This review may contain spoilers
The sheer level of product placement in this drama is so high, you wonder if it is a drama about the products at times instead of a romance business drama which is a big turn off. It not only can take you out of the drama but there are so annoying about it in nearly every episode. If a gift is involved in any scene, you can bet there will be product placement. It was so abrasive that throughout this review you will be seeing [Insert Product Placement] to show you my frustration. This drama was interesting until it became a repeat game of "will they won't they", miscommunication and lack of trust. Pretty standard for romance dramas [Insert Product Placement] but it was done so much in an already freaking long drama that it became an issue of 'WHY the heck are you guys even together problem.' [Insert Product Placement]
The only reason the FL and ML are together is their PURE chemistry and light sensual tension. They are the sole reason I kept watching a drama that I would've normally [Insert Product Placement] dropped after a certain point. This drama could've saved time and money by just keeping [Insert Product Placement] the FL and ML the main focus while making the drama 12-14 episodes long. Everything else was either useless fillers or annoying. They were the best in the beginning half drama before annoying things got in their way. I suppose that is life, ain't it?
Other problems/peeves: FL is not competent enough at her job. She is "good but not good enough" lame excuse. Her fashion in the drama is an indicator that this chick plays it safe. I suppose she improves but whatever. She had so many problems coming at her it was ridiculous. ML is the classic [Insert Product Placement], "I ace everything but dealing with my teenage sister" type of gege/oppa. He has a setback, but again whatever. His losses aren't significant enough or last long enough for me to say much. Both Dilraba and Johnny act well in this. This was my first drama with Johnny Huang, so I was pleasantly happy because he was [Insert Product Placement] swoon worthy at times.
I enjoy the failures of the characters and the problems they have but I have no empathy for [Insert Product Placement] them since they repeat like crazy. Learn your lessons people! I mean the two females in this drama are legit spoiled brats who have been spoon fed way too many times for me to take them seriously. They never suffer severe losses even when it is claimed that they are/have which only proves their brat [Insert Product Placement] statuses.
The other couples were cute at the start but I became increasing frustrated with the Qin Qing when her boyfriend [Insert Product Placement] was legit the sweetest guy ever. You really get some annoying ass character later who you just wish would go away because they aren't interesting enough to stay in the story and it is just lame after a certain point.
I highly suggest everyone watch episodes 1-14ish and then just STOP. You legit don't need to go any further than that, nothing happens that doesn't reset it self to the status of those episodes. Save yourself time. [Insert Product Placement]
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Story: what was the story? What were we to gather from all these stories moving parts. Too many moving parts, no value characters, and stuff that still has me perplexed. Key point: No character development at all for 90% of characters!
Acting: not infuriate reviewers. FL has minor acting improvement from previous roles however she was perfect for this airhead role - no acting stretch required or needed. ML has a swagger, smexiness, and carried the FL. Admittedly, the combo was sizzling chemistry. The rest of cast were flat and uninteresting.
Music: ML song was decent
RW: please don’t ask me to do this!
Beware don’t get sucked in by the leads chemistry, it sizzles! It keeps you coming back. This could have been a 18eps of sizzling chemistry and solid story rather than 45eps of musical chairs and delving into the rabbit hole only to find slime.
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Dilraba Dilmurat finally plays a character who is not naive, silly, and clumsy. Zhou Fang is a motivated, ambitious fashion designer who speaks her mind, and I liked that they didn't make her a spectacularly talented designer but someone who is learning and recognizes how far she has to grow. Meanwhile, Johnny Huang's Song Lin is a workaholic CEO but he's (for the most part) straightforward. There is, thankfully, not a lot of will-they-or-won't-they and only briefly is there a second lead who tries to get between them. The biggest conflict between Zhou Fang and Song Lin is that they are both ambitious and stubborn, and they encounter work-related problems including conflicts of interest and struggles with work-life balance. They have a lot of very sweet moments, which is a nice change from all those dramas where it takes 40 episodes for the leads to finally express their feelings for each other. Also, I loved the storyline with Zhou Fang's nephew and Song Lin's younger sister. They brought so much humor and lightheartedness to the drama.
The other storylines were extremely weak. I loved Qin Qing in the beginning because she's a fiercely loyal friend and a confident, successful jewelry designer. Unfortunately, everything went downhill due to Zuo Yu Lin. I could understand her uncertainty due to their age gap, but it was his mother's storyline that I found intolerable. While Zuo Yu Lin initially seemed like a genuine, caring boyfriend, it was when they encountered a real external conflict that he showed his true colors. He should've addressed the issues with his mother rather than repeatedly lying and then letting Qin Qing do the work to win her over. Also, they became increasingly cheesy and over-the-top when they were together and it made me cringe.
The biggest missed opportunity was Su Yu Shan, who was initially presented as the Bad Guy, a ruthless businessman who uses questionable methods and ignores his lonely wife. They should have developed his story more, and not just in the last episode. Things changed so quickly in the end! The two other supporting characters were Zhou Fang and Qin Qing's friends, Huo Chen Dong and Shen Pei Pei, who totally disappear towards the end and receive an unsatisfying resolution in the final episode. Zhou Fang's mother was also had a significant storyline, and she was just too much. Honestly, all three mothers in this drama were rather domineering.
Lastly, a note on product placement: I hope to never encounter that awful ringtone that multiple (or was it every??) character used, but I am curious to try Hai Di Lao takeout (lol).
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I finished watching this show and this is the first C-drama I religiously watched when it was airing. I wait until the last episode to make this reviews.
1. Production
- Budget
This is modern romance drama with $$$ I can tell. From the quality and the post production also the actors in it, it's indicating that the budget is big, not big BIG but big.
- Director
I don't know the details about it especially the director and scriptwriter past works (unlike K-Drama, C-Drama seems lacking info on this one) so I can't really tell. What I got from IMDB page is there are 3 directors working for this drama which is why we can see different treatment for each episode. The pace was good until episode 14. The firework kiss is superb and I can tell the camera movement,the angle and the editing is awesome. Starting from episode 15 when ML and FL are becoming couple I can tell the treatment is smooth capturing ML/FL expressions. After episode 30, this is when the problem began. I see rushed script, rushed treatment and full of fillers. I don't know it's because of script or...?
- Post Production/Art/Photography/Editing
I like the color palette they used during color grading.It's awesome,even for the small screen like mobile phone. The color went excellent. We also can see tons of panoramic footage capturing the city and the sea, the lights are gorgeous. Also don't forget, the close up shot for our main couple is gorgeous! Kudos to the DOP! The editing is good, but we see many scenes were cut. I don't know, it's because of the censorship or the editors and directors decision.....or perhaps sponsors'?
2. Story
Business romance is not new and male CEO falling in love with a girl isn't new either we see so many stories like this, even in Wattpad written by 12 yo girl. LOL. The show is such an eye candy (of course), we have Dilireba and Johnny Huang in it and it was good from the beginning until episode 30 but after that the script also didn't do much. After 30-ish episode the show went downhill with tons of stories left unanswered. The scriptwriters seem like to give a soul in each and every character with so many stories like 2nd leads, the mothers, ML family, the kids, the ex bf, the 2nd female family, the friends, the actress..omg... can you count? At the end, the script failed to tie the threads and we see rushed ending full with fillers.
This drama has so much potential if only we can see:
- FL is independent woman and her struggle to raise up her name in the industry, but sadly we can't see much. All we know is FL is designer, independent she is, but the story is still following cliche romance drama. FL is success because of ML (like it or not).
- Su Yushan story. Omg.... I like his story and I really wanna know more. We've seen he has issue with ML but what? What is his back story? What is his personality? He's not evil I suppose and we can only see his back story a couple of episodes before ending. His marriage issue and his divorce issue.
- The kids story. Rather than QQ and Wushan also the mothers (which is not important), I'd rather to see the kids story in school and their interaction. I'd like to see ML's sister is changing, from the bad girl to a family girl and entering top university.
3. Product placement (hahaha....)
I know I know.... we all hate the product placement but without sponsors we might not see this drama. Sponsors are the one financing the production and with so many sponsors like this, I can tell that the drama is successful commercially.
However I got my 2 cents on the product placement: From the brand perspective, product placement in the drama called built-in product placement where the actors/actress are seen with the brands. Built-in is super okay but pushing the product over and over can create negative sentiment for your brand. I got it H*N*R, you are the main sponsor but having your ringtone beeping over and over also it's amazing that every character used the same ringtone is a turn off. I know the song is sung by Lenka "We are the brave" and they must be spending a lot of money to have Lenka writing/singing it for them, but please don't do this again. I don't know it the creative's suggestions or brand pushing the creative to do what they want but aesthetically, the pushed product placement is a turn off.
4. The Acting
This is my 2nd time watching Johnny Huang as male lead after Moonshine and Valentine and I can tell he's such a versatile actor. He can communicate using his eyes, his gesture, his micro expression even when he speak slowly....and Dilireba is good capturing that. Johnny Huang has so much potential as an actor and I would love to see his future works, not to mention he's a swoon worthy too hahaha....
For Dilireba, this is my 3rd time watching her as female lead and her Zhou Fang is my favorite among all of her dramas that I've watched. She can portray Zhou Fang as a fierce and independent female. She doesn't need man actually because she can do it, but we can see her vulnerable side too when finally she's in love with an alpha male like Song Lin.
Song Luo Luo, omg... I like her! I've never seen her before and I don't know her name but her acting is something!
Overall, I give the score 8/10 because of the production value and the main actors. If it's depending on the story perhaps I would like to score 6/10 because the last 5 episodes are full of fillers and the ending isn't like what I expected to be.
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Lost in a sea of fluff and brand pushing
My first impression of this drama was that I would drop it because it just wasn’t capturing my interest. There were a lot of annoying characters, the storylines were fluff and the acting subpar. The show was one big commercial. There was so much brand pushing, and that damn ringtone just killed this show. It had some funny moments during the middle but then lost its fizz at the end. Secondary characters were given more air time than the leads to the point that they almost disappear. Only at the last episode do they reappear so that the production can rush the already draggy plot to its painful end. The show felt forced and joyless. Characters come and go and plot lines are started and then abandoned. It was one of the sloppiest shows I have ever watched. I almost thought I was watching meteor garden again with that silly club sequence. This was awful.Was this review helpful to you?
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Why I recommend watching "Love Designer"
Let me start off with a quick disclaimer, none of the spoilers are really 'spoilers. ' This review is very long, but there is a TL;DR at the bottom :)I have watched many dramas, and I have dropped numerous dramas. I get bored quite easily because many plots repeat themselves, and I don't normally find myself watching (and finishing) longer dramas like Love Designer. I will admit that I was originally drawn to this drama because of Dilireba. I have seen three of her previous works, and I have always enjoyed her acting.
I found that her character (Zhou Fang) was quite refreshing. I didn't find her to be annoying at all (I tend to get annoyed with most female leads at one point or another). I found her to be quite smart, and independent (which you don't normally see). She was driven, and a capable person. Although her 'breakthrough' opportunity was provided by the male lead, she saw that it was an opportunity to pursue her dream. I personally didn't think that it took away from er independent character. Song Li. played by (Johnny) Huang Jingyu, was also a fun character to watch. His character was also consistent, and very well developed. Surprisingly all of the characters, including the side characters were well developed, which is obviously thanks to the length of the drama. I really liked that there were 'bad people' yet they were still human, so I finished this drama without hating them. I will admit that the drama is somewhat slow, but I found that to be a good thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this drama. I loved Qin Qing as a friend, she is such a caring friend, however I did not really like her relationship with her boyfriend. It was just so dramatic. I found that the relationship between the main leads was my favorite, and I thought that it progressed naturally (albeit very fast paced). They fought, broke up (it can be argued that they broke up over petty things, however, their relationship was quite new, so there wasn't much of a foundation, and it makes sense that they could break up over the things they broke up over).
I originally went into this drama expecting myself to drop it after episode 15, and fully intended too because I figured the drama would go downhill, but I found that I really enjoyed episodes 16-45. Everyone's taste is different, but I really enjoyed these episodes because the 'second leads' were out of the way. Problems occurred, but I found that that was only natural, no relationship is perfect.
I gave the story a 8/10, not because it was bad, but because it wasn't particularly outstanding. I did enjoy that we got to watch their relationship progress, rather than watching a drama where they only enter a relationship in the last couple of episodes, but this type of relationship isn't that popular in current C-dramas nowadays (I find that it's more popular in K-dramas). The story was good, all the characters were developed, but there was nothing that made me feel like it was different or special. The story is pretty realistic (keeping in mind that it's a drama), and enjoyable. I think what a lot of people didn't like was that the rest of the drama was about their relationship (obviously other stuff happened), but that was my favorite part.
I gave the acting a 10/10 because I never found myself feeling awkward whilst watching this drama, and I felt like the main leads did an excellent job portraying their characters.
The soundtrack got an 7.5/10 because I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I'd listen to it again. I was pleasantly surprised that the La La Land soundtrack made a couple of appearances.
Re-watch value is low, simply because I don't re-watch dramas very often, only maybe 1 or 2. I would definitely re-watch clips of it, but I don't think I would re-watch the whole series.
Overall, it's a solid drama, with great characters. But what really drew me into this drama was the CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE MAIN LEADS. Oh my gosh, if I could only provide one reason to watch this drama, it's the chemistry between Dilireba and Huang Jingyu. It was amazing, and made the drama 100x better. There is a lot of product placement, but it's pretty obvious that the budget was very big, so I didn't mind that much. A lot of people said that they got annoyed by the ringtone, but again, it didn't bother me much personally.
TL;DR: The chemistry in this drama is amazing, definitely watch for the chemistry. Story is good, not particularly outstanding though. Musics okay, nothing bad, but nothing I would listen to at my own leisure. I thought the acting was great. A little slow paced, but I watched for hours on end. I definitely recommend this drama, don't be intimidated by the length, I found that the length was perfect. I don't think it should have anymore episodes, because it ended well.
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THE CHEMISTRY!!! -finished all episodes in under 24 hours! please watch!
Now, I rarely watch KDrama and CDrama romance films because there's just something about it that just makes me cringe. After watching this show, "Love Designer", I now realize what I like and don't like in shows.First off, the plot line. I know some people hate it or find it annoying, but I genuinely think its a unique concept (then again, I don't watch much drama/romance shows because majority are terribly written). SL is like the "rich male" who owns a business with a tragic but not so tragic back story, and ZF if like your (supposedly) relatable female who is trying to chase her dreams. I originally thought SL was going to be annoying af and made me want to punch him, but Johnny (HJY) literally made me fall in love with not only SL, but the actor himself. His way of pursuing ZF throughout the entire show, is the cutest things ever and them bickering brings me joy. Dilraba did such an amazing job portraying ZF in a relatable female character and not the typical role you see in every other drama.
HOWEVER! I did hate how much the characters played nice, when they CLEARLY could've fcked their enemies over (because they legit almost ruined them) but that might just be the asshole in me not being able to do it myself.
- I have realized how much the older generationed parents pisses me off. Being chinese myself, I am not surprised by their view points and outlook on what a "normal" life to them is, but seeing it played out made me want to punch them. NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO GET MARRIED. NOT EVERYONE NEEDS TO HAVE KIDS. YOU DONT GET TO MAKE DECISIONS IN YOUR KIDS LIFE. SINGLE IS OKAY. NO KIDS IS ALSO OKAY.
When watching this show, there is literally one thing you CANNOT deny, and its the beautiful chemistry Dilraba and Johnny have together. All of their kiss scenes, made me feel so happy and not full on cringe vomit feelings, and that's a first coming from romance shows. They have such a unique connection and on screen (and off screen), you feel as though this is a real relationship. Not only their kiss scenes, them just bickering and arguing with each other made me laugh so hard and fall in love with them even more. (don't even get me started on the ending because this bitch full on CRIED tears of joy for the two. Will be rewatching even though I just finished the show)
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Plot is nothing new. Different cast same fashion drama. I was so hopeful, but this feels like another “our glamorous time.” It does have a more youthful vibe to it but still a bit slow. Episode 1 was catchy and gave hope but then ahnnn. I don’t do rolller coasters and this definitely feels like one. Ep 1-13 male chases female
Ep 14-15 finally a relationship
Ep 16- the breakup
Ep 17 and, the pursuit begins again.
That type of roller coaster.
Overall it’s okay. I like the leads and have seen many of their works. They are great. Scenery is good, acting is good,fashion sense is good.
Down side: I hate the cat and mouse game and I’ve seen at lease 2 other series that have wealthy guy meEts up and coming fashion designer.
I am a fan of the female leave as well as the male lead but I really didn’t feel a great chemistry here. Another thing is they have a female lead as an emotionally incompetent character. You know the type, the type that does things that affect other people and she is not aware of the consequences of her actions or how her actions have hurt or hindered anyone. She is unaware of the sacrifices that are being made for her and the things that are love one is doing for her. This goes on until someone tells her. I hate the fact that this went on and see did Nite no. The reality is any person could realize the time, love and sacrifices people made for them but this female with oblivious which made her character annoying. Most of the time you somewhat hope they both end up with someone else.
There are a few things that are quite hilarious but that just does not make up for the poor chemistry and the insensitive or ignorant female lead. who works for a person they constantly Platz against your boyfriend. It’s ridiculous.
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A realistic take on modern working women and romance in general
I find this series to be very realistic. We have a modern working woman as a female lead. She doesn't have a protagonist halo, nor is she a Mary Sue, but she was written as a talented young designer, her skills yet to be perfected. The male lead wasn't OP that can do everything in a snap of a finger. He wasn't omnipotent. There is character development in both characters, but they didn't lose their originality and personality. I also love that there were no repetitive misunderstandings nor white lotus characters. The crisis that they faced as a couple were real adult problems. I also liked the fights that they had, at least they talk their misgivings and not make assumptions.The way they got together was abrupt and the same when they broke up. But I don't blame ZF for her actions. Despite the obvious attraction between them, she initially didn't want to get together with SL. But sometimes, we can't really put a break on our feelings can we? And so, I believe she gave herself a chance to dare love again. But their beginning wasn't stable to begin with, and so, when the misunderstanding happened, she did as any other woman would react.
I like that ZF is a very reasonable person. Although breaking up with SL was impulsive, she calmed down and realized that it wasn't all SL's fault. And I also liked that they didn't get back together right away. They had time to know each other better. When they finally got back together, although there were still some issues (as any other couples would), they tried their best to accommodate and communicate with each other.
I would say, I fell in love with both characters. They're not perfect, they're flawed individuals who tried their best to live their life. Most importantly, Dili and Johnny has palpable chemistry. The intimate and kissing scenes were very natural, especially the way they touched and looked at each other. I smile and giggle every time they tease each other, really it was way too cute.
As for the side characters, they have their own flaws, and honestly I got annoyed at them a lot of times (I'm looking at you Yu Lin's mum), but she was written as she was because there were really a lot of mothers like her, especially in Asian countries where their children's marriage are considered to be their ultimate achievement.
If there is something I wished they could have toned down is the amount of product placement in the show. I wasn't bothered by it at first, but I got tired and annoyed of that ringtone that played every single time and very often at that. Like seriously?
Anyway, my overall assessment is... this is a great watch and I would watch it again. It isn't a perfect story, but it is very close.
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Are they going to have a child? I hope so.
I hope they're going to get married. And hoping for season 2 also hahahahahaha.
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every few episodes are fight about nonsense,
I love Dilarba but it's not good,
I expected more from my head too - he lost the company but didn't even try to bring it back
The series is a cheap imitation of our gelmeros time ?!
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