PLOT
The premise was good – in a series of unfortunate events, a girl loses everything that she has been working for. All because of one man.
The first few episodes were fun to watch – caricatural, entertaining. The early mid-episodes of the drama were more melo-dramatic, but also in a good way. As usual, things started to go downhill in the second half – the funny incidents were gone and instead we were greeted with some unnecessary angst and no more innovativeness…
CHARACTERS
For most part, all the characters were stuck in their own ways of dealing with things. However, towards the very end most of the characters suddenly underwent a 180 degree turn. This seemed really unexpected – there were no events leading up to the change, no gradual character development… Not to mention the personality of the male lead… I found his behaviour understandable, but it was rather annoying to watch how he put others before himself, sometimes in a very silly way.
CHEMISTRY/ROMANCE
It is hard to judge the chemistry between the leads. I would say that it was rather good, BUT more on friendship terms. Without spoiling (please refer to some of the comments below if you want to know more), I would even dispute whether this drama even falls under the category of ‘romance’. It was definitely about love, but the romance didn’t develop according to the typical ‘they meet each other, fall in love and progress with things’ scheme of things. If you are watching for actual romance and some skinship, I would advise you to forget about this drama.
On the plus side, I really enjoyed female lead relationship with male lead’s father – quirky, fierce and fun to watch!
I was satisfied with the acting – it’s just a shame that such a great bunch of actors was not put to a better use!
OST was mostly unremarkable, but fit well with the events.
Rewatch value – close to zero for me.
In summary: could have been a great drama, but turned out to be a passable drama, with an underwhelming plot and character development.
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This review may contain spoilers
Initially interesting, but got draggy and angsty nearing the end
The show started on a good note. It was funny, light-hearted and the bickering between the characters is amusing. However, it started to go downhill at the last 10+ episodes of the show. It started becoming draggy.It is quite annoying how (as rightly stated by Gu Yao) there is no change/improvement in Cheng Hao's character even after 7 years since graduation. Cheng Hao is still the timid guy on the inside, trying to avoid conflict at all cost, and even avoiding the problem. I disagree with his decision to offer $5mil in compensation to the "victim" so as to avoid conflict. Offering compensation is acceptable and the right thing to do, but there is a difference between reasonable compensation and extortion. Paying some money for "pain and suffering" is ok, but $5mil for that "suffering" is way too much. The fact that Cheng Hao even decided to sell his house for that just annoyed me. This shows me that Cheng Hao has no guts/spineless and is unable to fight for his own rights and benefits. Caring for others is good, but it should not be at the expense of himself.
Another thing that annoyed me is his inability to open up. He always take on his own problems himself and keep everything to himself. It is understandable if he is alone, but the fact is that he is not alone. He has Luo Yue and Zhang Mingyang who are always by his side. Being open and frank is a key tenet of a relationship (both between friends and lovers). Cheng Hao's decision to always lie and avoid the question is therefore very annoying.
Cheng Hao's lack of guts to just confess and make the relationship official is very irritating. He should have learnt his lesson from 7 years ago, but he has not. He still dare not have the guts to do so. This makes it very irritating, esp since he is supposed to be the "relationship expert". He should know that Luo Yue likes him (it is quite obvious tbh), and he should just make things official. Yet, things were kept murky and complicated - more than friends, yet not lovers... This happened throughout the show until the very end.
I felt that the main story arch between Cheng Hao and Luo Yue was not resolved satisfactorily. Yes, Cheng Hao eventually went to Milan and they hugged. But Luo Yue is there on a long-term basis, while Cheng Hao is on a visitor pass (because he is still boss of his clinic in China). So what are they? Are they together or just friends? If they are together, how are they going to manage a long distance relationship?
On a separate note, what I disliked the most is that the story arch between Qiao Yilin and Zhou Beiye is not properly developed. I find Zou Beiye the most endearing character - earnest and honest. But he is not properly developed. Qiao Yilin and Zou Beiye are very different in character, appearance, background and career choice. How they get together will be very interesting to explore. But this is totally not touched on at all. We never see a proper date between the two of them, or how they interact with each other on a daily basis. Hence, in the last 5min, when we saw Qiao Yilin pregnant - I was surprised - as we never see how they got together eventually.
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This review may contain spoilers
Well, its a Drama!
It really is a Drama, very much so!With that I already touched on the subject that caused me to not give this Drama any higher a rating than 6/10. While this Drama has a lot going for it, interesting Characters, good acting, nice chemistries and so on it unfortunately suffers a lot from the "Drama Syndrome" where Drama is generated for Dramas sake and feels extremely unnatural and artificial.
Basically it can be summed up as the Drama being generated where it is needed by the Script and not necessarily evolved from a coherent Story. Things are about to calm down? oh look some incriminatory Document finds its way through the most convenient way possible in the hands of the "villain" (that of course later turns good). Not enough? well how about phone ringing EXACTLY the time when our main love interest is about to confess something important....not once, not twice but pretty much all the time and lets not even mention the incredibly convoluted ways the Characters make decisions.
To make sure I dont remain negative since I did watch the whole Drama so there must have been something to keep me interested after all, I am now gonna mention the things that worked for me.
The main couple has a good chemistry and they work quite well most of the time (if the script allows it). The few occasions where they can be "relaxed" and interact with each other "normally" are a treat to watch. The funny parts work also quite well and manage to lighten the mood a little between all that forced Drama. There are also some good and well thought out dialogues here and there. Some supporting roles do an exceptionally good job in bringing more "color" into the series, especially the main leads friend and father and the main female leads mother.
While I did watch it to end, I had to skip couple parts that were simply annoying to me and were clearly there to needlessly generate more Drama so I cant really say I watched it all.
The ending was disappointing though! not only did it pull of a "love interest pushes her away because of own insecurities, realizes mistake/love, runs after leaving love interest to catch it on the airport" trope but went further and let him miss her only to make a montage in the faraway place where they meet in total cliche and ...the end! poor, expectable and boring and also done to death already.
All in all its an okay Drama and I am sure people who dont mind or even love "excessive" coincidental generating of Drama will get way more out of it.
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really i hate the story and direction
first a fall what the fucking ending, i know its happy ending but why so idiot way
45 episodes my data wasted
if u want watch dont watch it
reasons to ignored this drama to watch
1 intro is like crime list drama but its romance
2 100% no romance
3 no sex or porn
4 its looks like drama made for ad for a product
5 if u want more reasons then watch your self
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