This review may contain spoilers
Slow start, fast ending.
"...live well for me" - Tang Yi Xun
I've finished watching all 12 episodes, and as my headline and quote of my review suggests, it's gonna contain some spoilers. This was a good watch, didn't regret buying the express package at all to view the rest of the episodes.
I watched this drama with no expectations, since having expectations usually result in either making me rate it as normal or rate it as a disappointment since it doesn't match my expectations. But I did have my concerns, since usually short dramas that only have a few episodes will usually be rushed ending. Putting these thoughts aside, at first, the drama does hook me in a bit, some people might say that its not a good start, but the first 4 episodes provided a base (at least imo) to the leads' relationship. By watching the first few episodes, I thought that this drama would make me cry like More than Blue (the taiwan ver.), where both of the leads heal each other yet fate prevents them from being together. But they still fight fate and even though they failed, their love echoes and is not a forgotten memory. But it looks like this drama decided to not go that route I guess.
The story starts by showing the lives of both the main leads, a struggling orphan who uses his fighting skills to earn money by becoming a debt collector, and a girl who has a gambler father. Tang Yi Xun (Zhou Yiran), met Ye Hai Tang (Wang Ying Lu) on his usual day to collect debts. They forcefully took Ye Hai Tang's grandma money and left her to starve. Surprisingly, Tang Yi Xun's friend and boss, Zhang Hao (Zhao Run Nan) and Li Cha Dong (Jia Hong Xiao) are also actually decent people, who also has to resort to work as debt collectors to live on and get by their own lives. The main leads' first meeting was the worst way to meet your future "love interest", yet their next encounter was when Tan Xin (Chen Hao Lan), a teacher that Cha Dong liked, gave Tang Yi Xun an opportunity to finally come back to school so that he can one day have a legitimate job. They met again as "classmates" where they started as enemies, especially after Tang Yi Xun's presumed love letter towards her, that she took as a threat.
Their hate continues until one day Tang Yi Xun intervened on Ye Hai Tang's attempt to murder her own father, since Ye Yibo (Li Yi Xiang), took all of her money including the class funds, and used it for gambling. Seeing this, Tang Yi Xun saw that her condition was similar to him, and vows to help and protect her, no matter the cost. They tried to find out who wrote the "love letter", and found that the letter wasn't from their own timeline (1991), yet it came from 35 years in the future. Without knowing that the sender was actually himself (Tang Yi Xun) from 35 years in the future. They tried to send a letter, and it works, sending the letter to the future, also without knowing that the recipients are Yu Nian (Zheng He Hui Zi), Tang Yi Xun's adoptive daughter, and Shen Cheng (Ren You Lun), Ye Hai Tang's future son.
I've never heard or watched any drama's played by Wang Ying Lu, yet her performance here is superb. Her chemistry with Zhou Yiran is unexpectedly not that bad, successfully portraying both Tang Yi Xun and Ye Hai Tang's pain, sadness, and helplessness (especially in episode 8). Hui Zi and You Lun also plays a "big" role, giving the story from the children's perpective. I personally felt confused since they are only impacting their story nearing the end episodes, especially in the ultimatum, but I don't know what to say. Their appearance was a bit underwhelming, but I don't think it's personally their fault, they played their role quite well. Other than that all the other casts did a great job, especially Li Yi Xiang who successfully made me hate his character. And my philosophy stands, a good villain means that the actor/actress portraying them are talented and played their character well.
Based on the synopsis and seeing that it was their children from the future, I thought that they would impact their story a lot or at least a notable amount, yet they barely did anything until the last few episodes (this includes Shen Cheng's impact okay). I know that they did alter the future, but I think that this drama is super rushed. They basically had a lot of things to expand on, yet decided to call it a day. Which is okay, but I think it makes it lose A LOT of things. What about Yu Nian current future? How is she kinda living in luxury? Isn't her father in jail and will soon die of an illness there? Her grandma also died quite quickly and shouldn't have been able to take care for her that long with Tang Yi Xun's absence in the altered timeline. Who took care of her if Tang Yi Xun isn't there? Not to mention that Yu Nian's final reaction is only being sad that Tang Yi Xun and Shen Cheng is gone from her phone contacts without attempting to somehow connect/contact to Tang Yi Xun to see him in the current future (I mean it's literally her stepdad who she was trying so hard to find in the previous timeline, shouldn't you at least find out how he's living his life right now?). What happens to Tang Yi Xun and Ye Hai Tang is also left for us to imagine freely, since it's a "happy" ending considering their final letter sent through that mailbox. A lot of other things are also left out from the drama, but basically these are scenes that I think should've been inside of the drama IF they can somehow fit them in, which they didn't or can't fit them in since it's only 12 episodes.
I've said it before (in my previous reviews), I like both sad and happy endings, but I REALLY despise rushed endings. And I think this is a super "forced" rushed happy ending. I'm not saying this is a bad drama, it's still a good watch, but I personally felt disappointed in the last episodes.
Note that this is my PERSONAL opinion, and I am Human, so I can make mistakes, if I missed out/was wrong on a bunch of things I apologize. That's all for my review.
I've finished watching all 12 episodes, and as my headline and quote of my review suggests, it's gonna contain some spoilers. This was a good watch, didn't regret buying the express package at all to view the rest of the episodes.
I watched this drama with no expectations, since having expectations usually result in either making me rate it as normal or rate it as a disappointment since it doesn't match my expectations. But I did have my concerns, since usually short dramas that only have a few episodes will usually be rushed ending. Putting these thoughts aside, at first, the drama does hook me in a bit, some people might say that its not a good start, but the first 4 episodes provided a base (at least imo) to the leads' relationship. By watching the first few episodes, I thought that this drama would make me cry like More than Blue (the taiwan ver.), where both of the leads heal each other yet fate prevents them from being together. But they still fight fate and even though they failed, their love echoes and is not a forgotten memory. But it looks like this drama decided to not go that route I guess.
The story starts by showing the lives of both the main leads, a struggling orphan who uses his fighting skills to earn money by becoming a debt collector, and a girl who has a gambler father. Tang Yi Xun (Zhou Yiran), met Ye Hai Tang (Wang Ying Lu) on his usual day to collect debts. They forcefully took Ye Hai Tang's grandma money and left her to starve. Surprisingly, Tang Yi Xun's friend and boss, Zhang Hao (Zhao Run Nan) and Li Cha Dong (Jia Hong Xiao) are also actually decent people, who also has to resort to work as debt collectors to live on and get by their own lives. The main leads' first meeting was the worst way to meet your future "love interest", yet their next encounter was when Tan Xin (Chen Hao Lan), a teacher that Cha Dong liked, gave Tang Yi Xun an opportunity to finally come back to school so that he can one day have a legitimate job. They met again as "classmates" where they started as enemies, especially after Tang Yi Xun's presumed love letter towards her, that she took as a threat.
Their hate continues until one day Tang Yi Xun intervened on Ye Hai Tang's attempt to murder her own father, since Ye Yibo (Li Yi Xiang), took all of her money including the class funds, and used it for gambling. Seeing this, Tang Yi Xun saw that her condition was similar to him, and vows to help and protect her, no matter the cost. They tried to find out who wrote the "love letter", and found that the letter wasn't from their own timeline (1991), yet it came from 35 years in the future. Without knowing that the sender was actually himself (Tang Yi Xun) from 35 years in the future. They tried to send a letter, and it works, sending the letter to the future, also without knowing that the recipients are Yu Nian (Zheng He Hui Zi), Tang Yi Xun's adoptive daughter, and Shen Cheng (Ren You Lun), Ye Hai Tang's future son.
I've never heard or watched any drama's played by Wang Ying Lu, yet her performance here is superb. Her chemistry with Zhou Yiran is unexpectedly not that bad, successfully portraying both Tang Yi Xun and Ye Hai Tang's pain, sadness, and helplessness (especially in episode 8). Hui Zi and You Lun also plays a "big" role, giving the story from the children's perpective. I personally felt confused since they are only impacting their story nearing the end episodes, especially in the ultimatum, but I don't know what to say. Their appearance was a bit underwhelming, but I don't think it's personally their fault, they played their role quite well. Other than that all the other casts did a great job, especially Li Yi Xiang who successfully made me hate his character. And my philosophy stands, a good villain means that the actor/actress portraying them are talented and played their character well.
Based on the synopsis and seeing that it was their children from the future, I thought that they would impact their story a lot or at least a notable amount, yet they barely did anything until the last few episodes (this includes Shen Cheng's impact okay). I know that they did alter the future, but I think that this drama is super rushed. They basically had a lot of things to expand on, yet decided to call it a day. Which is okay, but I think it makes it lose A LOT of things. What about Yu Nian current future? How is she kinda living in luxury? Isn't her father in jail and will soon die of an illness there? Her grandma also died quite quickly and shouldn't have been able to take care for her that long with Tang Yi Xun's absence in the altered timeline. Who took care of her if Tang Yi Xun isn't there? Not to mention that Yu Nian's final reaction is only being sad that Tang Yi Xun and Shen Cheng is gone from her phone contacts without attempting to somehow connect/contact to Tang Yi Xun to see him in the current future (I mean it's literally her stepdad who she was trying so hard to find in the previous timeline, shouldn't you at least find out how he's living his life right now?). What happens to Tang Yi Xun and Ye Hai Tang is also left for us to imagine freely, since it's a "happy" ending considering their final letter sent through that mailbox. A lot of other things are also left out from the drama, but basically these are scenes that I think should've been inside of the drama IF they can somehow fit them in, which they didn't or can't fit them in since it's only 12 episodes.
I've said it before (in my previous reviews), I like both sad and happy endings, but I REALLY despise rushed endings. And I think this is a super "forced" rushed happy ending. I'm not saying this is a bad drama, it's still a good watch, but I personally felt disappointed in the last episodes.
Note that this is my PERSONAL opinion, and I am Human, so I can make mistakes, if I missed out/was wrong on a bunch of things I apologize. That's all for my review.
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