3
8
Danielle A
Somewhere Only We Know
This review may contain spoilers
“No need to massacre the ducks”
This drama is about chasing your dreams. The female lead starts out in a job she never wanted but accepted in the hopes it would lead her to her dream career. While she eventually reaches her ultimate career goal and then some, her road to achievement is not a smooth one.
What I expected from this drama was the age-old story of a cold CEO and his secretary and their love-hate relationship love story. However, romance really isn’t a major theme here. Yes, there is a romantic tension that slowly builds between the FL and ML but if you’re looking for a tried and true romance, I doubt this will scratch that itch.
With that being said, I was surprised at how captivated I was by Ning Meng’s (FL) build to success. She is smart and capable. In this story, she is the hero. It was refreshing to watch a FL be completely capable of holding her own. Yes, Lu Ming (ML) did provide guidance but Ning Meng's capabilities go beyond what the ML could do for her and her clients.
Lu Ming is a sour patch. One minute he was sour and the next minute he was sweet. There were times I really felt he needed to be slapped. However, his character gets a face full of humble pie. On top of that, Ning Meng proves him wrong time and again. His character, in the end, is almost unrecognizable from the arrogant CEO at the beginning of this story.
One person that cannot go without being mentioned is the 2ML, Su Wei Ran. Su Wei Ran starts out as a kind familiar face from Ning Meng’s college years but as the story progresses we start to see that he is not the charming Senior Ning Ming once idolized. Self-diagnosed as damaged by his last relationship where his college sweetheart cheated on him and ultimately left him for a wealthy man, Su Wei Ran is protective of his relationship with Ning Meng and jealous of her ex-boss Lu Ming. What I appreciated about his character and how he was portrayed is that he wasn’t immediately abusive. There was a steady development in his abuse. He showered Ning Meng was flowers and kind words but you could see him steadily getting more and more agitated with Ning Meng’s closeness to Lu Ming.
What bothered me about this relationship was how easy it was for Ning Meng to get out of it. She simply broke up with him after things escalated to the point of getting physical. Furthermore, he simply let her walk away from him. For how emotionally unstable he had shown to be, I was surprised at how uneventful the breakup was. I feel that his character at that time would have been much more desperate to hold onto her. He kept saying how important she was to him feeling like his old self and he was determined to “win” and be better than Lu Ming. I don’t feel that an abuser like him would have been able to let her go that easily.
Overall, very good. Again, as someone who prefers romantic dramas, I was surprised that a drama like this with almost no romance and a lot of business held my interest. I think that goes to show how interesting the story is and how well the actors portrayed their roles.
Would Recommend
Probably Will Not Rewatch
What I expected from this drama was the age-old story of a cold CEO and his secretary and their love-hate relationship love story. However, romance really isn’t a major theme here. Yes, there is a romantic tension that slowly builds between the FL and ML but if you’re looking for a tried and true romance, I doubt this will scratch that itch.
With that being said, I was surprised at how captivated I was by Ning Meng’s (FL) build to success. She is smart and capable. In this story, she is the hero. It was refreshing to watch a FL be completely capable of holding her own. Yes, Lu Ming (ML) did provide guidance but Ning Meng's capabilities go beyond what the ML could do for her and her clients.
Lu Ming is a sour patch. One minute he was sour and the next minute he was sweet. There were times I really felt he needed to be slapped. However, his character gets a face full of humble pie. On top of that, Ning Meng proves him wrong time and again. His character, in the end, is almost unrecognizable from the arrogant CEO at the beginning of this story.
One person that cannot go without being mentioned is the 2ML, Su Wei Ran. Su Wei Ran starts out as a kind familiar face from Ning Meng’s college years but as the story progresses we start to see that he is not the charming Senior Ning Ming once idolized. Self-diagnosed as damaged by his last relationship where his college sweetheart cheated on him and ultimately left him for a wealthy man, Su Wei Ran is protective of his relationship with Ning Meng and jealous of her ex-boss Lu Ming. What I appreciated about his character and how he was portrayed is that he wasn’t immediately abusive. There was a steady development in his abuse. He showered Ning Meng was flowers and kind words but you could see him steadily getting more and more agitated with Ning Meng’s closeness to Lu Ming.
What bothered me about this relationship was how easy it was for Ning Meng to get out of it. She simply broke up with him after things escalated to the point of getting physical. Furthermore, he simply let her walk away from him. For how emotionally unstable he had shown to be, I was surprised at how uneventful the breakup was. I feel that his character at that time would have been much more desperate to hold onto her. He kept saying how important she was to him feeling like his old self and he was determined to “win” and be better than Lu Ming. I don’t feel that an abuser like him would have been able to let her go that easily.
Overall, very good. Again, as someone who prefers romantic dramas, I was surprised that a drama like this with almost no romance and a lot of business held my interest. I think that goes to show how interesting the story is and how well the actors portrayed their roles.
Would Recommend
Probably Will Not Rewatch
Was this review helpful to you?
