The Reborn Girlfriend Is a Big Shot

Young CEO smitten by cool, smart & badass high school student

I had been looking for this drama for months after being a fan of Zhang Ruo Chen's acting. Links were not available until today when I saw it on Dailymotion under the title 'Bow Down The Killer Queen is Back'. I was excited, clicked play then informed Jwells. Unfortunately the videos had been marked private once I was halfway through the drama. Anyway glad I managed to finish this drama.

What I liked:
1. FL characterisation - I liked her because she could kick ass. She was smart, mature & self-reliant, most likely because of her past life.
2. Styling - Loved her outfits especially that punk princess look she wore at a special event.
3. Supporting characters - ML's assistant & doctor friend provided comic relief. I also liked ML's mother but her reaction during the kidnapping baffled me.
4. ML characterisation - He was smitten by FL after she rescued him from an attack. He protected FL with his money & influence. He was Mr Nice Guy but it was weird to see a boss in his 20s having a crush on a high school girl.
5. Dynamics - ML fell in love with FL and pursued her but she didn't want to feel indebted. I liked that this was explicitly mentioned because a lot of times main characters confuse gratitude with love. I wouldn't categorise their relationship as romantic but FL did eventually fall for ML.
6. Acting - I really liked Zhang Ruo Chen and Zhu Yi Wei's acting.

What I disliked:
1. Antagonists - FL's sister & mother were sinister. The constant jealousy & scheming was tiring. I also disliked ML's nephew and their classmate who bullied FL.
2. FL's past - I was disappointed that her life before rebirth / transmigration was not explored in this story.

Favourite scene
FL went into ML's car then rescued him from an attack

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Disappointment on detour

Disclaimer: I had to switch to another video after the first half, hence subtitle quality was significantly worse for the second part.

The inital idea was quite intriguing: A highly skilled assassin suddenly wakes up in the body of a high school girl. Although she seems to have no intention to find out what happened to her former body or to return to her former life, that part of the plot appeared quite consistently throughout the story until the last quarter of the drama. Since 99.9% of vertical dramas cater to some sort of damsel in distress trope, I was excited to finally find one where the "helpless girl" wasn't the least bit interested in ML's attempts to "save" her.

If you're expecting this kind of plot, you'll end up being disappointed. FL turned into a damsel in distress almost every episode and her only ideas to save herself lied in showing off how pretty she was or turn to some sort of violence. ML's rescue missions relied on his social status and economical power every single time, becoming less and less sophisticated as the drama progressed. If the dialogues hadn't said so, you could have thought the main leads actually hated each other and were trying to rain on each others' parade. With all the attempts to make FL badass and independent, the writers forgot to give her feelings for ML, too. I would've loved to see both team up instead of each doing their own rescue missions neither of them appreciated. And while FL's former life kept being mentioned, it was more of an unexplored plot device than a new spin on an old tale.

If you like pretty leads, the damsel in distress trope and an interesting initial setting, this might be sufficient to entertain you. Still, I recommend watching a vertical drama that's easier to find. The original plot idea isn't worth digging through the web for.

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