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A Date with the Future chinese drama review
Completed
A Date with the Future
0 people found this review helpful
by lemam
Jun 22, 2023
36 of 36 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 10.0
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 9.0
This review may contain spoilers

Adorable love story, one of my favorite modern dramas

I'd rank this as my #2 favorites of modern dramas (just behind To Love starring Lin Gen Xing). Great storyline, great acting, pretty good OST. Overall I gave it a 9. Took off a point for the last 2 episodes dragging out beyond the climax of the story.

*** Spoilers below ****

Acting/Cast:
- William Chan (ML) - he's one of my favorite male leads right now, I've been binge watching a lot of his shows. He's not the best actor w/ a ton of range, but he just lights up the screen with his charisma and adorable smile. He plays the action hero role very well. In this role as a fierce firefighter he shined in every way. He was able to convey the tormented, tough, cold & aloof on the outside, but caring/loyal on the inside persona so well. As much as I adore William Chan, he usually does not have much chemistry w/ his female leads (other than Sandra Ma in Age of Legends). However in this series it's the most chemistry I've seen him with a female lead. They had great chemistry.
- Xu Lai (FL) - this is the first time I've seen this actress, she did a great job. She was believable conveying the sweet bubbly innocence w/out being annoyingly over the top, but also tough w/ grit and rational determination. When she cried you can feel her sadness.
- Dr. Zang Qui (Support Female) - first time seeing this actress. She's beautiful and did a great job being the tough logical sounding board for people. But the flashbacks of her youth she was so sweet and bubbly, and the scene where she broke down crying begging Jin Sichuan to let her see her dying husband...that scene was just heartbreaking.

PROS:
- Storyline - I loved it, it was very reminiscent of Backdraft from the 1990s, one of my all time favorite movies with Kurt Russell, Billy Baldwin, etc. The emergency calls/situations were very plausible, unlike a lot of Cdramas.
- The character development was done well showing how people experience and recover from traumatic life experiences
- The death of Liu Xu and his secret recording being played to his brigade team after dies, oh man that was a tearjerker! Get your tissues for that.
- The scene of Jin Sichuan in the coma...trying to follow the dead Liu Xu into the light...but getting pulled back by Xu Lai. That was powerful. I was on the edge of my seat holding my breath.

CONS:
- Hospital scenes - as battered up as Jin Sichuan gets, rightfully so as a firefighter, most of the hospital scenes he still looks perfect, other than 1 time when he saved Xu Lai from the kidnapper he was bruised and battered. But even when he was supposedly in a coma for awhile (maybe months, as they did not really specify how long) - he had not 1 scratch on him, hair perfectly done, clean shaven, etc. Very unrealistic, but this is pretty typical of most cdramas anyway.
- Xu Lai in the beginning came across as some crazed stalker at first w/ zero boundaries and thick skin.
- The annoying coworker of Xu Lai - dumb as bricks and the trouble she tries to inflict on Xu Lai is lame. But she was barely held accountable by the news station even when caught several times - except for the last straw when she almost killed her.
- Rescue dogs were cute and the scene when Windhound died saving Jin Sichuan - gut-wrenching. But the dogs and dog training got too much screen time.
- The dubbing wasn't always the best. Some voices just did not fit w/ the character/actor.
- The 3rd support couple - Lao Huo and Shi Shi the actress. The entire series he was irrationally obsessed and possessive of Xu Lai, while Shi Shi followed him around like a pathetic puppy. Then suddenly at the end of the series he magically realizes...Oh, wait, ok, I love you now Shi Shi (because he can't have Xu Lai). It felt like an unnatural progression, as if the writers wanted to force some sort of resolution for Lao Huo out of pity.

I've never re-watched any modern dramas (except 1 other one) - but I'd probably re-watch this one.
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