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This review may contain spoilers
Illogical, Fun, Twisty, Cheesy Romcom! Just Turn off Your Brain and Enjoy!
I'll start by saying that I don't compare any dramas ever especially if they're not in the same genre and their only similarities are the ML and SML being the same actors. I was wondering what this drama was going to be like but since I also go into each one without any expectations so knowing this was a comedy, I just jumped into it and boy, did I have a good time! It was an illogical, fun, twisty, cheesy romcom; just turn off your brain and enjoy!
Pros: So one of my pet peeve's is slapstick humor which I can't stand but here the comedy was as smooth as water on a quiet lake. A girl, our FL or LHE who is basically allergic to romance gets transmigrated into a 1999 vintage romance novel in the middle of her livestream broadcast being against anything love related. Now, what also makes this different from other transmigration series except ADWAD is that we also meet ML or GHM in the first episode and he seems to recognize her though she's got no clue who he is, she's busy bitching at her boss while he's there to buy the entire company. That gave us all room for pause because the entire premise of her going back in time and into a book is to win over a cold CEO and get and accept a marriage proposal from him while also falling in love with him. In the book, GHM has no idea who she is and she tries every trick in as she later called it her 2025 "romance playbook" to get him but he also needed her to get rid of an annoying chick and his toxic father's attempt to arrange a marriage for him. So they for a bit were using each other for their own purposes. She was given missions to grow GHM's fondness for her by some supernatural pager system that gave her rewards or punishments based on how she did but many times those rewards were cheesy as hell and you were just left cracking up and shaking your head. She couldn't reveal the plot of the book to the people in it or change the narrative. Nothing worked until as she summarized herself later upon returning back to 2025, that once she stopped with the tricks and started being sincere, is how she ultimately won his heart and she in turn fell for him. But because she started to care deeply not just for him but the friends around her, she started to not want him to propose so soon or she would have to return; her solitary, career-driven life in 2025, was no longer appealing.
GHM, for his character was great as a CEO because he actually worked hard as opposed to other characters out there in these roles that just walked in and out of rooms and strutted around like peacocks. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty so to speak and given the fact that the business he was in was feminine products and diapers, said a lot in 1999 China. He oozed sex appeal; whether he was cold, jealous, grumpy, polished, lazy at home, and especially when he was in love. I was a bit worried that since CXX and WYW had known each other for 16 years, their chemistry wouldn't be believable but I had nothing to worry about, it crackled especially episode 20 and when they did the deed and we got to see him take his shirt off to reveal a masculine body and not a stick figure as we know CXX works out so all the muscles were there without looking super buff with a six pack or anything extra; nice flat stomach works too.
What worked so well for this series is that you laughed at all of the ridiculous happenings because they were funny but in the last episodes when you knew she had to return and after another manipulation by the pager which I'll speak about in the cons, GHM and everyone that had ever seen them together forgot about her or that, as he regained his memories after a near drowning incident, started to put pieces together that she didn't belong in his world and had to leave soon with the proposal, there were a few moments when he cried and we cried too. So it was this rollercoaster of believable emotions. Another thing that worked was that when she returned back to her world, and he had also somehow come back or maybe he was there the whole time (many unanswered questions with this transmigration thing), was that on her way to meet him, she passed his assistant from the book as well as her two friends one who was killed in the book, but alive and well here with her book best friend happily together. So they properly exited out the important characters from the story. We didn't see her book father and sister but assume they should also be part of her world somewhere. Plus though the ending of them together was like two minutes; unlike a lot of these dramas, they got to hug, cry, and kiss. That was so important as opposed to just standing 5 feet apart smiling at each other and roll credits. Honestly, I ffw'd the 2nd couple for a bit but more towards the end they started to grow on me especially during everyone's memory loss, it broke up that whole thing up a bit.
Having been in High School in 1999-2000; a lot of the costumes, technology especially the phones and computers made it nostalgic and fun, though much of their wardrobe kind of reminded me of the late 80's/early 90s with shows like Saved By The Bell and Beverly Hills 90210 lol! But everything was pretty on point with OSTs, locations, sets it being a modern, etc.
Cons: I had a serious problem with the pager system for LHE; it created the unnecessary issues in the book. So LHE couldn't break certain rules or she'd get punished but the system could make her book gold digging ex kidnap her sister and harm GHM so GHM's fondness for her would grow faster. And I'm almost 100% sure the pager wanted to harm GHM by having him push her out of the way when the truck came through only to get hit himself; when he proposed on NYE of the millennium (neither of these scenarios were in the original novel; so why was the system allowed to rewrite the book published for 25 years but LHE would be punished for trying to do the same?) which is why she broke the "cardinal" rule and revealed that she was from the future and they were all just characters in a book after which all the memory of her were wiped. Also pretty sure the system was responsible for a random NPC to jump into the water and bystanders told GHM it was some girl drunk and on the phone and he assumed it was LHE because her phone had cut out just as they started yelling so even though he couldn't swim he jumped in, followed by LHE who was by then told the original girl was pulled out but XL (GHM's assistant) told LHE GHM had jumped and he can't swim which she knows is his trauma so the system created this outlandish way for him to get his memories back by her saving him.
After he got his memories back is when he started piecing together things about her not being from his world. And the system was at it again. First, it told her that she was only supposed to be in the book until the millennium and if she didn't secure a proposal and leave, GHM and his world would collapse. Now it's been at least a month past the millennium so the new deadline was 72 hours and the new threat was that everyone who she cared about, their worlds would collapse. It was ridiculous. But he agreed to her request for the 72 hour proposal because he knew by then she would leave. I really wish the 1999 him told her he loved her before she poofed.
Also how was it that in episode 1 it was February 28th and in episode 24 when she returned, it was the 16th? So she had also traveled back in her own timeline? Does that mean again now on the 28th, he will come to purchase her company now with her as his 2025 girlfriend or fiancée whichever? I have no idea if he had her pager or his own afterwards, because how was he able to see her in the future a few times? And the 2025 him, same guy as we saw in episode one, was this the same one from 1999 or were there two because while she was only able to bring back a note from him from the book, he was able to bring back the pager where it showed their moments on the carousel as well as multiple models of those airplanes. Also it seemed like all of their shots together were taken from a distance and by a third person when the 1999 GHM looked at his camera. I know the director said that the 4 episodes cut by censorship would have explained all of that, instead of someone typing words on a screen making it seem like the 2025 world was possibly a novel too or they were living in a wormhole of space. I wish we got an extra episode to at least explain some of that lol.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! It makes you giggle and cry and just enjoy all the nostalgic moments. Don't compare apples to oranges but just enjoy each drama as a separate experience!
Pros: So one of my pet peeve's is slapstick humor which I can't stand but here the comedy was as smooth as water on a quiet lake. A girl, our FL or LHE who is basically allergic to romance gets transmigrated into a 1999 vintage romance novel in the middle of her livestream broadcast being against anything love related. Now, what also makes this different from other transmigration series except ADWAD is that we also meet ML or GHM in the first episode and he seems to recognize her though she's got no clue who he is, she's busy bitching at her boss while he's there to buy the entire company. That gave us all room for pause because the entire premise of her going back in time and into a book is to win over a cold CEO and get and accept a marriage proposal from him while also falling in love with him. In the book, GHM has no idea who she is and she tries every trick in as she later called it her 2025 "romance playbook" to get him but he also needed her to get rid of an annoying chick and his toxic father's attempt to arrange a marriage for him. So they for a bit were using each other for their own purposes. She was given missions to grow GHM's fondness for her by some supernatural pager system that gave her rewards or punishments based on how she did but many times those rewards were cheesy as hell and you were just left cracking up and shaking your head. She couldn't reveal the plot of the book to the people in it or change the narrative. Nothing worked until as she summarized herself later upon returning back to 2025, that once she stopped with the tricks and started being sincere, is how she ultimately won his heart and she in turn fell for him. But because she started to care deeply not just for him but the friends around her, she started to not want him to propose so soon or she would have to return; her solitary, career-driven life in 2025, was no longer appealing.
GHM, for his character was great as a CEO because he actually worked hard as opposed to other characters out there in these roles that just walked in and out of rooms and strutted around like peacocks. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty so to speak and given the fact that the business he was in was feminine products and diapers, said a lot in 1999 China. He oozed sex appeal; whether he was cold, jealous, grumpy, polished, lazy at home, and especially when he was in love. I was a bit worried that since CXX and WYW had known each other for 16 years, their chemistry wouldn't be believable but I had nothing to worry about, it crackled especially episode 20 and when they did the deed and we got to see him take his shirt off to reveal a masculine body and not a stick figure as we know CXX works out so all the muscles were there without looking super buff with a six pack or anything extra; nice flat stomach works too.
What worked so well for this series is that you laughed at all of the ridiculous happenings because they were funny but in the last episodes when you knew she had to return and after another manipulation by the pager which I'll speak about in the cons, GHM and everyone that had ever seen them together forgot about her or that, as he regained his memories after a near drowning incident, started to put pieces together that she didn't belong in his world and had to leave soon with the proposal, there were a few moments when he cried and we cried too. So it was this rollercoaster of believable emotions. Another thing that worked was that when she returned back to her world, and he had also somehow come back or maybe he was there the whole time (many unanswered questions with this transmigration thing), was that on her way to meet him, she passed his assistant from the book as well as her two friends one who was killed in the book, but alive and well here with her book best friend happily together. So they properly exited out the important characters from the story. We didn't see her book father and sister but assume they should also be part of her world somewhere. Plus though the ending of them together was like two minutes; unlike a lot of these dramas, they got to hug, cry, and kiss. That was so important as opposed to just standing 5 feet apart smiling at each other and roll credits. Honestly, I ffw'd the 2nd couple for a bit but more towards the end they started to grow on me especially during everyone's memory loss, it broke up that whole thing up a bit.
Having been in High School in 1999-2000; a lot of the costumes, technology especially the phones and computers made it nostalgic and fun, though much of their wardrobe kind of reminded me of the late 80's/early 90s with shows like Saved By The Bell and Beverly Hills 90210 lol! But everything was pretty on point with OSTs, locations, sets it being a modern, etc.
Cons: I had a serious problem with the pager system for LHE; it created the unnecessary issues in the book. So LHE couldn't break certain rules or she'd get punished but the system could make her book gold digging ex kidnap her sister and harm GHM so GHM's fondness for her would grow faster. And I'm almost 100% sure the pager wanted to harm GHM by having him push her out of the way when the truck came through only to get hit himself; when he proposed on NYE of the millennium (neither of these scenarios were in the original novel; so why was the system allowed to rewrite the book published for 25 years but LHE would be punished for trying to do the same?) which is why she broke the "cardinal" rule and revealed that she was from the future and they were all just characters in a book after which all the memory of her were wiped. Also pretty sure the system was responsible for a random NPC to jump into the water and bystanders told GHM it was some girl drunk and on the phone and he assumed it was LHE because her phone had cut out just as they started yelling so even though he couldn't swim he jumped in, followed by LHE who was by then told the original girl was pulled out but XL (GHM's assistant) told LHE GHM had jumped and he can't swim which she knows is his trauma so the system created this outlandish way for him to get his memories back by her saving him.
After he got his memories back is when he started piecing together things about her not being from his world. And the system was at it again. First, it told her that she was only supposed to be in the book until the millennium and if she didn't secure a proposal and leave, GHM and his world would collapse. Now it's been at least a month past the millennium so the new deadline was 72 hours and the new threat was that everyone who she cared about, their worlds would collapse. It was ridiculous. But he agreed to her request for the 72 hour proposal because he knew by then she would leave. I really wish the 1999 him told her he loved her before she poofed.
Also how was it that in episode 1 it was February 28th and in episode 24 when she returned, it was the 16th? So she had also traveled back in her own timeline? Does that mean again now on the 28th, he will come to purchase her company now with her as his 2025 girlfriend or fiancée whichever? I have no idea if he had her pager or his own afterwards, because how was he able to see her in the future a few times? And the 2025 him, same guy as we saw in episode one, was this the same one from 1999 or were there two because while she was only able to bring back a note from him from the book, he was able to bring back the pager where it showed their moments on the carousel as well as multiple models of those airplanes. Also it seemed like all of their shots together were taken from a distance and by a third person when the 1999 GHM looked at his camera. I know the director said that the 4 episodes cut by censorship would have explained all of that, instead of someone typing words on a screen making it seem like the 2025 world was possibly a novel too or they were living in a wormhole of space. I wish we got an extra episode to at least explain some of that lol.
Would I recommend it? Absolutely! It makes you giggle and cry and just enjoy all the nostalgic moments. Don't compare apples to oranges but just enjoy each drama as a separate experience!
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