AnOnymousSam

Expectations vs Reality hits hard with "Never Ending Summer"....

This is my first review about a Drama, and I've been a fan of C-drama, K-Drama for about 4-5 years.

In the beginning I didn't care about how ridiculous the plot was, how irritating the script was, or how cringe the dialogues were, but over the time my preferences changed, I recently watched so many of masterpieces that my Bar was set to high( Hidden Love, First Frost, pursuit of jade, You are my fateful love, deep affection eyes, forever and ever, blossom, love between lines, Love in the clouds ....etc)

I also watched generation to generation , where I first discovered Bao Shang En, she was pretty and good at acting, so I was so excited about Never Ending summer, cuz both the leads looked stunning and had great visuals in the teasers, personally it was a 50:50 for me cuz I don't like fake sibling or step sibling type tropes at all, but here, it was not like that at all, the story was good in first half, the chemistry was fire, the acting was top notch and the music.....cherry on top.

The thing that disappointed me was the story and plot holes in the 2nd half, they could have gone with the original pacing of 1st half, if the episodes were 36 or something it would have perfect. The second half didn't do justice to many important parts of the story, The classic kidnapping, ML getting injured ( honestly, it would have been fine if they did it better), the family asking the FL to stay away from MC and she does so by hurting him, ( even this part was not done in a more convincing way, it felt shallow than feeling sad or painful, like they didn't make that build up , she just leaves after saying a few words, it's like all her rationality, intelligence gets null, okay, she promised ML's grandpa not to meet him so it's fine ok, but the ML's suffered a huge psychological backlash after she left him, and when he was dancing hallucinating about her, his friends were smiling , nobody was angry on the FL, like what bro your dear friend was hurt by a girl so bad that he hallucinates about her... Especially Gu Meng, I know she was FL's besty but, she also saw how hurt he was but she could really have some lines like " why did you do that" it would be like even the person close to the FL says it, so it would create a bigger impact, but instead no one ever said anything like that. Sure, the FL went through a lot of suffering, but she just gave up on someone who pulled her up like that.... And then in the ending ep she says she loved him from 2013,( what? That's the inconsistency I'm talking about). After the separation, when they meet again, FL didn't apologise properly nor the ML made her cry like he said he would if he saw her again, nor she felt how miserable he was because of her( it's shown a bit but you know it's pretty rushed and doesn't have the feeling of regret or loss etc ), she was forgiven like nothing ever happened ( not even forgiven, it's like she was just away and came back) there were some(one) moments where The ML sabotages her plans, but the next moment gets her on his team, lol, meanwhile, they didn't even show much of the BFF's relationship, I mean it was there but not, it felt incomplete, like there was so little of their story and screen time, honestly, their quarrel felt weird cuz we didn't see their actuall points for arguments and their shred moments etc. I also don't understand the real reson why or how they separated, the promise to grandpa or him taking that knife for her ? Both are ridiculous reason to me, they could have added a sequence of FL loved ones leaving or something like that, like she was afraid hell leave her too etc they could have had a build up like that since it happened anyhow, I wanted to see the tension between the FL and ML after they reunite, him making things hard for her while her thinking he's been doing fine without her, and ultimately realising the reason why he's like that, to facing him and properly explaining( even the grandpa thing was not resolved in the drama better) to apologising, and then the ML, forgiving the FL, something like that, and then there's Ml knowing about FL's father incident related to his father, when and how he knew, the whole revenge plot came out of nowhere, they seriously needed more episodes to fit all that info?an then again kidnapping part, wow.....and because of that, the ending feels so empty, like I should have felt like how they went through a lot to heal each other and fix the cracks of each others but the feeling was missing, again I will say the Acting and pairing was top Notch, the Ost was cherry on top, so you can check it out, it's a gem

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High budget but low Quality...

I was so excited for this drama, the teasers of ZLH and WC in those outfits were gorgeous, But when I actually got to watch it, I liked it for about 3 ep, and everything is meh after that. From the starting 3 episodes I thought I'd get a serius cold FL paired with a ruthless ML, but all we get is a puppy ML and a weak FL, I mean, why does he have to call her Su Su affectionately again and again, after all of that traumatic backstory and untrustworthy personality, he's still wagging his tail for FL when she betrayed his trust? And the FL, though it felt like she was ruthless with all those bloody wedding dress, and ruined clothing making others distrust ML, but then she gets back to feeling sorry, guilty for him WTH, what is this inconsistency? And when they were in the secret basement, ML should have hurt her with the knife, it would feel way good like in "Fated Hearts" it would show his ruthless side, and when they were escaping, ML could have just suddenly closed the door on her without saying anything, that scene would hit so hard, like it would show that he still cares for her even though he hates her/ angry with her but still would save her, but they went through cringey dialogues for 2 min which makes the situation so weird like they are running for life!!! and ML feels like a puppy starving for affection and the FL annoying with her sudden guilty tears..... Ughhhhhhhhh why why why..... There are many more things that I really hate and am to frustrated about.... Think about it, if they Did it right, they could have made it into a great slow-burn romance like this ----> ML, despite being wronged, understanding why she did that and still helping the FL achieve her goals(though not in a puppy way wagging it's tail way), and the cold FL who only considered revenge and thought ML is some privileged young master, now melting slowly through ML's sincerity in helping her( also noticing what he went through and what he experienced)

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