Moonlight (2021)

A classic!!

As much as I love the fluff and flirting with no satisfying conclusion of the main leads new drama “ Love Game In Eastern Fantasy”…

It’s made me appreciate this drama a million times more… a proper beginning, middle and an end.

The story may seem slow in certain areas but with 4 more episodes than LGIEF… you get to see 75% of the cast from LGIEF and you get multiple kiss scenes, confessions and a proper ending with both leads in the scene ?

I’ll still be rewatching my Miao Miao and ZiQi clips from LGIEF but I’ll be forever binge watch Moonlight for its satisfying storytelling.

Please let the drama gods ? pair these two for another Romcom in the future ♥️

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A beautiful love story set in the publishing industry.

Personal review:
I loved this show. I absolutely adored it. The message was simple, chase your dreams and fight for what you want, but very sweetly portrayed. One of my pet peeves with Chinese shows is that they don't know how to wrap up the show. The beginning and middle are good but the end just falls apart; not this show. The last few episodes are one of the best. I loved the ending. The relationship between the two main leads was so good and honest. It felt like I was being given a peak into their lives, rather than just them telling a story. There is no extra drama, so it might not be for everyone , but I loved its understated story telling. No character was wasted, and everyone felt like real three dimensional people with their own motivation, dreams and way of doing things. Just a wonderfully told, simple story.

If I think about it, the story shows different relationship between different people and in different time in their life's, and how they got there. Our main couple were just starting their journey into their lives, professionally and personally. The second couple were people who had already broken up once, because of circumstances, and got a second chance. There were relationships between editors and writers, bosses and employees etc. So, this show is very different from your usual run of the mill Chinese dramas. I could actually empathize these these people and there lives. It felt real.

Pros:

The main leads had amazing chemistry. The acting of everyone was top notch. Many people did find the females' leads voice a little annoying, and her way of talking did bother me in the beginning, but her character is so different from her voice; she is so headstrong, that it became an interesting dichotomy for me; analyzing how she used her voice to throw people off and then get them to do as she wants. She was manipulative, but so earnest and good, pushing forward despite all obstacles, that it was amazing to watch. She never gave up on her writers and used every tool in her arsenal to help them.

The male leads character was also one that could have been very off putting, but this actor knows how to make him seem endearing rather than annoying. It amazed me how two people that could have become so unappealing, both the leads, were wonderfully handled by the actors. They felt like real people, who are actually people you could root for and not caricatures of the traits we like in our drama hero or heroin.

It was wonderfully balanced, especially the main male leads scenes with the second male lead. Their friendship is goals. They sometimes felt like two gossipy ladies, constantly fighting each other, but still the first person the other went to for help. They made me laugh at their antics and I enjoyed every minute they were on screen.

The music was very subtle and beautiful, quite fitting of the story they were trying to tell.

Cons:
The biggest issue I had with the show was that the story of the second couple felt underdeveloped. The only time I was bored during the show, was actually when the second couple was on screen. Their story had so much potential. I understood what they were trying to show, but I had to make leaps of conclusion, which annoyed me (I am not giving more details to avoid spoilers). I could logically deduce what was going in the characters head, but their story needed a little bit of oomph, some details; something just felt missing. I still liked their input to the show, and the second female lead was also a badass, she just felt like two or three people, throughout the show, without me as a watcher being shown the transition between those three personas. Same with the second male lead. He changed his mind and opinions, and they were unable to make me follow his logic.

Other than that, the show is a unique piece of storytelling that might not be for everyone, but one that I loved. What I would suggest is that you definitely give this a try. It is show that deserves being watched.

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My favorite C-Drama! <3

This was a show with the most bestest of all best endings: just a sweet happily ever after with our main characters being successful (girl)bosses. I loved everything about this show: the fun, the vibes, the music, the cinematography, the characters and their relationships. It was just such a fun show. Chu Li is such a great female lead: strong-willed, funny and sweet, you just have to root for her. I really loved the actor playing our male lead; he almost felt like an animated character at times, he made so many scenes sososo funny and I loved the bromance with his bestie. The second lead's second chance romance was so good too! I was very invested in their relationship!! Generally, all the side characters were interesting enough for me to care, I didn't skip a single second because I was overall so invested in the show. Shed some tears in the last episodes because it was either really sad or really sweet and happy. Overall, my favorite CDrama together with "A Romance of the Little Forest" (I knew I could trust Esther Yu! love her so much after these two dramas) - literally zero complaints: the perfect sentimental, fun romcom<333.

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A hidden gem meant to be explored

So for those confused the story is about a young girl, Chu Li who has become an editor, a book editor and has managed to get the famous author Zhou Chuan who is supposedly very hard to deal with. The story doesn’t explore much on the editor and her work, rather it focuses on two couples - Chu Li X Zhou Chuan the main couple and the second couple Mr. Jiang also an author and Gu BaiZhi am editor.
The story is sweet and charming with lots of cute and lovely moments, and for people like me who watched this after Love game in eastern fantasy, this drama gives me everything the other lacked. That is a lot of cute moments and kisses.
I won’t touch down on Love game here.
This drama has one of the most peaceful couples in the entire history of Romantic dramas with no misunderstanding, hate or whatever. They are so in sync and the ML is so kind and considerate, it was refreshing to see such a mature relationship, especially after watching the dramas in which the ML sold his common sense for peanuts.
Though the romance was great I wish it would’ve showed us more of the editor’s work. After Zhou Chuan’s first novel is published we don’t see anything about the editor, nor we get to see anything about her office. After the first book the job just disappears and our complete focus is diverted to the relationship.
The drama did try to touch on many things like divorce, second chance, self worth but again it didn’t go too deep on any of these topics. Which will forever be my one complaint from this drama but other than that I would say it a nice watch and a great pic for suckers of cute romance (like me ?)

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I say this drama is a good one to watch should you need to watch something while waiting on another drama. I don't think this drama would be a drama I would say you must watch or if there's anything that makes it shine but it does avoid a lot of drama clichés, like no last minute breakups, no evil parents/in-laws, little to no misunderstandings, and I felt like it was executed well that we had a good & happy last 2 episodes that I was very satisfied with how it ended.

So what does this drama feature?
1. Jealousy is considered a tag for this drama and let me tell ya, I never seen the amount of jealously this bad (in a funny way though). The ML is literally a jealous character for about most of the drama. He does tone it down a bit after Ep 24 but honestly, his jealously is what makes this drama funny and I love it.
2. A fairly weak love triangle: Actually there's 2 love triangles, one for our main couple and the other for our secondary couple. I say weak love triangle because the one who doesn't end up with the couple moves on easily. No conflicts, no plot to ruin the couple. I say this is a love triangle I can watch.
3. A villain does persist in this drama. He does caused mischief and is pretty annoying, especially the beginning and middle of the drama, but thankfully the actions aren't as bad as other villains I seen in other dramas, and he doesn't appear on screen as much later in the drama.
4. It centers around a publishing company and writers trying to get back in making their writing known. Now, I'll admit, there are some great scenes around this but there are also other scenes that I just found boring that made me just fast forward certain scenes.
5. The Bro-Ship: The ML & SML as best friends stole the spotlight for me. I just love every scene of them together.

The plot itself is okay. Sometimes it moved at a good pace, sometimes it was too slow that I got bored in a lot of scenes. Music played in this drama was just okay but very repetitive for one of the songs, but I did think the actors and actresses did justice on their character roles in this drama. Overall, a slightly above average drama.

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Inspiring, and definitely a slow burn

My favorite part about this was undoubtedly following Chu Li from the second she joined the publishing house as an intern and her development onwards. No matter what your career is, it was really inspiring seeing how she handled entering a new environment, dealing with the ugliness of (very relatable) office politics, and overall just being very dedicated and passionate about her work and persevering to get there.

For the most part I also really enjoyed the romance, but it's definitely a slow burn for both the couples. The main leads took a long time before they even realized they had feelings for each other (which I had no trouble with). The second ship was a case of exes-to-lovers and they also took a long time to deal with the reason they broke up in the first place. Both of these, I didn't have a problem with the pacing because it felt as realistic as the progression of the FL's work was: like life, but just a little more exciting.

With that being said, there were some parts with the romance that was either frustrating or simply confusing. First, it was like they kept telling us that there was a love triangle but then hinted that there wasn't and then went back and doubled down on it; either way, I kept trying to understand what the characters were feeling and kept feeling this disconnect.

Second, I wasn't a huge fan of the way the male lead acted sometimes — meaning that sometimes the reason the drama was a slow burn was because the male lead was being pretty dim and immature; there's some things I would definitely change with how some arguments were "resolved" but overall the character development is there (albeit slow).

Nevertheless, I was glad that the romance never got overdramatic and that once the main leads got together, there were no more annoying break-ups or misunderstandings.

One thing I also liked about this drama was that there are few purely evil and obsessive characters — there are annoying people in the office, but anyone who has ever worked knows that you'll really run into those kinds of people and seeing Chu Li (who I really liked as FL) deal with them was almost cathartic.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this drama for any cdrama rom-com lovers out there.

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This drama is about 50% sweet romance, which I would rate at about 9/10 and 50% is about working at a publishing house, which is at most a 5/10. I realize that the end result being 8/10 doesn't really compute, but ultimately it comes down to me enjoying the romcom parts a lot & tolerating the business related things.

The romcom part is close enough to realistic cdrama perfection, I guess I would have loved a bit more comedy and faster progress in the OTP's relationship. The production team did a good job maxing out fluff & sugar, no complaints there. It's really nice how the bromance/weak live triangle thing was handled.
The leads are a match made in heaven, I found them a pleasure to watch throughout the entire drama. Also their love story is nicely written and even their short mini breakup felt well executed & timely. I'm extremely happy they did not do that in the final episodes, I hate that!
I did not like the second couple's story very much, there was too much push-pulling. I liked the characters & the actors though..
The cast in this drama is very good overall, right now I cannot recall a single weakly cast supporting character.
Also there was a crazed bitch character trying to take away ML from FL, she appeared nearing the end of the drama. I think that plotline was completely unnecessary, but it was still tolerable, she was rebuffed at 100% efficiency every time.

As for the life at a publishing house, it's easy to criticize many work related happenings, the story is not all that interesting and there are all kinds of villainous, or semi villainous characters. If I look at this having seen many carrier oriented dramas before, then it's still pretty okay. Corporate scheming & infighting are almost always total garbage in other cdramas, here it's not so bad. The biggest issue is that the adversaries had weird & meaningless motivations and they have often done really arbitrary illogical things. The characters themselves are okay, we don't quite reach the cartoon villain territory. The largest annoyance I've had is the biggest crisis plot in the drama, involving ghost writing claims & lots of unreasonableness. I think it would not have been very difficult to come up with a better, more realistic plot involving Asian cancel culture.

I think people criticizing Esther Yu's voice are in the wrong. However around episode 9-11 perhaps there were too many scenes involving childish temper tantrums & fake baby talk :p I don't think it's fair to blame the actress for that though!

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Really good is u like a good cute drama

I loved this drama a lot it’s cute has a nice storyline and the actors as expected of Esther and Ding Yuxi are absolutely amazing they could not hv done a better job. The eps itself were just the right amount and perf to binge.
Only complaints would generally be with a few things in the plot this is spoiling so if u hvnt seen yet just letting u k
I hated the fact ml best friend liked fl eventually as well that really irritated me as not only did it put strain on their relationship the fl obvs seeing ml friend as an idol of hers didn’t see much about going to get coffee or stuff with him if it came to work stuff which sort of developed to normal life which I didn’t quite like as it made ml feel jealous and annoyed I think if they just didn’t put the best friend liking her and everything if would hv took out a lot of the aggravation I had during the drama. Another would be the annoyance that the ml did not tell fl that he is her online best friend it was so annoying and could hv been admitted much earlier which would hv cause much more cuteness and closeness between them.
I wish there were more cute scenes of them but not too much to like a sickening point since it did lack a bit of it however I truly loved this drama and would rewatch some eps defo hope u guyz enjoy ❤️

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Don't miss a masterpiece guys!!!

If You want to watch a drama that's perfect in everything, Just give it a try. I am pretty sure after watching this drama, You'll be craving for a boyfriend like Zhou Chuan. Our First Male lead Zhou chuan is perfect in everything, a little childish, very caring and a jealous boyfriend. Oh no! i fell in love with him. Though it is my second drama of Ryan ding, He is going ahead rapidly. He can be childish but and the same time he's very supportive for our lead girl. And there is an enthusiastic chemistry between them. Not only male lead, our female lead is also very cute and mature. Her character development will impress you.

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Cute rom-com with a slice of life about book publishing

This drama tells the story of a female lead who begins working at her dream job as an editor and a male lead who is a promising new author. Male lead decides to accept the female lead as his editor when he discovers that she is the online friend who he has been talking to for years.

The first 20 episodes were fantastic and engaging but afterwards the drama got a little boring and draggy, mainly as they focused too much on the book publishing and not enough on the romance. The work conflicts felt very similar, the characters didn’t have much development and the romance died down. I feel like if the drama was shorter, these things wouldn't have been such an issue. Despite all that, I still enjoyed the storyline, characters and romance.

Many comments say the male lead is childish and I agree. In real life I would have been annoyed but in the drama it was the perfect comedy relief and I absolutely loved him (I might also be biassed because I love the actor and he is the reason I watched this).

The second couple was a nice watch but very typical and cliche storyline. I feel like it would have been a stronger storyline if they ended up with different people.

POSITIVE:
- Great insight into the book publishing world. As a book lover I loved seeing that and the plot felt very realistic regarding that.
- Cute romantic scenes between the leads and second leads.
- Good balance between comedy and slice of life maturity.
- Hard-working, career focused and independent female leads.
- Light-hearted for the most part.

NEGATIVE:
- Too much about the book publishing in the second half of the drama which made the romance die down.
- Not much character development.
- Female lead was a bit too focused on her career and sometimes I felt she didn’t care/love the male lead.
- Too long and draggy. Drama would have been better if it was shorter.

OVERALL:
If you are a big fan of the book publishing world and want a bit of romance thrown into the mix, you will definitely enjoy this light-hearted, slice of life drama.

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