JamieDylan24

I never go for the modern, contemporary cdramas. I usually find them draggy, too slow and I tend to skip loads of scenes. But every now and then I find a hidden gem in this genre and this time it was Lighter & Princess.
It's been on my to-watch-list forever and after watching When Destiny Brings the Demon, I craved more of Chen Feiyu's acting.

He did not disappoint.

This drama lured me in from the very first second and gave me all the "mystery" vibes I had when watching The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (kdrama). I was swept away by the characters and wanted more each episode. I wanted to know what drove them and why most of them acted the way they did. The mystery around Li Xun is what really pulled me in. He reminded me so much of Kim Moo Young (from the smile has left your eyes, which is one of my all-time fave kdramas). There was a constant sadness to him. It's something Chen Feiyu is really good at. Acting with his entire body. Not just saying some lines or doing some things.
I loved the female lead too. She's not a damsel in distress or the "pretty girl that needs saving". She's headstrong, doesn't back down and stands up to fight alongside her team.

The story starts in the here and now. 7 years after the events between the male and female lead started. Zhu Yun is nostalgic about coming back to China after being abroad for a couple of years. During her comeback we see Li Xun being released from prison. When they see each other spraks fly immediately but things aren't simple and they back away from each other. The story then pulls us back 7 years ago and shows us their beginnings. It's an enemy-to-lovers trope and I'm all for it. He cannot stand the sight of her and she doesn't back down from a fight. He is a top genius when it comes to programming while programming is something Zhu Yun was forced to do by her mother. But the rivalry between them teaches Zhu Yun how much she loves programming and that's where their connections begins to grow.

I absolutely loved this way of story telling. I usually hate time-jumps but this was a welcome one. I wanted to know what happened between them and why they couldn't be together. I'm glad they brought us back so soon too because I went into it pretty blindly (didn't recognize some of the characters from the future) which kept the story fresh. I didn't know what to expect but when I did realize I was watching one of Zhu Yun's memories she had thought about in the first episode, it made me smile.

Positives:
- The cast. The way they acted out their characters was amazing.
- It didn't feel slow at any point of the story. I was sometimes annoyed by how much screentime the side characters were getting but that's only due to wanting to know what was going to happen to the main characters.
- The OST. It's been on repeat since I started watching the show.

Negatives:
- Chen Feiyu has a wound on his hand that they didn't blend out or tried to hide. It could be gone one scene and back the next. I know it's probably hard to edit away a wound (it seemed to be a cut of some sort) but it sometimes pulled me away from immersion. With the way the time-jumps were used it was the one thing that didn't make sense.
- The way things wrapped up in the last couple of episodes. I understand why it had to end this way but I wish redemption would have come a little sooner and they could have started to come back as friends, and if not as friends, then maybe as colleagues.

Overal I really do recommend this drama. Anyone who wants an enemy-to-lovers trope needs to see this one. Or just wants to enjoy a good rivalry or a romance that grows into true -love.