Take My Brother Away (2018)

A slice-of-life drama revolving 2 siblings and their friends

I already watch the movie version, so i thought this drama would just be a draggy version of it.
But i was wrong! It got me hooked from the 1st episode.

The siblings fight, funny side kick, unique classmates, and the monologue at the end are the most memorable part for me.

Shi Fen and Shi Miao are the usual quarreling siblings. Meanwhile the Wan brothers are unrealistic dramatic siblings, but they're just refreshing to see.
Even though i dont really like dramas with school setting, this one is an exception. I love how the classmates and teachers weren't just one dimensional characters. They had their own story and good development.

Sun Qian and Joseph Zeng had great chemistry playing as siblings. The side characters did really well too. However Mark Ma, who portrayed Wan Xing stole my attention. It's amazing how well he play the character of a matured 12 years old.

The drama itself is full of hilarious scenes, but i find a lot of unnecessary fillers in it.
I would've give it a 10 if ending were much better. After 29 episodes of adventure, it ended rushed and bland when it could've been more impactful.

The intro song were funny, meanwhile the outro were more mellow which suits the mood

However this is truly my type of drama, no romance just siblings hood and friendship. They keeps the comedy coming and you'll laugh all the way from the beginning to the end. So for me I'd definitely be rewatching it

I recommend it to people who wants a light hearted comedy watch to pass the time

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Take My Brother Away is one of those series that may not look like much at first glance, but are actually extremely good, both in quality and presentation.

First of all, while the series mainly revolves around comedy, it's also very heavy on drama. Most series have a hard time juggling between both aspects, but Take My Brother Away does so almost flawlessly. It's amazing how they managed to handle both genres in such a fluid manner.

Acting is easily the best thing this series has to offer after the main plot. Both the main leads do a great job. Joseph Zheng as Shi Fen is particularly outstanding. Sun Qian also does a good job as Shi Miao. Secondary actors are not too far behind. All of them do a great work portraying their respective characters and imbuing some depth to them.

What I like the most about this drama is the heavy focus on sibling / family relationships instead of romance. Both Joseph Zheng and Sun Qian successfully manage to portray a brother-sister relationship that feels natural (and definitely non-romantic. God bless). That's very hard to achieve. Similarly, Hu Yong Tao (Wan Sui) and Ma Bai Quan (Wan Xing) offer a different and more fantastical, yet still valid, sibling relationship. Compared to Shi Feb and Shi Miao's more down to earth relationship, the interactions between the Wan brothers are a breath of fresh air.

Of course, Take My Brother Away isn't without some problems. The most critical is the odd episode structure. Most episodes are very unfocused and mix various plots in weird ways. Some sub plots serve little to no purpose to the main one. Some episodes have 2 consecutive main plots that have no relation to each other. It feels weird sometimes.

Would I recommend this series? Yeah, definitely. It's sort of a hidden gem amongst Netflix's catalogue of Asian dramas. I haven't heard much discussion about it. Go ahead and watch it. You won't regret it.

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