Enjoyed this much more than I thought I would

My initial impression of Midsummer is Full of Hearts was not a good one. I sincerely believe that if I had ANY expectations whatsoever about this series, I would not have given it such a high score. It was because I had so few expectations from this drama that I had such a good time watching it. After watching the very first episode of Midsummer is Full of Hearts, I was fairly convinced that I would not like it. It seemed to have a childish air to it that I did not necessarily find charismatic, and it didn't help that I had never been that fond of Xu Weizhou (it's not him, it's me). However, as a subber for it on Viki, I had made a commitment to deal with the drama and wasn't planning to skip out on it just because it didn't fit with my taste. Though I didn't know it then, that was a blessing in disguise. After skipping through episodes 1-10, I found that the story started to get interesting.

I will start by highlighting the many wonderful things about this drama. The first thing that caught my eye was Yang Chaoyue. As a fan of the girl group she was formerly in, Rocket Girls 101, I was somewhat interested in following her individual work now that the group disbanded. I had skipped out on her other dramas because they were not of interest to me, and I am not the type to sit through something I have no liking for just because I'm a fan of whoever is in it. As a person who really, really likes romantic comedies with some aspect of fame and the media in them, I was quite intrigued by Midsummer is Full of Hearts. I had no gauge on Yang Chaoyue's acting ability, but I have to admit that my expectations for her weren't very high. I was relieved to find that she was very in character at all times. She played the character Luo Tianran so effortlessly, it was as if she were made for the role. I loved the childish, bubbly energy that she gave the character, and it was so much fun to watch her act. I sincerely hope that she will continue down the path as an actress. It seems to suit her. As for Xu Weizhou, I admit that I started out somewhat wary of him. I was never able to get through any of his dramas before, and at first, I wasn't sure if he would pair well with Yang Chaoyue since they seem so different. I was glad that Xu Weizhou seemed to have done a lot better in this drama than he did in the other dramas I saw him in. His character is a man child, arrogant and somewhat bad tempered because of his career as a celebrity. I loved the way Weizhou was able to give off the type of energy the character needed to come alive. The plot was childish and silly without any kind of actual grounding or substance, but even so, it slowly began to become endearing and cute. As I mentioned briefly before, I love dramas that have some aspect of fame and the media in them. It's very interesting to watch relationships develop when one or both of the characters are famous, and it's really interesting to watch what the media in the story cooks up and how the relationship continues as annoying fans get in the way of things. This drama did well to satisfy my love for these types of plots. Some misunderstandings were caused because of the media, but they did not drag out forever and instead added a lot of interesting situations. After just finishing a drama that had a very boring misunderstanding of multiple episodes, I appreciated that so much. The main couple did not have very many kiss scenes or intimate acts, but there were many really cute moments and lots of bickering that was fun to watch. I am unashamed to declare that I also loved the second couple. Yes, Lin Che probably deserved better, but I always love watching relationships where the sunshiney man pursues the aloof, cold woman. That scene where he gave her the keychain frog, silly as it sounds, is my favorite scene from the whole drama.

I only had one big problem that I wasn't able to ignore. Even though the script was not very well written, that wasn't the big problem I had with it. My main grievance with this drama was that EVERY side character is a plot device that kept the story going. Most of them do not have actual personalities, character development, or clear motives. I feel like many of the characters either very flat and had no depth or were a huge puzzle to figure out. The two second leads, Tiffany and Yun Shu, were extremely weird, and it was so, so hard to understand their intentions. One of my biggest WTF moments was with Cheng Shasha, Jin Zeyi's junior. The writers made it clear that she was in love with him, but that is her literally her ONLY personality trait. In the drama, she had a total of probably less than 30 minutes of screen-time and was completely irrelevant for 99% of the drama. However, one episode, completely out of the blue, she plays the role of a jealous second lead. She does something that hurts the relationship between the leads with pretty much no warning for just one episode and then almost completely vanishes from the rest of the drama. It was just so unbelievable and left me completely shocked. The character was clearly used to keep the plot going and then discarded when her purpose was served. There was also a very one-dimensional antagonist named Lin Xiquan who was quite annoying for about two episodes. After that, he completely dropped off the face of the earth but came back completely unannounced a few episodes later to wreak more havoc. He was so unsatisfying as a villain that I almost completely forgot he existed until right before publishing the review. There are like 15 other examples of terribly written characters, but my instinct tells me that I shouldn't turn this review into a full blown rant, so I'll stop here. I get that this isn't the type of drama that delves deep on side character development, and it's impossible for writers to care about every single character and make sure that they are fleshed out enough, but way too many characters in this drama were treated like tools that got dragged in and pulled out whenever the writer deemed it necessary. Besides those problems, there was nothing majorly inexcusable and was overall pretty good.

One more thing is the OST. Though I felt that the beginning and ending OST were both a little bit too heavy and sad sounding than I thought fit (they were both good, just didn't fit as well with the vibe of the show), the middle song sung by Gu Landi was so enjoyable and great to listen to. There really wasn't that much music in the drama, sadly, and there were lots of moments when I thought "wow, a cute song would be so fitting here" However, they did well with what they had.

I think the MDL rating on this show is pretty accurate (7.9 as I write this). I can definitely understand why people would rate it this way. It's not a terrible drama, but people might not necessarily be able to get over the empty plot and groundless characters. Since I went in with low expectations, I had already expected such things to happen, so I wasn't too disturbed by them and learned to build up an immunity to plot flaws and things like that. I was able to enjoy the hilarious scenes, playful bickering, chemistry, and acting of the cast and highly recommend this drama to anybody who likes to watch fluffy dramas to pass time. I would also suggest keeping low expectations in order to be able to ignore all of the flaws of the drama. Overall, there was a lot to love about it, and I hope you give it a chance :)

Read More

Unique, fresh story that will keep you entertained

The Romance of Tiger and Rose is a drama about Chen Qianqian, an author who gets sucked into her own script and becomes a character that was supposed to be killed in the first few episodes. She is forced to change the story with her actions. Chen Qianqian navigates through the script, using her knowledge of it to her advantage. The Romance of Tiger and Rose has become one of my favorite dramas because it is a refreshing take on gender roles, is witty and doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer, and tells a very beautiful love story.
The story was very well written. Not only was it comical, but it was also witty, dark, well-paced, and surprising. It was easy for me to want to watch the next episode, which is hard for some dramas to do. As with every drama, there were moments that felt unnecessary, but there was nothing that felt severely out of place or detracted from the flow of the story. I loved how they were able to bring serious issues to light, such as gender inequality, without making it feel like they were lecturing the viewer. All of the characters were well written and convincing, and while they had moments that were over-the-top, it was never done in a way that made you want to throw your screen as far as possible. Even though I personally loved many of the secondary characters, especially Su Mu and Yuanyuan, and wish they had more scenes, I can see how that might have affected the story negatively. I am glad that the writers were able to find a balance between giving the secondary characters way too much screen time (sadly I've watched many dramas that were guilty of this) and way too little. Overall, the plot was very well-paced and full of action. There were no boring filler scenes and I never felt the need to skip through.
I was pleasantly surprised by the acting abilities of Ding Yuxi and Zhao Lusi. To be honest, I went in hearing so many negative things about Lusi that I wasn't sure what to expect. However, I found her to play her part very naturally, as if she were made for the role of Chen Qianqian. Ding Yuxi was also a very expressive actor. The role of Han Shuo was probably one of the hardest roles in the story, seeing as he had so many different motives, but Yuxi pulled it off flawlessly. Even the side characters were entertaining in their own right, especially the servants, who often stole the spotlight with their hilarious remarks and silly expressions.
Overall, this was an amazing drama that I highly recommend. It is the type of drama that will stay on a viewer's mind for days after it is finished. Not only is it wildly entertaining, but it is also intelligent and has an interesting message.

Read More

A complex, realistic drama that evokes all sorts of emotions

To Dear Myself is a wonderful slice-of-life drama that explores the journey of six 30 year olds who are doing their best to make a living in the ever-bustling city of Shanghai. To be honest, this is the genre that I never normally would have been eager to venture into. As a sensitive, perhaps slightly fragile person, I have never been someone who would actively search for slice of life/melodramas because I felt that they hit too close to home for me and were way too real. I watch dramas to get AWAY from life issues, not to get CLOSER to them. However, despite the fact that this drama explored topics I would rather not face, such as infidelity, (a teensy bit of) domestic violence, and boring business dealings that seem to go on forever, this drama was still surprisingly intriguing!

In the beginning, I admit that I was not that intrigued. Because I was unused to how realistically flawed these characters were, I had defaulted to disliking them. Li Siyu and Chen Yiming relationship's made me so angry. I hated how they were unable to compromise or understand the viewpoints of each other, and at many times, I found myself itching to scream at them. I hated the way Zhang Zhizhi was unable to stand up for herself, and the way that her husband, Liu Yang treated his family so disdainfully. As for Lei Haowen and Gu Xiaoling, I didn't care at all for them at all and probably wouldn't feel like I missed anything if both were completely removed from the drama. At first, I was watching because I genuinely despised the characters and wished to see the outcome, but I later found that it was because of their imperfections that I liked them. The hilarious, fluffy, romcoms that I usually adored watching simply avoided creating real, genuine characters like the ones I saw in To Dear Myself. As the story progressed, I started to realize how incredibly realistic and interesting they were. The story taught me so many life lessons. It was fun to analyze character motives and predict what they were going to do next. I loved that I was able to analyze the characters myself and how each character had so many layers. Every character was deeply flawed, but no character was fully good or evil, just like people in real life. Even though some of them were absolutely terrible balls of walking human trash, they still admittedly had some good qualities or ideas I could relate to. Characters tackled many situations that could be found in real life. There were no cliches because everything was based on life itself and not a fairytale. However, when I got to the end, I was pretty disappointed. Up until that point, the drama was very realistic and interesting, but at the end, a bunch of crazy things got mashed together, and it felt pretty absurd. For that, I deducted one star from my original intended review. However, that doesn't mean that the entire drama is bad just because of that one episode. I'm sure I can come up with my own ending instead. I do not regret watching this at all. It was very worthwhile for me, and I was so happy to have been able to share this journey with the characters.

The acting in this drama was amazing. Before this drama, I had only ever heard of Kan Qingzi and Zhu Yilong, (so I will mostly be featuring them in this review). I know that most of the cast is comprised of seasoned actors and actresses who are very good at playing the parts. Well, that showed. Before, I had only ever watched Kan Qingzi, actress playing Zhang Zhizhi, on multiple variety shows. My impression of her was that she was a very bright, outgoing woman. However, I was absolutely shocked by what I saw onscreen. All traces of the real Kan Qingzi had vanished. The character she plays is a needy mother who was severely deprived from self confidence. The actress never once went out of character, despite the fact that her character was so different from her actual self. I was so impressed by how she was able to someone so different from her so well, and even now, when I see Kan Qingzi as her actual self on variety shows, I am shocked at the difference, and part of me can't even comprehend it. As for Zhu Yilong, I knew that he was an amazing actor but had never paid attention to him. In this drama, he plays his part amazing! I was very impressed by all of the expressions he pulled off and how professional he was. It was almost hard to distinguish between him and the character because he was so natural and in his element. The others were also a treat to watch. Overall, I enjoyed all of the actors and actresses and their depictions of their characters.

Although I was disappointed by the ending of this drama, I still think back on it with fond memories. The great acting, the wonderful camera angles and shots, the beautiful OSTs, and the important life lessons will be remembered by me for a long time. That being said, this drama is absolutely not for everyone. It's pretty melo, and as stated above, there is infidelity, slight domestic violence, manipulation, and long business deals that will likely make you fall asleep. The drama is called "To Dear Myself", so it's mostly about the journey of finding oneself. Do not expect to see a huge amount of romance or cute couples (the couples are more scary than cute). However, if you're interested in a cast who clearly knows what they're doing, over-analyzing character motives, or exercising your own brain to come up with an ending because this one sucked, then maybe this drama is for you!

Read More

Starts out promising but leaves much to be desired

Let me start by saying that I, having watched none of the other 3 or 4 versions of this drama, had absolutely no prior knowledge of the plot, characters, or other elements of the show and therefore have no intention nor ability to compare this remake to the rest of them. Anyway, overall, this drama was a very enjoyable watch. However, the quality of the story decreased tremendously as the story went on.

Chen Jiaxin (Liang Jie) is a quiet, somewhat cowardly girl who preferred to suppress her emotions deep down rather than to face them head on. When she boards the Costa Venezia Cruise, all she really wants is to have a memorable trip with her boyfriend. However, fate has other plans for her. Aboard the cruise, she meets Wang Xiyi (Xing Zhaolin) a businessman with a strong sense of responsibility. After a huge turn of events, the people the two of them arrived with both leave their sides, and before they know it, the two strangers are accidentally legally married with an unborn baby. When I first read the plot description, I was doubtful that such a plot would work. It was glaringly obvious from the premise that the plot would be riddled with misunderstandings, scheming, and hidden feelings, but seeing as there were multiple versions of the drama, I figured it couldn't be that bad. Besides, I heard the chemistry between the leads was wonderful. With that in mind, I embarked on the 36 episode journey called "You Are My Destiny". After the first few episodes, it was apparent that my misgivings of the drama were misplaced. There were so many things to love. The characters, themes, OST, acting, and chemistry are all very solid. Not a single character was perfect, but they were all endearing nonetheless. However, by the last quarter of the drama, I started to notice that it was rapidly losing momentum due to dragginess and dumb scenarios. Not only were the leads in completely different countries, but they were also distanced from each other due to a huge misunderstanding that could have been solved in a few words. All of a sudden, the plot started to rapidly deteriorate from what it had once been.

Let's start with the good things. The drama started out very strong. At the beginning, the pacing was perfect, and there was a good mix of sweet moments and interesting plot developments. I could feel the chemistry between the leads radiating off the screen. They seemed very comfortable with each other and acted very well. Not only were the leads wonderful and intriguing, but all of the supporting characters were also very well developed. Not a single character was ignored. It was so easy to fall in love with all of them. The OST was also one of my favorites. I loved the the song "You Are My Destiny" by Ding Dang. The song is just so meaningful. Ding Dang's voice was great for the song, and it was written to fit the drama perfectly. There were some very good themes and changes from the norm as well. The most obvious one is that the leads are forced together by an accidental pregnancy. I had expected the male lead to be the typical brooding, narcissistic CEO type that looked down on people who didn't have heaps of money lying around. However, the male lead never looked down on the female lead and even encouraged her to be more confident in herself, saying that even the plainest people had their own strengths. He never held the fact that she was a common worker over her head. I was also very relieved that he didn't pressure the female lead into giving up the baby.

By far, the most unpleasant part of the drama was the fourth quarter. At the climax of the drama, many crazy things happened. All of the characters started to act up and became unbearable to watch. Even Dylan, the sweet, sunshine-y second lead, became absolutely terrible, and my prior good impression of him went right down the drain. Everyone acted like small children and went backwards on their character development. The leads were in completely different countries and had a misunderstanding that made them resent each other, so they did not get many scenes together. When they did get scenes, they were yelling at each other or one of them was pretending to be someone else. I would've been able to suffer through these excruciatingly boring scenes and still maintain a high 8.5-9.5 rating if the ending hadn't been so rushed. It was so abrupt and awkward that it left no closure at all. I still can't believe that the second female lead understood her flaws ten minutes before the end of the drama and solved everything over text. It was so stupidly unbelievable that I'm quite convinced that even I, an amateur wannabe writer who sucks at writing coherent reviews, can write a more complete ending than that. It was absolutely distasteful how we got a whopping TEN minutes of "happy ending" after a buildup that took about 4 or 5 episodes to bring it there.

I guess the main takeaway here is that "You Are My Destiny" is a drama that starts out without cliches or flaws but slowly turns into a train wreck. I do not regret watching it because there were so many beautiful moments and lovely characters that brightened up my life, but I am disappointed at how quickly it turned itself into a mess. I am glad I watched this and discovered two more wonderful actors to add to my Favorites list, Liang Jie and Xing Zhaolin. I would not advise people to stay away from it necessarily, but please keep in mind that the ending might not be satisfactory, and it is a good idea to watch the second half at 2x speed because they will drag like crazy.

Read More

A very misleading premise yet quite interesting watch

When I first read the premise of My Dear Lady, I was led to believe that this drama would be a fresh new take on relationships and love, but I was disappointed to find that it was very much the same as most. Despite being slightly disappointed, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit. There were lots of problems with the story and inconsistencies with the characters, but I was able to ignore it if I didn't let my brain get in the way of things. The characters are really funny, the story is cliche in a refreshing way, and the OST was very beautiful.

Story 7/10
The story was where I had the most qualms. Ling Xunxun (Jiang Mengjie) is a formerly attractive, intelligent woman who has experienced a fall from grace. Now, she has become a divorced woman who lost custody of her six or seven year old child. She hasn't worked in seven years but is suddenly forced to work as a personal assistant for Cheng Li (Liu Te), a domineering CEO, after she crashes into his extremely expensive car. Sounds interesting, no? I admit it had so much potential, but the execution resembled most modern Cdramas instead of bringing anything new to the table. Even though the FL was 29 years old and had previously been married, she still acted very naive and sometimes very illogical. The male lead, age 23, was still the same typical, cold, seemingly heartless CEO that thaws just for the FL. He later becomes a somewhat bratty, naive childlike thing that is both interesting and annoying. I thought the FL's child would bring some interesting situations to the drama, but the child was barely there and felt way more like a plot convenience to pull in and out whenever the producers saw fit. However, if I put these problems in the back of my mind, I was still able to enjoy it. For people who don't really mind seeing the same cliches and character types over and over, it's still a very fluffy, cute drama. There are a lot of sweet scenes and comedy sprinkled throughout. It is shorter than most Cdramas and never drags noticeably, so it was quite easy for me to finish over a few days. I never felt that it was a chore to finish, unlike with other dramas, so despite my initial disappointment, I was still pretty happy with it. Overall, the plot just wasn't that special and didn't do justice to the amazing, interesting premise that they set up, but that shouldn't stop most people from being able to find something they liked about it.

Characters and Acting 8/10
The characters overall were quite funny and the acting was well done. I had absolutely no prior knowledge of the cast and therefore had zero expectations. As I stated before, Jiang Mengjie portrayed the FL, Ling Xunxun, as a naive and inexperienced child. I found it really hard to believe that she had actually had experience in love and was the mother of a child. She was a housewife for seven years but had no clue how to cook. However, I was able to convince myself not to think too much about it. Even though her character was really inconsistent with her background, Mengjie did her part very well considering what she was given. Liu Te also portrayed his character well. He was a young CEO suffering from PTSD over an incident he is unable to remember. I was pleasantly surprised by Liu Te's ability to portray his character as a serious, cold businessman and still radiate the energy of a boyish, inexperienced boy who was afraid of the dark. I didn't enjoy the chemistry between any of the couples. Because the FL started out as the personal assistant of the ML and tasked with feeding him, driving him to work, vacuuming, and cleaning, the dynamic between them felt like mother and child. This feeling had absolutely NOTHING to do with their age gap and everything to do with the way they treat each other. In the bloopers they show after each episode, it seems like the two of them were very comfortable with each other and had a lot of chemistry, but onscreen it wasn't felt as much. The second leads were absolutely torturous to watch. I hated seeing them together and begged the writers to have them not end up together. Their relationship had no chemistry whatsoever and through their acting, it was hard to believe that they had been friends for over ten years.

Production 9/10
I think the production was quite good. I liked how well done the sets were, the ML's house by far being my favorite. The OST was very beautiful and catchy. I was pleasantly surprised that the entire opening song was in English, which I hadn't seen before. I also really enjoyed the other songs that played throughout the show and go back to them often.

Final Recommendation
Even though this drama intends to bring a different sort of take on relationships, it fails to do so in a very meaningful way, which can be disappointing for people who were anticipating it, like me, but for people who are just looking for a fluffy romance, it is a pretty relaxing and adorable thing to watch. The characters and situations will definitely keep you entertained.

Read More

a fluffy, somewhat plotless filler drama

Intense Love was a drama that didn't give off a lasting, meaningful impression, but it was a great watch regardless. Though the story did not resonate that deeply with me and will likely be forgotten in a matter of days, it helped me pass the time and get my mind off of things, and I do not regret clicking it when it appeared on my Youtube recommendations.

Note: I wish MDL gave more settings for whether or not there were spoilers in the review. In my opinion, there are no big spoilers ahead. It confirms things that people who are watching should already be anticipating, but it shouldn't be a problem and doesn't reveal anything that should come as a huge surprise.

Story 7/10
In terms of plot, the drama was not all that special. It's a typical celebrity/non celebrity love story where the female lead (Su Jinbei) starts out hating the aloof, seemingly cold hearted male lead (Zhou Shiyun) but slowly starts to fall for him. I watched the entire thing at 2x speed and felt that if I skipped 15 minutes of the drama, I would most likely miss nothing important. There were a lot of little things about the plot that annoyed me, and I especially hated how they used the second doctor, Xiao Yuansong, as a plot device. It was also super confusing to distinguish when Su Jinbei hated Zhou Shiyun to when she changed her mind. I could not tell when she was disgusted with him from when she loved him. That made it super confusing and unconvincing for me, but that could be because I abused the skip button a little too much. Even though the plot wasn't that deep, it is possible to extract meaning from it. I loved their emphasis on the media and fame and how they were able to portray it as both positive and negative. Su Jinbei used her fame as a way to connect with others and promote important projects while Gao Zitong used it as a way to slander others for her own benefit. Zhou Shiyun's sister was influenced by her idol so much that she wanted to hurt Su Jinbei's relationship with her brother, but she later became a better person through knowing her idol on a personal level.

Characters and Acting 9/10
The characters are what made this drama so enjoyable for me. That being said, let's start with something negative. I decided to watch Intense Love after being low-key unable to get over Ding Yuxi's other drama, The Romance of Tiger and Rose, and while I know that comparing the two dramas themselves against each other is unfair, I felt that Ding Yuxi's acting in this drama was much less captivating than it was in The Romance of Tiger and Rose. To be fair, that was probably because the character was written to have a lot less depth than The Romance of Tiger and Rose's Han Shuo. I just couldn't really feel his character as much here. Zhou Shiyun was a character that rarely talked or expressed his emotions, and Ding Yuxi's acting seemed to be quite stiff in his role. I wasn't convinced that his character actually cared for Su Jinbei that much. However, the female lead made up for all of the coldness that I felt from his character. Zhang Yuxi played her role of Su Jinbei admirably. The comment section was filled with people saying that they found her character cringeworthy, but I found her to be adorable. She balanced out her character, making it seem like even though Su Jinbei could be overdramatic, people could still relate to her feelings and find her to be funny. Still, I must say that I never really felt much for Su Jinbei and Zhou Shiyun's relationship and preferred the two side couples to them. The side characters were extremely well written and often took the spotlight off of the main characters for me. I absolutely loved the character arc of the ML's sister. It was amazing how she transformed from an annoying, spoiled brat into a mature, considerate adult. The two friends of the leads were also so entertaining. I loved the dynamic of their relationship so much and found myself waiting for their scenes more than that of the leads.

Production (OST, Sound, Sets) 8.5/10
The production was pretty good. The sets were very pretty, and it was cool how all of the houses fit the characters' personalities. I did find some weird errors. There was a really weird hand that showed up in the corner of the screen when the leads were in a house, and I was super confused. The dubbing was quite good. Sometimes it did not keep up with the video, but most of the time it went completely unnoticed, which I am extremely glad for. I do not think that the OST was anything that special. I remember finding it pleasant when it played but did not find it memorable.

Overall 8.5/10
Overall, I thought this drama was very fun to watch while multitasking. I laughed a lot and fell in love with (almost) all of the characters. Even though it was slightly problematic, that can all be forgiven because it's not really meant to be taken seriously. It's not going to impact me heavily or change the way I live my life, but it was quite nice.

Read More

Skate Into Love is a beautifully written and executed drama that left a deep impression on me. Not only does it showcase three different types of ice sports and demonstrate their uniqueness, it also teaches a lot of very important lessons to take in life. Throughout the forty episodes, each and every character grew a lot as a person, learning new things and making better choices. Personally, I found this a very enjoyable drama that enabled me to learn a lot about ice sports and chasing dreams.
The premise of the drama was very interesting to me. I love watching hate to love dramas because I enjoy seeing how the couple's relationship progresses throughout the drama. Though at some points, the plot dragged quite noticeably, and certain characters got way more screen time than I wished, for the most part there was a lot of content that kept me interested. I'm the type that loves to ship couples, and there was a very intense love pentagon that was super intriguing, and there were so many couples to ship. I loved waiting for the couples to get together and watching all of the fluffiness that came out of it. The directors had a way of making each episode very funny and lighthearted while also squeezing in serious topics like mental health, physical wellbeing, and trust.
Steven Zhang and Janice Wu had undoubtedly amazing chemistry. They played their roles very well and I did not, even for a moment, find myself struggling to believe their roles. The supporting roles were also casted perfectly. From appearance to personality, I felt that each of the characters fit their roles effortlessly. Each character was so well written, carrying their own flaws and quirks that made you either root for them or hope they fell into a very dark hole and never got out :P I understand completely when other people say that some of the characters are annoying. For example, I've seen a lot of complaints about Janice Wu's character, but while I felt some of that as well, I think it was quite realistic. People are hypocritical sometimes, and they do what they think is best for themselves and others. Sometimes it's the wrong decision. While Janice's character was problematic at times, I found that realistic and made me like her more.
The OST was absolutely beautiful. Nothing more needs to be said. It was amazing and appropriate.
I don't really rewatch things just because I don't have the patience for it and I have way too much on my PTW list for my liking, so while it is unlikely for me to rewatch the whole thing but there are many parts that I would love to see again.

Read More

Warning: this review is not very well written and mostly for my own entertainment and there are MAJOR spoilers so here’s my recommendation for those of you who are wondering whether or not to watch this: The story is has a very strong start and great acting, but it is not a serious watch. It’s a good thing to play in the background when you’re studying or something. The story is pretty disappointing but you’ll have a good laugh, and the chemistry is very strong. Hope that helped. You can continue to read at your discretion.

My Girlfriend Is An Alien deals with a very creative, unique concept. An alien who’s attracted to hormones meets a man who can’t remember females after huge storms. At first, this drama was amazing. It was fluffy, sweet, and full of interesting characters. Xiaoqi was so adorably shameless, Fang Leng had such a romantic heart, Fang Lie’s friendship with Xiaoqi was so endearing, and even Jiang Xue was kind of intriguing. The first half of the story set me up with really high expectations.

However! (Messy writing and spoilers here)

After the second rainfall, things start to go downhill. Suddenly, Fang Leng becomes a completely different person, and all four of the main leads start to undergo changes that make them become really annoying. Xiaoqi’s obsession with her annunciator causes her to use and ignore Fang Leng, who clearly cares about her so much. Toward the end, even after reciprocating his feelings, she still acts so selfishly without ever thinking about him. I get that she’s an alien, but it’s not a strong enough excuse for how she acted. Fang Leng, right after losing his memory, treats everybody like dirt (this I can kind of understand, but still). Fang Lie falls in love with Xiaoqi, which was one of the biggest disappointments of the drama, and Jiang Xue gets scarily clingy to Fang Leng despite him telling her on multiple occasions that he is not interested, which is honestly so many levels of creepy. All of these changes in the characters made it really hard to continue.

Yet I still wanted to finish the drama, so I ended up watching ep 20 and on at 2x the speed while doing other things.

After finishing the drama, I can see why it has such high ratings, but it wasn’t my cup of tea. I can safely say that while it got dull and boring toward the end, the actors and actresses played their parts really well. The acting was by far the best part of the show. All of the actors played their parts so convincingly, especially Hsu Thassapak. The side characters were also all very sweet (and less problematic, except Allen of course), and I liked them so much. Assistant Han and Doctor Zhang were some of the best sidekicks, and Chai jie was such a quirky character. And even though Xiao Bu’s advice was kinda iffy, he was pretty cute too.

As for rewatch value, I don’t know. I might come visit a few episodes of this drama again, but I don’t think that will be in the near future.

Thanks for reading

Read More

I think this drama had a lot of high points and low points, but overall it was a pretty good watch. The story is about a model, named Eva, with a "balloon disease", which makes her unable to eat past a certain amount of calories without ballooning up in weight. The male lead, Ruan Dongsheng, is a famous chef with an inability to taste. He was Eva's crush in high school but due to a misunderstanding, she now hates him. I think the message of this drama is really sweet. When Eva was still a high schooler, she was humiliated badly for her weight, which caused her to have very low self confidence. She always feared people would find out what she truly looked like. However, through reuniting with him as an adult, Eva learns to be more confident in herself.

I'd never watched a drama with any of these actors or actresses before, so going in, I didn't have many expectations for it in terms of acting, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well they acted. I especially loved Luo Yiren's character and her contrasting personalities. I think the message that she conveys is very powerful and was surprised to find that this was her first main role. The chemistry between the two main leads was also very strong, and it felt very believable and sweet.

The OST was one of the most beautiful I've heard. The opening theme, "Colorful", is so catchy and uplifting, and the song that the main character sings, "So In Love", is also very beautiful.

The disease can often be off-putting at times, and there were parts that were noticeably draggy. The main character definitely made some really questionable choices when it came to her relationship with Ruan Dongsheng, but overall, it was a really sweet drama that will give you cavities :D

Read More