As Beautiful as You

What really is love? Is just being "suitable" enough?

Is "just being suitable" for eachother enough, does love grow slowly day by day, or is it instant and all encompassing?

This is a show about two people who meet and fall in love but have vastly different ideas of what love is... The show explores this idea indepth through the leads beautiful journey. It's all very realistic and you will sympathize with both leads in their journey to love.

HT (ML) believes love is when two people are suitable, and deep love can grow day by day. JX (FL) believes love is instant and all encompassing. And that it shouldn't be ruthless...

These two people met and fell in love. But due to their different ideas of love, they couldn't communicate properly. Their relationship was uneven from the start so that also brought up the MAIN problem in their relationship. I won't spoil it for you, but you will really enjoy how the show handles this.

Like all cdramas, there is a break up. But unlike other cdramas, the breakup in this show was NECESSARY. This is one show where we as viewers weren't even mad about the breakup cause we all realized it was needed for them to come back stronger. And STRONGER they came back.

And unlike other cdramas, the couple in this show was given MORE THAN ENOUGH SCREEN TIME together after they got back together. Everything was wrapped up well and nothing was left to the imagination.

A little spoiler below.........................................
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This was a really really good show!! I was really scared that the writers would mess up the pacing after the breakup, but to my surprise, it was done so well. We got EVERYTHING and MORE. And even without the extra episode, I wouldn't have missed anything. Episode 40 ended so well that the bonus episode was just a good cherry on top ☺️

One thing I really loved about this show is how much of a real couple HT and JX are. The writers really did their thing with that. They portrayed them really well with the everyday interactions of couples and just the mundane things real life couples do. I truly appreciate that. Lol also, I noticed HT love language is physical touch. He enjoys kissing JX so much. It was beautiful to witness.

HT and JX have now entered my top 4 couples: Ye Hua and Bai Qian being my number one (TMOPB), then Jiang Li and Duke Su (The Double), Ren Ru Yi and Ning Yuan Zhou ( A Journey To Love) and now HT and JX! I really love how Xu Kai and Seven Tan brought these characters to life.

As we all know, Seven is a really good actress. She brings all her characters to life and makes you fall in love with them. So, I wasn't expecting anything else!! For me, this is the first time I am really really admiring Xu Kai and start to see him as sexy. Lol even though I have seen majority of his dramas. This is the first time he really stood out to me. He really did justice to HT character. Looking forward to seeing them cooperate again in another drama. Preferably historical!!

I love that each character got their well and deserved ending! This is one show where I loved all the characters and enjoyed them on screen (except for the annoying ex &friend, and Zhen Di and Cheng ke) lol.

I'm not going to lie, though I was against Lili and SZZ getting together before, towards the end, I was even rooting for them. I love how the show handled Lili's character. She didn't loose her fabulous self and they didn't "dumb" her down just so she can "fit" with SZZ. She stayed true to herself and it worked out perfectly with SZZ. I really loved how all that played out!!

I guess my trust in cdrama writers is slowly coming back because of this show. Hope future shows have good writing too!! Well, off I go to rewatch from the beginning!!

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Slice of Life/Romance/Business. Best 2024 modern cdrama so far.

The best 2024 modern drama so far!!! To be honest, I initially felt apprehensive about starting this drama, seeing that it’s 40 episodes and usually those feel very draggy. But this one is truly an exception as almost every episode felt like 5 minutes long. The chemistry between the leads is definitely the highlight of the drama and the well written script and great cinematography make it a worthy watch.

The drama is about the female lead who quits her job to start a business and the male lead becomes her investor. We also follow the side stories of the two female lead’s friends whose main focus is on their romantic relationships. The tone is a mix of slice of life, rom-com and some business.

POSITIVE:
- Slice of life with focus on romance and a bit of business.
- Great chemistry between the leads (I was worried about this pairing but I instantly felt their chemistry from their very first meeting).
- Great kiss scenes and skinship between the leads.
- Awesome dating era (main couple).
- Eye candy (Xu Kai, the male lead, looks great in suits. His shirtless scenes broke the sexy scale).
- Great friendship portrayal (well aside from that one friend. So it is indeed realistic as not all friends are good friends).
- Platonic relationship between men and women (a rare sight in cdramas).
- Many cute rom-com moments.
- Support cast has their own stories but don’t take away from the main lead’s screen time.
- No stupid plot scenarios and cringe scenes.
- No fillers. None of the story or characters felt pointless at any point in time.
- Meaningful script.
- Great character development.
- Good pacing.
- Two side couples that enhance the plot without taking too much screen time.
- Secret crush trope (subtle).
- Cute university flashbacks (not a lot).
- Heartwarming, a tad realistic, life lessons, cuteness and hopeless romantic vibes.
- Realistic topics like sexual harassment, misogyny, corporate hell (at the start of the drama).
- Lovely OST (the english song is a nice touch and one of the songs is sung by the female lead).
- Great acting, especially from the main leads.
- Ao Rui Peng (guest role) stole my heart.
- Brilliant special episode. Truly one of the best I’ve ever seen.

NEGATIVE:
The last 8 episodes slow down the plot and there are two episodes that are a bit too melodramatic and cliche for my taste. But having said that, this did not take away from my enjoyment of this drama. During the last 8 episodes, the main leads continued to have awesome cute scenes together.

COUPLES (MINOR SPOILERS):
- Main couple: Girl boss and her CEO investor. Hot chemistry, great character and relationship development. Definitely a slow burn that I love. This romance and couple had everything you want: sexy, cute, angst, love.
(The two side couples I felt shared equal screen time between each other. But didn’t overtake the screen time of the main leads).
- Side couple: Posh girl and her love struggles. This love story felt realistic, relatable, not always happy and had a very important lesson of self-worth. One of the rare cases where a love triangle was done right.
- Side couple: Sweet livestream girl and her rich lover. The cutest couple in the drama. Bickering to friends to lovers. A sweet slow burn that will definitely make you smile.
- Bonus side couple: Female lead’s friend and ex-boyfriend. Yep, this is a pairing that not everyone would like. Girl code definitely didn’t exist for this girl who went after her friend’s ex. But still, I did find their scene wholesome and realistic. They had little screen time.

OVERALL:
There is something about this script, the romance, the story, the way the male lead is gazing at the female lead, that gave me the warmest feelings ever. Even when bad things happened, it was meaningful and well-portrayed. All the characters felt real and multi-layered. The story felt wholesome, somewhat realistic with hopeless romantic vibes which I absolutely loved. I’ve never seen a cdrama quite like this, a truly wonderful watching experience, this is hands down my best 2024 modern cdrama so far.

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