Good general drama
The overall high level story from start to finish is very engaging. Just about anyone from any country can relate to the day in and day out highs and lows that is portrayed in this drama. But as with anything now in 2023 you can see many subtle undercurrents about things in general. Some of the other reviews made comments about this being a China promotional drama to draw tourists back to China. Not sure how accurate that really is but from a drama story stand point it truly stands out because it actually feels like a story about every day people meeting, becoming friends and helping each other while also trying to find their way without the current stress that society has pressured people into believing they have to do certain things in order to consider yourself successful.There are truly many very heart felt natural moments through out the episodes and all of the actors and characters have meaningful parts thru out. While you can say there's a FL and ML to the drama this has to be one of the few dramas where many characters had pretty good supporting side stories to the main story. The main story and side stories were all very well entwined with each other kudos for pulling that off since that's usually very rare to have happen in most dramas.
The OST was very nice and mellow but towards the end it got repetitive but still nice.
Totally amazing that I actually watched a cdrama that didn't have someone either stealing, killing, getting revenge. While they did manage to have someone die of cancer which seems almost mandatory these days. At least this time it was more to set the whole rest of the story instead of drawing out a bad ending. Lots of Chinese idioms and culture with very positive outlooks in general.
Will probably rewatch again a year or so from now to compare 2022/2023 to how the future is for China. Don't see how it's getting straight 10's except for trying to push towards a high rating to get more people to watch. Sort of feels more contrived to push certain themes and views to foreign viewers.
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A Peaceful Getaway When Life Has You Stressed ?
Okay, so if you’ve been feeling a little burnt out or just want something that’s calming but still meaningful, you have to watch Meet Yourself. Trust me, it’s not one of those flashy dramas, it’s the kind that gently pulls you in and makes you feel like you're taking a deep breath for the first time in weeks.The story follows Xu Hongdou, this successful woman, who takes a break from city life, after her best friend passes away. She ends up in this small, quiet village and what was supposed to be just an escape turns into this whole journey of healing, friendship, and self-discovery.
What’s beautiful about this drama is that it’s not really about big plot twists or intense romance (though there is a lovely slow-burn relationship with the male lead, Xie Zhiyao, who is thoughtful and lowkey dreamy). It’s more about people, and life. Every character feels real, from the quirky villagers to the new friends Hongdou meets and each of them has their own little story that adds so much heart to the show.
The pacing is slower, but in a good way. It gives you time to breathe. You actually get to see the characters grow, reflect, and connect. It’s like one of those dramas that makes you want to journal, drink tea, and maybe rethink your entire life in the best possible way.
And oh my god... the village scenery? Absolutely stunning. It’s all lush mountains, quiet fields, cozy homestays, and warm meals.
If you want something soul-soothing, hopeful, and quietly beautiful, Meet Yourself is honestly the perfect pick. It’ll make you want to slow down, appreciate the little things, and maybe even take a solo trip to find your own peace. 😍
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SLOW BURN, FRIENDS TO LOVERS, MOVING
Soul moving, Life changing, & Self healing kind of drama. Calm and peaceful environment. I admire the ML for his love to his town and to make it better for the people's livelihood in the town. The FML is really good at acting. Her role put me into a place to reflect my own life.— actually both the leads made me think and reflective of my life as a whole person. And for that, I can say that it is a great watch and worth watching.Soul moving, Life changing, & Self healing kind of drama. Calm and peaceful environment. I admire the ML for his love to his town and to make it better for the people's livelihood in the town. The FML is really good at acting. Her role put me into a place to reflect my own life.— actually both the leads made me think and reflective of my life as a whole person. And for that, I can say that it is a great watch and worth watching
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It's beautiful, healing, and delightful. The characters are complex but even ones you may not initially like (such as initially-stern Aunty Feng who later smiles to light up a room, surly old Grandpa Yang who eventually comes around even if still surly), you'll grow to love. My favorites are the children and Granny Xie ("A'Nai" as A'Yao and Hongdou call her). I won't go on and on about everything I liked since many other reviews already covered it.
I also have a special place in my heart for this because the grannies and aunties remind me of my family and family's friends (as you know, in Chinese and other cultures, you address your elders as grandpa/grandma/uncle/auntie even if they're not blood-related). They touched me in ways that other cdramas modern and costume have not; though it's a slow drama, it's because all characters are fleshed out to feel real.
Minus half a point mainly because:
1. A bit draggy, but mainly on storylines about supporting characters I wasn't as invested in like Mr. Ma (the guy who is always meditating in the beginning) and the musician's romance.
2. The English songs used are annoying. Why do modern C-dramas always use English songs?? The non-English songs are good, though I wish they used some of them more (like "Hao Hao De" by Sa Ji was only used like twice despite how good it is, while they used other songs a bit too much).
These are just nitpicks though, which is why I only took off half a point.
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An Incomplete Drama
Question: Are there plans to finish this drama?While I agree wholeheartedly with the praise heaped on this drama (I have watched it 3 times and am now in my 4th),
I am painfully aware of some very serious omissions:
I was truly shocked when episode 40 turned out to be the final episode. The drama was nowhere
near finished at the end of ep40.
1. A'Yao never asked Dou to marry him.
2. Dou never stated she wants to marry A'Yao.
2. In fact, they never got married.
3. In fact, No fewer than 3 times did Dou expressly threaten to divorce A'Yao if he displeased her.
Q: Would they have had children?
Q: If so, what would happen to their relationship under the pressure of raising children?
I do indeed love this show, but it is only a down-payment on a drama, it is not a complete drama.
Question: Are there plans to finish the drama?
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Cozy Slice of Life
I’m not usually a big fan of slice of life dramas, but I love this one. It could be because I’m in my 40s and the themes resonate, but I’m enjoying it.Story: It begins with a sad episode and slowly eases into a cozy story. It isn’t fast paced at all but I find that if I skip anything I miss great moments.
Acting: I love Li Xian and Liu Yifei. It’s easy to believe that they’re just playing themselves sometimes. Li Xian is a bit goofy which is kind of cute. The grannies are often scene stealers.
Obviously we aren’t far in but I think if you’re looking for a good cozy watch with a feel good story this is it. If you want fast paced, this is not it. I will probably rewatch this one if it ends well.
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SEMI-ENGAGING MEDIOCRITY
I understand the type of show MEET YOURSELF wants to be. And I celebrate that ambition. And I wanted the hype around the show to be true. But in almost every facet possible this production underwhelms. I can't recommend it to anyone.As to not spoil much, what I will share is this series treats all characters as supporting characters. The FL and ML aren't really the thrust of the show. This choice makes the series feel really long... because it's almost like looking out a window and watching real life. There's no real plot.
Now, many around here seem to love this. Me? I love an ensemble show, but I need it to have some discernible direction. THE YOUTH MEMORIES is a show like this show that has a great ensemble. It's slice of life too but there's more ups and downs, twists and turns, and so many things that are not predictable.
This show seems to be developed for people who are going thru so much personal stress that they cannot handle any fictional stress as well. Like a show someone in a hospital might like to watch. I love CDramas precisely because many of this very relaxing quality that makes for calmer entertainment before bed, but is overlong series is too calming for my tastes and I'd predict most tastes.
------------- DETAILED ANALYSIS -------------
PREMISE -- Our FL lead experiences an immediate tearjerking event, which breaks her heart and sends her off to an extended vacation in a village. Once there, said event quickly fades off and we're stuck with a stranger in a strangeland situation. It only takes a few more episodes to realize this shock and awe opening was a cheap unnecessary trick to engage us into a show that goes into a completely different direction: a warm cozy sweater.
PACE -- Terribly slow. This story could have been done much better in 28 episodes instead of 40. I read people who binge this show. Of course they do: you have to watch 3 episodes to get 1 episode's worth of story. And the most maddening talking point about this is 'slow burn'. The implication is that there's small flame growing larger and warmer. Completely false. What happens is that our main story is lit like a candle... that goes out often.
DRAMATIC STAGING -- is painfully weak. SCREENWRITING 101 insists you avoid putting two characters in a room simply talking at each other, because that's 'radio' and not taking advantage of 'the moving pictures'. But over 95% of the time these characters are either talking while preparing a meal or eating the meal. That's not only crazy lazy -- but I'm dieting and the show isn't about cooking.
PLOT -- is almost non-existent. And it's not only predictable but inevitable, since this story abhors conflict and therefore doesn't offer alternative resolutions. There are countless subplots, however, and most are wordy filler. Fans wax poetic about these characters and plots -- but have these fans ever seen another CDrama? Almost every other drama I've watched has stronger characters and subplots. THE YOUTH MEMORIES is a great example of being on the edge of your seat with almost every character in the story. MEET YOURSELF? As the story repeatedly suggests, it's two grannies taking an afternoon nap.
LI XIAN -- our ML is... okay... but I didn't love him. Yes ladies, I'll grant he's cute and sweet. In the first half of the show I felt he was over-using his squint, tilt the head, and laugh thing. I sensed he wasn't much of an actor. As the series progressed, though, his charm won me over. I really didn't like his costuming sometimes. (You know that blue denim-ish shirt he had, made of different denim panels? Yuck. And he'd often wear this white teeshirt that made him look like someone named Skippy.) Often I wondered if this show would have worked better if he had been the lead.
SUPPORTING CHARACTERS -- There are waaaay too many. Less is more.
Remember the lady that had a heart attack at the end and wound up in a hospital. My wife and I spent minutes trying to figure out who she was. Why? Because she wasn't a major character.
Many of these supporting characters just don't feel real. I'm not asking for sex, drugs and rock and roll, mind you. I love stories about kind and nice people, but you need darker characters to contrast against the nice ones.
That said, there's cuteness everywhere. I loved Aunt A Gui because she was identical to an Irish Aunt I have, which is strange but true. Annabel Yao stole every scene she was in -- and the producers wisely kept her comic relief lovelorn struggles to a minimum. My heart absolutely went PITTER PATTER every time I saw Ma Meng Wei, the struggling writer. It's hard to believe she only has supporting roles in her future projects. Wake up, Producers -- she's cute as hell.
One character I had a little trouble with was Shen Xiao Mei (Hao Wen Ting). She is our ML's business partner. She was smart, pretty, pragmatic, an excellent business partner -- and even looked like our ML. The story failed to notice they should have been interested in each other, because why not.
Another eye-candy character to note was the handsome young actor playing 'Woodworker Boy'. (I can't find him on MDL.) It's rare to find such a handsome actor (or actress) that convinces you they are not aware of their attractiveness. So many CDramas are loaded with pretty boys pretending they're not and this actor pulls it off, which is funny because netizens swarm him and say how cute he is and he completely pulled off how unaware of this he was... and embarrassed.
(By the way, in later scenes -- we watch him carve wood. He smashes his palm against a tool that chips the wood. OUCH. I winced every time he did it, because within two weeks anyone would be crippled doing that.)
CRYSTAL LIU -- is spectacular in A TALE OF ROSE. If you'd like to see her act, watch that. MEET YOURSELF was a career waiting room, where she smiled pretty in pretty clothes and did next to nothing else. The show didn't need her as the lead. I'd have cast the young lady that plays the 'struggling writer' instead. Oh, yes, speaking of that --
NAVAL GAZING -- or what I like to call WRITER'S WRITING ABOUT WRITING. Bad writers have a terrible habit of writing about 'the terrible struggles of writing'. Who... umm... cares? What's really going on here is the writer of MEET is insecure about their script, and so they insert themselves into the story to say 'how hard writing is' and then characters swarm that character and say 'but you're so good'. It's sickening. And this story did it two more times, with a songwriter and a vocalist.
THE SCENERY -- Most fans LOVE THE SCENIC SHOTS and such. Do I need to see an eye doctor or is over 94% of this series shot in a cafe set and that 'homestay' set? And when it does go outside here and there, the photography is ordinary. Uninspired. Some of it looks like file footage too. See TO THE WONDER and learn what real cinematography is.
I should say the sets were gorgeous! (Unrealistically so, but still eye candy.)
MUSIC -- Oddly the shows strength, even though there's miscalculation even here. This show loves playing the same six songs over and over, so that sequence after sequence is a montage. It's filler for a story that's barely there. And my favorite song, SADDLE OF MY HEART -- was translated poorly into English. It's so indicative of a show that means well but keeps misfiring. Like the opening sequence which is all 'sitcom' bouncy but the show isn't. 'Wind' should have been the ending song.
SO IF IT WAS SO BAD -- why did I watch it all the way through?
1. This is my 3rd Crystal show, and her quality acting, unique beauty, and lovely outfits do not disappoint.
2. I love a show attempting to stage a community based on kindness.
3. At the halfway point I wanted to walk, but I was interested on how it would end.
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Meandering show that goes nowhere
I started off really like this show, the first 2 eps hit hard and made me cry alot, when something happens to a specific character.The FL then takes a long trip to Yunnan and stays thre for awhile, the entire drama is just basically about her life in yunnan and the various characters' lives in Yunnan.
Yup. That's about it.
I went into this knowing this was a slice of life drama, but even in typical SOL dramas, something happens. Something usuallyhappens to th emain character to make them rethink life. Here? When that character passes on, I expect the FL to actually grief properly and that changes the whole outlook of her life etc. However, whatever happened in those first 2 chapters were never quite addressed again, and the rest of the drama goes on a completely different tangent. There was no huge conflict arcs - nada. Just nothing to look forward to. Ended up dropping this after taking 6 months to finish 13 episodes. I ff-ed to some of the later episodes - and it was the same-ish kinda tone - with small things happening to different characters, but I come off feeling like I didn't miss anything.
Some pros:
- Nice-ish scenery
- Good acting from most of the cast. I really like Damai's character and her story arc
- Every character has a "problem" in their life they needa solve
- Nice food scenes
- Promoted the yunnan food/culture sufficiently
Cons:
- This drama was wayyyy too long for something that had almost nothing happening. 25 episodes would have been enough
- Boring sets. Yunnan has amazing scenery but you barely see it here, the characters are just confined to the same old sets
- Boring music/OST - the same song plays over and over again for emotive scenes
- Too many characters. It's like an ensemble cast honestly. There are some characters i wasn't interested in, so the focus on their storylines bored me
- The romance was too slow burn and I felt that they should have stayed friends. Absolutely no chemistry between Li Xian and Liu Yifei that when they did get together, I couldn't buy it and didn't find it romantic
- LYF's acting is just meh. She goes around yunnan in perfectly-coiffed hair and thick makeup and red lipstick - seriously, woman. you are in yunnan on a supposed break, you can chill abit on the dressing up. She looked so out of place alongside other characters who were more naturally made-up. When I see things like that in the drama, where the lead is clearly dressed better than the other characters, it just shows me that the actor/production/both want to make the particular lead stand out. I get it, but do it via the storyline or the acting, and not the aesthetics please, it just looks so out of place. And yes back to her acting - she half-whispers most of her lines I have no idea why when everyone else is speaking at a normal tone, and has no emotions at all. I couldn't get into her character at all and Hongdou came off haughty/dismissive many times to different people. There were several scenes where she was thinking about her friend and it was obviously a sad scene, but there were no emotions on her face, nothing. It just takes me out.
- Li Xian is fine but I felt his acting here was abit forced. I've seen him in many other dramas and really enjoy his versatility
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A visually appealing advertisement for rural living
Don't get me wrong - I loved the drama, but honestly could not rate it higher than 5.Example Love 020.
Living life in a virtual fantasy land created by some software freaks was appealing to the youth of our generation?
20-30 billion views for that sad, desperate, robotic drama that was poorly made and even more poorly acted? Is this where Mother Earth was heading?
I was so heart broken. Not only that such a terrible show was made but in fact viewers loved it.
Then comes along Meet Yourself.
I was absolutely ecstatic!! Thank you c- drama for taking the courage to go against the tide and making a visually enthralling drama.
Going back to basics, friendships, good old moral values, delightful traditional crafts, cooking, relationships- just purely innocent and refreshing.
Smartly made to show that there was financial viability as well despite living rurally.
The village was picture perfect - so naturally aesthetic that I would want to pack my bags and relocate there.
So why the low rating?
Because they made it like a commercial, an advertisement by the government of the country to lure youth into moving away from city life.
And because this may not get the 20-30billion views that it rightfully deserves.
They needed to spice it up quite a bit.
Firstly reduce the torturous 40 episodes to 16 or 20.
Then add some intensity to the chemistry. The romance was like tepid tap water. It was not slow burn, just slow death. Boringggg. And I've seen this ML in a previous drama where the romance was sizzling.
I wish this beautiful drama would get 50 billion views, so please spice it and spike it so the entire world would want to move to Yunnan.
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loksyutnya keren, alurnya keren, castsnya keren
Nonton ini dibikin jatuh cinta sama karakter-karakternya yang sangat-sangat relatable. Setiap episodenya punya ritme yang pas, jadi nggak bosan2 banget atau ngerasa kelamaan.Yang paling aku suka tuh alurnya yang ringan dan lokasinya yang nyegarin. Bener2 kaya diajak liburan bareng, wisata bareng, kulineran bareng wkwk dan dramanya jg punya keseimbangan yang sempurna antara humor, romansa, konflik.
Ni drama ga ada antagonisnya, jadi ga yang dramatis gitu. Terus akting castsnya ok, chemistry mereka jg ok, aku kaya ngeliat orang lagi ngobrol biasa, kaya lagi offcam.
Overall, ini drachin yang paling bagusvyang pernah aku tonton. Rekomendasi banget buat siapa aja yang cari tontonan ringan tapi menghibur, sempurna buat ditonton maraton. Dikasi S2 jg masih bagus sih ini.
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achievment unlocked - congrats you created group therapy clinic!!!
its slowpace drama in which every character got some personal problem.But miraculously if you gather alot people with such problems at one place ...
congrats you created group therapy clinic!!!
Its alot alike to Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, BUT I would say its not comedy... it specialises on vibe and healing and human relations including romance.
plot - FL is city woman, workaholic working in hotel. Cause of tragic situation she got emotionally drained.
She leaves resign work and leaves city for small village in search for peace and quiet life to regenerate her injuries.
genre - healing vibe, countryside, human relationships, romance
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Healing
The last 15 minutes made me so inexplicably sad and made me cry, I don’t know why🥹. This show was really comforting and served as a means to let go of some of my feelings, which makes me appreciate this gem a lot. Liu Yi Fei is incredibly natural in her acting in this show, she easily conveyed any emotions and really touched me with her performance. Li Xian: I only know him from some clips of “Go Go Squid”, and in those he looked rather stiff, so I didn’t know what to expect. He quickly proved to be very charming, fun and expressive (key word: eye acting😏) on screen, and I enjoyed all the interactions his character had.I think the show had too many sub-plots though. Too many stories to be told, and at one point I started losing interest and only cared about Hong Dou, granny, A’Yao, and the girl trio (girl friendships 🥰🐥🍓🌸🌷🌞🌈💜💕❣️), basically anything that involved our main leads.
The OST and cinematography were also simply sublime and so pretty!
Overall, a beautiful healing series that goes right into your heart with a dash of romance!
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