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My rating 10/10

My daughter, who watched this one with me, gave it a 9.5/10, and I will explain the half-point difference in the spoiler section. For me, though, this was almost exactly what I want from a romance drama. It had one of my favorite tropes, "forced" habitation, but what made it work so well was that the shared living situation did not immediately turn into a romance. Instead, they quickly became friends. They were roommates, then buddies and people who genuinely enjoyed each other's company before either of them fully recognized that their feelings were becoming something more. That meant I was getting another one of my favorite tropes too: friends to lovers.

I enjoyed this drama from beginning to end. I looked forward to every episode so much that I regularly had trouble making myself stop watching and go to sleep when I had work the next day. That is one of the best signs for me that a drama is providing what I hope for, an engaging bit of entertainment at the end of a day of "adulting". And now that it is over, I genuinely miss these characters.

The pacing was perfect for me. I know some viewers found the romance slower than they wanted, but I never felt impatient for them to get together. I actually loved watching the relationship develop. Their feelings grew out of friendship, familiarity and all those little everyday moments that happen when two people spend a lot of time together. By the time their relationship changed, it felt earned.

And their chemistry was fantastic. Some of my favorite scenes were not even the big romantic ones. I loved their play fighting, teasing and ridiculous little arguments. Those scenes made them feel like genuine friends who had become incredibly comfortable with one another. That was a huge part of why I believed their romance.

Li Yifei has to be one of my all-time favorite male leads. He was hilarious, charming, mischievous and completely ridiculous about food. His obsession with Qian Fei's cooking, especially the eggplant, was one of those little things that made me laugh every time while also being incredibly sweet. I loved watching this wealthy playboy gradually turn into the man who was practically emotionally dependent on her cooking. I think he loved it not only because she was a really good cook but because it was her. And it became their thing.

But what I loved equally as much was what Li Yifei did for Qian Fei.

He did not simply rescue her or solve her problems for her. He slowly built her confidence in herself. He was there for her, encouraged her, coached her through difficult situations and consistently made her feel capable. He helped her learn how to handle people who constantly criticized her without allowing their opinions to define her. He gave her the confidence to recognize her own worth.

And you could actually see the difference in her.

Qian Fei blossomed under his love and attention. Her professional appearance became more polished. She carried herself differently. She became more confident about expressing her opinions. She stopped automatically accepting constant criticism. She became much more secure in herself and in her abilities.

One of the things I especially loved was that eventually this became reciprocal.

At the end, Qian Fei started doing for Li Yifei what he had been doing for her. She tried to help him quietly and behind the scenes, without demanding recognition or telling him what she was doing. And eventually, they each discovered the ways the other had been quietly helping them.

That was such a beautiful reflection of how their relationship had developed. In the beginning, Li Yifei was the person helping Qian Fei find her confidence. By the end, she understood him well enough to recognize where he needed support and quietly give it to him. They were no longer simply one person helping the other. They had become partners who instinctively looked after each other.

That was also why I was slightly disappointed by the father's comment toward the end about how much Qian Fei had changed Li Yifei for the better. I completely agreed with him, but I kept waiting for someone, maybe even her, to acknowledge the other side of that equation.

Because she changed too.

And I don't just mean that being in love made her happy. She became a more confident woman. She learned how to stand up for herself professionally. She became more polished, more self-assured and less willing to let other people's criticism control her. A huge part of that growth came from Li Yifei simply being there for her over and over again. And just the power and confidence that comes from a relationship that serves as home base for everything that happens in life. It is the safe space, the think tank, that space where two people come together to tackle everything as a team.

I would have loved even one line acknowledging that he had changed her too. Her bestie did mention it but only to her. I wanted him to know that his son had that ability to transform people too. They were simply better together. It would have completed that beautiful symmetry between them.

I also found it interesting that the drama briefly mentioned that Li Yifei was younger than Qian Fei, but I never really understood what their actual age difference was. It was not an important enough part of the story to bother me, and thankfully the drama did not turn it into an unnecessary obstacle, but it was just odd to mention the age difference once without ever really establishing what it meant.

Another thing that worked surprisingly well for me was the wealthy-playboy-falls-hard-for-one-woman trope. I know some viewers find that transformation unrealistic, but I have actually seen something extremely similar happen in real life.

My brother-in-law's best friend was wealthy, handsome and a notorious ladies' man. He dated constantly and had so many women coming and going that his friends would help him remove traces of one woman before the next one arrived. He had one or two relationships that were more focused, but they were always shallow enough that none of us ever imagined he would settle down.

Then he met one woman who was completely different from the women he normally dated. She did not even seem like his type. And when he fell for her, he fell hard. He stopped noticing anyone else, they eventually married, and years later he is unquestionably the devoted one in that relationship.

So I completely bought Li Yifei's transformation. Sometimes there really is one person who causes somebody to suddenly realize that all of the things they thought they wanted were not what they actually wanted.

I also never found the hiding-his-wealth trope particularly unbelievable. I have known multiple wealthy people who deliberately concealed or downplayed their financial circumstances because they did not want that to be the first thing people noticed about them. They wanted people to like them for who they were rather than because they had money. And there is also the stigma and simply the bother of trying to sort people who are only after your money from people who are genuine. So that part never pulled me out of the story either.

Overall, this was really my perfect romance. It had the tropes I love, excellent chemistry, believable emotional progression, humor, warmth, friendship, domesticity and two characters who genuinely made each other better.

And I think I interpreted the title Love Has Fireworks differently from some viewers who expected a more explosive romance.

To me, the fireworks are not necessarily the relationship itself being one giant, dramatic explosion.

Think about a day that is wonderful from beginning to end. Maybe nothing spectacular happens. You spend time with someone you love, laugh, eat good food, talk, tease each other and enjoy being together. It is warm and comfortable and almost ordinary in the best possible way. Then, at the very end of that beautiful day, there is a fireworks display.

The fireworks are the breathtaking final moment that makes an already wonderful day feel almost unreal.

That is what the title meant to me.

Love is all of those little moments. The friendship. The laughter. The play fighting. The meals. The quiet help. The way you start automatically looking for that person. The way an ordinary day feels better because they are there. And then every once in a while, there is one of those perfect moments when you stop and think, How did I get this lucky?

The fireworks are the icing on the cake.

That is exactly how I experienced the romance between Li Yifei and Qian Fei.

Spoilers

The biggest difference between my 10/10 and my daughter's 9.5/10 came down to Jun Cheng and Dang Yu. She found that entire romance tedious and never really became invested in them as a couple. More specifically, she thought Jun Cheng's behavior early on was cringey enough that he came across as a stalker, and she never reached the point where she wanted to root for the relationship.

I actually agree with a lot of that criticism.

Jun Cheng really was a mama's boy, and my daughter was right about that. His behavior could absolutely be uncomfortable early on, and I found myself getting irritated whenever too much screen time was devoted to that storyline.

The fact that he went against his mother a couple of times did not completely reassure me either. Those moments were not particularly significant, and it felt more like his mother eventually became part of the fold than that the underlying problem had fundamentally changed. I could easily imagine her continuing to be overly involved in their lives.

The dance competition was another weak point for me. I found it cringe, and neither actress was convincing enough as a dancer to make me forget I was watching actors who were supposed to be portrayed as talented dancers.

It actually reminded me of the reaction many people had to Raygun's Olympic breakdancing performance. Once you become aware that what you are watching is not actually very good, it becomes difficult to pretend within the story that everyone is watching something spectacular. That happened to me here. I was no longer watching the characters dance; I was watching actresses who were supposed to be good dancers.

It broke the fourth wall for me.

I did enjoy Yao Jingjing and Lu Ze's relationship considerably more. Their storyline felt more interesting, and I did not mind when the drama spent time following them. Their relationship did not frustrate me nearly as much.

My daughter was much more bothered by Jun Cheng and Dang Yu's storyline than I was, to the point that she felt it actually detracted from the drama. I was annoyed by it, but the main romance was so strong that it never came close to ruining the show for me.

I never really liked Gui Lili. I thought it was unfortunate that, because of the circumstances, Qian Fei did not really get to unload on Wang Ruohai the way I sometimes wanted her to. Instead, she had to apologize to Gui Lili multiple times over things that were not really her fault. I did not like the way her character was treated, as somewhat sympathetic, because she was the "other woman" unapologetically so it felt like the positives she gained at the end were a slap in the face of what she did to Qian Fei early on. She wanted to humiliate her, wanted to degrade her, even wanted to get her fired when she was the one who should have felt ashamed.

Honestly, most people probably would never have become friends with the other woman under those circumstances. Qian Fei eventually did, though, and although I and many others would never have forgiven the selfish heiresses actions, her forgiving the "other woman" felt completely consistent with her character. She was simply that kind of person.

And this is another reason I liked the growth in her relationship with Li Yifei. He helped her become stronger without changing the fundamental kindness that made her who she was.

The office politics were probably the weakest part of the drama for me, especially early on. They were not terrible, but I was always much more interested in what was happening between the leads. Fortunately, those sections were never enough to diminish my overall enjoyment.

After more than 400 dramas, I do not give out 10/10 ratings lightly. A drama can be well-made, beautifully acted and objectively good and still not be a 10 for me.

Love Has Fireworks was a 10 because I didn't just like watching it. I looked forward to watching it.

I cared about these characters.

I loved this couple.

I loved the way they became friends before they became lovers.

I loved how they made each other better.

I loved the humor and the domestic little moments.

And now that it is over, I miss them.

For me, that is what a 10/10 romance feels like.