Pretty Li Hui Zhen (2017)

I gave this 10/10 because, although slower (because it's a LOT longer) than the Korean original - it's still very good. I honestly believe that the first and second lead actors (Sheng Peter and Zhang Vin) should've been swapped. Sheng Peter as Bai Hao is new to acting in this kind of role and needs to polish it off a bit - he plays it all way TOO cool, cold and well....cool. It worked in 'Go Princess Go', but not here.

Zhang Vin as Yi Mu was PERFECTION - but you really do feel he is wasted as the second lead. I think, having seen him as the cool, quiet and calm KO (who also had a warm heart) in 'Love O2O' he could've EASILY played Bai Hao instead and REALLY made it believable. The whole problem here has been that that we fans ship Yi Mu and the female lead, Hui Zhen, TOO much and it goes beyond the usual 'Second Lead Syndrome' - they just have INSANE chemistry in EVERY scene and Sheng Peter pales into the background if he has to share the scene with them. You HONESTLY see Bai Hao as the second lead and not the main love interest - whereas, even if he WAS the main lead, you're REALLY rooting for Yi Mu to be with Hui Zhen..

Sure there were differences between the original Kdrama ('She was Pretty') and this Chinese version - sure there was some things the Kdrama original did better, the male lead played by the always wonderful Park Seo Joon is an obvious choice. Another is that Go Joon Hee as Min Ha Ri certainly played the 'bad best friend' with a slightly more sympathetic air than the Chinese version, Xia Qiao, who is played (rather lack-lustrely) by Li Sierra.

BUT, and it's a big one. there are also MANY things this one did BETTER than the original. The Kdrama had the better LENGTH, however, this one has the better STORY because it also does at least have time to flesh out the characters a bit more; so the bullying main lead you REALLY despise, the BBF betrayer (or 'Female Dog Friend' as I called her, lol!) was MUCH worse in this one and so the hate we felt was much more real too. I think Sheng Peter should be patted on the back because a LOT of expectations are on this role and he did his best. I REALLY think we'll be seeing a LOT more of Zhang Vin in the future - the man was EXCELLENT as KO in 'Love O2O' too.

I think overall BOTH versions are very good and one is not worse than the other; they're just different. I give this 10/10 because it deserves it.

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I gave this 10/10.

I loved the story line. I have watch the original one from Korea and it was also good. But, I totally enjoyed how they went more into details about the characters. You got to know them more, which to me is important.

Like in the Korean version I had second lead syndrome. Zhang Vin (Lin Yi Mu) did an awesome job. I felt more for his character than I did Choi Si Won played the part. He was awesome.

Second lead actress Li Sierra (Xia Qiao), loved her. She made me love her and dislike her all at the same time.

This was the first time for me to see Sheng Peter (Bai Hao Yu) in a role. I was at first not sure but after the first 2 episodes I loved how he played the part. It was different which is what I found awesome. I am currently looking up other shows to watch of his.

Now to our leading lady. Two words loved her. Dilmurat Dilraba (Li Hui Zhen), did a beautiful job playing this role. Again a different approach to the character.

The supporting cast. They was awesome.

Even though this was a remake of She Was Pretty, it stands out on its own.

I loved how they did the ending.

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This version is so much better than the original one. I dont know if its just me, but although the korean version had a great story line and famous actors, I found the entire show very exaggerated. With over the top hatred from the male lead, very very annoying female lead, but a total heartbreaker second lead. On contrary, this version felt a lot more heartwarming and maybe due to longer screen time, there is more space for the story development.

Compared to the original, Bai Hao Yu showed more feelings. The way he treats Li Hui Zhen was alot more sincere and although he was really mean, I liked how he also showed how conflicted he was between both ladies and that he had a soft side as well. (Like how he would always feel bad and try to make up to his mistakes) And most importantly, the hate was not directed due to her name.

Dilraba never fails to impress. She did amazing in portraying Li Hui Zhen. I always felt that the korean version was very annoying and loud. But LHZ was not. She is very realistic. All the rejections over the years and her changing looks made her lose any confidence she had in herself. She whines and complains but always pushed harder. She is true to herself but decides to change when she realises the need to improve.

Our second leads are the sweetest. The amount of tears Xia Qiao made me shed... The perfect best friend despite the struggles she went through. And Zhang Bin Bin!! How does he manage to be so sweet in every show? The mood maker of the show and everyone's dream guardian angel. Ah... The best second leads...

Everyone should give it a try as they remade the drama wonderfully. They shone a new light to it. It was made closer to the heart, more subtle and more sentimental. It is a very cute and light show. Though not an impactful show, it is a show to be rewatched when some sugar is needed in life. Cause it is like a fairytale: No evil characters. No hatred. Just sweetness, sympathy and a happily ever after. :)

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This was, all in all, a somewhat disappointing drama, and I can pinpoint the main problem easily: Bai Hao Yu. Whether Peter Sheng is lacking as an actor or not, I can't be entirely sure; I haven't seen him in anything else. Regardless, the character is stiff, cold, harsh, and unlikable for most of the show. His rudeness towards his coworkers is never fully explained or resolved. He doesn't grow much as a character, and his PTSD is conveniently written away without a believable explanation. He is just a poorly written character, and as such, it's hard to understand why the two main female characters are so interested in him. Although it does feel like a weak performance from Peter Sheng, I think most of the problem was the writing.

To make matters worse, comparisons between Bai Hao Yu and the second male lead character, Lin Yi Mu (played by Vin Zhang), are unavoidable since Yi Mu is his love rival and polar opposite. I've previously only seen Vin Zhang play intense, brooding antiheroes, so seeing this side of him was surprising and refreshing. Lin Yi Mu can be childish and annoying - however, he is also surprisingly mature, compassionate, loyal, and kind. He is a natural leader, which often makes Hao Yu's lacking leadership even more glaringly obvious. Vin Zhang is very funny, charismatic, and compelling as Yi Mu; he is easily one of the best parts of the show, and definitely the fan favorite character overall. If you are a fan of the actor, this drama is worth watching.

Dilraba Dilmurat is one of my favorite Chinese actresses, and she's the reason I decided to give this drama a try. I haven't enjoyed all of her work (looking at you, Sweet Dreams), so I was glad to find that this was actually watchable. She was perfectly cute, awkward, and sweet as the titular character, though I really don't understand the beauty standards adhered to in this show. Freckles is what makes her unattractive..? (Granted, they were poorly done freckles...) In any case, she was everything I would expect her to be, and her character development was realistic.

Hui Zhen's best friend, Xia Qiao (played by Sierra Li), is surprisingly sympathetic and three-dimensional. She isn't a perfect friend, nor is she a heartless seductress. The fallout and resolution of her deceit is pretty realistically done, in my opinion (given that her best friend is someone like Li Hui Zhen). I was really impressed by Sierra Li's acting ability and range of expressiveness. Moreover, of all the characters, I think Xia Qiao grew the most. This could have easily been a two-dimensional character, as the female lead's love rival often is - and I'm really glad this story doesn't take that route.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. My favorites were the very flamboyant, dramatic, fashionable Editor-in-Chief, Vivian; nurturing, industrious, and soft-spoken Zhu Ying; eccentric, laidback Lin Hao; and sweet, straight-forward Lin Hu Sheng. I felt that Ya Ling, Anna, Mei Li, and Lu Lu were all too indistinguishable from one another. Even so, the Immortal team was pretty cute as a whole, especially when imitating Vivian.

In terms of relationships... the main romance is a letdown. It takes forever to develop, and by the time I got to that point, I didn't really care. Even beyond that, they usually come across as awkward and restrained together. Meanwhile, it's much more fun to watch Li Hui Zhen with her closest friends, Xia Qiao and Yi Mu. Most fans seem to yearn for Hui Zhen and Yi Mu to get together. I'd be fine with that, too - Dilraba Dilmurat and Vin Zhang really do have great chemistry together - but honestly, I was really feeling the vibe between Hui Zhen and Xia Qiao. They're so close that Xia Qiao's father (I think it was?) really believes that they might be a couple, and they often do act like one. Hui Zhen is so over-the-top in her praise of and affection towards Xia Qiao that it really does seem a bit like a one-sided crush.

(Strangely, Yi Mu and Hao Yu are also more interesting together than Hui Zhen and Hao Yu. Probably because it's fun to see Yi Mu tease Hao Yu. More than once, I found myself thinking just put the two girls together, the two guys together, make them all best friends, and we're good. While I can enjoy romance between any sex/gender generally, it's pretty rare that I would prefer this in an Asian drama over the main couple. Because usually they're able to sell me on it...)

There's also a secondary relationship between two of Hui Zhen's coworkers, which I sometimes found cute but often frustrating/annoying because the woman's primary goal is to marry a very rich husband, and the guy is so sincere. There were two other seemingly potential romances (one obvious, one more subtle in the background) that never did take off.

I don't regret watching this drama because I like watching Dilraba Dilmurat. As long as it's tolerable, I'll watch anything that she's in. "Pretty Li Hui Zhen" is very flawed. It's way too long (and thus stretched much too thin) for the story it has to tell... but it has some really great moments, both funny and sweet. Aside from Hao Yu, I felt the main characters had a great balance of strengths and flaws, and that the writers understood them well.

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It's been over a year since I've watched this but what you remember about a drama really says a lot. For Pretty Li Hui Zhen, here's what I recall:

I found Li Hui Zhen to be too cringey and almost unbearable to watch. She perpetually looked confused and sounded nervous. (I really want to like Dilraba Dilmurat's dramas but I haven't liked any of her roles - Sweet Dreams, Eternal Love, The Flame's Daughter.) I did like that Li Hui Zhen's manager(?) Zhu Ying was really nice and that Li Hui Zhen pursued her dream. Peter Sheng's acting was so unexpressive I felt like I was watching a block of wood. I loved his phone calls with his friend.

Vin Zhang was a scene stealer and I love him, and thank goodness he's playing the main role in his upcoming dramas. Sierra Li did such a good of a job playing Xia Qiao that I can't watch her in anything else without thinking of how much I disliked her in this drama. I have such a hard time with that storyline because I really like themes of friendship in dramas, and this sort of lie is difficult for me to forgive.

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No More Peter Sheng please..

Have never seen Dilraba with such an ugly face, talkative, uneducated but kind (she did pretty good). Peter Sheng was so badly out of character - he couldn't barely act. Intonation of his voice were so monotone and robotic, acting wooden, smile forced, expression zero. I know he supposedly a cold and reserve man but (this is the big trick) lesson 1: some real cold/reserve person usually have expressive eyes - and this guy had none but blank stare like trying hard to remembering dialog, Lesson 2: learn from Mark Chao or Shawn Qu or Wang Duo or take another acting class again. That's prove something, relay on a pretty face isn't guarantee the man doing a good job.

I think Dilraba tried to cover his flaws by doing more in acting (looks more like over acting). The rest of casts (supporting actors) were actually pretty awesome. The star of this drama was Zhang Bin Bin, a free spirit editor who liked Li Hui Zhen the way she was without question. The story line isn't bad, has potential that need more collaboration from the MLs, the ending is pretty pathetic in which supposedly a happy ending, a picture of happy couple with a child walking hand in hand lovingly at the park. What appeared was a overly chatty wife dragging hand of stern husband behind their daughter.

Good thing is Dilraba not her-beautiful-self, acting it out of her usual character that's kind of overplay it, as we can see that she's capable doing other acting that's not typically her genre. Although not a good drama, appreciation doing her best is noticed. I rated 3 all for Peter Sheng...he didn't give his best shot while the rest of crews run their best efforts.

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"She Was Pretty" & "Pretty Li Hui Zhen" Both a Disappointment

I wanted to see if they improve the drama "She Was Pretty" but I have to say they did little improvement. I thought that in "She Was Pretty" the first 11 episode were a waste and annoying. This drama the first 20 episode were annoying and episode 29-31 was more silly foolishness of push and Pull games. This drama did not need to be 40 episodes. Li Hui Zhen (Dilraba Dilmurat) character was terrible. can they have made her more pitiful, stupid, and annoying. Her freckles seem fake, every once in awhile you can see them fading. Her facial expression were foolish and goofy looking. I Know Dilraba Dilmurat is a good actress I have seen her in other dramas. Baiha Yu (Peter Sheng) character seem so cold, harsh, and with no chemistry with neither of the lead female actress. Lin Yimu (Vin Zhang) character had great chemistry with Li Hui Zhen but it seem more friendship then romantic. I did not really believe he was in love with her. He is also a very good actor. I was hopping they change some of the story line but words might have change but still the same. I think the writer could have done better and the director could have used better direction. I found It disappointing and I skip so much because it was getting annoying. The ending was just as expected no real thrills or changes from the Korean version.

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This was a disappointment. It should have never been 40 episodes to start with because in half of those nothing noteworthy happens. At some point I skipped 10 episodes and it was like nothing happened, and I just picked up the story where I left it.

The acting is super bad. I've never seen any of those actors in anything else before so I don't know if the casting was poor or the director is to blame. The main male lead made Kristen Stewart look like an emotion queen. This dude could be sad or happy and there was zero emotions on his face. The subbing did not help either.

Waste of my time.

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*Please read my update below*
ORIGINAL REVIEW: Maybe this series just wasn't my "cup of tea," so-to-speak. Maybe I was simply unable to bridge some kind of (pop?)cultural/mindset gap? Given the overall, very high rating, I think that I missed something really important (No, not a soul...Geez!).

Besides the intangibles, I just couldn't seem to give a hoot about two main characters: Di Li Re Ba (Li Huizhen), who's obtuseness I found highly irritating, & Sheng Yi Lun (Bai Haoyu), who was downright unlikable; the very opposite of what he was supposed to be!

The dubbed audio was clumsy & off-putting; like much of the dialog & performances, unfortunately. The main exceptions were Vin Zhang (Lin Yimu), Li Xi Rui (Xia Qiao), Wang Hi Nan (Zhu Ying), & Wang Xiao (Lin Hao). They delivered. So did the sets & scenery, now that I think about it.

The whole thing was kind of "meh." I should have paid more heed to my reaction to the summary, & left well enough alone. Disappointing!

UPDATE: Although my feelings about this particular series remain unchanged, I do feel the need to mention how my opinion regarding the audio quality has.

Recently, I was firmly -yet politely- schooled on some of the reasons why the audio is the way it is, & I'm embarrassed by my prior ignorance. I truly had no idea about the many different dialects commonly found throughout China, nor the challenges which often arise as a result. Simply learning the "why" has given me the ability to enjoy the many wonderful stories in a way I could not in the past.

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I really liked this drama at first but near the last 10-15 episodes, it started dragging and became a bit boring. Still, I think this is a pretty good drama. For the first twenty-something episodes, I loved it. Mainly because I was looking forward to the makeover scene and I was in love with Yi Mu. I'm not a huge fan of Bai. In the last ten episodes or so, I basically skipped his scenes and jumped to scenes with Yi Mu. That ebing said, Bai isn't that bad; it is because Yi Mu overshadows his. Yi Mu is the perfect second male lead. He is so playful and caring and considerate. Zhang Bin Bin really acts with his eyes. His eyes are so emotional and beautiful. I loved all of the supporting characters, from Lin Hao to Zhu Ying. In terms of Hui Zhen, I wouldn't say that I absolutely love her, but she was alright.

The plot is pretty creative and suspenseful. One thing I do have to say is that it can be pretty frustrating. Every time you think that Bai will learn the truth, he doesn't. They also make you guess who the heir to Immortal is, which is pretty fun.

The music isn't out of the world. There isn't actually much music. The theme song is by the female lead.

In conclusion, this drama is a light drama with a bit of suspense. Almost every character is extremely lovable. There is love, friendship, and office work in this drama. The actors are great; though, there is a lot of conflict over the male leads and their roles. It does get draggy, especially in the end.

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The casts and their acting were great. I laughed out loud several times because of the Li Hui Zhen character; Dilraba portrayed the character very well. I have always liked her acting.

The series just gets really annoying and disappointed as it progressed. I don't like how Li Hui Zhen, supposedly a hard working, courageous woman was just so weakly and blindly "stuck" in love with her childhood sweetheart, Bai Hao Yu despite his dis-respectfulness toward her; he constantly berated her because of her clumsiness and her physical appearance (judging the book by its appearance kind-of-way). I understand that the main lead, Bai Hao Yu was supposed to be aloof and detached because of his childhood misfortunes, but one can be that way without being ill-mannered, non-gallantry and disrespectful. His English was really bad despite the fact that he was in New York for 12 years. He never learned to open doors for women apparently. Whenever they were stuck in bad situation, Li Hui Zhen had to take care of everything, he just stood there watching. He was just flat out RUDE and insecure in my opinion. He had suspicions that she was his childhood friend, but never wanted to actually find out. He didn't want it to be her, it seems. His character was such a turn-off for me; he was so NOT " suave, successful, and immensely likable" as described in the summary. I would have stopped watching this series if it wasn't for Lin Yi Mu (Vin Zhang).

I totally loved Lin Yi Mu. If Li Hui Zhen was smart, she would have been with Lin Yi Mu instead.

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Acting can make or break a show for me

STORY: I enjoyed the Korean version more, mainly because this version was entirely too long and drawn out. There was so much that could have been left out entirely, without losing any of the storyline. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the destiny, we knew each other years ago storyline. However, here the male lead was pretty unlikeable, so I couldn't fathom how either woman could fall in love with him. I didn't feel that the male lead's character was as mean as in the Korean version, but that's mainly due to acting...

ACTING/CAST: I enjoyed Dilraba Dilmurat as Li Hui Zhen (though she was considered ugly because of frizzy hair and freckles? Although the freckles were so poorly done, but that's another issue). I didn't think she was as over-the-top as the actress in the Korean version, which I appreciated. Peter Sheng as Bai Hao Yu - his acting was terrible in this. I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else, but here he was wooden with no expressions. There are so many actors that can play the cold hero well, by use of expressiveness of eyes. He, unfortunately, appears to not have this capability. Vin Zhang as Lin Yimu was AMAZING. First, I think his part was really well-written, so there is that. He and Dilraba had amazing chemistry, which was lacking between Sheng and Dilraba. Li Xi Rui as Xia Yiao - she had a few scenes (which seemed to involve movement, so maybe acting and moving are too much) where all you could see was her acting. However, for the most part she did a pretty decent job. The rest of the cast was okay. I did like the progression of the friendships between all the workers in the office.

CHEMISTRY: Great chemistry between Dilraba and Vin Zhang. Between Dilraba and Sheng, not so much. I enjoyed the scene where they were eating together in the car, but I never really felt that they were in love.

This is actually a show that you could watch the first few episodes and then skip to the last 10 episodes and not miss out on anything.

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