Pretty decent drama for having that many episodes

I know what you're thinking. 41 episodes, that seems a lot and bound to have a lot of troubles. Even I was concern too but in honest truth, it wasn't all that bad.

Before I continue with my review, I'm just going to pinpoint a couple of things about this drama and hopefully that will determine if you want to watch it or not.
1. If you're not a fan of the drama cliché of the leads meeting each other as kids, then you might as well skip this one. If you're not bother by it, then continue on. I considered this as a good drama cliché.
2. There are no evil parents or in-laws
3. There are a few misunderstandings, in the beginning and then right around Ep 31-32. However, these misunderstandings are cleared up pretty quickly, so if you're concern about long episode wait of solving the misunderstandings, you don't have to worry. The second misunderstanding doesn't lead to a break up but more of FL's concern and need of reassurance about ML's love for her.
4. Very minor love rival for our main couple. I said minor because the FL's rival doesn't show up until much later in the drama and even then, she's only in a few episodes but she is hecka annoying. There is a love triangle but that's within the secondary couple. There are 3 couples in total for this drama.
5. Some people may get annoyed by Yu Da, the guy that forms our 2nd couple and is part of the secondary love triangle. Either because of his actions or they seemly are rooting for the other guy in the love triangle. He doesn't really bother me but I can see the annoyance especially when it's with the SFL.
6. There is a main villain but it's more like the forming of a villain due to the greedy nature of wanting to win and to bring down the ML.

I personally like this drama overall and my rating of a 9 doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have the same opinion or taste as me. I gave this drama a rating of a 9 because for one, it's a 41 episode drama and I got to admit, it's actually pretty okay from start to finish for having that many episodes. There are some moments where it drags but that's what you expect with dramas this long. However, even with that, I still anticipate for the next episode so at least it kept me interested for the most part.

Story is nothing new here but it isn't bad either as the FL will play the key role to the ML's recovery process. This drama does a great balance on showing the GO competition and the building of relationships between our couples. Now there are some scenes where they do explain the movements of GO and how the play of this game works but not enough explanation for a newbie like me to understand. However, in replacement of that, the drama shows cool and awesome fighting scenes between our GO players to show who will win and I for one, really enjoy those cinematic scenes.

The one thing I wish that could've been better is at least having one of the character suspecting our villain throughout the drama. In terms of that aspect, the characters are too trusting which leads to the villain getting away with a lot of stuff until close to the end. Now the stuff he does just impacts the ML for the most part, as he is his main target so while his plans and actions are evil, there not as evil as other villains I've seen in other dramas. Also, I wasn't too fond of the secondary couple love triangle. That wasn't needed at all for this drama.

In summary, I'm very impressed with the quality of this drama being that it's 41 episodes. FL is a little bit annoying in the beginning but she's a strong character overall so that's a big plus for me. The drama OST for the intro and credit are amazing. I never skip it! It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I for one enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

Read More

A Web Drama That Leaves You Guessing From Start to Finish

If it's one thing I like about this drama, it's the amount of theories I had when watching this every week. Like literally, you couldn't tell the direction the writers are going. Just when you thought you figure it out, it changes to something different, which is great because being surprise about something is what makes a mystery drama so interesting.

The story overall was pretty good from start to finish. It's just that a lot of times, it's presented in a way where you have to think, process, and put the connection together on the events that happen in the past and how it ties to the present time. For me, there are some plot holes here and there, that I wish would've been explained better but what can you do when the episode length is about 20 to 25 mins per episode.

Loved the cast but the acting from the actors & actresses is a working progress. It's not the best but not bad either as their acting is watchable for me. I'm not gonna critique too harshly here on the account of it is a web drama and they got to start somewhere. But I do see potential in these cast members.

Great OST for this drama. Loved every music that was played in this drama.

And most of important of all, with a topic as heavy as this, I'm pretty sure all of us are glad this is a happy ending.

Read More

The first C-drama for me that I'm sad it's over

My first initial reaction when I saw this drama, "oh it's just another school drama where they eventually figure out their lives and go to college". I mean it's not wrong. It does follow this format but when you watch it, there's just something special about this drama compared to other high school dramas. To think I almost skip this one but seeing the clips of this drama, I was convinced and gave a try and I don't regret it.

Now the FL's character, Ding Xian is what I like to call a weak character in the beginning. She is shy but also a pushover, as she's afraid to speak her mind. You see why once you meet her mom. Ding Xian's mom is very irritating as it seems she wants to control her daughter on all of her decisions and that she only cares about her studies. We also see some of the mom's favoritism to Ding Xian's annoying little brother. All of these will lead to many not liking Ding Xian's mom. Do they both see character growth? Yes and thankfully it occurs early enough where you can watch this drama without problems later on.

The romance is cute and sweet for our lead couple. It's a steady buildup of their relationship. Though they weren't official until later on, you can tell as you progress each episode that they slowly start to have feelings for each other. I just love the amount of support the Si Yue had for Ding Xian because this is what she needed in order to grow. Also there's great friendship in this drama as well.

The music is just amazing and on point. For me, it's another highlight for this drama.

Downsides to this drama? Well their college years seemed lacking compared to the high school scenes. Like you may not even know they were in college if they didn't specify it in their lines. Friend #3 for Si Yue's friend and Ding Xian's friend lacked screen time. They are our third couple but their chemistry is a bit lacking because of the limited screen time for them. The last maybe 3 to 4 episodes seemed just out there. It's not bad but it just didn't flow as well for me compared to the other episodes.

But overall, this will still be considered one of my favorite C-dramas that I wouldn't mind rewatching.

Read More

A lot of time travel dramas these days tend to focus on one the leads going to the past and the whole drama is set around the past but this one takes the meaning of time travel in a different way.

For one, this drama actually shows the consequences of changing details of the past. Whether big or small, it has a big impact. I actually appreciate that and like this concept because most dramas just tend ignore this part, allowing for the one who time travel to do whatever they want.

This drama not just focuses on the past (2006) but also the present time (2019) as well. This can be a good and bad thing. The good is you see the effects of one's action in the past impacting the present time. You see the correlation of the main leads in the past and in the present time, how they both help each other out. Now the bad part, there are a lot of back and forth between the time period and a lot of times when they switch time period scenes, the scenes can be pretty random and not have any real purpose for the episode other than to fill in the minutes of the episode. For me, it started pretty well, seeing the present ML getting help from the past FL to save not only his grandpa but also his past self from bad decisions. The relation of the present time and past time worked really well here. After that was solved, the drama sort of went astray from this idea, as it seemed more like I was watching two dramas instead of one. If I had to be honest, this is where the drama got a bit boring for me, even though I still enjoy the cute scenes of our ML & FL (mostly during their high school days).

We really see the risk factor and big consequences towards the last few episodes of the drama. Though I kind of wanted more happiness in the final episode, I do like how this drama wrapped up the last episode, even though it kind of felt bittersweet to me, but it made sense, like time is trying to realign with itself after being changed so much by the ML.

Overall, not a bad drama. A great cast, good osts, story plot can be confusing at times, especially with all of the scene switch of the past and the present time and understanding how the time theory & consequences works, but I say this is an above average drama.

Read More

My Kind of Drama, No Typical C-Drama Cliché's

Let's see, no break ups or last minute break ups, no misunderstandings, no evil parents, a minor antagonist that tries to cause trouble for our lead couple but her screen time is limited so I'm actually okay with this. There is a love triangle but a tamed and not out of control one. We get rid of the love triangle around the halfway point of the drama.

So now that we got all of the usual C-drama worries out of the way, it's your choice if you want to watch this drama or not. Me personally, I adore this drama. The chemistry between our leads is so cute and romantic that I didn't even remember it was a younger male chasing older female. The ML knows what he wants from start while the FL has rough past encounters with love that even the thought of falling for her younger childhood friend had made her hesitant. But eventually she has courage and take a chance on love with her childhood friend. My favorite thing has got to be the amount of support the lead characters have for each other, as each wants to protect the other in their own way. Not only that, they also have tons of support from their boss, their friends, their families, and yes even second leads, which by the way, good amount of growth for the SFL, from being annoying to being very likable.

The osts for this drama is amazing. For me, it was enjoyable to listen to every time the song came on. Fits perfectly with the scenes that occurred.

The story went at a good pace that there were so many episodes left filled with loveable, romantic, and cute scenes. I give major points to the writer for showing that you don't need a break up scene or misunderstandings to make a great drama. Dramas can have conflicts but when you have such understanding, firm, and supportive main couple, you can handle the conflicts that's thrown at them and it's not even as bad as say other C-drama conflicts.

Definitely one of my favorites and a rarity that I give a 10 all the way, especially in a C-drama.

Read More

Your typical drama that has all of the C-Drama clichés

So what C-drama clichés does Unforgettable Love has
✔Rich CEO ML & not so rich FL: Miles Wei plays a similar character personality from Perfect & Casual, a nerd who doesn't understand love and relies on his one and only friend for love/relationship advise. The FL was actually an okay character in the beginning before being dumb down in character quality once the relationship contract begins.
✔ A relationship bound by a contract
✔Main leads bicker at each other for more than half of the drama: Normally I wouldn't mind this because I would l find some bickering scenes funny and cute but for some reason, I was more annoyed at these 2 when their bickering scenes occur. Like I just didn't like either of them.
✔Evil family member: In this drama, it's the ML's aunt
✔Annoying & rude exs along with a few non-important jealous characters
✔A break-up towards the end of the drama after getting together 2 episodes ago
✔Last minute happiness/relationship repair in the second to last/last episode

Honestly, there's nothing real special about this drama. This is about as average as you can get for a C-drama. I loved the scenes with the little boy, Xiao Bao because I'll be honest, I only stuck with this because of his scenes. Secondary ML & FL were amusing to me as I enjoy their scenes more than the leads. For one, they were the best friend of the ML & FL so while the main leads do have a love rival for each, I'm just glad the second leads were best friends and not love rivals and their scenes were funnier to me.

What bothered me about this drama:
- I was on my breaking point when they introduce the evil aunt and the annoying and snobby ex. I felt like the ML didn't have good enough lines to support the FL when these two did wrong against the FL. The FL had a spine to talk back and defend herself when it came to the ML, but when it came to others, she's doesn't defend herself much. What made me finally drop this was the break up. I despise dramas that goes with the format, "I'm breaking up with you because I love you and in order to protect you from hurt" That's got to be the stupidest reason to break up with someone. I like a drama where the lead couple stands firm in their relationship no matter what's being thrown at them and they go and talk through it together. Not this drama though. Our lead couple just didn't have a good foundation to support one another to start with, which is why the break up happened so easily. Also, I'm not a big fan of having the break up issue being resolved at the second to last or very last episode. Endings always feel rushed when they do this.

BUT... I did come back for Ep 23 & 24 and at least for me, I felt like the last 2 episodes were good enough for me for this drama to not be overall terrible. I think if you just skip Eps 21-22, then this drama will be okay. Overall, story plot was good. It was watchable in the beginning but with too much added nonsense and conflict later on (especially the conflict a few episodes before the last) but a great ending.

Read More

Great Firefighter mission scenes but everything else is sloppy, rushed, & full of nonsense

Geez, with a C-drama that doesn't have the annoying drama clichés, usually I would find okay, but this one, can't say I ended up liking it to the fullest. I was disappointed of how the product of this drama turned out.

What I liked about this drama:
- The firefighter rescue missions: Watching the scenes gives just a glimpse of the everyday lives firefighters go through, sometimes the missions are simple while other times it can be a dangerous challenge to save lives.
- The characters - Even if the plot wasn't that great, I was too invested into the characters already so I couldn't just easily drop this. I love the closeness of their friendship, like they just know they could rely on each other.

What went wrong for this drama:
- The story plot: They had such good content and topics in the beginning. It should've been expanded to several episodes as I saw these events as important. The events impacted the livelihood of the main characters and yet it was rushed to like a 15 min portion of an episode. Adding a villain to this drama proved useless to me. Why include episodes about corruption when you could've solely focus on the rescue missions from the firefighters and medic, heck even show more romance between our 4 couples. Anything is better than adding drug corruption.
- Speaking of romance, it's lacking in details as every scene just feature like the couples liked each other from the start when that really wasn't the case for some couples. Though I like the chemistry between the leads, I needed more of a progression of a relationship for our couples, not just "hey I like you now, let's be together"
- Bad Transition and Editing: Because of the director & writers trying to put every idea of a scene by squeezing them together in an episode, the flow from scene to scene did not flow well. It was bad for the most part, however I will say that the flow was good at times when the setting of a location remained the same. Editing was terrible in some scenes. Sometimes you had a character talking but the camera wasn't focus on them so you didn't know who was talking and there were some audio issues as well. It's like they didn't bother watching the episode before releasing it.

Had they been police officers, I would understand the need of a villain but come on, this is a group of firefighters and a medic team. Why would they need to stop an evil illegal drug overlord? This just doesn't make sense and makes the last 7 episodes of this drama pointless. Happy ending regardless though.

But hey, that's just my opinion. If you read this and still wanna give it a try, go for it. I only stuck around because of the cast. It's not terribly bad but just a drama with better potential had this been given at least 30 episodes.

Read More

A Glimpse of What Idol Stars May Go Through

When I saw the title "Imitation", I didn't have much thought about the meaning of it until I watched this drama. I'm not sure on the reasoning they chose this title but for me, it meant to imitate the livelihood of what an idol star or group might go through.

This drama had everything I can see as realistic. You have the most popular and well known group, groups that are trying to get their name out after so many tryout attempts and difficulties for the members to be in a group, the good fans, the so called "fans" who are stalkers and have no life, group members who are looking for love but are hesitant or private about it due to public image, psycho stalkers, and/or the public agency, the brotherly and sisterly bond of the groups, and of course the saddest part of the drama, suicide of an idol due to hardship in life that they couldn't take anymore.

The story itself is good overall but the pacing can be quite slow. There were some episodes that I felt like nothing important happened and then others are like, now we're getting somewhere. Also at times, I felt like the explanation to certain events in this drama weren't clear enough to understand, so viewers have to make an assumption instead. The final episode wrapped up okay. Happy ending but I felt like there were some lack of details for specific scenes. Worst of all, greedy bad guy got away with it and didn't get punished. This is frustrating. I hate when dramas take this route.

Romance wise, our leads got together for 1 ep, broke up the next episode, then get together again in the next episode like the second half. Although I have to say, it did felt lacking for our main leads. I just couldn't feel the chemistry. Even until the very end, they weren't holding hands or hugging. Eh. I say the secondary couple had more chemistry and cute moments than our lead couples. Shoo, even our last minute third couple had a bit more chemistry than our lead couple. Kinda disappointing.

Music wise, well it is an idol drama, featuring great singers. Of course the music is going to be great (5 stars easily).

Last words about this drama:
I really hope this opens the eyes to the viewers, fans of idol singers/groups, and even to the entertainment agencies. Remember, they're not money making machines. They are human beings just like you and me. They're doing what they love and enjoy as their job. As a job, they too have a life outside of music/acting too. They have a right to find love, relax after their hard work, so they won't burnout, enjoy life, and most importantly, they need to be surrounded by those who are close to them and support them. Let's build them up not bring them down. It's going to be a difficult but I can only hope there will be more Entertainment Agencies in the future who will run it like CEO Ji Hak, caring more about the person/group and not on money.

Read More

Broken People Repairs Each Other's Brokenness

In truth, we all need somebody in our time of hurt, someone who will just listen, someone who will grieve with us, and someone who we can open up to and trust so we don't hold it inside and become numb to it. Everyone goes through the brokenness. It's through the support of each other that we can eventually get out of that valley and rise towards the peak.

Our main characters in this drama all suffer from brokenness. Jun suffers from loneliness due to abuse and lack of love from his family, so he longs for friendship and will do anything to have people around him, even if it's fake friends. Soo Hyun suffers from financial hardship from trying to support his brother, mother, and his college tuition, so reaching his dreams seem impossible. So Bin has anxiety attacks when she hears people gossip about her due to a childhood trauma of teasing. She also lacks the confidence in herself, as she thinks she's not good enough due to her blaming herself for her mom leaving when she was a child. Though suffering and becoming numb to his brokenness himself, Jun helps them overcome their brokenness, which eventually leads to Soo Hyun and So Bin to help overcome Jun's brokenness.

What this drama was missing for me?
- The character of So Bin: Honestly, her character was very weak for a FL. I get that she was weak character due to past trauma in the beginning but once she overcame that, nothing else happens for her character. She was more of a damsel in distress character as it seems like Jun always have to rescue her. She lacked the FL support for the ML. Even to the end, though she wanted to know, she didn't truly knew Jun's hardship.
- Romance: I felt like this drama didn't need the romance but it was there. Despite the hugs, holding hands, and a few kisses, it still felt lacking for me for our lead couple compared to an average romantic couple, like they seem more like close friends than an actual couple. The chemistry was missing for me.
- Jun's family conclusion: I felt like there wasn't an official ending to Jun's family story but instead, viewers just have to assume he cut ties with his parents and still be connected with his older brother. None of his family members were there in the last episode, except for that phone call from his evil father. This scene of that phone call was why I was so bother by this.

But honestly, I could look over these things because of the great amount of friendship and support our main characters have for each other. There's nothing greater than seeing people, who've been suffering for so long, to finally start the healing process and getting better. Oh yeah, I can't forget the OSTs. Though it's only a few, I love all the OSTs in this drama and it's played very often as well. Though missing a few details toward the end, it's a happy ending and a good drama overall.

Read More

I say this drama is a good one to watch should you need to watch something while waiting on another drama. I don't think this drama would be a drama I would say you must watch or if there's anything that makes it shine but it does avoid a lot of drama clichés, like no last minute breakups, no evil parents/in-laws, little to no misunderstandings, and I felt like it was executed well that we had a good & happy last 2 episodes that I was very satisfied with how it ended.

So what does this drama feature?
1. Jealousy is considered a tag for this drama and let me tell ya, I never seen the amount of jealously this bad (in a funny way though). The ML is literally a jealous character for about most of the drama. He does tone it down a bit after Ep 24 but honestly, his jealously is what makes this drama funny and I love it.
2. A fairly weak love triangle: Actually there's 2 love triangles, one for our main couple and the other for our secondary couple. I say weak love triangle because the one who doesn't end up with the couple moves on easily. No conflicts, no plot to ruin the couple. I say this is a love triangle I can watch.
3. A villain does persist in this drama. He does caused mischief and is pretty annoying, especially the beginning and middle of the drama, but thankfully the actions aren't as bad as other villains I seen in other dramas, and he doesn't appear on screen as much later in the drama.
4. It centers around a publishing company and writers trying to get back in making their writing known. Now, I'll admit, there are some great scenes around this but there are also other scenes that I just found boring that made me just fast forward certain scenes.
5. The Bro-Ship: The ML & SML as best friends stole the spotlight for me. I just love every scene of them together.

The plot itself is okay. Sometimes it moved at a good pace, sometimes it was too slow that I got bored in a lot of scenes. Music played in this drama was just okay but very repetitive for one of the songs, but I did think the actors and actresses did justice on their character roles in this drama. Overall, a slightly above average drama.

Read More

Rough beginning but if you stick with it, it gets a lot better

Okay, I'll admit. I did have trouble continuing after the first 4 episodes, mainly because of the FL's character Nan Xiang Wan. It's a plus that she's a strong willed female lead character and not a weak pushover one but on the downside, her cockiness and pride coming from the adult version of her life, really ruins this high school student role of hers. She solely focuses on studying, getting into Class 2, and not caring about anything else. She's not likable at first. But... from Ep 5 and onward, this is where we start to see small changes within Nan Xiang Wan. From Ep 13 and onward, she's not as annoying and she does start to care more for her classmates but she still has that adult like personality that does ruin a few scenes with the words she says to some of her classmates and of course the ML, Lin Xiao Ran. But, she does get to that point where she appreciates everything around her, especially her classmates. It just takes a lot longer.

Besides Nan Xiang Wan, every other characters is likeable to me. I get why they treated NXW meanly at first because of the way NXW treated them but overall, you just like the rest of the characters, from Mr. Wang, who shows so much care for his students, to the support each classmate had for each other in Class 7.

While there are signs of a chemistry between NXW & LXR and small hints they may like each other in their scenes, it was never declared in the drama that they liked each other and romance is not the big focus here either so don't expect any romantic scenes or kisses, but you can kinda guess who will end up with who towards the end. Again, even though romance is not the focus here, there are numerous couples by the end of the drama. Also, don't forget to watch the SPECIAL EPISODE if you do want to see more of a romantic side from our leads.

Otherwise, for me, this is by far the best school related drama I've ever seen. No misunderstandings, no love triangles, no evil characters. It just shows the life of what each student goes through during their final year of high school and the amount of support and love the students have for their classmates and the amount of love and support the teachers have for their student. Get over the bumpy beginning and I'm sure you'll enjoy this drama because I sure did even with my doubts in the beginning.

Read More

This is what I call a Gaming Drama (plus some romance)

When I watch dramas that feature e-sports as the topic, it needs to be the focus, the highlight of the drama. The e-sport needs to be what carries this drama through from start to finish and I can definitely say this drama showcase e-sports very well.

This is what I enjoy about this drama. It's not just the viewers are watching the drama characters play competitively on a computer, but we also see the animated game scenes from these competitions, which makes this gaming drama special for me. Another great thing about this drama is we see our main team, ZGDX, and their life as a e-sport gamer. We see the celebratory wins, disappointments from a loss, the building of trust & teamwork, the hardships some have to endure on being/becoming a gamer. Most of all, my favorite, just the bond the members of ZGDX have for each other. They're really like their own family.

For me, the gossip or the social media aspect of this drama were pretty bothersome to me. I was annoyed half of the time when there were voice actors/actresses to read out the comments because a lot of the comments being read were rude (like you just want to smack that commenter in the face). Having the FL constantly bothered by these comments was a bit annoying for me, as in her character lacks confidence and she cared way too much on what people thinks of her. Majority of the drama, she was looking at social media. Me personally, I prefer this to be left out in this drama but I can understand why they include this because in reality, you have fans who will support you through the good & bad times and then you have those toxic people who badmouths/cyberbully you on the bad times or they're just jealous and don't have a life because they want to control the life of the person they idolize so much. Social media was meant for a good thing, like connecting with others far away, but instead, as this drama shows, it gets out of hand a lot, with opinionated people thinking they're always right.

Sure, there is romance. The romance builds up for our leads slowly throughout the drama but it does get going after Ep 20. There's a side couple as well that's mostly together throughout the drama.

The acting from our main leads were a bit stiff for me sometimes. Like there were some moments that I felt like there wasn't enough emotions portrayed from Cheng Xiao and Xu Kai. But then there were other moments where I felt like they did pretty good. So it wasn't bad but it was inconsistent for me.

Overall, I gotta say, this is probably my second favorite E-sport drama, just falling short to The King's Avatar, but I will admit this does pass The King's Avatar on the romance level, since The King's Avatar didn't have any romance at all.

Read More

Not your typical drama/idol drama but better plus it's a Romantic Comedy

STORY: Though it features 4 idol characters, it's not your typical idol drama. They're not searching for their talent but instead they're searching for their meaning of existence, after being held captive indoors by our villain, since they were kids, and encountering our two lovely female leads from the outside world. With the help of the female leads, the male leads began to open their eyes to the truth of themselves and to the world that's been hidden from them for so many years. The main plot overall went at a good pace with so many twists and turns as you progress through the drama.

I will say there are some missing details that should've been shown or the lack of screen time for those details in this drama. Spoilers if you haven't seen this yet.
* How Luo Ke & Su Lie were kidnapped as kids. What about their families? Are they searching for them? There should've been a reunion at some point. What about telling the truth to Xu Nian's mom that her son is still alive? I'm pretty sure she loved him so much since she was devastated that she was told by our villain that her baby was dead.
* The lack of screen time for our 3rd couple Su Lie & Lanlan and 4th couple Luo Ke & Qiqi. Their relationships should've developed a lot earlier, like maybe when they first experienced the outside world and not at the very last episode.
* This is just my personal preference but I would've liked it more if the 2nd to last episode, the evil man was taken down and leave the last episode focus on just our 4 couples. Instead, while a happy ending, still felt a bit rushed to me.

CHARACTERS: The main characters Lu Xiao, Ke Le, Xu Nian, & Qian Ya were all great to me. I enjoyed every moment of their screen time. Even the villains, who I normally hate instantly, I found very funny. Of course with villains, you can only go so far with the comedy in their character. They're bound to turn fully evil eventually. Unfortunately Luo Ke & Su Lie were very lackluster support characters for me. They were just there. They weren't useful, they complained a lot and I just felt like their characters weren't written well. Even the villains had a better personality than these two did. Potential was there Luo Ke & Su Lie, especially for growth but it didn't make the cut. Granny did shine for me as a support character in this drama. I loved her spunk attitude and always being one step ahead.

MUSIC: On point. Love every soundtrack that was played during the drama and for the ending credit. Music matched very well and was played often.

REWATCH: It's a great drama overall but with this kind of story, this is a one time watch for me, though I may come back to certain scenes from time to time just to see it again. I mean I just love our two couples and their scenes.

Read More

A Sweet & Caring Youthful Drama

This is one of the dramas where you can watch with ease and not feeling entirely angry or frustrated. I'm already going to give kudos to this drama for not having typical C-dramas cliches. There's no breakups, no misunderstandings, maybe a few snobby prideful characters but not really evil, no evil parents or in-laws, secondary characters are not jealous evil psychos but instead are best friends with the main leads. There is a mini conflict towards the end so it does kind of follow the typical last minute issues in a C-drama but thankfully this conflict doesn't effect the relationship with our main couple.

What was great about this drama: I just love the support that Nan Xi & Xia Rui have for each other and how they just want to be together and there for each other forever. We first see Nan Xi as a shy student with social anxiety. I was really sad for him since he just looks so sad and depressed in the beginning but thankfully it didn't take long for Xia Rui to remember that Nan Xi was her childhood friend and she began to support him emotionally which is great because he really needed that close friend. At the same time, Nan Xi supports Xia Rui with her grades and helps her improve her poor study habits. I also love their two friends Cheng Er, the loudmouth & Yi Shu, the smart but quiet supportive friend. Just seeing these 4 bonding and their silly moments were enough to make me enjoy this drama.

Romance wise, though we do see a lot of chemistry between our leads in the high school episodes, you'll have to wait until the high school days are over to see any progression and kiss scenes. There are 3 couples. Our leads get the most spotlight, the secondary couple comes in closer towards the end of the drama but you do see some hints throughout the drama and the third couple kind of just popped out of nowhere with very little screen time, which in a way makes me wonder how our main characters ended up being close with them anyways since they hardly interacted with them in high school.

What was missing from this drama:
- The root cause of Nan Xi's social anxiety disorder: It wasn't really clear what the main cause for his disorder other than being bullied/teased as a kid (even though Xia Rui as a child protected and spent time with him)
- The lack of screen time for our third couple Liu Bin & Yu Fei: Development of this couple and the friendship of them with our main characters seemed lacking.
- The developing friendship with Gao Ting: The writers messed up on this part. Gao Ting could've played a bigger role in the college episodes. Gao Ting felt alone and unimportant. Liked the guy walked away by himself after saying that and no one has concern for him. Geez... show some compassion writers. This could've been a great opportunity for Nan Xi who hasn't really made friends on his own, to make his first friend by himself with Gao Ting. That could've show another step for Nan Xi to grow out of his social anxiety. Instead, the writers make him a bad guy because of jealously towards the end.

Overall, if you need a drama to pass time while you are waiting for another drama or one that doesn't give you heartaches and headaches, I would recommend giving this one a try.

Read More

You want romance? Definitely should watch this for the lead's romance

The lead characters Yuan Shuai & Jiang Jun is what made this drama one of my favorite. The story and history of these two from childhood, through high school and to the present time. The small misunderstandings Jiang Jun experienced as a kid was explained in Yuan Shuai's point of view. The great amount of chemistry between these two from bickering to the romantic cute scenes. These two characters and the music in this drama are what made this drama strong. It's comedic for the most part though there were a few episodes where this drama just suddenly turned dark (Eps 27-30). But once that passes, the comedy returns again.

There were some things I wasn't satisfied with.
- I normally like the secondary couple in a drama but this one didn't do it for me. Xu Li was the strange girl who all the sudden fell in love with Xiao Chuan just by how he looked when she first saw him and pretty much stalks him or waits for him everytime. He didn't do anything special that would make her fall in love with him. And then Xiao Chuan, smart in tech apps but not in the romance department. He completely ignored her feelings for most of the drama and then suddenly just falls for her. Eh... this couple wasn't handle very well in my opinion. I skipped a lot of their scenes unfortunately.
- Second male lead, Du Lei had character growth but the writers ruined his character in the last 6 episodes. They made him into a possessive jealous psycho when he could've been the best friend and supporter of Yuan Shuai towards the end.
- Yuan Shuai not getting his original position back at MH and instead works for rival group GE. This didn't make sense as the villain, who caused him to ​leave, was eliminated so he should've got his position back, regardless if Du Lei was given the position.
- Wasted last 6 episodes. The main problem was solved by Ep 30. This could've ended at 30 episodes. If they wanted to continue with 6 more episodes, give us 6 more episodes of happiness and comedy with our leads or show the other side couples, since these couple did kind of happened out of nowhere. I didn't want another issue within these 6 episodes.

Overall, the leads and their chemistry is what held this drama for me. You do have your typical main leads break up, a few characters who I wouldn't say are evil overall but do have an evil moment or two, mostly due to jealously. ML is pretty smart overall while the FL is all over the place but she does have her bright moments too. In the end, you'll likely enjoy this drama a lot of because of these two, Yuan Shuai & Jiang Jun.

Read More