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It could've been better
I enjoyed this drama, but I did have many problems with it. The first 15 episodes are dedicated to their childhood/high school life. I enjoy high school dramas, although they've been getting repetitive for me. I think some of the messages about family were heartfelt and important. For example, when the FL was struggling to understand the toxic relationship between the ML and his mother. Yeyun's situation with her father and the sentimental words of the FL's mom helped her understand. Both of these set her up to not get swayed by the ML's mom's insolence. It's a common occurrence in dramas for ML or FL to be insecure and back off simply because of a malicious authority figure. Besides this, in those same 15 episodes, I enjoyed the FL's mindset, the way she carried herself, and her ability to stand on business (for lack of better words).My problem comes in the second half of the show. The ML proceeds to ghost his friends again and does it to the FL in the worst way possible. The FL moves on to college and cannot get over him or even leave him alone. She searches for him, finds him, and is soon pushed away by him AGAIN. Throughout this, she persists. I applaud her for seeing his actions past face value and recognizing his trauma that fuels his behavior, but she should have let him go. He was willing to hurt her, leave her in the dark, all for the excuse that he thinks he's not enough. He could have been enough. He finally got his freedom from his mother and chose to be what she thought he would be without her path. I am not ignoring the hard times that he fell on with his cousin, never. Shit happens, but he became what he said he wouldn't without math. Then he proceeded to go back to what he hated and prove to his mother that he did need it. I'm saying all of this to show that his character didn't have much growth for me. He was self-deprecating, ran away from his problems, and still, when they finally got into a relationship, he had no confidence. When she said she was finally going to leave him, she should have done it.
On the topic of flat characters, the FL. I don't think she's actually a flat character. I, in fact, enjoyed her character in the beginning, but I was the usual trope where they make the FL seem like she has nothing going for her at all. She was bad at studying, didn't know what she wanted for the future, and was overall made to seem less than the ML. I HATE that trope, but at least she didn't lack in EQ.
My last, perhaps controversial words will be: The FL should have ended up with Yu Qiao, even though Que Yeyun liked him.
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aoao oooa ao ouu
TLDR; as someone who's watched enough coming-of-age stories, I know that even w/ the first few eps, it's def skewed towards a certain direction. I would not recommend watching for the main romances--side ones are better imo--but what I like most are the messages from the parents, which def hit harder as an adult. There's also quite a lot of character development (albeit probably not fully realistic). Acting is natural. Music was alright. I do love the costuming, esp fl's outfits (which I would unironically wear if they existed). Ending was okay--had some parts I liked, others not so much. Would not rewatch bc of that teensy little plot drag that ruined my rating of this show.Story: I do appreciate that it starts off w/ the childhood story instead of inserting it into the narrative just to check off a thing. It shows that they were planning that part from the start as an important plot point. I do appreciate the friend group dynamic.. Story is pretty predictable for the romance genre. Honestly, it could've been a better story if they did a switcheroo bc fun fact: puppy love exists and grade-school romances don't always work out. It could've been a better story if she knew how to move on from her first love and find her better self, but here we are. ep 15 ruined the story for me, and it rlly makes it hard for me to pity the ml, and ep 20 actually made me angry lool. Fl literally cannot move on from her first love/the past and needs to learn to grow up to realize that ppl move on. She's so clingy to ml after the climax like why. Even ml told her that everyone grows up. Her best friends moved on persuing their love interests, while she's over here stuck in the past bc ml said one thing and will follow him unconditionally. Also we never fully tie up the second leads' story. Ml isn't any better than fl. Has he ever heard of communication?? ig it's a result of his parents, but even among friends he never says anything even if it's life-changing..atp you're being hella selfish, and you're always changing the topic even when they ask directly. After ep 20 I started mentally spacing out. Now you might be wondering why I watched til the end. bc I hate myself and maybe the ending will redeem everything somehow, which it kinda did?
Acting/Cast: ml looks like 30 trying to play a high schooler lool. Anyways, acting is pretty natural, ml loves to cry, kid actors are surprisingly good.
Music: There's one particular song that's grating on the ears bc of that one part (see title of the review). Other than that, the rest aren't terrible.
Rewatch value: absolutely not. It is shorter than a lot of cdramas but not worth it if I have to endure ep 15+ lol.
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This review may contain spoilers
All very much following the usual trope which made this show unbearably boring.
Oh, how I tried ...This is a typical romance drama. Starts off with a group of young friends then for some reason, lose contact but eventually find each other again.
The connection didn't work for me. They were too young; they did not build the friendship enough to result in feelings that deep, I could not feel the emotion. The FL just came across as obsessive, stalker type.
The child actors are very good, and they all have great friend chemistry, but I think the flashbacks were a little too much.
It was boring. Perhaps a bit of comedy would have helped, but there was nothing funny about this show.
The parent being ridiculously overbearing was unrealistic. To threaten families ... so her child can have better grades, really needs to think up better story lines. This forced angst gets tiring. But maybe it is a cultural thing, and it is a little hard for me to understand.
The reverse roles were different; I guess, but still the chemistry fell flat.
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came for the romance, but stayed for the friendship
This drama had made me cry nonstop. I was already crying by the 2nd episode until it ended. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.I would admit, the love story part of this series isn’t strong. There wasn’t a strong memory or experience for the female lead to suffer all that for the male lead. But what made it so beautiful isn’t the romance. It’s the friendship.
The friendship the female lead had with her childhood friends. Their loyalty and love to her. It was proof that what they have surpasses any kind of romantic love. It was a kind of soul bond that was so beautiful I can’t help but wish everyone experience that kind of friendship.
Trust me, the series is toxic- with male leads parents and the teachers more focused on math trophies and recognition than a childs welfare. It was toxic in a way that the male lead is so prone to ghosting and to just being so bad at communication that the female lead suffered 90% of the time. It was also so bad that the male lead got away with everything because the female lead was so in love with him. I actually am angered by the fact that she had to do everything for them to workout.
The truly saving grace of this show was the friendship.
I can proudly say, I came for the romance, but stayed for the friendship.
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I tried but just could not
So it started good...had potential, poor intelligent boy with a chirpy happy go lucky go girl. Seemed like a safe enough story, but then it went all down.I really tried to overlook the almost stalker tendency of the FL who went so crazy for a boy she met one summer at the age of 4-5! That's kinda creepy...but i was still willing to give this a shot.
The story just is not as engaging, you feel pity, anger, frustration...all for the wrong reasons.
I dropped this drama, just could not make myself even fast forward watch this.
Maybe this story is for some people for me it did not work.
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No one of you realised the dept of srory
people see this drama as a children's drama and possibly in family relationships. And this is a serious psychological drama.THis is drama about psycho girl, psycho since being a kid, its not love its psychopathic obbsesion,
And about boy, Jiang Qiao Xi, who has weakened self esteem and self confidence, due to controling mother!
unfortunately the relationship between Jiang Qiao Xi and his parents is not shown enough, just as it is not shown how he came to fail from the best mathematician to a construction worker. How did it happen that he doesn't go abroad to university and even doesn't study.
What was going on inside his head and his thoughts were not shown in the drama, the flow of his thoughts, but the drama was filmed from the position of Cheri, she is practically the main character and what happens to her and what she sees is shown.
what I see is that it is first of all unhealthy and sick for a nine-year-old girl to have obsessive thoughts and to write every day in her diary about a boy she likes, it already indicates the psychopathic qualities of a girl.
a girl must not be obsessed with a boy and flirt non-stop about him and write non-stop about him.
and then when she grew up for high school the first stalking started when she went to his high school to stalk him where from the first day she stalked him he had to hide from her.
in the drama, they define it as some kind of fear that his mother imposed on him and his mother forbade him to hang out with Cheri and that group, but basically his mother was right.
This cherry girl had no normal friendly intentions towards him but was psychopathically obsessed with him and had a crush on him which is totally sick for a nine year old girl and his mother saw it.
ever since that cherry girl comes to high school to haunt Jiang Qiao Xi, she has totally messed him up just like his mother said and since then his downfall begins.
he had those three childhood friends who were with him at school and he didn't hang out with them, and now all of a sudden, how did cheri appear, now he wants to hang out with his childhood friends and that's only because she started chasing him.
Jiang Qiao Xi, was emotionally destroyed partly by his mother but it would not destroy him to the extent that he became a construction worker.
and so emotionally destabilized and lacking in self-confidence he was easy prey for a psychopath like Cherry.
his mother didn't just instill confidence in him, she commanded him what to do and that's why he didn't know what he wanted in life and that's why he fell under the influence of the psychopath Cheri who wanted him only for herself.
only his mother bothered that girl so that she could take total control over him.
so when Jiang Qiao Xi dropped out of the math olympiad then cherry pretended to let him make up his own mind because she hoped he would stay with her in that high school. and as long as she hoped that he would make the decision to stay with her, she was happy and said that she shouldn't listen to her mother, but that he should decide for himself!
after she came to haunt him at school another big sign of psychopathy she showed in the classroom when her friend told her that Jiang Qiao Xi, decided to go study abroad!
Then she showed that she doesn't care at all what Jiang Qiao Xi wants because he decided to go abroad to study and as soon as the bell rang she left the classroom she didn't want him to wait for them to go to dinner together but ran away!angry!
it's pure emotional blackmail and psychopathy!
Oh, you want to go and use your talent abroad AND leave me!
then he caught up and they went to the restaurant together, but she again became a psychopath and ran away from the restaurant so that he had to run after her!
he saw that he was going to hurt her a lot because she was going to study abroad and that's when his psychological breakdown started just because of that obsessive narcissistic bi.tch
then, in order not to hurt her, he asked her to go with him!
he was so afraid of her!
and then started postponing going abroad to study!
and in that period, in order to influence him emotionally so that he decides to stay in that village with her, she took him to the village where they grew up so that he would remember the events with her when he was eight or nine years old, so that he would remember that and it would be difficult for him to leave her
his mother already had a ruined relationship with his father precisely because of him Did he give up on that Olympiad for mathematicians!
he was good at math and if cheri hadn't appeared he would have dealt with it!
he would use his talent!
you can't be a champion at something without loving it!
he gave up mathematics out of spite for his mother because his mother forbade him to hang out with that cherry!
and not because he hated that math so much!
then when Cheri took him to that village to remember his childhood, she influenced him even more to make him feel guilty that he should leave again and not contact her.
he no longer knew which side to take because he had to choose between his mother or hanging out with this crazy cheri and in the end he decided to do nothing and destroy himself!
cherry is exactly the same psychopath as his mother to the point that she came to Hong Kong to haunt him for the hundredth time by clinging to his back like a tick and wouldn't let him go!
under some pretext that he doesn't know what he wants! and that he wants to be with her But he is not aware of that!
and what about what she said that he should decide for himself, that is no longer valid because he decided not to be with her and now his opinion is no longer important, she knows what he wants!
therefore, first chery separated Jiang Qiao Xi, from his mother under the pretext that his mother does not know what he wants and that she has no right to control his life,
and then when he was left alone, he became an easy prey for her to take over the role of his mother and now she controls him
and that she is now telling him that she knows what he wants
and he doesn't know what he wants,
since he won't be with her
THis is drama about psycho girl, psycho aince being a kid, its not love its psychopathic obbsesion,
And about boy, Jiang Qiao Xi, who has weakened self esteem and self confidence, due to controling mother!
No, he didnt want to be with cherry, he runs away 10 imes, and she obsessively stalking him!
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horrid writing and an absolute waste of time and potential
first episode set up some solid context with alot of potential for a decent show, saying i was disappointed in how the story developed is an understatement.the acting is fine and the side characters are great, the plot itself isnt bad, its just a cliche romance story like most other dramas.
and as someone who has watched MULTIPLE dramas, this was no doubt the one that pissed me off the most.
the plot develops like any other c drama plot, two kids got separated, somehow they get reunited and work out their differences and misunderstandings, then they get tgt and work out the relationship conflicts, boom marriage and done.
my issue is with the two mcs reunite part. my first imprssion when i saw how jiang qiaoxi pretended to not know liqinle at the sch was just mad red flag okay LIKE BOO THIS GUY IS HORRIBLE STAY AWAY FROM HIM
he then proceeds to try to get her attention and interact with her in the most inconsiderate and ridiculous ways that i personally think is rude and nasty to linqile.
making her pick up ur water bottle after making her think she made it fall and making her get a drink for you is horrible and manipulative, who does that. idc if hes a guy and hes clueless, and i also dont care if hes sorry and remorseful cus he doesnt apologise, not any time soon at least. thats lowk objectifying women cus where did feminism go and why are u treating the girl u love like a slave?
coming out of nowhere to "stabilise" linqile when she learns how to ride a bicycle is insanely idiotic and unsafe. jiang qiaoxi is characterised as a genius, hes top of his class. YOU CANT TELL ME THE TOP STUDENT THINKS COMING OUT OF NOWHERE TO GRAB THE BACK OF BICYCLE OF SOMEONE WHO JUST LEARNT HOW TO RIDE IT IS SAFE.
1. shes shocked and may lose focus or balance (which is what happens and she FALLS AND SCRAPES HER ELBOW BADLY and proceeds to defend himself saying he was trying to help her, then proceeds to change subject and deflect by saying he just wants to start over w her when u literally just INJURED HER. HELLO? WTH BRO ACTUALLY PMO SO BAD ATP)
2. you control a bicycle by the handles. when u someone teaching someone else to ride a bike u see them on their SIDE holding their HANDLES. who does it from the back? that firstly doesnt make sense at all and lacks all logic and secondly is mad unsafe. im fine w the idea of using an injury to get them to bond or interact, esp when its done WELL. here its horrible and makes me think they didnt have the budget to hire a decent writer.
this is bad ESPECIALLY cus it contradicts the characterisation of the character jiang qiaoxi in general. if they wanted to portray him as the genius academically but aloof in social situations, they have to SHOW THAT and set that context. they have the perfect abilities to do this cus he has a bad childhood and lacks friends for the first half of his life and the majority of his childhood. but they dont. and thats the issue.
i didnt make it to the end of the 5th episode before dropping the show. the acting is rly fine and not the issue, and i promise this plot and these characters had POTENTIAL. but the execution was just horrible cus i dont want to see a guy REPEATEDLY disrespect a woman, only to do it again and again in a so called attempt to make it up to her. he completely ignores the boundaries she constantly makes clear and reminds him of, agreeing and letting it pass but comes back to disturb her ONCE AGAIN when he decides he cant let her go. thats TOXIC and may this love never find me. ever.
linqile i can let past cus ok she loves this guy and thus she keeps forgiving him and not scolding him or wtv cus she likes him, which we can clearly see in the show due to the effective portrayal of her character's feelings towards her first love. she pmo too but it makes sense.
dont recommend. i cant rly give it a rating cus i didnt want the whole thing and prob will never do.
TLDR: this show pissed me off the next level degrees, esp jiangqiaoxi. if ur the kind who doesnt read into shows alot and analyse stuff like acting quality, writing quality, realistic-ness or wtv, esp whether the shit they do is ethical and morally ok or not, then sure you'll prob love this show. but if ur like me? oh haha dont event try. i found male mc extremely manipulative and horrible
side note: ik i didnt watch the full show (i only watched 4 and like the first 5min of 5), but like if u have to watch a full show for it to be good thats not a good show. if i cant make it thru the first few ep and ur telling me i have to trust the process and wait it out then no thats a freaking shitty show no show shld ever be like that. why would u waste ur time on a show that u have to wait for when u can watch other shows that are good from start to finish and dont make u wait?
also this is all my opinion if u disagree we can agree to disagree calm down its not that deep just chill and move on there a ton of ppl that like this show
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So far not great
I was very excited for this drama because I’m a sucker for these type of romances and the genre in general but this is disappointing me. I’m in episode 8 and all I feel is frustration.At first, I was all happy and giggly because they were so cute as kids. When Qile moved to the city, I was rooting for her to toughen up a bit and let the guy suffer more. But I shouldn’t have expected because of course, they had to make her this weak FL who’d go crazy for the boy even after experiencing sh1t.
Her friends and their friendship is what kept me going until this episode but her girl best friend riles me up a bit. I guess there’s no doubt that they all have a sense of immaturity but her in ep8 with what happened between the FL and the other guy… idk she just rubs me off in the wrong way.
It’s at Episode 8 and all I’ve felt was confusion about where the FL and ML’s relationship is heading. It’s getting tiring 🥲
Yet, I’m still giving this a shot because maybe I’m just frustrated with the current turn of events and maybe I’m writing this out of frustration 🤷🏻♀️
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It dragged on sooo much
This started off so good. I was obsessed. I like binged watched like the first few episodes, but then it started to get boring.For me this drama wasn’t realistic at all, and if you disagree, hear me out. Why does Yingtao still like Qiaoxi when they hadn’t seen each other since they were kids? It doesn’t make any sense for me that she thought about him everyday and wrote letters and stuff.
I dropped this like a couple months ago at episode 22, but I just started to continue, so if some of the things are off, don’t mind them.
Something I didn’t like was how Qiaoxi just ran away. I understand he has such a sad and difficult life, like how his mum wishes he was his dead brother, but he wasn’t thinking about Yingtao’s feelings. Yingtao had to literally tracked him down, and he expected her to leave as soon as she saw him? Um Qiaoxi??
But I also found Yingtao so annoying throughout the show. I don’t know why, ok? I just found her annoying.
I also feel like it went so off track. Like I was so confused in the later episodes when they were in Hong Kong. Maybe it was just me but like what’s going on?
I wish Yingtao gave him a hard time when they were in Hong Kong and didn’t forgive him so fast. I mean maybe she did and it’s out of my memory, but she followed him everywhere. He doesn’t deserve her. The fact he was even having any doubts about them being together was bad, and Yingtao was almost too understanding. Like I know she gave him a hard time by not leaving him be alone, but I think she could’ve you know, done more?
Again, I know Qiaoxi has a hard life and he’s used to shutting himself out and all that. He’s realistic-ish, but Yingtao was there for him, and he didn’t want her to be.
I’m my opinion, they were too different and they just didn’t match. That’s obviously my opinion and you can think whatever. I just think Yingtao deserves someone that doesn’t hide and lie about his feelings and doesn’t lead hers the wrong way. As I mentioned, it dragged onnnn. I think they could’ve stopped after high school or collage, we didn’t need Hong Kong. I’m literally just trying to get through the last couple episodes, wish me luck
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It’s like a mixture of reply 1988 with the first two episodes
Little cherry is a bubbly happy go kid that everyone in their small town loves . She’s got her best friends in form of her brothers and a girl she likes but clashes with a lot (typical kids relationship) she worries a lot and tends to care way too much. The first episode is just their childhood stories and the level of commitment those kids have for one another is top notchWas this review helpful to you?
Felt like it was more adult themes
This drama was only watched because of the main lead, i felt like this drama was more of adult themes then of a high school theme, i expected to be more school crush instead of this deep realistic life that does happen.The mother really annoyed me as she didn't even try to understand her son pain witch led to him falling off the rails, as much as I also that fl was a bit annoying and wanting to find out where he went, she came across desperate and clingy, which didn't fit them.
I didn't particularly like that he kept the truth from her but instead took it on himself, although his scenes were touching, it just didn't sit well.
This drama was not expected
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