This review may contain spoilers
Great drama worth re-watching
This is a drama that you can re-watch.After watching the epilogue I must concur with other viewers that Zheng Ye Cheng raised the bar for the role of General(XY). His chemistry with Hu Yi Xuan (CY)is well portrayed in many heart wrenching scenes.CY is witty, adorable and trusting which touched XY’s cold heart. I enjoyed the hilarious scene where she mistook roll call for hug a tree as they both sound similar in Mandarin.
XY and CY will sacrifice own happiness for the other. ZYC pull off crying scenes beautifully.
You can feel how torn XY was when learnt that his brother’s death is link to CY.
The support actors are brilliant especially XC who loved CY unconditionally.
I am thankful to the director for a happy ending. Enjoy!
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acting is outstanding and sizzling and chemistry between lead actors is going to make you crazy.
OST is a definite 10. this is a music which is going to stay with you for many years.
No summary can do it justice then watch it.
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After years of being together, we got a glimpse of the life of Arthit and Kongpob, but the more i see the more i question if they really love each other - almost no intimacy, and a couple who doesnt really know each other. Signs of an unhealthy closeted gay guys' relationship. Yes I went there. The fact that it always feels like Kongpob is chasing after Arthit just hurts me. I wouldnt want to stay in that kind of relationship. These 2 are so intent on keeping with their narrative that THEY ARE NOT GAY so we dont do intimacy - is forgivable in SOTUS, but here, it is just too tiring to watch.
The show also introduced a lot of new characters while the rest of the old cast were left to be extras - a lot of useless annoying characters especially that super annoying unremorseful HR staff that should have been fired the moment she leaked those photos . That old accounting lady, as much as i hate her character, should be whiplashing almost everyone in that company.
Cannot rewatch it even if you pay me. Im still giving it a 7 overall just because Krist and Singto are amazing actors. Otherwise dont waste your time.
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This review may contain spoilers
What a pity the drama ended. I have been saying this since beginning, but I think that it's still underrated. I have a lot to write, hence I don't know with what I ought to start. The ending! It was so good! For me, no matter how good drama was, last episode is always the worst, even when the ending was happy. I think that a lot of writers and directors struggle with this topic - If I was a one, I would too. It's so hard to let go of your own characters, tie everything together and deliver the right emotions and message to viewers. Here, chapeau bas! I can confidently say that it was my favorite last episode ever. I cannot recall any other ending that did such a great impression on me. I will praise creators of this drama for a long time. I'm almost 100% sure that we didn't have any plot holes and everyone's actual situation/ending were explained.
I truly loved these characters! The actors here were an absolutely top tier. I had been watching actors I knew before and some new faces for me that I automatically added to lists with my favorites. At the beginning of this series I commented here that "all of them have their good and bad sides, which can't be that obvious in the context of this drama". I still think the same. The story and relationships were unique. Creators misleaded us countless times. Also, I learnt so much thanks to this drama. The story, sentences and morals were meaningful.
It is almost hard to believe that this is a drama. It has a lot of movie vibes. I think it would be even better to watch the whole series at one time and I will definitely rewatch it.
I was surprised that a lot viewers were confused with episodes 12/13 and 14. In my opinion, scenes you didn't like, direction and pace of them were somehow meaningful and in the beat of the scenario. They greatly highlighted main sense and concerns of this story, even when you found it extravagant.
I adored all of the plot twists here. Usually, I could predict some of them but here... Not really. It is one of the biggest virtue - you never knew what else can happen. They handled it in the best way and I was surprised almost every episode. Definitely on one of the highest positions in my ranking with dramas which were the best in this topic.
Music. It nourished my soul and I will listen to the one of the best OST's in the history for a long weeks or months. I memorized these songs so well. They're just beautiful: words and melodies are worth every minute. The actors did a great job singing here.
Definitely in my top three of favorite dramas ever. Everything was so consistent and I can't criticize anything here. I will miss it so much. If you didn't watch it, I encourage you to do so.
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1Diplomatic impunity.
Go East starts out as a fresh and interesting workplace comedy about Sifang Pavilion 四方馆, which was an institution that hosted guests and envoys from all four directions 四方/sìfāng during the Tang dynasty. Sifang Pavillion is essentially a Ministry of Foreign Affairs; they handle diplomatic issues from issuing visas, facilitating trade, solving diplomatic cases to negotiating treaties. Yuan Mo is loosely attached to Sifang Pavilion and helps oversea foreign visitors at the city gates, under the indulgent eye of Director Ye Deshui. He is a clever fellow with a predisposition for wine, snakes and bird brains but he lacks ambition and shirks responsibility. Alas, he spots a real strange bird, Ashu, at the gates and makes the mistake of his life by stopping her. She invades his personal space, poisons him, bullies him, frames him, helps herself to his hard earned money and turns his life upside down. This poor man is so alone and lonely that he sucks it all up as if he was deprived of attention his whole life. As it turns out, the Man in White, the deadly leader of the Faceless assassins are after her. To help her, Yuan Mo gets co-opted taking on a proper role at the Sifang Pavilion, where he proves himself by solving a few tricky diplomatic cases.Ashu as a character did not work for me from the get go. She debuts as an entitled bully who blames the hapless Yuan Mo for all her issues, makes unreasonable demands and causes no end of trouble for him. She doesn't bat an eye when her servants openly disrespect him and never apologizes or feels a smidgeon of remorse. She puts herself in harm's way repeatedly with her noble idiocy and half baked schemes, endangering everyone that has to rescue her. This is an ungrateful creature that tramples all over the male lead and is so lacking in intelligence and survival instincts that it is a miracle she didn't perish long ago. I never connected with any Zhou Yiran's roles and her portrayal of Ashu is callous and supercilious to the point that I didn't root for her. Her piteous and repetitive crying scenes made me yawn and roll my eyes. For sure, these scenes are exaggerated for comedic effect but her constant smug expression made her seem mean instead of endearing or comical. None of the female characters are written in a flattering way. Yuchi Hua is also a termagant and is a cliché gender bender character whose only contribution is as token muscle. But at least she softens up and she shows she genuinely respects and cares for Wang Kunwu. This is the latest in a disturbing trend of dramas where the female characters get a free pass for toxic behavior towards male characters who pretty much just roll over and play dead. When did it become so unfashionable to have balanced relationships where men and women just treat each other well?
The only thing that salvaged this drama for me is Tan Jianci's incredibly funny and moving performance as Yuan Mo. This is a refreshing role for him and his comedic timing and expressions are spot on. The character itself is not super well written either; he fell for Ashu too quickly and I remain baffled as to why; he lets her walk all over him and he is super intelligent but ultimately only applies himself for her. The gaping difference between Tan Jianci and Zhou Yiran is that he made me love his goofy, slightly wimpy, deeply wounded Yuan Mo flaws and all; a character who seemed to not quite dare to live until he had to find himself for an ungrateful wretch with the brain the size of a watermelon seed. (Why didn't I live thousands of years ago so he could have found me instead?) Even though they looked cute together, the chemistry between them seemed more friendly than passionate so as a couple, they didn't move me. All those wasted Tan Jianci kiss scenes! But I enjoyed the camaraderie between both couples and the broader Sifang Pavilion team and the hilarious rivalry between the East Court and the West Court. Ye Deshui was MVP for me; he delivered as many comedy gold moments as Yuan Mo did and I loved the hilariously pragmatic way in which he ran Sifang Pavilion and appeased domestic and foreign conflicts.
Plot-wise this drama starts out well as I was genuinely intrigued by the foreign relations premise of the story. The first two cases are interesting and tight and the satire made me invested in the team. After that, the romances starts to take center stage and the to-ing and fro-ing between couples I didn't really care for was not funny enough to keep me engaged. That is also when progressively larger holes in the plot emerges and it snowballs into an avalanche at the end. Along the way, the tone of the drama shifts from silly and hilarious to one where the writer kills off good characters with diplomatic impunity. There was only one good twist in the entire plot, which was who saved the Yanle princess. The identity of the princess was too obvious you couldn't have missed it. Likewise, they cast an actor with an unmistakably prominent feature as the mysterious Man in White. He was flagged early on as a suspect in the Red Lotus case and his identity was just given away during Ashilan's kidnapping. Both these reveals were too early, erasing any sense of suspense. I thought Ashu was as dumb as bricks until they get back to Yanle which is when I realized that in the land of the blind, the one eyed woman is queen. The final reveal of the Man in White's motive contradicts the entire plot because given his identity, he never needed any Yanle princess; in fact a cooperative fake one is much better than the real thing. The smart thing for him to do would have been to eliminate her from the start. This is also what Long Tuqi should have done but Yanle is the land of the dumb after all. Even though it ends in a satisfying way, it was a hollow victory because they won because they were out-dumbed by the antagonists. It is this drama's most unique feature; a race to the bottom where the protagonists and antagonists vie to under smart each other.
Overall, the first half of this drama can be enjoyed as a spoof kind of along the lines of the Austin Powers movies but lacking any underlying intelligence. It is worth watching just to see Tan Jianci do comedy and romance watchers who can ship the couple may enjoy it more than I did. I found it a very mediocre watch, one that feels like a 7.0 more often than not. But I am going to throw in a 0.5 for the fresh premise and Tan Jianci's phenomenal, funny and moving acting to call it 7.5/10.0 overall.
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A banger season 2!
For those of you who have not watched this drama is missing out big time!!!! A webtoon adaptation, this one's a brilliant sequel to the awesome Season 1. An amazing cast, great harmony amongst them with details pertaining to each character's individual growth as well as screen time, it gives justice not only to the perpetrators but also to each actor and a message to each one of us. With the highest ratings in this timeslot this year, surpassing their own rating history from S1, this one is a must watch. Great OST this time as well. Following up to the episodes, although the first few episodes kinda were slow-burn, the latter half initially picked up their own awesomeness and delivered promising end as well to all the sub plots cum individual cases. Loved it throughout.Was this review helpful to you?
Soredemo, Ikite Yuku is an unforgettable drama. It’s simple, yet captivating, slow-paced, but addicting and sad, but at the same time very optimistic.
It tells the story of two families whose normal, everyday life was suddenly broken by a terrible crime and shows how people who were affected by it try to live on, cope with this tragedy. What I liked about this drama is the fact that it shows that both sides suffer, although differently – not only a victim’s family’s life is changed forever, but also those, who are related to murderer have to continue living with guilt and knowledge that somebody close to them killed an innocent person and destroyed lives of many people. It’s rare (at least for me) to find a story that gives a right to suffer not only to the victim’s side, but also for the other side too, so that’s a huge plus for writers.
The plot of this drama is really simple – it shows how the younger generation tries to heal their families and find the reason why the tragedy had to happen. Both main leads – Hiroki and Futaba are amazing, not only in terms of acting, but also as the characters. They feel real in their social awkwardness and their stubbornness to make things right is heartwrenching. Also, their relationship is unique and charming – two people who should be on the opposite sides join forces, change themselves and their families and also find in each other something akin to soulmates.
The pace in this one might be considered a bit slow by some, but for me this was surprisingly an advantage; because of that screenwriters could show us a very believable character development; everything was happening slowly, yet in the right moment and nearly every single behavior was justified and didn’t seem rushed or out of place. Also, I loved it that this drama despite taking on a really hard, seemingly depressing subject, is not overly dramatic and sad – it leaves the viewer with optimistic feelings. It’s like a catharsis.
Acting in this drama deserves a separate essay, so I’ll try to keep it short. Everybody was amazing! Yeah, yeah, it sounds like an exaggeration but believe me, it is not. Every single actor played his part perfectly – Eita ended up being my favourite Japanese actor ever, I’m stalking him now and plan to watch all his dramas. He was just natural in his role of an awkward guy for whom the time stopped when he was a teenager and who has to cope with his conflicting feelings for a family of his sisters murderer. His co-star, Mitsushima Hikari was great too, she’s a versatile actress who, in my opinion, has a huge potential to be one of the best Japanese actresses in few years. Just watch her in this drama and then see Love Exposure – I still can’t believe she’s the same person! Supporting actors, especially Hiroki’s mother, a woman who never accepted her daughter’s death (her monologue in ep.5 left me speechless) and Futaba’s father, a man who tries to atone for his son’s wrongdoings with all his might - they were outstanding in their roles, they could easily make the viewers feel the pain of the parent who lost his/her child. The only actor I was not impressed by was Kazama Shunsuke who played the murderer, but well, his role of a slightly autistic guy who never really grew up was really hard and still, he did a decent job, he was just not as amazing as the rest of the cast.
As for music in this drama I’ll only say that the opening song was really annoying at first. It slowly grew on me, but I still think it’s horrible. This wailing guy should keep his mouth shut for his entire life.
So to sum it all up, what I was trying to tell (or more write) in this review is that Soredemo, Ikite Yuku is one hell of a drama. I’ll use those corny descriptions again: it’s beautiful, thought-provoking and original, but see yourself if I’m not exaggerating!
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Finally something worth watching?? I don't have words.
I didn't know that I would say this about a vampire centric drama but it was really a breath of fresh air. After a long wait Cdrama world finally gave something worth watching which ended the spell of boring dramas of this year. We were inundated with many overhyped shows which could not do justice to all the anticipation. I wasn't sure about this one either (especially if it is a republican era one) but the first episode was more than enough to intrigue me with its unique plotline. The cinematography looked really nice plus the music beautifully accentuated the scenes. I loved the acting of all the actors and hoped this one could surprise us the way 'The double' did this year. However my hopes came down shattering pretty soon. It was already becoming impossible to ignore all the loopholes in the plot but by the time we reached the end, the drama totally took us as a fool. I was no longer mesmerized by the cinematography as I was in the beginning. The side characters completely took over the main leads and I could clearly see that they were forcibly giving more screen time to yinling. (Plus their efforts to justify all the wrong actions of some characters to gain sympathy of the viewers is just so... incomprehensible ). The show didn't really give proper closer to most of the characters (I wonder what was the rush?) The ending was so disappointing that I don't have words to explain it. If it wasn't for the good cast I would have dropped the show but I continued just for them..Their acting on the other hand kind of... began to look stiff towards the end as if nobody was feeling the emotions that their characters were supposed to feel or perhaps it was the weird editing that made me feel that way.(Except for Mi Lan, she was pretty good till the end).To conclude it all...this one could have been a great show with solid performance but they did their magic and ruined it all and made it another one time watch drama at most.
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It’s a special type of emotional experience, watching a drama like Skate Into Love, which has solid strengths yet also a fair share of wobbly flaws. It took some serious consideration for me to establish how to reconcile all the positives and negatives; but after watching the conclusion, I can say that for its genre, Skate Into Love can stand tall in its field.
The basis of the plot is a concoction of classic rom-com tropes. The leads know one another from early childhood and, upon reuniting years later, their relationship becomes an “enemies to lovers” affair. This show's primary differentiating factor is its inclusion of ice sports, which dictates significant plot points and is crucial in the growth of several characters.
The first half of the show overflows with sweet and humorous moments between Tang Xue and Li Yu Bing as their constant bickering turns into genuine care for one another. Their romance is a strong force because they, as separate characters, are both independent people who have flaws as obvious as their strengths. They manage to grow together and are capable of helping each other because they understand the person opposite them incredibly well. It warms the heart to watch and you can’t help but root for them as a couple and as individuals.
That being said, there are some other plot points that beg to be mentioned:
One: third wheels. It’s a rom-com rule that they have to stick their head into the plot. Listen, I don’t make the rules. Take it up with the screenwriters upstairs. They’re the ones who insist on including several love rivals. Some of them can actually pique your interest as they evolve over time, so not all of them are a total waste of your attention. However, it’s my civic duty to throw one of them – Mr. Bian “creepy chuckle” Cheng – under the bus for starting as a minor headache, then evolving into a complete migraine by intervening in the main couple’s relationships in the most boring and inconsequential ways possible. He is, hands-down, the weakest link of this show. You don’t hate him because he’s an actual threat, you hate him because he could be interesting but just isn't.
Then, there are the side couples. Like the third wheels, I don’t even remember how many of them there are. But nonetheless, they pass around the baton for taking over the show every once in many a while. A key positive point about all the supporting characters is that the writers did try to make them more dimensional. Just like the main characters, they each have unique motivations and insecurities, making them feel a lot more human than what could be said for many non-leads in other shows. Whether it be friends, family members, or rivals of the main characters, I really liked how they all had their own lives and problems. That further helped make all of the platonic relationships much more enticing. Even so, it’s incredibly difficult to have a drama effectively focus on a main couple as well as multiple side stories – some will certainly feel like plot filler, especially in early parts of the show, because we don’t see their full development like we can with Tang Xue and Li Yubing.
There are also some moments involving the leads that feel a bit iffy considering their personalities. Don’t you just love when a relationship, consisting of two amazingly communicative characters who deeply seek to understand one another, abruptly crumbles due to external factors that existed but didn’t matter before? To have problems within a relationship is completely normal; and while I’m glad to see them addressed, the way that they’re depicted is sometimes too theatrical. I’m not going to lie. Seeing all the age-old melodrama cliches enter the picture and challenge the romance is almost entertaining – in the same way that watching someone slip and fall is entertaining after you told them beforehand, “careful, it’s slippery”: the ridiculousness of something happening when it shouldn’t is quite…amusing, to say the least.
These flaws aside, I overall found the story to be a good balance of being amusing (even hilarious) at times and serious during others. I liked how sports are involved in some of the characters’ lives, providing them with dreams and purpose. Part of me wishes that there were more competition scenes shown, as the action during them was fun to watch (and inaccurate, but come on. It’s people on ice with knives on their feet; that in itself is deserving of a thumbs-up). Much of that may be due to my own preference, though, since personally like some ice sports and would hardly object to seeing more of them.
As for the acting, I genuinely appreciated the life that the lead actors brought to the story. Tang Xue is a character who – if assigned to a poor actress – could easily be depicted as annoying due to her outspoken nature, but Wu Qian does an excellent job balancing that boisterous behavior with kindheartedness. Zhang Xincheng also shines in the role of Li Yubing. His depiction of a childish yet determined young man is spot-on. Together, these two actors created an excellent picture of a happy and young relationship, full of promises and hope for the future. When evaluating the supporting actors, I found their abilities sufficient for the roles that they're given and certainly wouldn’t mind watching their future projects.
As far as rom-coms go, Skate Into Love is satisfactory. Though it occasionally stumbles, none of that changes how it put some of the biggest smiles on my face out of many of the rom-coms I’ve seen thus far. You really just have to go in prepared to brush off all the cliches, because what’s underneath all that dust is a very sweet story that is worth sitting through.
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Coffee Prince is hardly an undiscovered gem, but like the best coffee shops, it’s a warm, inviting place to pass the time. It gently reminds that life’s small pleasures should be noticed and savored, and that choosing love, for a person, a profession, or a place, is worth whatever heartache or stigma may tag along.
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This review may contain spoilers
A moment connected to the soul will follow us for a lifetime.
A moment might just be a period that lasts for a second, but a moment connected to the soul will follow us for a lifetime.Every moment is like that, every second is the same, each raising of a hand, each breath, or even hours sitting still without moving, will become a part that follows a person's life, forever.
It's been so long since I watched a youth-themed film, and strangely, any film I previously watched—that I considered good—had an unfulfilling ending, to prove that youth is forever the most beautiful period in a person's life, a time where "even if we had to bathe in the rain, we would want to go back one more time." Perhaps that's why, among the forest of youth films, only "Always Home" achieved such emotional heights for me, making me feel empty after watching, feel unfulfilled, not because of an incomplete ending, but because of an ending, a process, a film, a message so complete that I felt hollow, because the ending meant the film had truly ended. And I realized that hollow feeling is what comes after watching a truly good film, one that has truly filled me, comforted me and brought me so many emotions. The film ended, and I felt lost. Perhaps "Always Home" also marks a period in my university days, and has become a part of me?
I must admit, this is a film suitable to watch while I'm in university. I see the past, I see the possible turning points in the future. Society resembles school, and also carries many unknowns, with young people standing vaguely at crossroads, vaguely striving, vaguely running. I have many questions for my future self, and so many words of advice, comfort, and encouragement for my past self, yet, ultimately, the present life is still the most wonderful. The process of growing up isn't actually the moment the clock strikes from 11:59 PM on the day I'm 17 to midnight on the day I'm 18, but the process of time gradually flowing, the soul collecting each second and minute, each choice, each action, each person around us, becoming the soul of our present self. Youth in the drama is beautifully dreamlike, making me feel empathy, admiration, and longing. But thinking again, whether youth is calm or passionate, whether young age is reckless or simply quiet days, in the end, those are still the days of youth we are living, have lived, and will live in. Youth may not be impulsive, people may not be extraordinary, dreams may only appear in dusty frames, the people we've met may just be visitors with no set date to meet again, the cycle of the universe will not stop, and youth has never stopped being brilliant, in the unique way of ordinary, mundane people who have no second version.
The characters in "Always Home" are also ordinary people like anyone else, like me, except their lives only exist in a short period packaged within the duration of a film. They existed in their lives, loved and were loved, lived the most complete life under our observation. Meanwhile, our lives continue out there, perhaps without such beautiful friendships, open career paths, a warm family, a dream love; perhaps to us, they are the lucky ones, the extraordinary ones, but who knows, to those around us, we might be such the lucky person too. The luckiest person in the end is the one who knows they are lucky; each person has their own life, a blank page is the beginning of all the colors we will paint later. Making mistakes is okay, being foolish is no problem—youth is a stage of life where if we make wrong choices, we fix them together because we're still young, we still have time. Therefore, I want to say to my future self, keep living in your youth, even if you think you've matured, don't be afraid, never feel that life has lost its meaning, you still have, and always have, enough time to fix mistakes. Mistakes are also a part of the soul, don't mistreat them, don't regret, don't resent.
Writing this long, in the end, they're just words, old stories about that childish "youth" motif. The cycle, the impermanence of the world, ultimately are all flowery words about things people often mention when reminiscing about the past and knowing nothing about the future. But that's how people operate, everyone is the same, we're all ordinary with flaws, and it's these ordinary things that make us, that make this life. Perhaps it's been a long time since I gave a film this maximum score, because I always feel everything lacks something. But if I don't make an exception for "Always Home," then perhaps I couldn't explain how my mood and emotions operate. My emotions have filled in each flaw, and I feel emotions should still play the main role in each process of my experiencing cinema (art).
So there it is, the characters have accompanied me, entered my thoughts, aroused my anticipation, indescribable emotions, joy, satisfaction, sadness, contentment, excitement, hope, nostalgia, and impression. The setting, music, plot, lighting, colors, ending, meaning... all contributed to creating a story neither short nor long, not telling an entire human life, but stayed with me for a short time, then became a part of my soul.
A youth film, nothing more, and that's a compliment.
In conclusion, I want to affirm that I truly liked the story of each character in the film, the story of their everlasting youth, of young people and those no longer young in age, of those who love and those who are loved, of those still there and those who left their souls there. Perhaps my process of watching the film was truly a special journey that I will never forget.
And, the final final word, the acting was super excellent! I believed in Zhai Xiaowen's acting from the start, but Zhou Keyu surprised me, really. I'm not describing, evaluating, or deeply critiquing each story and character in this review because I'm truly seeing all their stories as one story with a common name—love. (Though I must say I really liked the Song Tong - Du Man couple—the kissing scene truly left me speechless and I had to pause for five minutes to calm down.) Everyone's chemistry was good, from family to friends to romance, especially scenes depicting very slight stirrings, very light touches, for which I must separately praise the director for the scene arrangement, and can't forget the sound and the actors' gazes. For a film with such complex romantic storylines to be so smooth and understandable, such scenes depicting emotion are truly valuable. And really, thank you to my past self from last week who decided to watch this film despite its "roundabout" nature, because these films aren't frustrating about relationships at all.
In general, this is a beautiful film, in every way.
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It' the quality effect indeed. He has done some really good movies and The Man From Nowhere is a great example of his less-in-quantity-more-in-quality movies. I loved this movie. It was thrilling and touching all at once. A man going all the way to save a little girl because she's his friend. And the man cannot be stopped! He's a freaking one-man army, who won't stop until he wants to. What a great plot! I was on the edge of my seat throughout the movie and the ending made me cry. Well, almost since I don't cry that easily. The ending was a little different from what I expected but it was a good ending.
The rewatch value is the only thing that is not a ten for me. That's mostly because you know how the movie will progress and that steals a bit of the excitement. But the action scenes are simply WOW. The lead character is so strong and invincible, but he doesn't care about glory.
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This review may contain spoilers
All aboard the angst train. This is going to be a bumpy ride!
This show started light-heartedly. A bit of awkward meet-cute sets up the love line between our OTP. I have to give credit to the FL for her portrayal of a 16 year old even though she is 30 in RL. In fact, most of her roles tends to be in that late teens to early 20's range.While the romance is a slow burn, it is engaging and quite cute. It did turn dark when the FL "accidentally" poisoned the ML. He fell into a coma for a long time and when he woke up, he has the mind of a child. That is a shock for all concerned because he was an intellectual giant before the accident.
This brought about the second phase of their relationship. In his dim-witted state, he latched onto the FL like a chick onto a mother hen, In turn, she dedicated all her efforts to cure him and be with him. Around this time, the show really went to the dark side. The melodrama dial is turned up to the MAX when the FL's whole family was killed. It is excessive, but not 100% shocking when you consider the historical setting. It was designed to hit us with the feels, and it works.
I'm shipping the OTP at this point because they both suffered so much and yet they are trying their best to be happy in their little world. However, the show starts making questionable decisions from this point onwards. They piled on the angst and dragged out the ML’s plot. While his childlike innocence was a novelty at first. It went on largely unchanged for 1/3 of the entire run. What was cute earlier is now wearing.
If that is not enough, the moment the ML recovers his memory and mental capacities, he plays the noble idiot card. As expected, the OTP suffered even more. I still don't quite understand his logic. At first, he thought she has feelings for her senior. However, after she clarified the misunderstanding and declares her undying love for him, he continues with the charade even though he is in pain and pining for her. The brakes are off the angst train by now.
There are a number of opportunities to reunite the leads. The show could have profited from their love and longing. Hit an emotional high and gift us some much-needed fan service. Alas, it was not to be. I'm not going to spoil the last few eps, but let's just say the writer doubled down and went all-in on their sufferings.
Before we all reach for the Suicide Help Line, the writer parachute in a happy ending but it was literally in the dying seconds of the show. There is no preamble nor extra fan service. The scene is so contrived, I'm speechless. I can only imagine the writer being told by the upper echelon to cough up a happy ending or else. In hindsight, maybe it'd have been better if the writer decide to die on that hill and insists on delivering a torture porn unto the bitter end. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Acting wise, the cast did ok. The FL was in her element. The ML is handsome and not too wooden. I like his earlier portrayal of the man-child. However, the same-y role becomes boring to watch eventually. The ensemble cast is standard issue for a costume drama of this ilk.
I was ok with the angst . . up to a point. It is that type of show after all. However, the last few episodes really throw everything at the OTP including a weaponized kitchen sink. We have all manners of weird plot twists inserted solely to pull the leads apart even though they more than earned their rights to be together. That was too much for me. I am posting a lower score as a warning to others. Peace out.
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Youth, friendship, family, love, and school. This drama was so heartwarming, light and realistic. It perfectly depicts the beauty, the joy, the sadness and the stress of being a teenager.
I loved how all themes were developed equally, there wasn't too much of anything, everything was perfectly dosed. Everything took its time to develop which make this drama more realistic. You will find yourself rolling with laughter at the friendship the characters had, smiling at the small selfless acts of kindness towards each other, getting angry at the trouble they had to go through, sympathize with them, and having your heart skip a bit at the sweet moments. A lot of the things these characters experienced, we have also experienced during those years of our life. With all this, I can assure you that this drama is so light that will make your heart warm and leave you clicking on the next episode with a huge smile on your face.
The acting was great! these young actors did a great job at depicting all emotions a teenager goes through, from falling in love to having worries about family issues. The chemistry between the main characters was impeccable. I always try hard to stop myself from having a second lead syndrome because I know that I will be the only one getting hurt in the end. "When we were young" did not even let me have a second lead syndrome because Hua Biao's character is so great that it's impossible not to ship him with Yang Xi. On that note, I must admit that Hua Biao is such an inspiring character. Usually, someone like him in dramas would be a cold-hearted asshole but Hua Bio was PERFECT! Yes! he is the embodiment of perfection. From his beautiful smile to his caring attitude, his intelligence and bubbly personality, he is perfect. I LOVED how hard working and independent he is, how he always tried to solve misunderstandings as soon as they arise and how selfless he is. His character is inspiring and I think I personally should learn more to be like him.
I LOVED the 1990s vibe, very similar to the REPLY series and A LOVE SO BEAUTIFUL. Just like there is some drama set in different eras of history, I hope setting dramas and movies in the 1980s and 1990s will become a thing. I am in love with the aesthetic and the whole vibe just bring about a lot of nostalgia.
AWESOME Chinese drama overall. If you know anything similar to this please hit me up :)
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