Hime

This was a pretty obvious attempt to copy the 2022 drama Reset. A failed attempt I must say.

The plot, characters and even subs are nowhere near as good. I guess if you have nothing better to watch you might like this. If you like the concept but want something with a better execution, watch Reset instead, in case you haven’t yet.

1) not really, there is the FL’s ex but he barely shows up and even unknowingly pushes the main leads to get together sooner

2) they officially start dating by the end of episode 18 but the ML confesses his feelings for her several episodes before that

3) nope, the FL rejects him at first for reasons you will see but once they get together they never break up

4) YES....with a wedding and everything

I have not started Northward yet but I watched Arsenal Military Academy back in 2019 and she was pretty believable crossdressing as a man.

Yeah, although anger inducing, that scene was pretty realistic, unfortunately.

You’re not wrong. Like I said, I might not have even kept watching if instead of Landy they had picked some unknown actress. But it is hard to ignore people calling someone attractive average or ugly, specially when most of the other characters being portrayed as more beautiful are not actually better looking than the female lead. ^^'

I know and I am glad they picked Landy but I could not just pretend I was not annoyed everytime anyone acted like she was not pleasing to look at. The interview scene in the first episode made me want to punch those guys. ^^'

Good but still prefer Hidden Love. This was 7 episodes longer which did not help. The longer they stretch a Chinese drama the higher the chance of dragging the plot.

Btw, seems like this brother and sister pair definitely like the same type - beautiful, financially struggling, messed up family situation/past - and both did a great job helping their love interest heal.

I found this to be a bit more dramatic and heavier compared to Hidden Love and skipped a few scenes here and there but overall it was a nice drama.

My guess is you meant to say "its not that she is NOT beautiful..." and yes, that is exactly what the director did. Have seen it in other dramas. Glasses, bare face, pimples, messy hair, baggy plain clothes and suddenly a good looking person is "ugly" to everyone else but the viewers...and the male lead. ^^'

I did not miss those points, the thing is that there were severel moments when people acted like she looked below average just because she was wearing plain clothes, no makeup and acted less feminine than the regular woman. Even by the end of the drama the message was directed to regular looking people...but Landy Li is not your regular looking person. She is naturally beautiful, at least in my opinion.

This is not the only drama where I have seen this happen. They pick a good looking actress but everyone acts like they are average because they wear glasses, or baggy clothes, or have messy hair.

I liked the message of this drama but I think if they wanted this to be more relatable they should have chosen an actress that was actually average. Aside from not being as tall as some other actresses, Landy is conventionally beautiful.

For me, Landy Li and Tan Jian Ci carried this drama. Although I mostly enjoyed it, it was a bit too quirky for my taste at times and some plot points I found annoying.

If some unknown actors played the main leads, I might have dropped it at some point but because I really like Landy Li and Tan Jian Ci is also a great actor, I kept watching.

P.S. - I understand teenager Su Cheng Cheng being considered not so pretty because of the pimples and awful skills at doing her make up, but how can they call adult Su Cheng Cheng (Landy Li) average or even worse...ugly. Just because she is not as tall as a model? Landy Li is prettier than most of the women that appeared on screen. ^^'

Thank you for the recommendations.

Friendly Rivalry I have seen around but it does not seem like my kind of drama since I grew out of high school dramas a few years ago and will watch them on rare occasions when I am feeling nostalgic.

The Witch I have on my plan to watch list but still haven’t found time to start it.

Filter, although I love Landy Li, I put on hold until more episodes come out because I find it frustrating that he is falling for all versions of her but not her true self. Stopped at episode 14 and will go back to it when I am out of things to watch.

The writers are starting to run out of ideas - beer, potatoes, what’s next? XD
Anyway, I will still give it a try and judge for myself if it’s worth watching.

I am that person, the one who has watched kdramas for a long time (15 years to be precise). I am kind of neutral in the sense that I find the drama cliché but good enough to watch in between other dramas but not so good that I would give it a high rating or rave about it.

I mean, this is not bad but if you have been watching kdramas for 15 years like me, it is a bit too cliché to be entertaining.

We are halfway through the drama and they do not know each other’s identities yet and the writers dragged the whole "not remembering what I did while I was drunk" subplot for an entire episode.

If I was watching this say 5-10 years ago I might have found it amazing but at this point I feel it brings nothing new to the table. I will keep watching for the actors and in between other dramas I am watching but I feel disappointed that this is yet another kdrama that goes into the average pile. I can’t say I have watched many good kdramas in the past 2 years. :(

Watchable short drama but could have been better.

At some point the writers seemed to forget why the FL came up with the idea of a contract marriage in the first place. A lot was going on with new characters and subplots being added while the main conflict was almost forgotten until near the end. So much was going on that they even forgot to explain a few plot points.

For a short drama this was well-written.

What bothers me is that so many good people die or go through a lot of pain that when the villains get payback it does not feel satisfying at all.

The ML on this sort of drama is usually a red flag but while women were treated like trash by almost everyone else, the ML was one of the greenests flag I have ever seen, which only made me feel angrier at the way they decided to wrap up the drama.

As a cat lover myself, I am glad to say that the cat is safe. Can’t say the same about everyone else. ^^'

Not only was this completely messy and nuts, but the lack of trust the ML had in the FL is something I cannot overlook no matter how much he tries to redeem himself. Even if I forgave him with time, I would never go back to him.

There were some things that could have been handled better but since he was the person she was texting, we can assume she might have mentioned something about the pharmacist.

If she was falling in love with him then yeah, that can hurt even more than a physical relationship, but I think she only liked the feeling of being treated with care and attention and was not actually falling for him.

Although emotional cheating is still cheating I find it less bad compared to physical cheating, specially if it is a momentary thing like here. It is one thing to think about something and another to act on it.

Here, more than the actual person, it felt like she just wanted anyone that would give her some attention since she was not getting it from her husband so she felt moved when another man was unusually kind to her. It was not like she liked the pharmacist but more like she liked the way he made her feel when he cared for her. She wished her husband would treat her like that.

I definitely think she is more guilty than him although he did put himself in situations that could have resulted in physical cheating. And I agree that I would need some time to trust my partner again if he pulled something like this but at the end of the day the ML is one of those men that let’s himself be pushed around and since he was afraid she would divorce him he did not make a big issue out of it. There is a reason why they added the Dysfunctional Marriage tag up there.