RouteVenus

I haven't started watching yet, is it as happy and stress-free as other Gu Man's works? How does it compare to e.g. You Are My Glory (which is like my holy grail of fluffy yet mature shows)?

Hi, I know this is an older comment, but just so you know, they weren't fake married for three years, only for one. She has been with the "bandits" for three years.

There are 3 young women that swap faces. Shi Qi (= FL, painter), her older sister (= sold to brothel as young) and Shen Qin (= Prime Minister's daughter).

PAST EVENTS:
When they were children the older sister took care of the FL but blamed her for ending up in a brothel. To make life easier for herself, she somehow swapped faces with a young Prime Minister's daughter Shen Qin.

So the real high-born girl lived a hard life for years, under a thumb of a girl who stole her face.
The older sister impersonated the Prime Minister's daughter Shen Qin and fell in love with Prince Ziheng.

CURRENT EVENTS:
When "Shen Qin" was supposed to get married to the ML, instead of her beloved Prince Ziheng, she lured her younger sister, the FL, into her manor and showed her a girl wearing her own old face (if the FL spoke to the unconscious woman, she would likely quickly discover that it's not her sister but the original Shen Qin).
Then the sister swapped faces with the FL.

So the FL wears the face of the real Shen Qin.
The FL's older sister wears the face of real Shi Qi.
The poor real Shen Qin is stuck with a face of the FL's older sister.

ENDING
Prince Ziheng falls in love with the FL who wears Shen Qin's face.
Once she tells him the truth about her identity, he goes nearly mad, realizing that the Shen Qin he fell for is a different one than his lover and therefore he has no claim on the FL's heart.
He ends up commiting suicide.
The older sister realized that her love for Ziheng has always been one-sided and kills herself when she sees his lifeless body.

The FL keeps the face of the real Shen Qin.
It is unknown what happens to the poor real Shen Qin.
The FL gives birth to a baby girl. When she visits the night market with her family, she encounters a woman who is wearing her original face and who is accompanied by a man who looks like Prince Ziheng. As the two people leave, the FL asks her husband whether it's possible that there are people with same faces in this world.

Spoilers for the final episode below (for those of you who are eager to know).

Love You Seven Times - leads stuck in the loop of reincarnations (don't be discouraged by first silly episode, their real selves are more than those stereotypes in ep 1), mystery of their connected past they solve together, lots of fluffy/cute scenes and kisses, leads trust each other - never doubt each other's faithfulness, never turn against each other; explicit happy ending for all good characters (ending is short but sweet reunion of the leads)

PMY in red dress = Healer vibes!

Happy ending. At the beginning, the FL from modern times gets sucked into a historical drama she watches in the coffee shop, becomes a "pathetic" side character, but gets a happy ending for herself (a medical clinic, title of crown princess and ML's love).
At the end, she wakes up in the coffee shop - it was all apparently a dream.
She is then stopped from leaving the café by her blind date - a young man who is a doppelgänger of her husband from the dream.
They smile at each other and act all cutely nervous as they make their introductions; it's clear that it's love at first sight.
End credits.

(it seems it was really all a dream that just foretold her true love, there is no hint that the modern ML had the same supernatural experience)

Ending status in the spoiler comment below:

Amy Sun's one woman show! An actress of her beauty and talent would deserve a higher production value, better screenplay, but most of all, better ML. But as a fun mini drama, it passes.

Thank you for your response! And sorry, I should have made myself more clear: what I meant was that we don't see the numbers ourselves on the videos (as with views on YT), we have to rely on what the Netflix releases in its reports - with no option to verify the data.

Thank you for the reports and website names, they are very interesting! I went through the July-Dec 2024 report (that doesn't have significant numbers on Perfect Match since it wasn't released yet) and just for the record, the most viewed cdramas were: 1. The Double, 2. Hidden Love, 3. The Story of Pearl Girl, 4. Kill Me Love Me, 5. The Princess Royal

We'll see when the 2025 is released later this year, I am really curious about the numbers Perfect Match did!

Looking forward to what Mango has in store for us! <3

I know this is impossible for us to predict since Netflix viewership numbers are not made public BUT do you personally think that The Perfect Match was popular enough that Netflix might use the actors/couples for more original series?
The chemistry between all couples was great and seeing e.g. the fourth sister and husband in a modern drama would be a dream come true for many of us!

I guess that showing her match would be too spoilery :)

Sort of! I am at cca ep 15 and while the second sister (Fu Hui) and her husband (Fan Liang Han) mostly provide the comic relief (dominant wife x weak husband), they are also a very sweet couple. Fan Liang Han, while still cowardly, is shown to be very kind and considerate towards the Li family. He is not the sharpest knife in the drawer but he definitely tries! Also, once husbands of third and first sisters join the family, a "brotherhood of Li's sons-in-law" is created which is hilarious to watch.

If I may recommend some:
- Hidden Love (2023) - Zhao Lu Si + Chen Zhe Yuan, not my fave, but fluffy without any "extreme" scenes, no annoying SFL/SML, no love triangle, heartwarming

Moonlight (2021) - Esther Yu + Ding Yu Xi, publishing industry, talented editor FL co-habitates with a famous author ML who is also her online friend but she doesn't know it, no love triangle (SFL+SML get together), mostly just work-related issues, nothing too angsty

My Little Happiness (2021) - Xing Fei + Tang Xiao Tian, fluffy story of childhood sweethearts who meet again as adults, she's a lawyer, he's a doctor and they live next door, no evil people or love triangle, mostly work-related issues

You Are My Glory (2021) - Dilraba Dilmurat + Yang Yang, a must see for everyone who likes mature yet cute love stories, the FL confessed her love to ML when they were at highschool but he refused her, they meet about 10 years later, she is a famous actress and he's space engineer and they reconnect (first 14 or so eps are centered around online gaming), no love triangle, the leads communicate well, the 10 or so last episodes are just fluff with them navigating their life together

I know this is an older comment - but I am responding for all the others who might want to know. It's happy ending :).

Some things that stood out for me that were suddenly dropped from the plot even though they seemed important:

- the gaming aspect disappears completely in the second half (I know it's not an e-sport series, but it was the main hobby of both leads, it would be nice to see them gaming together more once they get closer in real life)

- I thought that it was a shame that the fact that the ML under his gaming alias gave the FL some bad advice how to charm her crush (him in real life which they didn't know) was never brought up again after she finds his identity.
Sure, after the revelation she is angry with him for lying to her but her "fake persona" (aka the plot that takes the first 7 episodes!) is never mentioned again.

- in the first half of the show, the leads take care of a stray dog; I thought it sure will lead to them adopting him, but no, the dog disappears completely in the second half and is not even mentioned

- there is a bit random nearly last-minute addition of the ML's childhood trauma (his dad was game developer who didn't spend much time with his wife and son) and a conflict with his mother who is against him working in game developing (so he doesn't work too much and doesn't end up with a heart attack like his dad...which can happen to anyone in any job, but ok) - they never come to a complete understanding, the last scene with the ML and mom is when she walks out after a disagreement - and that's it!

It was nice, definitely helped me to pass the time, nothing too cringey, capable main leads and I really liked the main actress Zhou Ye (my first drama with her).

But as others mention, the editing is just...not ideal, details below.

It's up to you of course, maybe it's just not your cup of tea. But if you are in need of a light, fun xiaxia, then LYST is a great choice.

The beginning is boring (cca first 8 episodes - just fast-forward through scenes that don't feature the leads!) and the set-up seems very cliché.
But they made some changes from the book and the characters are not as simple as they seem and without spoiling too much, their story and their history are much more than "cold and arrogant god of war" and "clueless and clumsy cloud fairy". It is all slowly uncovered during the following lives.

Good things about LYST that come to my mind:
- the leads are only ever interested in each other; SML is annoying but has no chance
- the leads have no major misunderstandings, they always trust each other (very rare in xianxia!)
- the story is very concentrated on the OTP - many cute scenes between them

If you can hold on a little bit - I remember the show's pacing picks up around ep 8 (final portion of the life 2) and then the following lives are much better and more fast paced. Enjoy!

1) love triangle - no, not really, the leads are only ever interested in each other; however, there is a SML who is after FL - but she only sees him as a friend at best

2) annoying SML - yes, he is interested in the FL and inserts himself into the incarnations she goes through with the ML; he doesn't do any permanent damage but he is annoying, fortunately his role is much reduced after life no.3 (sect); just skip his scenes and you won't miss much

3) happy ending - yes, but it is short; the ML "dies" but appears in front of the FL in the last scene and it's clear it's him and that he remembers her

It was one of my favorite shows last year, just get through the first 7-8 episodes (boring) and then most of the show is otherwise fast-paced and fun.