Ifa

I have a love hate relationship with Never Ending Summer. At first glance, it looks like another sunshine girl meets midnight rain bad boy romance, a trope I will happily sign up for every single time. Instead, the drama takes a different route. Zhou Wan is an eighteen year old girl carrying responsibilities far beyond her age. Faced with her grandmother's mounting medical bills and abandoned by her estranged mother, she resorts to getting close to Lu Xi Xiao, the rebellious son of the man her mother is about to marry, hoping to pressure her mother into helping. What begins as a desperate plan slowly turns into genuine love, setting the stage for a story overflowing with longing, sacrifice, and heartbreak.

The problem is that this heartbreak often feels self inflicted. I understand why Zhou Wan makes many of her decisions. She grew up learning to rely only on herself, afraid of burdening others and terrified of being abandoned again. Her entire world revolves around saving her grandmother, so it makes sense that she loses sight of everything else. But there were so many moments where honesty could have solved half the problems. Xi Xiao despises his future stepmother just as much as Zhou Wan does, and he clearly cares deeply about her, yet she keeps choosing the most complicated path possible. It almost feels like the drama follows the philosophy of "why take the easy road when the scenic route has more suffering?" The result is misunderstanding after misunderstanding, with Zhou Wan fighting battles alone while Xi Xiao spends most of his time trying to piece together what she refuses to tell him.

That is what makes the angst so exhausting. The drama stacks angst on top of angst until it starts feeling less like emotional storytelling and more like a factory assembly line. In theory, repetitive misunderstandings can still work if each one raises the emotional stakes, but here many of them feel entirely preventable. Even stranger, the emotional consequences rarely linger. Xi Xiao is remarkably forgiving, Zhou Wan softens rather quickly, and the relationship often recovers faster than the drama itself suggests it should. It creates this odd disconnect where the journey feels painfully drawn out, but the aftermath barely leaves a mark.

Just when I thought the story had finally found its footing after Zhou Wan's biggest burden was lifted, the drama pulled out another classic card: a ten year separation. Honestly, that part was fine. Xi Xiao gets hurt because of her, his family wants her gone, she leaves out of guilt. It is textbook melodrama, and I had already accepted it. What completely caught me off guard was their reunion. After ten years apart, I expected plenty of emotional push and pull before any reconciliation. Instead, they practically skipped to the kissing. I genuinely had to pause and ask myself, "Wait... what just happened?" Oddly enough, it also felt believable. These were two people who had never truly stopped loving each other, so perhaps the years never mattered to them. Even so, something about the transition into their adult relationship left me feeling strangely uncomfortable, though I still cannot fully explain why.

Ironically, I found the adult conflicts more reasonable than the high school ones. Unfortunately, their buildup felt incomplete. It almost seemed as though the drama simply needed an excuse to make Zhou Wan live with Xi Xiao without making either of them look like walking red flags. Xi Xiao initially forces her to stay with him as a condition for joining his team, only to later tell her she can leave because he does not want her staying out of guilt or pity. I understand the emotional reasoning behind it, but the execution made me scratch my head more than once. After being apart for a decade, they settle into domestic life almost immediately, acting like a young married couple who simply forgot to renew their marriage certificate. The adult romance is undeniably sizzling. Those kiss scenes deserve all the applause, and yes, I never expected to see a Spider Man style kiss in a Chinese drama. But as enjoyable as those moments are, the surrounding context never fully convinced me.

The final conspiracy surrounding Xi Xiao's father also felt random and unnecessary. Zhou Wan's pursuit of justice lacked the emotional impact I expected, making the climax feel more like another obstacle than a satisfying payoff. However, I did appreciate the revelation that Zhou Wan had loved Xi Xiao long before he ever fell for her. It completely reframed her decision to use him in the beginning. It was never manipulation born from malice. It was desperation from someone forced to sacrifice the person she loved most in order to save the person who raised her. That revelation added a layer of tragedy that I wish had been emphasized earlier.

Jiang Yan is another character who feels like wasted potential. He is Zhou Wan's childhood friend who quietly loves her, yet the drama barely explores those feelings. Most of what we see is him getting jealous whenever Xi Xiao is around, but because Xi Xiao is also his half brother, it becomes difficult to tell whether his frustration comes from romantic feelings, sibling rivalry, or both. He ultimately feels less like a fully realized character and more like a convenient plot device. Even the moment where he accidentally reveals Zhou Wan's location while drunk exists mainly to move the story forward and earn him hate from viewers.

Despite all my frustrations, credit where credit is due. The romance itself delivers. The runaway arc captures that exhilarating feeling of first love beautifully. Those scenes are filled with youthful energy that made me smile from ear to ear. The adult romance is equally memorable, just in a very different way. The chemistry between Zhou Wan and Xi Xiao never disappeared, no matter how questionable the surrounding circumstances became.

The performances also helped keep me invested. Bao Shang En was excellent as Zhou Wan. Despite her soft and beautiful appearance, she carried herself with remarkable maturity, independence, and quiet resilience. Her slightly deeper voice suited the character perfectly, and both her emotional breakdowns and crying scenes landed with genuine impact. She also looked fantastic throughout the drama, with hairstyles and outfits that complemented every stage of Zhou Wan's journey. Zhou Ke Yu was more of a mixed bag. He excelled in the playful, aloof, and romantic moments, and his height certainly worked in his favor whenever he stood opposite Zhou Wan. However, during the more intense scenes, particularly when Zhou Wan's life was in danger, his expressions occasionally looked as though he was trying not to smile. It unintentionally weakened the tension in moments that should have felt far more desperate. The rest of the cast performed their roles well enough.

Visually, the drama is gorgeous. The cinematography is crisp, the production quality is polished, and several sets stand out, especially the hide and seek sequence, which remains one of my favorites. Above everything else, though, the soundtrack is the true MVP. The OSTs are memorable, emotional, and the kind of songs that easily find a permanent place on your daily playlist.

In the end, Never Ending Summer is a drama I enjoyed more for its romance than its storytelling. The cute moments, heartfelt chemistry, beautiful visuals, and outstanding soundtrack kept me watching long after the plot started testing my patience. Unfortunately, when it came to the actual writing, many of the conflicts felt unnecessarily complicated, making it difficult for me to fully sympathize with the characters. Like its title, this summer certainly felt never ending. Whether that is a compliment or a warning depends entirely on your tolerance for preventable angst.