Let me just start of with saying i was extremely excited for this live action. I absolutely adored the manga series. I re-read it i don't know how many times. That being said i find it sad to say i have found this live action to be a massive let down. They changed some very important events from the manga, which were some of the biggest turning points in the series. As well as they added in nearly all of the supporting characters with characters that don't even exists in the manga. Don't get me wrong if i hadn't read the book i would have given this a much higher rating. I just feel if you were a big fan of the manga like i was there is a really good chance you will find this to be a huge let down.

One of the bigger issues i had with this drama was how they interpreted the main character hokuto and chiwa.
Hokuto in the manga came off as a very stand offish character. Very cold and very self centred. From the very beginning of the series his main goal was to be the head of the mamiya company which has been in his family for generations. In the manga he did not have any friends or family he felt he could rely on. In his world he was virtually alone and that was the way he wanted it.

One of the issues i had with chiwa was in the manga she did start out as a semi damsel in distress. However she never once stopped and whined and complained about her situation or her family's situation. She was always strong willed and a pillar of support for hokuto even when he didn't know he needed it. They were always helping each other out in ways they didn't even think were possible.
One of the other bigger changes they made was in the manga Chiwa was actually an employee of the mamiya company although they never really specified what that was but that was one of the things that got the manga off to such a good start in my opinion. That was where you really saw them start to grow and develop a relationship with one another, however rocky that relationship was.
The original story line in the book wasn't one of the most original piece's i have ever read but it defiantly was one of the most entertaining. There was romance, suspense, twists, comedy and so much more. A lot that the live action was missing. The book was so intense in some parts like wow did they really just do that. Or you would think wow did he just really say that about that person etc. I honestly feel like this is one of those dramas you watch because you either have nothing to do or just simply want to watch something simple and cliche. But hey again this is all just my opinion. I do recommend though reading the manga if you haven't already and see if you agree with the changes they made and what this drama was seriously lacking.

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As i was reading some the reviews i saw a lot of negative ones and honestly i'm not really surprised. The acting was average, the music was average and some of the story line seemed a bit unrealistic. Now having said that. I have read the manga, watched the anime, watched the original Japanese drama and the newer Japanese drama and watched the Korean version. And this was by far my favourite one out of all of them.
Like i said the acting was average and came off cheesy in most scenes, but it was just one of those things that just for some reason or another captivated me and kept me thoroughly entertained. I guess you could say i in some ways or another related to the main character Xiang Qin. A unrequited love throughout high school not knowing how to call it quits even when the other party does not seem the slightest bit interested. Now i can't say that i ever have lived with one of my crushes before but that was one of the things i loved the most about the story. Was how funny and out there it was.
I guess one of the main reasons why i loved this version so much is because of how much detail they put in the story line. IF you watch season 1 and 2 they cover from their high school years all the way up to the point they are old enough to go out there and try to chase the their careers. I also loved how the portrayed Zhi Shu's character. I thought Cheng Joe did an amazing job portraying that character. At least out of all the other male leads in the different versions of this drama. He was cold, mean, nasty at times and yet could be gentle, kindhearted and loving and not even know it. I will admit for the first time i watched this i absolutely hated his character. I kept thinking is there really a reason to make him so dang nasty all the time. But there was. Out of all the characters in this story he grew the most. From the first episode to the very last you could see how much his character had changed. And yet even though he had changed his character didn't end being one of those wishy washy characters that you just find annoying at the end of the series. Another thing i will give credit was they didn't add in a lot of cheesy dialogue where you are thinking oh my goodness please just end it already. I thought it was rightly timed and executed. It is really hard as well when making a romance to not have cheesy lines, because to most people anything romance related is pretty cheesy. Now i know a lot of people will disagree with my rating of this drama but at the end of the day, at the end of each episode i finished it with a smile on my face and constantly going back in for more. Now if that's not what you want an audience to feel then how should one feel after watching a romantic comedy? But again this is all in my humble opinion.

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I really wanted to give this drama a review because i absolutely adore the manga! The manga is one of those rare type of books that you can re-read as many times as you want and still get all the same feelings of enjoyment as if you are reading if for the first time. However, i did not get any of that from the drama. I really really was hoping that this drama was going to be a hit for me. :(

I will first start with the story: One of the things i hate about live actions is their need to change the story line so unnecessarily. I don't see the point in wanting to tell the story but not the way it was original portrayed. I do understand that people tend to change things for movies and tv shows to add that extra bit of drama, but in this case i felt it was poorly done. They added characters that never existed in the book and made the lead actress really whinny and dependant on her family, when in  fact that was one of the things he loved about her. He loved that she was so dependant and loyal and took her job very seriously. They made her all about her family and the constant need to push things on other people was another added trait in the drama. One of the main things i loved about leads in the manga was the fact that they are so different and want completely different things in life, and yet they still fall madly in love with each other and want to live in the now. Not trying to focus so much on trying to change the other person but loving each other to the fullest and finding their own way to love each other.
One of the things in my opinion that made the book so enjoyable was the fact that they both were so confident about themselves. And sometimes for Ryuu it came across as lovable and cute, but not overbearing. They story line explored the vulnerability of both sides of the leads, showing that they both fear the fact they might not be able to give what the other person wants in the end. I feel like in the drama the male lead came out as cute in times but bland and a bit boring a majority of the time. In the book Ryuu was extreme loving, caring, witty, sexy and so much more that i feel we have hit way off base on what we were given.

Now the acting: I'm going to be honest i did not know a single person in this cast but i thought overall it was alright. Was it the best acting in a Japanese drama i have ever seen? No. But it wasn't the worst either. I do feel that a lot of it was because i kept thinking for half of the supporting cast who are you? You shouldn't exist in this story! I know i know i sound really biased since the books is one of my all time favourites but a lot of the added in characters really did not need to be there in my opinion.

The music: One thing i really did love was the music. The listined to the ending song every single time. I thought they did a really good job with that.

Re-watch Value: For me i feel this is one of those dramas i would re-watch when i have nothing else to watch and not sure on what i want to watch next. Just really didn't do it for me.

I would just like to say my re view for this drama might be low but for me, it's because the story has so much potential from the book and there was so much that they could have done with it that it just felt flat and rushed a lot. Especially since they tried to cram it all in 9 episodes. But i honestly feel if i hadn't read the book i would have given it a much higher review.

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