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My Dear Guardian chinese drama review
Completed
My Dear Guardian
0 people found this review helpful
by Riko
Jul 28, 2021
40 of 40 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 6.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 8.5
Rewatch Value 8.0

Incredible leads but a weak plot

I believe this drama needs to be divided in 3 parts

- The Military and medical aspect
- the romance
- the investigation against the "bad guys"

So there's a mystery/thriller plot, a romance story and an observation of soldiers and doctors in extreme circumstances .

The Mystery is worth in my opinion a 4/10 at most. The "bad guys" didn't have a clear purpose from the beginning nor did they have a smart way to accomplish things. There's loopholes and uncomprehension because the story was not crafted in way it could last for 40 episodes. The acting was also a bit weak on that part. So basically, the red thread linking events and fueling the drama just wasn't there. The pace was a little draggy as well.  Once I realized that, I decided to watch the drama without considering it has an actual beginning and end in terms of plot. It's a succession of situations that are well captured (the budget definitely helped here) with really good acting from the leads.

The leads are very emotionally intense actors, i knew from the beginning that they would give a mature vibe to the story.  And they didn't fail to deliver.
The habitual opposites-attract dynamic in c-dramas is between cold ML-bright FL both being very immature and lacking communication. This drama chose the fiery FL- chill ML as a duo dynamic and I'm so glad it did.
The romance is a little slow burn because of the realistic concerns they're facing as adults but their flirting was really on point. They communicate, are super sweet, fight sometimes but sort it out. Honestly for me, these are the best love stories.
So I would give a 9.5/10 to the romance aspect.

The third part is those long scenes of military operations and medical practice. Tbh these were fun at first and I understand that the goal is to show that both leads have an intense work. But after a while, it looked like a recruiting ad for Chinese military and doctors . Too much of it. Too much about chinese military pride.
But  the military brotherhood offered a good comic relief especially in the beginning and then tears at the end (but I wasn't emotionally involved to feel affected by it, because the pace made me loose that intial interest). I actually laughed a lot watching this show. I also regretted that they didn't use the comic brotherhood as a weapon to lighten the investigation plot and make it more dynamic as well until the end. So I would still give it a 7.5/10

Overall it is very difficult to give it a definite notation. It depends on how you decide to look at it. If I had to give it a grade for its overall story, i would have to give it a 7 because the main "bad guys" are terrible and the plot is too intricate without being smart enough. But I really enjoyed this show because of the lead's dynamic and characters while skipping a good part of the investigations. So I still very much recommend it.
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