Love Is Written in the Stars (2023)

Secondary couples syndrome.

I watched this mainly for Ao Rui Peng, because I saw that he was finally in a main role. He looks dashing here and is very nice to look at, but is unfortunately somewhat failed by what ends up being a rather poor script.

As often happens, the original premise starts off pretty strong - girl who gets sick if she starts having serious feelings meets boy who can't seem to form (romantic) connections despite how much he wants one. As also often happens, unfortunately the execution falls short. This could have been a simple rom-com based on this pretty strong premise, but instead we are suddenly introduced to what are effectively 'mutants', or people with special powers (PwSP), mixed into the storyline as a whole thing of their own several episodes in, and which thereafter becomes the focus of the show.

!!! Very importantly and to warn those who may feel uncomfortable about non-consent (also content/trigger warning for non-consensual touching and wedding to follow), the female lead is tricked into being a body double and married off to Wei Qi (Ao Rui Peng's character) after being drugged and given a voice command from a person with special powers (whose special ability is that their voice commands must be obeyed) that she must go through and comply with whatever Wei Qi does on the wedding night, in one of the first few episodes. Huge red flag for me right there and I was incredibly uncomfortable for that entire scene. Thankfully he passes out not long after arriving in the room, but not before some extremely discomforting moments [for me].

As it is, the PwSP storyline is absolutely all over the place, and in my opinion really detracted from the story, and didn't need to be there at all. The story could have been told better without it, even, and achieved the same effect with different storytelling reasons (e.g., one character uses their special ability despite backlash from it causing harm to themselves to save their beloved, which could have been done just the same without some special ability - they could just have been beaten or cut while saving their beloved because they had to catch and carry their beloved who was unconscious or whatever). The writing also becomes rather one-dimensional near the end and characters suddenly become not clever at all for plot reasons. Much of the romance between the two leads also becomes completely misunderstanding-driven about halfway through the story and then remains that way until basically the end, which I found utterly frustrating and rather an insult to the characters' intelligence, especially Wei Qi's, who was supposed to be the head of an entire martial arts academy. In general, the writing does not do justice to the characters, and the ending especially so, as it retcons basically all the events of the entire show up till that point, effectively erasing the second and third couples' stories - which I actually found more compelling than the leads', especially the second couple - completely, as well as all character interactions that weren't between the male and female lead, and felt completely like just throwing all that in the mud. I also did not like the FL much at all, and found her annoying. At first I quite rooted for the leads to be together and it was very sweet getting to the first realisation for her, but after the first misunderstanding begins, it was all just downhill from there.

Story gets a 7 because I did love the relationship that developed between the second couple, and also for the intriguing premise it began with originally. I also really did enjoy watching the third couple's interactions and squabbling, and the relationship that developed between Wei Qi's sister and one of the PwSP, which turned out to be one of those tragic nonsense things that didn't seem to have a reason - let alone a good one - for it, other than just 'it's written like that'. They really didn't have to do them like that, but they did.

The acting was pretty good overall. Again, I thought the second couple Ning Lan and Lin Yan did a great job and felt genuine; I also really enjoyed watching the third couple, Li Mian and Bi Xing Yue, bicker with and grow on each other. The comedic timing was very good, but you could also really see how each couple cared for their partners. Ao Rui Peng did a fine job with what he was given, though I'd be curious to see how he fares with a better script, and I also liked the character of Xue Deng (played by Zhou Yu Yao) later on. Judy Qi's Zhou Yuan (the female lead) wasn't badly acted, but for me was one of the weaker characters and also acting-wise, and wasn't particularly complex or endearing to me as a female lead, although I'm not sure if that was more the writing. Patrick Quan as Pei Yin was a little camp, and Zhang Ke Ai's Cui Ying a little stiff upper-lipped, although I think those worked for and as their characters.

I didn't mind the music in this, although I have to admit that nothing really stuck out or in my head enough for me that I went looking for it afterwards, especially as I'm writing this review at least a couple of weeks after watching it. I do however remember thinking it was quite nice, if a bit cutesy, and don't recall it ever being inappropriate, so 7.5 points.

Rewatch value is only a 7 on the grounds of the second and third couples, mainly the second; otherwise, it'd be a 6.5. Still, I can't bring myself to put the overall score at any higher than 7. Ning Lan and Lin Yan really ended up carrying this story for me, despite Ao Rui Peng being eye candy - sorry, but that just wasn't enough to deal with the frustration at the lazy and bad writing, especially when it came to the main relationship. For me, the secondary couples' stories really were more deserving of the 'Love is written in the stars' title.

Read More