MangoTree

Lighthearted, Cute, and Sweet

This cdrama was adorable

Note 3/2/2025:
This drama is surprisingly good. Just by seeing the tags and tropes, this could have been a 7.5. But the way how they executed it was what made it special. Our quiet ml isn't a jerk, but just isn't very good at talking to people (normally). Of course, as a romcom, there are some weird plot lines, but overall, it was a great watch.

Story:
-I love how caring the ml was and how naturally cute the fl was.
-It can be a bit slow burn at times, but the reward at the end is definitely worth it.
-This is perfect if you want something simple, but cute to watch.
-I love how the love rivals got dealt with efficiently.
-opposites attract (or are they more similar than they seem?)
-very nice themes. I feel like they really resonated with me. One of the issues in the story was that ml and fl were "too different". Loved how they talk about that. Sometimes, I feel like I should make friends with people who are similar to me. But this drama shows... Actually you should watch it yourself to see! 😜

-The second couple was cute and third couple was a bit unneeded, but they didn't take away anything from the drama.

Acting:
-They also actually look good together, so good casting
-At first, I didn't really like Wei Zheming (Miles Wei) that much when I saw him in You Are My Secret, but now, I really like him
-FL is really pretty
-Both leads did very well in their roles

Music:
-very cute and upbeat
-added to my playlist

Rewatch:
-definitely
-extremely nice to rewatch

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Power Couple

Really enjoyed this. It had capable main leads and a lot of political intrigue.
The chemistry was pretty good (it could've been better, hence the minus 0.5), both are excellent actors, Yang Yang and Zhao Lusi.
This was the first Cdrama I ever watched. Not too romantic, but still puts a smile on your face,
I found this quite entertaining.
Also, the OST was awesome.
Hope you enjoy!

Update:
This is me a year later (a much more seasoned watcher as you can see from my other reviews). This drama, compared to the many other dramas I've watched, is extraordinary. Also, we don't have a stereotypical damsel in distress who needs a strong man to save her; we have the definition of a power couple, both are rivals (but then work together), so they both have brains and martial arts skills.
Pacing got weird a bit

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Brings a smile on your face aka fluff

Pros:
-Smart leads
-ml chases fl
-little angst
-no sad parts for long
-misunderstanding are dealt with maturity
-so, so much chemistry that will make you forever ship them together (like Lin Yi from Put Your Head on My Shoulder can not compete at all)
-healthy relationship
-2nd leads do not meddle that much

Cons:
-A little anxiety in the end, but that's common for dramas
-lipstick is weird

Overall:
If you are a bit sad lately or just craving some sugar, watch this and you'll be smiling. Trust me, you will not regret watching!

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Absolutely Beautiful Visuals, but Not Very Interesting Everything Else

8.00
(without the visuals, it would be a 7.50)

I came in, hearing a lot of things about this drama. For me, it's difficult to reach past the 30 episode mark. Only for very good dramas to reach past that. So I had cautious hope for this drama. But, result is, I couldn't even get to the 20th episode.

How I knew I couldn't want this drama any more: Watching 20 minutes felt like a marathon. I was bored to death and falling asleep. It simply couldn't compete with other more interesting dramas

Story:
Pros:
-the first half was nice
-the romance was fine. Their flirting and working together was cool.
-there were a few scenes and dialogues that were funny or meaningful
-I like Dou Zhao's character.

Cons:
-Her love interest, ml, wasn't nearly as interesting. He had some good scenes, but he felt more like a side character than ~the~ Male Lead
-it got slow after they got married (but at least they got a love marriage)
-their romance didn't make much sense to me
-though, I wish we got to see Dou Zhao get strong just a tad. When we got to her second life, she was already the smarted, richest and whatever in the land.

Acting/Casting:
-I don't know about what others say, but I don't think Li Yun Rui's acting was any good. The voice actor was really good though.
-Meng Zi Yi's acting was better. Not fantastic, but decent.
-chemistry was ok
update: chemistry: I saw some clips from future episodes. Their _ was pretty good, but I wish they hadn't saved all that in the end.

Music:
-pretty good

Rewatch:
-I'll watch clips just for fun, but no

-the visuals are amazing. I wouldn't even had made it past the 5th ish episode if not for the beautiful visuals. If you want to watch this drama JUST because of the visuals, I wouldn't blame you.

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A Passionate and Heartbreaking Love

8.75
(rated on movie standards)

Story:
-deep and tragic
-fantastical groundhog day elements
-pretty realistic otherwise
-developed characters

-magic could have more explanation
-the switching of scenes happened to fast. This could have been an 9.00 if the scenes weren't cut so quickly

Acting:
-excellent. I didn't think I'd love Chen Fei Yu and Zhou Ye together as much as I did!
-they both cried incredibly well
-side characters aren't memorable.

-styling needs to mention. Gorgeous. Both their clothes are beautiful and Zhou Ye's hair was great

Music:
-fit the vibe
-pretty good

Rewatch:
-I would. Enjoyable

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A Decent Sports Youth Movie

8.00
(rated on movie standards)

Story:
-family friendly, with one or two violent scenes (watched with my younger bro)
-Zhang Wei's character development was excellent
-really funny at times
-there were some scenes that were really good

-the rest of the guys didn't get too much character development
-the ending didn't have that "it" factor, as well as some unrealistic things happening. They didn't give some things enough time to breathe.
-the overall plot line didn't hit the sweet spot

Acting:
-pretty good!
-I enjoyed watching the main leads

Music:
-some good tracks in there
-not very memorable

Rewatch:
-no
-after one watch, you're satisfied

Overall:
Not the most memorable, but watching once is fine.

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Soulmates, But Literally

9.25
(rated in movie standards)

Story:
-simple and straight to the point
-the fantastical elements were explained well
-their relationship development was pretty good
-important themes
-can be incredibly funny at some points, but tragic at others
-some fluff
-bickering couple
-pacing was also good

-there is some pining
-there is some sad parts

Acting/Casting:
-both lead actors did really well
-decent enough chemistry

-I liked the editing between scenes a lot
-as well as the animations

Music:
-decent

Rewatch:
-definitely

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Heartwarming Story of a Girl and Her Annoying Brother

Rated on movie standards:
Used to be: 8.75
Now: 8.5

I didn't expect to enjoy this. I even cried a bit (I don't cry often, so that means something). I watched this with my kid brother, so this is definitely a family movie. (there are some immature and funny parts in the beginning)

Story:
-surprisingly well developed characters
-funny sibling shenanigans
-dysfunctional parents
-cute school setting
-fantastical elements (be careful what you wish for)
-meaningful themes (sometimes the people who really care about you aren't the people you'd expect)

-This movie made me wonder, as an older sibling, that does my younger brother think I'm crazy? Probably. But I hope that when I'm being bossy about somethings and laidback about others, it's because I care, in my weird older sister way. But to him, at the end of the day, I'm still crazy 😂

Ending: Bittersweet. Last 10-20ish minutes, my eyes were tearing up. Wish we got one more scene of them together

-although this drama was pretty good, it didn't have that "it" factor. It was missing something deeper, but I couldn't figure out what.

Acting/Cast:
-ages are not too bad. Female lead, Zhang Zi Feng, was 16 at the time it was filming. Her older brother, played by Peng Yu Chang, was 23. Her best friend, played by Zhao Jin Mai, was 15. Even one of the guess appearances which I didn't expect, Zhou Yi Ran, was 17.
-I was so surprised when I saw Zhao Jin Mai and Zhou Yi Ran. I didn't even believe it at first 😂
-everyone acted well enough (but nothing extraordiary)
-the sibling chemistry between Zhang Zi Feng and Peng Yu Chang is very good

-the styling of everyone was very slice of life. No white-white skin or blinding filters. Very realistic looking

Music:
-doesn't seem to have an ost
-background sounds were good

Rewatch:
-I would. Very cute movie

Overall:
I'd recommend if you want
-cute siblings
-youth drama
-simple story (nothing is overcomplicated)
-meaningful story
-family
-important themes
Then watch!

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Wow, mixed feelings (basic spoilers)

I just bought a projector and would be watching cdrama with my mom for the first time on YouTube. It was really fun. I was trying to find an interesting, highly rated drama to show her.

A low 8. I considered rating it a 7.75… but it is better than that

Story:
-good character development (reminded me of 2023 Fake It Till You Make It)
-themes of empathy, especially online (wish that was further shone)
-extremely suspenseful and easy-to-binge (3-4 ep per night with my mom wow)
-first 5 episodes are bit weird and confusing but we slowly understand
-story itself is really simple, it’s the characters that made it interesting
-yes it can get a bit repetitive, but we slow down to plan and stuff so it’s not like it’s 100% set on the bus
-love how all the people in the drama acted like normal people. They had normal human reactions to things happening. It made the drama seem more real and intimate
-our main leads are not that naturally smart at all. But all of the time loops force them to find out things
-I like how the drama moved on, it got better and didn’t have a saggy middle or end
-the end was mainly pretty well done

-very efficiently written. As someone who wants more meat, I would have liked a bit more. Stretch this to 18 ep to better explain some parts
-some loose ends (Ml’s video game and suspicious police officer with the weird ringtone and biases)
-also why time loop? Did just random time loops just happen?
-romance was lackluster. Slight romance is great but them suddenly proposing girlfriend-boyfriend when it came was really sudden. Actors acted it well, but wish we had more of a buildup.
-some supporting character got better backstories than the main leads. Like, by the end, we still don’t understand their back stories. Like, who really is Li Shi Qing (family, friends, past trauma blah) ? Even the male lead has barely any background

Acting
-great acting by supporting characters, especially main leads
-saw Zhao Jin Mai in A Snowstorm of Love. This is a very different role, showing her versatility as an actress
-first time with Bai Jing Ting. Very good actor
-both did very very well, highlight of drama
-didn’t like Bai Jing Ting’s lip color (his hair in more recent productions are better)
-injuries in this drama were produced with such high quality, it looked so real that I had to cover my eyes at literal paint. Sometimes embers would be on the clothing even
-cinematography was really good

Music
-background sounds were pretty good
-they underused their songs
-some songs the used way more than others
-literally only 3 songs that were ok
-ring tone for the thing was cool

Rewatch:
-now that I know all the plot twists, I’d want to see any details I missed
-because of the plot twists, there’s only so many times you can watch

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Empty, but good feels

I came in, after hearing a lot of good things about this drama. I've also wanted to watch more of Yang Yang's dramas after I've watched Who Rules the World about a year ago.

For those who say that this is the best drama in the world (or smth along those lines), I just want to say that I'm possibly not the target audience. Target audience for this drama might be about 30+ years old. I'm not that old, y'all, so the "maturity" some people saw I found was a little dull. I've watched slice-of-life romances before this I really like, but this one didn't click. That being said, this certainly wasn't a terrible drama. Just "fine", I would say.

Edit 2/26/2025:
I checked the demographics of those who watch this drama. Apparently, lots of young people liked it... More than 30% of 13-17 year olds watched it. While the rest of the ages had less than 5%. I might not be 18-24 (younger than that), but this drama did not work for me. Maybe I have a 18-24 year old soul? So, the reason, I think, older people and I didn't like this drama is lack of plot and flaws. Everyone was perfect... I'll get into that later.

ep 1-15: 7.25
ep 16-21 7.00
ep 22-25: 7.75
ep 26-32 7.50

Story (aka brain dump):
-fl and ml had very good banter (dialogue more than acting). Highlight of the whole drama.
-first 15 episodes was the video games portion. It was ok. Reminded me of Falling into your smile
-I feel like the last 10ish episodes felt very mashed together. Like, I had to force myself to watch the last 3 eps or so
-lack of supporting characters was jarring and made the drama feel pretty empty (coming from someone who likes supporting characters and subplots)
-I felt like at times they wanted to develop characters, but the script people didn't know how to do that
-I mean, if you're gonna make 32 ep of drama, let's have some good character development, and I felt a lack of that in this drama
-I felt like the work parts of the drama weren't done well. The ml is in the aerospace industry and does his work, right? But usually, a good work/school drama will make me care about whatever they're doing. In this drama, they didn't make me care. I found myself skipping nearly all the work parts because the drama fails to make it significant to us
-you know those kind of books that are 500 pages, but you feel like barely anything actually happened? I get this vibe from this cdrama.
-the ml gets some character development, but not much. The fl gets no character development at all
-at least the fl is a green flag (so is ml)
-time skips were done poorly. They didn't seem to have gotten older...
-some people call this a fluff drama. I really like fluff. Even plotless fluff at times. But I didn't like it here. It just felt anticlimactic. And they didn't do anything interesting with the fluff. Kinda just threw it in

Acting:
-Yang Yang looks good in glasses ngl. Forgot how angelic he looks
-in a lot of dramas, everyone says how handsome the male lead is and whatever. And usually, the dude isn't ~that~ handsome. But Yang Yang, is ~that~ handsome, so it made sense. That was pretty convenient
-natural chemistry (less on the romantic chemistry side and more on the "used to each other" side)
-both leads did ok
-Dilraba has kinda annoying acting
-Yang Yang seemed confused at times
-very good looking leads but that's kind of an obvious observation

-what's with the voices? I don't usually have a problem with dubbing; I thinks its cool. But Yang Yang's voice was extremely low. I don't know if Reba's voice usually sounds like this, but it was quite high...

Ost:
-it was meh
-some songs were good, but some songs I just wanted mute it

Rewatch
-wouldn't really rewatch...
-I mean, it wouldn't be agony, but this, in particular, I wouldn't rewatch

Overall, I didn't enjoy this very much. But I usually drop dramas I really dislike, and since I didn't dislike this drama a lot, I didn't drop it. This drama might be a little overrated in my opinion. Hope others might like it more.

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Pretty Good for a Short Length Series

7.5
(rated on short drama standards)
3rd short drama ever watched

Story:
-made me worry if the main couple will get together or not
-some heart ache but doesn't last long
-loved how the fl was the opposite of submissive
-this took so many twists and turns
-the premise is very interesting
-if you have already watched a lot of dramas, you'll like this because it pokes holes at a lot of cliches we see in dramas while we're doing the cliches
-very unique

Cast:
-very good looking main leads
-chemistry was good (but kisses seemed weird, you can check them out yourself)
-much skinship

-the outfits for this drama is preposterous. Worst I've seen ever. Ruined the vibe.

Music
-very good
-few songs but makes sense since it's a short series

Rewatch
-too many twists and turns

Overall, for a short drama, this was pretty good! Nice binge watch

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Some of the Best Character Development

Used to be: 9.75 stars!
Now: 9.5
Reason for change: Although the character development was excellent, there were was a moment where I wanted to drop this drama (ep 21-25). So, because of that, I feel like 9.5 better captures the whole drama.

Warning: Spoilers in here will only spoil the first to second episode in the drama

Story:
-yes, it is a bit on the longer side, but I rarely skipped
-very good ending (one of the best I've watched)
-beautiful character development (for most characters, especially the villain)
-relationship between main leads was developed well. ml and fl really suit each other. Both've got their own strengths. Some people would call the fl (Zhu Yun) a doormat. I disagree. I believe she is what we would call "loyal to a fault". Our ml (Li Xun) has always been tricked, lied to, and betrayed all of his life, so he just pushed others away. The Zhu Yun suits him because she trusts Li Xun wholeheartedly and gains his trust as well.
-yes, they do get back together (after the initial break up) kinda late. But the pay off is soooooooo good, that you'd be to busy smiling to complain
-themes (like revenge) were clear and powerful
-a lot of dramas show how communication is very important in a relationship. This one showed it in a very sophisticated way
-dealt with a lot of harder topics
-found a good balance between heavy stuff and comedy relief
-I liked how they used jealousy to push the leads together. The fact that they barely used it made me happy because I'm sick of scheming 2ml and 2fls. Li Xun and Zhu Yun both had friends with the other gender that were purely platonic and I love that

small con:
-wish they had developed Li Lan (ml's sister) more.
-the breakup was way too much. I was literally in tears. The only reason why I stayed is because I trust Zhang Jing Yi to pick good characters

Acting:
-the natural chemistry between the Zhang Jing Yi and Chen Fei Yu is amazing. I love Zhang Jing Yi and watched many of her shows, but never have I seen her have so much chemistry with someone
Note: Lots of people say they were most impressed by the chemistry of the leads. Yes, it was good, but it wasn't the thing that made this drama stand out in my opinion.

-in general, everyone's acting was so beautiful, especially the main leads, but also it was just very well done
-the character's past self and present self had such a large difference (in the way they behaved, mannerisms, wisdom, maturity), that I'd really believe that they waited 7 years to then shoot the present. The outfits also made it obvious.

OST:
-the ost is pretty badass
-though, what really took the cake was the timings of each song. Like, they matched the scene so well each time, it was awesome

Rewatch:
-rewatching might be hard because there are some heavy themes, but still worth it

Anyway, what a good cdrama.

Note:
After reading some reviews, I have something to say. If we were to compare their love story to real life, yes there are a few red flags. Like, if I were Zhu Yun and Li Xun broke up with me, I'd leave him in my dust. But I have trust issues. Zhu Yun and I are completely different people. So, if we see the larger picture, the overall plot themes, and character arcs, you'll see that this is a really good drama.

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Family drama

Used to be: 8
Used to be: 8.25
Now: 8.5

Story
-Smart and strong fl
-enemies to lovers. ml was kind of a jerk at first...
-one of the good family dramas (unlike Unforgettable Love)

There is some parts that will make you sad (lasts 1-2 episodes) and a jump scare then happy ending in the last episode.

Acting:
-cute kid
-So much chemistry
-Wang Zi Q is interesting in this role
-his ship will forever be Wang Yu Wen

Music:
-not have bad

Warning: One of those not so logical or realistic dramas that you need to turn logic off to watch. If you were watching seriously, you won't enjoy this drama.

Enjoy!

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Everyday CEO romance

7.5

Decent.

Story:
The beginning can be a bit difficult, because it's your everyday cold ceo archetype.
But, soon enough, it gets quite funny and cute. The cold lawyer becomes more emotional and nice (because dude needs a character arc). Like, his personality took an 180 degree change. The best analogy I can think of is that the pampered, bad tempered dog morphed into a clingy puppy. 🤣🤣🤣. Though he was still kind of controlling so..
The fl is also very admirable. Her motivations and fears were made really clear. I really like her.
There were some aspects that were plain weird, but like, but overlook them and enjoy the drama!

Acting:
-acting was fine
-ml was pretty good
-fl was negligible
-chemistry was dead, but cute enough to watch

Music:
-really cute

btw, the ending was pretty good. The fl is super great in this regard. You'll see! 😉

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