This review may contain spoilers
I got a cavity watching so much sweetness
This show resonated with me for several reasons. Let's start with the romance; however short, it was earned, not given. Then there was the adorable performance by Zhou Ye as Que Yin. Half of her scenes I had a little smile on my face.Then there was the main aspect—the characters stayed within the context of the story. Even the relationship was formed within the story, as it should be. Some folks may be turned off by the gaming business aspect, along with the meetings and seeing the characters actually work and discuss developing a Triple A game. I found it interesting. There was a time for work, and there was a time to build a relationship. If you tune in expecting a full-on romance, this isn't it.The story has romantic moments. But, it was sidebarred with LOL cat-and-mouse antics. In her defense, Que Yin (as overinfatuated as she was) tried so hard in the beginning to win Gu Xun's heart. IMOP, this brought on a few elements. It brought on some comic relief. Her ways, as cheesy as they were at times, brought out some character development moments. Sad, funny, and serious.
In the second half, it was Gu Xun's turn to step up. If Gu Xun had fallen to her charms very early, it wouldn't have been the same. The supporting cast was okay. The second couple was more of a rebound situation. The overall package of the series was good. All of those elements I mentioned kept me interested.
Yes, it would have been nice to see more of the main couple at the peak of their relationship. But IMOP if that happened at ep 2, where would the conflicts and struggles be? You would have to write a different story. Because their struggle to finally come together was a huge part of it.
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✒ ⛩️ How To Almost Lose When You've Already Won ✍️ °7.4° °VG°
Falling Into Your Smile-5.7, The King's Avatar-7.9, Love 020 - the movie-5.9 and the show-6.8… here we are again, talking about gaming. ELM is a romance first, though. The ‘games’ are mainly played by the leads. ELM is a 2024 release that is rated 7.9 on MDL. It is 1 season consisting of 24 45-minute episodes. I enjoyed every one of them. Everyone (who is a romance fan) should like this show.Zhou Ye (Back from the Brink, Word of Honor) portrays Qian Ling, a novice artist who is on the brink of making it big. Lin Yi (Angels Fall Sometimes) plays Gu Xun, an intelligent but slightly misanthropic game designer. I never saw this actress before, but she's terrific and gorgeous. I've seen the ML in Put Your Head on My Shoulder-7.3, where he plays an even colder, more analytical type; PYHOMS is wonderful in the first half and struggles in the second half. Lin Yi is completely different here. He sells his attraction to Qian Ling so well we can almost taste it. As much as he loves her, he came close to blowing it. Totally. Here's how~>
They are both working at the same gaming company while finishing up at the same school. The company decided to build a new unit around Gu Xun (the 9th business unit) in order to deliver China's first AAA computer game, entitled Heroes Path. Many ups and downs precede this, but Qian Ling gets the opportunity to draw the hero of Heroes Path and design many of the weapons. For most of the show she tries to keep two jobs at the company. Her previous boss (Hong Yao from Story of Yanxi Palace) does not want to let her go. Not only is he competitive with Gu Xun, but Qian Ling is a special talent.
Qian Ling has known for a long time that she's totally into Gu Xun. He takes no notice of her, however. As a tall, good-looking, high IQ type, he's the recipient of female attention quite often. It's just that most girlie-girls are silly and boring to him. The girl who does not bore him is the one he hasn't met yet - in person, that is, ‘Dough Twist’ is one of his teammates in online gaming. Their group (Another Win) is ‘killing it’ together. They each play from home and talk through their 🎧. Dough Twist is fierce, feisty, and just lethal with a joystick, mouse, and keyboard. She's his kinda girl. He's got to get HER in his world.
His 🌏 drops one night when she mentions to the group that she likes a guy at work. He immediately sets out to give her “bad intel” (act cute! Be girlie!) in hopes that the relationship won't work out. He wants this pastry for himself. What he doesn't know is that HE'S the guy, and Dough Twist is Qian Ling.
There's layers of clever irony to the show. He has an online crush on online-her (doughtwist). She likes him (Gu Xun). Gu Xun is jealous of doughtwist's crush (himself). He's deliberately giving her bad dating advice so that it won't work out with her crush - and his advice is working! Gu Xun /can't stand/ Qian Ling. He's undermining his own romance! She's trying to win over Gu Xun by being phony, and Gu Xun hates her. She's completely herself with online him (campushunk), because she doesn't care, and (online) he's besotted with her. They are working (hard) at love without realizing they've already won. They just don't know it. All the wasted effort and longing gives me a smidge of stress. It's amusing and delightful at the same time.
Melody Tang as Chen Xin Yi, + Jiang Yi Ming as Jiang Jun Nan are the secondary couple. He's Gu Xun's right-hand man and she's his new assistant. She has almost debilitating social anxiety. She's sweet and talented, and Qian Ling helps her come out of her shell. The actresses both did Love Like the Galaxy together and Ms Jiang starred in Story of Kunning Palace. The directors are Yu Chung Chung (Love Is Sweet, Once upon a Time in Lingjian Mountain-7.5) & Gia Lee (Hidden Love-7.8, Go Go Squid!). Screenwriter, Xu Ting, wrote Double Love, & Zhao Cong penned Hello Debate Opponent. The original creator is Qiao Yao (Only for Love, Love Scenery). At the halfway mark their charaters’ interactions are strong, entertaining, sincere and authentic - especially for a Chinese modern-day drama. The scenario is actually entirely plausible and heavy on the grins. It's a nifty piece of writing.
Qian Ling finally plucks up the courage to confess her feelings to Gu Xun at graduation. He only knows the phony Qian Ling, the one he created by way of his subterfuge. He gives her a very harsh rejection. THEN, she hates him. Hate? She LOATHES him. Actively. The act is dropped. She gives him a bitter taste of who she really is from that point on. Gu Xun pieces together that she's doughtwist and spends the rest of the show trying to win her back.
It has some minor bugs. The. Business machinations toward the end are, pretty much, nonsensical. When he meets her parents it's painfully goofy, but it doesn't last that long. The secondary romance looked more promising than it turned out to be. It isn't bad, but the first half was better than the wrap up, by far. It should have been better. The last episode was good enough but could be improved upon.
Artistically it's up and down. The Wardrobe is hit and miss but Stella (Yu Xin Yi from Catch Up My Prince) really puts on a fashion show as a company executive. The FL has a couple pairs of star earrings that I like enough to buy. The music is dang near outstanding. It really soars in that category. Shazams: With Me (影視劇《別對我動心》插曲) by Fiona Sit & For You, by Ree Lax - that one is so good I shared it with my son. There's a lovely scene where he's on an upper floor balcony and she's walking by. He takes flower petals and tosses them up to fall down around her.
Overall, the show works for me. The writing (even though it doesn't have a high business or tech IQ which makes it frequently sloppy in those areas) has a high EQ. It's the writing and the 2 leads that bring us Another Win.
〰🖍 IMHO
📣7.4 📝7.1 🎭7.5 💓7 🦋5 🎨7 🎵/🔊8 🔚8 🤗6 ▪ 🌞5.5 ⚡4 😅4 😭1 😱2 😯2 🤢1 🤔4 💤0
Age 12+ Language: b!+ch; Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned
Re-📺? won't say no
In order of ~lite & trite~ to ~heavy & serious~ you may also like:
💓 -
C🇨🇳:
A Little Thing Called First Love 8.5;
Find Yourself 8.9;
The Romance of Tiger and Rose 9.8;
The Sleepless Princess 9.1;
Wait, My Youth-8.4
Romance junkies only: Accidentally in Love-6.5 ‘18 B-level scripting, acting, and directing, but still fun/strangely relaxing to watch,
Well-Intended Love-7.5 Rom-porn - extra points for the dopamine but many object to an outrageous stunt the ML pulls,
Boss & Me-7
When I Fly Towards You-7.8,
You are my destiny-6.8 cute and sweet and 1/2 padding,
Meteor Garden-7.4 - 70% flowing 30% dragging and BOF is better,
Hidden Love-7.8
K🇰🇷 :
A Witch's Love 7.8;
Love To Hate You 8.9;
Touch Your Heart 8.2;
Crash Landing On You 9.1;
Oh My Ghost 10;
It's Okay Not to Be Okay 9;
Hospital Playlist 9;
My Mister 9.5;
🎎 -
C🇨🇳: Overlord 8.4,
Under the Power 8.6,
The Rebel Princess 9.1,
The Sword and the Brocade 8.6 (in ancient Chinese opera style),
The Rise of Phoenixes 9
K🇰🇷:
My Only Love Song 8.7 excellent comedy;
Mr. Queen 8.5;
My Sassy Girl 8.5;
The King's Affection 8.3;
Mr. Sunshine 9
🔮🐉-
C🇨🇳: Love Between Fairy & Devil 8.9;
Douluo Continent 9.4;
Handsome Siblings 8.7;
Ancient Love Poetry 8.6;
Love and Redemption 10
Japanese🇯🇵 lite romcoms: Maid Sama-10, Mischievous Kiss Love in Tokyo-7.8, Love, Chunibyo And Other Delusions-8.4, Toradora-8.5
Taiwan
Age of Rebellion-9.5,
The Fierce Wife-8 - worth sticking with,
Two Fathers-7.5
Originally 〰️🖋 4/2025
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cutesy, but basic
i finished it in less than a day, but did i watch it on 1.5x speed the whole time, yes.nothing original about this show, but the main leads had such good chemistry and its cute. THE ONE THING i was so annoyed about was that the story legit ended before like the climax of their relationship. we barely got anything in the last 4 episodes and that was disappointing.
i bet someone during the editing of this show was like i am a geniusss because the story starts in the new year and ends on it as well LOL. stella is really pretty and the gaming storyline was definitely the backbone of this whole story because there was little to no romance.
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This review may contain spoilers
I didn't like the ML and found it difficult to find them cute together cuz imo Gu Xun doesn't deserve her she's way too good for him. Zhou Ye and Lin Yi didn't have any chemistry like 0. I loved Zhou ye in Love Me, Love My Voice, she was perfect there and the ML was so charming, they had such a great chemitry you'd see herts in their eyes when they looked at eo. But unfortunately here i saw it in with Zhou Ye's acting but not in Lin Yi's. I think (since it's my 2nd drama with him in it) he's better without romance, he's not fit to play romantic leads. Heroic, smart or cunning leads yes but no rom-com for him.
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good modern romance, but why is it so hard to create a plot that lasts 24 episodes?
when I began watching this one I read a comment that said "it would be great if it had only 10 episodes" and I must agree... the acting is amazing and the characters are actually >really< well written, but the story starts to drag itself because you just have so much time and not much things to develop (enter some random plot lines)... and you can't even blame the writers because they did tried to delay them being together at maximum...anyways!
overall I enjoyed the story! the first part was a little bit hard to keep going because the female lead was clowning herself and de male lead was being mean without any necessity, but after the misunderstanding begins and the female lead really starts acting like any woman would, the story gets really fun!
what I enjoyed the most was because the story takes time to happen... for instance, they start working together before they graduate, but only get together a year later (I think) and this is a nice move for me because, for me, this means that their feelings and their mentally developed? in a way like the female lead was obsessed with him at first (without knowing him very well) and now can really get to know him and the same thing with him that nurtured this passion for her in an online world and now can discover different sides of her, etc.
in the end I really wanted to give this one a 5 stars just because is not that cringe kinda of plot 😅
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Quite good drama
I like the chemistry between Lin Yi and Zhou Ye. The way they portrayed the character is amazing. But but but... I think a little bit of story is getting boring around episode 12 to 15 but it's okay. Lin Yi is one of my favourite actors in C drama. And I started liking Zhou Ye after watching "love me , love my voice". But it is worth watching.....Was this review helpful to you?
Cute drama if you want something light-hearted and fun
The drama was super cute and was quite enjoyable. I had fun watching a few episodes every day when it was airing. I think that I enjoyed this drama more than if I had binged it because of the excitement for when certain plot points happen because I had enough time (days and weeks) to digest and indulge.The drama is about ML and FL who know each other both irl and through gaming, in which they are good friends. The FL falls in love with the ML in person, confessing to him, which he rejects because he likes someone through gaming which happens to be the FL. The story is mainly about the relationship arc of the FL and ML, as well as the work of the FL and ML at a gaming company.
I think the plot is where the drama falls the flattest. I think that the general setup of the story was fine, it's just that the amount of time that it took for the FL at first to chase the ML felt too long. I felt as if that part could have been shortened with time in their relationship since the part where they are together felt like it needed to and should have been longer. Nevertheless, I did enjoy anticipating and watching the moments where both the FL and ML find out each other's gaming identities, as well as the overall arc of the main couple's relationship and the company plotlines.
I thought that everybody did a pretty good job in the role that they had. I think that the chemistry between the leads was good but not the best. They each acted well enough for the roles that they had. I think Zhou Ye is the standout in this drama as she just perfectly captured the spunky and bold personality of Yue Qianling.
The osts were cute and lovely, just not the best that I've heard.
I think that I'll only be rewatching certain parts of the drama if I ever do want to.
Overall, it's a fun watch, perfect if you want to feel positive and happy after watching.
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Real-life crush VS gaming crush in complications
The show started on a good note as FL likes ML in real life while he likes her in gaming ..both are gaming enthusiasts working towards the gaming industries in their own way.. the concept was cute, especially as he gets jealous of himself unknowingly when he here's about FL's crush ( who is he himself in real life) ... There is soft romance ..healthy jealousy... Sparking chemistry with almost enough comedy between the two.I must say Zhou ye was the perfect choice for FL role she is my fav and I love watching her in playful roles. ML character compliment it even better (but I live for the FL here 🤗)
Coming back to plot the only thing I felt missing they added very less scenes about the process of creating games ... These days people don't watch drama just for the sake of love story but they actually look into the purpose/profession of characters. I wish they could have elaborated the process of game programming or something ... Rest is well directed ...
A soft delight to watch ..you can definitely go for it.
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'everyone loves me' is a good romance drama, there is a misunderstading that prolongs for a long time, but i don't think it makes the drama angst, just makes the quarrells happen for a long time. for me, it improved the development of the relationship better, since they had to go through all the stages of friendship. he ran after her, she accepted him as a friend, until they felt so much for each other that you could see the chemistry through their eyes.
i have two complaints about the drama in general
1. the ml has a situation with this mother that is never fixed (at least, its not shown)
2. the quality of the game they play together ir so weird... looks like cs but... cartoonish?
but if we ignore that, we have a healthy relationship, maybe more fights then we expect from a healthy one, but honestly bickering in relationships is so common i wish i could see this more often in dramas.
anyway, i looooooooove the actress that portraits the fl, she is so beautiful! i also really liked lin yi acting, but i feel like he is overrated? or maybe male actors are overrated in general and that just makes me more open and protective towards actresses. anyways. i liked the whole cast.
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Cute Romantic Modern Cdrama
honestly I watched this for Lin Yi but stayed for Zhou Ye. I love love love the storyline tho, since the whole plot with him rejecting her but it was actually her who he liked in the online game was so cute and the way he was chasing her, give a gu xun pls !! Also Lin Yi has chemistry with anyone. Honestly for this show, if anyone is looking for lighthearted and cheesy romcom it is perfect, the comedy is also okay, made me laugh a few times to LOL and a very enjoyable second watch for a cdrama for me. This show made me so intrigued by Zhou Ye that i started wanting to watch many of her shows. If you needed like a good refresher of a show ( i did watch this after till the end of the moon ) IT DID HEAL MY HEART TO BE HONEST. like the conflict between the main leads weren't as big as the ml and fl of till the end of the moon and i was grateful for that tbh. Hope to watch more dramas like this in the future !!Was this review helpful to you?
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watched for the angst— stayed for the grovel and chemistry
I picked this up as a break from heavier dramas— just wanted something fun, lighthearted, and easy to watch. In that sense, it delivered. If you’re angst-deprived and craving a good grovel/chasing arc, this can definitely be an enjoyable watch— one thing I appreciated about this drama.I liked Qianling's character. She stood her ground the moment she got rejected— Gu Xun definitely deserved the struggles he experienced after. Qianling's lack of trust and somewhat apathetic attitude toward Gu Xun felt justified and reasonable, which made her reactions more satisfying to watch (atleast for me)
That said, there are quite a lot of off-putting aspects in this drama. The characters often feel inconsistent, almost as if they’re acting out of character—I think a main factor for that is how underdeveloped they are. They lack depth throughout, which makes their actions feel less convincing. There were even moments where I found myself watching at 2x speed. While the work scenes and the game-related storyline had potential and were actually quite interesting at first, the execution felt dragging and didn’t fully pull me in.
I don’t think the writing is particularly strong overall. However, the on-screen chemistry between Zhou Ye and Lin Yi is undeniably appealing and very convincing. They truly carried the drama—and honestly, they’re the main reason I kept watching. Despite its flaws, it still works well as a light and easy watch. I was mainly here for the romance and kilig, and thankfully, that part didn’t disappoint. The OST is also catchy and adds to the overall vibe.
Would I recommend this? Definitely only for people who loves a good angst with groveling as cherry on top. Overall, this is a drama you watch when you want to turn your brain off from heavy, serious stories and just enjoy a light, slightly angsty romance.
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This review may contain spoilers
Nice, easy, low trauma watch with cute leads
I really enjoyed this series since it was easy to watch, mostly pleasant, and the leads were good. It does not break any new ground, and some criticisms in the reviews are spot on, but nonetheless I enjoyed the show. I really like the FL who did a really nice job playing the role from overly sweet (part of the plot), to in-your-face gamer and assertive woman, to geniunely sweet and empathetic. The ML, who drove me nuts in Put Your Head on My Shoulder (a series with one of the worst endings ever, although not the ML's fault) did a really good job here. I think the main couple did have good chemistry.My main criticism is the loss of trust by the FL for the ML near the end of the show. Yeah, it was brought on by yet another failure to communicate, but still. That was annoying.
The OST was pretty good for a CDrama. I bought a few of the songs off of iTunes (U.S.) by searching for this: 以爱之名
Anyway, for a light, fluffy watch, it is worth it. It was a good antidote to my just having watched Forever and Ever which was too heavy and slow. (Except for Bail Lu, of course :-) ).
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