This review may contain spoilers
This drama is somewhat relateable aside from the love lines.First off, its a typical youth C-drama, female lead loves the popular, smart and handsome male lead.
The character development in this drama is great especially with the female lead, Xia Miao Miao. She was initially a timid and shy girl but grew into a brave, confident, and independent girl because of her friends and because of her beloved Liang You Nian.
Liang You Nian is the male lead of the drama. He's your typical c-drama male lead. He's sweet and nice to everyone except those who ticks him off or trying to get with his girl. You can totally see his glare when someone gets too close to Miao Miao. IT WAS ADORABLE! Back to the story at hand, You Nian is someone who sticks to what he wants to do and this trait of his helped Miao Miao switch her major to something that SHE herself really wanted to do from the beginning. That sparked the change in Miao Miao and how hard working she is in achieving her dreams.
The relationship between the two leads started later because Miao Miao had a crush on You Nian since high school and (spoiler alert) Liang You Nian did as well, however he didn't exactly confirm this until later in university. It was cute when they got together, they held hands, hugged, not much kissing but other than that its adorable seeing them together and working together, etc.
The drama also focused on other couples Lin Kai Tuo, You Nian's younger step brother (its funny because the actor playing Kai Tuo is way older than Kuan Lin(actor playing Liang You Nian). XD Kai Tuo was coupled with He Xin (Liang You Nian's cousin.) I call them the temper couple cause they both have anger issues/temper. hhahaha Another character is Wang Yi Chao and same-grade female character I forgot the name of albeit sh initially liked You Nian.
Furthermore, the drama focused on family issues such as Liang You Nian's family. His father married Kai Tuo's mother. For a while this caused a disruption in the friend between Kai Tuo and You Nian. One misses their birth mother, and the other misses their birth father. As said before, this drama mentioned individual choices -such as majors in universities- if your family wants you to take this major, but your hearts wants something else then follow it cause thats what Miao Miao ended up doing.
Lets just say, You Nian influenced a lot of Miao Miao's choices which eventually lead to an argument I thought was pointless. Anyways, You Nian also said Miao Miao inspired him as well in ways that she never knew she could because she thought he's "too high" for her. It just tells us that You Nian doesn't care if you're not the best looking person, its all about the personality and your actions and what you do with it.
The acting in this drama is not amazing. I just want to say Kuan Lin is not an actor even though he technically acted. He just didn't seem natural whatsoever. His expressions are stone cold aside from his smile - which is adorable but other than that his expressions in acting is terrible. Even the crying part was awkward - it had no feeling to me. The female lead who played XIa Miao Miao did an okay, passable job.
Overall, if you like youth dramas dealing with fashion design, architect, drawing, college life, family drama, friendship then this is for you. :)
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The SL and FML really got my attention when I saw the former episodes. They had this oozing chemistry, and I feel bad (not) for shipping them rather than the actual love teams. Although, the leads' chemistry is cute cute cute! There are times when I feel like that the FML is not innocent however insensitive, although her development is good. I liked their character development (especially to SL's).
The music is really giving the LSS vibes. It's kind of redundant in the drama, but I don't really care because it somehow suits the scene.
Give it a try, especially when you’re watching angst films/dramas. It might help soothe your heart~ :D
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but anyways PLEASE WATCH THIS SHOW.
sorry that it's not steamy like some of u perverts like, but it's meant to show the innocence of first love.
and im sure the only reason they didn't actually kiss, is because Guanlin is 18 and Jinmai is only 17. AND Guanlin probably didn't want to catch a case soooo i mean....
also stfu, it was the 1st time guanlin acted in a show like this, he's working hard to be better.
and Jinmai too, shes so pretty and and is a great actress, so before you judge her and call her acting bad, watch her other shows, she protrays her character perfectly.
thank u and stop hating on my favorite show atm... its the only thing making me not go insane in this quarantine time.
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This c drama has themes of youth, popular guy and not so popular girl, high school, college, friendship, fashion, architecture, and the cutest little jealousy scenes ever!
Out of the probably 80 c dramas I’ve watched (and counted), this drama goes into my top 5 for c drama youth. This type of drama is exactly what I’m looking for when I think of a youth drama. And yes, there IS a happy ending!
Just keep in mind that the cast is 18 years or younger, so there isn’t much to the drama than your middle school romance lololol. Still recommend!
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The thing that sort of rubbed me the wrong way in this production was how they handled the female lead's physical transformation in order to fit in with society's standards of beauty and to make her feel more worthy of the male lead. I appreciate how she learned to go after her own goals and actually became respected for skills, but her physical transformation was just a bit much for me with everyone encouraging her to undergo certain changes and then praising her when she finally fit in. The changes ARE gradual and can realistically showcase things a girl does as she grows up, but it's the conversations around it that could have been more tactful. Not a fan, but didn't pull me entirely away from the story.
The cast was a bit young for my taste, but I think they did a fine job for this being so early on in their careers. It's rare that you get actors playing a character OLDER than their actual age. You follow these characters into their early adulthood, which is a span of about six years throughout the 36 episodes, but I still find that a lot of the thoughts and actions they have when they are around 22 years old is similar to their mindset when they were 16. There's not a whole lot of character development for anyone except the female lead, and everyone has retained that immaturity they had when they were in high school. I'm giving them a high score just because they are too stinking cute, and I love the different relationships within their group dynamic. I didn't dislike any of the supporting characters. The lighthearted feel of this drama luckily doesn't call for profound acting ability. They're actually more natural than I expected, but I overall just thought that either the actors were too young or the characters were situationally older than they should have been.
Overall, just an adorable feel-good drama, with some promising young and newer faces.
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Yeah fairytale .. anyone have memory of the legendary Thai movie that you watched in school alongside your anime collection, A Little Thing Called First Love ? Aah even till today I cant forget how beautiful the actress was, truly a legendary glow up story XD.. So this drama is a remake from that movie. Honestly at first im not really excited as this remake is not the first one, so the plot line quite overused. But I decided to give it a try as the opening song is just so nice, and aah that the best decision ever, currently when writing this review, already rewatched the drama for the Nth time..
Contrary to my worry that the plot line is overused, the drama give a very fresh feeling. The casts, the setting, the fashion, the hairstyle, the ost even the story line though a remake, but written very thoughtfully that you dont want to miss any moments and always anticipated what will happen next.
Casts : 10/10 . Let just say how shocked I was to know that the leads just in their 17-18 years old, because their acting and chemistry is so moving ah! Angel Zhao's definitely able to perfectly potray her role from a super shy 'ugly duckling' ,to step by step become more confident and independent girl.. the feeling and facial expression just so spot on and her eyes always able to tug your heart string. Such natural born actress and she is still so young too. And Kuanlin is such perfect visual. His eye really beautiful ah.. Kuanlin's acting not perfect but he still able to potray the maturity and depth of Liang You Nian character. After this drama the bad-boy-is-my-type principle just crumbled away by the mature, kind but reserved Liang Shixiong O.o
The other casts is really lovable too, love the friendship mixed with love drama as its not so heavy but rather it give a push to everyone's story to really pursue the one you really love. I love all the couples, well though maybe i still not really like Kai Tao and i hope Xinxin give him more of hard time LoL.. And btw i cant believe they dont give A Xia a male partner at all, she is such a mother fairy and love doctor for everyone, she deserved her own romance, okay!
Fashion : 9.5/10 . This is one of important factor for the 'freshness' feel. I just love their style. As this is college drama, their clothes is casual wear. ML is so suave, his hair style is so perfect for him. FL, because have to empathize the glow up progress, have many different styles through the drama. My fav is the one with long, curly noodle hair, with casual stylish shirt and jeans. So cute!! But the queen is definitely He Xin, her white furry dress, that one a must have collection!
OST : 10/10. The opening song is one of ost that you dont want to skip in every eps, love the instrumental version too. And the one sung by Wang Yi Chou. All the osts just matching the scenes and the story perfectly.
The scenic views and unforgettable moments : This drama have it. I love how their story is started in light house and beach, that just nostalgic and poignant. And how i can recall many moments in this drama, that showed how touching it is. One of the example is when You Nian announce his relationship with MiaoMiao to public. And i love too how heartwrenching or intense scenes suddenly interrupted by comedy break .. that make this drama light hearted without much trying to be funny but still can give a moving undercurrent of the character's depth and emotion while not make us too sad.
Overall this drama is a fulfilling one for me with balanced romance, friendship, family and school life. And I think this give positive messeges too how love can make us better, but its still important to pursue our own dream and to love yourself so you can love other without burden because you love so helplessly and selflessly. Like ML for his family and FL and He Xin for their crush.
So this is definitely in my top of cdrama, one that you just cant but to watch again and again and still marvel how beautiful it is everytime..
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I didn't think this would EVER end!
I fell asleep numerous times watching this, it was so drawn out, with SO MUCH unnecessary stuff. Every episode I was like, "Get to the point already!" So much of what happened was for the sole purpose of making this drama longer. Why, I have no idea. The story was a typical Chinese school story. Girl likes boy, boy might like girl but absolutely nothing happens between them until 3/4 of the way through the show,I loved the male lead character. Aside from being gorgeous, he was a very nice guy and his smile was lovely. The female lead was actually scary looking at the beginning, but you got the impression that he might like her regardless of the hair and the braces, which was nice. During the short period of time they were actually together, they were cute, but they had the typical breakup storyline, and I felt it was more stupid than most. As usual, the ending was rushed.
Now, concerning the second couple, they were extremely irritating. He was a complete jerk to everyone, especially her. She was a stalker, in essence. I don't know in how many different ways he told her to go away, but no, she just kept coming back for more abuse. I think this sends a bad message. Stalking is never okay (so, it might not technically be stalking, but she was certainly following him around). This makes me think that her self-esteem is so low she has no business being in a relationship anyway. Then, once he decided her liked her (for what reason remains a mystery), she blows him off. Again, to make the show longer.
As far as the positives go, I did appreciate that the costume designers didn't put them in ridiculous clothes and that she actually wore jeans, which is a nice change to see.
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The story was faithful to the original movie. The pivotal scenes where showed like pool scene. There was a special ‘tribute’ to the original that somehow gave me a new and refreshing feels about this new version.
It was fun to watch specially because of the cast. They were young/new actors/actress and their new faces added to the freshness of the series. I never knew Zhao Jinmai before but in the mid of the series I remember that she was part of The Wandering Earth cast. Her acting in this series is very natural. She’s so cute and fun to watch. The others like the ones who play Kaituo and Xin are also commendable. Both played a strong character and they have executes it beautifully. ????????
The OST is good also. Definitely rewatchable! ????
The only thing that i got tired of was some very slow motion motion scenes they made me skip a bit because it was too much for me. Hehe! ????
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Though there are a few side characters that I would have been happy to have seen a bit less of, every character added to the show in their own way and created a world that is both familiar and new.
I love this show and was especially impressed with the Male Lead. I think this is his first lead role and he absolutely nailed the character. He carried the entire series as if he'd done it many times.
I highly recommend this drama if you are looking for something light and cute with a sweet romance.
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This review may contain spoilers
No comparison to ALSB
This will only contain minor spoilers!I am not sure how I finished this drama. It is no comparison to other school/Univeristy dramas like A love so beautiful and Put your head on my shoulder, the male lead was awful, good looking but could not act while the female lead is young she was ok. There was zero chemistry between them. They liked each other from the beginning but took around 30 episodes/3-4 years to get together. By the time they do get together they are 20 or so but behaved like very young teens. They hide their relationship and separate for a year all in the last few episodes so you hardly get to see any sweet moments. The change in the FL jumped, dramatically at times, from dark skinned to pale, her dress sense from jeans and jumpers to wearing blazers! Their were 2 other couples which were fillers and not overly interesting. The only reason why I didnt drop this drama was because i didn't have anything else to watch at the time, next time I feel this way i will rewatch a good drama and not waste my time!
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So I got the recommendation on Netflix and i’ve been wanting to watch a new Chinese drama it looked interesting and I mostly watched cause of Guanlin cause I Stan wannaone and I wanted to see how he’s is doing at first I didn’t like that they see ugly as dark skin, frizzy hair, bad teeth, and glasses I guess it’s China but the story line made me bored I dozed off a couple of times cause the main characters talked in such a mono tone but I still continue to watch still very mono tone I like the first love thing but it’s just gets boring cause that’s the only storyline carrying the whole story the main characters have no emotion that moves me into the story it felt so dry even when they broke up the break up felt dry they could have picked better main characters I bet they only added Guanlin cause he was popular I don’t know about Miaomiao she was a boring character was she supposed to be a shy girl turned to a brave one cause the girl that acted her was trash I love Guanlin but his acting was trash to they have no connection no spark just robots talking to each other pretending to have emotions and also I hate when they make a dark skin character into a white character like did she magically got white like no sis I used to be dark skin and it took me 2 years to get pale and this girl just magically went from dark mode to light mode sis you ain’t fooling anybody and then her hair looks fake before and after do they think to make her pretty is to get a wig make her skin turn white straighten teeth and no glasses (sips tea) no and Guanlin’s acting makes not bored when they got in a fight boring when he confessed to her boring when he tried to win her back boring even riding his bike boring like that should not happen overall the main characters are boring mono tone period. The only thing that made me actually want to watch this garbage is the two lead characters they’re not the best at acting but better than the main characters their love and connection felt more real and it made me actually continue watching robots their love story was actually really refreshing they bring some what emotion to the table and makes me like their little quarrels and the way they argue with each other kinda makes me jealous unlike the main characters robots, if the second lead character had their own drama I will literally watch it the main characters felt more like a second lead the second lead had a main characters to them the only reason I even liked this garbage is because of the two leads give them a drama together better love story better chemistry and they give me emotions unlike the emotionless mono tone robots that are the main character.
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Adults probably shouldn't waste their time with this!
This is one of the worst cdramas I have ever watched. Truth to be told I wanted to drop it after ep5, but I had nothing else lined up & I needed something to watch during my 5 hour workout session. Naturally I have had my fair share of high school & college romance cdramas, but this is perhaps the first time that I felt this bored. People talk about liking slow burn romances & I usually like slow burn romances as well, but there has to be a hook, such as good comedy, or interesting characters, or sometimes even just the audiovisuals. In this show there is nothing like that. Uninteresting characters go about their school lives in a really boring & dragged out way, at least that's what happens in the first 25 or so episodes. (out of 36 episodes) The OST is weird, the visuals are nothing to write home about and even the actors are bad. I don't really blame them though, I mean how well can a 15-16 year old girl act in a supposed college romance story? (and FL is still far better, than the at the time 16-17 years old idol ML)The last 10 episodes are much better, if I consider those a separate drama that's probably a 6/10, though it's quite difficult to forgive the extremely bad separation plot.
As for the second ML, for the first 25+ episodes he doesn't do anything beyond misunderstanding FL's every little action for FL liking her. After the fifth time I started smashing my fastforward button. His other love line is bad as well. The actor is an adult, but he is no acting genius , that's for sure.
The writers that wrote this worked on Put Your Head on My Shoulder & A Love so Beautiful before. I find it baffling how could those people come up with a script this bad. My disappointment is comparable to when I tried watching Start Up.
Just to say something good about the drama, I found that FL's gradual transformation process was really great. It's not jarring like in Ugly Betty, or other soaps that follow this trope. Another thing that comes to mind is that FL really looks like her mother in this drama. The mom was a phenomenal casting decision & she is probably my favorite character in the drama.
edit: I thought of another good thing! The drama has one "real" kiss scene and I think the way they hid the touching lips was relatively good. A hundred times this over cheek & forehead kisses. (or stupidly playing with angles)
Honestly I don't understand why this drama has an MDL score of 8.3. It's not funny, it only has a little fluff near the final episodes & as I said it's badly acted as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I mean sure there are many that get mesmerized by beauty & then proceed to watch whatever happily, but we are watching literal kids here. I'm not sure what the average age on MDL is, but I have some uncomfortable thoughts about this.
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