The Girl Who Sees Smells (2023)

Ummm.....

THE ACTING:
**The actors delivered lines well, emoted properly and consistently, and looked good doing their job. I have nothing but praise for the acting in this drama. The reason I watched this until the end was because of the actors.
**My favorite character was He Le (Du Hou Jia)....he was so much fun. And his final scene had me in tears.

THE AESTHETICS:
**The locations were beautiful, even though some of the office scenes were over-the-top
**The wardrobe department did a fabulous job. I loved all of the outfits, shoes, jewelry, etc., and for the most part, they fit well. (That dress that Bai Bing wore would have been perfect without the corset-styled bodice....it wasn't flattering.)

THE BAD:
**The English title is misleading. I originally clicked on "The Girl Who Sees Smells" because that's an actual thing, and it is interesting to me. This was not about seeing smells however. This was about a girl who had outstanding gustation (taste.)
**The directing and editing was pretty bad. There were scenes where I could see that the actors were following direction instead of acting naturally. I blame this on the director and not the actors, because multiple takes are often needed in order to get a natural shot. But when whole groups of people are standing there, just staring and not reacting to a character's actions or delivery.....and then they put the scene in slo-mo.....it's bad. Often, in my head I could hear the director saying, "When she finishes her line, turn to the left and walk away" or "Pretend you're talking amongst yourselves in the background while she is speaking." It was just SO obvious to me.
**Scene transition was jarring. Suddenly you're in a whole new scene. Did they not have an editor??
**The plot. I mean, honestly. They could have come up with a better premise than 'rich boy ages backwards, poor girl's kiss cures him.' I might have liked it if it hadn't been in a real-world setting.
*The tropes. Don't get me wrong, I kinda love tropes, but a girl can only twist her ankle so many times. Even in the story, the ML goes, 'why aren't you wearing the flat shoes I bought you?' He knows. LOL
**The ending....I mean.....

I wanted this to be good. I watched the whole thing, and gave it every chance. Props to whoever cast this. The actors tried.

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Seemed interesting... but fell short

I really wanted to like this drama! but couldnt. It had such potential and seemed kinda cute,, why did they ruin in ?

Female lead has a super taste what wine she has drank before she'll remember it. She is trying to be a wine taster/ recommender at this company name Anda. She takes may blind taste test and wins but is always blocked my the third female lead. They never liked each other. The third female lead never liked the female lead. The male lead has a very strange disease/disorder which his symptoms gets better when the female lead kisses him. He tries to do what he can to pursue her, be her neighbor etc. The male lead never told the female lead his true identity ( being the ceo of Anda company). The male lead has a younger brother. The younger brother is pretty famous in the wine industry. He holds a grudge against his family due to a car accident while he was young. The younger brother becomes the female lead's teacher.

There is just way too many misunderstanding between the leads. It suppose to be a sweet drama since, they kiss so many times! but its not... no chemistry at all..

Few reasons why it flopped

1) FL AND ML didnt have enough chemistry
2) Annoying/evil third female lead character constantly sabotaging.
3) Annoying younger brother
4) male lead is not honest enough in the relationship
5) female lead is too naive

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Unrealistic, cheesy RomCom but watchable, the FL did a decent job

TGWSS drama is a RomCom 24 episodes drama. It is an unrealistic drama about someone's saliva can cure a strange disease.

The plot is stupid and cheesy, but the acting of the FL, Jin Zi Xuan, is decent. The same cannot be said for the ML, Jia Yi. However, the love they have for each other is believable. I like Du Hou Jia's acting as He Le role; he is funny, and Bai Bing's character is annoying, stupid, and can't take 'No' for the answer.

I don't like female character who is conniving, clingy and do not think the best of themselves, and do stupid stuff like Bai Bing's character.

I binged watch it since it was released with 24 episodes on iQiYi; it is decent but not great drama. I give it a 5.0 rating.

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The ending ruined an entire good drama.

I spent 2 days watching this drama and then wondered what I watched. This drama didn't start well but I still gave it a chance. Then it really attracted me in the middle period when ML gradually fell in love with FL instead of the original purpose of approaching her. But then the drama begins to go around the circle between the sabotage of support female Baibing and the aggression of ML's brother. The later it got, the more I wanted to finish watching this drama quickly to know the ending because I was so tired of the plot. And no surprise the ending... omg it made me feel like I was a stupid guy and iQiyi wasted a whole drama. An ambiguous ending between SE and HE. HE is ML has recovered from his illness and returned. SE is FL was depressed and had hallucinations of ML's return just like the doctor said. Personally I'm more inclined towards SE. Last words, the only thing that help me watch until the last episode was that I wanted to see ML outfits. They're really my favorite style I want about my boyfriend. 10 points for ML outfits and that's all.

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Watched at 2x speed ;)

All the usual tropes and cliches!! Love rivals✔️ Bitchy backstabbing ✔️ serious lack of communication ✔️ loads of misunderstandings and lies✔️ and the list goes on

But somehow I got to the end lol. At 2x speed and lots of fast forwarding as well. The ML kept a huge secret from FL. We all knew it was going to blow up in his face eventually and surely it did. FL was rather annoying and too self righteous, didn’t like her. They broke up a few times, and even trying to make up they were not honest and didn’t communicate openly. Typical

Some mediocre kiss scenes; their romance lacked passion and depth. Side couple was nothing great. The ending was unclear on how or whether the ML was cured of his disease; and it was very abrupt. Not great

Wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. Unless you have nothing else to watch like me :)

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Confused and Sad?

I can't fault the actors in this series, truly I could tell they were all trying their best to make the best of very bad script but I wouldn't recommend this to watch

As many can tell from my reviews, I am a very avid fan of these dramas which is why I gave my all to this series. Truly I tried to grit my teeth to watch it through the very confusing story and I even wouldn't have given a second thought to the very weird "antidote" that the female leads kiss is framed as for the male leads disease but honestly it got creepy after a while.

STILL I tried to watch, hoping for a redeeming story between the couple, to hope for a glimmer of chemistry. but the story just kept getting more confusing with characters going on random plot lines for absolutely no reason to progress the story. I honestly started to just watch it without really trying to understand each persons actions but just wanting to finish the series, since I hate to give a review without watching the entire series

Then I got a ways into episode 23 and I just had to laugh at the absurdity of what was happening and just couldn't push myself to watch anymore. I realized that I shouldn't have watched this series past the first few episodes when I began ignoring the apparent issues in the storyline.

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Super Tropey but watchable on the side

A standard cliche overload drama but somehow watchable on the side if you set aside ALL logic. Basically just don't think and press skip whenever the evil girl talks.

Drama starts off with a poor girl going to a sommelier interview w/ ripped shorts.... uh ok?
She works at a retail wine store selling wine but she can afford an upscale apartment .... uh ok?
ML in order avoid getting arrested buys the next door apartment within an hour?
FL then goes to see wine connoisseur in Phillip but no invitation needed?.....
And the list goes on but by then the only way to go on is to just stop thinking and enjoy the comedy parts. Yes there were some forced comedy (not funny), some awkward comedy (cringy) but some very enjoyable ones too.

Best funny scenes:
ML's side kick He Le had the best lines overall. Probably the best character that needed more screen time.
Him telling off FL's ex bf and ex bf's sugar mama.
Him trying to kiss the ML
Him screaming like a little girl
ML tries the cringe pick up lines. FL gasps responds "Little bro, you watch too many dramas"
Grandpa visits ask ML / FL to make a heart to take a picture. Awkward pose....

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Kiss — the warmth of love, to know the sweetness of love you need the bitterness and sourness

Kiss — the warmth of love, to know the sweetness of love you need the bitterness and sourness

This quote roughly describes The Girl Who Sees Smells. Like the “cheap”, simple rose wine created by the FL, the show is one of your C/D type romcom with forced skin ship. But what makes is different from the other C/D dramas that is also airing (Like Miss Chun is a Litigator), is that there’s already a spark in the first episode which continued to the next. This is why I decided to skip MCiaL and watched this instead.

The show is predominantly a romcom with “tropey, cliche” conflicts but the way the show unraveled them nicely spaced out was both entertaining and also infuriating. If the show had less “sweetness” like the kisses and romantic scenes, I wouldn’t have been able to finish it. But thankfully the sweetness was enough to dull the sour and bitter undertones that show at the end.

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Just fine

Female lead acting at some stages were bored rest all actors acting were good . Title is not match with story.she loves wines but who see the smell concept not properly mix with her likeness toward the wind because she taste then say ,there is no role of smell . In parallel there is story of kissing so I think title should be made accordingly . One time watch I can say . I liked the male lead more then other characters . Ending of the drama is poorly scripted as well directed . He went abroad for his surgery and she missed him lot and suddenly went to coma and then woke up from coma and went to sea and looking towards the sea and he came and he kissed her and drama get over . So this part of the drama spoil the whole story .
According to me story should go like this that when he went for his surgery . He didn't keep contact with her in any mode as he already written in the letter . She awaited for him but she can't control her emotions and cry alot for him because of this she didn't keep a good care of herself, In this way her health deteriorated and one day she went in coma ,she remained in coma for about 2 months .when she was in coma she saw a dream in her dream he came to her and left her with the dialogue that she was right that they belonged from two different world . She cried alot and woke up by shouting his name and he was in front of her . After seeing him she cried alot say sorry to him many times and he kissed her tightly and then propose her . In the hospital they exchange the ring . Somewhat like this ending should be happen.

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Too weak

From title to finish this drama is just off. The title is misleading, the acting is simply okay, the writing and storyline are very weak, and even the ending lacks much power. The female lead’s character is too naive to begin with, too unforgiving for most of the show, and is still unwatchable to the end. The actress tried her best, but a bad storyline and writing are hard to overcome. The male lead’s character has very little passion and simply has given up. Again this seems more a problem of direction and script than that of acting. I cannot recommend this unfortunately.

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A cheap wine is not always bad, but a drama can leave a bad taste in your mouth

First of all, do not confuse this with the 2015 k-drama with a similar name.

The premise of the Show is based on the rich guy/poor girl trope. The one key change is the ML has a "rare" genetic disease that cause him to grow younger every day and the FL is the cure. When we first meet the ML, he appears to be around 18-20yo. This allows the Show to turn this into an idol drama. There is nothing new about a young handsome CEO in this genre but it is more problematic here. The issue is that the ML is supposed to be in his thirties, a high profile businessman and a man of the world.

I did try to meld the two characters together but it only serves to break my immersion far too often. I’d do a double take between scenes when I’m trying to realign my bearings. Am I watching the ML being himself or an older man acting out of character? Neither options are a good fit for the Show.

Let's just say it out loud, our young ML just don’t have the acting chops to pull this off. He looks, dresses and acts like an idol. He doesn't possess the gravitas nor the maturity to pull off heavy duty scenes and when he is with the FL, he is just a young gun in love. The script has to share some of the blame because it did little to hide his shortcomings.

On top of that, this Show’s plots are both transparent and predictable. That is a fatal combo in my book. You really don’t need a crystal ball to foretell the future here. Most of the trials and tribulations are piled on in set pieces instigated by cookie cutter antagonists. Some are even self-inflicted.

The antagonists' motivations are crystal clear and their schemes are rudimentary to say the least. To paraphrase a famous movie quote, “of all the trouble spots in all the towns in all the world, the FL walks into every one of them.” Inexperience and naivety can only paper over so much before you start to facepalm as the next pain point approaches like clockwork.

I accept that C-dramas and tropes are two peas in a pod. I can put up with cliché characters and tropey plots as long as the show is enjoyable. Fourth wall/immersion breaking can be fun and an effective tool of the trade but when this is a regular yet haphazard side effect of the plot then it has the opposite effect.

One final thought. With so many c-dramas being produced, new setting and themes are hard to come by. Gaming is popular, so are the medical and business worlds. However, this is a double-edged sword. Some shows do well with the help of learned consultants and industry involvements. You can see and appreciate the effort they've put in. Others resort to a jumble of jargons and make-believe scenarios that are more sleight of hand than creditable. Thus it is brave of the Show to choose the local wine industry as the setting.

It started decent enough, While the narrative is skewed, it is mostly harmless. However, the longer it goes, the more fanciful it becomes. This feeds into the immersion issue I mentioned before. When the plot and acting are good, you can ignore minor issues. In this case, you just can’t unsee/unhear some of the crazy stuff them put up as truism of the whole wine culture. It might sound ok to people who knows nothing about wine but for anyone else, it can be laughable if not downright grating.

Acting wise, I've said enough about the ML. The FL turns in a passable performance but this is essentially a bread-and-butter role for her cadre. The support cast are not doing much better. Their roles are one dimensional and the bar is set fairly low. Nobody is rushing to set a PB.

So, after 13 episodes, I have decided to drop this Show. It is not unwatchable (I have seen worst) but I have lost all interest. I could shelved it indefinitely but why bother to pretend. Maybe quaffing a bottle of vino like they do in the Show would help but my bottles are my Little Precious so I'll take a raincheck instead. Peace out. ;)

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Das so ziemlich schlimmste Ende, was es geben kann

Die Serie begann sehr gut. Die Chemie zwischen den Leads stimmt. Die Küsse sind toll! :-)
Ich mochte die Serie... Bis zur Folge 21/22. Dann änderte es sich schlagartig.
Ende ist absolut schlimm. Beide Leads sterben. Ich will es niemals mehr wieder sehen. Ich hätte gerne eine Vorwarnung gehabt. Keiner hätte das ahnen können: er stirbt alleine, damit sie es nicht mitbekommt. Sie wird darüber so krank, dass sie auch stirbt. Am Ende holt er sie "ab", als sie tot ist.
Seine Freunde zeigen deutlich, dass er gestorben ist. Es gibt keine Behandlung. Er hat am Ende vor seinem Tod noch 1 Woche. Einfach übel.

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