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A Bittersweet Do-over
The bland looking poster made me think this was going to be a sweet romcom, but instead it's a sentimental character growth story of a young girl desperate to fix past mistakes. It’s not really a novel concept, but what makes it fresh and engaging is the rather unsympathetic and selfish heroine, Hua Qian, whom you can’t help but root for anyway, largely thanks to Zhou Ye’s compelling acting. Even though romance takes the backseat to HQ’s journey, I have to say Zhou Ye and Wang Xingyue had good chemistry and both looked incredibly beautiful in this drama, bringing all the charm and eye candy I could wish for^^
Initially, HQ’s motivation did not stem from wanting to redress past wrongdoing but rather avoid the steep price she had been made to pay for it. It took time for her to actually change her way of thinking and start to genuinely repent. Unfortunately, she’s one of just a handful of interesting characters in this drama. Out of the three MLs only Wang Xingyue tried to infuse his character with some depth and charisma. Both Peng Chuyue’s and Zhan Yijie’s performances were flat and uninspiring, and the SFL’s (Zhao Qing) acting was telenovela level bad. I believe that with different casting choices the story could've had much more emotional gravity.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I actually liked the ending, especially the realism of it. I thought it was well-scripted and true to the themes of personal growth, self-forgiveness and atonement. It also firmly kept the heroine in the center of the story avoiding any fairytale cliches.
Of course, I wouldn’t say no to an epilogue giving us a glimpse into their lives in the future, but I’m just as happy imagining it for myself …or maybe my expectations for c-drama endings are so low, this one seemed good in comparison;))
Initially, HQ’s motivation did not stem from wanting to redress past wrongdoing but rather avoid the steep price she had been made to pay for it. It took time for her to actually change her way of thinking and start to genuinely repent. Unfortunately, she’s one of just a handful of interesting characters in this drama. Out of the three MLs only Wang Xingyue tried to infuse his character with some depth and charisma. Both Peng Chuyue’s and Zhan Yijie’s performances were flat and uninspiring, and the SFL’s (Zhao Qing) acting was telenovela level bad. I believe that with different casting choices the story could've had much more emotional gravity.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I actually liked the ending, especially the realism of it. I thought it was well-scripted and true to the themes of personal growth, self-forgiveness and atonement. It also firmly kept the heroine in the center of the story avoiding any fairytale cliches.
Of course, I wouldn’t say no to an epilogue giving us a glimpse into their lives in the future, but I’m just as happy imagining it for myself …or maybe my expectations for c-drama endings are so low, this one seemed good in comparison;))
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