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Nothing But You chinese drama review
Completed
Nothing But You
1 people found this review helpful
by xia0yuer
Apr 24, 2023
38 of 38 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 9.0
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 9.5
Music 9.5
Rewatch Value 7.0
This review may contain spoilers

Sometimes giving up is more brave than trudging along

Liang Youan is an early 30s professional woman who has been stuck in her role as an Executive Assistant for years. Extremely competent, her boss loathes to let her leave and grow in her career because she's so valuable. She meets Song Sanchuan, a young 20s badminton player, whose athleticism and kind heart strikes her, but he's consumed by his own demons and is not able to break out of a losing rut.

Together, they decide to revitalize an unprofitable tennis club, with Song Sanchuan changing professions from badminton to tennis at the ripe age of 22, unheard of as a professional athlete. They slowly but steadily fall in love, and overcome the perceived divide that their 10 year age gap causes.

This is a lovely story with high production quality and well-written, memorable lines. I really enjoyed the first 30 episodes, as the pacing was good and story developed in a way that kept you interested. However, I think the story would have been better with just 30 episodes and filler content about side couples and Liang Youan's boss cut out.

The acting is superb, Wu Lei and Zhou Yutong looked so natural, especially in the sweet romantic scenes. My favorite supporting character is Song Sanchuan's dad though, as he provided sage advice and comic relief, and supported their romance from the very beginning. What was refreshing was that even though there were flawed, dislikeable characters (e.g. Liang Youan's mom), the leads were cognizant of those faults and biases, and did not let misunderstandings develop between them instigated by these flawed characters.

As a sports drama, I did wish that the tennis scenes were better. I got tired of seeing cuts of Wu Lei hitting a tennis ball and then another cut directly to him waving the trophy. I felt like Ping Pong with Bai Jing Ting was able to shoot the actual competition much better, and you actually saw significant growth in technique as an athlete. Overall, very good nianxia (older woman younger man) drama that I would recommend to slice of life and romance fans alike.
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