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Please Be My Family chinese drama review
Completed
Please Be My Family
1 people found this review helpful
by ltspada
Jul 16, 2023
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.5
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

Heart warming, happy ending, contract like marriage, cool executive who melts, cinderellaesque

9/10 is my rating. This is a 2023 Chinese Romantic drama with 30, 20 minute episodes.

First I provide a synopsis then review.

Synopsis

Qi Si Le (Jade Cheng) feels very fortunate to be a mom even though she is single and has to suffer the brutal corporate world where women in general and single mothers in particular are not held in the highest regard. However, she is willing to do whatever it takes (except compromise her morality) to earn enough to get her beloved daughter, Xuan Xuan (Huang Bo Si), life saving surgery. That is why, when she needs to land an important account, she sets her sights on convincing company President Hao Yu to select her firm for his advertising need. Running into each other outside of the business setting, Hao Yu notices that both children, who are the same age, have a very distinctive broach from their mothers. Not only are they the same age but they also have the same birthday. All the connections make Hao Yu suspect that Si Le and Xuan Xuan have ties to his family. When a secret genetics test reveals that Xuan Xuan’s is indeed genetically related, Hao Yu proposes to Si Le. Although reluctant at first Hao Yu’s generous and gentle actions toward Si Le and Xuan Xuan lead her to think he is being sincere so she ultimately accepts. However not all is as it seems and as real feelings develop it is uncertain if the budding relationship can survive the initial deception.

Review

Overall a heart warming romantic drama. She and he are both single parents which, right there, puts a unique spin on things. There is mystery surrounding the kids and who the other parent is. She is pretty but not beautiful so it has that sort of single girl next door vibe. He is the cold executive who warms up and becomes the perfect, doting husband. Their relationship was founded on deception without true love, but they grow to love each other deeply, so it has similar aspects as a contract marriage. The side characters are interesting and their romances are also compelling. The kids are adorable. She is a jewelry designer so that is a bit of a slice of that profession. I highly recommend it for those that like happy ending romances with a female character who sticks up for herself when it counts. If you like the Cinderella like story of an impoverished single mother climbing out of poverty this is a good one on that front. Cool executive type that melts for main girl this has that. Love triangles of course. Great friendships. It hits a lot of the tried and true tropes that drama fans tend to like.

Spoilers
This had one of the most second hand embarrassment/cringy moments I have experienced in watching over 300 Asian dramas. Hao Yu is rich, handsome and well connected and has many women chasing him for relationships and marriage. Si Le is barely making it and has no power or influence. She is pretty but not beautiful still men are interested but she is not what would be considered a catch because of her status as a single mother and a relatively unstable professional history. When Hao Yui unexpectedly proposed to her she turned him down as she thought it was pity. That made sense and is what any woman with an ounce if pride would have done. Then, when Xuan Xuan takes a turn for the worse, and he is right there caring for and nursing the little girl and comforting Si Le, she suddenly decides he cares about them both a lot. What would have made sense would be to ask if the proposal still stood now that he knows the child had a serious health condition. But no. Si Le decides to do him a favor and agree to be his son’s mother (okay that is a big deal) but announces she will be Hao Yu’s wife as if she is doing something big for him being his wife. And that is not the worst, she makes this announcement with some weird wedding veil she made from something in the hospital and a bouquet that materialized. He had expressed his interest with a trunk full of beautiful roses (which it turns out she was horribly allergic to but there is no way he would know that) and she reciprocates with a table cloth on her head and an I will do YOU the honor. I am still cringing the next day. So that was an unecessary way for her to accept his proposal and detracted a bit for me. I had to get over it and was nervous it would not be good enough to make up for the cringe but it was.

Later, when she finds out he tricked her and did not care for her when he proposed she is naturally hurt and is on the brink of divorcing him. Ok I get it he was a jerk the way he did it back then and deserved her anger but I thought she took it way too far. And she wasn’t believing him but was believing the villainous second guy who she knew had lied and also deceived her. She would believe villian guy over the man she supposedly loved. But the worst of that was when she decided to leave Hao Yui to go to her parent’s house then lies to the children and leaves the little boy behind. He chases the car down the street hysterically and falls in the road. Not only could I not do something that selfish and heartless to a child I loved and was the mother for but I could not be that heartless with any child. It made me mad at her character.

It was crazy and cute how Si Le was able to turn all her romantic rivals into close friends. I have never seen it like that but it was one of the most heart warming and cute aspects of the series.

The show was good enough even with these detractors I highly recommend it.

#PleaseBeMyFamily
#BinbinXie
#JadeCheng
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