wumei1640

My least favorite Gong Jun’s role

And I watched all of his shows.
ML is just unlikable and flat. I don’t know who made a choice for Xu Si to be portrayed like this but he’s constantly scheming behind Jiang Hu’s back. Kissing her while she’s drunk. Refusing to tell her if they slept together or not. Kissing her despite her protests.

I don’t know. I’m guessing most people here love the power imbalance and men getting away with stalkish and obsessive behavior because they are hot, but that isn’t the case for me. There’s enough of shitty men irl to be subjected to them in my dramas. No matter how they look.

The whole drama with the shoe business isn’t interesting. And I refuse to believe anyone would ever watch a livestream of ugly shoe painting.

I started rooting for Jiang Hu to succeed. And the slapping scene was the most satisfying in the whole show.

I liked ZCX’s acting most of the time, JH was charming after she had to change her life. I liked her scenes with 2ML. They probably would’ve made way better couple.

Other than that, Jiang Hu always looks repulsed when Xu Si made a move on her, aside from episode one. Understandable to be honest, but it was hard to buy them being in any kind of loving relationship. Death of Boss was completely unnecessary and a cheap emotional blow when FL was already down. Xu Si getting over his dog trauma instantly and fantasizing about new puppy being his and JH’s child when they weren’t even together was stupid, but again, his character was never deep to begin with. Like introducing his fear of fire once and dropping the topic to never touch it again. XS getting away with everything by ditching his brand new puppy for months, leaving China so we can be told by other characters how sorry he was, without him actually putting any effort. Terrible and irresponsible until the very end, so I guess at least he was a consistent character.

I just hope that after the credits, Jiang Hu takes the dog from him and sends him on his way like he deserves. Respect yourself, girl 🫡

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Silly and entertaining

I’ve seen it twice by now.
I really enjoy Gong Jun’s older dramas (anything made before Flaming Heart), when he was allowed to emote and his characters weren’t reduced to “hot and stoic armrests for Female Leads”.

The Player is a short drama about a group of gamers who become friends due to circumstances. They have to stop the bad guy, who is also the ex best friend of the ML, Gong Jun’s character Ren Yixia. The drama has a very shonen vibe to it and it’s entertaining when you don’t take it too seriously. We have an eager protagonist who wants to save his friends at all cost. We have all the supporting characters who become his best friends. We have friends who turn evil and so on.
It might be aimed at younger viewers, but I think older ones can appreciate it too. It has some very funny scenes and it reverses some of the terrible cdrama tropes (like the awful awfuuul falling on your lips trope).

Likes:
- cast and the video game/shonen vibe
- the characters actually have chemistry with each other. You can feel they are friends
- Ren Yixia, Xiao Hanlin and Yan Yunfei
- characters that team plays in the game have their own personalities and things going on when Ren Yixia and co aren’t logged in
- ironically this cdrama has one of the most tight up plot and ending that makes sense - which is rare
- cgi and music
- the last in-game fight with the big baddie and the emotional pay off

Dislikes:
- Hu Miaomiao character and her plot line
- we will never get season 2

Thank you Word of Honor for being a success and making Mango TV try and cash out on GJ’s sudden fame by releasing this drama. Even though I might be one of very few people who appreciate it haha
I really wish we’ve gotten a season 2 at some point, but I fear GJ and the rest of the cast would shot me down at the proposal.

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His job is just Yifan

My biggest gripe with this show is how ML has absolutely no motivations, goals or personality aside from Wen Yifan. All his hobbies, jobs and interactions are motivated only by FL and getting close to her. He doesn’t seem to care about this family, even lies to Yifan at the beginning saying it’s them who don’t care about him. It’s very sad. And since it’s a modern drama it’s also rather concerning. If he wasn’t considered handsome (I think he’s ok looking but nothing too crazy), he would be called out for being a stalker. But since Yifan likes him, he gets a pass.

I can very easily see the show turning into a triller or horror if she didn’t like him. Maybe it would be more exciting then.

I like Wen Yifan and her backstory. Main actress did a good job in conveying her awkward and stoic personality. Sometimes her awkwardness made it hard to see any chemistry between the leads though. It was rather hard to watch them close when her eyes are shifting. I’ve only ever seen her in Everyone Wants to Meet You but she plays almost the same way there so maybe it’s just her?

First kiss, aka ML kissing FL while she’s sleepwalking is very concerning. Like please, you could have very easily avoided her lips. But it wouldn’t be a straight cdrama without some forced physical contact/borderline harassment presented as romantic.

Yifan’s relationship with her family was straight up heartbreaking, so kudos for trying to portraying such a difficult topic. It’s only a shame that her issues with physical contact never manifested into her relationship with Song Yan. He’s just this special I guess.

I really wish cdramas would stop putting dogs into shows, just to have them dying for some cheap emotional trauma to the characters that will be resolved almost immediately.

2FL was very cute but her plot was so underdeveloped, it’s a missed opportunity. I also liked the grandpa, I think he was very charming. And the music is pleasant enough, I even saved once track for my playlist!

Was ML paid extra for being wet? I swear he’s either sweating or out from shower every second episode. That would make a good drinking game while binge watching.
The poor cast forced to constantly drink all these yogurts and strawberry beer while eating Pizza Hut and fruit jellies, sponsors could be less obvious.

Overall you get what you would expect from a straight romance drama. It’s not bad, it’s not brilliant. Has some strong sides (FL’s backstory and her struggles of self acceptance and topic of sexual harassment) and some very weak ones (ML’s obsessive behavior and no personality outside of FL). It’s good enough for a background noise and Chinese language immersion.

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