This review may contain spoilers
Starting great
I really enjoyed watching this show from the beginning. The four main characters were absolutely amazing. Deng Lun was excellent as always. Sandra Ma was perfect. Han Tong Sheng played the father brilliantly, especially loved the scenes with him and Deng Lun with their love hate relationship. Ni Hong Jie played her part very well. To be fair the whole cast were great. There was only one character I didn't like at all and felt that the character to be annoying and would have rather that the character wasn't a part of the show. That character was Shi Ru Jing. Every scene she was in, I skipped over. Every scene she appeared in, I kept thinking that it wasn't necessary and I just wanted to skip it. Skipping her scenes didn't ruin any story so for me, she wasn't needed.Now the reason I dropped this drama when I did was because Deng Lun's character ended up having Shi Ru Jing as his agent. For me, that ruined the show. Everything the main four went through together felt pointless for him to just change his agent and go with her. Every episode felt like a waste, what is the point in investing all that time with them through everything they went through, all for him to just leave them for her. Yes she helped him with his career, that's great but for me, I felt like all those episodes to that point were for nothing. That is why I won't be watching the last few episodes.
I invested my time in those four characters working hard together for nothing. I think it would have been better for the four to stick together and end up succeeding as a family. Not for him to just go with another agent to be successful.
Overall, it was a great show up until that point. From that point, I felt like I wasted a lot of time watching and investing in the characters.
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Saved the Best Till Last
After the first 20 episodes of this 44 episode Drama, it was already BY FAR one of the best C Dramas I'd watched. By episode 39, I was trying to decide whether I would give it an 8 or even go as high as 8.5/10 - a stratospheric score for C Dramas, only reached or bettered by three Dramas. Even while I was debating 8 vs 8.5 I kept telling myself "wait, they could screw up the final four". Instead, they did THE EXACT OPPOSITE and this became my very first 10/10 C DramaI give it 10/10 despite niggles like the length (40 would have been better) and the irritating and inconsistent dubbing because they "nailed the landing". The final two episodes were sublime. The power of the emotion and the skill of the acting had me in tears, in all the right places and all the right ways.
Right from the start, the dialogue impressed me - and I say that as someone dependent on subtitles. Knowing how much is lost in translation, my principle is that if the SUBS are thoughtful, powerful and not trite, then the actual dialogue must be AMAZING. I did not roll my eyes ONCE though the whole Drama, and even when they added elements that often DO induce eye-rolling and or facepalming (especially in K Dramas), they handled them with the quiet realism and restraint that made this such an engaging watch.
The opening and closing songs were a joy to listen to, and the VERY end was simply perfect - absolutely flawless. This Drama was such an immensely satisfying experience I doubt I will come across another as good for quite some time.
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It takes a village to raise a kid!!
I really think “It takes a village to raise a kid!!” should be the proper title of this series because this is what it is all about.All of the characters revolve around the lead HZY and invest their tears and blood into him in hope of making him grow up and take responsibility eventually. For the first few episodes the story seemed to be interesting, reflecting the harsh reality of becoming a popular actor. However, as the story dragged on, it’s all about the repeated theme of bad things happened to HZY, he reacted badly out of immaturity and egoistic personality, people around him tried their best to resolve his problems then back to step one, repeating all over again. Yes, the character needs some difficulties in order to overcome it, creating the sense of connection to the audience so we can invest emotionally into him and wish him to overcome all obstacles. But the lack of improvement - AKA character development is really irritating. HZY is nothing but a spoiled brat at his late 20s living amongst his caretakers which totally appears to be illogical.
On the other hand, the acting skill of all actors and actresses are natural and up to the point. The problem isn’t with the acting skill but with the plot. I was incredibly disappointed with this series even if I enjoyed the first few episodes. I’ve watched to ep 25 now and consider quitting it.
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Natural acting from the casts
Sandra Ma is one of the most talented chinese actress along with NiNi, Zhou Dongyu, Sun Li, Zhou Xun. So i really have no complaints or dissatisfaction about her acting since her acting is always good. After watching this drama, I realised how good and natural Deng Lun's acting was. He is so natural and I totally amazed with it. I've seen his other dramas but i may say that his acting in this drama is unexceptional and excellent. He played his role very well which i may say really different than his previous drama. This drama is really not like other modern chinese drama where i have seen so far. Usually in the drama, they always talk about rich people but no, this drama is about achieving dream as an ordinary people. What i really love about this drama because it's focusing on ordinary people so it can makes most viewers relate. From this drama, we can see from the insight of how actors struggling to get a place in the entertainment world.Was this review helpful to you?
É uma série que meche com as nossas emoções, nos faz sorrir, aquece nosso coração, mas também nos fere quando ignora nossas expectativas "padronizadas" sobre o que a vida deve ser, nos faz chorar e nos angustia em muitos episódios porquê evidência que a vida nunca (e pra ninguém) é fácil, e por mais que alguém se esforçe e lute por seus objetivos na maioria das vezes eles não serão alcançados conforme o desejado. Mas ainda assim, apesar de todos os revezes da vida, o que nos resta é continuar vivendo e seguir em frente. E que mesmo no meio da angústia e dos infortúnios existem formas de felicidade, diferente daquelas idealizadas mas não menores, que nos mostra que que é possivel ter uma vida "bem sucedida" independente do reconhecimento profissional, do sucesso ou dos laços de amor tradicional (familia e casamento).
O sucesso não é necessariamente ter um bom emprego e estabilidade financeira, como o afeto verdadeiro não ocorre apenas entre pessoas ligadas por conexões sanguineas, e o amor pode ser tão genuíno mesmo quando não vivido no molde do amor romantico, mas pode ser vivênciado no companheirismo, na cumplicidade e na preocupação com o outro. Essa história mostra que poucas pessoas sabem o que o sucesso significa para si mesmo, pq para cada pessoa pode ter vários significados diferentes, como a estabilidade de uma vida simples e relações pessoais consistentes.
O resumo dessa série é que é possível Amar, sonhar e continuar seguindo em frente... apesar de todos os obstaculos inevitáveis da vida, das nossas falhas, e das feridas e das dores que carregamos - o sublime, o magnífico da vida não é retirado do contexto por mais difícil que ele seja...
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