The Best Day of My Life

It’s a very pleasant and comforting drama to watch. In my opinion, it isn’t particularly gripping, but it’s perfect for someone looking for a calm love story about feelings rekindled after many years. From beginning to end, the male lead is clearly in love and waits for the right moment to confess. The female lead’s feelings develop gradually, and at first she doesn’t even admit them to herself. At the same time, I had the impression that some things happened too quickly. This feeling was reinforced by their sudden marriage. At times, I simply couldn’t see a clear cause-and-effect progression, even though the story tried to justify it by saying that she wanted to marry someone quickly - that argument didn’t really convince me. It all happened right after their “breakup,” which she initiated because she was uncertain, and at that point nothing had actually changed. She was still unsure about his feelings. Even so, it was still a sweet and comfortable relationship to watch, especially for anyone who just wants to switch their brain off.

The second couple was also enjoyable to watch. They were a bit silly, somewhat childish, and exaggerated, but overall they added color to the series by serving as a contrast to the more mature main couple.

As for the remaining characters, I’d describe most of them as rather bland. They weren’t developed much and didn’t feel particularly important, which is why most of them aren’t very memorable. Still, most of them were fine, and overall there isn’t really a truly hateable character who would make your blood boil - maybe with the exception of the male lead’s father, but he doesn’t appear that often.

The only character who felt truly puzzling to me was Chen Xi, the woman who studied with the male lead. It seemed like she was in love with him, but those feelings were never reciprocated. However, this was never clearly explained to us, so whether that was actually the case is left entirely to speculation.

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The best part of this show was the female lead

==Breakdown==
Background plot - 25%
Romance - 50%
Misc comedy - 25%

Background plot - Boring
Romantic chemistry - She was great, he was terrible
Misc comedy - Meh
Production value - Not great

This show was frustrating to watch, mostly because I loved the FL-- the character and the actress-- but watching the ML behave so entirely tepid for the entirety of the show was incredibly frustrating. I completely understood why the ML would've fallen for her as the storyline dictated. At first, I felt their chemistry and waited in anticipation for him to show *some* emotion. But ultimately, by the end of the show, the acting (and directing) choices for the ML's character were so bad. I believed her feelings for him; I did not believe he had any feelings for her.

The story was fine. Very typical and predictable. Production values were also fine. Secondary storyline was extremely boring.

I hope Jiang Zhi Nan gets a better acting partner in her new show. I'll keep an eye out for her future projects.

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So much wasted potential.

Like I've stated before, Cdramas continue to stay further behind Kdramas. Over the past few years, there have been some really good dramas out of China, but they have almost always involved the most famous cast members with larger budgets. The FL here finally has her big break after When I fly towards you, but you can tell she's trying so much. She's insanely talented, no doubt, but she can't fix this mess. It really seems like they picked random people out of the street and just forced them to read lines to each other. It's that bad, there's just zero chemistry between cast members. The delivery of the lines, the writing itself, the plotlines that make little sense. It's horrendous.

I'll give a few examples, but I'll be quick. They have a relationship contract so that the FL's mother can stop annoying her. That's it, that is literally the reason why they agree to it. Then 9 episodes later filled with plotlines that could have been done in ONE episode, they decide to get married for some reason. Because why not? They hadn't even kissed btw. Then there's the problem with the weddings. They all have weddings, but no one to officiate them. No family. The FL has her parents show up in about 3 episodes, but that's about it. It's explained that the ML lost his mom when he was young and only has his aunt and a jobless father who gambles. Even so, it was extremely weird that they just glossed over weddings and missed out on potential scenes to demonstrate a coherent plot. The supports are even worse, with an editor forcing the female support to "find love soon" so she can find inspiration for her latest book. None of it makes logical sense. Their marriage on the beach was a little bit cute though. Depiste the fact that there is no guests, no officator, and not even the camera man is shown. Someone is just "mysteriously" taking pics.

The worse offender? The writers forget the age of their own characters. They end up getting married at 29. Their support and best friends marry and quickly have a kid. Six years pass, and the main leads still have no baby. By this time, they are at least 35 or 36. Finally , they talk about having a baby and miracously have one nine months later. I can't make any of this up. The writers literally expect the audience and the story to remember them as 29 year olds in love.

Anyhoo, sorry for the uneven review. I'm currently writing this at midnight and keeping it under five minutes. Why? Because this drama should have been dropped within that time frame. Don't make the same mistake I did. That being said, I do hope the FL is cast again in a main role. She's absolutely wonderful, and they did her dirty here.

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Healthy but underwhelming

There's a delicate balance between "healthy relationship" and "interesting" that very few dramas get right, and I think this show fell into that trap as well. While I enjoyed how the misunderstandings didn't last long and that the leads talked to each other a lot, ultimately I felt like it made the story underwhelming. Big decisions like getting married or moving in didn't really have the needed weight to it, making me feel like I had missed something, and when the leads got together it didn't quite feel earned. The same applies to the second leads, who were pretty cookie cutter.

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Short, sweet, romantic!

A good in-between serious shows series, I liked the FL a lot in When I fly towards you, so I decided to watch this series. It was a short series of 14 episodes, and I binge watched it in one day. There isn’t much to the story, introvert boy has a crush on his high school desk mate, meets her again after 10 years, the girl being oblivious to his feelings all this time. They decide to be some a fake couple due to the FL being under pressure from her parents to marry, while it suits the ML perfectly, and he cares for the FL a lot, but they eventually separate because of misunderstandings and entry of love rivals on both sides. Soon after, they decide to get married after meeting on a blind date with each other. The FL has developed feelings for the ML by now but neither of them admit to having fallen for the other. Finally when the FL finds out about the ML’s long standing love for her, they are happy and sweetly in love. We also have our second leads who are best friends of the ML and the FL, their relationship was fun too, but I found myself fast forwarding some of their parts. If you are looking for a proper story with romance as a background, this series isn’t for you, but if you feel you want to watch a light hearted romance which isn’t too mushy, go for it.

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Light, fluffy, no angst

What I liked:
1) Fewer episodes.
2) Shorter episodes.
3) ML and FL were beautiful to watch and oh, so cute together.
4) FL wasn't an idiot
5) Okay kisses (see below)
6) I smiled a lot while watching this
7) Flashbacks weren't overdone
8) Second couple wasn't too annoying
9) Potential triangles were resolved quickly
10) Voices were okay
11) I love when the ML falls first, and I'm a sucker for the destiny trope
12) Cute flashback that explained their whole past relationship. However, see #6 below.

Not so much:
1) What was with the editing? There seemed to be a big chunk missing, and suddenly they were married!
2) The potential triangle (both male and female) felt like add-ins and didn't bring anything to the story.
3) More time spent on the 2nd couple than the mains!
4) Some bad attempts at kisses. Their mouths weren't even in the same vicinity.
5) Even with the shorter duration of the show, it felt like there was time wasted. I'm usually disappointed in the editing (or lack thereof) in Chinese shows.
6) Lack of dramatic reveal of feelings. It's like they kept them all bottled up throughout the show and then just had a brief conversation about being in love. Lots of emotion missing from the scene.
7) Wasn't feeling chemistry between the mains.

All in all, it was a cute, easy show to watch.

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The second half is weak!

I enjoyed the first 7 or so episodes, up to that point I felt the ok chemistry & the relatively fun bickerish content carries the show, that despite the lack of a hint of originality. However after that, from epis 8 to 11 we have really hit rock bottom. Suddenly competing love interest are introduced & there is a misunderstanding fueled breakup. Sure everything gets resolved quickly enough, however the *superstrong spoiler* event in episode 11 is just plain weird & their whole relationship dynamic with the new status quo is also a bit of a joke. After e12 everything is resolved of course & we go through the motions. Though as much as love long happy endings, this one is exactly the same as in most mediocre cdramas, presented the most boring way ever, yawn.

There were times when I felt the production team has done a really sloppy job. For instance the show featured yet another $1000 adopted stray cat, gosh is it really that hard to get a perfectly fine and lovable SIC from a shelter? (especially considering the backstory & the name) If the cat is a product placement, then at least don't claim it's a stray, for the love of god this is so dumb. (This is one thing `No Gain, No Love ` did well)
Another is that when they went back to ML's childhood home & they've talked about not finding anything else of value other than a few things in a box, meanwhile the camera has shown tens of thousands of $s worth -or way more- of expensive furniture and other stuff around the house, but dad is losing the house because of gambling woes, ok sure. Also the home itself looked like $3.000.000. It's a bit like how when children put on a play without a set & it's the audience's job to look past the venue's ill fitting features & just focus on the dialog.

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Sweet and that's it

Things I liked

1 The FL. She is cute and her character was sweet and luminous. But that's it. There was nothing more. No sparks, no chemistry, no dynamism. I'm baffled that this drama has an 8 while others much more interesting are rated lower. This was boring and was lacking something. Especially after the first 4 - 5 episodes, it became tedious.

2 The ML. I liked him but I didn't love him. He was too bland to awake any feelings in me. Negative or positive. I don't think he's a great actor, but I can't make myself put him on the "dislike" list. That said, the couple lacked chemistry and sweet isn't always enough.

3 The script itself. I adore tropes and high school friends or enemies is one of my favorite tropes, but here it was lackluster. Nothing was interesting, every scene dragged down the whole series.

Things I disliked

1 The 2 FL. I found her spoiled, annoying as hell and I wanted her to get rejected and live alone. What an unpleasant character.

2 The ML. It's not the actor but hi s character was also too juvenile and that he fell for that stupid and spoiled woman, the 2FL sealed his fate. Otherwise I could put him in the "liked" list.

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all the cliches in 1 drama

It's such a good one to watch when you don't know what to watch. It's simple but also has such good moments that make you kick your feet.

The cast is incredible, some scenes were a bit fake but I think that's because they wanted to do it fast. It's a 30min per episode and it only, so some scenes/plots seem a bit rushed. As the review title says: it has all the cliches you could imagine and they did it in a good way.

(spoiler here)
Loved the way he thought about her opinion and feelings about having a child of their own. That's not something usually shown and I really like it.

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