Chess Love (2021)

Pretty decent drama for having that many episodes

I know what you're thinking. 41 episodes, that seems a lot and bound to have a lot of troubles. Even I was concern too but in honest truth, it wasn't all that bad.

Before I continue with my review, I'm just going to pinpoint a couple of things about this drama and hopefully that will determine if you want to watch it or not.
1. If you're not a fan of the drama cliché of the leads meeting each other as kids, then you might as well skip this one. If you're not bother by it, then continue on. I considered this as a good drama cliché.
2. There are no evil parents or in-laws
3. There are a few misunderstandings, in the beginning and then right around Ep 31-32. However, these misunderstandings are cleared up pretty quickly, so if you're concern about long episode wait of solving the misunderstandings, you don't have to worry. The second misunderstanding doesn't lead to a break up but more of FL's concern and need of reassurance about ML's love for her.
4. Very minor love rival for our main couple. I said minor because the FL's rival doesn't show up until much later in the drama and even then, she's only in a few episodes but she is hecka annoying. There is a love triangle but that's within the secondary couple. There are 3 couples in total for this drama.
5. Some people may get annoyed by Yu Da, the guy that forms our 2nd couple and is part of the secondary love triangle. Either because of his actions or they seemly are rooting for the other guy in the love triangle. He doesn't really bother me but I can see the annoyance especially when it's with the SFL.
6. There is a main villain but it's more like the forming of a villain due to the greedy nature of wanting to win and to bring down the ML.

I personally like this drama overall and my rating of a 9 doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have the same opinion or taste as me. I gave this drama a rating of a 9 because for one, it's a 41 episode drama and I got to admit, it's actually pretty okay from start to finish for having that many episodes. There are some moments where it drags but that's what you expect with dramas this long. However, even with that, I still anticipate for the next episode so at least it kept me interested for the most part.

Story is nothing new here but it isn't bad either as the FL will play the key role to the ML's recovery process. This drama does a great balance on showing the GO competition and the building of relationships between our couples. Now there are some scenes where they do explain the movements of GO and how the play of this game works but not enough explanation for a newbie like me to understand. However, in replacement of that, the drama shows cool and awesome fighting scenes between our GO players to show who will win and I for one, really enjoy those cinematic scenes.

The one thing I wish that could've been better is at least having one of the character suspecting our villain throughout the drama. In terms of that aspect, the characters are too trusting which leads to the villain getting away with a lot of stuff until close to the end. Now the stuff he does just impacts the ML for the most part, as he is his main target so while his plans and actions are evil, there not as evil as other villains I've seen in other dramas. Also, I wasn't too fond of the secondary couple love triangle. That wasn't needed at all for this drama.

In summary, I'm very impressed with the quality of this drama being that it's 41 episodes. FL is a little bit annoying in the beginning but she's a strong character overall so that's a big plus for me. The drama OST for the intro and credit are amazing. I never skip it! It may not be everyone's cup of tea but I for one enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

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We don't eat deserts as the main course... they should be served as deserts, and the same goes with fluffy rom-com. Go Into Your Heart is nothing more than a very long and unnecessary drag with content that needs no more than 24 episodes to wrap up... so 41 episodes give nothing but boredom due to things happening just for sake of extending the plotline and annoying characters every by and then.

Though I'll admit the main couple is kinda cute and acting from them is promising as Landy Li can always pull out that cute adorable role and Niu Jun Feng may seem stiff and robotic throughout the whole show but that is what his character is made up... I adored Cheng Yi's character a lot... but other than that nothing impressed me or even make it worth watching, as the story forwards in a vague direction every time.

I don't get why dramas have to glamorize every profession? Like from when Go players are treated like celebrities or idols for fangirling... or news anchors make scandals for drinking or going to club or spending their time with whomever they want. It doesn't make any sense... The whole fingerprint thing was nonsensical, and why they have to make a lead who's just soooo surreal almost not relatable at any point, but then yes male lead should be the most intelligent and smartest person alive where female lead clumsy, naive, and the innocent type who isn't even par to male leads aura. Ah, that kinda sucks.

Maybe I would have appreciated it if they made Sheng Jing Chu more human-like, not LEGEND... I mean his girlfriend calls him legend all the time, doesn't he deserve some human-like treatment?

As of the fact, this is 41 episodes so sure it takes a time to get leads together... both being adorable I did enjoy their time and moments together. But apart from the leads side couples were a bit off for me, I wasn't rooting for anyone lol Yu Da is mood but he's just childish and so immature and I was annoyed by his actions most of the time. Xu Chi was just so trying to fit in the mold of perfect which made him a bit stiff and unreachable. I guess Xi He would be the only one... I enjoyed seeing him on screen every time, I also liked his moody style changing so every time he looks like a whole new person with a different persona.

The production value or quality doesn't matter to me most of the time, as a strong story is more than enough than beautiful cinematography. But when you try to do some-not-really-needed-but-just-for-visuals-things do it properly. The whole graphic thing during Go matches was poorly done... it almost felt like if I'm watching any cheap animation movie without any context.

In conclusion, it's nothing unique or delivers something that's out of the box.. you have a lot of free time and the ability to turn off your brain for some time then you can give it a try at your own risk.

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