My Deepest Dream (2022)

A Romance Lover's Fantasy/Mystery Drama

First half - 9.0
Second half - 8.0

If you are a romance lover 1st, and a mystery/fantasy drama lover 2nd, then you would enjoy this drama. But if you are looking for a serious, well-written mystery/fantasy drama, you might be disappointed. Since I am a romance lover, I really like “My Deepest Dream”. It has a surprisingly very well-written, well-acted romance main plot. Most mystery dramas would probably have the romance as a subplot, but in this drama, romance is front and center and integrates well with the mystery plot. I am also very happy with the pacing of the drama. It holds my attention very well and I was able to binge this pretty quickly.

What I Like:

1. Main Romance - The romance between Tan Jiao (FL) and Wu Yu (ML) is mature, sweet, memorable and beautiful. Their love is strong and honest, and endures challenges and craziness. Tian Jio and Wu Yu are fun and sweet together, and there’s plenty of skinship and great kisses. The development and progression of the romance feel natural. The chemistry between the leads is great and they are very supportive and understanding of each other. There are many romantic scenes, because Wu Yu is just so thoughtful and romantic: 1) Tan Jiao said she likes rainbows, and he creates a rainbow scene, 2) Tan Jiao sat on the cold floor and needed time alone, Wu Yu took his jacket off and let her sit on it, and also sat around the corner to give her space but keep her accompany, 3) buying breakfast, holding her hands, cooking for her, etc., 4) a very romantic scene in ep 29 to create a memory that may or may not last forever. You can probably tell I am in love with Wu Yu myself. ?

2. Secondary Romance - Time and time again, Zhou Xiao Yu (2fL0 and Shen Shi Yan (2ML) fall in love at first sight when opposites attract. Their first encounter is always interesting and fun, and something to do with the law. It’s like the movie “50 First Dates”. And because of these accumulated short encounters, when we move towards the last ⅓ of the drama, their relationship is more memorable and heartbreaking. It’s a very interesting way to write about the development of a relationship due to the time traveling, but I quite like it.

3. Acting - I have always been a fan of Li Yi Tong and she never disappoints. She’s cute as a button, so acting as a sweet and cute FL is nothing new or challenging for her. But her emotional, crying and heartbreaking scenes are great and made me cry. After seeing Jin Han in “Jun Jiu Ling” I became a fan of his (I did forget all about him in “Princess Wei Young”). But he made such a good impression in “Jun Jiu Ling” that I want to see him again and he’s the perfect guy for this role. He has such great subtle expressions on his face that conveys his emotions so well without saying any words. I can tell from his face how he feels - pensive, shy, thoughtful, worried or jealous. The secondary leads and the rest of the supporting cast are also great, with a mix of veterans and the younger generation.

4. Timelines/Main Plot - This is quite an interesting way of executing time traveling and parallel universes. There are multiple timelines in this drama, so viewers have to pay close attention. Without spoiling too much, the timeline feels like you go one step forward, but two steps backwards. You start from the cruise, then head to the future, and then back to cruise, and head to the future again, but this time your future is actually going backwards. I am not explaining this well, but you gotta pay attention and watch it for yourself. This is not your usual time traveling and it’s quite fresh and interesting. I also like how each individual subplot and the supporting characters are also integrated back to the main plot. It makes the mini-mysteries less episodic but more like mini climaxes building up toward the big finish.

5. Friendship - Where can you find a BFF who believes you whenever you tell her your crazy story about time traveling EVERY SINGLE TIME? How about a cop friend who helps you with your investigation EVERY SINGLE TIME when you are giving him weird but real evidence that even the cops don’t know? That’s true friendship. Those who believe and stick by you and just because you are their friend.

6. OST - There are a few very lovely songs in this drama. My favorite is “Dark Clouds Meet the Bright Moon/乌云遇皎月” by Hu Xia/胡夏. It sounds so romantic yet mysterious. The rest of the songs complement the drama and certain scenes very well.

What I have Mixed Feelings or Don’t Like:

1. Inconsistencies/Illogical incidents - The first half of the drama is a lot more well-written than the second half. I hardly noticed any illogical things and was going to give this a rare 9.0 rating if it continues to trend upward. Unfortunately, I start to notice more inconsistencies in the second half. The writing is not as tight. A few things I noticed:
If you are being attacked by birds in a warehouse, shouldn’t you want to get out as soon as possible, and not surround yourself with fire in order to scare the birds away?
♦︎ Hard to get concert tickets don’t seem to be a concern anymore when we need everyone to go spontaneously.
♦︎ Civilians participating in official police work/investigation/staking out is no big deal.
♦︎ I don’t think you can dissolve a pill in a bowl of hot soup without smashing it first.
♦︎ All of a sudden everyone seems to understand and believe time traveling in the last couple episodes. No one questions during the villain showdown?
♦︎ Seeing the future is one thing, understanding the power to control is a whole other story (trying to be vague and not spoil anything here).

2. Villain - Guessing the identity of the villain isn’t that difficult especially after you watch ⅔ of the drama. However, I find it hard to believe the reason why the villain did what they did. I was hoping for something more exciting? It seems somewhat weak to me.

3. Poor CGI and production value - It’s pretty clear that this is not a big budget production. The CGI is not well done here, so don’t expect much. The scenes when the leads are traveling through time are especially laughable. I also find all the scenes on the cruise to be very fake. I guess it really gives off a different dimension feel due to its fakeness. LOL. I don’t think they need to hire foreigners to be cruise members. It’s way too pretentious. They are dubbed in Chinese anyway.

4. How it all happened - It might be just me not understanding the science behind the time traveling. The drama tries to give a scientific explanation towards the end, but I might have to re-watch the last couple episodes with English subtitles to understand better the English terminology instead of Chinese. It might not be the drama’s fault but it’s just me, or not (?). I understand the ending and am satisfied how it ends, especially when it comes to the two romantic pairs.


Other Random Observations:
1. I wish more people would appreciate Jin Han’s rugged, mature handsomeness. He’s a great actor as well but is not getting much attention due to his unconventional and non-idol look.
2. Some people might find some romance scenes and lines cringey - but I love them!
3. But I do wish they have minimized the number of slow mo romance scenes, esp. Since this is not a rom-com.
4. Smart female leads - both are brave, intelligent and go-getters.
5. Love FL’s mother especially when she’s trying to teach FL how to court ML.


Completed: 10/22/2022

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an intriguing journey

If you are looking for a perfect mix of mystery, suspense and romance, this is for you!

After finding out this drama was adapted from Ding Mo's novel, I knew I was going to enjoy this and it did not disappoint.

The story had many twists and turns which kept me guessing and for me that on edge uncertainty held me until the very end as I wondered how things would wrap up.

Besides the mystery component, the romance was really nice. I love how the main leads relationship was depicted in a mature way, both had a great understanding of each other when facing through difficult situations. In addition to that, the music is well fitted especially with scenes of the leads finding their way back to each other from the time travel. The lyrics of "find you" and "try to remember the kind of september" still lingers on my mind.

The acting of this drama was good and the characters portrayed from the actors was brilliant. I was especially impressed by the main leads amazing chemistry.

My Deepest Dream kept me engaged the whole way throughout with the intriguing plot and it is worth a watch!

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