This review may contain spoilers
Predictable But Entertaining for 4 Hours and 20 Minutes or Less
With 4 hours and 20 minutes or less, you can enjoy this short-length series between two long dramas or when you're spare time is limited. One of the better short-length series of many China has produced nowadays. I will review not with the usual format to highlight the positive and negative aspects in a bullet point.• Predictable but still entertaining
This is just my opinion since I am also a mystery-genre fan, so I watched too many similar setups. I could guess the plot just by watching Episode 1 only. But the drama is highly entertaining nonetheless because of the suspense and the chemistry between the main couple Yan Zhen and Chu Ze Jia/Chu Ze An.
• Great chemistry but not many smoochies and skinship
In short-length dramas, which usually are not censored heavily, we can expect real kisses and/or skinship. Especially for the husband-and-wife scenes, aren't they married? Not in this drama. We can feel the sexual tension between the two, but because of the in-law circumstance in the current plot, we don't see the intensity of the romance. Regardless he is her husband Chu Ze Jia or her brother-in-law Chu Ze An, in the current situation (not flashbacks), he is a family member, not a romantic partner.
• Good acting but underutilized the twin roles
Overall good acting by the leading actress Meng Xi, whom I've never seen before, and Li Zhuo Yang, seen in the mini-drama "Mutual Redemption Love". However, I think the production team underutilized the twin brothers Chu Ze Jia and Chu Ze An roles. They have strikingly different personalities with the older Chu Ze Jia being more reserved and mannered because he is a company CEO, in comparison to the younger Chu Ze An, who is more outgoing and free-spirited being a globe adventurer and photographer. But I'm not sure if the actor was not directed to act differently, or if he couldn't act differently, sometimes I couldn't really tell the difference between the two. I got it that the actor is somewhat new, so he probably did not have much acting experience. But a good director can make the best of a rookie.
• Nice mother-in-law but annoying sister-in-law
In short-length dramas, it's common for them to follow a soap opera-ish trope with mean MILs. Luckily, in this drama, Mrs Chu is a very nice MIL. Not the sister-in-law Chu Ze Xin. Although she doesn't oppose Yan Zhen, her character is the same ol' trope of SILs in rich families: annoying, immature, and bratty. You can skip the scenes with Chu Ze Xin because it's a filler, IMO.
Before the last bullet point regarding the ending, here are the two nice OSTs of this drama:
1. Ending theme "Rose Graffiti" by Fei Zhen Hua
2. Insert song "Waiting for Love to Return" by Guo Gai Ya
Scroll down to find out about the ending spoiler.
• Happy ending but with disappointing trope
A lot of viewers are disappointed with this typical Chinese drama ending style, including that I docked 0.5 points of my final rating. After the showdown with the villain, the drama ends with Yan Zhen leaving Chu Ze Jia and he couldn't find her. Viewers might think this is a retaliation against him leaving her in the past. However, I think that this is normal since Yan Zhen is pretty much exhausted mentally from all the hard work she did, investigating the mystery (the initial mystery and the mystery of her husband) and managing the company for years. Including the mourning and heartbreak because of the deaths. That girl needs a break. So she went vacationing by herself.
The drama ends with Chu Ze Jia visiting the place where they first met and a woman comes to take a Polaroid picture of him. We can't see the woman's face, but it's Yan Zhen for sure. because the scene is similar to when they met for the first time. So it's not an open ending. But I'm disappointed nonetheless since Chinese dramas like using this kind of ending, a mysterious reunion in which we can't see the other person's face, a similar voice calls the protagonist, or the protagonist looking up to the other person with a surprising look.
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This review may contain spoilers
Starts With a Sizzle and Just Fizzled
This drama starts out sizzling hot. We have the ML (Li Zhuo Yang aka Chu Ze Jia/Chu Ze An) walking into the house as we see the FL (Meng Xi aka Yan Zhen) coming barefoot down the stairs. As Chu Ze Jia walks further Yan Zhen comes up behind him using her hand as a gun, she presses it into his back and says, "Stay still." Chu Ze Jia puts his hands up as Yan Zhen tells him to remove his glasses. Still holding his glasses and arms up, Yan Zhen puts a blindfold over his eyes. Chu Ze Jia tells her that her perfume gives her away and turns around. He starts to remove his blindfold only to have Yan Zhen say, "You want a surprise, don't you? " He smiles as Yan Zhen turns him around again and takes off the blindfold to show him the room decorated for their anniversary.Chu Ze Jia gives her a diamond necklace which he places around her neck. He then asks her where is his present to which she begins to take off her negligee and seductively let's it fall to the floor. Thus begins the most sexy and sensual make out session every. The chemistry between these two was off the charts. They could just look at each other and you could feel the electricity coming from both of them.
They were leading such a happy life until Yan Zhen's husband dies in a boat explosion after their anniversary. She then takes over the Anshi group as the general manager of her husband's company. But we knew something would happen when she was about to declare her husband legally dead. He comes back or does he.
Thus begins the question is he or isn't he her husband due to the fact we find out he had a twin brother, Chu Ze An.
We are lead on a good "cat and mouse" chase. There were moments when you suspected the SML (Wang Yi Lei aka Gu Cheng) of not being her friend but someone to be leery of. Then you had the SFL (Qiu Jia Qi aka Chu Ze Zin) who was the sister to Chu Ze Jia/Chu Ze An which was an utter waste because she served no purpose. Her voice and nonsense whining just took the drama down.
But the surprise comes in the very last episode. Yan Zhen, after everything has been settled decides to leave Chu Ze Jia. I was so shocked by this move. Her reason was: For the past four years, she was waiting for her loved one to come home. She was exhausted physically and mentally. She needed time for adjustments. She just said she was sorry. He tries calling her and gets the message: The number you have dialed cannot be reached. She further tells him not to try and find her. If they are destined to be together, they will meet. Even without her, she wanted him to believe that there would be someone in the world that would love him unconditionally.
I honestly was shaking my head in disbelieve. What was that. I was thoroughly put out by what she had just stated. They had solved the issues of what happened within the company and when they finally can be happy, she leaves him.
There is hope, if you can call it that, we do not know how much time transpired but we have Chu Ze Jia go back to where they first met still hoping that he will find her. As he looks away, you hear a camera click. Chu Ze Jia turns around and we assume it is Yan Zhen because he is smiling.
I had high hopes for this drama because of the casting of Li Zhuo Yang. I have seen him in all of his short dramas such as: The Princess New Clothes and Mutual Redemption Love. These are both good watches by the way. Each drama so far, he is in, the man is fire.
Unfortunately, for me with all the good intrigue and coming back together, it fizzled at the end because we were left empty handed with just a smile for comfort.
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This review may contain spoilers
A suspense drama, also no director name.
Probably the first series from China cinematography I come upon from the genre "suspense movie". Here no information of who the director is, and in suspense movies, the Director is a figure of prime importance.So out of that, is the genre not popular in China?
Not that the movie is bad, but the tags in MyDramaList have mislead me, I would not have watched it, if I knew it was suspense.
Regarding the production - there are triller elements, there are crimes - and investigations.
Also, the ratings ctriteria that MyDramaList provided do not include aspects of assessing of the cinematography and the contribution of Director.
Regarding the plot - the FL marries the CEO of a company with the main purpose to get access to the company archives in order to obtain information regarding the past, involving one of her parents. We do not get assurance that she married out of love or that she developed unconditional love for her husband during the timeframe of the series.
The drama ends with the FL leaving her husband with a wish to have someone in the world that would love him unconditionally.
In the very end, her husband is taken to the scenery where they first met. Someone comes behind him taking a picture - he turns and smiles. This gives the viewer a hope for this unconditional love - whether the FL or not is just another suspense.
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Sensual and mysterious story with sexy and mature leads
This drama is about the female lead who’s husband mysteriously disappears/dies in an accident. After four years, the female lead is about to pronounce him dead and take full control of his company when his twin brother returns. Is he her husband or his twin?POSITIVE:
- Main lead’s chemistry is HOT. Sexual tension in the current timeline and soft & sweet romance in the flashbacks.
- Sensual and mysterious vibes.
- Cinematography is on point.
- Story is engaging from start till end.
- Betrayal/Mystery plot.
NEGATIVE:
- An annoying childish sister who took a little too much precious screen time.
- Hot kisses at episode 1 but no more afterwards. And yet the sexual tension between the leads made up for this lack.
ENDING (MINOR SPOILER):
The drama is open ended but it can be interpreted as happy. I personally loved how it was done and it made sense to me.
OVERALL:
If you want sexy and mature leads with betrayal/mystery plot, I highly recommend you watch this.
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Despite its short length, this series still felt like a loss of time...
This short length series (26 episodes for a total duration of 3h42 minutes) follows the relationship between Yan Zhen (acting as CEO of the company instead of her husband who mysteriously disappeared while trying to invesigate some corporate issue) and Chu Ze An, the twin of her lost spouse. Does it sound bonker but interesting with a lot of soap elements ? Yes. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my time watching this series, the writer chose the safest and blankest way to develop the plot.I wish they went crazy with it but sadly enough, it remained all along very timid and safe...In addition to that, none of the choices made by the characters made a lot of sense...All their issues could have been resolved much more efficiently, the scenario makes a point to tell us how smart they are, but honestly their actions are dumb most of the time...I must admit that the heroine is the smartest of them all, so it alleviated a bit my frustration with the scenario.
The acting was very bad. There were so many "WTF" moments where the actors almost did not react...I did not feel the chemistry between the leads and separately they were not able to carry any of the dramatic moments. I know they were not helped at all by the writing but I wish they would have at least made some minimal effort to emote any kind of believable emotions...They were really generic all along the series. The secondary roles were not portrayed in a more inspired way and the actors playing them had also what felt as limited acting chops.
The production value was average at best, which I expected given the short lenght series format. The soundtrack was pretty nice, a bit repetitive and overpowering given the length of the episodes but overall probably the best part of the series.
I would not recommend this to people as there are much better dramas out there. Even if you are looking for some soap, brainless series to just entertain yourself, there are for sure more fun and better things to watch. It felt like a loss of time, the story was really uninspired, boring and overall badly acted.
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This review may contain spoilers
From ‘not again’ to ‘what a great ending’
After watching “lovely, still” which was a great disappointment in my eyes, I started this one, cause I wanted to see how the writers would handle the disappearing - reappearing act. Around ep 21, I became very angry and frustrated and wanted to drop the series, cause I thought it would be the same way as in the drama mentioned above (doormat FL, just accepting the fact that ML comes and goes and make decisions for both of them like he pleases)But I’m glad I didn’t drop it and watched till the end! A great respect to the writers, for writing FL as reasonable and close to normal human reactions (and not just accepting MLs behavior like a goody little wifey).
The writers let FL ask the same questions viewers would ask, Fl gets mad and depressed plus, the ending is perfect in the way of getting a taste of your own medicine. I love it!
(In my eyes, this was the only reasonable way out, cause there just wasn’t any rational reason, why ML couldn’t tell FL the truth. At all.)
What I need to add:
- Kudos to the FL, the actress did a great job portraying the emotions of her character ❤️
- Kiss scenes are included, and I’d say the pairing has a great chemistry
- Overall, pretty good quality for a mini series!
ENDING SPOILERS see below :
SPOILER
*
After they catched the culprit, FL disappeared overnight, leaving ML behind, ML is devastated and doesn’t understand at first, but keeps on remembering his behavior towards FL, which kind of tells that he (hopefully) realizes what he did wrong. Viewers don’t get to see FL again, but in the last scene, ML is standing under ‘their’ tree, looking in the distance, beginning to smile, which is open for interpretation but certainly means that FL finally reappears.
*
SPOILER
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A bag of chips/crisps...
This is a pretty little production, with steamy kisses, lovely banter and a surprisingly entangled story for the short format. It is also one of those shows that you know lacks all substance and is probably not really good for your health but you watch it anyway,The leads do a decent job acting have great chemistry and do look at each other like pray, ready to devour the other at any moment, the OST has this 007 feel to it and so does the cinematography. While the leads seem to be able to act, the money did not cover acting lessons or any type of coaching for the rest of the cast as they had less expressions than an icile lead at the begining of a drama. The little sister supposedly grown up acted like a toddler and well that is a bout it.
An okay watch for the gazes and the banter but nothing wow.
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tension!!
The post credit is so hard to skip, that ost is fire, setting up the intense chemistry of the leads. I love a mini drama with a plot and this is one of it. Watching a mini drama is so non-stress that sometimes I prefer it over full dramas. Best of all, those kisses! That's how it is done! 2nd cp also cute in this one.I was so shookt with how it opened. Really rare to see characters doing deeds in such a lengthy manner. I got intrigued right away.
I didn't have much info about the plot so I was blown away when ze'an appeared. Plot twist after plot twist!
For a mini drama, this is well done.
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