I haven’t start the drama but I am hesitating to watch after watching some scenes in the middle . Can anyone…
Male chases female. They get accidentally engaged for individual personal reasons. Girl moves in, but pushes giy most of the time. Guy gets amnesia. Romance gets better from here forward.
I did not find this as great as thers did - it was maybe a little above average, 7 or 8. The production probably wanted a mature romantic comedy with a bit of mystery.
That's why they had this smart, matured, and confident female lead Feng Ping - the viewers love her. Her emotions played from being cool-headed to angry, but I wish they had shown a bit of warm and loving dimension to her character, especially towards the male lead. I am not sure if this had to do with acting, the plot and script, or her chemistry with the male lead. Either way, not too pleased with FL.
The male lead and other supporting characters were fine. Except for Qiu Tian, all other female characters were poorly conceived and executed.
On Lu Qiao character - it was not a fair match against Feng Ping, which made it boring - manipulative does not equal smart and vindictive does not equal strong (more like stupid and insecure). The aunt should have acted wiser as Lu Qiao's elder , but no! She constantly encouraged her bad behavior, and even showed childish behavior herself.
Ming Zhen was an annoying, naive, spoilded brat. The character was an adult and had supposedly graduated from college, but acted like a 12-year old. The way her family treated her was the worst, like she was a 7-year old. A useless character in this drama for me.
The first 5 episodes were a bit draggy for me. Pace was a lot better by ep 6.
The plot was simple. Even the mysyery aspect was straightforward, although they could have added a little more plot twist to it.
Drama was mostly character-driven. The ML has the most character development, while the FL was a constant in the ML's life, which is not bad a bad thing. For a change, the FL character was not fickle and not one that needs to transform from an ugly duckling to a white swan. The leads, once they were together, handled the relationship well. No annoying push and pull here, everything gets resolved quickly.
Not a lot of development with the supporting characters either, save for the ML's mother. There were third parties, but I did not get very annoyed.
I liked it. It was funny and charming. It made me laugh and cry. And I'm glad they did not change their style (Bo Nui's boho look and Su Ho's shorts) just to show character development.
I saw some rants below how it became bad on the last 3 episodes, but I felt that it was necessary to avoid same old cliches. An alternative storyline could have been - the mother kept seeing the shahman, blamed hated Bo Nui for her son's fate, and separated them. Or maybe the old genius man could have been her father, Su Ho's father, and could have gotten a family melodrama, which it was not supposed to be. The love quadrangle could have kept going until ep 16, and I hate clingy 3rd parties
This is the second time I'm watching Hwang Jung Eum in a drama (the first time was in She Was Pretty). I said it before and I will say it again - does she always need to shout when playing a quiry character? So noisy.
How did they manage to make a drama where the side character's romances(two couples in mind) are more interesting…
I am in episode 5. The ML and second FL (both the actors and characters) were so bad, I hate every scene with them together. I like Jeju Island though, I will go there soon. :)
I enjoyed it overall. I agree with all comments except that I lost interest during the last 2 or 3 episodes. It became draggy - too much flashbacks, too much fillers, plus the storyline about the sister is a bit cringey (imagine yourself in that situation - eww).
Xiao Qian's character had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, other than changing her wardrobe and hairstyle, there was nothing much, she remained stubborn until the last episode. Her chemistry with both male leads was bad. The revelation about braces girl was anti-climactic, the past did not seem to connect with the present despite all the effort. When she was close to her dream, she was painfully sad and ungrateful, acting as if she was dragged into doing something against her will.
He Jie was annoying from the start til the end. Chemistry with FL quickly dissipated after that disastrous kiss in the rain. The character development towards the end did not save him.
Meng Cheng should have left us with the second male lead syndrome but to me, he was just a business partner to FL than a love interest.
Amanda was as a loving mother. Scenes with Xiao Tuo Luo were adorable but I did not like it when the kid acted like a brat - running away, throwing tantrums, etc. This was because of the way Amanda showed her selfless love to him. Confronting the FL to avoid ML so they can have him as husband and father is not being a good mother - in life, you will not get everything you want. Working to build her family was probably the best thing that happened in this drama.
Mary was a good friend, but did she really have to shout every time? Geez, even with her mouth taped, she was noisy, my ears hurt.
Lastly, I tried to empathize with grandma, aunties, and uncles. Maybe their family dynamic is a cultural thing, they live outside Taipei after all. Or maybe they just love her so much, she was their only child. But too much time was wasted - 1 or 2 episodes was enough to show that.
This is the nth drama I watched where the rich male lead graduated from some American or European university. Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese dramas always do that. But why?
Ok, so the main reason why the main leads did not get together when they were in college was due to a simple misunderstanding? FL got drunk, second ML helped her and took her to a hotel, ML saw that and assumed that something happened between them. He lingered on that thought when they were all professionals. Lol. How naive can someone be?
That's why they had this smart, matured, and confident female lead Feng Ping - the viewers love her. Her emotions played from being cool-headed to angry, but I wish they had shown a bit of warm and loving dimension to her character, especially towards the male lead. I am not sure if this had to do with acting, the plot and script, or her chemistry with the male lead. Either way, not too pleased with FL.
The male lead and other supporting characters were fine. Except for Qiu Tian, all other female characters were poorly conceived and executed.
On Lu Qiao character - it was not a fair match against Feng Ping, which made it boring - manipulative does not equal smart and vindictive does not equal strong (more like stupid and insecure). The aunt should have acted wiser as Lu Qiao's elder , but no! She constantly encouraged her bad behavior, and even showed childish behavior herself.
Ming Zhen was an annoying, naive, spoilded brat. The character was an adult and had supposedly graduated from college, but acted like a 12-year old. The way her family treated her was the worst, like she was a 7-year old. A useless character in this drama for me.
The plot was simple. Even the mysyery aspect was straightforward, although they could have added a little more plot twist to it.
Drama was mostly character-driven. The ML has the most character development, while the FL was a constant in the ML's life, which is not bad a bad thing. For a change, the FL character was not fickle and not one that needs to transform from an ugly duckling to a white swan. The leads, once they were together, handled the relationship well. No annoying push and pull here, everything gets resolved quickly.
Not a lot of development with the supporting characters either, save for the ML's mother. There were third parties, but I did not get very annoyed.
I saw some rants below how it became bad on the last 3 episodes, but I felt that it was necessary to avoid same old cliches. An alternative storyline could have been - the mother kept seeing the shahman, blamed hated Bo Nui for her son's fate, and separated them. Or maybe the old genius man could have been her father, Su Ho's father, and could have gotten a family melodrama, which it was not supposed to be. The love quadrangle could have kept going until ep 16, and I hate clingy 3rd parties
He Jie was annoying from the start til the end. Chemistry with FL quickly dissipated after that disastrous kiss in the rain. The character development towards the end did not save him.
Meng Cheng should have left us with the second male lead syndrome but to me, he was just a business partner to FL than a love interest.
Amanda was as a loving mother. Scenes with Xiao Tuo Luo were adorable but I did not like it when the kid acted like a brat - running away, throwing tantrums, etc. This was because of the way Amanda showed her selfless love to him. Confronting the FL to avoid ML so they can have him as husband and father is not being a good mother - in life, you will not get everything you want. Working to build her family was probably the best thing that happened in this drama.
Mary was a good friend, but did she really have to shout every time? Geez, even with her mouth taped, she was noisy, my ears hurt.
Lastly, I tried to empathize with grandma, aunties, and uncles. Maybe their family dynamic is a cultural thing, they live outside Taipei after all. Or maybe they just love her so much, she was their only child. But too much time was wasted - 1 or 2 episodes was enough to show that.