Our Secret

Took the Youth genre in another level

Chinese youth drama genre is a thing of its own. They've owned this genre for years now. As a sucker for this genre, similar elements and plot lines do not bother me for I consume them without batting an eye. At times, they still add little more spices to make sure they have their own flavor and still be classified on its own beauty among the rest. I thought I've exhausted and seen the most out of this genre but in 2021, a drama which was not originally part of my watchlist rose to the top of this year's favorite dramas of mine, and that is Our Secrets (Secrets in the Lattice).

Sometimes, Chinese dramas have shaky introductions of the plot where you have to wait for five or more episodes in order for you to fully fit and be comfortable with whatever you are watching. However, for Our Secrets, I never had that kind of problem--instead of waiting five episodes, I only needed five minutes of its first episode to decide that, "Yes, I will keep on watching this drama." Right then and there, the drama captured my interest (and probably my heart too.)

The story started with in medias res (a narrative work beginning in the midst of the plot.) With this tactic, they already knew they would be piquing the interest of whoever jumps into the drama without reading the plot (just like me). As a passerby, you'll definitely wonder why the heck you were already given an angst without prior notice! Therefore, you'd proceed and tadah, without warning, you'll be really into it already.

ZHOU SI YUE
Don't even start me with this character. Never have I encountered a character like ZSY in years of my drama watching. Especially with this kind of plot, a refreshing youth like him definitely is one of the million reasons why I fell in love with the drama's story telling. They made a character that has flaws. Okay let's be honest, in youth dramas, male leads, more often than not, are the very definition of stone-faced, tsundere, and a person who never really cares with others' feelings. They are whom what the whole institution are looking up to not just because of their good looks but because of their genius brains (those who naps and get to sleep 8 hours a night, never study but still remain to be the top student). Zhou Si Yue, on the other hand, given that he has both qualities, he is not stone-faced nor a tsundere. He jokes around, spends time with his friends, a filial son, plays basketball, studies and gets distracted. He competes on a national level and because of this, his school ranking sometimes drop few places from his original rank. With this, you can see how they've made him like us--something we can relate to. Because yes, it is so impossible for us to encounter those male leads we have met in the past. With Si Yue, we somehow believed that we have been classmates with someone like him.

DING XIAN
Oh dear. The dearest and most adorable Xianxian. Ding Xian is such a lovable character. Throughout the drama, her development was the proudest I am of them all. She started off as a timid and introverted newly transferred student. She never thought she would gain friends, thus, she opted to shut her doors with anyone who would approach her. But with the help of her desk mate and other classmates, she started to warm and held the knob of her once shut door. She knew her weaknesses but still worked hard to lessen the obvious gap. She's also aware of what she wants. Although at first, she couldn't fight back with her mother who dictates what her daughter should do and should not, but later on, she found her courage and stood firm on what she believed was right and best for her. It is so nice to see a character like her, a character who might not be gifted with so much academic skills but we saw how much she worked hard in order to enter a prestigious school in the country.

Moreover, the whole Our Secrets gang added so much fun in the story telling. Second and third cps were not annoying unlike most of what I've seen in c-dramas. I actually never had to forward their scenes. The roles of Kong Sha Di and Song Zi Qi were not birthed for the sole purpose that this drama may have supporting roles. They were more than that. It's been a while since I last witnessed supporting characters having a strong footing in the storyline.

All in all, give Our Secrets a chance. I grinned like crazy, laughed out loud, and cried because of nostalgia for this made me look back during the days of my youth. This drama came a surprise and I am glad I decided to watch it.

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Pacing too slow and weak indecisive main character

I had finished a River Runs Through It and wanted something similar so based on reviews went with this one.

I did not like it as much. I thought the female lead was fine as actress but the damn script and dialogues just made her into such an annoying character.

She is constantly indecisive and weak minded. Every scene is her on the verge of crying or feeling sorry for herself.

I think this drama might appeal more to younger girls who feel sorry for themselves.

I did not like it much. Music and videography was fine.

Pacing was not good.

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A Really Slow Paced Drama...But Chen Zhe Yuan Is Worth The Watch

As a head-start, for those who are curious about this drama, the appeal will be to those who enjoy watching high school dramas and also welcome dizzying feeling of first love and all the challenges that comes with it. I actually fall into this category and wasted no time to watch, with all the high ratings given by other viewers.

However, as I dived into this drama, I suddenly realized it is one of the slowest paced drama I have ever watched. The story line was predictable, the plots pretty flat, the conversations pretty monotonous, background music was not appealing and yet I completed 24 episodes without fast forwarding.

After completion, I thought back to what held the show together, and needless to say, it was the main lead Chen Zhe Yuan. It was his portrayal of Si Yue that kept the show interesting. His attitude, his persona and the way he transitioned from his young confident self during high school, to his un-certainty during his University days and to his maturity when clarity comes to him in life and love. He commits, he is loyal, he is protective and fearless when it comes to love. So, this was what kept me watching. The portrayal of this character alone is enough to keep the ladies swooning.

I won't be watching this drama again, and only recommend to those who are interested get to know Chen Zhe Yuan. I will definitely be looking out for his other dramas.

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Tiptoing around forbidden puppy loves, jiā yóu!

I enjoyed watching this drama, but I cannot help but feel that it's perhaps overrated a tad. All the glowing reviews are not wrong of course, the bromances, the slice of high school life were up there. The entire cast was great, the leads had great chemistry & looked wonderful together and there is more than enough fluff and sugar in the drama for my liking.

So why is this not one of my favorite cdramas? Well, the high school episodes (1>14) were certainly decent, but I feel that the high school years were perhaps dragged out too much. In China puppy loves are frowned upon & I'm sure censorship also comes into play and so the end result is that the leads were crushing on each other real hard from very early on, but due to the aforementioned limitations they kept tiptoeing around the issue. Doing that for 2-3 episodes before graduation would've been okay, but it was more like 10 episodes here. There was perhaps a repetition problem too, with some recycled plots. The bigger problems surface in episodes 15-20. I always hated the rejection/separation due to noble reasons trope, but that's minor compared to how annoying the leads had acted in that period. "I will keep chasing you, I will never give up"proclaimed FL, fastforward 1-2 episodes & FL's resolve immediately faltered due to an extremely minor misunderstanding. Considering how much shit FL went through to finally stand in front of ML this could not have been going any more against her character, that's just sloppy writing. I must also mention that one of the biggest reasons behind said noble rejection makes zero sense, since it was revealed later on that ML's family still kept their pretty luxurious apartment from before.

As for minor annoyances, there were quite a few of those as well. It's like the writer couldn't decide if the main character should be poor or upper middle class. Following ML having to work to pay his father's medical bills we reach a point where ML & FL kept throwing around hundreds of thousands of yuan, but later on once again we reached the poor phase, where Si Yue could not afford a proper wedding ring. Using arbitrary writing like this just to activate that not so great double proposal trope does not sit very well with me.
It's also mildly annoying that almost every single obstacle the OTP had to overcame in their adulthood was something really annoying & cliche. (plagiarism, copyright X2 etc)

The love triangle is frustrating too. Luckily there is not a whole lot of it, though it gets PRETTY DAMN ANNOYING at one point. The main issue is that the second ML is once again the usual kind senior/childhood friend character. It's equally annoying every time how the FL pretends for 20 episodes that she is completely dense about the whole "being courted" situation & once she is confronted with his confession(s) she keeps ignoring the situation for quite a while more. Unnecessary plots, unnecessary character and he has gotten a mini redemption ark even.

People in the comments kept comparing this to You Are my Glory, well that's a pretty weird apples and oranges comparison, but if I ignore the obvious differences in genre, I can only say that Glory is a hundred times better. Even as high school dramas I cannot help but feel that A Love So Beautiful(the cdrama, not the newer kdrama) and Lovely Us resonated with me a lot more..


All things considered I feel the 7.5 rating is more than generous.

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The first C-drama for me that I'm sad it's over

My first initial reaction when I saw this drama, "oh it's just another school drama where they eventually figure out their lives and go to college". I mean it's not wrong. It does follow this format but when you watch it, there's just something special about this drama compared to other high school dramas. To think I almost skip this one but seeing the clips of this drama, I was convinced and gave a try and I don't regret it.

Now the FL's character, Ding Xian is what I like to call a weak character in the beginning. She is shy but also a pushover, as she's afraid to speak her mind. You see why once you meet her mom. Ding Xian's mom is very irritating as it seems she wants to control her daughter on all of her decisions and that she only cares about her studies. We also see some of the mom's favoritism to Ding Xian's annoying little brother. All of these will lead to many not liking Ding Xian's mom. Do they both see character growth? Yes and thankfully it occurs early enough where you can watch this drama without problems later on.

The romance is cute and sweet for our lead couple. It's a steady buildup of their relationship. Though they weren't official until later on, you can tell as you progress each episode that they slowly start to have feelings for each other. I just love the amount of support the Si Yue had for Ding Xian because this is what she needed in order to grow. Also there's great friendship in this drama as well.

The music is just amazing and on point. For me, it's another highlight for this drama.

Downsides to this drama? Well their college years seemed lacking compared to the high school scenes. Like you may not even know they were in college if they didn't specify it in their lines. Friend #3 for Si Yue's friend and Ding Xian's friend lacked screen time. They are our third couple but their chemistry is a bit lacking because of the limited screen time for them. The last maybe 3 to 4 episodes seemed just out there. It's not bad but it just didn't flow as well for me compared to the other episodes.

But overall, this will still be considered one of my favorite C-dramas that I wouldn't mind rewatching.

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A very pleasant surprise.

If you are a fan of Itazura Na Kiss/It Started with a Kiss/A Life So Beautiful, this is the drama for you. The story is very , very similar, high schoolers that go to college with the FL chasing ML. Even some of the conflicts are similar, you cannot tell me that this isn't an Itazura Na Kiss adaptation. Lol. ML of course is wonderful- smart, good looking, but cold. He is not mean though and this is why I love this version so much. You can feel how much he likes her even though he does not say anything, which is my favorite. He is so dedicated to her it makes me happy inside. Honestly, there has been so many remakes/adaptation of the original Itazura Na Kiss story in various languages and some of them are great, while some of them are just okay and what makes this distinction are the ML and FL and how they work together. ML and FL chemistry here is undeniable!! Probably one of my top if not top 3 adaptation of the story. The characters, even supporting roles are all very endearing. Neither one of them are high schoolers and they are so believable. The OST is also very pleasant and enhances and does not distract from the scenes. Also, I love FL. SHE IS NOT WEAK. She is sure about her feelings and assertive in not annoying way. Also, some of her speeches in episodes 16-17...has my heart. One of my favorite lines/scenes are from episode 17 in the lab when she tells him his feelings again. I love her so much. All in all, highly recommended! I found this randomly searching on youtube for a new Chinese drama and obviously the plot spoke to me. Hope these two actors get to work together again in more mature/adult roles because their chemistry is everything!!

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Comfort Food - I Would Watch This 100x

I came to this drama because I wanted to watch more of Chen Zheyuan in between new episodes of Mr. Bad and I saw that iQIYI was promoting this old drama of his and what a hidden gem it is. It's so heartfelt and romantic and earnest and depicts the trials and tribulations of high school

Story - A super sweet story of growth, friendship, love, and life. It's a feel good romance about 2 classmates and seatmates falling in love over a stretch of 6-7 years. I would watch this drama again and again and again. I can never get enough of Zhou Siyue and his Ding Xian.

Acting - Incredibly natural acting from an underrated cast. The cast has such good chemistry.

Production - Top notch. The editing isn't choppy. The pacing felt natural.

OST - Super love the OST.


100% would rewatch again and again. Have already watched it back to back 2x

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i deserved a medal for making until Ep 11.

I am hero for making it this far.
Episode 11: I am giving up.

I ve being watching some cute dramas lately. I was looking for something light-hearted and along the way I found "when I fly towards you" and "hidden love". Then this drama appeared and I decided to give it a go.... Not a smart choice.
This drama is bad, boring and pointless.

Plot: girl moves into a new school and has to settle. That's basically it.
This is sold as a sort of "rivalry to lovers" but there is no rivalry here.
The ml is basically kind to the FL the entire time for absolut ni reason, even becoming a sort of simp; fl is an annoying asshole to the ml for no good reason just to then start liking him all of sudden, for , as I said before "no reason".

This drama is a good example of "tell don't show" because it is absolutely incapable of creating a good confrontation or a good story ark.

Talking about the characters.

FL: the most bland and at the same time annoying lead you could possibly have.
She has no personality at all, is dumm as a rock (but she is in an advance class..go figure.
The actress is no better. I get sad just looking at her expression. She doesn't even speak, she slurres! The script they gave her is so bad but she is not helping in any way.
Everyone around her talk about her being so kind, funny and Interesting. Are we looking at the same sad face here?
I only feel bad for her because she has insane parents

Talking about parents: her dad is sweet overall but back ups his wife which is a psycho. They are convinced their daughter cannot study science because she has a vagina.
Her mother especially blatantly favoures her son over her daughter.
Her dad is convinced his daughter should endure the mother behaviors because "she doesn't know how to act".
Excuse YOU sir, your wife is an adult bullying a teenager.

Ml: I like the actor form "hidden love" even though he is not as mature as an actor here as in other dramas.
His character is somehow the most normal guy even though he likes that leech of a FL for no reason.
He even says "I like you because you don't care about my grades".
I'm sorry boy, this girl a leech because she knows you have good grades. You are basically her tutor... She asks explanation at every given time... What are you talking about?🤣

Their friends: they are the highlight of the show.
Lively, bubbly, have funny Interactions and overall are of breeze of fresh air in this depressing forest of boredom.

The drama overall: they 90% of the time talk about sitting next to each other at school and science text.
The only reason I keep watching is because in the first episode we discover the FL did something "unforgivable" to the ml and I kinda wanna know what it is but the curiosity is not worth this suffering.

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This is soooo sweet!

The whole cast of this drama is someone that I have never seen before, but I shockingly loved it. This story line wasn't too cliche in my opinion. It was very sweet and the people in this had really good chemistry Even though there was one particular scene that bothered me near the end, the rest of the scenes were amazing. I am now interested to rewatch this drama over and over again. The new actors in this drama are also amazing actors. It really portrays the struggles of school, and trying their own best to get into their own dream universities. The OST of this drama is pleasing to listen to, especially 一直一直一直，喜欢你. I wish there was a deskmate like him that was as good looking, and as smart as him. He's too caring for her :(

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