1ctechperson
Good story + acting, but directors watered down WeiWei
I really enjoyed the basic plot of meeting in the online game (first third of episodes), leading to a real relationship (second third), with the business aspects of the gaming industry (last third). Good chemistry between the leads, and between the four guys (Xiao Nai and roommates). I liked the way they constructed some of the lessons about reasonable behaviour, for example when FL WeiWei explains "love" to SML Cao Guang.
All of the characters were very stereotypical and pretty one-dimensional with no real character growth. Since there were so many characters, that was mostly OK.
The movie version of LoveO2O handled WeiWei's character MUCH more effectively. In the TV serial, she is an empty shadow that is hard to respect. (I think the actress did a good job, but the script & directors failed.)
Loved the visual presentation of the game. I would probably enjoy playing it. Music was very repetitive / annoying... almost anime... enough so that the non-watchers in my household knew what scenes were the romantic scenes and what were the busy/work scenes.
I found myself rewatching a lot of the early episodes, because of the game graphics, the relationship development, and details like the YuGong's failures when he used idioms. Subtitles were excellent, even the idioms, for example YuGong's idiom mistake 暗度仓库 (an du cang ku = hidden warehouse) which should have been 暗度陈仓 (an du chen cang = secret liason) was translated as "eating the forbidden brew" and "eating the forbidden fruit" respectively.
DISLIKES
* Kiss scenes. She looks downright terrified in almost every kiss scene (even the one where she's daydreaming).
* Bei WeiWei is supposed to be a really strong character. She's supposed to be #1 2nd year computer science student, at #1 STEM school in China, #1 female player in the server / #6 overall. She runs circles around the guy-programmers. But during the last third of the episodes, they completely water her down. UGH. She gets food for the guys while they do the real work. When they do the final couples-quest, he's the one who gets all the puzzle-solving while she sits in a dark room... it's not a couple's quest at all. She raises baby tigers rather than work or go on complicated quests.
* There's a layer of controlling somewhat-creepy behaviour from Xiao Nai. It's OK in the first half (he knows who she is while she doesn't, but he doesn't abuse that knowledge). But in the second half, it changes -- her salary even goes into his bank account not hers. She isn't given choices about ANYTHING -- for example , even though we know she'd choose to marry him and not return to her parents, he doesn't ask about either... even their wedding night he says "I can't wait any longer" . She isn't an equal in the relationship.
* There were some minor plot gaps, for example she knows he's a 4th year student at same university who wasn't living on campus for the first half of the year... but even when they finally meet F2F, that's somehow been forgotten.
* Some of the computer science items are atrocious... for example, the "server statistics" in one of the last episodes is (literally) just a directory listing!!!
* WeiWei's roommate ErXi was unbelievably annoying. (Actress was fine, character was not.)
All of the characters were very stereotypical and pretty one-dimensional with no real character growth. Since there were so many characters, that was mostly OK.
The movie version of LoveO2O handled WeiWei's character MUCH more effectively. In the TV serial, she is an empty shadow that is hard to respect. (I think the actress did a good job, but the script & directors failed.)
Loved the visual presentation of the game. I would probably enjoy playing it. Music was very repetitive / annoying... almost anime... enough so that the non-watchers in my household knew what scenes were the romantic scenes and what were the busy/work scenes.
I found myself rewatching a lot of the early episodes, because of the game graphics, the relationship development, and details like the YuGong's failures when he used idioms. Subtitles were excellent, even the idioms, for example YuGong's idiom mistake 暗度仓库 (an du cang ku = hidden warehouse) which should have been 暗度陈仓 (an du chen cang = secret liason) was translated as "eating the forbidden brew" and "eating the forbidden fruit" respectively.
DISLIKES
* Kiss scenes. She looks downright terrified in almost every kiss scene (even the one where she's daydreaming).
* Bei WeiWei is supposed to be a really strong character. She's supposed to be #1 2nd year computer science student, at #1 STEM school in China, #1 female player in the server / #6 overall. She runs circles around the guy-programmers. But during the last third of the episodes, they completely water her down. UGH. She gets food for the guys while they do the real work. When they do the final couples-quest, he's the one who gets all the puzzle-solving while she sits in a dark room... it's not a couple's quest at all. She raises baby tigers rather than work or go on complicated quests.
* There's a layer of controlling somewhat-creepy behaviour from Xiao Nai. It's OK in the first half (he knows who she is while she doesn't, but he doesn't abuse that knowledge). But in the second half, it changes -- her salary even goes into his bank account not hers. She isn't given choices about ANYTHING -- for example , even though we know she'd choose to marry him and not return to her parents, he doesn't ask about either... even their wedding night he says "I can't wait any longer" . She isn't an equal in the relationship.
* There were some minor plot gaps, for example she knows he's a 4th year student at same university who wasn't living on campus for the first half of the year... but even when they finally meet F2F, that's somehow been forgotten.
* Some of the computer science items are atrocious... for example, the "server statistics" in one of the last episodes is (literally) just a directory listing!!!
* WeiWei's roommate ErXi was unbelievably annoying. (Actress was fine, character was not.)
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