belle

Decent enough romance drama

I started watching this drama as I generally enjoy coming of age romance dramas, and I had just finished When I Fly Towards You and so I was interested to watch another similar drama with Zhang Miaoyi, but overall this was just okay especially when compared to the aforementioned drama and other dramas with similar themes.

My main issue was with the ML. His performance was completely dry - he was completely expressionless and lacked any emotion or conviction whatsoever and it really brought down the entire drama. I understand that his character is supposed to be the quiet, introverted, somewhat cold type, however there is a way to have this type of character in a show without it being devoid of any expression whatsoever (again, like in WIFTY which has a similar ML character). It made the entire drama drag for me as I just felt absolutely nothing when I watched him, and this was especially disappointing when the FL is such a vibrant and expressive actress as he just did not compliment her at all. Even scenes that I should have found objectively sweet and probably would have made me cry if they were in another drama, I just had no emotional response to as the performance was completely lifeless to me.

The drama itself was decent, although I did start to lose interest a little towards the end as it just started to feel like nothing of value really happened once the main couple got together and especially since the ML made the drama fall completely flat it was hard to even really enjoy the more filler type stuff because I had no emotional connection to the character.

Overall it was okay, however there are plenty of other dramas that do the exact same plots and tropes infinitely better and with much more interesting MLs.

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Strong premise that got lost along the way

I started watching this drama not actually knowing what the story was about, and it almost immediately piqued my interest as the premise of the FL being able to detect lies seemed interesting and unique. I really enjoyed the first few episodes, however it slowly started to lose itself and it felt like it didn't really know what it was trying to achieve.

My biggest issue is that there are far too many episodes. They clearly did not have enough material to fill 16 episodes of upwards of an hour each, and it was just impossible to drag the storyline out for that long without it getting lost along the way. There is so much unnecessary filler in here, which I often don't even mind in dramas, but in this case it wasn't even particularly interesting a lot of the time. By the time it gets to the final 2 episodes it's just completely pointless and nothing is happening as they have already wrapped up the main crux of the story by this point, and it was so fillery that it was not only boring but also felt incredibly awkward because already pointless scenes were being dragged out longer than they needed to be. I didn't even want to finish it since the story had already been completely wrapped up and so there was no incentive to, and ended up skipping through huge chunks of the final episode because nothing of value was happening at all.

It also got to a point where it felt like the FL being able to detect lies - which was the main selling point of the premise - felt completely inconsequential to the storyline, as at it's core it's really just a basic murder plot and while to some point her lie detecting powers did help them solve the case, it very easily could have been solved without her being able to hear lies. There was also no reason for her to lose and regain her powers towards the end, in my opinion, as they didn't really have that big of an impact on the story in the first place and there were no consequences to her losing her powers either. I understand that it was part of her character development of her learning to accept hearing/not hearing lies, but again it just felt completely inconsequential to me.

To add to this, the storyline itself once you remove the FL being able to hear lies is incredibly basic and predictable. I knew exactly what was happening at every moment before it happened, and I had guessed the culprit almost immediately. I also had a feeling that the "twist" with Deuk Chan being in love with Do Ha was going to happen, although I wasn't sure if they were actually going to go down that path or not. The mystery as a whole left me feeling underwhelmed as nothing felt shocking or had an impact on me, and it really was just a run of the mill murder mystery.

The acting overall was pretty decent, and the main couple was cute enough, although I thought that this was supposed to be a romance first and foremost and it kind of lacked in that department for me too.

It's overall relatively decent and I managed to make it through to the end, but it didn't feel like it did anything particularly special and I felt a little underwhelmed and disappointed in the end as I had much higher expectations for it based on the first two or three episodes. I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it had been condensed into maybe 12 or even less episodes, but it's an easy enough watch (although TW for self harm/suicide) if it's the kind of drama you're looking for.

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Strong start let down by far too many episodes and a sluggish second half

When I first started this drama, I was enjoying it a lot and became hooked really quickly. I was super invested in the story, but this is yet another example of a cdrama suffering from far too many episodes for me, and by the half way point I was ready to give up (and honestly probably would have if I hadn't paid for the subscription just to watch this and it didn't have one of my favourite actors in it).

I was invested in the lead romance to begin with, but it got to a point where it was getting dragged out so much and it felt like they just kept going round in circles with each other, and the "drama" between them got annoying really quickly, so by the time they actually officially got together it honestly didn't really feel satisfying for me anymore. I liked the dynamic between the two characters together once they were officially in a relationship, but by the time it got to that point I just wasn't really that invested anymore.

It also honestly just got really quite boring for me in the second half. There were far too many episodes in this drama and I think if it had been around 16-20 episodes it would have been much more enjoyable, because there honestly wasn't anything all that interesting happening in the second half and it started to drag quite a lot.

I was a big fan of the casting overall - Lin Yi is an actor that I am already a huge fan of and I think he did a great job with this character, and I've also seen Shen Yue in a couple of other dramas and thought she also played her role really well. The other characters I also felt were cast well, and I didn't really feel dislike any of the casting.

The OST was also decent, but not necessarily my favourite OST of all time and I most likely wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it or include the songs on my playlist.

Overall this was okay, but I definitely started to get quite bored and was just kind of disappointed with the drama overall in the second half - especially since I had been anticipating it quite a lot - and I can't see myself rewatching it since it honestly felt like quite a chore to even get through the entire 34 episode run the first time.

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Decent - but slightly frustrating and entirely carried by the leads at times.

I have such mixed feelings about this drama. I've been anticipating this since it was filming, since I'm a huge fan of Chen Zheyuan and not only was I excited to see his performance in a story with more emotional depth than some of his other projects, but I personally enjoy watching dramas that evoke strong emotions, even if they are on the more heartbreaking side.

When the drama first started airing, I was enjoying it a lot. I personally loved the romance between Li Zan and Song Ran and felt like they had really good chemistry, and I feel like there was a good balance of tension and drama while also having some lighter moments with the lead couple. However, my first criticism with this show is that I feel like it suffered from the typical issue I have with a lot of cdramas, which is that it was too long. As with a lot of other cdramas I've watched, it did start to lull at some point around episode 13 or so, and while it did eventually pick back up I do think it would have benefited from losing a few episodes. While I do think this particular story needed some room to be fully fleshed out, I think that 38 episodes was maybe a bit excessive, and a lot of the drama that was happening once the main characters returned to China was just simply uninteresting and annoying - for example, the bullying storyline. I think overall the plot of Li Zan wanting to look out for Jiang Yu was nice, but the entire bullying storyline was silly and a lot of the dialogue in these situations was poorly written.

Also, one of my biggest peeves in dramas is the miscommunication trope. I could have dealt with it for a few episodes or so, but this was a running thread between the leads for the entire drama and it was really frustrating and pointless. It was also irritating to see the leads finally confess to each other that they were both struggling after returning to China and be vulnerable with each other, just for them to continue to not communicate any of their feelings and hide things continuously - and while I did like the character of Song Ran overall, it was an annoying trait for her to get so upset over Li Zan hiding things from her when she was also doing the same thing constantly. This entire narrative got old really fast and it continues for almost the entire show, seemingly just for the convenience of some drama between the leads.

My other big criticism with this drama is the final three episodes. I haven't read the novel, so I wasn't really sure how this would end, but I'm not really sure what the point was of having a 20+ long episode arc of Li Zan suffering with PTSD and trying to overcome it and heal from it was, just to put him through more trauma right at the last minute and rush through both the process of it happening, and also the consequences of it. While it makes sense within the story for the bad guys to want to seek revenge, doing this so late in the show after he had already largely processed all of his trauma just felt weird to me, and the fact that the ending was pretty much just "well, he's never going to recover from this" felt like a strange message to send - especially after spending the entire show focusing on mental health and trying to heal from past traumas. I was also pretty happy with how they'd dealt with both of the leads' mental health issues earlier on in the drama and the fact that they didn't just have them magically heal from it within a couple of episodes, but took a more realistic approach of having good moments and bad moments, so it was quite frustrating to watch them try to cram an entire traumatic experience and recovery process into the final few episodes. Plus it was just a deeply unsatisfying ending as a viewer, since it feels like the leads' stories weren't really fully finished.

As for the performances - overall they were very strong. There were a few side characters I didn't love the casting choices for (Jiang Yu, Luo Zhan, Shen Bei, and Dr Liang specifically), and also some of the English speaking characters weren't very convincing (nor was the dubbing), but these weren't too painful given how much screen time those characters have - and also the leading cast more than made up for it. I personally loved the casting for Song Ran, Li Zan, Benjamin and Saxin and thought they all did a convincing job and very much helped the drama move along in moments where it started to lull or the dialogue was poor.

Since Chen Zheyuan's performance was the thing I was most looking forward to with this drama, and he did such a fantastic job, it made it a bit easier for me to get through the entire drama. He did such a convincing job of portraying such an emotionally complex character - even down to small facial expressions or mannerisms that showed exactly what he was feeling even when he wasn't speaking. And while I didn't love the direction the story went in for the final few episodes, his performance was absolutely outstanding and full of so much raw emotion. While I didn't necessarily expect any less from him given his previous performances, I really think this is his best performance to date and I hope that we get to see him in more projects that allow him to explore his range the way that this did.

Overall, I think this drama was decent and there were lots of moments that I enjoyed, but it was definitely weakened by poor writing and directing choices at times. The lead cast, and the relationships between their characters, is absolutely the selling point of this drama and at times was it's only saving grace. I'm not sure that this is rewatchable for me, since it's a long drama and it does drag at times, but I'm glad that I watched it at least once - I just can't help but wish that some of the choices made were different, and as somebody who has been waiting a very long time for this drama to air I did feel slightly disappointed by the end of it.

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A beautiful, healing love story

I honestly don't even know where to begin in my review of this, since I honestly don't have much to complain about. I was coming into this as a huge Hidden Love fan, so the chances of me disliking it were pretty slim, but even though I had huge expectations for this drama it still managed to surpass them.

The casting was absolutely perfect, to start. Bai Jingting did such an amazing job as Sang Yan, and made me fall absolutely head over heels in love with his character pretty much immediately. I'd never seen him in anything before so I didn't necessarily know what to expect, but I'd seen a lot of people hyping him up prior to the drama being released and he absolutely managed to reach the expectations that were set for me.

Zhang Ruonan especially was absolutely perfect as Wen Yifan. She played her role so convincingly, and managed to hit every single emotional beat perfectly. She completely shattered my heart with her performance, and I will absolutely be watching more dramas that she has starred in.

Together, both actors had amazing chemistry and I loved watching their story unfold. I also especially appreciated how gentle and patient Sang Yan was with Wen Yifan, and how unwaveringly dedicated he was to her throughout everything she went through.

As for the second leads, I also loved the casting of both Zhong Siqiao and Su Haoan. The actors both did a great job with their roles, and as a couple they also had great chemistry. My only small criticism for the drama overall was their storyline. A lot of their arc revolved around the SML's grandpa, and it felt like far too much of the focus was on that part of the story and it completely overshadowed their relationship for me. I didn't really feel like I got to see them really connect and fall in love with each other, since every time they were in a scene together the main focus was on what was happening with the grandfather, and his story really wasn't that engaging at all. I was quite disappointed with this part of the drama since it left the second lead couple falling quite flat and it just kind of felt like wasted potential.

I also think this drama was shot absolutely beautifully - so many of the scenes looked so visually stunning and it really added to the atmosphere. I also really enjoyed the way each episode was structured, with the opening scene(s) showing more of Sang Yan and Wen Yifan's relationship and background from school through to university, and the closing scene(s) showing a little tidbit of Sang Yan's POV of other things that we saw in the episodes. The OST was also absolutely perfect, and I've had the songs stuck in my head ever since it finished.

Overall, despite my tiny issue with the second lead couple and their storyline falling quite flat, I absolutely adored this show and I can see myself rewatching this several times in the future.

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Some small flaws, but overall an enjoyable watch

Going into this drama, I was a little bit concerned at the 34 episode runtime since I find a lot of cdramas (even with less episodes) tend to drag and lose their momentum halfway through, and with this having quite a long runtime I expected it would suffer the same fate. However, I got completely sucked into the story and 34 episodes absolutely flew by without me really getting bored at all at any point.

To start, I really enjoyed the main characters of Su Wei'An and Gu Yunzheng, and I thought both actors did a great job of portraying them. As for the side characters, I think they were all well cast too, and although some of the characters are quite insufferable, since they were supposed to be very morally grey at best, it worked fine for the characters and the story. The only characters I was somewhat led down by were the second lead couple. While I liked both characters and they were fine together, I honestly didn't really feel like they brought anything to the story and there were times I kind of forgot that they were even there since a lot of the story, especially in the later episodes, doesn't focus on them at all. This wasn't a huge deal since the characters themselves were very inoffensive, but they did fall a little flat for me which was disappointing.

I also found the story engaging, despite it not really being what I expected. I didn't really know anything going into this, other than that the female lead had an incurable disease, so I was expecting it to mostly focus on that and be quite a heartbreaking drama, but it actually focused more on the medicine side of things and we don't actually see very much of her dealing firsthand with the illness at all. While I didn't necessarily expect it to go in this direction, I still really enjoyed the story and I became so invested in the main characters that it flew by for me.

My biggest criticisms of this drama are mostly to do with the production. To start, the dubbing was absolutely awful - particularly for the French parts in the earlier episodes, the lines weren't really convincing at all and they were dubbed so badly they didn't even remotely match up to the actors lips on screen. The general Chinese dubbing was also not great, and the sound design overall was really poor - some of the audio sounded completely fuzzy or almost underwater at times, or was just cut really poorly. I also found a lot of the directing and editing choices to be quite poor, and again I found that the occasional scene was cut poorly, to the point where I genuinely thought the website was glitching a couple of times but it was actually just the drama. There was also a constant issue of the lighting/colouring of the scene completely changing every time the lyrics came up on screen, which, while subtle, gave almost a flashing effect to the scenes because it would get lighter/darker every time the lyrics appeared or disappeared. While all of this didn't really impact my enjoyment of the show overall, it was pretty disappointing and I feel like the drama could have been a lot stronger with a better production team.

I also found the ending to be kind of underwhelming. While it kind of ended how I expected, it felt like a lot of stuff happened in the final few episodes after the story being pretty slow paced for the rest of the show, and the final scene just didn't really land for me. I wish that things with the main plot had started to be wrapped up a little earlier, and we'd gotten more depth to the characters' endings than we did.

All that said, most of the issues I had with this drama were very minor and overall I enjoyed watching this drama a lot, and would recommend it if you at all enjoy medical dramas, or are a fan of any of the actors in the show.

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A few small issues, but overall a fun drama

Overall I really enjoyed this drama. I pretty much immediately got hooked on it and finished it in a few days because I was so invested, although not without a few slight issues.

One of my biggest issues with this drama was I felt like the ML was incredibly underdeveloped. I like Lin Yi as an actor and enjoyed his performance in this, but I spent the entire drama feeling like I knew nothing about his character. The FL was incredibly vibrant and I feel like we got to see a lot of her personality shine, as well as find out a lot of her backstory, but this was lacking a lot for me with the ML. I still became invested in his character and their relationship in general, but I wish he had been fleshed out a bit more.

I also think this drama spent far too much time, especially at the beginning, fleshing out the whole make-up/hairdressing story. While I appreciated getting to see the FL figure out what she was passionate about and make friends, the vast majority of this plot was just simply unnecessary to the drama as a whole. They could have lost a good 5 episodes if they had cut this down, and it would have been a much more concise and clear story.

My only other slight issue with this drama is that I wish they had gone in a bit harder with the romance aspect. The leads genuinely had good chemistry and I feel like they could have done a lot more with that, but it was kind of wasted potential. I was super invested in their relationship regardless, but I would have liked that element to be a lot more intense and I think it would have made the drama better overall - especially considering it's allegedly a romance drama.

All that said, I still really enjoyed this drama a lot. I enjoyed the performances of both of the lead actors - Liu Haocun especially blew me away as I had never seen her in anything before and she really really sold her character and all her emotions to me. I personally do not understand the criticisms of Lin Yi being a bad actor or having no expression - while I do agree that his face is on the more stoic side, he still sold to me everything that his character was thinking and feeling and across all of the dramas I've seen him in so far, I've never been left feeling like he did a poor job.

I also really enjoyed the OST for this drama and have had a couple of the songs stuck in my head non-stop since watching it.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this drama - especially if you enjoy Sci-Fi or mystery type shows. I'm personally not a massive Sci-Fi fan, but it wasn't too overwhelming for me and I enjoyed the mystery element to it and the fact that it kept me on my toes the entire time. While the romance was somewhat lacking, I would still recommend if that is the reason you're interested in watching this as the chemistry between the lead actors was good and I was very invested in their relationship the whole time.

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A sweet but slightly messy rom-com.

I really enjoyed this drama overall - I think the casting was good and I love that it depicted such a mature and healthy relationship, however I had some slight issues with the plot. It felt like it was trying to do a lot of things all at once and I'm not really sure if it succeeded in balancing them very well as it often felt like the plot had completely changed direction to what it was doing a few episodes before.

While I appreciated the representation of "fangirls" who are older and not just teenage girls, this whole part of the plot ended up feeling completely inconsequential to me. At the beginning of the show this is such a huge portion of what the show is about and it kind of gave me the impression that that was what the drama was about at it's crux, but at some point along the way it was almost completely dropped and I honestly kind of forgot that that was where we even started. Duk-Mi's fan site was made to be such a huge deal, but then it reaches a point where it's basically not even mentioned again until the very end, and I'm just not really sure any of this was needed in the show as it had no real consequences on the plot or the characters.

It also felt like it was trying a little too hard with all of the side characters having feelings for other characters, when again these storylines beared almost no impact on the overall plot, and all of the sudden backstory we get at the end also felt like it was trying a little too hard and felt unnecessary when it was all just rushed in the last couple of episodes.

Overall, despite having some issues with the plot, I am glad that I watched it, and I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy rom-coms as I think that element of the show was very well done and the leads did an amazing job.

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