K-Drama 
2
It was so good, until it wasn't.
Everyone was talking so well about this cdrama, so I decided to give it a chance. The beginning was really good, but, as I said in the title, at some point it just became really boring.So many things could have been handled much faster and more directly. In the end, I didn’t even finish it because I realized it was just going to be endless dragging when the story could’ve ended ages ago. Even though the main couple hadn’t gotten together yet, it was already obvious what was going to happen, and I just couldn’t bring myself to sit through several more episodes of the same thing just for the payoff of one romantic scene between them. The FL’s acting, though, is absolutely incredible. Both the character and the actress were amazing, and she carried the drama for me.
As for the ML, it’s kind of the usual Zhang Linghe situation, he’s there to serve face, not acting. There were definitely moments when I thought he did a good job, but it was hard not to notice the huge contrast between his performance and the incredible acting from the FL and some of the other actors.
Overall, it was pretty fun and definitely worth watching for the beginning, but I wouldn’t watch it again.
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A bit dissapointed
I was really looking forward to watching this drama because I was so excited to see Zhang Jingyi again. She’s an incredible actress and probably my favorite actress in China. As for Song Weilong, I wasn’t nearly as excited. After Shine on Me, I realized I didn’t really like his acting. Still, the drama’s aesthetics and the chemistry between the leads made me want to give it a try.Right from the start, I wasn’t a fan of the adopted siblings trope, especially because they constantly referred to each other as brother and sister. Unfortunately, Chinese dramas seem to love romanticizing this kind of relationship, which I personally find really uncomfortable. But since I love the actors, I decided to stick with it.
Unlike Speed and Love (which I found bizarre and almost fetishistic), the characters here are mature and independent. We don’t have an infantilized, helpless female lead, and that’s something I really appreciated. Zhang Jingyi always delivers some of the best female characters. That said, her character did annoy me a bit after the time skip.
Song Weilong completely surprised me. His performance was fantastic, and honestly much better than I expected. Both leads did an amazing job, and as always with Zhang Jingyi, the chemistry was excellent. Their relationship developed rather slowly, but in a way that felt natural and believable.
That being said, I had a lot of issues with the rest of the story. There were simply too many plotlines happening all the time. Every episode introduced another twist, someone suddenly reappeared, someone else disappeared… it just became exhausting and boring.
Another thing that really bothered me was the directing choice of playing the exact same comedic background music every single time the leads shared a scene before they officially got together. It completely ruined the mood for me. Many of those moments could have felt subtle, emotional, or romantic, but instead they were undercut by this goofy a$$ soundtrack that made everything feel like a joke. It was such a strange decision.
One thing I absolutely loved, though, was the ending. I loved that the female lead was the successful one, the one in charge, which is still surprisingly rare in C-dramas. Then he became a stay-at-home husband, and she was the one who proposed. I laughed so hard and absolutely loved it. They truly deserved their happy ending.
Overall, I don’t regret watching it, but I definitely wouldn’t watch it again, and I’m not sure I’d recommend it. At the end of the day, the actors were what made this drama worth watching for me. Without Zhang Jingyi and Song Weilong, I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it nearly as much.
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Not that good at all.
Despite all the hype, I couldn’t feel any chemistry between them. The cinematography is beautiful, and I really liked the message behind the story, but the characters just didn’t work for me.The ML felt incredibly one-dimensional. Even with all the plot twists, his tragic past, and everything we’re eventually told about his struggles, none of it really landed because what we actually got to see from him was such a simplistic character that he almost came across as childish at times. I simply couldn’t see him as someone who could have a meaningful romantic connection with her, which made the lack of chemistry between them even more noticeable. It felt like his tragic backstory was mainly there to give him the depth that the writing itself never managed to give him.
The FL frustrated me for similar reasons. I understand grief, but the way hers was written felt, again, one-dimensional. Instead of simply letting her be a person who is grieving, the show constantly has her explicitly announcing it. At one point she literally yells at him “I can’t be friends with you.” Like... what? Someone going through grief doesn’t need to constantly declare that they don’t want relationships, don’t want happiness, don’t need anyone. They just... are. You should be able to understand what a character is going through by watching them, and not because the script keeps screaming the character’s inner state at you.
And that’s really my biggest problem with the writing: it seems to have absolutely no trust in the audience. It keeps spelling everything out instead of allowing the characters to have subtlety, contradictions or actual layers. The result is that what should feel like complex grief just comes across as exaggerated and almost performative. She’s supposedly incapable of letting anyone into her life, yet she’s perfectly functional and successful at work. There’s no nuance to the contradiction; the script just keeps telling us what her trauma means and how she is supposed to behave because of it. Shows shouldn’t treat the audience like idiots who need every emotion and motivation explained out loud, so that’s exactly what made this drama feel so empty to me. There was so much telling and so little actual substance or characterization that, by the end, I just couldn’t believe in these people or their relationship. Nothing felt organic, and I think that’s ultimately why I couldn’t see any chemistry between them.
Overall, I felt like both characters were given tragic backstories in an attempt to create layers and depth that the writing itself never really managed to develop. I wanted to care about them and their relationship, but I just couldn’t. Of all the things I expected from this drama, the complete lack of chemistry between the leads was probably the biggest disappointment, especially because I really like both actors. I went into this excited to see them together, so it was frustrating that the writing gave them so little depth to work with that I never actually believed in their relationship.The parallel storylines didn’t help either, only one of them really mattered to me, while the others mostly felt like unnecessary screen time and extra plotlines.
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Crazy story
oh... this had so much potential. but it was a total trainwreck. The cast was perfect, they had amazing chemistry, the cinematography and sets were among the most beautiful of any K-drama I've ever watched, even the side characters were interesting. The main romance could have developed in such a beautiful, natural way, but what we got was a narrative disaster with a bunch of horrible, random plot points. So sad.Was this review helpful to you?
What the f* was this drama
I think all my reviews will end up being dedicated to Esther Yu, because all her dramas SHOCK me.Speed and Love is the current thing, so well-regarded that it made me start watching even knowing who the FL was. And sure enough, it was impossible to watch. She acts like a child, moans like a child, talks like a child, and in this drama there was an even worse point: they were (or at least should have been) half-siblings.
So there's this whole dynamic where ML is the older brother and acts as such, while she acts like a child. Without any exaggeration, he dries her hair, peels her apples for her, takes the scallions off her plate, goes to college as her GUARDIAN. It's bizarre. In one scene he chops up meat for her to eat. What is that if not a bizarre fetish?
In fact, in the first two episodes, Esther Yu appears with beautiful clothes, beautiful hair, and a womanly demeanor, which changes completely after that, when she starts to appear with f*ing pigtails, overalls, hair clips, everthing to make her character just like a child, and the ML feel attracted to that wierd thing.
What shocks me the most is that people are entertained by this, liking it, loving it, and recommending it. The story, by the way, is super interesting. As in all of Esther Yu's dramas, the ML is amazing, and she's there to RUIN everything. The character has a very interesting backstory; he's a true warrior, a survivor of social inequality. And she's the opposite. Because of her parents' divorce, he was forced to take care of her father, while she stayed with her mother, living a life of luxury.
I understand the "my way or the highway" life, but it doesn't work here. I thought we'd have a supporting character like Sang Zhi from Hidden Love was to Diaxu, someone who would see through ML's situation and be supportive, a strong arm in his life.
Here, on the contrary, Esther Yu's character becomes just another problem in our ML's already troubled life. She doesn't come along to take some weight off his shoulders, but to add even more, since, even though she's an 18-year-old woman, she acts like a child who can't even chew on a pig's leg without ML having to chop it up (literally!!!!!).
Honestly, it's disgusting. It's a fetishistic project that only shows how sick the world is to be okay with a relationship like this. I hope to see He Yu in other dramas, cause he is gooooood. And it makes me even more mad the fact that I have seen Esther Yu acting like a woman (and not a child) and she's really good, but the directors keep chosing to cast her on fetishistc projects. Hope to her in other dramas playing deep characters that I know she is capable of.
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Why is the FL acting like a 5 years old??
I was very upset with how this show turned out. I was looking forward to se others Lin Yi projects, cause he is such a good actor, and in this one, his story, his character, his clothing, everything was so promising. BUT, as it happends in many kdramas, the FL was there and it was NOT good. Its unwatchable, its impossible to watch a grown as woman act like a child, talk like a child, it is even weird that the ML feel atracted to that. Its literally a child there, he should not feel atracted, its totally unreal that a grown ass man would feel atracted to that. I felt so weird watching it, so I dropped. Very uppseting, Lin Yi was really good.Was this review helpful to you?
