Not quite there!

I had very high expectation of this show, and was patiently waiting for all episodes to air so that I could binge watch it. The ML is a ex-mobster, now a stoic CEO running a company which hires ex-cons and gives them a chance to change their lives. He has a serious personality, and has no romantic experience despite being 36 yrs old. The FL is an online influencer who makes content for kids, does honesty work, but fails to garner the attention her company expects her to achieve. The interactions between our leads are all good till episode 10. There is an additional pursuer of the FL, who is a public prosecutor, good hearted, nice to the FL and weary of the ML. His interactions with the FL are great too. We see a love confession happening between the leads around the 10th-11th episode and that is when things start going south. In one scene we see the ML getting all awkward about physical contact with the FL, and in the next scene we see them acting all googly eyed, making finger hearts at each other and being lovey dicey to the point of being silly. Seeing the character of ML in previous episodes, this sudden change was a little hard to digest. Then there were unnecessary tropes added in episode 12-14 where we see the history of other characters, and problems being created because of them, which felt like they were added just to increase the screen time of the actors. I didn’t dislike the show, but I had to forward quite a lot of portions in these episodes because they felt stupid and unnecessary.

The serious, no-nonsense character suited the ML a lot, and I wish we didn’t have to see his silly romantic side. Serious romances are good too, given the age of the leads, that would have naturally looked better. The series got interesting again from the middle of episode 14 when things stated getting heated up between the ML and his dad’s gang.We see the silly side returning for a bit in episode 16 again, but thankfully it wasn’t as cringe as before. The FL was very pretty, but I didn’t like her kinky, super short bangs somehow. I guess Korean actors think that wearing bangs is the only way to look young, but looking one’s age is super elegant too. Anyhow, overall it was a good one time watch for me, I loved the serious ML, as well as the love rival prosecutor, the right hand man of the ML, however, was the best looking of all! Hope to see more of these guys!

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One of the best!

One of the best Wuxia dramas I’ve seen! To begin with, I love strong female leads and Shen Li, our FL, is the most formidable, brave and courageous person in the show. She is simply awe-inspiring! As for our ML, he is an epitome of straight faced humour, and despite of his status as the last living God, he is patient, emotional, contradicted by his own emotions, and burdened by responsibilities, but even with all this, he is so much fun when he is with the FL. As for the actors, I’d seen both leads before, though in separate shows and I must say their chemistry was over the roof, right from the start. All in all, the show was very very entertaining, with light hearted moments in each episode, even during very serious situations. It was interesting to see the growth of Lord Furong into what he became towards the end of the show, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Mofang, no matter whatever evil he did. I can go on and on about other characters, there were so many I loved, but seriously, every Chinese drama lover should watch and appreciate this show. Last but definitely not the least, the music and background score of this show was simply superb! I wish I could give more than 10 stars :)

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Short, sweet, romantic!

A good in-between serious shows series, I liked the FL a lot in When I fly towards you, so I decided to watch this series. It was a short series of 14 episodes, and I binge watched it in one day. There isn’t much to the story, introvert boy has a crush on his high school desk mate, meets her again after 10 years, the girl being oblivious to his feelings all this time. They decide to be some a fake couple due to the FL being under pressure from her parents to marry, while it suits the ML perfectly, and he cares for the FL a lot, but they eventually separate because of misunderstandings and entry of love rivals on both sides. Soon after, they decide to get married after meeting on a blind date with each other. The FL has developed feelings for the ML by now but neither of them admit to having fallen for the other. Finally when the FL finds out about the ML’s long standing love for her, they are happy and sweetly in love. We also have our second leads who are best friends of the ML and the FL, their relationship was fun too, but I found myself fast forwarding some of their parts. If you are looking for a proper story with romance as a background, this series isn’t for you, but if you feel you want to watch a light hearted romance which isn’t too mushy, go for it.

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Emotional and beautiful

This was a story with so many emotional ups and downs, I kept crying and smiling at the same time. It was so heartening to see the leads as teenagers falling in love and looking super sweet together. While it was equally heartbreaking to see them separate due to circumstances, their encounter as grown ups was so cute at the laundromat when the ML sees her sleeping and keeps staring at her mesmerised and smiling! I loved all four actors, the ones that played the young leads and the ones that played grown up leads, but I’m slightly partial to the grown up ML Satoh Takeru since I like him a lot. This Japanese drama had very little of the surprised expressions that I find quite irritating about most Japanese dramas and the story didn’t look abrupt. On the contrary, it was a well thought out story with a blessed happy ending, my only regret is that we didn’t get to see the happy life of the leads together in the end, other than the one last scene in the aircraft.

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Good when watched till the end.

I shall review this series in groups of ten episodes.

Episode 1 - 10: I was irritated by the personality of the FL, it’s okay if she was modest and dull, but the way she carried herself was too superficial. I have always liked FLs that are strong, independent and capable. While the FL comes from a small province to Shanghai for work, and was naive and simple minded, although there is nothing wrong with being that, I felt irked by her silly hopping gait and puppet like body language. However, I toiled on to the next set of ten episodes.

Episode 11 - 20: I was happy to see that she got together with the ML, but her self doubt because of the huge intellectual and financial disparity was saddening. I felt touched seeing her face so much gossip and criticism, not only at her workplace, but by her boyfriend’s close people as well. On top of it, I felt angry at the ML for not assuring her and partnering with her in shouldering the pressure on her own, knowing full well she would be suffering because of how far apart they both were, in every way.

Episodes 21-33: Here we see the relationship developing into deep affection, albeit deceit and attempts to harm the relationship, while our FL continues to doubt herself on being a worthy partner for her man. The later episodes show her growing in education and becoming independent, and the ML seeing her grow into a woman he admires, his family seeing her for the woman she is, and wholeheartedly accepting and supporting her. I would have actually given this series only 5 stars had it not been for the later episodes.

Overall, since this series was shot around 2014, it is not as fast paced as the shows today, still it had a charm that kept me going from episode to episode, feeling happy for the couple and how their relationship grew.

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Unimpressive despite expectations!

This was a much awaited show, since I am a fan of both Bai Lu and Dylan Wang, with Miles Wei in this show as well, the anticipation was even higher. I generally wait for a show to complete airing before I binge watch it, but I started watching when about 26 episodes were aired. Episode after episode, my confusion kept growing as to what was the deal with the leads, with the ML clearly interested in the FL but always giving her a tough time, then helping her covertly. As for the FL, she is shown as a rising star in financial journalism, with many noteworthy articles under her belt, but as soon as the ML comes into the picture, she sees him as the only ladder she needs to climb professionally, the character sketch of the FL couldn’t have been more skewed. She flirts with a business contact openly, is unsure whether she actually has feelings for him, but sees nothing wrong in using him for her professional gain. I was expecting a great onscreen chemistry between the leads, but it was lacklustre and mediocre at best. What was really appalling were the unnecessary scenes of horse riding that felt so out of place and context! For the second leads, they looked good together, had chemistry too, but I didn’t get why their relationship had to be an on-and-off kind of situation, with no rhyme or reason for unnecessary conflict or coldness. The third couple, with Miles Wei was my favourite, and one of the reasons I continued watching. That said, even this cute pair couldn’t compel me to watch beyond episode 24. I really like Bai Lu and Dylan Wang, and sincerely hope they get better stories and characters in future. Bai Lu has shown such great on-screen chemistry with Ren Jialun, Xu Kai and Luo Yunxi, I expected more from her here, but she can only do what she is directed to, with the character that’s written for her. As for Dylan Wang, I loved him in Love between Fairy and Devil, but I just couldn’t feel the same for him in this show.

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