Luo Yao Knew What He Meant (2023)

Very unpopular opinion

Looking at the ratings of this drama mine is going to be an extremely unpopular opinion, sorry.

This drama felt like a big advertisement for teenagers on how their lives need to play out.
If you're a teen in high school you can have a crush, but don't go further!! focus on your studies and wait. Oh, you're 18 now? it's ok then, you can have a relationship. You finished your degree? you need to get the best job ever immediately and be super successful very young, be able to afford a house and not long after marry and start a family. It's almost fuel for depression.
The timings on when the characters were allowed or not to do something were super on the face, and they tried very hard to make the main two characters flawless in their upbringing, studies and manners.
In fact only Guan Fang has a more nunanced life, but it's put there as an example of what someone that gets into trouble needs to do, but they don't even dwell on how he did it, he just did because he looked at his grandma one day. It's very superficial.

I found the main female character quite annoying at times (some others I enjoyed her sassyness) and overall there is really no character progression for any of them, so as a result even when in the end they're in the wedding they look like 16 year olds getting married, I found it super weird. You also don't get to know them individually, not even the main characters (only Su Zai Zai and Guan Fang a bit more maybe), so you don't really know anything about them, only that they're friends and they're all ok successful people. Their specific traits are quite superficial so they're not that distinguishable ones of the others really, they work mostly as quirks since they don't impact much on how they act or what they do. Even when Jiang Jia didn't know what she wanted to study is solved quickly with very little hesitation. Zhang Lurang tells me in the end he has changed so much, but other than the fact they told the actor he could now smile more, I don't see any other change. He says he had low self-esteem, and while it's shown him not being treated very well as a teen by his mother I didn't see at any point him seeming to have low self esteem, I only saw him being serious and quiet and it's not the same.

As it happens many times I found the friends romantic relationship more interesting, that is until they decided to completely push it to the side and only resolve it quickly after the time jump. Time jumps also mean nothing here anyway, none of them change at all and whoever else they meet they only stay in their lives for like 5 seconds anyway. Very choppy.
Plot was boring at times (and I like slice of life) and most of the dialogue was very superficial, what is not necessarily terrible but then you had more poetic lines in specific crafted moments that were taking me again to the feeling of massive advert.
Many side characters appear only at weird moments and then in others when you would expect them to appear they don't.

Points go for the cute moments here and there, but overall this was a big miss for me.
I've watched chinese movies before but this was my first chinese series, and considering the high rating of this compared with my opinion of it I'm not sure I should try any other series maybe :/

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‘When I Fly Toward You’ Chinese drama is flying high for me.

‘When I Fly Towards You’ is a Chinese Drama about a young girl who has a mad crush on this boy. Why? No particular reason. Sometimes teen girls are just attracted to someone. He is very smart and in Advance Class. She is in average class. He runs, but she persists. Will she win? The drama is uncomplicated and delightful, a simple read. I love the chemistry between the male and female leads. Cuteness overload. ‘When I Fly Towards You’ is a Chinese Drama to add to your complicated list of dramas. Use it to decompress. The drama has 24 episodes at about 35 minutes each and is on Netflix. I am totally loving this Teen Crush School Life Drama. Like with the Chinese Drama ‘Hidden Love’, ‘When I Fly Towards You’ takes this relationship from teen years to adulthood. This is a very romance centered drama with a stellar posse of actors.

More attention is being paid to the Chinese School Life Romance Drama Hidden Love and deservedly so. Nevertheless, ‘When I Fly Towards You’ is an excellent drama too. Great OST or original soundtrack and great posse of actors. ‘When I Fly Towards You’ has the vibe of the Korean Drama ‘King, The Land’ because of the truculent male and the smiley female, with a splash of the Chinese Drama Hidden Love which transverses time.

PS-The voice of the Male Lead is ever heavenly, resonating in the lower register. I could listen to this voice for days and never get tired. And by the time you get to the end, you will miss this drama Big Time.

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Korea should take notes

This Drama was sheer perfection. EVERYTHING was right about it: The tone, the length, the story arcs, the character development, the music - everything.

The perfection of tone and length were closely related. Because the Drama was a perfect length, just 14 hours total runtime, the tone stayed sweet and positive throughout. I am a hardcore brony, who just LOVES a good romance Drama. In recent years, Korea has stopped producing any. Instead K Drama writers have decided that nothing says "romance" more than having a serial killer as a major part of every "romcom", or resorting to fantasy pairings like a girl with a demon, or a girl with Cupid, or a girl with a Reaper, etc. etc. etc.

What the writers of THIS Drama got write was in understanding that a simple, sweet, uncomplicated "girl meets boy and it's love at first sight" story is ALREADY pure fantasy, and doesn't need any other baggage thrown in. No need for dark scary psychopaths whose only real function is to pad out the overlong run time. No need for love triangles, stalker exes, or anything to spoil the short sweet fluff. Evefn the creepy, sleazy client was presented a brief a nod to reality and a setup for more OTP bonding.

This worked because the characters were well-written, and this leads me to the main reason why on my personal database, I scored this as 11/10. This Drama is very much in the model of Itazura Na Kiss and all its clones, but with one HUGE difference. From It Started With a Kiss to A Love So Beautiful and lots of similar Dramas in between, I have watched "cute ditzy girl falls for hunky brainiac" A LOT, and this is the VERY FIRST ONE EVER where the FL had an academic strength in which she excelled the ML and even taught him. That was ASTONISHING. My drop rate for C Dramas is high, more than 50% of the C Dramas I start I drop, and that's because of the toxic chauvinsitic misogyny rampant in modern C Dramasd especially. The heroes are good at EVERYTHING, the Fl good at nothing, except pehaps EQ. Not this one. To see an ML & FL tutoring each other and helping each other as true peers was beautiful.

This equality was openly expressed in the dialogue too. The scene where the ML defends the FL to her young cousin by telling him how good the FL is at English (sad we never hear her say a single word of it) was an example of the quality of the writing. Since I rely on subtitles, and since I know how VERY much is literally "lost in translation" whenever I see a Drama where I'm blown away by the quality of writing IN THE SEBS, I think about how awsome the actual dialog must be.

I loved the sensible, down to Earth forthrightness of the FL. She knew what she wanted and went for it, but she also grew as a person and was never passive or whiny. The ML was great too, a great example of a "damaged" ML who was NOT tsundere. His little speech at a product presentation he gave about the impact of the FL on his life was magnificent, as was his thoughtful, PRIVATE proposal.

Whenever I need a remider of why I fell in love with East Asian Dramas in the first place, and why when they get it right they are truly I magical, I will FLY TOWARDS this Drama for a rewatch

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IT'S A 10 A 10 A 10 A TEN!!

It's a such a wholesome drama. like it's soooo good. I loved every aspect of this drama, the story, the music, the cast, the cinematography, the screenplay, EVERYTHING. It has a great insight on growing up and it's really heartwarming. The story felt very real. And I loved how natural it was. It felt soo nice to watch them grow up and change buty still love each other the same without having any misunderstandings and fights. The music was mind blowingly amazing! The acting too was fabulous! And the cast had great chemistry! Truly truly enjoyed watching this drama! Never been a fan of high school draams or coming of age dramas but I think this was it. This drama was ULTIMATE! I might watch more coming of age dramas just because of this drama. And I must say I would 100% def watch this drama all over again. It was sooooooo good omg I cannot emphasise this enough. IT WAS SOO GOOD. Overall, just go watch it already. 🏫👦🏻👧🏻👦🏻👧🏻👦🏻💫✈️🧑🏻‍🔧🇬🇧👩🏻‍🎓🏥🧑🏻‍⚕️📰👩🏻‍💼🏫🤵🏻

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If you are looking for a beautiful stress free youth drama. Look no further

Short Synopsis:
When the new transfer student Su Zai Zai falls for the cold, aloof & introverted Zhang Lu Rang, she knows her work is cut out for him and with the help of her best friend Jiang Jia she tried various cringey scenarios to win him over which usually hilariously backfires. While Zhang Lu Rang usually keeps to himself due to his inferiority complex and has created barrier around him because he is constantly being pressured and ignored by his family as he is being always compared to his genius younger brother. But soon it becomes harder for Zhang Lu Rang to resist Su Zai Su Zai's charm when she starts to feel like a sun to his cloudy days because she is always there for him and can't help but smile because of her silly tactics and her straight forward & bubbly nature. And soon Su Zai Zai along with Jiang Jia and Zhang Lu Rang's friends Gu Ran & Guang Fang helps Zhang Lu Rang to get out of his shell and they forge new friendships and lifelong memories.

Reason to watch this drama :
1. Short, sweet, stress free & beautiful
2. Follows the character's journey through school , college to university and their adult life which will make you nostalgic about your youth and friendships.
3. The characters are all green flags. All the characters are fleshed out and has their own individual stories and goals
4. The female characters are strong, intelligent and does not fall in the damsel in the distress trope.
5. Though the main female character pursues male character at first , she respects his boundaries and is not clingy.
6. The relationship between the main characters is very healthy, there is no misunderstanding, love triangle or angst. Whenever they encounter any problems they trust each other and get through it. Also it builds on the concept of 'She fell for him first but he fell for her harder'.
7. This drama has some really great & beautiful quotes and life lessons which will be engraved in you and you will think back to this moments.
8. The actors and actresses were perfect for their roles and had great chemistry.
9. The OST is also really beautiful, you will lose yourself listening to it and will be again reminded of the beauty of this drama
10. Happy ending.

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perfect from start to finish

It actually breaks my heart for the series to end because I just wanted to keep going. It was cute and wholesome and nostalgic of high school life. It had enough conflict to push the story forward but not so much that it was stressful and overwhelming. Though set in high school, I’m grateful there weren’t many (if at all) stupid decisions and misunderstandings rooted in teenage angst and hormones. I could turn off my brain and just have fun watching how their life progressed through the different stages of growth. It’s the type of show I’ll pick up any day simply because it was just full of sunshine. Would recommend and would reward, for sure!

PS: I can’t believe that Zhang Lurang here is Ai Jia from Falling Into Your Smile! His range is surprisingly amazing. 10/10 fr

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A PERFECT YOUTH CDRAMA

ZLR & SZZ:
their first meet was only so cinematic, it was so beautifully depicted. ZZ falling in love at first is just so easily connectable to everyone who watches. ZLR being the most typical introvert, but not a cold ml, and slowly opening up to her was so excellently shown. it was the perfect representation of SHE FELL FIRST, BUT HE FELL HARDER. i also loved how the fl wasn't just chasing him, not also smart in her own strengths and helped the ml. she even helped his brother, and made her bond stronger. i really also liked how the ml always smiled at her and that way in the last ep, he gives a huge smile to her being pregnant . my pov: it felt like he wanted to bite her cheeks, lol XD. most importantly, they were not toxic at all, she told him that didn't need study in the same uni, and told him to chase his dreams while she chase her own. in conclusion, they were most cutest & perfect couple u could ever ask for.

GR & JJ:
this couple has special place in my heart. the way he fell for her, like really really hard, but still supported her, that was so heartwarming to watch. i love his efforts were made known to her, he fell first, becoz she was like star to him, too precious to approach, the way he notices every single detail of hers, he buys her a gift when that other guy didn't, he gets her pads even though it might be embarrassing for some guys, he was just too flawless, and the way she supports/encourages when she thought she had no dreams. JJ was such optimistic character, but her sadness was always noticed by GR. this couple was magnificent and splendid in their own ways.

FRIENDSHIP:
i love how all the 5 of them were always there for each other.
they helped ZZ when she was falsely accused by searching dustbins.
they helped GR, by staying by his side when he was sick and lonely.
they helped GF, by dealing with his trauma and being there when his grandma was sick.
and many more to go...

Last but not the least, you have to give his cdrama a watch.
I LOVED THIS CDRAMA. ❤️

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Best adorable and lovable drama highly recommend

What a lovely drama I enjoyed a lot from first to last episode so cute so sweet so lovable so admirable woah I want to go back to my youth again anyway I loved this drama a lot hopefully I want to see such dramas where female lead actors are not dummy and cold hearted male leads and female leads follows male lead but this drama wasn’t like that both were strong and cute personalities and second couple also had a great love story and chemistry and they waited for each other for so many years and yet finally they ended up together it’s good to marry a person who is best friend and other guy a friend was also done his role awesome way this story had a great friendship , love story, comedy, cuteness overloaded, dreams, achievements, marriage, students life, college life, work life hope they make more such dramas ❤all the best to the team

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For those who seek comfort! ୨ৎ

I watched this because my friend recommended it to me. It had been a long time since the last time I watched a series, let alone a chinese one, but since she said it was her comfort drama, I gave it a shot. I ended up enjoying it a lot even though I had no expectations whatosever.

I loved the cast. At first, I thought Zai would be your typical soft-hearted, weak, and pick me lead, and Lurang was a typical cold, arrogant male lead. But, despite Zai's soft character, I absolutely loved how she's assertive and she knows how to stand up for herself. She had her fair shares of embarrassing moments but not up to the point where you'll cringe hard. Lurang also turned out to be just a shy guy who doesn't know how to express himself, given that he came from a non-affectionate family. I love how their relationship started as well as the way it progressed. I love how there were no unecessary love triangle and how their arguments and misunderstandings were easily solved. It was realistic.

The supporting characters also did a great job! I love how they weren't one-dimensional characters who were just there for the plot. They were also given their own story worth watching and listeningto. The second couple was also lovable, in fact, I actually liked their trope more. They also had a strong chemistry. The relationship between the characters were well presented and I couldn't help but wish I had a friend group as strong as theirs.

Their story may not be that remarkable but personally, each episode made me crave for more. The only downhill for me here was the seemingly rushed ending because I still had questions — I wish we got to see a glimpse of the closure between Rang and his annoying mother, how they told their parents about their engagement, and their child! I wanted to see their child! I loved how we got to see their story that began in highschool until their work / married lives. This was a good balance between realistic and too-good-to-be-true of events.

Overall, this drama felt like a escape from reality, a breath of fresh air, and a reminder that there is a hope for tomorrow. I will forever love Rang's dialogue in the last episode!

Also, there's a rumor that the main leads would have an upcoming series again, I hope it's true! ^___^

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Comfort ?

The tears I have cried while watching this drama… I’m lowkey in shambles, this was such a nice and heartwarming story about friendship, your first love, growing up and maturing😭😭 It brings a similar comfort like “Hidden Love” (same author I think), I had such a good time with the characters. The friendship between ZaiZai and co was so adorable and sweet, they supported each other unconditionally – those are friends of a lifetime🥹🥹. And Zhang Lu Rang… that man breathes acts of service as his love language. It was never not obvious that he liked Su ZaiZai – his eyes spoke more than a thousand words. She really brought him comfort and love and light and I just really loved them together as friends and then lovers. The fact that we got to see a little from Gu Ran and Guan Fang and their families was also a nice touch! And the fact that we got such a nice happy ending – just pure bliss to be honest, what a comfort show 🥹😭🌸

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100% Heart-Warming!

If I could give you three words to describe this drama: Fluffy, Nostalgic and Heart-warming.

From the outset, this drama adeptly embraces the nostalgia of youthful love and friendship while addressing the universal challenges of high school, resonating with the relatable emotions any teenager can understand. This drama is by far the best of it's kind - it offers a beautiful love story between the two leads ZaiZai and Lurang as well as a beautiful friendship between 5 friends who transition from high school to the complexities of adult life.

This drama offers no toxicity, break-ups or unnecessary fighting. It allows you to understand how beautiful young love is as well as how that love has to survive the harsh reality of growing up.

If fluffiness and incredible heart-warming moments is your kind of drama, then this is a 100% must watch!

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The Pinnacle of Youth Dramas

Oh my god. I really don't know what I'm going to do with my life now that this show is over.

At first glance this might seem like every other Chinese youth drama — sunshine FL/quiet ML, some grade-obsessed parents, sports day, a playful second couple — but so many things actually made this drama shine above all others.

The first thing is just how the plot really feels like a coming-of-age drama, without being overdramatic or sugary. I know it might be fun and inspiring when we watch a youth drama and a friend group is depressed when they find out someone's transferring schools, only to band together to stop it. But in real life, there are a lot of things outside our control and the only thing you can do is let it happen, know you can get through it, remember everyone still cares for each other at the end of the day — no matter the circumstances. That's what this drama did: physical obstacles were rarely overblown into emotional obstacles. It might sound bittersweet, but the fact that the plot flowed this way made it ten times more relatable to real life.

It really also meant that each character was given their time in the spotlight. Every person dealt with something themselves and everyone else was there to support them. Each person in the friend group had a distinct personality and subplot and it never felt choppy or random. It felt simply like learning more about your friends over time. WIFTY struck a perfect balance between giving its characters freedom and still making them feel inseparable that I don't think I've seen done so well in any other show.

I need more drama writers to take notes from Su Zai Zai, who seems like a typical bubbly FL on the surface but was actually really straightforward, stood up for herself, was smart in her own right, and had her own goals and was realistic in chasing them. She's absolute proof that giving an FL a crush doesn't mean it has to become her entire personality.

Zhang Lu Rang was a fantastic ML too. Once again, he might seem like the typical quiet and smart ML, but he was never mean or rude or overly perfect, and he had his flaws too that SZZ perfectly balanced out. This drama perfectly encapsulated why they belonged together. This was one of the rare dramas where the couples didn't get boring for me after they got together.

In fact, the chemistry is absolutely amazing between both couples, who also had their distinct dynamic and plot development.

Between the friendship warming up your heart and the romance giving me butterflies, there are absolutely no moments in this drama that I would skip. The OST fits perfectly and the cinematography is beautiful. The only bad thing I can say about this drama is that it ends.

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