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Sweet Games chinese drama review
Completed
Sweet Games
9 people found this review helpful
by irmar
Aug 31, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 1.5
This review may contain spoilers

A cliché story that could have been made 20 years ago

It's very cliché. ALL the tired old tropes of k-drama and c-drama mashed together.
- Clumsy female lead who makes a fool of herself. She tells lies or pretends to be something and is exposed; she drinks too much and makes a disgraceful scene; she misunderstands and jumps to conclusions; she adopts a whiny voice and childish demeanour/behaviour to be cute and obtain what she wants; her wardrobe a sorry mess of clownish clothes much too big for her; . CHECK
- Aloof and seemingly cold male lead with childhood trauma. CHECK
- Male and female lead who start off badly but become next-door neighbours by chance and, also by chance, have to work together. CHECK
- drunk scene of the female who vomits all over the main lead, and this is portrayed as funny and cute and doesn't impact at all the ML's opinion of her or his crush on her - on the contrary, it serves to bring them together. CHECK
- Jerk ex-boyfriend who comes again to claim FL. CHECK
- Group of friends with a dream of making a successful online game company but struggle at first until finding success. CHECK
- Second lead couple is the funny one, their romance is the comic relief. CHECK
- The group of friends is made of stock characters: the quiet girl, the fashion-conscious girl, the very shy guy, the fat guy. And there is also a non-descript guy (the programmer). They all have no character ark, their characteristics are shown in all scenes, and each one has only characteristic defining him or her. CHECK.

The male lead is promising, for a newcomer to acting: he's not embarrassing, but surely he's inexperienced and it shows, especially in the beginning of the show. I must say though that his interpretation, while it won't certainly blow you away, gets better and better as the episodes go on, and by the end of the show he shows great improvement, to the point that you wouldn't think he's a newbie. I think he has potential, and a lovely voice too.
And don't tell me that in the beginning he's so wooden because he plays an introvert. It's a misunderstanding that playing an aloof and introvert character doesn't require acting. It's actually a trap for rookie actors, and they fall into it head first. Acting is not about big dramatic gestures, laughing and crying etc. Even when playing a "mysterious and cold" character, one has to show the little details that the other characters in the show might not catch but the audience will notice, to convey what is behind the aloofness. Aloof people are good at conceiling their true feelings, so it's actually MORE difficult to act those characters, because it's all about subtlety.
The female lead is okay but nothing to write home about. She is exactly like all the other Chinese actresses out there, and not in the league of the outstanding ones. Of course her character is also like all the other Chinese female leads. Although she's supposed to be a "driven entrepreneur", and she's shown as very competent at her job, she still does things like banging her legs on the bed and squealing in delight, and in her personal life she's totally childlike and immature.
This show might have been made ten years ago and - apart from the fashion and the technology shown - you wouldn't know it. It's lighthearted and sweet, you don't hate it, but it's like a zillion others we've already seen, it brings nothing fresh. I would change the title to "Sweet Dreams", because I used it to relax before sleep, and it worked like magic, taking the stress of the day away. But this doesn't mean it's a good drama, does it?
The OST was good, the clothing department really, really sucked. I couldn't believe how they dressed the characters! And... do really Chinese people go to meetings with prospective business partners dressed in beachwear, overlarge shirts or T-shirts over shorts?)
If you haven't watched more than ten or twenty Chinese or Korean dramas in your life, you might enjoy this more. Otherwise, it will soon be buried in the heap, and after a while you won't even remember what it was about, the remembrance will be blurry, seeing how it's so similar to so many others that you've watched.
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