Follow Your Heart

Luo Yun Xi & Song Yi of course here I'm coming. Haha...

Story about Yan Nan Xing (NX) & Jiang Xin Bai (XB). NX suffered from a strange disease, she will change into different person for 5-7 days on her period days... She can change into man, woman, child, adult or even elderly, nothing can be predict who will she change into. And that's all because when she's a little kid, she ingest a strange poison. And since that day, NX & her mom try to find the cure. Fortunately, her mom is the famous doctor & together both of them travel the world to find the cure for NX.

XB is a prince who suffer from face blindness due to his sickness in his childhood. And since this romance drama, in the end NX is the only person XB can recognize. Not because NX's face is the only face XB can see, but everything about her is just special for XB...

One thing lead to another, they journey intertwine with each other. And they find out their connection is much deeper than they expected at the beginning. And together they experience a lot of things together that make their feeling & relationship keep grow. And along side the journey they also find a few real friend that go through all the hardship together...

That's pretty much the story. Now what I like and don't.

What I like:
+ The chemistry between Luo Yun Xi & Song Yi quite good.
+ I really like how XB & Jiang Suo Luo (SL) relationship evolve in time...
+ Tong Sai Er is a silly & funny girl.
+ The not so original but still quite fun to see. How FL can change her appearance.
+ NX & SL both strong girl. I really like even though SL fully aware how big a screw up she made, when she promise her married to a man (I forget his name), yet she's not try to bailed that promise, she took the full responsibility for it.
+ The funny last scene, where the 3 groom choose their 3 bride... ^^

What I don't like:
- The bullshit of the medical nonsense. Like plastic surgery they did on Shang Bie Li. Oh my goodness....

Overall story quite fun, but also not really leave so much trace in my brain after sometimes.

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Sweetest Chinese costume Romcom

I wasn't expecting much from this drama. However, the first episode already hook me up with the beautiful film set up. I'm now at episode 20 and I must this drama is an all rounder. It doesn't have over the top story line with superhero etc but it is hilarious and the story is interesting. The lead actors are both great in their actings, very natural and you could really feel the sweet love in their eyes for each other, even without them proclaiming their love for each other. I was in for the comedy but surprisingly, the fighting scenes are amazing. It was quick paced without slow motion which reminds me of Hong Kong drama's fighting scenes in the past. The whole drama gives a nostalgic and calming feeling. Every characters are believeable, the settings are believeable, the passerby on the street are believeable, like they really live in that universe. I'm glad I foubd this gem. This is one drama which I would safe keep and watch over and over again whenever I feel down. Kudos to the whole team.

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Blame it on the lame writing

It was one of those dramas that people drop with lin first 5 episodes. The writer has no skill of story presentation. Even as a viewer i know you have press that impact in very first episodes to bind the viewers, whereas in this drama the first few episodes were the least impactful. Moreover the plot seemed quite confusing with events not in harmony with each other or the time leaps. Many a times you will find the time leap in the plot and what they mention in their dialogue doesn't match.
Moving forward it was a villain(s) oriented plot ..they just kept coming One after the other, whereas the temperament of the main leads was not convincing enough to tackle these. They could not provide the thrill that I was expecting from such case and criminals' long list.

Characters
Male lead is an investigating officer who is face blind (his face blindness made not much difference in the plot though). He was fine but not very smart in my opinion. If you consider closely none of his enemies was actually defeated by him, they either killed each other or committed suicide or well arrested by the other dept officer. He didn't achieve much without FL or other friends' help. It was frustrating to see his obsession with finding evidence and king's acknowledgement of his investigation😐 (while the king himself was a big loser his entire city is dumped in drugs for 20 years under his nose and he is waiting for god damn evidence 😮‍💨). He couldn't even fight the last villain who almost killed the FL. I personally don't prefer such ML. I like the ones who can play both sword and shield.

Yunxi luo did amazing job playing the lead ..he is one of my fav. He always bring his top-notch performance on the screen. It's always a delight to watch him.

Female lead was the real star for me. She is intelligent, beautiful, kind, street smart, loyal, successful businesswoman, resourceful and extremely focussed with whatever she does🤌. girl is dealing with a strange disease which makes her shapeshift around full moon, but she is smart enough to put this weakness to a good use and help ML with investigation. ❤️

It was my first time watching song yi work. I must say she is good . She has this unique charm that attracts the viewers plus her acting skills are also very nice.

Chemistry between the two is okay ... Yunxi 's chemistry with his co-actresses is often judged against his chemistry with bai lu ( that's a given their comfort with each other resonates on different levels) but I can't say Yunxi and song yi don't make a good pair.


Other characters
ML' sister: grown up brat who wants to own every person's secret and wants to be a part of every secret plan but can't keep any of these secrets to herself. She is a Big time troublemaker. ( Later turned goody-goody 😒)

Shang being li : hot blooded guard commander who acts before thinking ..very opposite to what our ML provides. NGL at many instances in the plot i liked him more than ML who was just .. well ...flat in his actions.

Tong sai er: country girl with good martial art skill .. she is loyal hard working and straight forward but aloof in love matters ..i liked this character a lot and she and the FL make a good duo

Other than that I liked also like phantom doctor/FL's mother character she was more helpful in 3 episode than the ML is entire series.


Music : the ost wasn't too impressive but other background song were so so so lovely ...THE SONG 'HEART'S LETTER' WAS THE BEST ... The BGM in this show made me remember the BGM of back from the brink( the most fav show so far) .

the cast did a great job with their respective characters but Blame it on the lame screenwriting the drama couldn't impress me much.

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WHAT THE FUCK HAPPEND? DID THEY CHANGE WRITER FOR 2ND HALF OF THE DRAMA?

REALLY DRAGGY AND SLOOPY WORK.
The first 23 to 26 episodes is good BUT......The last 10-15 episodes I literally completed in 30-45 min, seriously Boring and I wasn't even able to enjoy the Romance part. SO draggy. Please some tell the FL to sometimes listening to ML is Okay. Being independent lady is good but it won't hurt if you listen sometimes. All she does is make problems more complicated.

I taught FL will find medicine to become aa normal person but she turned back after ML hugged her wow. I think the writer followed the Korean format for this scene and it looked really sloppy after all the writing.

The Bandit turning bad is not necessary and has lot screen time. I really want to hit the writer who wrote his character the rather than character himself. ANNOYING. Sister's love story is too draggy and she lost the charms and seemed weak when compared to initial episodes. I taught she is intelligent and ambitious lady turned as a side character and does nothing till the end.

I really wished they followed a different format than Korean version. It's like they have taken " The beauty inside" and implemented the same format in this drama. To be honest the weakest villains I have ever seen in this kind of dramas. Everyone becomes a brainless characters at the end including Main and side characters. Lot of unnecessary deaths shown.

THE ENDING... Well showing marriage and happy ending to couples is good, But after all the draggy episodes one will lose their interest in watching it. Turned out to be weakest Last episodes

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Just what you’d expect from a rom com but with a couple of great character flaws

What’s not to like about a rom com whodunnit?

In the beginning the story centres around the love story of Jiang Xinbai (Luo Yunxi) and Yan Nanxing (Song Yi) who are thrown together by fate as they seek to discover the mastermind behind the illegal distribution of a pernicious drug called zornia. As the plot unfolds we find out that they also met as children when they were abducted by ‘bandits’. Xinbai smacked his head on a rock and became face blind when they tried to escape whereas Nanxing is fed poison which led to her being able to shapeshift.

Before long we meet two other (eventual) couples Soulou (Sabrina Chen) a duchess and the jaded sister of Xinbai & Liu Ruoqian (Gu Zi Cheng) an intelligent, sweet and kind slave and Shang Beili (Ryan Chang) sceptical commander of the Zingu Guards & Tong Saier (Huang Ri Ying) a simple yet loyal country girl. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that these four will also end up pairing off though due to many challenges their road to happiness is paved by massive obstacles.

What’s to like?
There are plenty of funny bits (the male protagonist’s mother’s tantrums were excellent). There were several layers of baddies before we found the mastermind who wasn’t who I was expecting. The main pairings were complex with plenty of character growth. There were more weddings than you could shake a stick at and there were some really sad bits the most heartbreaking of all was when the ML finally found the FL at the end.

What frustrated me?
I found the first couple of episodes very strange and put this drama on hold for a while but I’m glad I picked it up again a few weeks later and tried again. The wooden kissing scenes (which were few and far between thankfully as they were cringe worthy - and we all know LY can do it if you’ve seen Love is Sweet) detracted from the chemistry of the main leads who were otherwise on point and so in love. There was a weird and pretty pointless (on the whole) price war between the FL’s beauty parlour and another across the road which just irritated me.

Would I watch again? Probably not but on the whole it was a pleasant way to pass time.

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A great story that landed in tropeland

Things I loved- the cast! Great actors carried this story. The OST- rarely does music stick with me, but this OST was amazing.
Things that flopped- This great cast failed in the chemistry department. It was odd- some of the best pairings were not where they were supposed to be. The bloat in the script diluted what was a novel concept and story. This was especially apparent in the latter half of the drama. Annnnd... the tropes they introduced- noble idiocy and a time skip. Seriously- The story had the three wedding thing which was novel, but noble idiocy to get the third?! Ugh. The family owing a grand wedding was enough of a reason. The writers really lost the plot- and at the 37th episode! The ending was sweet and satisfying, but the last two episodes were really filler. You know its bad when you hit ff then. Highly enjoyable, different plot (with some plot holes). But my 10 rating dropped to an 8.5.

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Fckin' Entertaining

The historical Chinese version of 'Beauty Inside'
It is amazing.
They serve it up in such a captivating way that it leaves viewers (I'm talking bout me) wanting more. I ended up binge-watching the first 22 episodes in two days.

They nailed the principle of Observe, Imitate, Modify.
It's so good that I didn't even care about the unrealistic fight scenes and plastic surgery. It's just damn good.

And all the cameos are awesome.
They nailed Yan Nanxin's character; The way they speak and their body language is spot on!

I only have a tiny issue that doesn't affect the plot.
Luo Yun Xi still looks so skinny, damn, it’s been years... I need a producer and director to cast him as a beefy war general so that he eats more and looks healthy.
Every time I see him, I want to take him home and make him eat a lot.

P.S. Deng Kai!!! Another role as an a**hole??? This is your 6th drama as an a**hole... please stop, I'm begging you.

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Flawed plot but the depth is clear

Mystery/investigation dramas are my Achilles' heel.

BoJian was solid, however I think for Follow your Heart, this theme wasn't as strong as I hoped it to be. To make peace, this is viewed as a romance drama first and foremost - a tale of fate, comedy, healing the wounds we carry, and everyday/slice of life in the historical era of China.

If you can have this perspective, discarding the expectation of strong plot points and definitely throwing loopholes out of the window, I strongly believe this drama still retains its charms and can be thoroughly enjoyed.

First and foremost is there's absolutely no need for 40 episodes. I think 30 would've suffice, but we must remember the average episode count used to be 50-70 :') The goal seems to be that longer episode dramas have a higher chance of boosting viewership. emotional investment in characters, and high ratings. Hence even after the law has passed, the max of 40 seems to be what the industry clings to now.

For Luo Yunxi fans, this one is not to be missed. I had put this off in 2024 when it aired because it didn't seem like my cup of tea plot wise (as opposed to crime drama). I was on a plane to Beijing last year when the passenger across me happened to be watching this and he looked so much like a noble prince I gawked for a while and knew it was high time I flocked to watch it too LOL.

The performance is wonderful from all the cast. It has been a very long time since I was fuming at certain characters like I did for Suoluo (if you know, you know), physician Bai most especially that DEAN UGH. Just their appearances in the screen is enough to make blood boil. The villains are villany - and it's worth the watch.

I'm no stranger to my own insecurities, painful wounds or certain features that births the unwelcomed shame burning in the heart. Song Yi's performance of a girl who shapeshifts unwillingly is truly profound.

She truly believes she's a weirdo who can't have friends and destined to be lonely and unloved aside from her mom - such visceral portrayal of shame, pain, the desire to hide and immense fear is in her every expression and movements. She is afraid of people getting too close, knowing her secret and leave out of disgust.

It resonated deeply (which I hadn't expected going into this drama) and will make a lot of people feel very seen. It's difficult to overlook that Luo Yunxi somehow always picks dramas with depth, profound messages and values to impose on the viewer, and this one didn't dissapoint.

His expressions speak the wound so clearly "how can I bond with someone, when I can't even recognise them?" , you can't help but care about his character for being able to distinguish people by their intentions rather than purely looks. Once you see that Luo Yunxi has a aptitude for holding his tears for the shot, just raw, unrestrained emotions, you can't unsee it.

Despite possessing the wound of unable to even recognise his loved ones, it is this very trait that made the romance cut deep in viewers' hearts. True love is beyond appearances, and recognising one's soul through senses that borders on the spiritual side.

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