Frustrating to watch. Problematic characters. Toxic FL.

The character design is quite problematic. I'm really struggling to understand the FL's mother and brother.

----------Mother----------
Regarding the mother, she's been blaming the FL for her own negligence in supervising her small children, which resulted in a serious accident when the FL was just 10 years old. It's absurd how she continues to openly blame a child for 20 years when it's obvious that the adult should take responsibility. She doesn't just do this in their personal life, but also in their work life, going as far as finding reasons to sue her own daughter, which could harm their family company that's publicly traded on the stock market. And all of this is happening right under the noses of the FL's grandfather and father, who are much more rational and surely wouldn't want their corporation's reputation tarnished. The whole situation is just so unrealistic and absurd.

----------Brother----------
As for the brother, it's unbelievable. His wife deceives him into marriage and even has a child with another man while they're married. Then she flees away with money of her husband's family, only to return after being abused by her child's biological father. Despite all this, the brother unquestionably welcomes her back with open arms, and still loves her illegitimate child as if the child is his own. It's like he lacks any capacity for learning or judgment. It's hard to trust someone like him to run a company at an executive level, yet he holds a high-ranking position in their publicly listed company. How is that even possible?

----------Female Lead----------
And don't even get me started on the FL herself. She gets kidnapped by the villain in a car. And when the ML catches up with them after a violent car chase, succeeding in rescuing her while he's injured, she complies with the villain's gaslighting to say that she voluntarily follows the villain, then she willingly gets back into the villain's car to be kidnapped again. The reason the villain gives her is that if she doesn't go along, the ML will realize her illness is worsening, causing her to mistake the villain for the ML. But later on, the ML still has to break into the house where the FL is being held captive to rescue her once more, and she still has to tell the ML the truth in the end. It's infuriating how easily she falls for such manipulation, especially considering the ML already knows about her illness and its progression.

----------Toxic love----------
Let me address the ML's love for the FL as my last point. I find his renewed affection for her perplexing. While his initial love before their marriage is understandable, I fail to comprehend how he could still love her after enduring a toxic relationship. Despite their troubled history, she continues to resist cooperation, vilify him, withhold her true feelings, and maintain emotional distance. It appears to be a very one-sided effort, devoid of reciprocity. His affection seems solely driven by blind devotion, without any tangible reason or justification. Their past history of love before marriage doesn't seem to influence his current feelings, and the FL's behavior offers little to warrant his continued love. In essence, it feels like he is merely serving her as a servant of love. Such a dynamic doesn't foster a genuine and sustainable relationship in real life, though.

The story's irrational elements are so frustrating to watch. I keep going with it until the end because I'm a fan of the lead actors. However, while the FL's acting is passable, it still comes across as quite stiff to me. I've seen her in 3 series, including 'Descendants of the Sun' and 'Fight for My Way,' and her acting seems to be consistently one-dimensional, and not even the best version of the character she's portraying.

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So far, the Chinese mini-series I've given the highest score

I binge-watched 8 Chinese mini-series over the past couple of days, and this one stood out as the best among them all. The only other one I found passable was "Confess Your Love," which I rated 1 points lower than this one. I also watched two other mini-series featuring either one or both of the main leads from this show, and they were both very disappointing.

The biggest issue I found with these mini-series is their lack of logical coherence, which greatly disturbed and hindered my ability to appreciate their work. It's quite frustrating when you're forced to pay attention to characters, who behave stupidly and irrationally, that aren't worth investing your energy in, don't you think?

Regarding this mini-series, it's the most logically structured among the 8 I watched. However, it veered into illogical territory towards the end, which led me to deduct 0.5-1 point from the overall score. It felt like they introduced these nonsensical elements for the sake of convenience. It's as if they had a specific ending in mind but struggled to develop the storyline to reach that conclusion, resulting in them fabricating illogical scenarios to meet their predetermined ending. This, I consider, is irresponsibility from the production team.

Nevertheless, this mini-series only exhibited these issues towards the ending (about 1-2 episodes before the end), whereas many others in this genre scatter illogical elements throughout when they run out of ideas to maintain a logical storyline. Overall, this mini-series ranked at the top of my list among the 8 I watched.

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P.S. The list of my 8 binge-watched shows is as follows:

Passable:
1. The Deliberations of Love
2. Confess Your Love (2023)

So bad:
1. My Villain Husband
2. A Tale of Love and Loyalty
3. My Cat-astrophic Lover
4. My Fake Wife

Dropped:
1. The West Wind Is Strong
2. The Everlasting Love

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FL single-handedly carried the show

I dove into a whirlwind of Chinese mini-series last weekend, starting with "My Villain Husband", which had such a disappointing plot. I was really let down. Then there was "A Tale of Love and Loyalty", where the logic was absurd even without considering the plot. It seemed like the writers had no sense of reason. The only thing that kept me watching till the end was the good-looking main leads and their steamy kissing scenes.

Next, I tried "The West Wind Is Strong" and "The Everlasting Love" but found them so disappointing that I couldn't even finish.

Then I stumbled upon "Confess Your Love." Surprisingly, the female lead's acting was quite impressive. Her subtle nuances were smooth and natural. Despite the illogical setup around the villain and the overall acting in this series, I'd say this actress single-handedly carried the show. I managed to stick around till the end because of her charm; she really drew me in.

The plot was okay, but the storytelling was rather illogical. There were so many details that wouldn't make sense to anyone, yet they deliberately steered the story in that direction for convenience's sake. Still, this mini-series was much better than most in its genre. I've watched 8 in total over these couple of days, and 6 of them were a lot worse than this. There's only this one and "The Deliberations of Love" that are passable in my opinion.

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PS.1 - The ML's acting was super stiff. The FL truly carried the whole show.

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PS.2 - The list of my 8 binge-watched shows is as follows:

Passable:
1. The Deliberations of Love
2. Confess Your Love (2023)

So bad:
1. My Villain Husband
2. A Tale of Love and Loyalty
3. My Cat-astrophic Lover
4. My Fake Wife

Dropped:
1. The West Wind Is Strong
2. The Everlasting Love

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Extremely boring. Nothing moves forward. Characters are superficial.

>> Plot:
It's the typical problem of Chinese rom-com series set in the contemporary era. The plot lacks substance. I've watched 5 episodes, and there's no significant progression. If you're considering starting this series, you can save yourself time by beginning at ep.6. Maybe you can start at ep.10 with no problem, but I'm not gonna be here to prove it as it wasted too much of my time already.

>> Character Design:
The main characters are superficial, lacking depth in their minds. For example, the FL is cheated by her bf, but after being caught and FL already prepared to break up with him, it's apparently him who suggests breaking up with the reason that he wants a rich gf instead of her. And FL is just whatever.

The issue here is twofold:
1) The boyfriend serves merely as a plot device for the FL. He's there just to portray one point of FL as a popular girl with a cool personality. This bf is a character that lacks meaning and is unnecessary to exist.
2) The FL character itself has no grasp of emotions. She just cooly sits and stands >> this point applies to the ML and 2nd ML characters as well. There's no depth of feeling in any of these characters. They just sit, stand, and act cool.

The lack of emotional depth and character analysis is the perilous point of no return for all of these characters. These characters are uninteresting and fail to evoke any genuine emotion. It's become even more problematic when these characters are not just random extras but the main roles.

>> Dialogue:
The dialogue is also unhelpful. What they talk are not interesting at all. They just say whatever without any meaningful contribution, and what is said does not help moving the plot forward.

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Added note: After being disappointed with this series and deciding to drop it, I consecutively started 'Twinkling Watermelon.' Wow... it grabbed my attention within 2 minutes. The dialogue moves the plot, and the opening scene introduces an interesting point in the story. The characters aren't ordinary, and even the way extras play feels like they actually have meaningful roles. Everyone feels real.

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Dragging. Forced subplot. Unnatural dialogue.

40 episodes is truly too long. It's dragging in general and forced plot would pop up from time to time. The last straw for me would be at ep27 with an irrational scene that shows how unprofessional job the writer team has done.

A sister/friend of ML has died suddenly, which has a big impact on ML. ML decides to leave home without telling anyone for a while to stay alone at a little village in the mountain. His family is very worried while FL has an idea where he would be, so she follows him and meets him when he bungee jumps and almost dies.... There're quite a few weird things here. Let me point them out one by one...

1. At the bungee jump spot, there's only ML without any staff, but that place is fully equiped for bungee jumping. ML's legs are properly roped. - How come no staff? Where the equipments come from then? Who helps him tie his legs?

2. ML carries his traveling backpack while bungee jumping......??!

3. Then he jumps, and the rope is tied for the distance that ML would dip into the lake below, but it isn't a dip. The rope never bounces and everyone concerning to the business leaves ML head stays in the water for as long as he stops breathing eventhough the rope is still tightly tied to his legs. No one drags him up. No rescue team preparing at the lake, either. FL is the one who jumps into the lake and drags him to the bank and gives him CPR. - Wow... really?? No staff around to the point that no one makes any kind of moves when his head stays in the water that long?? And what the hell with the rope not bouncing?? This is so anti-science.

4. There's surely some error along the bungee process. The ML says himself that he has thought thoroughly before bungee jumping, but this still happened which almost made him die. So, he doesn't intend to commit suicide, there's some error, but no one around to take responsibility at all? Like... there's not only staff but no people at all. Not even a crowd to poke their noses. And then, the bungee jumping accident has just passed. No one cares that it happened even the ML and FL....

For the acting.... Zhao Lu Si's acting here is quite unnatural, esp. the last scene when she has the last conversation with ML's father - both her acting and the dialogue are unnatural and awkward. Though the dialouge is awkward, the acting of ML's father is passable, which emphasizes how lacking Zhao Lu Si's acting is when the plot and dialogue given to her are also lacking. (She's normally done her proper jobs when delivering proper plot and dialogues.)

Luo Yi Zhou's acting is surprisingly passable. It's passable on averge, but if considering this is one of his first acting jobs (it's his first series), he's done a quite good job.

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Absurd Ending

Major Problem - The Ending [-]
At the ending, FL shoots herself in the head and nobody even bothers to call a doctor. It seems like there's no way she could survive, but somehow she's still alive two years later and crosses paths with the ML on a battlefield. How on earth does she cheat death? Moreover, when they meet, she looks at ML and smiles at him. How is it possible that their unresolved misunderstandings, which drove her to attempt suicide, are brushed aside? The 2nd ML who is the only other person who knows that ML didn't trigger the bomb that killed FL's entire family has also died. No one can possibly tells FL the truth.

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Acting [-]
The acting of the ML and FL is decent, but the second ML and second FL (especially the second ML) are way below par.

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Story in General [-]
There's a lot of physical and mental torture, abuse, and assault, and to top it all off, they're the actions by the ML. I'm not a fan of this direction the story took. For the storyline where the FL loses her memories three times, though not much creative but the details are still interesting.

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Funny Scene [-]
Okay, let me tell you about this scene that was supposed to be all erotically romantic, but it ended up being hilarious for me. Imagine this: ML and FL having sex in a car parked under the bright lights at the ML's mansion that is full of servants. The car's windows are also very clear - not tinted to obstruct the view. And guess what? The whole scene reminds me so much of that iconic sex-in-the-car scene from Titanic. I was half-expecting the FL's hand to smack against the car window, and guess what? She actually did it, mimicking that ecstasy moment. It was supposed to be romantic, but it turned into more of a parody, making it even funnier for those who've watched Titanic before.

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Lots of things go the wrong way, esp. those about medical details.

I'm not quite sure how to start with this, but I need to rant it out at least a bit. Most parts in this series seem to be touched by the wrong hands.

Let's not talk about the medical details which are the main and biggest problem here anymore, but the main character like Linlada. It's so annoying to watch this character. She looks pretentious both because of her kind-of-WOKE's selfish attitude and her acting skills.

What is WOKE kind of selfish attitude here, let me clarify a bit - she acts like she's a good person/philanthropist/good Samaritan in spite of being actually opposite to being helpful at all. For example, she's very slow in examining the patients - too slow with unneccesary examining procedure such as checking the eyes of the patient who comes in with the symptom of coughing.... You get how irrelevant this is? And you get my meaning when I mentioned that let's not talk about medical details anymore? There're too many profession-related mistakes to the point that let's not talk about it because wherever you touch it, it's all wrong. So, let's go back to examining too slow - after she finishes her shift and meets her friend who finishes his work before her at the break room, she initiates to reprimand that friend that he examines too fast it can't be thorough which can be disadvantageous to the patients...... Hellow? It's you, Linlada, who is the problem, not your friend.

If you watch this series for an episode, I think you can get what kind of self-centered viewpoint I say that Linlada has. And if you watch it for an episode, I think you can also get how annoyingly pretentious kind of WOKE attitude I say Linlada has. And the actress's acting skills don't help the character at all. Her acting makes Linlada look like a jealous loser, not a FL. Due to her annoying character design, I wasn't sure she was really a FL until I come here and see she pops up on the 1st order on the cast list.

By the way, not only this actress who is amateur. I actually disatisfy with the acting skills of all main characters except one who is acceptable (Best). Just that Lindala's the 1st in the order so I talk about her first and foremost, and then I don't think I would talk about other aspects/actors/actresses anymore. After ranting out a bit, I feel that talking about this is also a time waster. Let's sum up that it's another Thai drama that disappoints me.

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Cute but super dragging.

Long story spanning from high school to working life - same style as A Love So Beautiful, but it is not as plot-driven. At least, the story is rational. ML+FL are not silly. In the story, there's nothing heart-wrenching, nothing much in it, so it's quite dragging to the point of almost boring. I actually had to increase speed and skim since ep12. Personally I think they can finish the whole story within 15 episodes instead of 25.

Anyway, the production quality is good and ML+FL's characters+acting are cute. These were the points that kept me watching until the end or else I'd drop at around ep15-17.

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Momentum sustained for exactly half way, then they lose it.

The story starts with the mysterious origin of the ML. He considers himself as a loser, but his vibes say it differently. It's interesting to find out what all this contrast and background story are about.

The story advances in fast progress that I can mostly absorb the story development without having enough time to spend on digesting and considering the story puzzles. Along the way, eccentric characters keeps showing up in succession. It's exciting and hard to predict what their actions would be.

However, this fast and addictive pace loses momentum after a vital point being unraveled right in the middle of the whole series. I skim a lot starting from EP.21. There're some important scenes in EP.25 and 27 that can slow me down a bit. Apart from that, only when Wuxin appears in the scene that I would pay attention at all. Wuxin remains as the last interesting character in this series for me. It's only genuinely interesting when he comes out.

This story is much about the brotherhood. They don't emphasize on the romantic aspect and I would hope so much for they to not mind telling the love story in this series at all because the job they've done with the love story lines is much awful. The ML together with his 2 martial brothers forming into three romantic couples. None of them have chemistry between each other.

And the couple with the worst chemistry is the ML & FL themselves. It's like someone command ML to must fall for FL, which I still don't see how ML have feelings for her at all. I don't feel any speck of love from him. FL openly shows her interest toward ML with some other character, but she herself has weak impression. She has no charm whatsoever and tends to be annoying. I don't know if this is about character design or it's because of the acting skills of the actress, but I am so lazy to watch her scenes. Among all the female characters in this series, the Divine Healer is the only one who caught my eyes and is endearing to watch in my opinion. She's too young to be matched up with ML, though.

There're last 10 episodes left for me. I'm waiting to see how my feelings for this series are going to pan out. Hope it wouldn't drop more than it has so far.

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Tempo super slow. Vague characters esp. in support roles. Selling point is just the scenery.

The story progresses super slow. I could watch it with full attention for only 10 minutes then I had to go with 2x speed, but that's still too slow. In the end, I had to go faster or else I wouldn't be able to get myself to the end of the episode. And at the end of EP.1, I didn't feel like I missed anything at all.

In EP1, it's the story of FL and her best friend - which is boring - really. They try to make it touching, but nothing in the girls' relationship moved me. The story between them is very loose. I don't feel attached to her friend or believe they're best friends at all. The script writer team did very less in building the foundation for the girls' relationship - I don't see where their strong bond comes from nor believe the bond exists or is even real. And with nothing to convey, the team still forces their way to drag the girls' story into a full EP. This sets a too lagging tempo for the series from the start - which is hardly a wise opening strategy for any series, I would say, as this means they imprint their 1st impression in the audience's eyes as a boring story.

Since the ML doesn't show up in EP1, I gave myself and the series another go with EP2. Here, the setting changes from the city to the pretty village in small town. The set is very relaxing. The atmosphere totally contrasts with EP1 (in a good way). The cinematography is decent and does justice to the location.

However, the same problem isn't solved. The story hardly goes forward. Nothing much happens along the way. I don't feel life in other characters apart from the main characters though they're close relative, colleagues or has long dialogue in their own scene. They're very puppet-like. The team has done a bad job in introducing their characters. And the huge problem is - I don't feel that any character (even FL or ML) is interesting. Until the end of EP2, they still can't make me feel engaged to their characters or story.

And when I glance to see the number of total episodes.... my gosh 40 is to many for this level of story. I imagine it's gonna get more dragging. They're going to squeeze all kinds of their bodily liquids into dragging it to 40. No matter those liquids are blood or tears, it's gonna turn into plain water half way.

So with that glance, I decide to drop this series.

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Top-notch! I can't find loophole at all.

1) Story [+]

Plot very strong, well-built and dynamic. The story moves forward the whole time which is incredible. There're things to learn, explore, discover, and be surprised in every episode. It progresses in fast pace but not hasty. The rhythm is so right to the point that there's no wasted time even for the preview. If you watched the preview of next episode at each episode's ending, you'd most likely be spoiled. All the happenings in this story are very reasonable from beginning to end, which normally is very hard to achieve in this kind of highly complex, suspense story. Most of the time, the writers/directors wouldn't be wise enough to make it perfectly suspense without loopholes (--some notable examples that failed on this point are W-Two World and Mouse). For this one, no loopholes at all. I also love the ending. It isn't romantically sugar-coated but leaning toward the side of being realisticly hopeful. The writer gave an interview that if there'd be one more episode, the audience would have the chance to see FL and ML being back together. I think so, too. But they're just clever to end it at the right timing. If there're one more episode, things would be cheesy instead as there's no point left in the suspense plot anymore, and then the tone of the series would shift a bit and might end up in the same way as many other Korean series that have strong start but usually tone down and fail toward the end.

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2) Acting [+]

Superb! There're so many actors in this series. They come in and out of the scene all the time. And I enjoy the acting of all of them. The acting of the three sisters should especially be praised. Kim Go Eun has the chance to show her true ability in acting through the role of the eldest sister here. Her performance in Goblin can't be compared to this at all. The actress who plays Wong Sang A, Hyorin's mother, also did a great job. Her fake smile and bubbly character is so annoyingly fake. Hyorin just says the right feeling of the viewers when it finally bears in her mind that things in her family are so fake. Before that, it always feels off but she can't really be certain at which point.

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*I'm not that expert in music so I avoid giving comment on that aspect and just gave the moderate/middle score when nothing wrong occurs.

*This series is one of a very few series I give this high score on Rewatch Value.

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Just another idol film with the intent to sell Kim Yoo Jung.

(1) Story [-]

There's nothing original in the story, so cliche and highly predictable. And there's nothing in the story itself, no message to convey, just bringing the formula of teenage love story that full of misunderstanding in for the actors to play. They try to make a twist but it's a cliche twist, so it's not a twist in the end since audience can guess it right beforehand. However, the feelings between the characters has a solid foundation to be believable. If you also watch Chinese movies, you'd know how unpassionate the production teams are in making a film. They don't care to build a foundation for their stories, so lots of Chinese films are very much superficial and not believable at all. This movie is a good example for comparison. It is a story with nothing but still have a good foundation, so no matter how nothing the story is, as long as the actors can perform, audience can still enjoy it. Thus, higher score.

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(2) Acting [+]

Kim Yoo Jung is the star of the film. She carries the whole team. It's very enjoyable to watch her acting. The ML is so-so. I don't feel right with his smile at times which I'm not sure if it's due to his acting or just the physical feature of his smile. The best friend of ML's acting skill isn't that strong but I'd give him passable. The acting of the FL's best friend isn't real enough. I feel like her true self tries to pretend to be the character, so it feels more pretentious though the character is actually sincere. Anyway, her role doesn't show up much so it's ok.

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(3) Cinematography [~]

Cinematography is upto standard, but I don't really like their dream-like filter. In the scene at the vast lawn, all the colors look obviously artificial.

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As a whole, it is enjoyable to watch, but also wasting time. I wouldn't rewatch it, that's for sure. And if I know it'd be like this, I don't think I'd watch it in the first place.

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Wow.. finally a proper movie from China. The overall exceeds my expectation.

1. Acting [+]

My gosh... all the actors/actresses are so good here. High praise for ML & FL. Their acting are so authentic. It's so hard to find good acting from Chinese actors/actresses, but there's a bunch here. I truly dislike the mother and look down on that kind of teacher. It's ridiculous to have this kind of adults to be responsible for children. I don't know if this is a compliment, but the image they draw for adults in this movie makes me look down on the way Chinese society treats their young people and its educational attitude as a whole. They can really make me disgust how egoistic and problematic the adults are to the younger generation. The adults act like what they do are rightful in spite of the opposite. For the leads' part, they both are so young but can handle their roles real well. Wu Lei really nails it. His acting is detailed, which I think is also the result of having competent director that can guide the acting direction for his actors. The FL's role seems to be more level through the story, but her acting is much believable. Nothing looks awkward at all. I feel along with her all the way through, esp. in that scene on her birthday night - it was so embarrassing and I totally feel her. I'm 100% embarrassed together with her.

2. Story [+]

First, they have messages they want to communicate, which are strong and substantial. Second, the subplots are very well weaved into one story. They did so well with the peak, turns and twists, which means there're so many points in the story that provoke my perception no matter it's thoughts, surprise or new happening, and all of them are harmonious in the whole picture. Lastly, the script that is made up to be this film can really make me laugh out loud and scream (due to embarrassment, lol) - the emotions they want to convey have successfully conveyed in each scene.

Note:
I still deduct some points on the score as I think the extreme characters like the mother and teacher are designed to be surreal. I consider it as cheating for an easier way out by distorting the rule to their own benefit.

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P.S. While watching, I was thinking until the end that if the ML's ex-crush was a guy, his subplot would be perfect. Anyway, considering this film is from China where being gay is a taboo, I could foresee my wish/speculation wouldn't be portrayed :P

P.S.2 I just realized one day after watching that the FL here is the same one in Love Story In London. Wha... I gave 1 score for Love Story In London, so I'm glad to see she can actually make it far beyond that. It's great to see her true potential with a proper project that can let her properly challenge herself and shine. Her role in Love Story In London was uninteresting and had nothing to deliver at all.

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Instant formular of cliche storyline and artificial sentiment.

Unoriginal plot. Their story is like the instant noodles that just aims to finish things quick without creating anything worth cherish. Their story accumulates so many cliche plots that we've seen so often in other movies and make them even more cliche by not adding any new element into their own work. It's the pop star falling in love with an ordinary girl. Also a one-night falling in love in a foreign land. And Confessing love at a friend's wedding (by stealing the scene from the bride and groom -- which is very impolite in real life, I would say. And very cringey when it appears in the film.)

Things in this movie pass by in a very superficial style. Nothing deep but they try to force the audience to perceive what happen as something deep. There's almost nothing happen between the ML and FL during their time together, which is not more than 12 hours, apart from running in a spooky cemetery and baking a cake together. But ML, who is a celebrity, is so naively certain this is true forever love and ready to give up everything for FL.

So many things happen nonsensically and baselessly. The production team absolutely doesn't care to lay out any solid foundation for the leads' feelings. Until to the point that they kiss, I still don't feel they have feelings for each other. It's more like a suit-for-the-moment kiss than any deep-meaning kiss. Throughout the movie, from beginning to end, I don't feel any chemistry between ML and FL at all. And ironically, there's this dialogue of FL around the beginning saying it's funny for her that people in entertainment business can fakely love each other on a show because love can be portrayed through the eyes and when she sees the eyes, it tells whether the love is real of not. People can't fake love -- Yes, she surely can't fake it. I don't feel any feeling in her eyes towards ML at all, and to be fair, it's vice versa.

A few positive points about this movie is that they have proper production. They know how to use the camera and set the setting well. FL seems to be able to speak Italian as well. If she can't, she came prepared. Her mounth shape while speaking goes along with Italian language sound making it looks natural when she have a conversation.

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