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This review may contain spoilers
Watch for a light-hearted youth drama, not for the main couple.
This is a great light hearted drama to watch for themes of youth, coming of age, friendship group, friends to lovers, high school and academia, strong family bonds.
Initially I was thinking of dropping this because the first few episodes didn't feel all that interesting to me. But I held on and it does get better from Ep 5.
Being introduced to Tian Xi Wei as Lin Zixia felt great - she is a great actress and she did so good here. Her character here was quite interesting because she is supposedly this highly unusual, awkward character who is unable to socially interact or atleast misses social cues. This aspect of her character was hugely played up in the first few episodes, it sort of gives you this impression she would be this Young Sheldon type of character all the way through. What's more surprising is that it doesn't play out like this. Lin Zixia is NOT actually as socially incompetent and awkward as emphasised. She's just been unpopular during her childhood until she finds friends other than just Jiang Yu Bai starting from Ep 5. We get to see a lot of times that she is fully capable of making friends when other people aren't rude to her, and she is emotionally able to recognise and form bonds. We go from "this FL is so unusual from others" straight to "now she just feels like a regular character." Almost as if it gives you whiplash. Apart from her having this immensely high intelligence, she doesn't stick out from the other characters or compared to FL's in other dramas at all.
Jiang Yubai also starts off quite awkwardly but not because of his character - I felt Hu Yi Tian took a little getting used to because he came across as quite stiff and awkward in his acting. In comparison I thought the character of Shen Fu Xuan stood out much more compared to our ML in those early episodes. But Hu Yi Tian improves, after the first few episodes he is okay and does as well as the others. In terms of his character it's interesting because in the beginning you see he is not down hard for the FL. He has personality and desperately wants to be an individual seperated from Lin Zixia, who would mainly be the prioritised student in their pairing. But he strictly remains friends with her as opposed to a rival.
We do end up seeing Jiang Yubai fall for her very quickly, but when he does it is very sweet and cute. For example when he stays on a sleep call with her when she's at a hotel, and turns up to see her in the morning was very wholesome and fits in with being a cute romcom. Despite all this they still lacked chemistry till the very end. The drama is never able to meet this expectation throughout.
The other supporting cast, especially the friends all did amazing. Every character felt interesting and fit into the whole friendship group theme. My favourite was definitely Tang Ting Ting who came with a sense of relatability and humour more than any other character.
In terms of plot and pacing - Episodes 5-20 was by far the best section of this drama. The High School Arc until when the main leads reconcile in the present time at the end of Ep 20 is very well done.
The thing I liked most about the drama was that all the friends develop strong bonds, they were amongst the best relationships in the drama alongside the sibling relationship that Lin Zixia/Lin Zeqiu have with each other. Even Lin Zixia and Jiang Yu Bai's relationship feels better and much more warmer during this period of the drama.
However good it was at this point though, it still suffers from the common syndrome of becoming boring when the leads are together as adults (post Ep 20). They as a couple and also the plot itself become too bland, safe and predictable. Besides a few parts for Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui, I was ready for the drama to finish by Ep 25 or so tbh.
A deserved mention here for the side supporting couples - they all did very well and out of them I was the most invested in Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui's love story (even over the main leads). Apart from them the last 6-7 episodes were quite boring and I was fast forwarding all the business and work related parts which felt like too many.
Overall a cute, light hearted drama with flaws like blandness and no main lead chemistry. It's not even a bad drama, but neither is it so good that I would rewatch most of it and keep it in mind. I wouldn't recommend this drama if you specifically need a strong lead couple. It's a better drama when watching in terms of the youth, friendship, family, school genre.
+ a mention for a nice OST.
7⭐ /10
Initially I was thinking of dropping this because the first few episodes didn't feel all that interesting to me. But I held on and it does get better from Ep 5.
Being introduced to Tian Xi Wei as Lin Zixia felt great - she is a great actress and she did so good here. Her character here was quite interesting because she is supposedly this highly unusual, awkward character who is unable to socially interact or atleast misses social cues. This aspect of her character was hugely played up in the first few episodes, it sort of gives you this impression she would be this Young Sheldon type of character all the way through. What's more surprising is that it doesn't play out like this. Lin Zixia is NOT actually as socially incompetent and awkward as emphasised. She's just been unpopular during her childhood until she finds friends other than just Jiang Yu Bai starting from Ep 5. We get to see a lot of times that she is fully capable of making friends when other people aren't rude to her, and she is emotionally able to recognise and form bonds. We go from "this FL is so unusual from others" straight to "now she just feels like a regular character." Almost as if it gives you whiplash. Apart from her having this immensely high intelligence, she doesn't stick out from the other characters or compared to FL's in other dramas at all.
Jiang Yubai also starts off quite awkwardly but not because of his character - I felt Hu Yi Tian took a little getting used to because he came across as quite stiff and awkward in his acting. In comparison I thought the character of Shen Fu Xuan stood out much more compared to our ML in those early episodes. But Hu Yi Tian improves, after the first few episodes he is okay and does as well as the others. In terms of his character it's interesting because in the beginning you see he is not down hard for the FL. He has personality and desperately wants to be an individual seperated from Lin Zixia, who would mainly be the prioritised student in their pairing. But he strictly remains friends with her as opposed to a rival.
We do end up seeing Jiang Yubai fall for her very quickly, but when he does it is very sweet and cute. For example when he stays on a sleep call with her when she's at a hotel, and turns up to see her in the morning was very wholesome and fits in with being a cute romcom. Despite all this they still lacked chemistry till the very end. The drama is never able to meet this expectation throughout.
The other supporting cast, especially the friends all did amazing. Every character felt interesting and fit into the whole friendship group theme. My favourite was definitely Tang Ting Ting who came with a sense of relatability and humour more than any other character.
In terms of plot and pacing - Episodes 5-20 was by far the best section of this drama. The High School Arc until when the main leads reconcile in the present time at the end of Ep 20 is very well done.
The thing I liked most about the drama was that all the friends develop strong bonds, they were amongst the best relationships in the drama alongside the sibling relationship that Lin Zixia/Lin Zeqiu have with each other. Even Lin Zixia and Jiang Yu Bai's relationship feels better and much more warmer during this period of the drama.
However good it was at this point though, it still suffers from the common syndrome of becoming boring when the leads are together as adults (post Ep 20). They as a couple and also the plot itself become too bland, safe and predictable. Besides a few parts for Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui, I was ready for the drama to finish by Ep 25 or so tbh.
A deserved mention here for the side supporting couples - they all did very well and out of them I was the most invested in Lin Zeqiu and Jin Baihui's love story (even over the main leads). Apart from them the last 6-7 episodes were quite boring and I was fast forwarding all the business and work related parts which felt like too many.
Overall a cute, light hearted drama with flaws like blandness and no main lead chemistry. It's not even a bad drama, but neither is it so good that I would rewatch most of it and keep it in mind. I wouldn't recommend this drama if you specifically need a strong lead couple. It's a better drama when watching in terms of the youth, friendship, family, school genre.
+ a mention for a nice OST.
7⭐ /10
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