Perfect Match

It is a good Costume drama about the bonding of the five sisters as they manage life in a new city.

The Perfect Match is a costume drama about a widower who moves her family to Bianjing with five daughters, each with a unique personality. They tried to fit into the society then, where women were not permitted to be successful. Mrs. Li works hard and, with the help of her daughters, opens a small business in Bianjing. She eventually marries all her daughters to high-society gentlemen.

Personally, I like the stories of the first, fourth, and last daughters much better than the stories of the second and third daughters. Their stories were more interesting because they had rich plots, whereas the second and third daughters' stories were dull and ordinary.

Ni Hong Jie did well as the domineering yet loving mom to five girls. The sister bonding was good, and there were some funny parts. The mom is witty and dramatic.
- The older sister's story and acting are better.

Synopsis: During the Northern Song Dynasty under Renzong, Mrs. Li, from a wealthy Luoyang family, moves to Bianjing with her daughters, each unique in personality, to reunite with her second daughter and resolve a family matter. Despite their beauty and talent, her daughters struggle with marriage prospects, prompting Mrs. Li to seek new suitors in Bianjing. However, their journey is met with challenges, including social setbacks and difficulties in settling down. Ultimately, through perseverance and twists of fate, the Li family finds suitable husbands for the daughters, creating a lively comedy about marriage in the Northern Song Dynasty.

My Reviews:
1. Acting: 8
2, Script: 8
3, Music/OST: 8
4, Production Quality: 8
5. Cinematography: 7.5
6. Rewatchable: 7
7. Onscreen Chemistry: 7

Overall Rating: 7.5

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Not So Perfect Match

Perfect Match isn’t exactly a perfect match for everyone, but despite its flaws, the heart of the show shines through in its family dynamics and emotional moments.

When I first started this series I really couldn't get into it for the first couple of episodes. I held off watching it, taking long breaks between each episode. There wasn't much happening in the very beginning of the series but there was that slight intrigue of wondering what's going to happen between the couples that kept me from dropping it. I'm glad I didn't!

Perfect Match is one of the few series I've seen with multiple couples and enjoyed but it is far from perfect. There are many cliches, annoying or recycled plot points, some very over-the-top events happening that took away the immersion, but overall it was worth the watch. I liked that each sister got their own screen time, but I disliked that the other sisters were basically abandoned/turned into side characters once they got their happy ending. Some storylines felt too long while others felt too short. The passage of time was quite unclear, there were mentions of children but we barely see any of them, etc. What I truly loved the most was Mama Li, even though I'm unmarried and don't have children of my own, I truly felt all she went through. Having to raise six daughters without your husband, money and terrible relatives, especially in those times is truly a difficult and scary task. And then after you have raised them like flowers, having to find truly good husbands for them... oof! She really is a trooper!

Out of all the storylines my favorites are in this order: 4th Lady<3rd Lady<5th Lady<1st Lady<2nd Lady

I would say the biggest character growth and the longest screentime had to be for the 4th sister. She really went through A LOT, her story was the most interesting of all. But she moved on from the "events" that happened to her way too fast. Like the rest of some plot points in other sisters storylines, some BIG plots weren't really addressed/were skimmed over too fast in 4th lady's storyline and because her story was the more "bigger stakes" one, it felt incomplete.

The Li sisters are better than me because 80% of what some of the MLs did would instantly make them a big FAT no for me lol.

Things I liked:
1. The husbands who were down bad for their wives
2. Smart sisters United!
3. Mama Li <3
4. The relationships between everyone in the Li family

Biggest problems:
1. No communication for creating plot twists/angst
2. Constant beatings... I'm looking at you 2nd and 5th sisters. Like I get MLs are supposed to be good men who don't touch women even if they are being beaten, but 5th sister beats everyone and all the other men just... take it? That ruined the immersion for me especially with how terrible some of the supporting characters were.
3. A somewhat recycled version of the same dynamic/story in every single couple. As an analogy: It felt like each sister’s story was basically the same sentence, just written in different scripts -- one in pinyin, one in traditional Chinese, and one in simplified. Different on the surface, but structurally almost identical.
4. Rushed. Rushed. Rushed!

Overall, this was an enjoyable watch. If you're like me and don't have much patience, I'd recommend you to give it a chance for at least 5 episodes. If you didn't find it interesting you should probably drop it, but if it was growing on you, definitely continue.

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Felt like a combination of short stories

This slice of life romantic comedy featured a strong widowed mother of 5 daughters and her journey to have them all wed to worthy men. We watch as the story takes us through each daughter and their tumultuous matches to find peaceful marriages.

With high production value, beautiful styling, excellent acting, and entertaining couples this show is a good way to pass the time. It provides great comedic timing at points and enjoyable chemistry between most of the pairs. What lowers the rating for this show for me however is the repetitive formulaic arc movement and disconnect between the couples especially in the second half of the show.

Broken into 4 main story arcs we watch the 4 unmarried daughters find husbands and experience newlywed life. Each arc and story starts in the same way with the daughter being smart and cunning while the men are rakish, cold, and domineering. This stands true for all 5 daughters. Each woman is depicted as kind, righteous, virtuous, and can outsmart anyone while the men are all rude, spoiled, and very flawed. Each daughter then spends her arc taming her man until they each become the same lovesick husband that bends to the women and improves himself. This repetition becomes fatiguing by the third arc and painful by the fourth. I found myself beginning to fast forward as we got further into the series for this reason. Each man was also progressively worse than the one before at the start of each arc.

This drama also failed to maintain the sister dynamic consistently through the end of the drama. While the beginning allowed them to share more of their struggles together due to being unmarried and living together we see toward the second half that the older three sisters just begin to fall away. While it makes sense to see them less due to new family ties it also failed to maintain the connection for the viewer because we essentially get no closure with the couples as we continue to move on to the next making this entire series feel more like a collection of short stories.

There was also very little thought put into the sixth adopted daughter's storyline with the series passing her off with just a few lines of dialogue. There are sections that are fun to watch but also long sections where it is very boring making this feel much longer than the 36 episodes it actually is. While I love this premise and will always adore strong women I think this would have benefited from either less daughters to marry off or varying up the tales each told. Instead of every daughter marrying the same difficult man and then spending her arc taming him and his family they could have focused more on the sisters dynamic by creating at least one marriage with less friction upon the bride entering. Overall not a bad story but I wouldn't watch it again. This heavily reminds me of New Life Begins, which I preferred over this drama, while also reminding me of The Sword and the Brocade with each family drama.

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Praises to the MOM!!!

Praises to the MOM!!! Raising so many daughters is not easy. Her being hard on them was only for their own good. It's great to have a mom like that. I didn't watch the trailer for this but I know Wang Xingyue work.
I thought that the series was based on him and Lu Yuxiao but surprisngly, it was based on all the daughters. So you get a little bit of their lives after getting married. Some are exciting while others are more laid back.
I do realized that after a while, you dont see much of 1st and 3rd sister.
Listen, I am biased because I wanted to see more about the 3rd sister and her husband.
***SPOILER*** They didn't even show or talked about when she was pregnant. They only mentioned "kids" in the last episode so we can only assume it happened in that 3yrs.
But, I believe the writer did good to keep us entertained with their lives so we didn't get bored.
Overall, it was a decent watch!!!! They all found their perfect match

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Ancient Soap Opera

LIKE

I like how the story slowly moves through all the festive seasons

Did not know ancient times are so open minded where ladies could re-marry as many times as they want

Never-ending drama ups and downs one after another

Li Wu Niang’s marriage totally bizarre - hilarious

What Wu Niang did to Yang Xian on their wedding night and his friends at a restaurant

DISLIKE

All good

MUSIC - personal fav

红鸾 Hong Luan - 吴宣仪 Wu Xuan Yi
截冰 Jie Bing - 张曦匀 Zhang Xi Yun

REWATCH VALUE

Five for now

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Battles of the Sexes: Ancient Marriage Edition

This drama is half family drama, half romantic comedy, with an overarching question intertwined throughout all the storylines: Who is more important: man or woman? Son or daughter, husband or wife, father or mother?

The premise: The Li family, without a male figure in their family (a dead father and a long-lost brother) escapes their money-hungry relatives to the capital to start anew. The protective and sometimes brash mother seeks good matches for her four daughters (a fifth one is already married) and adopted daughter while trying to make a living and make enough money to provide dowries for the daughters. The sisters and mother stand strong together in the face of trouble and danger, navigating out of different schemes to a peaceful and happy end.

With this kind of story and setup, the story heavily emphasizes on the sisterhood and mother-daughters bond, supporting each other fiercely. Because the father died when they were fairly young, they have faced all kinds of misogynistic, societal, and hierarchal problems, and know they must sometimes trick people. It's not always nice, but it's a method of surviving and gaining a better hand. It's also a way to get justice and revenge for their family because they sometimes can't fight people outright due to their low status and identity.

IF YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THE POINT ABOVE, then I think you will enjoy this drama because you are sympathetic towards the Li family. And you can understand why the Li sisters (and mother) take certain actions or behave in certain ways toward the male leads.

IF YOU ARE THE TYPE OF PERSON TO "PITY" THE MALE LEADS for any little wrong thing that happens to them, then I don't recommend this drama for you. The female leads often have to take certain actions or make certain plans that aren't beneficial to the male leads. Especially since the male leads are mainly all leads who have a certain high regard/reputation or high status (noble or royal, typically), and they are men in a patriarchal society, so the odds are always in the men's favor. My advice? Don't feel (too) bad for them. They get humiliated at times, but their reputation won't be completely destroyed the way it would for women. Also, they aren't helpless. Because they're smart, they know how to scheme as well in subtle ways to protect their pride, too. So don't feel (too) bad for them because they will always end up fine.

A few warnings and reminders:
-This is ancient times, where physical abuse is tolerated and even expected if an elder needs to discipline a younger person or a wife needs to be rough with a husband to get him under control. So, expect that a certain level of physical punishment is okay in this time.
-The men WILL do some annoying schemes in the beginning of the drama--especially in a few of the couples' storylines. Be prepared to be baffled and annoyed, but if you can get through that, the latter relationships are quite enjoyable!
-The men on this show will say one thing, but do another. This drama shows the complex layers of marriage life and of men and women. Men, in public or in front of other men, will put up a front and try to be all tough. But men in private will not be quite so.

Overall, watch it if you support women's rights (and wrongs). Don't watch it if you're a men's rights activist. (JOKING. But also, I'm half serious.)

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Cn ver of bridgerton, but slightly more chaotic

A wholesome watch, I loved the family dynamics, the sisters (Shou Hua loml). The alliance between the brother in laws was my favorite. I loved everyone of the actors/actresses and am keeping an eye out for their other projects. While it did have its flaws, I loved it.A definite rewatch.
Something I would like to note, in regards to certain things that deterred people from this drama.
Misogynistic Male leads:
Honestly, yes in the start most of them are misogynistic (some more so than others) but that is a part of the point because after meeting their respective partners all of them went through decent character development. They have flaws but they learn and become better partners. Its actually progressive.

Some pills were tough to swallow to be honest like YangXian but he does go through character developement...
My Favorite couples/storylines
1. Haode/Huizhao AND Shou Hua/Yanxi (both of them had me in a chokehold so they tied)
Shou Hua and Yanxi might be controversial, Yanxi was an idiot in the beginning but he went through a lot of character growth and become one of my faves. He was so adorable, the scenes where he tried to grovel were my favorite.
Huizhao was best boi no other words needed to be said. Would watch the drama a 100 times just because of Huizhao and Shou Hua

2. Leshan/Yangxian
Despite Yangxian being a tough pill to swallow watching leshan beat the shit out of him made me very happy. The scenes between him and Madam Li stole my heart. The found family dynamic they had
3. Kangning/Chai An
They were fun to watch but didnt leave that much of an impression on me tbh. The scheming aspect was fun.

last Fu Hui and her husband
Her husband was a huge loser and definitely shot my blood pressure at the start but he becomes more like phil from modern family. His idiotic antics were fun to watch later on tho

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Low stress and funny watch.

My fave couple was the youngest sister and her husband. Loved how she beat the shit out of him and his aunt. Unfortunately, I didn't like the forced angst in the end with the separation.

After that, the 2nd youngest sister and her husband. For once, the amnesia plot worked well for the plot and the relationship. Love that she was smart and helped deal with the court cases. Plus, they dealt with their issues with the quickness.

The story with the 3rd eldest sister was good, but they also got annoying at the end with the angst.

I shall not be talking about the eldest sister, coz she most certainly got the short end of the stick with her husband. Definitely my least favourite couple

Comic relief from the 2nd eldest sister and her husband was gold. We didn't get much from the daughter-in-law and the son who came back after they thought he was dead, but that's neither here nor there

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