Stay for the acting, don't expect much realism
Love Scenery is a great rom-com drama. What it lacks in cohesive flow of the plot and realism is saved by the top notch acting of the Lead actors Lin Yi and Lulu Xu. Lin Yi's performance in particular impressed me. I was already gaping at his acting skills in Put Your Head On My Shoulder, especially considering it was his first drama ever. 2 years later, he returns with vengeance, further honing his acting skills. Every facial expression was believable. He has started to gain some more subtleties that he previously did not have in his earlier drama, paying more attention to small details. His line delivery was spot on too. Additionally, Lin Yi's acting in playing the violin is one of the more convincing ones I've scene in a drama so I must commend him for that. He also managed to play a James Bond-ish kind of role in the actions scenes convincingly, which suggests potential versatility that he can explore in his later roles. It is the first drama I have watched with Lulu Xu as a main role, and I was quite impressed with her overall. While I do think Lin Yi outshined her in this drama, she definitely held her own, especially in the more emotional and comedic scenes. I do think that her eyes sometimes lacked the passion and desired expression for the scene and her lipsyncing, especially in the earlier singing bits was too fake and unconvincing. But she delivered quite well overall. The two leads had good chemistry although I do think that Lin Yi was more passionate in the romantic scenes while Lulu Xi sometimes gave the dead fish eye look. Most of the side actors were good but their characters can be annoying to watch.
On the other hand, the story was quite a mess. It tried to be too many things at once. I feel like the writers tried to make Lu Jing too much of an all rounder. We only got to see him play the violin twice yet they put him with a violin in the cover. In reality, for most of the drama he was either coding or playing computer games, which totally gave the wrong idea. How deceitful. In addition, the scene in the beginning where Liang Chen and Lu Jing first met was never revisited and it felt wrong to include the scene without referencing back to it at least in the end when they were already together. I also feel like there was too little scenes which allowed for character development for pretty much all the characters except Liang Chen. Lu Jing only had a couple of scenes where he made mistakes and developed from it. The producers took too much time in the earlier episodes to finally get them together and it felt quite draggish. Some scenes felt unnecessary, too the point I would be screaming in frustration, "When will they get together already?". However, the second half was paced much better and better executed. Besides the random plane incident which was totally unnecessary, it was great. The drama tried to be realistic but at the same time does not remain faithful to its supposed realism at times. There were too many moments where the 2 of them could have been caught yet they didn't which frustrated me to no end. Incidents which are a 1 in a million chance happened to often in this drama. It felt too unreal. The plot simply was not cohesive until the last 10 ish episodes.
The Music was excellent. One of my favorites from any drama I have ever watched (and usually I do not like Chinese drama OSTs so this is high praised).
Because of the number of skippable scenes in this drama especially in the first half, the rewatch value lowered quite a bit from what I would want to put. The second half has a lot more rewatchable scenes and romantic moments, though the first half was more on the funnier side.
Overall, it was a good drama, especially towards the end. Worth watching, but not really for the story. More on the romance. It is a shame though. If handled better, the story could have been amazing. Add a touch more realism(of everything basically), cohesiveness of plot, conciseness (remove unnecessary scenes), develop more underdeveloped traits (violin?) then you would have a rom-com with the perfect balance of romance and a great story line. It was getting there but it never reached the peak.
On the other hand, the story was quite a mess. It tried to be too many things at once. I feel like the writers tried to make Lu Jing too much of an all rounder. We only got to see him play the violin twice yet they put him with a violin in the cover. In reality, for most of the drama he was either coding or playing computer games, which totally gave the wrong idea. How deceitful. In addition, the scene in the beginning where Liang Chen and Lu Jing first met was never revisited and it felt wrong to include the scene without referencing back to it at least in the end when they were already together. I also feel like there was too little scenes which allowed for character development for pretty much all the characters except Liang Chen. Lu Jing only had a couple of scenes where he made mistakes and developed from it. The producers took too much time in the earlier episodes to finally get them together and it felt quite draggish. Some scenes felt unnecessary, too the point I would be screaming in frustration, "When will they get together already?". However, the second half was paced much better and better executed. Besides the random plane incident which was totally unnecessary, it was great. The drama tried to be realistic but at the same time does not remain faithful to its supposed realism at times. There were too many moments where the 2 of them could have been caught yet they didn't which frustrated me to no end. Incidents which are a 1 in a million chance happened to often in this drama. It felt too unreal. The plot simply was not cohesive until the last 10 ish episodes.
The Music was excellent. One of my favorites from any drama I have ever watched (and usually I do not like Chinese drama OSTs so this is high praised).
Because of the number of skippable scenes in this drama especially in the first half, the rewatch value lowered quite a bit from what I would want to put. The second half has a lot more rewatchable scenes and romantic moments, though the first half was more on the funnier side.
Overall, it was a good drama, especially towards the end. Worth watching, but not really for the story. More on the romance. It is a shame though. If handled better, the story could have been amazing. Add a touch more realism(of everything basically), cohesiveness of plot, conciseness (remove unnecessary scenes), develop more underdeveloped traits (violin?) then you would have a rom-com with the perfect balance of romance and a great story line. It was getting there but it never reached the peak.
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