Why I recommend watching "Love Designer"

Let me start off with a quick disclaimer, none of the spoilers are really 'spoilers. ' This review is very long, but there is a TL;DR at the bottom :)

I have watched many dramas, and I have dropped numerous dramas. I get bored quite easily because many plots repeat themselves, and I don't normally find myself watching (and finishing) longer dramas like Love Designer. I will admit that I was originally drawn to this drama because of Dilireba. I have seen three of her previous works, and I have always enjoyed her acting.

I found that her character (Zhou Fang) was quite refreshing. I didn't find her to be annoying at all (I tend to get annoyed with most female leads at one point or another). I found her to be quite smart, and independent (which you don't normally see). She was driven, and a capable person. Although her 'breakthrough' opportunity was provided by the male lead, she saw that it was an opportunity to pursue her dream. I personally didn't think that it took away from er independent character. Song Li. played by (Johnny) Huang Jingyu, was also a fun character to watch. His character was also consistent, and very well developed. Surprisingly all of the characters, including the side characters were well developed, which is obviously thanks to the length of the drama. I really liked that there were 'bad people' yet they were still human, so I finished this drama without hating them. I will admit that the drama is somewhat slow, but I found that to be a good thing, and I thoroughly enjoyed the pacing of this drama. I loved Qin Qing as a friend, she is such a caring friend, however I did not really like her relationship with her boyfriend. It was just so dramatic. I found that the relationship between the main leads was my favorite, and I thought that it progressed naturally (albeit very fast paced). They fought, broke up (it can be argued that they broke up over petty things, however, their relationship was quite new, so there wasn't much of a foundation, and it makes sense that they could break up over the things they broke up over).

I originally went into this drama expecting myself to drop it after episode 15, and fully intended too because I figured the drama would go downhill, but I found that I really enjoyed episodes 16-45. Everyone's taste is different, but I really enjoyed these episodes because the 'second leads' were out of the way. Problems occurred, but I found that that was only natural, no relationship is perfect.

I gave the story a 8/10, not because it was bad, but because it wasn't particularly outstanding. I did enjoy that we got to watch their relationship progress, rather than watching a drama where they only enter a relationship in the last couple of episodes, but this type of relationship isn't that popular in current C-dramas nowadays (I find that it's more popular in K-dramas). The story was good, all the characters were developed, but there was nothing that made me feel like it was different or special. The story is pretty realistic (keeping in mind that it's a drama), and enjoyable. I think what a lot of people didn't like was that the rest of the drama was about their relationship (obviously other stuff happened), but that was my favorite part.

I gave the acting a 10/10 because I never found myself feeling awkward whilst watching this drama, and I felt like the main leads did an excellent job portraying their characters.

The soundtrack got an 7.5/10 because I didn't dislike it, but I don't think I'd listen to it again. I was pleasantly surprised that the La La Land soundtrack made a couple of appearances.

Re-watch value is low, simply because I don't re-watch dramas very often, only maybe 1 or 2. I would definitely re-watch clips of it, but I don't think I would re-watch the whole series.

Overall, it's a solid drama, with great characters. But what really drew me into this drama was the CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE MAIN LEADS. Oh my gosh, if I could only provide one reason to watch this drama, it's the chemistry between Dilireba and Huang Jingyu. It was amazing, and made the drama 100x better. There is a lot of product placement, but it's pretty obvious that the budget was very big, so I didn't mind that much. A lot of people said that they got annoyed by the ringtone, but again, it didn't bother me much personally.

TL;DR: The chemistry in this drama is amazing, definitely watch for the chemistry. Story is good, not particularly outstanding though. Musics okay, nothing bad, but nothing I would listen to at my own leisure. I thought the acting was great. A little slow paced, but I watched for hours on end. I definitely recommend this drama, don't be intimidated by the length, I found that the length was perfect. I don't think it should have anymore episodes, because it ended well.

Read More

THIS WAS AMAZING!! This movie was very realistic, and had a sad but realistic ending, it shows good character development as well, and the acting was amazing! This movie is one of my favorites! If you ever have some free time, watch this movie, it is really good! I don't know how much re watch value this movie has, because it is very emotional, and I tend to gravitate towards lighter dramas and movies when it comes to re watching things, so that is why for me personally, I don't see this having a high re watch value for me, but it is a beautifully orchestrated movie, and I think it has a lot of cute, happy and fluffy moments, and enough emotional moments to make you tear up, definitely recommend.

Read More

Touch your heart is a really sweet drama with, obviously, some drama. This was one of my first k-dramas actually, and it raised my expectations from k-dramas. There were times where the plot lagged a bit and it was a bit boring to watch but overall the plot was refreshing, it wasn't petty drama that stuck out too much and became annoying. The conflicts were very well-integrated into the plot. It also isn't a drama where you have to wait until the very last episode for everything to fall into place (as in you only get to enjoy the couple being 'couple-y' in the very last episode). I enjoyed this show the most because it moved at a nice pace without an overdramatic plot, but was still interesting enough to keep me interested. Like I said that this is one of my first k-dramas, so I didn't know who Lee dong-wook or Yoo Inn-a were, but I love them now! They had great chemistry, and I never felt like they overacted or were incompetent actors. I didn't feel like any of their acting was cringey either (which tends to be a thing in both Chinese and Korean dramas). Also they played a couple on Goblin too, so if you liked them on that show you will definitely like this show. (I haven't seen Goblin but I have seen some clips and they did very well in that show too). The soundtrack is amazing! I really liked the soundtrack- especially 'Make it Count' by CHEN. I keep going back to the soundtrack three months later. Honestly, I don't like rewatching Asian dramas, but I think that the scenes on youtube are nice to watch, but I definitely think that it has a good rewatch value because it isn't too heavy of a drama. Overall, I think that this drama is great and will forever remain on my favorites list, so you should definitely try watching it if you have time! It's a great drama for after work or school or just to destress. Give it a try!

Read More

I've re-watched this drama three times

I have watched a lot of dramas, and I usually get bored, especially with longer dramas (for K-dramas, dramas exceeding the typical 16 episodes). This drama kept me up all night, and I was fully invested in it. I did like the male leads younger sisters relationship more (Yeontae and Sangmin) than the relationship between the main leads. Not because of the lack of chemistry, but maybe because I usually watch romance dramas, rather than family dramas, and found that their relationship was closer to a 'romance drama relationship'. I found myself anticipating their scenes and constantly waiting for their scenes. This drama is extremely well balanced. It has a lot of lighthearted and sweet scenes, but with that being said, there are plenty of scenes that play with your emotions, and may or may not make you shed some tears (I did in fact cry during a handful of scenes, even more so during re-watching the series.)

The Story got a 9.5/10 because as much as I love the show, there were times when I felt that the story lagged a bit, and made me feel a bit bored, I will admit that these moments did not ruin the show for me, or make me dislike the show at all. The plot is honestly really well developed, and the character development were all very nice to watch. Plot holes, and inconsistencies in plots typically annoy me (like What's wrong with Secretary Kim), but I couldn't find any in this show :)

Acting/Cast were all very good, I have no complaints. I absolutely adored Choi Yoo Ri acting as Woo Joo (the female leads youngest daughter).

The music was honestly not too memorable to me. As I'm writing this review, I'm trying to remember what the soundtrack sounded like. I know that it most definitely was not bad at all, but obviously just not something I would listen to for fun.

Re-watch value is an 8/10 because out of all the dramas I've watched, this is one of the two dramas that I've re-watched multiple times in full (as in not just clips). It isn't a 10/10 because when re-watching, I do find that I tend to skip a good amount of scenes, simply because sometimes once is enough. The last time I re-watched this show, was a couple of months ago, and I fully intended to only watch Yeontae and Sangmin scenes (due to the lack of clips I could find), but I found myself forgetting that I was supposed to skip all these scenes, and ended up re-watching the whole show for a third time.

IN CONCLUSION: this drama is great, and I would definitely recommend watching it. I wouldn't get intimidated by the length because it pulls you in, and it is honestly such a great story. If you have some time on your hands, give it a watch!

Read More