Time Flies and You Are Here (2021)

My life flew by as I watched this Drama

The storyline of this period costume drama revolves around the budding romance between Xiaoman (played by Liang Jie) and XiaoQian (played by Joseph Zeng) who overcome multiple hurdles, personalities, misunderstandings and socio-economic inequalities to finally get together and have a happy ending.

Disappointingly, the first 30 episodes of this drama focuses so much on the ill-conceived misunderstandings between the main Male and Female Protagonist characters, so much that the side character's stories just bored and faded into the background for me.

Acting wise, Joseph Zeng Shunxi nails the role of a really bad-tempered, spoilt and immature Prince who only becomes more selfless and shrewd towards the tail end of the drama when the inner palace's corruption conspiracy was being uncovered and exposed. I wish the scriptwriters spent more time developing the maturity of his character instead of only allowing his "maturity spurt" to take place in the last 3 episodes. I've watched Joseph act in Heavenly Sword Dragon Sabre (2019) and Hi Venus (2022) and I think that he is a really talented, versatile and expressive actor. So it's a real pity that the script limits his acting ability to a few emotionally-heavy scenes in this drama.

Liang Jie plays a Female Protagonist that too naive whiny and petty for my liking. By the end of the story, I am unconvinced that her character actually progresses in her maturity, despite her attaining her scholastic dreams of becoming a teacher at a distinguished academic institution while marrying the Commandery Prince in shining armour. This isn't Liang Jie's fault (I liked her in Hi Venus, where she plays a much more mature character) but just really poor script-writing that fails to bring the Female Protagonist character to maturity as they much as they did with the Male Protagonist. Also, I find it unrealistic that her character can get away with being blatantly rude to the Imperial aristocrats of those times. Eg yelling back at the Queen Consort, Slapping the Commandery Prince, Arguing with a Court official etc with a (scripted) lack of personal remorse and reflection.

I was left very unsatisfied with the main character's development and skipped through many scenes where I felt were just stuffed in there to lengthen the drama duration. Wish I had saved my time watching better dramas!

Read More

I don't like the story

Nothing is bad in the drama but I don't like it .
Starting few episodes were good but when love story had started ,story get bored . many times breakup and then patch up .
Then last few episodes whe he came back for the war and avoided her because many people behind him to take revenge so to protect her he made a distance with her ,she accepted his rudeness towards her and ready to marry with someone else ,on the day of marriage he intruded in her marriage ceremony and took her and proposed her ,this looked cute but they get married he avoid her by saying her that she can do anything , no one stop her as she is his wife and leaved the room then she tried to mingle but he again tried to make distance from her but can't control the emotions and they had night together . At last they patched up ,I thought she would get pregnant , normally this had been shown in such dramas but after one year leap her cousin's got pregnant ,I meant to say that they had shown in one year she got married to her lover and got pregnant where as their story got over by showing little romance and fun.
Story had happy ending but I expect more from the story . So not happy with the story .
About acting everyone is the best.

Read More

Worth watching, improves after ep 15

I definitely enjoyed the 2nd half of the drama more. The 1st 14 or so episodes had repeated misunderstandings between the leads, on a slight bonus they made up pretty quickly after each one. The ML was great in this and the FL played her part well too, just her character is a little annoying especially in the 1st half. The story line isn't outstanding but kept me interested enough. It was mainly light with some quite funny moments which turned more serious as the drama progressed but still ended on a light note which was good. I will rewatch but probably skip up until ep 15!

Read More

The drama “Time Flies and You Are Here” is one that could’ve been better if there were less misunderstandings and, as another viewer pointed out, the discourse, especially when the leading lady was talking about women’s rights and inequality, sounded incoherent and weird. Liang Jie’s acting as Xie Xiao Man, a crusader for woman’s right to educational, political, and social involvement, was weak and unimpressive. The action scenes were well choreographed and the strong and faithful relationship between Zhao Xiao Qian (Joseph Zeng) and Zhong Zi Yan (Fan Zhi Xin) was fantastic. Overall, this drama would have been better if not for the misunderstandings and awkward chemistry among the leading couple.

Read More

Interesting enough for me to watch till the finale… so yes, good drama

Many negative comments and low ratings… I am very surprised as I watched way worse.

I am bored generally around episode 10 of dramas. Mostly because the plot is slow as well as the romance. But the male character showed early on he was falling in love and I found it endearing so I kept watching.

Did I find inconsistencies? Yes. Did I find the script ridiculous at times? Yes. At times, I laughed at the poor script and edits… the piece of cloth to mend wounds because everyone knows it will heal miraculously with it… riding a horse with one hand with the fake background took the cake of ridiculousness ?

But somehow the show grew on me.

I loved the drama A female who arrives at the Imperial College with Lusi Zhao, and of course, my expectation was high. Times flies and you are here has 2 focuses: genre equality and misunderstandings/miscommunication between couples. Genre equality in ancient times didn’t exist. Plain and simple. The writers of this drama played ad nauseam both. A Prince in Love of a Cinderella is extremely popular. The writers used and abused the themes.

This said, I still wanted to watch. Villains kept showing up when the love story started to be mutual. Insecurities kept them apart. I kept in mind that if they both shared their love and feelings sooner then the story needed to spice up with a more dramatic storyline. Most drama starts with fun cute and funny until mid-season, then switches to drama fights jealousy deaths and dramatic events. I see it in most dramas.

This drama is meant for teens young adults and women. The eternal propaganda of education is key to helping the nation, family and in the end, the individual is very common in Chinese dramas. Women’s education leading to their freedom is a great possible goal but in modern times. Every time I watch such drama, I am smirking. Not realistic.

This show, however, is well played. Casting is good. Chemistry is great. Everything else goes from average to okay such as music, storyline, costume, and makeup.

As usual, the title doesn't make sense in English. Subtitles need improvement as well. But I get used to that. Same with inconsistencies, illogical historical context, etc. Especially the fact that the characters are never shown with severe injuries. Blood but just a little to not shock the public. The back nude was a nice surprise. Chinese dramas are generally very prude with female characters. Seeing a nude male torso or part of it is more common. Pity. Really. But Chinese censorship is sadly showing itself.

Both main actors are really good and on my list to find new dramas with them. I do not find them beautiful but their acting makes them beautiful. I watched many beautiful actors with poor acting and already forgot them. But these two, I sure will remember them!

Kudos to some support roles.

So for me, this show is a good one overall because emotions carried by good actors is there.

Read More

So far draggy and frustrating

Edit: DROPPED this in the end. Can't stand the FL at all. It just gets more frustrating as the drama moves along.

OMG I totally resonate with the many comments below on this drama. It might probably be too early to judge this drama so I’ll update once I’m done with it.

So far up till ep12, this drama is nothing short of frustrations. Not only are there misunderstandings after misunderstandings, the FL is being so dense and annoying, constantly lying and distrusting the ML even after him proving he’s trustworthy and loves her wholeheartedly. On the other hand, so far, the FL is so dense and preachy, always thinking about what’s good for herself and never once has she done anything for the ML.

Very tempted to drop this but also read conflicting reviews that this drama will get better so I guess I’ll keep pushing on and update again!

Their acting is okay though, not terrible. The side characters are good too.

Read More

Incredible performance from the ML

I'm actually going to critique the comments and not the drama for once. Because I really feel like drama watchers have a hard time with mundane scripts. The mundane let's you appreciate the historical setting and nuanced human hardships. Not all historical dramas need an epic adventure and intrigue from the get go.

The first half didn't bother me at all for being "boring". I quite liked the way we were shown different historical settings than other historical dramas. I was able to appreciate and learn about interesting historical details. There's also a lot of realism in the way women are portrayed in this drama, we can see actual misogyny and hardships.

Second half is explosive and raw. This was my first time watching Joseph act and I am truly impressed. What a character! So much depth and emotions. I could write a whole essay on his character especially the last episodes. (if you watched it you know what scene I'm talking about)

On a last note scripts can be mistaken as boring when in fact they're intentionally mundane to showcase the historical setting, the human experience and nuanced themes. There were some weak moments in the plot and the development but the performance of the ML, the historical experience and the love story are enough to make this a very sold Cdrama.

On a side note, the school concept is interesting, it felt like I was watching boys over flowers historical edition.

Read More

A Commentary

It's a little early to make any partial comments, but I feel an early impression is called for. The story started out a little iffy, but it gets going in some interesting manner. The lead actress acting isn't the best and a bit stiff, but it's bearable, while the lead actor is slightly better, I put it down to both of them are still young and need more experience. The script could improve a bit by coming up with cleverer lines when she demures the lead actor's advances and flirtations. Though we may think 18 yo is young, in those days they are pretty mature by then, probably equal to women in mid or late 20s. Well I just hope the character will mature further down the series.

Read More

WATCH ONLY IF YOU REALLY HAVE LOST ALL FAITH IN HUMANITY AND ARE BORED TO DEATH!!

As of now, I'm currently only 12 of 32, so not too far in yet. My first impression of this drama when I read the synopsis, I sorta felt it was similar to General's Lady but at the same time not so much. I'm going to admit, I'm lowkey obsessed with storylines like these ones however a couple of episodes in, I had to take a pause. Then after restarting, I felt so annoyed every second. Don't get me wrong, the direction of this story is terrible but the synopsis was so promising. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!)

Basically what happens within the first 15 - ish episodes are misunderstandings after misunderstandings after even more misunderstanding which is fxxking annoying to watch. I felt my head overheating and a tremendous amount of frustration and I'm not really picky with certain dramas either. On top of the numerous misunderstandings that have happened as of episode 12, we have some of the most frustrating side characters EVER! They're worse than those females who try to get the male lead's attention and then fail and get snobby bc the female lead ended with the male lead.

TBH, I would have probably stopped watching this drama a long time ago if it weren't for My Dear Guardian which is currently airing 3 out of 7 days of the week. I'm gonna just try to push through and then update my review on this. Screenwriter, please up your game. Like seriously please.

UPDATE: I have dropped this drama completely. Will I ever finish it? Probably one day if I ever walked into a wall and lost my memory. I've seen quite a few of Liang Jie and Zheng Shunxi's dramas and so I really wanted to see them in one frame but this is too unbearable to watch. I'm not sure if the LJ's voice is dubbed or not but regardless, the voice of the FL is probably the most annoying here. (sorry to LJ if this was her real voice). I couldn't stand the storylines. Like I said above, the synopsis was very promising but director and scriptwriter did not do any justice. Watch if you really don't know what to watch or if it's meant to kill time. Would not put this on a commitment list.

Read More