You Are My Destiny (2020)

The emotions are not quite there

First of all, out of all the versions of this drama, this one had the best couple in my opinion since I've seen their chemistry in The Eternal Love 1&2. While watching though, I couldn't help but compare it to the first and original Taiwanese version (I rewatched this 4 times already).

Characters: I liked the characterisation of the male lead better in this version because he made up his made earlier on and he wasn't a complete jerk like in the Taiwanese version and blamed everything on the female lead. This was also because he wasn't drugged by her relatives so he couldn't blame it on anyone. However, since he was portrayed as a better character, that also meant that Anna was portrayed as more of a bad person. Of course, I liked how his aunt and cousin were also portrayed to be not as bad as in the Taiwanese version but this also meant that there fewer complications that give the drama some depth. Dylan as the second male lead was more significant in the Taiwanese version and had a deeper connection with the female lead since she always went to him for relationship advice. He also backed her up more and gave her justice by exposing the truth prior to the car accident scene.

Emotions: What this version did well was the storyline was not draggy and it was straight to the point, especially at the start. But at the most important scenes such as the car accident, it was too rushed and I didn't feel the emotions. For example:
1) the Taiwanese version had more emotional soundtrack played in the car accident scene
2) their dialogue was shorter and less significant before she got hit by a car (in the Taiwanese version, he ONLY made up his mind who to choose after he realised how much the female lead actually sacrificed for him on the day; that's what made the car accident more emotional)
3) there were no flashbacks
4) the overall events leading towards it was rushed and didn't unfold more dramatically in comparison.
Overall, it was not the lead's fault since their acting was great but in this version, the emotions, in this case, were lacking because of other effects and layout of events.

Still, I decided to give this version an 8 star-rating because if I didn't watch the original, I wouldn't even notice these flaws. It is a creative attempt to recreate the original with a more well-characterised male lead and good twists in some events.

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Had potential but it was ruined

I'll start off this review by pointing out the good things about this drama, because the bad things are just endless.

I watched the Korean version of this drama a few years ago and from what I remember that version of the drama was much more dramatic and full of evil characters. This version had much less drama and only one villain so I praise the story writer for taking this route.

I also really liked the male lead in this version much better than the other versions' male leads. In this version he is much nicer and charming, he is never mean to the female lead and is very understanding in my opinion.

The family element of the drama, especially Xiyi's family, was a really nice touch and I loved watching the family scenes. I also really loved the casting of this drama and the chemistry that all the characters had, there was no forced or bad acting in my opinion.

Now on to the bad things....

I didn't actually dislike this drama when I first started it; I actually loved it! I like the route this version of the story took in regards to how they met and conceived the baby, it was much more believable than the other versions of this drama. The meeting of the two leads was interesting enough to keep me hooked on this drama for the first twenty episodes; I binged them all. The progression of their relationship from strangers to friends to lovers was very well paced in my opinion. The only thing I didn't like at the beginning was how Xiyi was deceiving his girlfriend. He really should have told her what was happening when he first found out Jiaxin was pregnant. Maybe if he would've told her, none of the problems that ruined the drama for me would have happened.

Once Anna came back and found out about what was happening, all hell broke lose and she did terrible things. Personally, I kind of understand Anna for being upset and acting the way she did, but at the same time I don't. She knew that Xiyi was going to propose to her, but she chose her career over him so you can't blame him for eventually giving up on her and falling in love with someone else. Still, he should not have lied to her the way he did and should have broken things off with her or at least told her about what he did. I will say that Anna's action of changing the divorce papers was uncalled for. At that point Xiyi had made it clear that he didn't want to be with her, so she should have let him go but instead she remained obsessed with him and refused to give up on him. And that led to many problems. After that and the miscarriage, everything went downhill.

And that leads to another thing I hated about this drama: Jianxin running away from problems and leaving everyone in the dark. I really hated that she did that because she even shut out people that had nothing to do with the pain she was going through. I understand her breaking contact with Xiyi, but it was so unnecessary for her to also push her best friend away. She literally disappeared off the face of earth and expected to just call Siqi one day and be forgiven. If I were Siqi I would have never forgiven her.

So after three years of running away from her problems, Jianxin finally meets Xiyi again and absolutely hates him. I get that she hated him for the marriage paper misunderstanding, but she should not have blamed him for her miscarriage. Throughout the last ten episodes she was selfish and acted as if them losing their child only affected her; she never listened to Xiyi nor considered his feelings. Literally never.

The last ten episodes were also full of the two leads going back and forth with each other. We would see the two slightly reconcile but then everything would end up bad when Xiyi would try to explain himself and solve their misunderstandings; Jiaxin would just shut him out and run away again. And this happened again and again and again for around TEN episodes. It was so frustrating to watch.

To make matters worse, we didn't even get to see them truly reconcile and solve things until the LAST episode. And it wasn't even in the first minutes of the last episode, but rather the last five minutes. They solved things at the airport (just as Jiaxin was about to run away again lol) and then BOOM they get married (for the 2nd time) and the drama ends. It's clear that the director and writer didn't even try to give this drama a proper ending.

So in all, this drama had a lot of potential, seeing as it solved the issues that the other versions of this drama had, like the evil characters and bad attitude of the male lead. But sadly, all its potential was ruined by the last ten episodes. Once Jiaxin ran away there was no saving this drama. At this point I just need the director and writer to apologize for ruining a potentially good drama and for wasting my time.

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Yet another amazing version of Fated To Love You

As the majority would agree with me, no one would like to experience being pregnant after a one night stand with a complete stranger, but after seeing a drama like this one, you can imagine yourself having a fun night out and waking up the next day next to Wang Xi Yi and feel quite excited about it. All joke aside, this remake of Fated To Love You (2008) was fairly enjoyable. The leads have a great complicity and they were really adorable. I also caught myself laughing a few time. Although, I believe this drama should have been slightly shorter. It felt like it was really dragging at some point and I think twenty episodes or so would have been perfect. Anyhow, one thing that I like, is that they didn't change too much of the original story. I know that some may disagree with me and say that when it's too similar, there's no element of surprise and thus making it boring, but I beg to differ. I think that no matter how similar a story is or even if it was exactly the same, it sincerely depends on how great the directors and the cast is. A great cinematography, amazing actors, perfect music... if you have none of these, regardless of how different the story might be or how original you want it to be, it might just turn out to be the opposite. In conclusion, this drama was to my liking and I recommend it to whoever likes a drama that includes a love triangle, slow built romance and forced marriage romance.

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I have watched all the the version except jap
This version has to be the BEST! Every details, characters, ost , it’s just amazing..
And no words for their chemistry and acting
Loved the Taiwanese version but Chinese one has just blew my mind away
I love the fact how they didn’t make a jerk like other version..loved xiyi’s character..
I have laughed cried with every episode..waiting for the new episodes..
Now the real drama begins
Highly recommended drama for all
You just fall in love with all the characters here.. even the aunt lol
The couple is already famous with eternal love series, and here too they are just amazing

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Good drama but could've been better

I was quite interested and curious about how this Chinese ver of the series will turn out since I did watch the korean ver of this so I decided to give it a try. I binged this drama and finished it in 3 days bc I got super hooked to it. But, at one point I just really wanted to finish the drama quick to get it over with because of the following reasons:

I did like it but at the same time it was quite frustrating bc certain characters were very annoying. I felt like this drama wasn't needed for 36 episodes since most of the episodes was quite a drag. Meaning there were many unnecessary scenes that could've been shortened to at least half of the total 36 episodes. It really didn't need to be this long. The first half of the episodes were cute, even though it wasn't really needed to be that long till the time skip occurs after she left for Uruguay. The remaining episodes after that were just frustrating because like I said, it just dragged the story longer than it needed to be. The ending of the episode was quite rushed too which I was totally disappointed of. Like, they could've used the last episode or two to show some cute moments and all.

Overall, it was a good drama but could've been better if these flaws weren't in it. I don't think I'd watch rewatch it though.

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A remake that fell flat

A drama remake isn’t expected to copy the original movie to a tee. Directors and screenwriters have creative license to tweak the story to engage the audience as they see fit. But in You Are My Destiny, the plot makeover was a train wreck. The original Fated to Love You had all the ingredients of a classic, with a plot, character development, humor, conflict, and dramatic tension that went high and low like a thrilling rollercoaster ride. But sadly, with YAMD, those highs and lows flat-lined. The drama was reduced to a mediocre show with so many product endorsements, directorial faux pax, and plot inconsistencies that you need to suspend disbelief just to appreciate the flow of the story.

I’ve watched all versions of Fated to Love You, but this Chinese version wins the award for the most ridiculous plot and most subpar acting. A good drama pulls the audience into the story so that they forget they’re watching. A good drama tugs at your heartstrings so much that you feel the characters’ emotions and you sympathize with their sufferings. A bad drama makes you forget the story and instead causes you to raise your eyebrows and count all the glaring flaws. So let me count the ways YAMD failed:

1. No Character Motivation/ Deleted Backstory

YAMD deleted a big chunk of the character motivations from the original FTLY. Why was the death of Ximi crucial to the plot? Perhaps, if the drama stuck to the original story and mentioned that the ML’s family had, from generation to generation, found it difficult to produce an heir, then we would have felt the urgency of Xi Yi finding a spouse, getting married, and protecting the baby. We would have understood the FL’s 3-year-long grief over Ximi’s premature death. This important backstory was removed, and so the original highs and lows of the conflict fell flat in YAMD. The issue of infertility, originally attributed to the FL, was redirected instead to Anna. This switch served no purpose and added nothing to the plot. Because of infertility, Anna said she no longer had reason to pursue Wang Xi Yi. But a few episodes later, Anna still relentlessly clung to Xi Yi. What then happened to the infertility tension? Nothing. The impact fell flat. It wasn’t even a tool of retribution for Anna’s misdemeanor over the divorce papers. Contrast this against the original FTLY drama. In Fated to Love You, the infertility was a plot twist for the FL. It was a major hurdle that raised the question, “Will the main couple ever get together again?” What was the impact? Dramatic tension. The infertility caused us to cry with the FL. It gave her sufficient motivation to run away from the ML. But in YAMD, the FL’s running away became a drag. The last 10 episodes of YAMD became a boring push and pull that caused the audience much frustration. There was no longer any logic to Chen Jia Xin’s resistance, especially after Wang Xi Yi’s many sincere attempts to express his love and regrets. At a certain point, I stopped rooting for Jia Xin because she was playing hard to get. Her resistance became illogical and made the character seem wishy washy, selfish, and undeserving Xi Yi’s love.

2. Mediocre Acting

For me, the emotional high point of the story was the car accident and the succeeding hospital scenes. In the original drama, there was already escalating tension starting from the party and the chase that led to the street collision. The set-up was well-timed and the tension reached a peak at the loss of the baby’s life. The bloody scene, the rain and gloomy ambience, and Chen Qiao En’s masterful acting all weaved together to heighten the sadness during the tragedy. Chen Qiao En pulled out all the stops to give us a gut-wrenching performance. You can feel her panic and her doleful pleading for her baby’s life. You can feel her post-traumatic stress when she hysterically refused to see a grieving Ethan Ruan waiting at the hospital door. I replayed this scene countless times, and each moment, I still had goosebumps accompanied by a torrent of tears.

But in YAMD, again the scene flat-lined. The acting plateaued. It didn’t quite hit the peak of tension that it should. The accident choreography didn’t look serious enough to bruise a victim, let alone cause Jia Xin to lose consciousness. And where is the blood? For someone declared to have placental abruption and excessive bleeding, Jia Xin looked pretty clean. You’d think she was admitted to the hospital for a fever. Later, in the hospital, Liang Jie’s crying, body language, and expressions were seriously lacking, she didn’t pull me in. The anguish wasn’t there. It’s as if the scene had many retakes and the actress’s tear ducts ran dry before the director screamed, “Cut!”

Li Jiu Lin as Dylan was no better. Throughout the drama, his facial expressions were bland. It was as if he existed merely to deliver a dialogue. He was not a worthy second lead you’d swoon over, unlike Baron Chen of FTLY who had the self-assured swag and intense stares that would make you fall in love and think twice about the male lead getting the girl.

3. Sibling Relationship Changed to BFFs

It’s beautiful how FTLY celebrated family. The focus on familial relationships and the dynamics of a small island community was what set the original drama apart. I love that the FL leaned on her siblings and mother for emotional support during crisis situations. I love how the sisters rallied behind her at every turn, whether during the accident and loss of the baby, or during the kidnapping and hostage drama, or even in the light moments of setting up her surprise wedding in the final episode. The sisterly bond was endearing. But that magic formula was deleted in YAMD and replaced instead with a best friend confidante in the person of Si Qi. Again, the remake fell into mediocrity. Hundreds of dramas already center of BFF relationships. We don’t need another one to add to the list. It’s sad how the director and screenwriter reinvented the wheel and destroyed a plot that was already working perfectly.

4. Horrible Rewrite of Anna’s Storyline/ Poor Character Development

YAMD turned Anna into a clingy and conniving vixen instead of the original non-cardboard character in FTLY who was a victim of a screwed up childhood. I don’t like how the screenwriter removed Anna’s redeeming value. In the original drama, Anna felt remorse upon seeing the fatal consequences of her selfish act. And that remorse stayed with her till the end so she stopped her willful plotting. She had a redemptive character arc and we finish the drama without hating her to bits. In YAMD, Anna remains hateful and repeatedly attempts to whitewash her mistakes. Yes, she eventually apologized through a letter, but for all the damage done, her apology was short and not repentant enough. She felt guilty, not because she caused the death of Ximi and put a wedge of prolonged separation between the main couple. Shi Anna felt remorse because she was caught red-handed during a cover-up attempt. Without Dylan’s investigative trickery, I bet Anna would have continued in the same evil trajectory she was at.

The FL was also one who suffered poor character development. She wasn’t a dorky sticky note girl with as bad a fashion sense as Chen Qiao En had in Fated to Love You. If the director thought braided hair and eyeglasses were enough to depict a pushover character, then he’s sorely lacking in creativity. When Jia Xin was about to have a makeover during the cruise and the makeup artist complained about what a tough job that would be, my reaction was, “Seriously? You think it’s hard to fix her up? Look man! She’s pretty already. Can’t you see that?”

Again, even in the manner of dressing, this drama remake stayed in the midline. There’s no high nor low. No extremely ugly then extremely pretty. It just stayed in the middle, from one version of pretty to the next interpretation of pretty. That said, the character development was flat. If there was a change in Jia Xin, it was hardly noticeable except for the hairstyle and because all the other side characters kept telling us she changed after living in Budapest. Telling, not showing. Jia Xin was not an eyesore in the beginning, unlike Chen Qiao En whose fashion faux pas and social awkwardness at the start was an assault to the senses. And this is why when the makeover happened, Chen Qiao En wowed us. With Jia Xin, the change was meh. She walked down the stairs in a red dress and my reaction was, “Seriously? She just combed her hair and showed more skin. Is that it?”


5. Inconsistencies

There were some close-up scenes with internal monologue where Jia Xin rubbed her belly to reveal a minor baby bump under clothing. A few episodes later, she sports a midrib shirt during prenatal classes and exposes a slim figure without a hint of a pregnant belly. How did the belly disappear?

There were also earlier scenes where Jia Xin lamented the loss of her high heeled shoes in favor of the more pregnant-safe flat runners. Shortly thereafter, she goes off again in high heels. Didn’t anyone notice the inconsistencies? As a novelist and writer who is deep into plot analysis, I did.

Yes, these are trivial details that the director might have brushed off as inconsequential. But these are details that ruin a show, just like how a famous American historical film accidentally showed a cellphone as background prop. You pay attention to minute details because you never know what your audience will spot that will destroy the drama’s credibility.


6. Lackluster Ending with Product Endorsement

A great drama should have a satisfying resolution that ties all the loose ends into a neat bow. After 10 episodes of “will we stay together or live apart” tug-o-war, you’d expect the finale to at least give us a reprieve from the frustrating wait. Regretfully, YAMD failed to give us that all-satisfying happy ending. Again, there was no climax, and the drama fell flat even in its concluding episode. The 5 minutes it took from the airport scene to the wedding put a new spin to the word “rushed.” All I could do was shake my head and wonder, “What the heck happened here? Is this the ending?”
Wang Xi Yi just discovers the love of his life was leaving for good, and yet he manages to prepare a crucial, revealing document, have it sent to the airport’s check-in attendant, and make sure Jia Xin receives the evidence before her flight takes off. What an eyebrow-raising scene! Really? Can someone who was taken by surprise at the turn of events be this prepared that he could produce and express-deliver a document at the nick of time, and be the hero that saves the day? Folks, that’s drama logic for you!

In the final minutes, what does the drama give us? Swoon-worthy dialogue? Nope. Answers to plot holes? Nope. Retribution for the antagonist? Nope. What then? Skin-care product endorsements, that’s what! Sponsor shout-outs and product close-ups are such important scenes, no director in his right mind should edit them out. Yeah, right.


Positive:

Not everything was a train wreck, though. There were still memorable scenes and notable actors who deserve a warm applause. The ML’s crying moments were definite scene-stealers. When Wang Xi Yi carried the unconscious body of Jia Xin after the car accident, his anguish was heart-stopping. So was the processing of his grief while he hunched on the floor in Ximi’s room after Jia Xin abandoned him. His flawless acting in these two scenes made the tragedy so real for me.

Another positive for me was Anna’s dancing in the street of Budapest. The cinematography, camera blocking, and dance choreography were just impeccable. Fu Jing who played Anna was a believable ballet dancer. You see, the problem with most dramas that showcase dancing or active sports is that the camera angles trick us into believing the actor, and not a stand-in, performed the moves. The video clips switch too fast or the cameras shake so much that we get dizzy watching. The camera zooms in so that we see the faces of the actors, but we don’t see their bodies dancing. Then the camera zooms out so far that we see the whole person dancing, but we can’t distinguish if the actor himself is really the one performing the choreography. Such was the case in Fated to Love You. Bianca Bai as Shi Anna, wasn’t a believable dancer. The auditions in the early episodes look contrived. But in YAMD, it’s clear Fu Jing herself, and not a stand-in ballerina, performed all the dances.

Another positive for me is that YAMD cut back on some of the slap-stick humor and overacting from the original Fated to Love You drama. That is a welcome change. However, too much of the humor was deleted that none was left to give the audience breathing room from the heavy drama. One of the charms of FTLY was that it punched a healthy dose of comic relief at just the right interludes, like when Ethan Ruan pretended to be blind, like when the lawyer cringed at the reading of the very cheesy divorce agreement, and many other rom-com scenes.

Rewatch Value:

Overall, watching this drama once is already more than enough. The fact that I didn’t skip episodes was already a form of kindness extended to the cast and production crew. Three stars cut the rating right down in the middle which is where this mediocre drama positioned itself anyway. You are My Destiny is neither high nor low in dramatic tension, neither high nor low in acting skills, neither high nor low in emotional impact. It sits smack dab in the safe middle. And so I give this drama a score of 5/10.

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What would happen if the ML would have told Anna from the start what he did?

I thought of how this story would have been less hreatbreaking if the ML told Anna from the start what happend , when i re-watched this drama dor the 5th time(i think).
Warning-Don't read the review if you didn't watch the drama!


So the start is the same until the ML finds out that the FL is acually pregnant when he is at her house , the same happens , he tolds her they will keep the baby after they move together , he goes to Anna and tells her everything that happened until they moved thogether , tells her he will keep the baby and he wants to break up with her( he dosen't blame her and tels her is his fault , hes sorry and things like that) ofc Anna is sad and mad , but she still will remain there bcs she loves ballet.

But bcs is a drama we need the actually drama so the Contract still exits but is not like that , the contract says that after the birth of the Child they will divorce and the child will stay with him but the mother (FL) will still can see him.(The contract can be diff i don't know , but something like that.)

And at ep 19 when it's their birthday , he dose go there for Anna but bcs she sayed that she wants to say a last goodbye to him or something like this , he does go there bcs he wants to tell her one more time that he dosn't want to be with her , the same happen she didn't show up and when FL finds out that he didn't take the pencil she did the same ( he did tell her that he is going there for Anna but didn't say for what reason.She gived him the pencil at the bar, seen that nobody is on the scene so she dressed up as a chiken or whatever , and when ML goes to tell her that he knows she is not Anna and to tell her that they Broked up and what she told her at the start , also he mentions Fl the same he did in the ep and she does feel moved , he also calls and it happen the same as in the ep until the end).

Now when at ep 20 or 21 Anna comes back she comes back to him to tell him that she wants him back , things like that ( Like every ex does in every drama ever).After that she accepts it (she does not forget her memories like she did in the drama) but she goes to that bar (ep 24) does change the contract as she wanted and not as ML did and does the same.
She does changes it at Grandma birthday , gives it to FL and the FL does the same things , when ML knows he does not hurt her like he did in the drama ,Anna but does yell at her , when ML runs after FL she only faints but not on the street where are cars , when he goes to the hospital he does feel bad but they DON'T LOSE THE BABY she only fainted (the BABY IS FINE), after she wakes up she dosen't want to ever see ML and he wonders why , he goes talk to her and ask her WHY , she tells him that he knows the best by wrinting that in the Contract , he dosen't understant by telling her what he actually writed and she tells him what she actually seen , he ask her who gave her the contract and he gives her the acual contract(all this talk happened in the hospital).He does talk to Anna also Dylan does finds who s his sister , and he does change her , she is not evil anymore , or whaterver.ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT THE BABY IS ALIVE AND THEY ARE HAPPY.

She does give birth to the baby the baby and we get some happy moments.END

Maybe what i told here is what i wanted to see and maybe if it was like that it wouldn't be my favorite drama , stil this is a diff story that i would have liked to see.
Also I hope at least someone understood what I wanted to say , Im sure if you watched you actually understood at least something.Also english is not my first language so if I did some mistakes please forgive me and tell me.

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Watch it :-)

I don’t usually review dramas I watched but I think this deserves a chance to be seen and enjoyed.

I have watched almost all of the versions of this drama (Taiwanese, Kdrama and even Lakorn (thai)) but this Chinese version is my favorite so far. It is more realistic than the others. You can see and feel the changes of all the characters specially the leads.

I like it because the ML is not annoying as the other versions and you can feel the emotions when he cries and the FL’s transformation is not rushed.

I appreciate the fact that this drama gives respect to the culture of the country and not just follow the original version. Yes, it is too long but just enjoy watching because once you are done with this, you will miss watching it. :-)

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Had good potential - got disappointed

First, I have to say that I absolutely love Xing ZhaoLin and was so excited to see him again as a ML. Rich CEO characters just fit him so well. He has that kind of charisma if you get what I mean?
I was also curious to see that the FL was played by Liang Jie, who I had previously seen in Hi Venus ( yes, I know. Hi Venus came out after YAMD, but I watched it before ok..).

The first episodes — the begging really had me in tears. Pregnancy is a really sensitive subject for me, so everything about that had me feeling so many different emotions. Good and bad. The story was going well in my opinion. From the leads getting closer and getting to know each other more, to both families and friends getting along, and even to the third parties trying to get the leads.

The last episodes — The last 10 episodes were completely unnecessary in my opinion. Too much back and forth. Too much drama. Too much negativity to my liking.
In my opinion, the last episodes just killed the drama for me. They are also the reason why my rating is so low. I was really disappointed and hoped for a better ending, that in my opinion, was way to rushed.

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Communication!!!!

This drama got on my nerves because the MAJOR issue could've easily been solved if they would've just TALKED.
The Ex-girlfriend had been trying to break up the ML and FL for the longest and finally succeeds when she secretly changes the divorce agreement between the ML and FL. Once the FL finds out she gets mad and leaves for 3 years. Comes back and is still mad even though the ML and her own friend tried to explain the truth but she so hell bent on hating the ML she doesn't listen. Its only in the last episode when the FL is about to get on a plane, the ML comes and tells her he loves her and she loves him (after she came back after 3 years her and the ML basically fell in love with each other again, but she refused to let herself really fall for him because she was still mad at him) So she tells him she loves him but can't be with him, so he walks away all sad. THEN mins later she gets a text from the ex-girlfriend (who at this point realized the ML would never love her, and that she messed things up) confessing EVERYTHING and how it's not ML fault, NOW the FL decides she no longer hates the ML and runs to him and kisses him.

SO, F*CKING STUPID!! All of that could've been solved if they just communicated.

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Underwhelming. Disappointing. Watch this drama if you have a high level of suspension of disbelief.

I had no plans to watch this drama since I've already watched the Taiwanese and the Korean (Both are good in their own right) but the poster of the leads kissing on the cruise ship and have seen the leads' previous work, The Eternal Love Seasons 1 and 2, I decided to give it a go.

This drama’s first 20 episodes started out strong which was enough to keep me hooked until I was spoiled with the ending. Because of this, I wanted to get ALL OF MY TIME BACK.

THE CHARACTERS.
Wang Xiyi's family is the best family out of the three versions. They're supportive of Xiyi and Jiaxin being together. I love how the show highlights Jiaxin marrying into the family cause a positive change where the aunt and their son changed for the better, bringing the family closer together. I like this granny because she looks so fab but my overall favorite is the aunt because she appreciates Jiaxin's actions and doesn't favor Anna. Wang Xiyi is also less of a jerk in this drama. He kept telling Anna A LOT of times that he doesn't have feelings for her anymore.

With those good characterizations also come bad characterizations. I love that they show Jiaxin's potential to be a talented potter early on so it doesn't become sudden but I did not like that she is still a pushover even as Elaine. Next is Dylan with them blemishing his character by making him a schemer.

The third is Anna. This version by far has the worst Anna. She's the usual green tea b***h that you see in Chinese webnovels that these authors would love to have as canon folders. Her scheming which indirectly led to Jiaxin losing her baby and not being repentant about it. I was almost content with her karma but her unrepentant attitude just pisses me off.

THE ENDING.
I would be content with the ending if this were another drama and I've seen this version first before the first two. After I was spoiled with the ending, I wanted to drop this drama. But I decided to continue on to see how bad it was and oh my. IT WAS REALLY BAD. It feels like they have taken the parts that I loved from the Taiwanese and Korean versions and mashed together with the DRAGGING Anna issue and Jiaxin going back and forth made a convoluted mess that are episodes 34-36. Due to that Anna issue, I couldn't care less about what happened to Anson and Siqi's love story. Episodes 33-35 could've been used to resolve the Anna conflict first instead of making them dragging these episodes. Episode 36 is so compressed with the revelation supposed to be the climax of the second arc falling flat.

THE SCENES.
I appreciate the effort of the production team for making this realistic as possible with the crew going to Hungary and allowed the viewers to see how beautiful Budapest is.

But I have a bone to pick with the car accident and the events transpiring after that. Jiaxin colliding with the car was so unbelievable because they weren't able to show the impact. In addition, HOW THE HELL DID SHE MISCARRY WHEN SHE DID NOT BLEED? I found the scene unbelievable that I started to think the doctor was a quack with her diagnosis since Xiyi wasn't drenched in blood. Also, there are a lot of operating gowns that they could've made Liang Jie wear but why scrubs? I thought that only doctors/surgeons wear those. I just had to get this out. I am so sorry.

OVERALL...
I like how they were able to give more depth to the characters but I didn't like that it was at the expense of the story's pacing. They could've moved a lot of scenes after the truth was revealed and it would've been better but sadly they had to take the cliche route. Maybe, if I didn't know the ending, I would've been less annoyed with the slow buildup. There were so many unnecessary scenes that exist for the reason of making that 40-minute episode mark.

I also found it funny that Anna is present in the wedding after all she did.

Although the shots were great and the actors have decent acting, I would recommend this drama to those who did not watch other versions of Fated to Love You yet and for those people looking for something to kill their time. This could've been the best version if they didn't screw up the final episodes so bad which is so disappointing.

If you like this drama, Bless you.

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Same old story with a new twist

This is like the fourth out of five adaptation that I have watched and so dar I would say it's in my top three. I don't know why but I really really love watching the same drama from different adaptations.

Ever since I hear that China was doing a remake of this classic drama, I was really happy but then I got into a full korean mode that I didn't bother watching dramas from other countries. But I'm really happy that when I got my mood back for a chinese drama this was my top choice. I love how they somewhat modernize the story.

I also love that since this classic drama has been made into different adaptations throughout the years, they changed the story a bit. For someone who has watched different versions of this drama over and over again, it's really nice to see that I'm still looking forward to what will happen in the next episode.

However, one thing that I've noticed is that one of the most important scenes in the whole drama was the "tragic car accident" however, in this version I felt like it was a bit anticlimactic. It didn't have that raw emotion that I was looking for (I think the korean version really nailed this part). Maybe I got my expectations really high but I was looking for a bit more emotion.

I really liked this drama but I think after the accident part it gradually went downhill. I wished to see more of Dylan and Elaine's story in Hungary. I also hoped that they would've banked on this to make Xiyi more jealous. I don't know maybe it's just me.

Also, I would've loved to see the a cute relationship between the ML and FL's mom. Just like the one in the korean version (ya know since he grew up without a mom). What I loved in this version is the aunt and the cousin were really nice to the FL. They were genuinely like a family.

Anyway, this version was not really bad. It was a cute one. A bit different from the others but nevertheless it was a good one. Not regretting watching it.

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