Sarifael
USA
Being critical, this is not my normal kind of show and I must admit that I don't particularly want to watch another one like it, but this one, on its own, was fine. The main couple is boring apart from Yang Yang's character having a cringey sense of humor. The two leads are simply too perfect and bland to care about apart from their looks.
The supporting cast steal the show, particularly Niu Jun Feng as Yu Ban Shan and Zheng Ye Cheng as Hao Mei. Also, I found myself wishing the Rachel Mao's character Er Xi was the female lead. She was way more interesting despite being annoying half the time. That being said, I did watch until the very end.
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Both main couples did have cute chemistry at first, but after so many episodes I felt like I was watching repeats of the same moments and they lost their charm. Relationship building was all over the place, too fast and too slow at the wrong times.
After awhile, it dawned on me that the main girls really bored me. Nana lost her spunk after a sadly short time. Really, she left her personality on the cruise ship. She had potential!! Later when basically on a dates-not-dates with Qingyang, she brings up her mother over and over and over and over again. I get it. Your mother meant everything to you, but if you want the boy you have to stop talking about her so much. No guy wants his relationship with the girl he likes to be about her mom. Honestly, I think Qingyang ends up knowing more about Nana's mother than he does about Nana herself.
And Pi Yanuo...she had no personality from the get go. Her character exists entirely for Zifeng with no interests and no goals that aren't his. She's basically the blank slate female main who is there so the viewer can imagine herself/himself dating Baron Chen. Strong female protagonist she most definitely is not.
They are also unbelievably innocent. Don't let the "mob boss" description fool you. Hansheng is the only one who would last a day in a triad family. And the fight scenes...it's clear from the very first episode he's introduced that the "villain" is no match whatsoever on any level. Nothing is keeping Yanuo and Zifeng from happiness except for Yanuo who doesn't seem to be bothered by it much.
Zerhui, the vet, might as well not exist at all for all the effect he has on anything. He only serves as a disposable meat shield so the viewer has a reason to see Hansheng as anything worse than a guy with a bad attitude and inferiority complex.
Edison Wang as Hansheng (who I like to call "Abs" and sometimes "Smirk") and Amanda Chou as Xiao Jing (who I call "Best Girl") are the scene stealers of this show each with unfortunately little screen time. They are the only characters who move the story forward. Otherwise, it stagnates in the waters of overly-long, bland discussions about vague feelings, memories, and staring off with sad eyes into a pretty landscape.
Another thing that bothered me was that the cast more than once referred to Guang Chao as ugly--and Johnny Yang is far from ugly. It made me shake my head and say "are you blind or just stupid?" and unfortunately I think stupid is the answer.
However, all that aside, I did enjoy it for the awkward, if not forced, comedy until about episode 9. Afterward, I ended up skipping to Hansheng and Xiao Jing scenes because absolutely nothing happens in this drama without them instigating it.
A good note, Bii contributed some beautiful songs to the soundtrack. I wouldn't download and listen to them on their own, but they are well done, atmospheric songs.
Sounds harsh, but it wasn't terrible. It has its place, but it's not on my rewatch list for sure. There are much better mindless rom-coms I would rather watch for a third, fourth, and fifth time before pulling this up again. If you want cheese and some laugh out loud "wtf are you serious?" moments, this is your drama. If you want a compelling plot, think twice because you might get as bored as some of the characters look.
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