My Secret Roommate (2022)

A good cdrama sequel to the taiwanese original drama

1/ STORY:

It is based on the concept of time space overlapping where an apartment becomes the point of junction of events happening in 2021 and 2022 with a 4 months gap.

The ML from 2022 defends a female friend (SFL) who is divorcing her husband (SML). The case leads to 2022ML being sent to live in an apartment where he meets FL from 2021 from 10:06 to 10:52. The apartment is a point from where they can go to 2022 ML time space using the front door or to 2021 FL time space using the backdoor.

It appears that SFL is ML's friend and SML is FL's friend and their divorce in 2022 leads to tragedy. While 2022ML and 2021FL are bickering and discovering each other, they try to save their married friends from that tragedy. They ask the help of the 2021 version of the ML and they go thought different situations and cases in 2021 which modifies 2022.

2/WHAT I LIKED:

- The relationship between the 2022ML and 2021FL. It starts in a weird but funny way. They are forced to be roommates and to learn about each other. The romance which ensues is very cute and convincing with their fun and loving moments and their moments of doubts. They develop deep feelings for each other. Their Love for the other ultimately requires each of them to make a determining choice.
- The back and forth between 2021 and 2022. I thought the time travel was pretty well made and quite easy to follow. It kept a level of logic that made it admissible.
- The ending was really well made for me with an unexpected turn of event and a soothing time to wrap up everything.

3/WHAT I DID NOT LIKE:

- Usual break up which does not last long in term of story time but too long in term of episodes.
- Cases are a little bit cliché: cheating/divorce, bullying from corporation, gambling problems, sexual harassment...
- The usual lecturing about family, friendship, behaving right, forgiving...
- The ending is way too lenient for the bad guys. They get nothing serious despite their bad deeds.

4/CHARACTERS:
- Loved the leads: 2022ML, 2021 FL, 2021ML.. I thought the three characters and their relationships were well crafted. They are the best part of this drama. The lead actors were convincing too.
- SFL: Bland character who is the cause of everything.
- SML: Bro, just divorce her, have a good divorcee party and find yourself a new gf
- The mistress: Not so bright but funny.
- The brother: A liability
- The rival lawyer: Why so much hate?

4/ OST: The songs were ok. Contributed to the cute romantic tone.

5/ REWATCH VALUE:
Maybe I will rewatch it after some time.

6/OVERALL:
This looks like a remake of Meet me @10:06 but it is rather a sequel. If the original concept of time space overlapping and the early episodes have similar situations, the development of the plot and story is totally different. It is possible to say that the phenomenon happens with a different couple. The story is good and the lead characters are endearing. I will recommend it as it is one cdrama that I enjoyed watching since months. 8.5 /10.

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A wrinkle in time.

This is a surprisingly enjoyable short love story with a novel premise. He Zhengyu, a hot shot lawyer experiences a series of setbacks that lands him in a modest apartment. Every night, he is "haunted" by rookie reporter Chen Jialan, who occupied the apartment four months ago. A wrinkle in time brings them together each night at 10:06pm for 46 minutes. During this time they must solve a few cases that they were involved in professionally that may have set them on the road to perdition.

The initial encounters between Zhengyu and Jialan are hilarious and intriguing as they both scare the hell out of each other. They had me rooting for them from the get go. But as their relationship progresses, I find Jialan remains too sweet, childish and cutesy. I expect to see their chemistry take on a more mature and adult tone later on but this doesn't quite happen. Nonetheless, I stayed invested in their story throughout and kept going even though the whole Jirong saga bored me to tears. I have not seen such bland and monotonous acting in a long time. It is almost criminal to pair up such an insipid actress with such a hot actor as Dai Gaozheng. The cast overall is not strong and it is Yang Xuwen's convincing and charismatic portrayal of Zhengyu and how he is changed by this wrinkle in time that elevates the main relationship and saves the entire drama.

The biggest plot hole in this story is He Zhengyu's lack of curiosity about who Chen Jialan was and why she vacated the apartment he moved into. You would think his first instinct would be to find out everything about her and to try to track her down. But no, he waits till very late in the game to do this. The cases are only mildly interesting and the villains are quite obvious. While the drama does a good job transitioning between the past and the present, the main characters traverse back and forth too often and too inconsequentially. The plot does become slightly convoluted towards the end, with too many twists. Despite some obvious flaws and plot holes, there are enough fresh and engaging moments that make this an entertaining watch. This is a 7.5/10.0 that will nicely tide over a dry spell.

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Modern time travel romance with a twist

I decided to watch “Love in Time” after finishing “Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2: To the West”, because I saw a recommendation for this drama, the synopsis is interesting, and Yang Xu Wen also stars in it. I haven't watched the Taiwanese version so I can't compare them. But the drama definitely brings a unique twist to the time travel trope.

One thing I appreciate about this series is its execution. The flow of the story is generally smooth; it's not hard to follow and the events make sense overall, considering the time travel theme. The butterfly effect (蝴蝶效应), where one small change in the past can have a big effect on the future, is a prominent concept in the drama. Another concept that was shown is the space-time or spatial-temporal fusion (时空融合), which occurred in the story from 10:06 PM to 10:52 PM, and it’s when the 2021 Chen Jia Lan and 2022 He Zheng Yu interact and spend their time together.

Yang Xu Wen did a great job portraying 2 versions of He Zheng Yu. They're the same person, but also different. I like them both, because they showed the similarities and different sides of the same character. Chen Jia Lan, portrayed by Julia Xiang, is generally a likable character - she is spunky, energetic, loyal, and resourceful. However, there were moments in the second half when I got annoyed with some of her actions and reasonings.

There were humorous interactions and bickering as He Zheng Yu and Chen Jia Lan got to know each other, and add to that, you have the 2021 and 2022 versions! Their romance is sweet and natural (not cringey), and they have good chemistry, although I wouldn’t say it’s exceptional.

Another character that I like is Jiang Sheng Hao, Chen Jia Lan's friend and the actress's husband. He and CJL were best friends since childhood, and they have a good and supportive relationship, which is purely platonic. I like how Dai Gao Zheng portrayed his role as the best friend and the husband in the divorce case.

Lastly, I'm satisfied with how they ended the story. I think they managed to wrap things up quite well!

Final verdict: This is a good drama that blends romance and mystery, and I would recommend this, especially if you like time travel stories.

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Finally! A C-drama that doesn't rely on a template!

This is a remake of the Taiwanese drama ‘Meet Me at 10:06’, which was pretty good (and on IQIYI), however, the Chinese have made some good improvements. First, believe it or not, they actually shortened it by 2 episodes, probably because we didn’t have a second or third couple taking up time and boring us. Second, I think the plot is tighter, and lastly, there’s more sweet romance and a much more satisfying ending. I think my favorite thing about this drama is it managed to tell a story WITHOUT meddling, tyrannical parents or obsessed female love rivals. It doesn't follow a prescribed template. The plot revolves around a past problem/event that the leads need to solve/change so they (and a few other people) could end up with a happy ending. It can get confusing at times, jumping in and out of 2021 and 2022, but the logic held together until we came to the end and the required happy ending. I think it kept my interest because 1) there was plenty of romance and sweet 'aww' moments; and 2) my mind was kept active analyzing the logic of overlapping time. Unlike most movies/novels, it starts out with the premise that ‘fate’ cannot be changed no matter what you do in the past. This is proven wrong as the drama progresses. I am a firm believer that fate isn’t fate if you can change it, HOWEVER, if time travel were possible outside the world of movies and novels, you’re darn tooting that it can be changed. And that’s why, although theoretically time travel is possible, I don't think we'll ever be able to do it because - fate must remain fate. Can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if people began popping back into their past (or any past time period) and changing things? The universe would cease to exist.

I liked both ML & FL as a couple and individually. I think they had good chemistry and were really sweet together. I like how 2021 Zhengyu fell in love with FL just like 2022 Zhengyu – although it took him a lot longer to see what his future self had already seen in her. They become a sort of odd love triangle although it’s only towards the end that Z-2021 finally starts softening towards her as they spend more and more time together. He sort of reminded me of ML is the K-drama 'Hyde Jekyll Me' - he was the other half watching longingly from the sidelines as his more likeable self enjoyed FL's love and affection. They were the same man, but FL sees them as separately.

Individually, ML is the more likeable of the two because of his unwillingness to give up on their happy ending. If it hadn’t been for him and his tenacity, FL would have surrendered to her ‘fate’. She would have continue on her path to first fate and then martyrdom. And that’s my biggest complaint about FL. I liked her character, but I really wanted to slap her starting at episode 15 where she decides to play the role of the noble idiot. She liked this role so much that she played it again! So, she dumps ML twice because she's overcome with fatalism, and then she, apparently, wants to be a martyr. She totally ignores ML's arguments and does what she feels is best. Argh! I wanted to shake her; it was SO frustrating! Honestly, the scriptwriter overused the noble idiot trope with this girl. Thankfully, Z-2021 finally steps up to the plate and saves his future with some much needed words to FL about how hurtful she was being by dumping Z-2022 over and over again. Because of this annoying fatalism, my warm feelings toward FL cooled slightly. Nevertheless, she was spunky, smart and mature and didn’t veer into that ‘cutesy’ character that the Chinese love so much and I hate so much. ML, although pretty cold and haughty in his lawyer persona, was wonderfully sweet as his future self. I really, really liked this guy.

My favorite scene was in episode 16 where ML shows FL their future in drawings/paintings. That was such a beautiful moment. It brought tears to my eyes – however, it still wasn’t enough to convince FL to give up her fatalism. This girl! Would someone just slap some sense into her, please?!

Thankfully, there were no second or third couples. Yes, there was the couple of Jirong and Shenghao, but we really didn’t see any of their romance or have to see them dating, etc. They and their marriage was just there as part of the overall plot. They were side characters. Unfortunately, Jirong, like FL, becomes completely unreasonable around the same time as FL and dumps Shenghao for basically no reason - it had some weird connection to her brother that I still can't make sense of. And amazingly, there were no parents – except for a brief appearance of FL’s grandma who was pleasant and didn’t meddle except to help ML draw FL out of hiding. There was also no annoying dingbat besties or equally annoying siblings. It was solely focused on the main couple and their journey to unravel the meaning/cause of their time overlap.

As mentioned above, I really liked the fact this drama managed to tell a story without relying on a template. I'm not saying there wasn't some of the usual tropes; what I'm saying is a lot of the usual (and annoying) ones were missing. Also, internet scandals were kept at a minimum. Oh, there was one, but it was quickly resolved. There wasn't a female love rival (unless you count Chen Kexin who tried to interest Z-2021 and failed miserably). Mu Shiming, the male love rival, was pretty much a non-entity. His role in the C-drama was smaller than it was in the T-drama. Z-2021 was more of a love rival although it took him a while to get the starch out of his breeches, and for a while FL couldn't accept him - she continued to see him separate from Z-2022.

Overall, it's probably the best time travel C-drama I've watched. The logic held together for the most part, but it ended up having the same problem as 'The Lakehouse'. If she hadn't dropped the bird, and if he hadn't picked it up, none of this would have happened, and they basically eliminated her dropping the bird by changing the past. Also, what happens when Z-2021 arrives at the day in the future when Z-2022 did what he did to save FL? I guess it won't happen because Mr. Sun went nutty - don't know how you logically resolve that. BUT, I still liked this movie just like I liked 'The Lakehouse'. Sometimes you just have to turn you brain off and enjoy the romance. I gave the re-watch value a 9 because it might be worth watching again if you had trouble following the time overlap logic.

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At 10:06 the cute roommate shows up

Saw this pop up as a new series and was not familiar with the leads or the story. I thought I would give it a try based on the comments.

The gist of it so far is the ML and the FL live in the same apartment during different time periods. At 10:06 there's some strange time and space overlap where the ML and FL become roommates until approximately 10:52 , they are four months apart in time with the ML in 2022 and FL in 2021. There's also the backdrop of the mystery with the case the ML is involved in as a lawyer that weaves itself into the storyline.

Usually it takes a couple of episodes to sort of work its way through to get me engaged in the story, the first episode did a good job of captivating me despite the preposterous nature of the story. Anything with mystical time travel meld mish mash or whatever it is I usually just shove my brain somewhere else while I watch it and this is no exception. They do try to explain it somewhat but whatever.

The pacing is done pretty well, so far there aren't any moments where I sigh in exasperation or start snoring. There is a decent production quality to it; it's not another cheap cookie cutter budget drama that is churned out en masse.

The acting is good, the ML seems to shine, he seems like he's meant for the part. Its refreshing since there's plenty of big name ML actors who are wooden and need to tweak their abilities in this area. The moments when the ML first encounters the FL when the space time meld occurs is funny and his reactions are pretty realistic for someone who is completely baffled and frightened by the sheer incomprehensible nature of the situation. Their reactions evolve from being frightened to subsequent arguments and fights to partners who work together trying to alter the direction of the tragedy of their best friends between the present and future. The FL is cute, she looks like she barely wears any makeup and its just so nice to see someone who just looks normal as a FL.

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I haven't seen the Taiwanese version so I watched Love in Time with no expectations. Love in Time started off promising, with the arrogant lawyer Zheng Yu and passionate reporter Jia Lan frightened and confused when time-space begins to overlap for 46 minutes every night. The cases they're working on and their respective best friends, Ji Rong and Sheng Hao, cause their lives to intersect, allowing them to get to know each other gradually. However, by episode 15 I had lost interest. Much of the plot is about saving the relationship between Ji Rong and Sheng Hao, but it failed to create any sort of emotional investment. There was just no depth to them or the villains in the drama so the the story lost too much momentum.

Instead of dropping the series though, I kept going and did enjoy the last 7-8 episodes because of Zheng Yu's storyline. I won't spoil it by going into specifics, but Yang Xu Wen did a great job. Unfortunately, I found Jia Lan really annoying. I liked her character in the beginning; she's energetic, cares about people and getting justice for them, isn't afraid to speak up. The issue is that while Zheng Yu's character experiences so much growth from beginning to end, Jia Lan doesn't and just seems immature in comparison. (Maybe another actress in the role would have been more convincing?) I didn't care about their romance at all, and in the second half I watched those scenes on double speed.

I did think the logic of the time-space overlap worked well, and also shout out to Chen Guan Yu who played Zheng Yu's assistant Da Jun and provided comic relief. Overall, Love in Time isn't the worst drama but missed the mark.

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Twist in the story! Trying to change the destiny of person . They is alway a double effect

Twist in the drama is both of the lead of 2022 died one died in hit and run case and other was murder by one of his client so we are left with ML & FL of 2021 . Our poor FL of 2021 come to know her ML of 2022 was murder so she get depressed lock herself up her house, the ML 2021 start to fall in love with the FL of 2021 she refused him by saying you both look the same in appearance but in personality wise you are very different from him. ML get worried about her since she doesn’t want to eat , so he decided to visit her grandmother and tell her what happened to FL , her grandmother accompany him to city FL was surprise when she hear her grandmom voice at her door so she open the door and greet her grandmom ( on side note) her grandmother liked the of ML 2021 , FL promise her grandmom that she will take good care of herself. The video recording of ML of 2021 tell her to take care etc …. In begining of 2022 they win the court case and they were in the TV interview they celebrate the new year of 2022 together with their friends , later the ML propose to the FL to Marry and she say YES so it is a Happy ending. I Skipped the other character in drama since i thought it was irrelevant

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The SML is the ML himself

A well made show with higher production value than I expected from a fantasy C-drama. I just wish sometimes FL would just stop and listen what ML has to say.

He Zhengyu finds a love rival in himself from last year. Or the other way around??

Basically FL Jialan who lives in the year 2021 is dating Zhengyu from the year 2022 thanks to a time glitch that happens every night, while also crossing path with Zhengyu from the year 2021. Both men are the same person but Z2.0 is a tad bit more humane. Just like myself today is not exactly the same as myself from last year.

What I find exciting is that, I actually do see Zhengyu2022 as a different man from Zhengyu2021. The actor plays both characters so well that I can totally understand Jialan's initial rejection of Zhengyu2021.

I probably make it sound confusing but really, the story is quite easy to follow because there is always a time stamp so we know in which year a scene is folding. We can also see how ML/SML are gradually falling for FL. Once ML&FL realise their feelings, it doesn't take them long to be together. Something like "I like you, do you like me?" "Yeah" *kiss*. Maybe not even a "Yeah".

Many people comment about the age gap of the actor and actress, but I don't find it problematic. I mean they're both in their 20s, what's the big deal.

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Can a drama be too smart for its own good?

Hats off to writers who pick time travelling as the subject and doubly so if it involves a major romantic plot but it is also a trap for the unwary.

Love in Time (2022) definitely took on this task with gusto. The promise is even more complicated because the time traveling is both ways(!) and it covers a short 4 months span. You can imagine all the timey-wimey shenanigans that ensue.
To be fair, the start of the Show is very well done. It hooks the viewers in with some delicious interactions between the leads and a zany plot. It would have been a very solid base for a movie or a shorter drama. However, with 24 episodes to fill, the time traveling threads begin to look like pretzels by the half-way mark.

The Show does use internal rules and logic to try to avoid the “I’m my own grandfather” type of cliché. They quote buzz words like butterfly effect and dropped names like Hawking to suggest some form of credibility. The problem is that they basically trampled all over the poor butterfly by letting the leads from present/future interact and communicate fairly freely and pass information from the future back to the present on a regular basis.

Rather than trying to minimise their temporal footprint, the leads spend most of their efforts in trying to change the future. I can run with that if it is done cleverly and reasonably. Unfortunately, it got more and more convoluted as the story progressed. It got to the point when it is best to ignore cause and effect and assume they are all inconsequential. In one sense, that is quite true because the show is pushing the time elasticity theory. It boils down to if event Z is meant to happen then if the nominal trigger A is altered then trigger B/C/D/etc will be created to ensure Z happens. That’s all well and good but it also means a lot of mid show plots end up achieving little other than proving this point with one exception.

This brings us to the love line of the OTP. It is intense, swoon worthy and has a decent amount of skinship. However, it is a challenge to work through some of the more convoluted plots as mentioned above. At one stage we have an alive and kicking FL, one in a coma and a dead one depending on which scene is shown. Then we have the present/future ML talking to each other on the phone(!). The date is flash up on the screen from time to time but it feels like nothing is anchored anymore. It is all about pushing the main plot forward and giving our OTP quality CP time during their precious 46mins of shared time. Those short and sweet moments are what held the show together.

Finally, there is much chatter online about the “bad” ending. I think the ending is actually decent. It is unrealistic to assume a simple HEA ending after all the temporal mischiefs. The Show needs to untangle all the twisted threads. Honestly, the whole balancing the entropy thing is gibberish. I believe the Show has a mystical wild card up its sleeve from the start. The paper crane is the key. My take is the “universe” is saying “We stuffed up” when the FL was killed and it is trying to fix it. In a sense, it is like Dr Strange doing his future scanning trick but finds only 1 possible timeline with the right outcome. I also find the present-day ML changing subtly over time to become more like the future ML quite plausible. He is him after all but experienced those 4 months from a different perspective. Once the memories melded over time, he naturally realigned his personality.

Acting wise, it is good. I like the persona shift of the ML as he flip between his two realities. The FL did well but she sounds too young from the dubbing. Would her own voice be better? To be honest, the real antagonist is really underwhelming.

Overall, I enjoyed the Show. It can be entertaining and occasionally, thought provoking but more often than not, I find it easier to go with the flow, switch off the frontal lobe and don't try to analyse it. ;)

OST is fine but a total rewatch is unlikely. A highlight reel would be nice.

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I want to start off by saying that if you haven’t watched this drama yet, go watch it now. I started Love in Time randomly because I had nothing else to watch at the time but I ended up watching 8 episodes in one night. It starts off with so much comedy. The main leads have so much chemistry right from the start.
The character development of He Zheng Yu from the past to the future was amazing. I’m not saying I liked the future one more than the past or anything because I loved them both equally. The actor played the different personalities so well. I actually didn’t know that the him from the past would fall in love with her. I guess I should have known.
The female lead does get a little annoying at time when she keeps on wanting to break up with him. I get it’s part of the storyline but I felt really bad for the male lead.
The mystery behind Wu Ji Rong’s case was actually quite interesting. I wouldn’t have known in the beginning who the person behind all the chaos was. It’s also interesting that the drama showed what’s meant to happen will eventually happen. Even if the main leads change their destiny, there would be a big price to pay.
I could carry on talking about the drama forever but I just want to skip to the ending. I want to say that with dramas that have such storylines, it is hard to please everyone. The fact that the two He Zheng Yu mixed together was actually the best way to end the drama. I won’t lie, I really started liking the past him and couldn’t choose who I wanted her to end up with. The drama did become so emotional at the end but I loved it. Normally I would say I wish he hadn’t died and that the ending was different. However I am totally content with the ending. I am already missing the drama.

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Solid drama

This drama is probably one of the most solid dramas I've seen in a while. Both the leads did a great job, but I think the male lead really shined in this. The secondary characters were just okay, they kind of just got dropped once they weren't useful to the story anymore. This was a little unfortunate as I really enjoyed the interactions between Mr. Mu and the female lead in the beginning and was looking forward to a love triangle situation. However, given the complexity of the time travel element, it made sense that they wanted to really develop the main couple's relationship. I will say that I enjoyed the beginning stages of the main couple's relationship much more than later on. I liked how they quarreled like roommates and once they got together it was a little boring. At times the female lead looked too young and immature compared to the male lead, and I wished they casted someone older.

There are some parts of the drama that are a little overdone. Like all dramas, the villains are incessant with their need for revenge, and I personally got bored with it. Jirong's initial storyline was so tragic! I was really taken aback by it. I found the reasoning for Jirong and Shenghao's ultimate divorce to be petty. It seemed that Shenghao was just agreeing with Jirong? I'm not sure why she was so offended by his suggestion especially after he apologized.

Overall, I do recommend this drama. It's well acted, produced, and written. I'm not the type of person who likes to rewatch things but if you are, you may score it higher on that scale.

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Unnecessary remake!

When a drama is a remake we couldn’t help ourselves comparing the both. Same thing happened with me over this.
It is just just based on meet @1006, not a remake, the story has been changed a lot. The changed part being the worst of it.
Original: I loved the original a lot even though it has a lot of flaws…it’s a different take on time travel, not completely but for a part of day intrigued me a lot and it kind of lived up to what was offered. The acting and feelings were on point. There is no drastic change in characters suddenly..it flowed naturally. Even though the FL was lil too much gradually she grew on me. Highlight would be Lego, he portrayed 2 characters flawlessly. And the chemistry is oozing…The transition from getting his memories back to where he is a lil rushed but it’s ok. It’s one of the funniest dramas out there. The story panned sooo good.
This; it’s so dumb … I could not feel any chemistry b/w them at all. The Ml tried but FL is straight on big no, didn’t even try… always whining and pushing him away rather than trying to solve things completely ignoring other persons feelings or struggles. The changed part was kind of dumb and too much filler scenes.
Overall soo much disappointed…
Save ur time!

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