To Ship Someone (2023)

Optimism falls in love with Pessimism

Story
In comes FL, Xiao Xi, who despite her difficulties and struggles in life and work, she always holds a positive view in living her life. She works in a company that purchased IP from web novelist and send them in film production. FL has been a fan to a web novel series written by Ji Shu. She is in love with Ji Shu’s novel CP and wanted to get company to purchased his IP. Hence FL meet ML. Ji Shu is the opposite, due to misfortunes of his family and blames himself for the death of unborn sister, he became aloof and pessimistic about life, relationship and love. And after encountering a betrayal from love and friend in University. He became more withdrawn and devoted to his novel writing and used it for his own therapeutic healing, hoping that he wrote his story out, he can heal and move on.
While I mentioned because of their work FL and ML met, fell in love and ultimately through various trials and situations involving life threatening events, they have an happy ending. The story involves FL trying to use love initially to make ML sell his IP. H the fantasy element is that while she was upset with how ML changes her sweet CP characters to a sad ending, she started to make comments on his site, but miraculously suck into the web novel as a character and was able to change ML’s novel CP through her involvement in his web novel world. Subsequently ML also got suck in too and fell in love with FL through their encounters. Simply put it that her positivity changed him and he learnt to love someone whole heartedly.

Pros and Cons
The story’s premises were refreshing and realistic about fanatic fans chasing novel CP and wants writer to gave them a happy ending. Characters entering web novel is not new storyline, this drama didn’t spend much time explaining how and why it happened. It just follow on the story of the characters and their development.
It’s definitely a low budget production as the unfitting clothes, poor styling to bad lighting and outdated fashion is quite obvious from main lead to supporting casts. I wish they have done more justice to ML’s charming appearance. FL is also pretty but here, they may have purposely increase her ugliness for the character. In later part, one can see her dress sense change slightly after the CP got together. The dress sense for all the cast just seems cheap and poorly done.

The romance is a bit cliche at some parts but acceptable with comedy, the story is straightforward. The FL’s character is a little over the top to sometimes being irritable, annoying and draggy. However FL is silly but yet adorable at moments. ML acts well here being melancholic and aloof, and taking a process of change. The antagonist is also conveniently planted with not much depth, and I couldn’t understand the hatred he has for ML, if it’s spin off from jealousy, it’s too convenient plot. At some point one may wonder how come the antagonist has so much power to control internet and their fate in the internet world.
The supporting casts are good. The side story involving the novel CP is interesting and their changes reflected the writer’s perspective, but I wasn’t that invested in them. It’s acceptable to me that this story wants to show how lack of love or trauma can shape and change one’s perspectives. I would wish there are more depth to the characters. The comedy is fun to watch. As a ROM-Com, with good amount of tension and good effort of set up of a cohere story and low budget, I thought this is relatively a good drama and definitely worth a re-watch for the CP’s sweetness.
I enjoyed the journey watching the development of main CP, although the ending was conveniently wrapped up with happy ending and then again, one need not think too much on watching this drama.

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