To Love, to Heal (2018)

This is a light hearted romantic comedy you could say. I had a smile most of the time between episodes 20-32 i think. Mainly due to the lead actorJiang chao who has a good flair for comedy and excels in the role of a nerdy CEO who is less strong physically compared to the female Kendo Master Shui Guang. Their interactions, his little younger brother a student of kendo, his mother and colleagues all bring comic elements to balance the very serious female lead.
The pace is a bit slow and story is told in a very leisurely way.

The plus side and take aways from the drama would be

1. No really horrible villains / evil mother in law trying to separate the lead couple- even the girl Yuri pursuing Zheng Lan and the guy protecting Shui Guang are shown with lot of character and fair spirit
2. The CEOs character is mature and he handles issues both at work and personal life with great amount of perseverance. I like to learn such things that a good leader cannot be impulsive and have lot of ego but must treat his employees with trust and kindness. I liked how the writer /director portrayed that this character accepts that their mother leaves him and young brother to go abroad (the reason is explained in later episodes and how she redeems herself by helping her sons boyfriend to overcome her own tendency to escape from reality) and despite this comes across as a sane and balanced guy.
3. All the characters redeem themselves in the end. They prove that love, understanding and patience/ kindness help in bringing back people together
(I believe we all become what we constantly watch so watching good things will influence us to make us better people- as watching hatred revenge etc make for interesting watch but they do not make us better human beings- sorry for the preachy tone...this is a reminder to myself)
4. The guy never gives up on the girl or his love - he makes up his mind and does not let others influence him unlike other dramas which create stupid misunderstandings. And the way Yuri accepts that she is rejected is nice and refreshing. She is very cute and along with Luo Zhi make a nice pair

The negatives the lead actress's acting is a bit wooden - yes her character is supposed to be that way but the liveliness and expressions after she falls in love could have been portrayed much better. The main reason why the lead girl is blamed for her ex-boyfriends death is too thin and doesnot warrant such a heavy reaction. The accident is nothing so ghastly as they make it out to be and the scenes are repeated a lot

The episodes from 32+ etc is a bit draggy and i ran through them as it was just fluff - could have ended by 30 i think. Some characters such as the policeman and his girl in coma are shown with lot of promise but end very thinly.

But overall go for it if you are in a mood (and a lot of time 45 mins of 40 episodes) for a light romantic flick with some techie background.

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First off i have to say the first 10 minutes of this drama as to be one of the worst i've ever seen in terms of cinematography i won't say why cause of spoilers but holy heck it's so bad

Now for the good and bad about this drama

Good
-Female Lead ( she really nails the expressions early on and shows the journey of her past and how it haunts her)
-Male lead (is goofiness shocks the plot to keep it alive and breathing)
-Gaming firm/ Kendo hall setting

Bad
-Story
-Rest of cast and side cast are just not written very well (
-Slow romance i can understand why cause of the story but it took to long to take off and story really suffered cause of it


Like many dramas that are over 16-20 episodes things start to drag at a certain point and that point for me was around episode 25+, i really enjoyed the first 20 episodes i thought it was going to be a sad yet cute romance to overcome the past but i found myself skipping alot of scenes past episode 25 that wasn't the main couple and sub couple

all in all i enjoyed this drama i really wanted to give it an higher score cause of the setting of the gaming firm and kendo hall was well done but the story is reheated one to many times for me and the romance sadly doesn't save this one it's still worth a watch but in all honesty be prepared to skip here and there.

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