Ugly Beauty (2021)

Decent romance that may be worth your time

Pretty good overall!? The pacing and plot development is pretty good. Since it's only 24 episodes in total, I am glad things are going quickly in terms of plot. There are some parts where it feels like it's happening quite fast and other times where it's a bit draggy. There is a plot twist at the end (last two episodes) but it didn't really feel like it. There wasn't much suspense leading up to it, so I didn't feel the shock of the twist. It was more like "oh... okay." But the ending was happy and rather touching at a point.

Besides, the romance aspect is worth the watch. A light romance with good humor. I find myself breaking into a smile because of some of the scenes/dialogue. To add, the OST is beautiful and the main cast is not dubbed!! ❤

The female lead has great chemistry with both male actors and plays the two roles quite well that I can differentiate between the two. I've never watched her before but she's good (not awkward at all). She is especially good at the emotional/tense scenes cause you can see the emotions in her eyes. I already ship her with Chen Mo as Xiao Mu. ?Their scenes are so cute and comedic. I find myself laughing/smiling unconsciously. The actor who plays Chen Mo is a bit stiff at times with his facial expressions and body language but he's still decent. So, I would definitely say the FL is carrying the drama compared to the rest of the cast.

The writer tried to add some angst when the lead couple had a conflict but it didn't really land. The mood felt kind of forced. I honestly like them better when they are being funny and bantering with another. And then the writer also attempted to put conflict between the twins, which worked, but the resolution was a bit too rushed for my liking. Meng Gui's sudden 365 in attitude in the last episode was a bit jarring but I'll take it since everyone got a happy ending.

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Reasonable first half, then draggy

Enjoyed the first half, until they two couples get together. The scenes vary, the activities change, there's some mystery about who-is-who.

But the second half dragged horribly. I think there were about three sets, and scenes were mostly talking heads. "Conflicts" between couples were contrived. There were way too many scenes of the individuals staring into space looking vaguely forlorn as their love-partner walked off in a huff.

Acting was reasonably good, particularly Zheng He Hui Zi who plays the identical twins. She plays about a lot of very different roles... the little sister, the big sister, the little sister pretending to be the big sister, the big sister pretending to be the little sister, the little sister pretending to be the big sister acting as a character in a movie, and probably several others.

Both guys were stiff, but I think that was mostly the directing.

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