Perfect Match

Inspiring

The story and meaning behind this drama, in my opinion was definitely a good story.

A single mom raising daughter's, is basically a tough thing to do in any century, the challenges a mother face, the hardship she endure, the endless fighting she does, just to ensure her girls are well matched. For me this story showed unity within a family, the struggles they go through and challenges they face together to overcome any obstacles is truly unique in their strengths.

This shows unity with a family is by far more rewarding in heaven's eyes.

Something in today life and generation is lacking.

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Charming and Funny, with Some Flaws

To be absolutely frank, I watched this hot off the heels of The Double and only because it had Wang Xingyue in it. Good actors tend to choose roles and scripts wisely, and so far, he hasn't disappointed. I watched him as a villain in One and Only where he was outstanding.

So, I went into Perfect Match expecting another great show, and he didn't let me down.

Perfect Match is a light-hearted comedy with rich characters and some unbelievable plot twists. It's a period drama NOT, for once, set in the imperial court and there are no court politics to navigate. That by itself makes it different from all the other costume dramas I've seen so far. The story is about a widow with five daughters, four of them unmarried, and her prime goal in life is to marry them off. Reminiscent of Pride and Prejudice, there are misunderstandings, schemes, and issues of class and income to overcome with each match. One by one, however, the Widow Li finds the perfect match for the different temperaments of each daughter.

It's not all perfect, however. There are some things in some of the stories I found annoying. (Warning, SPOILERS AHEAD!)

For example, the second match of Du Yangxi and eldest daughter Shuhoa was just fraught with issues from the get-go. He's secretive and scheming, laying plans and executing them on his own, and she's mistrustful, giving him 'tests' of his feelings for her. Given how they began their marriage, the distrust was to be expected, but I found their storyline too unbelievable to like them as a couple. The youngest daughter was married off to someone who once threatened and bullied the entire family. THAT was a major red flag. No matter how they tried to explain it away (he was young and had unsavoury companions who led him astray--can you feel my eyes roll as I write this?), this was an appalling match. And the fourth daughter married a robot masquerading as a man until he had an accident and suffered a bout of--of all the tropes--AMNESIA. That apparently set him straight, turning Pinocchio into a real boy.

Perhaps the only two matches I was totally on board with (and I admit, I'm biased) were the third daughter and the stepdaughter. They rushed through the storylines of the youngest daughter and the stepdaughter, however, (six episodes for both, whereas the others each had ~10 episodes per couple) so these weren't properly fleshed out, sadly.

On the flip side, the sets are meticulous. The attention to detail with everyday life during the Song Dynasty is top-notch. The atmosphere is beautifully designed and, overall, if you don't take the crazy too seriously, Perfect Match is fun to watch. It's low-stakes and comedic, the acting is crisp and funny; it will draw you in, and before you know it, you'll be invested in the characters and will HAVE to watch the series till the end.

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Strong potential, alas, left me disappointed

I'm conflicted on what rating to give this drama. On one hand, it made me stay up until 3am, unable to stop watching even though I had to wake up in an hour for work. It made me go into fits of giggles, laughing in public like a madwomen.

On the other hand, I had to completely skip 10 episodes to be able to continue and, at the end, it gave me such a disdain towards the Lin family and it's brothers-in-law that it made me begin to doubt all my previous feelings towards the show as a whole.

I found the plots overall to be highly entertaining and well done. I don't care much about cliché or out of pocket stories, I think complaining about that is like if I were to complain about murder being in a thriller or magic being in a fantasy movie. That's simply the genre of the show. I liked the acting and the chemistry of most couples.

However, as I mentionned the cons of the series just were so big it truly turned such a good experience into contempt. I love real characters, characters with both flaws and merits. Yet, when a show portrays a flaw as a merit, it is unacceptable to me. Throughout the show, the Lin family is known to scheme. And a lot of the time, it is for good reasons or for a good moral cause. But not all the time. And when they hurt people and cause harm with the schemes, the show still portrays the scheming in a good light, telling us they had good reasons to do so. After a couple of uncomfortable moments, the way they handled Yang Xian was the final straw. It just made the whole family extrenely unlikeable, to the point that I wasn't rooting for them. I needed at least one scheme that showed them a lesson that they can't just play with people's feelings and lives just because they are uncertain about them.

Then there are smaller negatives about the show, such as the 2nd cp that was unlikeable to me as their foundation seemed very weak to me. A proud man who denies any women for his focus on his career and who is unhappy with the marriage, going as far as openly disrespecting his wife, changes his whole character once he glances at his wife. I know they slid in a "he read her poetry so it's not only about her looks", yet he didn't actually change his attitude until his eyes laid on her. Another one, is how we don't see much of the couple's dynamic after their episodes end.

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Overall a very good show but with some very questionable scenes.

I really enjoyed this show. It has a fantastic cast and I really appreciate the ensemble nature of it. It is a bit weird in that at each character featured plays progressively a smaller role the farther the story goes, but I do enjoy that it isn't the typical 2 main characters with comic relief side characters. Most plot lines are good and each of the men and woman are different enough and have distinct dynamics that make them enjoyable.

The main negatives for me is that there is a lot of just artificially placed issues with many of the romances. Obviously you don't want smooth sailing but for me personally there are too many issues caused by complete failure in communication and unreasonable assumptions / idealism.

There are also 4 or 5 five scenes that are really despicable but played off as lighthearted or reasonable. They are minor enough in plot relevance which makes it annoying that they were even included. Examples include prolonging a forced abduction for brownie points, insane gaslighting, and just weird and callous behavior between family members.

Overall the show is very enjoyable, mostly due to the cast and production. The characters all have their unique elements and likeable. While some are close to being Mary Sues, most of them are more nuanced than a lot of other main roles portrayed in Chinese dramas.

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MAJOR SPOILERS - Complaints about each couple's storyline

How I wish story should've or shouldn't have been:
(1) 1st Couple - It seems that Du Yanxi has been planning to take revenge on his dad for a long time. Maybe he didn't have a plan at that point but he could've given reasons to delay any marriage till he figured out a plot. If he happened to marry someone else instead and didn't fall in love with the wife, would he have allowed her to go through the same?
I don't dislike his character; he's flawed, but still a decent husband. He doesn't need to be the perfect ML. It's his whole plan I'm not a fan of. And why keep Shou Hua in the dark? Why not just tell her about your childhood trauma and plans so she can be better prepared? She might have actually helped you plot a better revenge plan that this coz she's so smart and cunning.
Also, a small point - they could've shown his reaction when he found out about the initial bride-switch that took place. That could've set a better context to his initial reaction to Shou Hua on their wedding night and not shown his character like an outright demon.
(2) 2nd Couple - Would've been nice to see some kind of quick backstory to how these 2 got married in the first place. It obviously seems to be arranged but how did the poor Li family from far away manage to even connect with the richer Fan family and arrange this? How come the Fan family even agreed to this marriage?
(3) 3rd Couple - I think the only thing I wasn't particularly happy about was the pretend-kidnapping stunt he pulled-off. It was cute but I felt like Kangning wasn't angry enough or scared enough about it coz imagining to be in her position of being picked up and sold off to traffickers is pretty frightening. Her sister Fuhui had a proper reaction of crying and relief. Any person would have this reaction even if it's your crush in front of you.
(4) 4th Couple - They're definitely my 2nd favourite couple in this show. But why go with the Amnesia trope? 😑 It felt lazy to me. Very Lazy. And it felt so odd to see a cold-hearted Hui Shao to be force-smiling. I thoroughly enjoyed the cases they solved together. But if they wanted a reason for the both to hang out and solve cases, they could've done so even without forcing Amnesia. Just a normal fracture or injury would do. And I definitely feel he should've told her at one point about his trauma with his sister (this was the most tragic plot in the show IMO).
This is what should've happened - Give him a fracture instead of Amnesia, make her take care of him. She starts noticing and reading through his cases and gives unsolicited opinions which he would start to appreciate gradually. Later he starts asking for her opinions upfront. Show the other 4 sister's involvement also when required. Definitely show the BIL Alliance. If she's not around, he would start to miss her in a friendly way. Along the way, he informs her about his past which makes her understand his behaviour. Now that he's opened up to her and feels vulnerable around her, slowly and steadily, make his heart melt for her.
(5) 5th Couple - I'm sure a lot of people agreed that this plot started well and ended in the garbage bin. Firstly, the violence was funny in the beginning, but it was starting to get a bit too unrealistic. It took me a while to understand that the dad had a concubine so I kept confusing her to be one of the sisters. I think her character should've been presented gradually or atleast make the audience aware that she's one of the evil ones. I get that they wanted character development for Yang Xian but it could've been done while they were rich too. The explanation of why the King Majesty decided to make his consorts poor was very weird. If they wanted to go with this plot, they could've atleast established a romantic relationship between Leshan and Yang Xian. We never got to see this till the very end. They had a chance to show affectionate scenes when he would visit her at her window but that didn't happen either. No hug, no kiss, only a stick to beat him with. (Even the 6th couple got a long hug)! It feels like they only wanted to show this as a funny couple but there was definitely chemistry brewing between the 2 that the writers SHOULD have exploited that but they never did and we all truly missed something good.
Oh, and that whole adopted sister of Yang Xian - completely UNNECESSARY. They didn't even use her for a Jealousy Trope.
(6) 6th Couple - Before getting into the plot, in my personal opinion, I find Qiongnu to be one of the most beautiful of the sisters. She has a combination of a pretty face, cuteness, sweetness, and elegance. Therefore, I feel the casting of She Cong was not the best. Their looks did not match at all. Forget everyone else for a moment, his looks did not even remotely match his own twin sister Kangning! Infact! The side actor who was casted as She Cong's right-hand man or his guard actually looked much better suited AND his sharp features could even match with Kangning's while complimenting Qiongnu's beauty.
Now getting to the plot, like someone rightly mentioned, we were truly robbed of a decent love story here. Only 1 singular uno scene. Realistically, if you knew each other before adolescence roughly 10-15 years ago, it's odd to suddenly have romantic feelings for each other. Even a single episode that was dedicated to this couple to establish some affection or atleast some respect would've worked.
They could've even showed a scene where he gets along with all his sisters and BILs but they only showed him hanging around Leshan for Yang Xian to feel jealous which also felt incomplete.
And why was it never mentioned that Qiongnu was promised to Madam Li's son when they were children? I just assumed she was an orphan who was rescued by him and so she was adopted by Madam Li due to pity and to honour her son's "death". This whole time, she was her to-be in-law. That changes the dynamic completely.
Now, aside from this, that whole plot about the case of 200 children and some priestess getting kidnapped, the whole scene with the King, She Cong and Shen Huishao (and what I'm assuming was the 4th consort who is now a priestess)...... I don't know why was this included nor did I understand how it impacted the story at all or for whom they had written it. It feels like this was part of a larger plotline that was cut out but because it was linked to Yang Xian and Leshan's scene, they left it I guess.
(7) There's no 7th couple and I know I'm asking too much now but I feel they could've done something small for Chun Lai. She was also quite pretty and cute.

I enjoyed this show alot, which is why I have so many complaints 😂

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A Perfectly Matched Viewing

I honestly didn't expect to enjoy a series I found out about through Reddit, but I suppose there's a first time for everything. It's been a while since I've truly enjoyed nearly every single episode of a series and Perfect Match was the one that brought me out of a rut! Plus, this show was HILARIOUS. There were so many parts throughout (outside of the obvious heartbreak and hardships) where I CACKLED. Like actually CACKLED out loud at the antics. It was so much fun.

PLOT:
The main theme of the show surrounds Madam Li and her 6 daughters (5 real daughters, 1 adopted). The story develops around the seven characters, where Madam Li (widowed) and 5 of her daughters are moving to Bianjing, where Fuhui (daughter #2) lives with her family. The show displays the hardship of the Li family, of having to endure the humiliation of the Li men from other branches of the family extort and extract as much money from Madam Li. And this is where the story begins with a new life in Bianjing. They encounter hardships and heartbreak along the way.

The plot revolves around the family and really emphasizes the closeness of the sisters and the mother (which I absolutely loved). There isn't much backstabbing among the sisters; they all get along really well (even the 2 youngest have a semblance of understanding about the situation they're in) and how they all need to work together in order to succeed in life. This is the main theme of the series. It's very character-driven and shows how much each sister has the chance to grow as a person, even their mom does too (slightly) in the end.

Once the tea shop is established, the story follows each of the sisters and how they resolve the problems in their love lives. Although I usually roll my eyes at these plotlines, I truly enjoyed how this series was written (except for the last few episodes where I felt they rushed things for Qiongnu [adopted sister]). Other than that hump, the way they go into each of the sisters and their journey to falling in love was really sweet. A bit saccharine at times, but overall nice.

***SPOILER***
For Haode (sister #4) and Shen's storyline, I thought it was strange that they didn't really finish the whole subplot of his dad wanting to kill them? Maybe I missed something but I thought they were going to have some sort of reveal in the end but it focused more on Haode and Shen's relationship. Which is fine but why introduce that subplot if you weren't going to do anything about it in the end?

***END OF SPOILER***

CASTING:
I have adored Lu Yu Xiao ever since I saw her in My Journey to You and Wang Xing Yue is just too beautiful to look at ever since I discovered him in The Double (though I really TRULY wish someone would properly colour-match this handsome man! Like COME ON!! Why does he keep looking sallow in every shot?? I KNOW the makeup artists can do better). They were the first couple that fell in love and honestly, if they were dating IRL, I would be so happy! I felt their chemistry was soft and fun - obviously their characters called for it but they're so cute together.

I felt the cast did a really great job. My fave sisters were Kangning (sister #3) and Leshan (sister #5). Their cunning and Kangning's ability to spin tails was giving Sagittarius vibes, FOR SURE. This woman would be formidable in today's world. Leshan really stole my heart though. The youngest of the family, she's sheltered and pampered, and as a result of hanging with her sisters, even more cunning and ruthless when it comes to protecting them. It's funny to think about the youngest sister being the most ferocious but in way that's true (I'm the youngest). Plus, Leshan's ability to always have some sort of billy club on her when she marries into the Yang family was legendary. I CACKLED SO HARD WHEN SHE PULLED UP HER SKIRT TO REVEAL ANOTHER BILLY CLUB!!

I also have to give credit to Ni Hong Jie (Madam Li). She was the ferocious Mama Bear who goes out of her way to protect any of her kids, unless they deserved the trouble. Even though she had been widowed, browbeaten by her husband's family, she still managed to raise all of her children on her own, then when they were grown, brought them to a new city and opened a business that became successful. Plus, she was absolutely hilarious. Her expressions and her ferocity is matched by her ability to hit her children and protect her son-in-laws as well. I also loved the actress in Guardians of Dafeng though they really didn't use her artistic talent to its full potential.

OVERALL:

All in all, I enjoyed this show very much. I only gave it a 8.5/10 because there were a few plot holes but I understand that no story is ever perfect. The theme of community, of family, sisterhood, and never giving up is woven throughout the series really well. It does become a bit formulaic for each sister as the series goes on, but again, that's fine. It's not as noticeable as one might think.

If you're ever in the mood for a sweet romance that centers around women helping women, of outsmarting the men around you that they have to form an alliance to counteract your schemes, and hilarity, I would definitely recommend Perfect Match! It satisfied all of my C-drama cravings. The worst part is.... now I have to find a new show to watch! *cries in too many options*

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Perfect all round happy ending for all

When I started this show I knew I would be getting 5 different storylines for all the pairings so I knew it would be an entertaining show. What I wasn't expecting was for it to be so varied in genres within those storylines.
It gave us longing, drama, rivalry, family secrets, forced proximity, healing, and more drama in all shapes and forms including murder mistery!

I will say though, that I personally got a little bit bored during Shouhua's arc so I skipped a couple scenes to get through it quicker, but that's my personal preference in regards to pacing. There's a little bit of everything for everyone in here.
My favorite sister was Leshan, maybe because I identify with being the youngest and fiercest in my family, but my favorite relationship arc was Haode's, followed by Kangning's.

The ending was quite satisfying with everyone happy and that's all I'll say on that.

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For The Hopeless Romantics

Some romance dramas tell stories of people who find love in life, but this drama, this one tells stories about people who live for love. This one is romance in its pure form, and hopeless romantics, this one is for you!

I love everything about this. I love the healthy, empowering dynamics of the Li matriarch and her daughters, and between each daughters. They love each other deeply, and their daily lives together are so heartwarming to see.
Each daughters are given their own spotlight and their own stories, and I really love how drama focus on the stories one by one, part by part, so we can focus on the development between the couples better, without overlapping mixed feelings and all.

In summary, personally, I think the tags/vibes for the couple stories are:
1. 1st daughter: noona romance, older woman x younger man, calm couple, power couple, scheming couple (the good ones), the overall feeling of their story is slow and soft but dramatic
2. 2nd daughter: mommy romance(?) lol idk how to explain it but like, the man is such a mommy's boy, he also listens and fears for his wife, and literally a good for nothing young master, but he's kind and really funny and the most earnest of them all. the vibes are the old married couple who's been together for twenty years
3. 3rd daughter: bickering couple, rival to lovers, mutual pining (both are oblivious at first), neighbours, scheming couple (the naughty ones), the vibe is full of banters and jibes and teasing each other, but both loves earnestly and openly
4. 4th daughter: one sided pining, unrequited love, amnesia, warm woman x cold man, that law enforcement couple who defends the locals, the vibe initially is a bit sad, then it becomes cute and funny, then a bit sad again, then it becomes cute again lol i love the rollercoaster!
5. 5th daughter: enemies to lovers (quite literally), good woman x bad man, freespirited couple, the messy rich household backyard affairs, one sided physical banter, one sided pining (but he's bad at pining so), switched brides (on purpose) like god the vibes are literally slapstick comedy and dumbasses falling in love, right person at the right time

Also for someone who gets anxious easily with conflicts, this drama gives me none of it, like no stress at all, I'm really happy with this one. Recommended if you love romcoms, and likes multiple leads drama!

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FIVE Heartwarming,light and interesting stories packed in one.

Plot - The show has the story of a widowed mother and her 5 daughters. The bond between the daughters, their quirky personalities and many talents...and the kind of men they end up attracting is interesting to see.

Actors - All the actors have done a great job but I am especially a fan of the actors who acted as the THIRD (husband of first widowed daughter) AND FOURTH HUSBAND. All the female leads and the mother have done an amazing job. They have put their all into the role.

Cons - The most disappointing part of the drama was the treatment of Yang Xian. The fact that they treated him like trash AFTER HIS SINCERE EFFORTS and redemption (all because he lost his wealth) is truly sad because he would have NEVER done that to the people he calls family. He even forgave his sister. Its a shame that they treated him badly and laughed about it. He endured the most pain, heartbreak and humiliation and Li family had zero remorse for it.

The FL ( second daughter) is too harsh and physically abusive to her husband which I do not condone..They have tried to make it funny but its never funny. The actors managed to make it light despite this major drawback in the writing so...kudos to them!

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Loving this show so far (completed 6 episodes)

This show pulls you in within the first episode with its slapstick humor and over the top antics of some of main characters who have big personalities. There’s nuance and some characters manipulate and lie. If you’re not paying attention to the dialogue, it’s easy to misunderstand what the writers are trying to reveal about the main character personalities and relationships. Episode 6 does a good job of reiterating the misunderstandings to pave the way for the enemies to lovers transition for one couple.

The Li family and Chai An are actively pressing their interests forward which keeps the tempo of the story telling moving. The actors deliver strong performances. Wang Chu Ran, Wang Xingyue, and Liu Xie Ning are as gorgeous as ever. The set design, costumes, use of livestock and horses support the story as a realistic period piece. Also like that the storytelling is showcasing the food (baozi, roasted goose, varities cakes and pastries, etc) of that time period and that when people sit to eat or drink, they are occasionally really ingesting something. I’ve noted in other shows how a group sits down to eat and they talk and no one actually eats.

My only regret after watching the first 6 episodes is that future episodes are being rolled out in 1 to 2 episode increments.

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