My Dear Guardian (2021)

Not What I Expected. Love and Hate all at the same time.

At first, I was so hesitant to watch this drama because of its reviews. But because I get to watch a clip of its first episode, I decided to gave it a try. And I can say, it got me. The romance and the chemistry of the ML and FL was there. No doubt about that. It was the thing thay got me going, I even wondered how it got a lot of bad reviews when the lead couple are amazing. But then, I got to the episodes where it made me understand why. Well, this drama was a full package. It wasn't all just about romance. It got a lot of action scenes and medical scenes. So, if u don't like any of those, u can skip it. But I suggest don't. Why? Well, because it will made u understand why things got to happen. Just always remember, this is a drama. Not a romantic comedy or what's so ever that we can expect it would be a light story. This drama was indeed a drama. A little drastic to some characters I might say. So be ready for those scenes though I might say the romance will cover it up though if you would just be patient. Headsup, there are many scenes that would break your heart especially the last episodes. Yes, it broke my heart and made me cry why their are some good characters needed to die. I mean, I think those characters deserves a better ending than dying. Like, how could they kill a policeman before he can even see his child born? That was just very heartbreaking for me. But at the end, I tried to understand why they had to made those scenes. The last episodes really made me cry so please brace yourself. But there are a lot of lessons you will learn if only you would dig it. The ending? Well, I wasn't satisfied but the chemistry of thr ML and FL was great so I'll just let it go hahahsa. Overall, just give it a try and judge it only based on your own view. Forget the reviews and your expectations. Just enjoy and live with the story. I think you'll understand and enjoy it too. And maybe, you'll love and hate it like I do. Hahaha I hate that it was drastic. But I love how love was portrayed in this drama after all the pain and cruelty the characters experienced. So it's still a win-win drama.

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Love between two adults

A very good story that showed how two people grew and fell in love with each other. Mature, adult relationship. No silly misunderstandings or drama for the sake of drama here. The secondary relationships, such as the one between the doctor and the widower was also well done. Quite a bit of justice was given to the careers of special forces and military doctors. I enjoyed the various arcs where the ML and FL had to resolve problems at their work. The action scenes were also well done, and gave excitement.

The failing aspects of this story lie in the way the villains are depicted. I am not able to resonate with the villains at all. They tried to add some depth to the villainous second male lead but either due to the bad writing or acting I was not able to get any of it. The drama tried to depict the female lead’s friend as someone imperfect with flaws but again, failed to get the viewers to like or even understand her.

Music was so so, nothing that I can remember now that I stopped watching.

I very much enjoyed the performance across the cast. Watch it if you enjoy watching adults find love while pursuing meaning and value filled lives!

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Good story but with typical rushed ending

Quite enjoy the story because for the most parts of the drama, the story line was well thought of & there were character developments from the main roles as well as the supporting roles. Great acting from the main leads and some of the supporting characters too. I should say, the writer gave unique & distinct characters to every roles, and each casts portrayed their roles very well. Somehow when they gave the screen time to the supporting roles, it didn’t feel like a waste of time as I wanted to know their story too. The chemistry & romance between Xia Chu & Mu Ze were sweet and realistic. Quite a shame that such a good drama, again, has to have another rushed ending (I thought this one wouldn’t).

There were parts from Zhuo Ran, Old Master or Xia Chu that became repetitive, unnecessary or dragging on, Would be perfect if they replaced these parts to complete the ending, such as showing the meeting with Xia Chu’s parents, their career decisions, their wedding, or the police progress in fighting with the drug dealers. And REMOVE the part where they killed Tian Yong’s character! How could they sent a special force soldier with such a poorly planned under-cover mission. Literally, there was NO immediate action from the special force to come & save Tian Yong the moment he was captured. Shouldn’t this be the chance to send the special force troops to show what they’ve been training hard for? Anyway, it’s still a good drama to give a try to watch.

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I love Li Qin and she did really well with the character she played. Her acting skills are unbelievable. Johnny Huang did very well playing the opposite of actress Li Qin. I wanted to give this a 10 rating but the ending was not good enough for me... not saying it was a bad ending but it didn't go anywhere. That frustrated me, but the storyline in the beginning episodes brought tears and laughter to my heart. I love how they input Martial Arts with Johnny who really knows martial arts. I won't blast it because it is not how I wanted it to end. But I will give the actors and actresses their due for making this storyline work or try. I learned one thing and that is Li Qin can speak fluent English. Nie Zi Hao can play evil with his innocent looks.

I am apologizing for getting actresses mixed up. I am watching 6 dramas at the same time. Two of them have Bai Lu in them during my rewatch time or I was thinking of the new drama coming up with Dylan Wang and Bai Lu.

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Disappointing

Finished this show in 1-2 days mainly because I skipped a lot and if you wonder why do I still watch it, it's mainly because of Johnny (the male lead). I have always liked Johnny's acting and the chemistry he has with the female lead. However, this show was such a waste with both leads I really liked and has decent acting but given a bad story plot.

PROS:
- Pretty good action scenes
- ML and FL's character are decent/bearable (aka. not annoying leads)

CONS:
- 2nd ML's character was unbearable to watch (i am not sure if he is even the 2nd ML since he never liked FL in the first place)
- The whole love thing between the FL's best friend and 2nd ML was stupid and superficial to begin with.. i couldn't understand their romance at all....
- Never liked any other characters in the show and i don't fancy their romance either
- Little romance scenes between ML and FL which I anticipated a lot (could have saved the show more.....)
- Plot is illogical and went downhill after each episode

FINAL VERDICT: side characters and plot failed the show badly, wish they focused on main couple more. a show u can skip unless you are a big fan of johnny and liqin

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A Diamond in the Rough

I really liked this drama I saw in the reviews were mixed; but I decided to give it a try, and really enjoyed it. 40 episodes was a stretch could have condensed it to 20 and I believe it would have had a better impact The action scenes were top tier Johnny Huang really did well in this drama, actions dramas are his niche!! The FL was a bit annoying throughout but tolerable, the SFL was a bit too naïve for my taste; but understandable because she was looking for love who amongst us haven’t done stupid things for love??? The ex-boyfriend Zhuo Ran was a creepy dude and tried hard to sell us the deviant character arc!! Lastly Tian Yong deserved a better ending, overall, I give this drama an 8/10. Will I rewatch, probably not!!

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Action romance

I have been binging on this story line. I must commend the Producers and Makers, of this drama. Some people will not like it because it may have to much action and not enough romance. Some people will not like it because it has to much romance and not enough actiom.otary That is a the mark of a good drama. The Military culture versus the Medical culture is great. The Military misssion is to go inthere and win at all cost. The Medical is like we don't are if the person is a bad guy, we will treat everyone the same.

Xia Chu and Liang Mu Ze is a great match. You can see and feel the chemistry among the two. The Producer is taking their time to develop the relationship between the two and I will add It'sabout time.. Liang Mu Ze is not one of those, rich, arrogant, I can do anything to you I want Male leads. Xia Chu has a postive role model, she is not weak minded mumbling, you can get in my face and I will not do anything Female role: which you see in so many Chinese dramas. Liang Shao Xue supporting role is overlooked. The way she portrays an ADHD person, is outstanding. You have to pay attention to what she is saying or you'll miss how smart she is.

The hurt, the sarrow, the heartbreak and the anger, Producers makes you feel it all. The chemistry among the cast is outstanding. The plots and subplots, makes you want to keep watching and watching. the action in this drama is riveting. While watching the bad guy, you really want him to get caught or get his butt beat.

The drama was outstanding. If you pay attention to the drama, there so much action and heartbreak in the series. Cast members work great together. For once there were female positive role models in the drama; in which Chinese dramasnot the case. Miltary interaction with the police was great to see. Scenery and medical hospital views were good. The questioning by Doctors, shuld help this bad person or let them die, is a age old question. I found myself rewatching parts, so I didn't miss a part.

I recommend this Drama. I will watch it again.

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Only for brainless peoples

Yet again this drama proved that the Chinese dramas are only meant for brainless peoples.
After watching complete drama I realized that why 40 episodes is aired in 24 days because there’s nothing to watch. It’s a shame to tell that, Even in 2021 still Chinese entertainment industry is lack in good script and direction team, because,
1. According to synopsis this is a military- medical romance, but in most of the scenes the ML always in the FL’s hospital to nurse one or another person or one or another reason. It turned out like only a medical romance drama.
2. After watching complete drama what I felt is the director is not knowledgeable neither in medical field nor in military, because a highly qualified doctor/ doctors behaves like a uneducated rookie and the military camp is portrayed like a mother in law’s home.
3. Whenever or wherever the accident or trouble happens the FL is the rescuer, she always there is spot at the right time, I felt it soo immature. In so many occasions it is portrayed like she is well knowledgeable (as a resident doctor) compared to reputed surgeons and HOD’s.
4. The FL is soo generous, she never felt bad or disappointed about her close friend who betrayed her number of times, also who she never respected her friendship by supporting her loved ones (even after knowing he is a criminal) who the responsible for death or life and death situations of her family and loved ones.
5. The criminals(non resident) can enter building of the highly secured apartment, can fix a audio transmitter which can operate months together without any charging mechanism, and can attempt to murder blah blah blah…..
6. The most shameful blunder is, only in one scene the FL’s father was most wanted VIP person he entered for the conference with full security(convoy) and the place was fully secured by police and special military officers, but after that scene he becomes a complete middle class person who can walk in a open public footpath and can travel in taxicabs without a single security person.
Like this, this, drama has hundreds of brainless things, which consumes the total drama.
The positive thing about this drama is good cast and production team, with regret I can say that if all the resources spent in this drama were utilized in a proper way this drama could have been turned out to be a most successful one but the useless and brainless script and direction team killed this drama.

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Surprisingly not as bad as most reviews suggest.

Out of boredom and looking for more than just romance, this drama was chosen. It is surprisingly not as bad as most reviews suggest. The main plot and core messages of the drama are rather conventionally scripted and were also very explicitly conveyed to the audience. It gives the impression of having few surprises in terms of content, as many events were predictable, yet the show is still worth watching. Relatively convincing was the illustration of the personal and professional difficulties and problems that are associated with military career paths, in particular the psycho-emotional strains being outlined in a way that was comprehensible but still somewhat lacking in terms of depth. The main leads did a relatively satisfactorily job in attempting to portray the addressed professions on a diverse and multi-dimensional level. The subplots with the corresponding characters were told in detail so that most of the substories were wrapped up sufficiently, even if they often ended sadly, painfully, less benevolently or audience-friendly. It is refreshing and positively surprising to see a production with a suboptimal ending for some substories, which was apparently intentionally not shot and realised to please the audience - it apparently intended to choose the opposite way, in order to possibly be able to show other facets cinematically, because life is, after all, rarely only rosy and you cannot always get what you want. Although there are many shortcomings in the comprehensibility of some of the storylines, it must also be emphasised that the main leads had relatively good chemistry and were also able to depict the complex character developments of their portrayed film characters with lots of efforts.

Cast: relatively well-known main leads
Acting: the performance was generally good and convincing enough according to the requirements
Editing: mostly okay, but still not seamless at times
Music: unimpressive
Set design: convincingly realistic in terms of military themes, otherwise rather ordinarily average
Costumes: mostly thematically adapted, otherwise everyday-casual
Colour palette: theme-specific unobtrusive

In summary, I would say that it was not a waste of time to have watched this show, with some fast-forwarding/skipping towards the end. It is one of those rather unconventional productions that try to address very complex criminological processes, rather little known (ECMO) or even still somewhat "controversial" (phage therapy) medical treatment processes and the divergent socio-emotional challenges, fears and struggles that go along with them. It is a commendable venture to realise all this in a drama. Considering all the aspects involved, this show should be rated between 7 to 7.5 but I would rather give it an 8 out of 10 because of the entertainment value and production efforts.

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Not too interested watching this. But a few pitching from YouTube makes me want to watch this. So here I am finished watch this drama. As expected this drama not really my cup of tea, but this drama quite makes sense & Liang Shao Xue & Tian Yong is just so cute, they're the one that actually make me hang till the end.

Make sense logic:
+ The first thing that makes me very berry happy is they use English when they meet foreigner.... They not make the foreigner speak Chinese fluently, but as happen in the real life they must use English to communicate instead.
+ Liang Mu Ze (MZ) & Xia Chu (XC) not just jumping into relationships when they realize they like each other. Many thing must be considered, especially regarding MZ job as military man.
+ One woman that really hard to understand is Xiao Xiao. She's like a backstabber & selfish b*tch that willing to do anything to safe herself. But that's a reality of life isn't it. Sometimes drama make the story so beautiful, that FL/ML have all the friend in the work that seem willing to do anything for them. But in real life sometimes friend at work not your friend, they just colleagues that will safe themselves if necessary. And that not always mean they the bad friend or bad people.
+ I really want to change the ending for Tian Yong (TY). But once again that's life. We can't always save everyone. And sometimes that bitter pill we need to swallow.

what I like:
+ Liang Shao Xue (SX) & TY is just a cute couple. Like how they complete each other, the hyperactive SX & the quiet TY. We can see how they kinda influence each other, how TY make SX more calm & mature & SX kinda make TY more open. TY also make SX understand the sacrifice that her dad must do.
+ Johnny Huang & Li Qin quite a cute couple. I quite like their chemisty. Really like how cute MZ kinda protect XC from his mom after they together.
+ The friendship between XC & Mi Gu (MG). That's one tight & true friendship with all the support they need & have. Even beyond man, no man can break their relationship as 'sister'

The minus:
- The idealist that we gonna recognize the boy or girl that we like after that long year of separation & not meet or have their picture. Haha... I mean the first time Zhuo Ran (ZR) & XC meet again after high school, they immediately just recognize each other. How...? Yeah I know sometimes we don't change much, but that kind recognition is kinda weird & 'magical'. Haha...
- XC too idealis as a doctor, but at the same time she also use too much feeling for her patient sometimes. Like with the lung transplant girl (I forgot her name).
- The weird rejection from XC's dad toward MZ and the weird behavior from XC's dad overall. We never really got the explanation about XC's dad weird behavior, all the paranoia regarding his research, and more over why Lao Ye (the drug lord) need his research in the first place. Also the reason for his rejection regarding MZ & XC relationship, is it because ZR kinda whisper bad thing about MZ or just cause the MZ job itself....?
- The stupid slave love that MG has for ZR. She know for sure ZR has feeling for XC but still hang to that feeling, even let ZR played her several times. Although I kinda happy how in the end she still use her head to make a decision instead just use her heart.
- Sometimes the scene not make sense. Kinda like there something in the middle but they cut it in post production. Like when MZ suddenly get worse after his operation. Or like how sudden MG change her thought regarding ZR. Yeah I know they explained later on, but still kinda missing something in the middle.
- The weirdest and no reason to go for MZ & XC in the first place...

Overall this mature drama, that not filled with the angst but mature thing & some scene regarding military....

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Incredible leads but a weak plot

I believe this drama needs to be divided in 3 parts

- The Military and medical aspect
- the romance
- the investigation against the "bad guys"

So there's a mystery/thriller plot, a romance story and an observation of soldiers and doctors in extreme circumstances .

The Mystery is worth in my opinion a 4/10 at most. The "bad guys" didn't have a clear purpose from the beginning nor did they have a smart way to accomplish things. There's loopholes and uncomprehension because the story was not crafted in way it could last for 40 episodes. The acting was also a bit weak on that part. So basically, the red thread linking events and fueling the drama just wasn't there. The pace was a little draggy as well.  Once I realized that, I decided to watch the drama without considering it has an actual beginning and end in terms of plot. It's a succession of situations that are well captured (the budget definitely helped here) with really good acting from the leads.

The leads are very emotionally intense actors, i knew from the beginning that they would give a mature vibe to the story.  And they didn't fail to deliver.
The habitual opposites-attract dynamic in c-dramas is between cold ML-bright FL both being very immature and lacking communication. This drama chose the fiery FL- chill ML as a duo dynamic and I'm so glad it did.
The romance is a little slow burn because of the realistic concerns they're facing as adults but their flirting was really on point. They communicate, are super sweet, fight sometimes but sort it out. Honestly for me, these are the best love stories.
So I would give a 9.5/10 to the romance aspect.

The third part is those long scenes of military operations and medical practice. Tbh these were fun at first and I understand that the goal is to show that both leads have an intense work. But after a while, it looked like a recruiting ad for Chinese military and doctors . Too much of it. Too much about chinese military pride.
But  the military brotherhood offered a good comic relief especially in the beginning and then tears at the end (but I wasn't emotionally involved to feel affected by it, because the pace made me loose that intial interest). I actually laughed a lot watching this show. I also regretted that they didn't use the comic brotherhood as a weapon to lighten the investigation plot and make it more dynamic as well until the end. So I would still give it a 7.5/10

Overall it is very difficult to give it a definite notation. It depends on how you decide to look at it. If I had to give it a grade for its overall story, i would have to give it a 7 because the main "bad guys" are terrible and the plot is too intricate without being smart enough. But I really enjoyed this show because of the lead's dynamic and characters while skipping a good part of the investigations. So I still very much recommend it.

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