Cute Programmer (2021)

Les affiches sont cute, oui…

Lu Li (Zhu Xu Dan) est amoureuse de Jiang Yi Cheng (Xing Zhao Lin), un génie de l'informatique. Après ses études, elle postule dans son entreprise, mais est recalée parce qu'elle est une femme. Loin d'abandonner, elle décide de se déguiser en homme.

L'idée de base est simple : une jeune femme se déguise en homme afin d'intégrer une entreprise. Pourtant, le défi est de taille, mais c'est à croire que les scénaristes ont oublié leur propre histoire en dévoilant la vérité en un tour de main.

D'ailleurs, peut-être qu'il aurait fallu ajouter un peu plus de blush et d'eyeliner au style de Zhu Xu Dan. C'est vrai qu'elle ne possède pas de traits assez fins en temps normal… Elle n'avait aucun moyen de paraître un tant soi peu crédible en homme. Elle apparaissait plus virile dans Miss the Dragon. De l'autre côté, Xing Zhao Lin est pour moi dans son rôle de confort. Malheureusement, son personnage ne tient pas la route avec un manque de sensibilité, un tempérament puéril et enfantin.

Loin de s’épargner des clichés habituels, le drame n’offrira aucune originalité dans son développement ni dans son achèvement. Il pourra décourager plus qu’encourager avec ses clichés sans surprises. A moins d’être un grand amateur des acteurs, il restera un énième drame au bon potentiel, mais où la page erreur était inévitable.

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Cute Programmer is a very good business romantic drama adaptation from the manhwa "No Programmer Can Be So Cute!" by Tianyi Icartoon and Vitality Studio. Although the drama has some comedic moments and characters, there are some heart tugging moments that are very well delivered by the actors. The leading couple takes some time to develop mutual feelings and longer to trust each other, but their journey is believable and their love for one another remained steadfast. There are some cliché incidents but this drama is not to be compared with “You are My Destiny” in any way. Although he learns that his ex girlfriend (the main antagonist) was not totally responsible for his company’s troubles a few years ago and he shows her some sympathy as she tries to manipulate him, it is clear that he is not harboring amorous feelings toward her but just a kind of care for her struggles. Although the leading male is of high intellect, his has a low emotional intelligence that caused him to make errors in judgment and the leading lady doubted his love for her for too long, their journey to love and trust each other is nicely done and endearing. There are two more couples that provide some nice moments aside from the leading couple but the drama never loses its focus on the “cute programmer”. Overall, although the drama is not perfect, the actors delivered their characters well and it is entertaining. Enjoy it!

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Good or bad depends on you

Its a lighthearted drama with a bit of angst.
First 20 eps you would watch Fl been treated not too kindly by ML. A lot of misunderstandings - one step forward,two steps back.
Then she~d had enough, find out she~s pregnant and left .
I endured with little complains but skiped through some of the story.Kind of lost respect for the writters of the script.
There were a little things that were silly, but Im watching for fun or so I though.
At the end what broke the camels back was the lie about who is the father of the baby.
My personal opinion is that hidding pregnancy from a parent is unethical. But considering this is dramaland I went with the flow.
Second time around was too much for me. They out right lied to his face. And why? To check his cincerity. Wow. If ML loves her, he would return no matter what. Really? Even if he thinks , she find happines with another?Too much . At the end I watched at 1,5 speed just to finnish.Wanted to know when exactly when FL told ML tha he~s the father but do not have the patience for it.

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Cliche love story about a female programmer trying to chase the male lead

To be honest this drama wasn't too bad! I mean definitely it was very cliche and troupey, but at least I was able to finish it.
Female lead plays an online game and falls in love with the male lead. Male lead is super smart in programming. Their lives don't really meet until the female lead cross dresses like a guy to be in the male lead's company. He created a rule in his company where there are no female programmers. Their execution of the female lead trying to hide as a male wasn't very good. She was obviously still very cute and pretty with eyeliner and lashes. I guess that wasnt something too strong they focused on, because soon after her identity gets found out. I feel like her identity gets revealed kinda strangely....

This drama is full of cliches, like the ex of male lead coming back and wanting to be together, female lead gets pregnant and decides to leave, eventually getting back together etc...

This drama doesnt focus on programming but more with the relationships between the different characters, like the leads, the second male and female lead and female lead's best friend relationship, as well as male lead's company staff relationship. Its more romance focused.

I love Xing Zhao lin! He is so passionated with his kisses and has good chemistry with all his co stars! A personal bias of mine! I prefer him with Liang Jie !!!! Haha

This drama is a decent , while you got nothing to watch and have some time to kill. But if you can't stand cliches , you probably should skip it!

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Mindless entertainment

This is the type of drama where you have to turn off your brain, values and pretty much all sense of... well everything and just let it go and let the stupidity lead you to that next episode. In this highly bingable low quality high entertainment drama.

While many dramas will ave you dreading the inevitable brek-up before reconciliation this one had me cheering for the misunderstandings to pile up so that the female lead would finally dump the male lead and settle for a cat, a goat or some cute playboy (or girls) far, far away...

It is also a drama that even with brain power off still had me wondering, if the male lead knows he cant control himself after drinking two drops of alcohol, why does he still drink alcohol?

Why does the male lead look like a dog trying to dominate another dog when he kisses the female lead?

And why do all the kisses look either fake no lips attached or like they are trying to take a bite out of the other persons lips?

It also offers some of the worst cross dressing out there... But I do believe I did spot a lesbian confession somewhere around the end along side a lesson in girls can also be programmers. So between the toxic, the lack of communication, the bad, the landscape of red flags and more or less sexual dominance/assault... and the double standards there seems to be som kind of a women can agenda as well...

Making me wonder what the ***** the writer, producer and censorship officer where thinking when they made/passed this drama, but I also want to thank them all for this mindless entertainment I so desperately needed thus rating it an 8 .

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Same Story Line As "You Are My Destiny"

It is a cute story but it is the same story line as "You Are My Destiny". The lead actors are good and their chemistry was not bad. The other characters do keep me intrigue also. So many other drama are base in this same story line. There are so many version from different country's. I felt entertained until the last few episodes. The story linger for so long that it becomes boring. I was not happy with the ending because to me it was not finalized. This could have been a shorter drama. the message that it was sending was also very interesting. She is so in love and is patient waiting for his love, But there is a point that us girl said enough is enough and we don't wait anymore even if we are still in love. I really related to that. I still find it cute and I really liked the lead characters and the rest of the characters in the drama. The actors did a great job in there performance and I liked the chemistry.

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The Best Drama Ever

I enjoyed the drama from day 1, every episode ends up making me curious to know what happens in the next episode. The storyline is pretty much simple but the story itself is awesome.
The Male lead is super handsome, who is also my favorite Chinese actor and the female lead is awesome and her acting is really good.
I still have 4 episodes left to watch, I am left with curiosity and anticipation to see what happens in the next four episodes.
This is my opinion but this is the best drama ever.
The OSTs of the drama are awesome and worth listening to them again and again.
Overall, everything about this drama is good.

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Is it sweet puppy love? Don't think so...

After seeing several dramas with technological/gaming/IT background such as Falling into Your Smile, You are my glory, I have high expectation on this one. The title quite intriguing – a female programmer striving for the best in the male dominant world. However, I am disappointed with this drama. Just immature.

The plot was simple, a female programmer (Lu Li) idolize a male programmer (Yi Cheng) who are a successful entrepreneur in the field of computer programming. She falls in love with his idol since university, once graduated she pursues him by joining his company. But unfortunately, Yi Cheng’s company doesn’t accept female programmer therefore Lu Li needs to disguise becoming a male to get accepted in Yi Cheng’s company.

So the story evolves around that thing… the struggles of Lu Li to enter Yi Cheng’s company. Some twist and turn whereby, Yi Cheng’s mother required him to get married and somehow Yi Cheng and Lu Li end up in forced marriage – Yi Cheng treats this as contract marriage that will be over after a year. Another twist when Yi Cheng ex-girlfriend came back to his life, and so love rivalry started.

For some reason, I do not believe to the plot and story – it just too exaggerating, if only Lu Li and Yi Cheng can be honest with each other, accepting each other then you don’t have to have these long winded 30 episodes. If they are just being honest about their feeling – maybe in 12 episodes this drama is finished. No conflict here and there, no love rivalry, just plain simple and sweet romantic.

Side stories also not that interesting and important, the relationship of Yi Ming and Yi Cheng sister, Xiao Qi love story, Lu Li’s co-workers stories – they are actually irrelevant.

There are too many dishonesties between main cast, twist and turn that make it long winded.

The good thing is that Bambi Zhu (Lu Li) – good looking, nice and pretty so it is enjoyable to watch. And that is it, about the story – not so interested, so fast forward button is really helpful.

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Not Worth The Time

After watching all the 30 episodes of Cute Programmer, I can only conclude that there is nothing cute about this drama at all. I will try not to rant and be fair in my assessment but I really cannot recommend a watch for this one. There are a few reasons why which I will elaborate below. Anyway, this is not a cross-dressing romance drama like My Unicorn Girl even though it might look like one in the initial episode. Lu Li’s gender is already fully exposed by Episode 5 and the cross-dressing plot stops there.

Therefore, if you like the female pretending to be male trope in your romance dramas, Cute Programmer will not be a good choice at all. Neither does it focus much on the programming aspect or the business side of things unlike My Bargain Queen. It is pure romance with the relationship between the leads being central to the whole drama. There is nothing wrong with a romance-driven drama except that everything just turns out to be mediocre in Cute Programmer.

Recycled Plot
The plot itself is a rehashed of common themes in the romance genre. So, you will find cross-dressing in the first few episodes, then a contract marriage and co-habitation followed by a jealous ex returning. If you have watched enough of Chinese rom-coms and romance dramas, I think you can pretty much get an idea of what Cute Programmer entails.

While it is okay to have recycled plots, they must be done in a way that is sensible to viewers. For this drama, a lot of things don’t exactly appear as sensible or logical. Hence, you will have a cross-dresser masquerading as a male being able to get a job in a tech company without anyone questioning her gender. You will also have the female lead agreeing to marry the male lead when he obviously doesn’t even like her. Basically, it is the type of drama that you have to overlook the details if you want to enjoy it. I’m not too fussy about details at times but when other factors also start to weigh down the overall enjoyment of the story, that is when it goes downhill for me.

Badly Written Characters
I think the way the characters are written is the main turn off that kills this drama. Yi Cheng is someone who is childish and easily irritated. He is not evil or cruel. Conversely, he is a kind man behind all the harsh words and actions. However, he is also an insensitive fellow and lacks communication skills. So, some of his actions towards Lu Li border on petty bullying as he shows his irritation. Viewers’ patience with him will be further tested when his ex-girlfriend shows up as this will then shows his stupidity.

Lu Li’s character is not much better. I wouldn’t say she is like a doormat but simply nonsensical. She has a long-term crush on Yi Cheng but to cross-dress as a man to join his company is simply silly. There is nothing in Yi Cheng that is worth hanging on to for 5 years as he doesn’t even know who she is before she joins the company. But Lu Li is made out to be a girl who is hopelessly in love who doesn’t mind marrying someone who doesn’t like her. She even tolerates his bad attitude towards her most of the time.

I guess the redeeming quality in these 2 characters is that they do eventually grow to be more matured. But you will have to sit through more than 20 episodes to see that happen.

Some of the supporting characters are no better. Gu Mo is a guy who would use his brother status to secretly scare away all of Xiao Qi’s suitors. And he has been doing that since her high school days without her knowledge to chase away his love rivals. I don’t know how this kind of controlling behavior could sound romantic but that is how it is in the drama.

Leads Lack Chemistry
Personally, I cannot detect enough chemistry between Xing Zhao Lin and Bambi Zhu for this romance drama to flourish. Sometimes, even with a simple plot, a sizzling chemistry can make a huge difference in a romance drama as can be seen in You Are My Glory and My Little Happiness. But the couple in my Cute Programmer simply fails to inspire. It is as if they are just going through the motions to deliver their lines without really getting into the feeling of being lovers.

I don’t know if it is the problem with the script, the badly written characters or the acting. Perhaps it is a combination of all 3. If the plot and characters are top notch, the average chemistry displayed could probably still pass muster. But when the other factors are equally mediocre, then the lack of chemistry becomes amplified here.

My Verdict – Watch Something Else Instead
Cuteness is certainly not the hallmark of this drama especially when you have a jealous ex lurking around for about 10 episodes. That is more annoyance than cuteness. There is not much of sugar and fluff either as the love is very much one-sided for three-quarters of the story. So, if you want to see cuteness and sweetness, you are much better off watching Forever And Ever or even a typical rom-com like Sweet Teeth.

Having said that, I understand there are plenty of Xing Zhao Lin’s fans out there who might still give this a go. Well, if you reduce your expectations, this might still be watchable without too much complaints. As long as you can shy away from dissecting the characters’ antics and behaviors, this could work for you. Furthermore, if you see bickering, harmless jealousy, and childishness as romantic, then you would probably be able to enjoy it to a certain extent .

For this Cute Programmer review, I would give it a score of 5.5/10. I’m not going to recommend a watch for this one unless you are a diehard fan of the leads. There are just too many weaknesses to drag the drama down that it is difficult to say that it is worth the time especially when it is 30 episodes long. The whole story is predictable and I don’t think it will resonate with the more matured viewers. If you are going to watch it, just think of it as pure entertainment and switch off your brain for better enjoyment!

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Things you do for love

So many negative reviews about the story line. The thing is you won't know what you will or won't do for love until you're in their shoes.

Yi Cheng wouldn't accept any female programmers working for him because his first love supposedly betray him by selling his work to their competitor and ran away with the money. It may not make sense for you that someone could do that, or call him close minded. But everyone reacts differently to each trauma they face. I think he was just protecting himself from any chance of the same repeating heart break. Him getting into a car crash because of what she did show how devastating it was for him. So I'd give him a break for that.
The fact that he fell for Lu Li even when she was pretending to be a man to get the job, all the little things he did for her in the background, and not wanting to admit his feeling for her. That's what bothered me the most. Why wait until she leaves you and turn around chasing her, when it can be solved with good communication.

As far as Lu Li goes, call her door mat or whatever. But I don't think that's the right word for her. How many of us has fallen for someone so hard for so long that when opportunity presents itself, where you can finally be with that person, you just grabbed the bull by the horn and along for the ride, no matter how it bucks you and finally thrown you off. You can't tell me how far you'd go or how much you'd do to win the love of the person you love. And that's exactly what she did. She finally gave up on him was not because Li Man keeps throwing one jab after another, but because Yi Cheng is unwilling to communicate with her of the reason why he did what he did, causing misunderstanding between them. Like on their last fight before she left, instead of telling her the reason she can't leave is because he loves her, and yet he told her that they haven't reach the end of the contract yet. Yi Ming was so right when he told Yi Cheng he has low EQ.
Yeah Zi Tong maybe annoying to some people, but somehow I think it's cute. Just look how Yi Ming finally fell for her.
The only characters I'm not too happy about are Yi Cheng's parents. His mom is so desperate to get him settled down that she would set him up with blind dates, even when she found out that Lu Li has left him. Really? And his dad would use anything in his power to make his wife happy even if it means that his son would marry someone he doesn't love. What kind of parents are they?
I found my self rewatching certain episodes 3-4 times. I honestly think it's funny every time Yi Cheng gets drunk, especially the second time at his parents house.

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