Only for Love

A Must watch series for Dylan Wang & Bai Lu fans

Romantic series with Dylan Wang (very cold, rational, young investor CEO) & Bai Lu (economics journalist). These 2 attract each other, turn around and play cat and mouse until episode 20.
2 other 2dary couples: CL2 = CEO investor / video journalist (both players who do not want to give up their style life) & CL3 = college teacher/trainee.

PROS:
+ Bai Lu and Dylan Wang are a great CL, with intense interactions and chemistry. They carry the whole series on their shoulders.
+ All the cast did a good job, with complex characters, who are well developed.
+ Excellent OSTs (even Irish music :)
+ The pace is fast, dynamic, without length.
+ The framing, settings, costumes,... are well suited to the story.

CONS:
I'm not convinced by some characters:
- FL2 is totally stupid on an emotional level. She thinks she's a love expert, because she dates around, but she thinks like an imbecile. A lot of CL's problems stem from her disastrous advice... The kind of friend to avoid like the plague! In each situation, she guides the FL towards the worst possible path. Is this the deliberate will of the screenwriter/director???
- the very very immature FL3.
- the character of Cheng Kang is not even credible: he is indecisive, hesitant, without self-confidence. How could such a character create his own business?

=> A lovely romantic series with a CL that I would like to see again together on screen soon.
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Série romantique avec Dylan Wang (jeune CEO investisseur très froid) & Bai Lu (journaliste économique). Ces 2 s'attirent, se tournent autour et jouent au chat et à la souris jusqu'à l'épisode 20. 2 autres couples 2aires : CL2 = CEO investisseur / journaliste vidéo (tous les 2 players qi ne veulent pas renoncer à leur style de vie) & CL3 = prof de fac/stagiaire.
PROS:
+ Bai Lu and Dylan Wang are a great CL, with intense interactions and chemistry. They carry the whole series on their shoulders.
+ All the cast did a good job, with complex characters, well developped.
+ Excellent OSTs (even Irish music :)
+ The pace is fast, dynamic, without lenght.
+ The framed, settings, costumes,... are well suited to the story.

CONS:
Je ne suis pas convaincue par certains personnages :
- La FL2 est totalement idiote au niveau émotionnel. Elle se croit une experte en amour, parce qu'elle papillonne, mais elle raisonne comme une imbécile. Une bonne partie des problèmes du CL découle de ses conseils désastreux... Le genre d'amie à fuir comme la peste ! A chaque situation, elle guide vers la pire voie possible. Est-ce la volonté délibérée du screenwriter/réalisateur ???
- la FL3 très très immature.
- le personnage de Cheng Kang n'est pas crédible : il est indécis, hésitant, sans confiance en lui. Comment un tel personnage a-t-il pu créer son entreprise ?

=> Une jolie série romantique avec un CL que j'aimerai revoir together on screen soon.

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If Only I Could Feel the Love

This show started nicely with the FL pursuing the ML in an effort to satisfy her work ambitions. When quickly that pursuit turned into something more. There were some hilarious moments in this, especially between the leads - Dylan Wang (ML) and Bai Lu. (FL). They did great job at playing up those moments and making them funny.

However, despite the show having some good humor surrounding the romance between the leads, the romance itself lacked spark. Shu Yi (FL) kept saying how she was falling for Shi Yan (ML), how she couldn't resist him and wanted him, but her emotions did not not embody the words she was expressing. This could be in part due to Bai Lu as I've seen her in other romance dramas where like here the romance had some wonderfully written words and moments. However, Bai Lu failed to convey the passion of those words in her line delivery and her acting. Perhaps it's a lack of restraint, but passion with nuance. But I digress. The bottom line is she and Dylan Wang didn't have the charm between them that was needed to make this love story glow. Thus it fell flat.

The other romances on the show were there to serve their purpose of characters who support the leads, but who can't just be alone. Lol. These couples were alright. That said, I did enjoy Ru Shan and Guan Ji more than the rest. Though they weren't smoldering either, I did find their romance the most interesting out of all the ones showcased on the show. The business /career storylines were passable, but not overly interesting. The acting was solid. I can't say I don't love seeing Dylan Wang in the historical/fantasy dramas, but it was nice to see him take a break from those type of dramas to do a modern series. Is this rewatchable? Not really. Overall, this was just okay.

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Red Flag

Reposting because my review got deleted to manipulate the score

I watched Dylan Wang's and Bai Lu's previous work and I love them however this show didn't sit with me at all:

First few episodes were amazing. Shu Yi, a beautiful woman aware of her charms, good at her job,
bold and confident, she was a perfect female lead in a pile of female leads where a woman is represented as an insecure average woman, unaware of her good looks and why men like her. Loved her being straightforward and flirty putting the cold male character in a position of being adorably flustered by her charms.

Shi Yan, a beautiful and cold man whose charms come from his love towards his work. He is determined, ambitious and charming. Despite being distant and nonchalant with most things, he makes sure that around the woman he likes, he is ready to be the one to take the first step without shame. Especially if he is jealous.

However, after the 10th episode the story starts going south in many different ways. It is unclear whether Shu Yi immediately falls for Shi Yan's charms or if she is only doing that to assure her interview with him which doesn't fit her character. She is someone who's familiar to everyone she writes about. We are constantly told how amazing she s at her job which doesn't explain us why she has to seduce him in order to do her job properly since that did not help with anything.

She continues to send him flirty texts but the moment he takes the matters in his own hands, she pulls back despite her being the one to initiate it. The amount of times the character avoids and rejects the male lead's advances and kisses starts becoming annoying where the excitement before every kiss is followed by disappointment where it doesn't create the effect of suspense anymore.

Only in ep 20 do we find out her feelings about him which is extremely late. The story makes us think that Shi Yan's cold attitude was an issue but instead, it was always the female lead's insecurity of her feelings that was the issue. The fl is also put in a situation where she goes out on blind dates with another man due to her mother's nagging ignoring the fact that she already has someone she can introduce?

The show keeps repeating the same scenes. We see more finance related things and their work instead of romance. Numerous conferences which keep repeating whenever there's nothing else in the show.

The characters don't have a proper bonding time and everything they learn about each other is through a conversation of other people and eavesdropping. Most of the conversations happen over the phone not allowing them to have a single honest moment with each other to learn about each other which makes the relationship hard to believe in.

The couple keeps going back and forth until a certain amount episodes where the scriptwriter decides to suddenly throw all deep kisses at once which should've happened gradually in much earlier episodes.

Shi Yan's character is not supported by anything other than his looks and little lore we get from him acquaintances making us yearn to see more of him.

However, the actors did a good job at acting but the execution of the story was extremely poorly done for my taste. It is probably the fault of scriptwriter and not the actors themselves.

Lastly that the only well done execution of the character was Shi Yue, who, from a spoiled rich girl learns her obligations towards her work, her boss and also towards the one she likes.

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Typical romcom Chinese drama and could have been shorter

In general I like it, there are things I liked and things that I didn’t. It made me smile and laugh, but also annoyed me at time. I also like a drama with multiple couples. I think it’s more interesting then a drama concentrating more on a love triangle, with like the 2 leads and a side or 2 SL with unrequited love. That was here a bit, but not for the entire drama.

I didn’t want to start at first because I wasn’t feeling this pairing for the leads. But it wasn’t that bad, they were kinda cute together. The kissing scenes were good, much better outside the drama though. Annoying censorship, they were shorter with not good angles for a lot of them in the drama. But still great skinship and moments

I was annoyed at both of them after her secret was out (how she was using him at first) :
- she was making no efforts and only thinking about work. She lied for so long, she deserved the silence treatment in the beginning. Also, her spending time with Yi Yang was so much annoying, like girl should have told him from the beginning that she’s not interested in him and she should have told him no to hang out (she told him later, but should have done it in the beginning). That guy was so annoying and weird. Bro literally showed up at her parents place and try to get with her went she was already and a relationship, in love with someone else.
- I agree that he had the right to be mad and ignore her, but he still could have let her try to explain too after a while. The breakup was too damn long, both of them incapable of talking was annoying.

The plot was a bit draggy, too many episodes, but still enjoyable. It’s a romcom, you can’t expect much more than that for a plot.

The third couple could have had a better and more interesting story. Their chemistry was amazing, but the misunderstanding and their story kept going in circles before they got together. Since they were already in love at the very beginning of the drama, they should have made them get together sooner, since also all the couples got officially together quite late.

I loved the second couple, I think they were cute. I was looking forward to their scenes, I was patiently waiting for YY to realize is feeling and get jealous.

Anyway too many ongoing dramas, time to pass to another one😂 but I think I would recommend this drama, not everyone would like it. It can be cliche, cringe and dragging misunderstanding for like all the main couples, but it’s an okay romcom

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Pretty to Look At, Hard to Feel ??

After having this drama on my watchlist for years, I was genuinely excited to finally start Only for Love. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of those dramas that I finished more out of commitment than excitement.

🐌 A Drama That Takes Forever to Get Going

My biggest issue with this drama is its pacing.

It takes an incredibly long time to find its footing, and even when things finally start moving, the progress feels minimal. The rhythm improves slightly during the last 4–5 episodes, but by then, there are only a handful of episodes left.

This was one of the rare dramas where I gradually increased the playback speed:

➡️ Normal speed
➡️ 1.25x
➡️ 1.5x
➡️ The last ten episodes at 2x speed

And honestly? I never felt like I was missing much.

💔 A Romance That Never Fully Convinced Me

The biggest disappointment was the main romance.

The leads are attractive, the production is polished, and yet I never truly bought into their relationship. Even after 36 episodes, I’m not entirely sure why these two fell so deeply in love with each other.

The chemistry isn’t bad, but compared to many other romance dramas, it feels surprisingly weak. There are cute moments, kisses, and relationship milestones, but the emotional connection never felt as strong as the script wanted me to believe.

At one point, the couple even spends several episodes apart after the male lead discovers the heroine’s original motives for approaching him. Instead of adding emotional depth, it mostly felt like another delay in a story that was already moving too slowly.

📱 Please Stop Answering Every Phone Call

One thing that became increasingly frustrating was the number of interruptions.

Every important conversation seems destined to be interrupted by a phone call, a message, or an urgent work matter. It happens so often that it becomes predictable.

Even in real life, people don’t get interrupted this much… and more importantly, they don’t answer every single call immediately. 😅

After a while, it felt less like natural storytelling and more like a convenient way to postpone character development.

🎬 When the Reels Are Better Than the Drama

I usually don’t mind being spoiled by reels—in fact, it often motivates me to keep watching. But in this case, it felt like I had already experienced most of the emotional highlights, which made the rest of the drama feel like filler rather than build-up.

The viral clips promised a passionate and memorable romance.

The full drama rarely delivered on that promise.

💼 The Heroine Deserves Praise

One of the strongest aspects of the drama is definitely the female lead.

She’s a capable journalist, ambitious, intelligent, and genuinely good at her job. I appreciated that she had her own goals and career progression outside of the romance.

I also liked the time skips near the end ⏳. We get to see her professional growth over several months and then over a year, which helps make the story feel more complete.

🥰 Side Couples

The secondary couple never really worked for me. Their constant “we don’t want commitment but we’re jealous anyway” dynamic quickly became repetitive, and I found myself skipping some of their scenes.

Meanwhile, the tertiary couple was absolutely adorable and often more enjoyable to watch than the main romance. 💕

🎭 Dylan Wang After Love Between Fairy and Devil

I can’t help comparing this role to Dylan Wang’s performance in Love Between Fairy and Devil.

After such a memorable performance there, this character felt far less interesting. Part of that is probably the writing, but I never felt the same emotional intensity or charisma here.

🎯 Final Thoughts

The ending is happy 😊

The couples are together, there are hints of future marriages, and everyone seems to be moving forward in life. There’s nothing wrong with the conclusion itself.

The problem is that the journey to get there simply wasn’t engaging enough.

By the end, I wasn’t watching because I was desperate to know what happened next. I was watching because I had already invested enough time that stopping felt pointless.

⭐ Verdict: I think there are far better dramas competing for your time.

Would I recommend it? ❌ No.

Did I regret finishing it? 🤷‍♀️ Not really.

Would I watch it again? 🚫 Absolutely not.

🏷️ Tags: #SlowBurnWithoutTheBurn #CEOromance #CareerWoman #WeakChemistry #TooManyPhoneCall

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First contemporary CDrama, really enjoyed it

==Breakdown==
Background plot - 40%
Romance - 40%
Misc comedy - 20%

Background plot - Fine
Romantic chemistry - Excellent
Misc comedy - Good
Production value - Good

Was the story perfect or grounded in reality? No. No, it was not. Not at all. Maybe not even a little.
Were some the situations and dialogue cringe? Yes. Certainly.
Was it also a lot of fun to watch? Yes. Yes, it absolutely was.

Listen, this was unserious fun. I watched it for Dylan Wang who seems to have chemistry with walls, cars, all humans, and oftentimes plastic bags. He's amazing. I haven't seen Meteor Garden yet, but it's up next and I'm excited. I hope it's more unserious fun where Dylan Wang demonstrates how to have fantastic chemistry with inanimate and animate objects. I hope he never stops making shows.

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Love the actors, but…ugh

Others have covered this so I’ll just add: I adore both actors. Who in the world would waste the chemistry, charm and comedic chops these two have with such a poorly done drama. I love a stupid romance - I can’t tell you how many are in my favorites list. I don’t hate the cold CEO stereotype. I love the “girl reporter” characters in ridiculous old American movies. With those elements and these two actors, this could have been a really fun watch. For me, it was not. So watch if you love one or both actors, ignore the story and just zoom about staring at their gorgeousness!

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Ugh! The story did not make sense

I did not hate this show. I tuned in because I enjoy the actors. But the script just made no sense. The constant misunderstandings and misinterpretations were never spoken about. And just led to more misunderstandings and misjudgments. It made no sense to me that the female lead with such an accomplished journalist yet had no Will of her own when it came to relationships. I didn’t hate the show, but it’s definitely not one that I would rewatch. this could’ve been so much better, especially if the misunderstandings have been cleared up earlier in the show. If we could’ve seen them work out their differences and be successful.

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Typical CEO story, Nothing special

Pros: leads are really proactive in flirting, quick in seeing their interest for each other, not shy and embarrassed abt their romance as in they're not really hiding it, proudly shows the other, good side couples who were actually interesting, cutesy scenes were better than their intimate ones, i wanted the second male lead so bad, there were other women but he did not give the time of day at all and it was a really small part of the story,
Cons: their little breakup was really silly and not needed, I didn't really understand the reason and why they couldn't just talk to each other???, the progress of them getting back together was also weird, all their kissing scenes were kind of awkward (had her eyes open like a lot), for me personally it was not the greatest chemistry but so many loved it so might just be me,
a lot of business stuff which wasn't too bad but bored me near the middle-end,

I love the journalist as a female lead plot and I was going in expecting a lot as it was really popular. Their chemistry was nothing special to me, especially during the kiss scenes. The thing that disappointed me the most was their breakup. Their communication was so well leading up to that and the breakup was played out for an awkwardly boring long time. I liked the side couples a lot, their scenes were cute. My favorite was her coworker and his assistant, I wish they had more screen time. All the characters even the "bad ones" like her ex and his girlfriend were pretty interesting too. I wish they played more into when they all found out the girlfriend was lying. Watching that scene was lowkey pretty awkward to me, I wish there was like a better revenge. Even though I loved the second male lead, I thought his involvement in the story was also out of nowhere and felt off the rest of the show. When he first showed up, I expected him to be a small side part but he ended appearing up so much (not complaining). Overall, I genuinely was interested and enjoyed it throughout. I think it's just a classic cold CEO story. I rated it 8/10 right after I finished but writing the review 2 days later, I forgot a lot about the story already and would give it a solid 7.5.

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