Love From Zero to One (2022)

A Snack for a Rainy Day

In 2015, a Korean drama Hyde, Jekyll and Me received a great deal of attention for its quirky premise. At the time I was a fan of the actor who played the male lead, Hyun Bin and thought the premise intriguing -- a man suffering from dissociative personality disorder and both personalities competing for the female lead. The result was a mixed bag. Hyun Bin was great in the dual role but the script was weak (the world building was half-hearted) and aspects of it ridiculous. I can well imagine too that it’s a challenge to find a satisfying resolution to a love triangle that involves two people sharing the same body when the female lead shows a distinct preference for the secondary identity over the core one.

Several years later, someone else has taken another stab at the subject matter and the result is also a mixed bag. Again it’s mainly the script although performances vary across the board. Here the female lead Jing Zhixia (Joey Chua) meets the alternate personality Lin first and it's love at first sight. Some time later the two indulge in a steamy one night stand and the core identity Fu Zeyi (Xiao Kaizhong) wakes up the next morning wondering what his alter had gotten them both into and then takes off without so much as a by your leave. The poor girl is left ruminating for a year about the charming musician that swept her off her feet then left her high and dry.

While Joey Chua has a knack for the comedic, her character Jing Zhixia, though badly used by the two personalities is not exactly well written. This is the definition of a trashy rom com but even so how a woman of her limited ability (or limited interest in the business) can be allowed to be part of the management of a 5-star hotel boggles the mind. I'm not sure I'd even trust her with a small-scale B and B. Certainly it’s understandable that the show doesn’t want her to be the stereotypical Cinderella figure in a grumpy, arrogant CEO drama. Instead she’s a materialistic spoilt rich girl who decides to sell off a portion of her shares in the family business so that she can go gallivanting. This of course plays into the much more capable hands of Fu Zeyi who wants the land that the hotel is presently sitting on.

As soon as he gains management rights to the hotel, the two lock horns in true rom com fashion. Suddenly she’s all about family loyalty and her father's legacy. On the one hand she’s sure he’s the guy who loved her and left her a year earlier, on the other hand, he vehemently denies it knowing full well that his alter has been up to some serious hanky-panky in his absence. Besides, dissociative identity disorder is a shocking secret borne out of a childhood trauma that he'd rather not share with the world. Aside from the fledgling romance, there's also the succession issue to consider.

Fu Zeyi, as one might expect, is a right royal jerk at the start. It is hard to root for him at first because he is trying hard to keep Zhixia at bay while making sure his secret is safe. Soon, however, he finds himself inconveniently attracted to her and starts acting territorial, doing all kinds of odd things that wasn’t previously in his programming. Even his rigid and cantankerous father notices the make over. Zhixia is obviously confused by what she sees as capriciousness and more so when Fu Zeyi and Lin make her the trophy while they vie aggressively for her affections.

Xiao Kaizhong who plays both isn’t bad in the role. It's at the very least much better than what I had expected. He certainly has a roaring good time with the mayhem of the Yi-Lin dialectic without overdoing anything. He and Joey Chua have good chemistry but they are definitely underserved by the script.

Despite the obvious budgetary limitations imposed (The fabulously wealthy Fu Zheyi has only a handful of suits to strut around in), the one thing that this show does better than its Korean predecessor is to show how Zhixia gradually cottons on to the deception which sends her running. at first. Gradually, however, she works out that the arrogant Fu Zheyi is the one that she loves not because he is her ideal but because he tries to push himself beyond his limits for her sake. Fortunately for us, she has something of a growth arc and demonstrates the capacity to be much more than what she first presents herself to be.

The relationship is fraught with all kinds of moral and ethical issues in part because of the deception and in part due to the fact that the mental health issue is more of a benign plot device for the push and pull rather than a genuinely serious obstacle to two people’s happily-ever-after.

Even rom coms need villains apparently. Although Fu Zeyi was bordering on being one in the beginning as he plots to acquire the hotel, that title is reserved for someone else — someone close to him who’s out for blood but the motivation for his entire revenge scheme makes no sense except that he’s evidently gone loopy. The 20-year wait to exact vengeance makes no sense either.

What saves this drama for me is the finale. It wraps things up as well as a half-hour 18 episode web drama might be expected to. There's no lack of the nonsensical in it but at least there's resolution for Fu Zeyi and Lin. More importantly, for me at least, there's an acknowledgment that Fu Zeyi is the core personality and Lin was always just an identity that emerged to protect him. He was a by-product of a mental health dysfunction. It's a crucial piece of the romance that had to be addressed. Lin was always the fantasy never the reality -- the delusion that Zhixia was in search of and Zeyi wanted to be. The reality as represented by Fu Zeyi is about a man riddled with deep-seated guilt at what happened in the past and who was always seeking his father's approval while weighed down by all kinds of emotional baggage that he never allowed himself to express. Falling in love... it can be said... broke the shackles.

The finale is surprisingly fitting and therefore makes the entire journey worth sitting through. There's a lot that doesn't make sense and it does fall along fairly predictable lines but at least there's enough fan servicing to snack on to keep one coming back for more.

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I had very high expectations for this drama, and it didn't disappoint me. If you're looking for something that is related to mental disorders and has different plot twists that aren't in your regular drama, you should definitely watch it!

Acting:

As Joey Chua ( FL ) hasn't starred in a lot of dramas, she was able to portray it perfectly according to the role. ML looks very tired most of the time, even when portrayed as his alternate personality, Lin. He definitely needs more sleep lmaoo.

Overall acting rate: 8/10

Story:

The story starts off normally like your regular drama, until they introduce the male lead. it kept me watching to see what would happen, and all that. Although, some parts were cliche, the story wasn't bad.

Overall Story rate: 8.5/10

Music/OST:

Absolutely love it.

Overall OST rates: 10/10

Rewatch values:

As someone who doesn't like to rewatch much dramas, as it won't give me much entertainment as the first time I've watch, but I'd probably rewatch this.

Overall rewatch rates: 6/10

OVERALL RATINGS:

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New guilty pleasure

I usually don’t write reviews for any dramas that I’m watching unless they’ve made a big impact on me. Listen, I initially started the show because the trailer looked really nice and the whole concept of your alter ego falling in love with the same girl was intriguing. First of all, can I just say that I loved absolutely everything about it? Is the drama perfect by any means? No, but it was just so addictive and the main leads’ chemistry was insane!!!!! They are both so good looking and I think they did a wonderful job portraying their characters.

I like how short and to the point the story was,
Like any unnecessary drama was quickly resolved. I found myself eager to continue every episode which is always a good sign for me. I kept coming back to so many scenes I’m sorry but the ML is swoon-worthy and the FL’s voice is so cute.

Give it a try! I mean, you might end up enjoying it like I did. Definitely going to my rewatch collection (which has love o2o)

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One of the worst dramas I have watched

I have watched some dramas where the main lead suffers from DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder meaning a person that have two or more personalities). It is a subject interesting me particularly so I tend to watch everyone turning around it.

However for the first time I regret the time I spent with this drama full of common places and with such a poor plot. The characters were so unappealing, nothing made sense , the situations were merely artifical in order to create the desired lenght of the drama.

I read the positive reviews and I wonder how could this be explained.

If you like melodramas about DID, you’d betrer choose the korean drama "Kill Me Heal Me" incomparably superior to this one.

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I LOVE THIS DRAMA

honestly when i first started watching this drama i thought it was gonna be another boring ceo and broke girl type thing but it was way more then that, like the ceo got two people inside of him?!! Anyways the storyline is AMAZING, I totes recomend you watch this drama even though it is really new and only 16 eps are out. I literally love both the actors, if your into good looking actors/actresses in cdramas, this is FOR YOU, cause they both son attractive LIKE I would crawl for them omgg. You can watch this on youku with ads + no sub (16 eps) youtube + sub (10 eps) or kisskh + sub (16 eps)!!

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good concept bad execute

Quite intrigue to watch this by reading the summary. But like ssr04 wrote, the good concept became so bad because of bad writing. I can't count how many I twitch or raising my elbow due to very weird pacing of the script. Like sometimes one scene to another there were big gap that makes no sense that this scene supposed to be after that scene, I have to rewind it several times to make sure I don't skip episode, but suddenly remembered I'm in the middle of episode not the new one. It's like they write something to feel the gap but just decided not to put in the end.

All the character make me raising my elbow to... Like how in the end that more protective toward Jing Zhi Xia (ZX) is Fu Ze Yi (ZY) instead Lin. Lin said he fall in love with ZX but I can't feel the love itself from him. Don't forget the most unfit CEO of hotel like Jian Qian (ZX's uncle).

I more like the story of Ai Xin & Jian Bu Fan, for me their story more realistic & their acting quite good.

Overall this just another drama to watch.

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Short and sweet

This is by far one of the few really extremely short series I have actually watched. Ending at 18 episodes, one would think "nahhhh not much of a story etc to go on here". Personally, I find the storyline quite nice and interesting. At times, it can be confusing, especially when the split personalities switch between each other. But after a while, you will get a hang of it all. The casts played their roles very well (again, in my own personal opinion) and I really do like the show alot. If you do want a short quick sweet series, well.... you can try this one. The songs are also very nice - yeap.... I actually hunted down every one of the them and made them into my MP3 playlist ;)

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Excellent drama!

Loved loved loved it! I liked the story, acting, and music. Did it lack anything? Just a bit but I honestly have no complaints!

Storyline - ran smooth and clean. There were a few flaws I saw but I am not pointing them out. It kept my attention the entire 18 episodes and l could not wait to see how it all unfolded! I was not disappointed! It finished off perfectly with my kind of ending.

Acting/Cast - I feel they did a great job. The ML (male lead) pulled the split personality just fine. It was not as good as Ji Sung did in “Kill Me Heal Me”. He did a phenomenal job! No one could compare! But I felt the ML did great here. FL did a great job also. I like her. I will have to watch out for these two in the future.

Music - I really liked the music. I will be looking for it.

Rewatch - Yes! I am hoping it comes to digital on Amazon so I can buy it lol. I liked it that much.

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The premise was good, the story not so much.

The arc where Fu Ze Yi falls in love with Jing Zhi Xia was so sudden that it was unbelievable. The rich guy making the FL do chores trope is kinda icky and doesnt make for good romance.

The story could have been so much better with a little bit more flow to it. While the ML was fine at times, it was hard to envision the female actress as the character she was trying to portray. She was very out of place in the whole setting.

Korean actress Lee Da-hae did a much better job portraying her character Ah Mo-ne in Hotel King, in a role very similar to what Joey Chua had to play.

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Great drama the main characters play their rule awesome i recommend this great drama to watched my favorite Chinese actor kiven xiao he play his rule awesome and i love it very satisfied with this drama. ❤❤❤❤i love this drama very interesting story just watch its great story line ??????????????????❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤???????❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤?❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤?❤????????

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Typical LM demeans and enslaves FLwho has mindless and powerless

I was hoping that the concept of a split personality person trying to have a relationship would be interesting. It wasn't. It's the typical Chinese so called Romance drama. A rich male (Fu) split personality is demeaning, arrogant, demanding, abusive towards women and mindless, powerless, enslaved female (Jing) just takes it. She can't speak up for herself nor does she fight back. I guess this is why men think Chinese women subservient and mindless to certain men.

Hey! Writers/Producers, how about put strong willed, females who are not scared to fight back, in your series? You always have a mumbling, talk like a child, subservient mindless females as leads. Maybe you all can look at things like "Lady of Law" and take a hint.

The only positive part of the series, is that her Brother found love.

Who in their right mind would give this series above a 6?

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must watch it!

for those who like story regarding disorders and phycology its a perfect drama
this drama includes male lead with personality changing disorder. two people in one body and so much fun twist
i was so conflicted between two character of the male lead you guys will also find it hard to choose between two personality
this drama has lot to offer and so much fun plots twists and exciting story line .
it is a must watch drama that you should not miss.
i also loved the ost it gives feel to the drama .That one song which lyric was 'end of first love is not beautiful at all' hit me hard
story 5/5
ost5/5

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