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Close to You chinese drama review
Completed
Close to You
0 people found this review helpful
by Rumi
Jun 4, 2025
31 of 31 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

Comparable to average-highly budgeted youth dramas

… but it’s not without flaws, because the series’ strong points also became its weakness during the second half.

The good
- Decent cinematography for a low-budget web series.
- Impressive cast performance.
- Decent chemistry between ML and FL (the height difference is great, too!)
- Good flow, pacing, and storytelling in the first half—even comparable to average-highly budgeted youth dramas. Hooks you right in during the first episode.
- Good soundtrack.

The bad
- Inconsistent camera works.
- The relationship of ML and FL has a weak foundation. The romance peaked without the getting-to-know process. The shift from infatuation to a full-blown romance was not the best kind, and it does not give a clear distinction of where the relationship actually stands. I just couldn't tell if the way it's written is intentional.
- The secondary characters' antihero situation is poorly written and a mismatch of how their characters are.
- Everything crashed during the second half. Flew high up with impressive formatting during the first episodes but fell down pretty quickly due to inconsistency. Some stories were introduced, but not properly wrapped up. Additionally, the ending was a huge disconnect, like it was trying to be something that it wasn’t.
- The soundtracks were all good, but sometimes, they were used inappropriately, in a way that the lyrics of a song would not match the mood or the theme of a scene. Sometimes, they come off a bit awkward and intrusive, especially when a scene does not really require a background song.

Overall, I’d still give credits to where it’s due: despite the bad fall during the second half, I still think that this fared better than some youth dramas who had the advantage of budget and a full-length airtime.
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