Lesson in Love (2022)

Love & Obsession

Actually, there are two different dramas in one here. And they do no mix well! I wanted so much to drop this but I kept watching since it had turned into a hate watch after 3 episode only to become more interesting in last two episodes.

The first story is a usual student/teacher forbidden romance. It was bad! Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against this theme in a drama if it is done correctly. Unfortunately everything was wrong about it here starting with the cast of the main roles: both actors are too old and it is very much obvious so the story is not convincing. They are supposed to be 17 & 27 but the actors are both 10 years older and it is jarring. The only credible moment these two had were the very last couple of minutes of the drama! Another jarring point in this love story was the teacher's behaviour. Why is it that when women fall in love in dramas they completely lose every brain function and become lovelorn idiots making one wrong decision after another until the hell breaks loose? The student was behaving his age; a hormones raging teen who first jumps and then looks! I was really annoyed with the love story more so since the couple had no chemistry to speak of! For a long time I was convinced that the teacher was fooling with the kid to take revenge on his mother who ruined the teacher's family long ago! No such luck! I kept wishing they would not end up together. No such luck!

I almost dropped it but the second story was much more compelling...

The second story is a crime story. The couple is being talked and bullied on the internet with growing violence. One of the suspects is the student's mother. Her character is very interesting. As the story progresses and we find out more about her life, she becomes more and more human and likable. At the start of the show she's just that tiger mom, controlling and fierce. We find out the reasons for her behaviour and suddenly our appreciation of her changes completely. Really, she is the best character in this drama and actually makes it worth the watch.

The rest of the characters are not worth the mention. They are there just to be a soundboard for the three main ones.

This drama does nor know if it wants to ba a romance or a crime drama and that is bad. The romance part is extremely badly written: the kid is a brat playing cruel pranks on the teacher who falls in love with him instead of punishing him? What?!?!? The stalking crime part was much better structured and the final search was suspenseful as they managed to keep the mystery until the very end!

Read More

highly recommended!

I usually don't like romance between students and teachers, but this drama is an exception!! the characters and storyline are all SO GOOD. The couple's chemistry is also very good. I highly recommend this drama!???

such a harmonious couple, I really like the flow of their love story that doesn't beat around the bush. try to watch 1 episode and you will know how good this drama is, so you will want to watch the next episode?. this drama have Happy Ending story

Even though it's only 12 episodes, the plot runs so neatly and naturally. I have never and don't want to watch a love story between a teacher and a student but for this drama I really like their story

Read More

Turn off your brain

my first ever review.

what i like:
1. chemistry
2. the way the scenes were shot and how it shows on screen
3. some decent acting
4. the overflowing emotions
5. interesting makjang
6. not boring
7. imperfect characters. morally grey, morally red. red flag. green flag. Mysterious character (xia yuxin), annoying character (the mom).
8. the pace, the amount of eps, and duration of each eps

what i dislike:
1. some of the logic and reasoning (i just ignore it, bcos I don't treat this as an educational material, just a pure entertainment drama).
2. sometimes ekkkk acting


overall a 8.5/10. it's definitely not perfect in any way. so many questionable morals, but heck as a makjang and rom, it is entertaining. ok that's it :)

Read More

Not as bad as you might think

First few episodes might have you cringing.. typical spoilt rich boy acting up and pulling pranks on this new female teacher. But somehow in the process, he falls in love w her.

Our ML is 17yo going on 18, still in high school. He’s doing all these rebellious acts to spite his mom, who is the chairwoman of the parents association in the school. The mom of course is super rich, donated loads to the school and abused her power with the school principal. Enters our FL, who is a new teacher at the school, and she’s 30 yo.

The first 5 episodes were questionable : HE was obviously crushing hard on her, but SHE was gracefully holding back, but slowly falling for him as well. It wasn’t anything pedophilia but it was difficult to watch the budding romance between teacher and student. Thankfully, the explicit scenes at this stage were merely a fragment of his imagination ;)

Then comes Epi 6 with a huge plot twist, which made the story turn quite interesting. Here the drama and angst intensifies, and emotions are running wild. I must say I didn’t really like our ML’s acting. He seemed wayyyy too childish to handle a relationship w a much older woman. As the story unfolds, it gets more gripping and more and more plot twists, especially the final episode! Never saw that coming! It is a happy ending for our main couple, and somehow by the end, their relationship doesn’t seem so “wrong” anymore.

Watch this with an open mind. Yes definitely there were some steamy scenes, though it seemed a little forced lol. Bear in mind this is a Taiwanese drama ;) and good thing it’s only 12 episodes :):)

Read More

Worth Watching!

Since I have adopted - leave the details to others - I watch these dramas with a different eye. Now, it is simply - Was it worth my time? For this - yes.

My only gripe is the everyone gets a happy ending. The mother should be in jail. She made life miserable and ruined so many people over the years. She used them and abused her status to get what she wanted. A bow and a "sorry" should never cut it. Awful woman.

The twists to the plot were well placed and the clues were there though, many of us would need to really pay attention to the details. You will grow frustrated and use the fast forward button - like I did - mainly to get away from the hell the mother put everyone through. There should have been mention of a house or, huge check for the teacher but, no - flowers, blue skies and all smiles by the last episode. Ugh.

Where is that Korean truck in almost every drama that runs someone over?

Read More

Lots to like but ultimately failed to convince

There was so much to like in this drama, the performances were good, the script was tight and the characters well drawn. The plot really held your interest and it managed some good twists, even if you could see some of them coming. But right at the heart of it was a major flaw as far as I was concerned, that undermined the whole thing. And no, it wasn’t the perceived immorality of forbidden love.

The fact that Edward Chen makes such an excellent job of being an immature, bratty teenager and the writing for him is spot on, makes the romantic relationship all the more difficult to understand and believe. I simply couldn’t credit that the character of the FL would be at all interested in him as a lover. Their relationship simply did not gel for me and I had to just suck it up and move on.

Plus, it’s really hard to get past the unprofessional attitude of the FL in the drama. She behaves so badly, so often, that I ended up really not liking or respecting her at all. I don’t have to like the characters to rate the show, but when it’s a romance, it’s sort of necessary to at least warm to the lead couple.

What my rating means: 7+ A watchable drama, but nothing exceptional. Good enough to qualify for the race, but finished with the pack. The sort of thing that promises more than it delivers.

Read More

Fora da Caixinha

Quase não assisto doramas Taiwanês... Mas, esse me surpreendeu a química dos protagonista é sensacional.

E o enredo que parece cliché menino novinho que se apaixona pela professora mais velha, saí fora da caixinha com os ingredientes que o roteirista vai inserindo ao poucos, em um momento você vai do amor ao ódio... Mas, depois tudo se encaixa.

Não tem como não se apaixonar e torcer pelos protagonistas.

A idade é só um número. Aqui foi mostrado que um homem maduro estabilizado não era maduro mentalmente e um jovem vivendo com os pais era incrivelmente maduro e com objetivos.

O amor pode vencer barreiras. O final é maravilhoso.

Read More

When a show tries to be dark, then light, then melo... And THEN yet something else

This show opens with such opening credits that show you they tried to make this look DARK (and actually overdid it a bit, lol), but then the "molested student" in question looks like he's about to hit his thirties soon. And you can see it since minute 1. THAT early and you can ask yourself: what's going to be believable about such drama? In contrast to the opening, following episodes insist on cutesy, lighthearted atmosphere and we watch a montage with someone going around the school with a camera and casually interviewing students on what are their thoughts of teacher-student romance. Like it's something the evolving society is learning to accept, similarly to gay love, for example. Everyone on the show answers lightheartedly and it's not made clear that this is NOT the same and it SHOULD be condemned. Same like with the early bullying sequences: they were brushed off so lightly like they intended to signal to the audience that vievers are to watch a guilty-pleasure show here, not a DRAMA...

As for the main couple, we have contrast again. One look at Edward Chen says that the guy has to be really stupid to repeat at least 10 times to still be a "high schooler". He looks like rogue even in the cute school uniform. He is too old for the role. Not a very good actor either, BUT not afraid of skinship scenes:) The main actress is completely different. She's the kind of heroine I want to watch in romance drama. Way more than any student girl, to be honest. No problem to believe the boy should be smitten: Tiffany Hsu is absolutely charming, even now in more subtle, quiet form. She was always strikingly attractive, now she's like delicately withered... Does she look good with Edward Chen? Hell, yes.

As soon as episode 3 we can see (a dreamy) bed scene. Woow... I'm afraid that got me hooked on this show, lol. But WHEN will drama makers understand that high schoolers are like 15-18 yrs old, not 25-32? LOL. So, I enjoyed, because I watched guilt-free, knowing the age of the actors. But being her student, and in high-school at that, was a bit too much, and morally disturbing (also quite corny). While there seemingly was no reason why would the hell of a woman be interested in a schoolboy, there WAS something between them: they had understanding, kindness, humour... Else I would not - despite wondering why the woman was so careless - liked them together...

Then, at 1/2 of the drama, it is revealed, why the main heroine, the teacher, should have a motive to get into an affair with her student. It is like something from hispanic telenovela. Also it is a major disappointment in the main character. Because what I did like about the woman was that she was COOL, level headed. She was not supposed to be all livid because of some kitchy family feud. The romance line got spoiled, the boy's mother, nicknamed "Devil", also ceased to be impressing, after we watched her hispanic telenovela background story in detail. Sometimes less is more. My fun was gone, suddenly I was watching a family drama. And I'm not interested in family dramas...

The writer then played with a possibility of the two lovers actually being half-siblings: but even with such a desperate card, I ceased to pay attention, and since episode 6-7, I just watched the pretty pictures (the bedscene does not disappoint) and quit caring about the "drama", which in my opinion was worse and more incompetent than had they just let this be "shallow" guilty-pleasure show. Lesson in love? This was not.

With the "family secret" being now the only plot, after 10 episodes I wouldn't mind if the "drama" ended, it was annoying and going in circles, the hot scenes were over and for the angst Edward Chen was not good enough actor. I just smirked at his reaction when his "teacher" dumped him, and scenes like him running after her car were so ridiculous that I openly laughed. Thank goodness they got back together soon. I really didn't need anything but a nice couple of couple scenes from them;-)

Any attempts for something "deeper" didn't strike it with me. I couldn't care less for the boy's mother, or his classmates, or for the fellow teacher/director who knew her situation best, and was such a good friend to her, yet suddenly insisted on being her suitor. Just the fact she still did teach in the same school where everyone knew she had an affair with her student made the whole thing ridiculous. Like watching Edward Chen in that uniform. They should do more scenes when he's NOT wearing it. Yeah, I mean it that way, lol:)

Final episode keeps solving "problems" I didn't care rat's a** about, but I liked the scene where father & son went together for a drink. And then the following scene of both the main boy's parents. Yeah, weirdly enough, after I've already given up on the mother, my interest was brought back in last episode by the side-character of the father. Well, at least the father's actor was decent. Unlike Edward Chen, who was practically constantly making faces, which presented the majority of his "acting". Still, kind of symbolical of this erratic show. Yes, erratic: good, SIMPLE scene is followed by a scene where I had to smirk, when reporters appeared with so many microphones, like they were to inquire about a state-level incident, lol.

But, what was NOT out of proportion in this series? What was not the writer's failure? Why was I glad for the couple that saved their marriage, who were not exactly the characters I was supposed to care the most? Why the most levelheaded character ended up to be the one I was afraid will rape the main heroine or something? I'm not even mentioning the last 25 minutes of the runtime had yet another Genre change. This was SO all over the place. But, to find that out, just watching 1st episode should be sufficient... Decide for yourself, whether a few skinship scenes would be worth the time for you;-)

Read More

If you miss a second, you'll miss the whole plot

The plot is full of mystery and secrets. Once you find the truth, the plot will get more interesting and engaging.

It's a teacher-student love story they said. But it's more than that. It's a friendship, parenthood, and also sometimes a thriller psycopath story mixed in a drama.

The biggest mistake is falling in love. Love comes with consequences and we should pay it someday, if it's not today.

I'm not recommending this drama for whose heart are weak. It content fake incest relationship so be prepared for the whole facts.

The love triangle, the betrayal, and the acting of the actors got me hooked. I watched this less than 24 hours without getting bored once.

Prepare your heart then watch it wisely!

Read More

If you don't like this trope, just save your precious time

If you don't like the typical teacher-student romance with a bit of mystery, this is definitely not for you. In the first few episodes, you will be annoyed with some characters, but if you continue to watch, you will understand them. Personally, unlike the other viewers, I didn't feel that much chemistry between the leads. I didn't even care if they would be the end game or not. It's not that I hate them. They are just so blinded by love that it's ridiculous sometimes. The female lead's words, "I will still love you even if you are my stepbrother," threw me off. I knew it was impossible for them to be siblings, but still, it's kind of disgusting to hear. The characters are not that likeable, and when I say characters, I mean most of them. The plot twists are pretty predictable since they are constantly dropping clues and everything else. The male lead is immature and aggressive. The female lead confused me so much with her intentions. I thought at first that she was smart, but she's also naive. About the family history and the mother itself, they were not as problematic as I thought it would be. Although the mother was not likeable, she didn't deserve so much hate as well. She's just being a mother, sadly her ways were wrong. Nevertheless, it's not that bad, but I would not recommend it, especially if you don't like this kind of trope. But if you don't have anything to do and don't mind this trope, it's a pretty decent time killer.

Read More

Initial cringe aside, deep themes and societal exploration enrich the narrative.

"Lesson in Love" is like the surprise party you didn't see coming, earning a solid 7.5 stars. Now, I'll admit, at first glance, you might roll your eyes and think, "Oh, another teacher-student romance," but let me tell you, this show is a rollercoaster that defies all expectations!

The drama starts off with what seems like your typical forbidden love affair, and you might think, "Okay, seen it before." But hold on to your popcorn, my friend, because it's like you're suddenly whitewater rafting through a river of unexpected twists and turns. The slow start? Just the calm before the storm. When that 'white water' hits, you better buckle up for a wild ride that keeps you clinging to the edge of your seat.

Emotionally, it's a rollercoaster too. You'll find yourself laughing, cringing (especially at the start, I won't lie), and you might even shed a tear or two. The characters, especially Zhang Yi Xiang and his wise dad, inject depth and charisma into the story. Edward Chen's portrayal of Yi Xiang? Absolutely deserving of a standing ovation. He transforms from a bratty teen to a character oozing integrity and tenacity, and you can't help but root for the guy.

Now, this drama isn't afraid to dive into deep themes. It's not just about the 'forbidden' love angle; it delves into challenging assumptions, tearing down stereotypes, and unraveling the hidden complexities within relationships. And let's talk about the art of misdirection—it's like watching a skilled magician at work, keeping you guessing and second-guessing until the very end.

Sure, there's an initial cringe factor, I won't sugarcoat it. But trust me, it's worth pushing through. The brilliance in storytelling and character development is like unwrapping a gift—you don't know exactly what you're getting, but you know it's going to be good. The ending, despite being emotionally charged, gives you that warm sense of closure that just feels right.

In conclusion, "Lesson in Love" goes beyond the surface. It was worth the watch, but if you're asking me if I'd re-watch it, well, I'd have to say no. It's a one-time thrill, the kind that leaves a lasting impression but doesn't necessarily call for a repeat performance.

Read More