over confident or straight antagonists are :
Xu Yuling (played by An YueXi) who is the jealous colleague of Shuyi ;
Fiona (played by Tu Zhiying) a young student returnee who thought her familiarity with Shi Yi would help her romantically and professionally, but had to realize it was her wish thinking ;
Yi Yang (played by Daniel Zhou) a "dark horse" indeed who set his aim too high and ended up, as expected, beaten into toeing the line set by Shi Yi in love and business;
and the relentless phones!

The story was adapted from Qiao Yao 's novel " Wrong Flirting ", supposedly rather true to original. Despite a good start (albeit rather expected story line there in those beginning episodes) it became rather chaotic, even frustrating at times. But it also had some beautiful, cute, exciting, or fun moments : the visit to the temple, the quote of a line of poetry (Du Fu's famous poem 客至 ké zhì, that is attached to the landmark Du Fu thatched cottage in Chengdu, Sichuan), the climbing tree and fairy coaxing, the standing together for inspection of factory; the comforting Shi Yi in his "darkest moment" when Yi Yang snatched the lead in the tech companies ; the last episodes of Shi Yi and Shuyi's relationship, the "Call Me Uncle" quip (that embodied the complicated Chinese family ties hidden in the drama)..... These ending episodes made up for some frustration that could have accumulated on the way. I even found myself going back re-watching some of the cute and sweet moments, looking at the Beijing cityscape of the high tech district, the pictures of the temple (perhaps Zhizhe temple in Jinhua, Zhejiang) and other cityscapes : "jiang Cheng" city could be in Zhejiang, there is a brief glimpse of the Zhejiang water city of Wuzhen, and perhaps another city. Filming took place in Zhejiang according to Baidu, between November 22, 2022, and March 20, 2023, so it was remarkable that it took so little time to air 2023-Nov-03 to 2023-Nov-22, with the 36 episodes scheduled + the 36.5 additional one that shows the wedding of the leads.

The 11 song OST with theme song Passer by (sung by Zhou Shen) and episodes' ending theme song Lemon Soda (cute song, sung by Lai Meiyun) was quite nice. Full OST can be listened to on YouTube, and translation MVs of Only for Love songs lyrics have been posted there by Peachey Blossom. But I am not sure what were the titles of the snippets of songs Dong Xuan sang nicely, when she acted the singer on stage, in episode 10.

In a year when three dramas featuring Bai Lu were aired (Till The End of The Moon earlier, and Story of Kunning Palace, almost simultaneously to Only For Love) this drama of course elicited heated comparisons and even some controversies. To my mind, it is not really fair to compare such very different dramas. In my personal scale of Bai Lu dramas, it may remain among the "lesser ones", because TTEOTM and One and Only, even Arsenal Military Academy and SOKP are going to rank first in costume categories (ancient or Republican era) and OFL will also rank behind Love is Sweet in the modern office drama category, where Luo Yunxi proved a more versatile actor than Dylan Wang Hedi in this one. Nevertheless, although I had a bias about his acting too much with same expressions as his former Daoming Si (MG) and Devil (LBFAD) characters, I still think Wang Hedi did honorably well as Shi Yi in this drama enough that this drama will not be dismissed in his growing filmography.

Do I recommend Only For Love ? Yes, this drama is, despite its quirks and flaws, quite watchable for those who have time, don't mind the quirks mentioned, like either or both leads, and don't go fast forwarding at each secondary couple or phone alarm. Perhaps it is not for everybody if the frustration level outweighs the rest. But it does not deserve the venom of a certain Youtuber lady (who never watches till end what she guns down, and is proud to spew what she read elsewhere after having "watched" trailers, or a couple episodes). Since I liked Only For Love nonetheless, I will not be stingy with rating, but it is my own rating for my own list. I totally understand others could disagree, or even rate it higher.

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Ridiculous with poor acting, terrible script, and just plain sexist

Y'all were watching the same drama as me right?

I feel like this drama took MISCOMMUNICATION TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL. I have seen toddlers non-verbally communicate better than these two leads, and frankly all the side characters. And to lie to my face and pretend that these characters are ADULTS, in a professional setting with awards and shit? Shut the fuck up. No seriously. Shut up.

And that one bish second female lead who literally was giving what she thinks was relationship advice, needs to work on holding down a relationship before she speaks. Sure, the female lead was still dumb as hell to begin with, but that bish was saying so many nonsensical things that I wanted to choke her.

The men were suppose to be somehow attractive but I was just confused by all of these idiots. What is so attractive about these type of men? They were awful.

The women felt like traitors to all women-kind acting the way the acted knowing damn well we did not need this shit. It is 2023, stop putting this shit out.

To top of this toxicity and dumb-assery, THERE WAS NO CHEMISTRY in this whole drama. For fuck sake's, AT LEAST have that.

Honestly, I should be blaming myself for watching this when I knew it was bad. I don't know why I did it but I'm only thankful that I at least skimmed through most of it. I don't know who could possible watch every second of this garbage and not skip.

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You will either love or hate this drama

As the title goes, you will either love or hate this drama. I guess the fact that I listed love before hate is a clue that I liked the drama. Admitedly it isn't the best drama but at the same time I don't consider it a bad one. For me this also isn't the best Bai Lu or Dylan Wang starrer, but one of the things I really liked about the drama is their very strong chemistry.

Bai Lu is Bai Lu what more can I say. She was perfectly cast to play Zheng Shuyi. Honestly I've never seen her look bad in any style of dress she wears in her dramas and she does look good in red and also black for that matter. I appreciate the way she can shift from being jolly one moment then sad the next. When she cries I feel sad too. Without being sexist IMHO Zheng Shuyi has the bigger share of the blame between the two. If I put it into numbers, I would say 55 vs 45. She was already told for the professor that the way she apologized to Shi Yan wasn't appropriate because she kept on using her work as the excuse instead of apologizing as proper boyfriend and girlfriend. She simply has too much pride that it is getting in the way of her love. The only thing that I didn't like about her character was she kept on accomodating the advances of the younger suitor. If she loves Shi Yan as she keeps on saying then simply tell the other guy sorry and be done with it.

Dylan's being cast as Shi Yan was also good because he looks the part of an aloof CEO. Between the two leads Dylan's character has less emotional range because he hasn't really let go of his emotions. Shuyi has cried a lot but Shi Yan tries to drown everything with alcohol. I said above that both are at fault for their break up, and the only reason why he had the smaller blame was due to the fact that Shuyi approached her with ulterior motive. But what he did after wasn't really good. He also has too much pride and regardless if Shuyi kept on mentioning the colloboration between their companies, instead of banging his phone on the table, he should have just kept his emotions in check. The straw that broke Shuyi's back was his double edged statement with the reporter's of talking things out instead of walking away. It was already too late when he tried to message Shuyi only to find out they are no longer friends in WeChat. Well he did do it first to Shuyi.

I guess the Chinese writers are taking notes from South Korean writers now. They are getting good in annoying the viewers by dragging out the suffering of the two lovebirds. I guess a polite way of saying this is too much filler episodes. Can't be helped though with a total of five pair of lovebirds in the story. Regarding the other lovebirds I prefer the niece and the professor over the reporter and the muscle car driving rich guy.

I know this is a happy ending because there is a wedding in the opening credits, so I will soldier on with the last 6 episodes. I just hope there is less scenes involving the annoying suitor and please please please don't reconcile on episode 36. Give the viewers a few episodes of happiness by reconciling in episode 34 or 35 at the latest. Depending on what happens in the last 6 episodes my rating of this drama will either go up or down.

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Needs some improvement

Drama about a boy who has fallen in love with a girl at first sight but he revealed this to her at the end.
Story started with the girl who worked in a news channel or newspaper office where she takes the interview of renowned personality and for this she awarded and at that time she came to know that his boyfriend was cheating her . She tried to overcome from this . Normally it takes I guess minimum fifteen days but in her case she had normal in one day and went to take an interview of renowned business who was the boy . But he didn't react to see her. As it become difficult to take his interview she started fluttering with him just after her broke up . Normally such behaviour would show that she is emotionless. And then she used him ,she made him fool to made him believe that she is pursuing him . He gave many chances to reveal the truth but she always did opposite to it. The day she decided to say him truth but everything was over between them . Now at this stage as viewer I would think she should not forgive. In such type of story normally such girl had shown a villain or a negative character. Here nothing had happened. He still loved her so indirectly again started giving her more chances to say him that she really love him and at this stage true love story started and for this I was waiting but it had only last three episodes.
I liked other two couples also.

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Only when You have Time

This series was packed with a wonderful cast, good locations and decent storyline. However, when our overly educated leads lack decent critical thinking skills personally, it makes the flow of the series lack-luster. This drama was a slow burn romance with swoon-worthy moments near the end. The ML and FL had good chemistry yet on and off relatable communication which led to filler episodes that could have been left on the cutting room floor. The support cast was great with their give and take of trial tribulation, minor distractions and sub-plot romance developments. The business aspect was intriguing and not overbearing. The OST was just right for the 'feel' and 'tension' of the intent of the drama. The series overall is good with parts that drag and an opened-end finish. Nevertheless, due to cast and production, it is a solid watch.

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Typical Workplace Drama

I am fond of modern Chinese dramas and I felt this is actually good to some extent.

Dylan Wang as Shi Yan gave major CEO/ Boss vibes. He actually managed to look like an investor. His expressions added the cherry to the cake. His aloofness and cute jealous moments made me laugh hard. However, certain aspects of his character don't seem to gel well with the plot. His sense of aesthetics really amazed me. I am happy with the makers for not turning Shi Yan into a rude, toxic hero but rather a cute, responsible hero.

Bai Lu as Zheng Shuyi felt the same as Jiang Jun from Love Is Sweet. But the only modification here is, that her initiatives felt cringe. I understand that Shi Yan is the youngest top CEO, but she is also a journalist for Finance Magazine. Her work revolves around Finance and Entrepreneur Leaders, yet she was fangirling him like some school girl which truly felt weird considering the fact that she is a professional. It felt like the script was forcing the scenes of Financial Introduce and emphasizing repeatedly that she is a pro financial journalist, we were considering her to be a stalker fangirl!!

Miles Wei and Shen Yu Jie really surprised me with their chemistry. I am glad to finally see Miles Wei having a very satisfying chemistry with a female costar after so long. Shen Yu Jie had her cute moments and in one line, SHE NAILED IT!!!! Her character transformation was undoubtedly one of the most satisfying parts of the show. They deserve their own drama as a lead couple.

Liu Dong Qin and Jiang Pei Yao's Guan Ji and Bi Ruo Shan started as mature characters, but their perspectives on each other and relationships in general really made me concerned. It felt like their characters were kinda forced to be together by scriptwriters not because they were in love, but rather because they were best friends of the main couple. So the only thing they could do to the storyline was to drink with the main couple when they were upset and be together. That's it!

As far as chemistry is concerned, this drama is 95% extra content and only 5% chemistry which to be honest feels like those old Chinese dramas. No strings and emotions whatsoever attached. By chemistry, I don't only mean the couples but also the characters sharing relationships with each other. The story starts after Episode 31. So in my humble opinion, start straight from Episode 31, but then again not practical.

PROS
# The settings and set of the drama. The visuals were captivating.
# Side characters had their significant scenes where they just nailed it.
# Yu Yao and Qin Shi Yue's story
# Mutual Understanding between Shi Yan and Zheng Shu Yi.

CONS
# The storyline's pace was absolutely not justified at all. Better start from Episode 31.
# Lack of chemistry between all characters. Never felt like these characters knew each other from the beginning.
# Not the kinda modern drama you expect with veterans like Wang Hedi, Bai Lu and Miles Wei. Only the characters look good.
# Could have made Bai Lu look more professional. She looked like she could toss her career out for Shi Yan, if not for her repeated statement, "Career is career, Life is life."

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The most important thing I has know about is love is very important.

When is coming to give a Review about this movie is amazing. Besides Watching this movie has shown me that love is very important. And if coming to love is not a joke because love inspires everyone who believes in it, That is why they decided to have this movie to let everyone understand and be inspired by love and happiness. Between That, I'm very grateful that this movie had taught us to understand love. Last least Thank you to the cast and crew who did a great job to let this movie come to life and to everyone to be inspired in love.
Thank you, for reading this I hope the cast and crew might see this and decide to have season 2 in the future. I 10/10 for this awesome movie.

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OVERRATED - TIRESOME - MAIN LEADS HAS REALLY LOW SIGNFICANCE ON HOW THINGS ARE GOING

Emotional rollercoaster is okay but when this is driven by a third person it becomes annoying. Why I say that will be revealed in a moment. Continue reading if you want...

I will start with the good things.
Acting & Cast: I rated it 7. Though it deserves more. They are good. But I think I am a bit disappointed that's why I rated 7. They are really good actors. Casting was also good.
Music. Quite good. But it didn't really hooked me into them for long.

Now then.....
Story: Typical rich kid CEO & a random girl but really famous being pursued by almost everyone in this universe. Just because of how this develops forward i rated it 3.5 or else maybe it would get 4.5-5.

What I hate most about this Drama:
I absolutely hated Bi Ruo Shan aka Shan Shan. The support role is in the driving seat how the relationship develops between the ML's. She is absolutely a B*tCh. At first she gives the FL idea on how to pursue Shi Yan in a negative way. Well there is nothing wrong about. Almost all the typical dramas have same story. But when our female lead is feeling sorry for her action, shan shan the B*tch is trying to stop her. Why? because it will ruin the scholarship. Well, girl you gave her Idea. WTF. This happens countless times. Now after the ML Shi Yan gets to know why the FL Shu Yi pursues her, he becomes upset. Well, obviously anyone will be, right? Weather it's male or female. If anyone bonds up with someone with some intention not because of own gain anyone will be upset & depressed. Now when the ML leaves the FL, she decides not to explain . Well it's too late but at least try. What is wrong with you? FL decides to write an email. AN EMAIL, guys!! Seriously. Okay let's say Email is okay but she writes an email regarding work not about clearing things between them. On the top of that she allows the other side characters like Yi Yang gets close to her acting like she doesn't know what goes through the male lead is going through. Well, let's say she is an absolute immature character & doesn't know about these things. Let's forgive her. Now, Shan Shan again becomes a bi*ch & ask the female lead to be involved with Yi Yang this time. Again controlling the leads love life,. Our female lead still didn't apologize & explain things to the male lead. The male lead is not also taking any action. But according the situation, in my opinion the male lead owes her nothing. He loved her from start to finish. Some might disagree but It's just my opinion. Then the b*tch shan shan hears about Shi Yan from the female lead that he is not doing anything, she becomes upset with Shi Yan for this. The b*tch things Shi Yan is the problem. WTF. Girl, you were doing everything from the beginning. Putting ideas on female leads mind, doesn't let her clear things before disaster came, then asks the female lead to hook up with others, becoming angry at Shi Yan for nothing. Everything is about you. What funny is she couldn't even handle her own love life at the beginning while she was sharing tips about love with FL. That makes me more furious.

I don't know how this drama rates 8. It has absolute downfall. You can disagree but I don't care. I watch drama to relieve myself from stress not to gain more.

And never have friends like shan shan. They ruin love life. Talking from personal experience.

---
Edit: (After watching the remaining eps)
Still shi*t. childish ending.

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PERFECT EXAMPLE OF ''A BOOK SHOULDNT BE JUDGED BY ITS COVER''

WHAT DID I JUST WATCH!?!?!?
The drama should be renamed to ''Only for shit'' cuz self explanatory; this drama is only for shit. at this rate.I have got to ep 36 bareeely and completed bearing all this shit just for the sake of COMPLETING it cuz i had already come as far as to ep 29 expecting it will get BETTER... & now i am here to vent my frustrations. The mffing phone is one of the main problems of this drama. Might as well keep it as a main lead cast. The disturbance is acceptable for one or two times,.. but when the phone KEEPS ON disturbing when the ml fl are having there ''moment'' It gets ffing annoying. It was annoying to the point i felt like throwing away my own phone down the road. The disturbance from third party was VERY frustrating.

like WHAT.THE.HELL.IS.GOING.ON!?!?! I kept watching and continuing hoping it would get better but it KEEEPS going downhill MORE & More & MoOoOre. I cant even defend for Bai Lu or Dylan here. The script was shit and thats a fact. All the people defending this drama, must stop. This drama doesn't deserve the defence at all. I understand if you admit you are biased but else, like NAH, you are OBVIOUSLY lying if you rate this anything above 7.0. (even that is high for this shit T-T)

about the acting, there was a lot of potential but with characters like ZSH and SY. Its always been like this in these CEO themed dramas. The cast is no doubt lit but the script makes everything else look shit & im not even kidding. This drama is a definition of ''worst scriptwriting''.

Plus the fact that this drama being almost 40 eps is like wtf to me!?!?! for what reason is this drama THAAT long??? for showing the most unnecessary sUspEnCe reveal?? for showing the most dragged out misunderstandings?? for showing the most abnormal side couples ever in a ffing drama? for showing the most uninteresting bussiness talks of all time which don't even connect to the story & have no connection to the development of plot??? what plot bro?? this drama seemed as if it was made by a psychotic person. The scriptwriter should be honored with the ''worst script writer of the year'' award for sure.

The side couples are so ffing messed up like dont even get me started on that. The ''player'' couple - Mr Guan Ji & Miss Bi Ruo Shan started off interesting but then their unstarted-relationship got dragged and dragged and dragged like the Shi Yan and Shu Yi's misunderstanding.

Also, Why did they make the ''uncle neice'' reveal such a BIG SuSpEnCe in this drama??Why? That was totally unnecessary imo. What was BRS's intention being so hot & cold with GJ when she ffing loved him. just WHY!?!WHATS YALLS PROBLEM!!! I felt on one go that they had SIZZLING chemistry but why did the scriptwriter did them so bad???

like AHhhhhh T-T I often felt like slapping BRS . like gworl??? focus on YOUR relationship and not your friends when you cant even put together with your own shit. You don't deserve to advise her. & also how dumb of our FL to ask HER for advises. She should have been the last person you should have asked for a relationship advice sis. Theres not even one normal couple here. I only found Guan Xiang & Tang Yi decent. For others, one word- shit.

The rating the drama currently is on i.e 7.8/10 is also high for this imo. People yall are way to generous. & Its prolly cuz of the cast, i understand but.. if you look at the big picture, this drama should be lower than that. Like what did i even sign up for & what did i get?? a full on piece of shit. The wait was for naught. Only thing that managed to kinda save it is the cast. If not for them, who would have bothered to watch this garbage??? 100% not recommended. If you rllyyyy wanna watch, then just watch the fmv guys...pls dont bother and get invested as it will only result to overwhelming frustrations. The only lil bit of satisfaction i got was from the pathetic romance from the latter part of the drama..from ep 30 onwards. Otherwise, The whole thing.. I wished i never watched this in the first place. Dont judge this drama by its looks, ladies and gents, for you will only end up with disappointment & more disappointment.

End of ranting
Signing off
Yours, Angel

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