Nam Gonzales
Drama that made me purchase WeTV VIP and express pass after a year of boring Cdramas
**If LBFAD, New Life Begin, and Fangs of Fortune had a Baby — Love Game in Eastern Fantasy**
The last full length Cdrama that I watched completely was Love You Seven Times which I forced myself to watch because I loved the universe of LBFAD. My legit last foray into full length drama was My Journey To You because again I like Esther Yu in a different role and Zhang Linghe was ok in LBFAD but alas I got bored because even though MJTY was gorgeous it was just too dark and brooding for me. What turned me off from Cdramas is the very formulaic storyline that gets repeated for the nth time with different cast, crew, and production team. But after reigniting my fondness for Esther Yu, and watching the clips, I was finally able to go back to watching Cdrama through LGEF and yes I bought WeTV VIP and Express pass after a year of Cdrama hiatus.
**Love that Heals and Comforts**
LGEF may not be about some heroic love of the couple against the world like in LBFAD. Heck even Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi never kissed or had any passionate hugs in the whole 32 episodes, but their chemistry is just there — something warm, fuzzy, and comforting. In general I felt like the main theme of the drama is about Love that heals and comforts — love between romantic partners, friends, family members, even love for humanity in general has the ability to heal wounds and can comfort the most jaded people. The story also touched on self love which LBFAD barely went into. Every episode was unique in showing different types of love even the obsessive type.
** Story on rollercoaster with multiple savepoints**
This aspect of the drama is both its strength and weakness. Strength in that every episode is exciting even without the need to watch out for the skinship between Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi, because every episode have something that will make you cry or feel the feels. Even though the story is a bit predictable, but the dialogues and the way the characters showed their connections and relationships just made sense and made you relate to them giving justice to the Ensemble cast. There is also several mini “stories” in the drama with the first 24 episodes (if cut can be a story on its own) having a sensible overarching plot. The added episodes and plot points just added to the extensive world building in the drama connecting the book and real life. Even the songs in some episodes are neatly tide back to the beginning/end.
The con for this is that because there was a lot of exciting plot points per episode/arc, we kind of lost focus on the OTP which is Miaomiao and Ziqi. So if you’re expecting something similar to LBFAD or LYST, you will be disappointed. Even the supporting couple had more skin ship and more concrete “labelling” of their relationship than the main couple. Likewise, in the later part of the drama, the multiple save points and resets were becoming a bit too taxing. Because one moments you already cried and is happy that finally they have their happy ending and then the story then says booyah we still have a problem and then the cycle of grief and exhilaration repeats. The final ending is expected but I think the best explained one among all the book/game to real world transmigration story there is.
The last full length Cdrama that I watched completely was Love You Seven Times which I forced myself to watch because I loved the universe of LBFAD. My legit last foray into full length drama was My Journey To You because again I like Esther Yu in a different role and Zhang Linghe was ok in LBFAD but alas I got bored because even though MJTY was gorgeous it was just too dark and brooding for me. What turned me off from Cdramas is the very formulaic storyline that gets repeated for the nth time with different cast, crew, and production team. But after reigniting my fondness for Esther Yu, and watching the clips, I was finally able to go back to watching Cdrama through LGEF and yes I bought WeTV VIP and Express pass after a year of Cdrama hiatus.
**Love that Heals and Comforts**
LGEF may not be about some heroic love of the couple against the world like in LBFAD. Heck even Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi never kissed or had any passionate hugs in the whole 32 episodes, but their chemistry is just there — something warm, fuzzy, and comforting. In general I felt like the main theme of the drama is about Love that heals and comforts — love between romantic partners, friends, family members, even love for humanity in general has the ability to heal wounds and can comfort the most jaded people. The story also touched on self love which LBFAD barely went into. Every episode was unique in showing different types of love even the obsessive type.
** Story on rollercoaster with multiple savepoints**
This aspect of the drama is both its strength and weakness. Strength in that every episode is exciting even without the need to watch out for the skinship between Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi, because every episode have something that will make you cry or feel the feels. Even though the story is a bit predictable, but the dialogues and the way the characters showed their connections and relationships just made sense and made you relate to them giving justice to the Ensemble cast. There is also several mini “stories” in the drama with the first 24 episodes (if cut can be a story on its own) having a sensible overarching plot. The added episodes and plot points just added to the extensive world building in the drama connecting the book and real life. Even the songs in some episodes are neatly tide back to the beginning/end.
The con for this is that because there was a lot of exciting plot points per episode/arc, we kind of lost focus on the OTP which is Miaomiao and Ziqi. So if you’re expecting something similar to LBFAD or LYST, you will be disappointed. Even the supporting couple had more skin ship and more concrete “labelling” of their relationship than the main couple. Likewise, in the later part of the drama, the multiple save points and resets were becoming a bit too taxing. Because one moments you already cried and is happy that finally they have their happy ending and then the story then says booyah we still have a problem and then the cycle of grief and exhilaration repeats. The final ending is expected but I think the best explained one among all the book/game to real world transmigration story there is.
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