IamNaheed

When you create a remake especially of such a heartfelt story which I personally have rewatched 5 times it is inevitable to make comparisons and drawing parallels from the original storyline. While the original story had a longer play time it was obvious that some parts might be cut out from the original script but it didnt necessarily have to cut off the emotions. I just didnt feel the stress the children went through in the first few episodes, couldnt feel the childishness and the bond they had as teens, couldnt feel the pressure which pushed them to leave their hometowns at 18, couldnt feel the growing distance between them. All those scenes were simply shown like a DVD player on 2x speed. Go Ahead made me feel the struggles , the pain and the love that was there.
Going into character breakdown while Li jian jian had this childishness as a teen and a childish maturity as a grown up, her growth was evident, her confusions seemed vali but the Korean version simply broke it down to a naive kid losing the essence of the high spirited kid Li jian jian was and simply bringing in a regular girl. I mean right after Kim san ha ("Ling Xiao" in Go Ahead) confessed she was waiting for his texts the next day. Thats not what Jian jian would do, she would rather run away and hide while Ling Xiao finds her, that was the core and they ruined it.
Coming to Yang/Kang Hae Jun (He Zi Qiu), I believe they didn't really want to portray his side of the story, all they wanted to focus is the romance of Ju won and San Ha beacuse as far as at ep11 i dont see the pretentious facade ZiQiu had to hide the fact he was struggling. The moment when Jian Jian gave Zi Qiu some cash he just burst out in anger coz he had receieved more than enough and wanted to give back now, and Jian jian's offer just made him look pathetic but Hae Jun didnt even hesitate when Ju Won gave him her Card to buy clothes and shoes (i dont know if its a cultural thing, but i think chinese and korean people have similar east asian values). I think this is a point from whereon the character outline of Ziqiu in the korean version totally changes up.
Coming to the last main character that is Kim San Ha (Ling Xiao), while his story remains more or less same with all incidents except choice of career its shown in a very rushed manner, in the original version his mother's character would simply frustrate you to the extent that your heart sinks for Ling Xiao, but even though San Ha had the same struggles the rush makes it seem like he got things pretty easily, he got the girl quick after confession, he got the father's approval rather fast and his mother stopped bothering him pretty quickly and left, it was all too fast and lacking in details.
Overall, I think they failed to copy the essence of the original which had great comic timing and emotional depth topped by the beautiful character sketch and background music. I cant recall any tune that was memorable from this series. I wont deny that the ending few episodes (ep 11 to 16) did make me happy and made me smile, but i would credit that to the cuteness of Hae jun and his girlfriend falling for each other and other events surrounding it. Actually these few eps were just a long happy ending that makes the viewer happy.
In conclusion if you truly want an emotionally rich show watch " GO AHEAD" , if you want a quick binge and lightly mooded show watch "FAMILY BY CHOICE".