Stairway to Stardom (2017)

The first thing you need to know before going into the series is that it is actually more of a melodrama than it is a romantic comedy. The second thing you need to know is that if you are watching for Push, he is not present for the entirety of the drama despite being the male lead. He sort of comes and goes throughout the drama and instead the romance focuses more on female lead and her relationship with the second and third male leads. The male lead's voice is also dubbed terribly.

That being said, this drama does a pretty good job of representing the entertainment industry including the good and the bad. You have the female lead who just happens to get lucky over and over again making her way to the top while her friend has to claw her way up to the top doing a lot of shady things. Some actresses have to fight their way through and continue to fight to maintain their position, while others just genuinely get lucky and their talent is recognized. I also loved how they depicted the complicated relationship of frenemies and business rivals. Another cool thing is that it has some pretty epic celebrity cameos of actors appearing as themselves, including Orlando Bloom. At times, especially in the beginning, it felt like this drama was being used as an outlet for Tencent to advertise/promote its other projects / movies...especially with its star studded celebrity cameos. However, it was still fun to watch because you never knew who would show up.

Another thing I liked is that the male lead is "allergic" to females due to some traumatic past. While I have seen this plot multiple times in other dramas, I liked how the female lead is no exception to the rule. He is allergic to her as well and that is one of the complications of their romance that he has to overcome. The chemistry between the two leads is pretty good and it's fun seeing them go from enemies to lovers. Scenes between these two characters are more romantic comedy, whereas the rest of the drama is more of a melodrama with the female lead pursuing her dreams of becoming a recognized actress.

One of things that hurt the drama is that it is pretty lengthy and the last 10 episodes or so dragged. At the end of the day, I did enjoy this drama and felt like it was worth watching once (especially for Push). I don't plan to rewatch it though.

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I'm impressed with the storyline of this movie. I like the fact that not everything is rosy and fluffy. I also like the fact that they portrayed how taxing it can be to be in the entertainment industry, how difficult it is for artists and mostly, how far people will go to get what they want. I'm particularly impressed with the character, Mengtian. Although she's a 'villain', the author made us understand that she did what she did for a reason and gave us the opportunity to understand and sympathize with this character. Truly, although some people may not go as far as this character did, the character made me understand that jealousy really does turn friendships sour.

The actors also did a brilliant job. Really, I couldn't find a big fault in the cast. Although I felt some scenes may have been a bit tricky like the ones where the actresses have to act as actresses while maintaining the behaviour of the original character. In some scenes the character Su Cheng played, I still felt some original, cutesy Su Cheng vibe from them. Of course this isn't a big deal I was only wondering if it was meant to be so.

Ah! the music. Memorable. Honestly, the songs picked out for this movie were really good at changing the mood of the audience. But I noticed some audio issues which... weren't very pleasant. This has nothing to do with the music of course but it really bothered me sometimes. The recording... or was it the microphone? it wasn't so good.

I would definitely like to rewatch this again. I love the playful scenes at the beginning and I would also watch this for a deeper understanding.

Overall, this drama is very nice. Not too dragged, not too rushed. Nice cast, nice acting. Other than the audio and my occasional sensitivity working, I loved it! Well done to the crew. Great job, guys!

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Nice plot start, brainless FL character development sinks the ship

Don't know why asian dramas think honesty and innocence in female leads can only be shown if she is total doormat for everyone, her so called pride can only reveal itself against male lead by taking stupid decisions

While this series shows the murkiness of entertainment circle pretty well and cast are all pretty people, the female lead is a big idiot. Naivety and idiocy are different.

Her bff records her voice and edits it to make her a gold digger among other backstabbings, she still calmly shares her private life details and company secrets with her, which she no wonder, sells to the enemy again. Then, to find out about ML's past, she goes to the most corrupt person who has been shady since day 1. Come on, use just a little brain!!! Plus for her backstabbing friend, she is ready to sacrifice endlessly but shows zero trust on ML. Ughh!!
Male leads were good looking and have acted nicely. ML screen time is surprisingly low and second ML character is not that great.. Music is nice and plot initially develops well. Dropped it after plot holes became too much

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Time waste watching it

For me it is a worst story . Main leads 'love story started after 44 episodes and in 48 th episode they broke up and last part of last episode they patched up.
Few parts of episodes were good . Main lead's character was a president but sometime he looked very childish ,useless prank he played with main lead's character. In whole drama you onle see the first main female's lead ,male main leads got few episode .first main male lead you would see in first 11 or 15 episode then his role disappear ,then third main male lead you would see 25 episodes I guessed ,by the time second main lead charcter was introduced . When she broked up with second lead I think around 30 th episode she was with first main male lead and they fall in love around 44 th episode and they got broked at 48 episode and then she was with second man lead character and veery last part of last episode they patched up . Second man lead character had not much scene. And not at all looked as important character.
Totally rubbish story ,not well synchronised .
Not happy with the drama ,worst story.

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