This movie is a new adaptation of the well-know "Itazura na kiss" story. I have seen quite a few of those, the first one being the Taiwanese drama with its two seasons which will always probably the best to my eyes, for sentimental reasons. The story in itself might seem simple and cliché as it is centred around the one-sided crush of air-headed Yuan Xiang Qin toward cold genius Jiang Zhi Shu but there are a lot of elements being it. That is why despite the plot being very straightforward in itself, I must say that it seems like a daunting task to try to adapt this story into a movie, and it was done in a not too shabby way, it just cannot hold a candle to some of the other adaptations I have seen in my opinion.

There are just too much to say in not enough time. The story has very little time to be told given the movie format and therefore it feel a bit like if the film tries to tick a maximum of the box (comedy, romance, more emotional points...) but without having the time to build up really on any of it. There are a bit too much of slapstick and heavy comedy for me given the length of the film and the secondary characters are not exploited well enough. They do not have that much screen time and it felt a bit lacklustre (or ultra-irritating in the case of the role of Zhi Shu's Mother).

In terms of performance of the actors, I found that the male and female leads were both matching quite well the characters. I appreciated their acting in the more emotional and dramatic scenes where they did a suitable job but was less impressed by their comedic scenes. There was also not that much chemistry between them and the pace of their relationship is so fast that it makes it less believable. The secondary cast was mostly disappointing at best and really annoying at worst depending on the role played.

Despite those flaws, there a lot of the classical important moments of the romance that are present and provides some satisfactory moments overall (due possibly from my side to a strong nostalgy). There is just enough modernization of the plot and the set up to allow the story to fit better the current time and remain relevant as a teen rom-com. There is seemingly a lot of care that has been put in the filmmaking with a lot of vibrant colours, which make the overall vibe very rom-com colour-coded and charming.

I would recommend this to people that are looking for a rom-com movie with a forced proximity trope between a genius, rich and cold male lead and an innocent, air-headed and clingy female lead. It is quite stereotypical and it has be done so many time, but it is still entertaining. If you have seen previous adaptations, you might find yourself disappointed like me as a lot was forsaken for the sake of brevity. If you are new to the story, you might no see as many flaws and be able to enjoy it for what it is: a cute and likely not that memorable romance.