anopinion
Pittsburgh, PA
This review may contain spoilers
Top visuals in a sweet romance drama
Gu Man is pretty well-known for being a hit generator. All her previous works like Boss and Me, O2O and You Are My Sunshine were wildly popular in Mainland China. I won't say that I'm a fan of Gu. I've only read You Are My Glory out of all her novels, and I've only finished Boss and Me and YAMG out of all her drama adaptations. The only reason why I even read YAMG was because the casting news leaked. I will confess that Gu's writing style does not particularly appeal to me. Frankly speaking, I was curious and also apprehensive how everything will translate to screen given the length of the story dedicated to gaming and reactions of netizens. To be brutally honest, I feel that Gu Man is an okay writer, but she's not a great scriptwriter.
The major minuses I see are: 1. extension of the gaming and aerospace engineering plot lines which did not contribute to the pace nor story development (I liked the ending though), 2. inability to fill up blanks in the novel dialogues and insufficient visual direction, 3. stereotypical portrayal of the entertainment industry. The gaming part was fine, because I do game a little, so I get the gist of what was being said, but the aerospace engineering aspect was a snooze fest. There are parts of Yu Tu's career story which I just fast forwarded through and will never go back and watch again. I applaud Gu's dedication to make the story as professional as possible, and stuff like electromagnetic interference are basic Physics concepts that most people can probably understand. She's also careful to not make Yu Tu look like the smartest person in the lab. Objectively this isn't bad, but it's just boring, and boring cannot be helped. Also, if you noticed, the script is almost a mirror reflection of the novel, but there are some parts which are awkward and needs more dialogue to fill up the interactions. It's okay to have blanks in your novels, but it's not okay to have them in a drama. Even Pan Yueming was sort of awkward in some scenes because the interactions weren't fully fleshed out.
Still, I like the story overall. I liked how there is almost no angst, I liked how the love story was slow burn, and I liked the ending. I think the launch at the ending was what the drama needed, not whatever she added in the middle. I liked the characterisations as well. Yu Tu is actually a very typical Gu Man male lead, a smart and handsome classmate/school senior (who happens to be facing some life decisions). Qiao Jingjing is a stronger female lead than the kind Gu usually writes. She's successful, confident, smart, brave and straightforward. She knows what she wants, and she is also very perceptive. I also think Gu has a knack for writing sweet snippets and witty dialogues, but in a way it's also a slight negative because some may find that the show is not as eventful as what they may like.
On to the cast. I've actually written a few posts on what I think of the leads. Just a disclaimer, I really like the two of them. I think they are beautiful and they can make me watch anything (the two of them, one isn't enough). However, I don't think they are great actors. This is especially evident in the first half of the drama. I've said it before, sometimes Dilraba doesn't give me the emotion I expect or she gives something less. Yang Yang was just extremely stiff at the start, and I was disappointed in his scenes with Guan Zai as well as his mentor in the restaurant.
As the show moved on though, both of them got a lot better. Dilraba is very comfortable with cute and bright roles and when she wants to be she's just the most adorable person ever. Yang Yang is okay when he's not being emo. He was very good during the second proposal scene as well. I was also surprised however with Dilraba's speech delivery, because in the trailer her voice was a little too soft at times, but she's really good in the drama. Yang Yang swallows his words a lot though, and you can hear how he links his syllables in the scene where he drove Jingjing around at the launch site. It's a little hard to get used to two words becoming one and I think he needs to cut out on that habit. Despite my gripes, the cast was the best thing that happened to this drama, because they fit the characters to a T. They also have brilliant chemistry. I don't know why there are people saying otherwise, but they complemented each other perfectly.
Overall, it's a sweet romance drama with an exceptionally beautiful cast and great rewatch value (I rarely rewatch dramas). You'll find yourself going back to replay their interactions over and over again.
The major minuses I see are: 1. extension of the gaming and aerospace engineering plot lines which did not contribute to the pace nor story development (I liked the ending though), 2. inability to fill up blanks in the novel dialogues and insufficient visual direction, 3. stereotypical portrayal of the entertainment industry. The gaming part was fine, because I do game a little, so I get the gist of what was being said, but the aerospace engineering aspect was a snooze fest. There are parts of Yu Tu's career story which I just fast forwarded through and will never go back and watch again. I applaud Gu's dedication to make the story as professional as possible, and stuff like electromagnetic interference are basic Physics concepts that most people can probably understand. She's also careful to not make Yu Tu look like the smartest person in the lab. Objectively this isn't bad, but it's just boring, and boring cannot be helped. Also, if you noticed, the script is almost a mirror reflection of the novel, but there are some parts which are awkward and needs more dialogue to fill up the interactions. It's okay to have blanks in your novels, but it's not okay to have them in a drama. Even Pan Yueming was sort of awkward in some scenes because the interactions weren't fully fleshed out.
Still, I like the story overall. I liked how there is almost no angst, I liked how the love story was slow burn, and I liked the ending. I think the launch at the ending was what the drama needed, not whatever she added in the middle. I liked the characterisations as well. Yu Tu is actually a very typical Gu Man male lead, a smart and handsome classmate/school senior (who happens to be facing some life decisions). Qiao Jingjing is a stronger female lead than the kind Gu usually writes. She's successful, confident, smart, brave and straightforward. She knows what she wants, and she is also very perceptive. I also think Gu has a knack for writing sweet snippets and witty dialogues, but in a way it's also a slight negative because some may find that the show is not as eventful as what they may like.
On to the cast. I've actually written a few posts on what I think of the leads. Just a disclaimer, I really like the two of them. I think they are beautiful and they can make me watch anything (the two of them, one isn't enough). However, I don't think they are great actors. This is especially evident in the first half of the drama. I've said it before, sometimes Dilraba doesn't give me the emotion I expect or she gives something less. Yang Yang was just extremely stiff at the start, and I was disappointed in his scenes with Guan Zai as well as his mentor in the restaurant.
As the show moved on though, both of them got a lot better. Dilraba is very comfortable with cute and bright roles and when she wants to be she's just the most adorable person ever. Yang Yang is okay when he's not being emo. He was very good during the second proposal scene as well. I was also surprised however with Dilraba's speech delivery, because in the trailer her voice was a little too soft at times, but she's really good in the drama. Yang Yang swallows his words a lot though, and you can hear how he links his syllables in the scene where he drove Jingjing around at the launch site. It's a little hard to get used to two words becoming one and I think he needs to cut out on that habit. Despite my gripes, the cast was the best thing that happened to this drama, because they fit the characters to a T. They also have brilliant chemistry. I don't know why there are people saying otherwise, but they complemented each other perfectly.
Overall, it's a sweet romance drama with an exceptionally beautiful cast and great rewatch value (I rarely rewatch dramas). You'll find yourself going back to replay their interactions over and over again.
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