This review may contain spoilers
Lovely and addictive :)
Imagine you found an AI robot on the street and brought it home… and then? What would you do with it? Would you get attached to it or would you treat it as a machine only and buy a new one once it's broken?■ Story:
Ka Yim, who works at an AI company, accidentally hits the latest ASI robot Bo on the street. Because he is afraid to get charged, he brings her to his home completely, lol, and hides her. There Bo starts to live with Ka Yim and his family (his dad, grandma and sister) - and changes their lives.
At first they treat her like an object and make her do the daily chores etc. But slowly they grow on her and start to treat her like family, which is very beautiful to see! Bo helps the family members with their personal struggles and forms a bond with them. As Bo has activated her self-learning program, she starts to learn about human feelings and eventually gains her own self- consciousness. She also falls in love with Ka Yim, who has feelings for his supervisor Dorian.
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■ Acting and Main Characters:
I started the drama only because I saw Billy Luk is the Main Lead! <3 I'm actually super scared of AI robots. But Bo and Rocky are not scary at all. They are the loveliest beings whatsoever! I got attached to all characters, because of their realistic portrayal, next to the comedy that is.
I really fell in love with Bo - Ali Lee looks stunning with this hairstyle! ❤️ Her acting is outstanding too! Those smooth but slow movements, her non-blinking eye movements and her slightly monotonous voice were perfect! Then there is the goofy and slightly dorky ML Ka Yim. His sister Ka Yee seems to be bratty at first but she is also a very lovely person if you get to know her. Especially the actors who played the robots did a very praiseworthy job at acting.
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■ The conflicts in the drama were:
▪ 1.) The robot-era of course with all the worries. And the question if robots and humans can be together romantically. At this topic, the drama was definitely more fantasy with robots getting feelings etc, which I loved of course.
▪ 2.) The love triangle: Although I really hate love triangles, it didn't bother me that much. It surely was annoying but since I already knew whom he's gonna end up with anyway.. xD And there were other interesting storylines that kept me watching - like the relationship between Bo and the family members :) And Bo in general. <3
▪ 3.) The family relationship: The development of the characters were not at the same pace. Bo's feeling-development happened faster than the feeling-development of the family, which led to some arguments. This was very well made!
▪ 4.) The virus in Bo's (and the other robots) system, which made her turn bad. The robots turned pretty brutal. On the side note, this is exactly my concern regarding humanoid AI usage in the possible future.
The conflicts were all pretty realistic and interesting. And I really loved all the characters <3 It was a fun but also emotional watch. I'm glad I gave it a try! The Romance was more on the slow burn side but that didn't bother me at all because the drama was interesting overall and the main leads were sweet together :3 I found the drama pretty fast paced, although it slowed down a little in the last 10 episodes.
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■ NOTE
The drama is not exactly what the pink poster and unoriginal title imply. It looks like some silly fluffy puppy love but that's really not it. I mean, yes, there is romance but it's also emotional at times. And the relationship between Bo and the family members is a major thing too, which gives off a warm family feeling. And then it also gets a little dark with action and suspense towards the end. Plus, they are not puppies, lol, they are all -30+ adults (luckily).
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WHOLESOME AND ADORABLE
Absolutely adored this!I went in knowing it would be unique, entertaining and fun based on comments and reviews (which is rare for TVB/HK dramas on this platform since not too many people recognize them/review them) so I already had good feelings for it, but it really gets better than what is described by reviewers.
FAMILY IS EVERYTHING
- The characters here most all have their flaws in personality or makes some questionable decisions showing their humanity and I like them more for that, each family member gets their own scenes to really shine and it really works
- By midway through it really does feel like Bo is a part of the family and it's more than just her doing their chores and cleaning after them
- ep 29 is wholesome and hilarious (The "Thailand vacation" moment)
PLOT= PRETTY FAST-PACED AND INTERESTING
- I like that it shows both sides of the situation we have the developers of the AI who wants full control of their products and sees them as only tools to help society, but we also see the other side where there are families and individuals who truly love their AI as a part of their family and where the AI wants to do good, and be more than just a piece of control device
- Romance was well done here, definitely more a slow-burn natural friends to lovers for the main couple, there's a love triangle but I am not annoyed at all since I enjoyed Crystal Fung's scenes as well.
- Honestly, TVB did sci-fi really well here and I would love to see a S2 or a similar concept done. This is just right, not too over-the-top ridiculous but instead goes the more heartwarming route which I loved
ALI LEE IS DEF. THE MVP
- There are some scenes where she's killing it especially with the blank expression of her face like a doll the whole time she never breaks character, which makes for some hilarious scenes in social situations where the robot just doesn't adapt like us humans,
- This is a tin man but with a golden heart situation, where our girl starts to love and care for the family members, so many touching moments
Would I watch it again? Sure in a couple of years I feel like this would still stand the test of time even if TVB start making more sci-fi dramas
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This review may contain spoilers
AI Romantic Review
AI Romantic is a story about a poor A.I. salesman who accidentally hits one of his company's new A.I. called A.S.I. with his car and brings it home with him because he didn't want to get sued. He and his family uses the A.I., which they named A Bo, like a maid at first, but then they start to develop deep connections with A Bo and start to treat A Bo like she is part of the family.I really liked the humor of this drama so the first half of the drama where Koo Ka Yim and his family started getting used to having an A.I. at home was fun. It was a blast watching A Bo learn to be more human with the help of the different family members. The way A Bo would help them with their personal problems was also amusing to watch.
The second half of the drama where A Bo and the other 4 A.S.I.s get infected with a virus and they begin to hate humans and wanted to hurt/kill them was a drag. The ending could have been better. I mean it was silly how he was able to quickly find the real A Bo. But it was at least a happy ending.
The production value of the drama is not going to impress any one. All the cg used was of medium to low quality. The acting was good and quite enjoyable. The music was also good.
I loved the idea of this drama and I enjoyed watching it even though the second half was a bit of a drag. I give it an 8 out of 10.
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Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, How I, Wonder What You Are
"Decent" - that's the first word that comes to mind when anyone asks me how I found "AI Romantic".At first, I was very reluctant to watch the Drama because it seemed very Ali Lee-centric. On top of that, you couldn't really expect an Oscar deserving performance from her, the leading actress, if her character is a robot. Her acting literally needs to be robotic for viewers to believe she is a robot!
It turned out that I was wrong. Screen time is distributed pretty evenly between Ah Bo and the family who took her in. Luk Wing is hilarious in this, and to be honest, I expected nothing less from him because he has already shown in the past he is not only a pretty good comic, but also a decent actor. Similarly Mayanne is very funny and amazing as his sister and Ah Bo's other master.
The Promo-Poster was very misleading and again, it put me off watching the drama. I thought the storyline would be really silly and have too many unfunny jokes. I was surprised that AI Romantic is actually quite a serious and creative TV series. It explores serious themes such as the dangers of Man playing God, the pursuit of freedom, and the boundlessness of love.
Given the extremely high number of bad dramas in 2021, this drama shone a positive light on TVB. Given the lack of competition from other actresses this year, Ali Lee really should have won Best Actress at the Anniversary Awards for her performance. It's a shame that the voting was rigged; there's no way whatshername deserved to win Best Actress for her performance in "Battle of the Seven Sisters". See my review of that drama here also. TVB even invited Shaun's celeb father to the awards because they knew beforehand that Shaun would win Best Actor! If that's not a sign the anniversary awards are rigged, then I don't know what is.
Tyson also deserves a shout out because he was by far the best "robot" in the series, even better than Ah Bo. He is a seriously underrated actor - should have won best supporting actor for his spectacular performance in this. I really felt sorry for his character when it said it was programmed to sacrifice itself for humans. Tyson is always able to give his characters the sense that they have a layered personality.
I don't recall an opening or closing theme song but the music was ok. The only other bad thing I would say about the series is I heard that AI Romantic is based off a film, so the director worked on both projects. It makes sense to me though because the storyline felt far more suitable for a film than a TV series.
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This was not Ali's best performance but certainly the one that proves she is TVB's best actress right now. Even though there were some scenes she could have done better, it is still a joy to watch her as A-Bo. There is a gradual increase in the flexibility of her body and the vibrancy in her facial expressions as the episodes go by, this is something not many actresses can pull it off.
The producer of this drama also produced ViuTV's anthology drama "The Republic", that focuses on technology in more or less nightmarish / dystopian setting. Although AI Romantic was more comedic and light-hearted, I do see some similarities it shares with The Republic: in the dialogue and the framing of the shots. I'm glad this can be seen as a continuation of The Republic or an in-depth discussions as more episodes also meant the producer has more time and space to play around the themes of technology and artificial intelligence that were already raised in the previous drama.
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