This review may contain spoilers
I love my slice of life dramas and was super excited to watch this one. Overall, it was sincere, heartfelt, and a wonderful portrayal of family and friends living in a small but tight knit community. I loved the friendship between the 5 youth and the stories of their parents added depth and heart wrenching moments to the drama. ML didn’t disappoint and I was impressed by his range of emotions. He was still charismatic and charming and I loved his little smirk. FL grew on me as she got older…. her initial over the top acting cute and bratty (Chinese peeps really like that!!) didn’t fit her persona. I think you really have to be a certain actress to be able to pull that off and still be likeable.
I loved ML and FL’s chemistry and sweet moments together and wish there was more. At times, I felt like their story didn’t quite have that flow because there were SO many stories going on. Aside from the 5 friends and their respective parents, drama also focused on the lives of co-workers, roommates, and master teachers. It spent a lot of time diving into certain storylines but then there would be years in between that barely got touched upon. I appreciate drama for at least giving us the last 2 episodes!!
As in almost all C-dramas, I didn’t know what was going on with the English dubbing. This one in particular with the robotic voice over… oh my goodness. FL would have been better off speaking English herself!
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Very youthful drama with ups and downs of life
This drama showed a unbreakable bond between neighbour and friends.. The kids grow up, become friends, fall in love dispite the challenges and misunderstanding.. Bitter sweet reletionship of friends.. Parents unconditional love for their childAlthough the story could be bit better I still rate it 10. Lin Shiyin and Zhang Qi could be a couple. Until 34th episode I waited for them to become couple.. At last I thought that maybe Shao Xue will throw her wedding flower bouquet and Shi Yin and Zhang Qi will catch it... But nothing happened.. They remained friends...
Also, If Sunian supported Shao Xue for going aboard and had a good long distance relationship instead of breaking up, the story would be the best.. But their love is genuine that they are meant to be together.. Eyes are full of love from the depth of heart . After all, this is my favourite drama, not knowing why .... I found myself rewatching the drama again and again...
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A walk down memory lane
The main reason to watch this is Nostalgia. You want to see Beijing in the early 2000s.And, of course, the main actors, who are all eye candy.
But there's just not much to it. The story is bland, and it's really hard to stay engaged. There is a handful of youth actors and their parents. The story's main focus is the interpersonal relationships. You can kind of put up with a few episodes of the background/bland, but then somewhere around episode 6 or 8 it's time to move to actual plot. I can't even say that I think the huge cast of characters had particularly interesting personalities... I did make it through to the end, but only because there really wasn't anything else going on.
Best acting was in episodes 16-18, from ML Zheng SuNian (Lin Yi) and his father Zhen Jin (Fang ZiBin). Lin Yi showed a new skill compared to prior shows (crying, although Dad was still way more believable).
Worst feature of this show: NONE, and I do mean not a *single* one, of the youth actors look like they could be high school students. I believe Lin Yi was the youngest actor (born 1999, age 22), while Chen YuQi is the oldest actor (born 1992, age 29). And they're all supposed to be high school students. It works (or can work) for occasional flashbacks, but not complete episodes.
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Good cozy feel of 90s. Watch it if you like these kind of shows. worth it
What i likedThe whole 90s vibe and the whole community of antique restoration department and their relationship. They are not nosy but very caring and involved with each others family. The alley with the houses has such a good feel to the over all feel of the show.
There were some scenes which felt as if its dragging but its very small part of the drama.
i know actress is much older than what she played but it didnt bother me she didnt look that old .I felt actress in go ahead felt much older in high school years than FL here.
What could be better
Although i have liked the actress who played FL even in other shows like AOL , here sometimes acting was over the top.Could have toned it down a bit and sometimes when she just stares with her big eyes it doesnt bring out her emotions . Even with that i liked the FL character. She is childish, innocent , has a dream of her own and emotionally mature when dealing with people . She kept telling her friend how to deal with people . She didnt figure out ML liked her for long but that could be attributed to their relationship since childhood.
ML is as usual( as in case with most dramas) perfect except when he suddenly decided to be noble (this trope is a must in all dramas isnt it. ) but even then there was a good arc of him figuring out what he wants in life.
Loved almost all side characters specially their friends circle.
What i hated :
Some very childish scenes of FL . not everytime but there are couple of them
FL realising she wants to come back after something really bad happened to her. it just gives out wrong message that if you go to foreign country you will end up being like that (specially for a girl) . She could have realised without all that fiasco of getting duped etc.
If you ignore these i think its still good watch and i would rewatch this show now and then
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It was cute.
Chen Yu Qi who plays one of the strongest women in dramas didn't play that strong woman in this drama. She played a normal young lady in the real world versus the fantasy world. It was a change for me to watch her play this type of role. I hung in there and watched all of the episodes but it took me a while. This tells me what kind of actress she is, she can take on any type of role and that is awesome. I will make sure to watch her performances in strong female roles in the future. Thank you to all the actors and actresses who took this story on. Y'all were great. Thank you to the writers and stage crew. BTW I loved the wedding dress at the end. That was perfect.Was this review helpful to you?
Heartwarming drama
This drama is about whole life from family, friendship, dream and love. For me, It's heartwarming drama that heals my broken heart. The love story of this drama is in slow mode because it tells detail conflict from a lot of characters. But it has a lot of romantic scenes indeed. I love all of the characters in this drama. Their acting are impressed me so much, especially yuqi chen. She can act as a cute teenager naturally even now she is an adult woman. For Lin yi, in my opinion, this his best performance if I compare to all of his drama before. His expression is improved a lot. Lin yi and yuqi chen make a great couple. They looks so cute together even their age gap is quite big. I love this drama, I love this couple. Hope they will be more success in the future. Cant wait their next project..Was this review helpful to you?
simple and heart warming - unlike cliché romcom
Until now the drama is heartwarming. with cute and lovable actors. I am definitely getting vibes of Reply 1988 with decent parent and child conversation, without annoying siblings fights. The drama is adapted from a novel of the same name written by author Bei Feng San Bai Li.Besides cute moments, story also depicts unique social issues highlighting importance of duty and career over love life , worth of true friendship, depth of relationship with parents and grand parents etc,
The story mainly focused on Shao Xue (Chen Yu Qi), Zheng Su Nian (Lin Yi), and Zhang Qi (Yan Zi Dong), three childhood friends who have grown up together while experiencing life, love and value of friendship.
This is heartwarming and soft drama so far.
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Friendship & life decision
Hesitate to watch this, but fortunately I've watch this. Because this year, this is one of the best drama I've watch. & one of the drama that make me hard to let go. I just want to repeatedly watch the ending over & over....OK let's discuss the drama. This drama about friendship & life decision. Friendship not only between our 5 friends, but also about their family.
The plus:
+ The friendship between our character is really real. Especially between Shao Xue (SX) & Zhang Qi (ZQ) and also with Lin Shi Yin (SY). Although their friendship not really smooth without rock, but in the end they still friend to the end.
+ ZQ really one true gentlemen. He is one of the few SML that make me have second lead syndrome. Although he love SX, he never forced or even try to win her love, he knows for sure who her love for and respect her feeling. So he just walks that hard path to become her best friend & witness how SX & Zheng Su Nian (SN) relationship bloom.
+ Sometimes you can't forced the relationship, no matter how much you love your partner. Like Wu Huan (WH) & SY or Bai Yun Sheng & his girlfriend. Quite sad for WH & SY, but I have a bet to myself will their relationship nailed it or not. Maybe if they are the main couple the story will gonna be different. But I like when they decided to break WH & SY apart. Yeah when the relationship rolled, we can sense how much the other party fit to our life or future. In my opinion WH & SY from the first step already took the different path, just time will decide to break them apart.
The minus:
- You can't fool your age. Haha... Of course I'm talking about Yukee Chen & Yan Zi Dong, but especially Yukee Chen. Although her behavior quite OK as a teenage girl, but often I can see the wrinkle & her face feature overall just too old to play as teenage girl. Sometimes that quite bothered me.
- Sometimes the friendship just partial to our FL. Like when SY become gloom when she broke up with WH, SX not even bothered to ask, she just heavily deep with her problem with SN. Best friend talk about both side, the writer just too focus about SX feeling & kinda neglected SY feeling.
- I don't know to put it into the bad or good thing, but I lean toward the bad thing so yeah I put it here then. The decision that SN take when he break up with SX. In my opinion it's unnecessary break up. Because just like ZQ said, "let go not break up." & like SN said what the different...? For me the difference kinda a lot. If he just let go, that mean SX still will contact him & they will have long distance relationship. If break up yeah happen exactly just like in this drama.
Overall this is one a good youth drama.
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I have just finished watching this drama and I honestly can’t understand the negativity of some of the comments, but I appreciate that not everyone can like it.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and the acting was excellent, I know that some didn’t like that the FL was childish but this was the writer’s intent and I found it on point. The only negative point was the very poor acting of the English speaking characters, I’ve found this to be the case in a lot of the dramas and it’s a shame, still it didn’t spoil anything for me.
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Adopt the pace of nature. Her secret is patience.
I just can't wait to watch the first episode of this series so I am writing this to show my excitement. Lin Yi is ML and also the first look shows it's a high school rom-com. Just thinking about other fans out there those are as crazy as me for LIN YI. Let's wait for tomorrow. Hope it will win everyone's heart.#morelovelinyi #linyifan <3
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