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Please Remember Me chinese drama review
Completed
Please Remember Me
7 people found this review helpful
by Amarina
Sep 26, 2024
30 of 30 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

Excellent Start then Depressing and Left Question What and Why?

While not being EXACTLY the same in any way, it has a very similar trope and 3 act structure to Hard To Find which is makes it very difficult not to compare it itself to. No spoilers similarities have the story broken up into three acts: amnesia present, past, remembered present.

The strongest arc is "amnesia present" and could absolutely be watched as a stand-alone of people who don't remember each other falling in love. Their time together was glorious to watch, even with the knowledge that "something" more in the story happens in past and with (at that time) no knowledge of what happens after this "end scene". As a stand alone it would be unfinished but still solid enough you could fill in the blanks with what you think happened in the past /will happen in the future.

The next arc, The Past, takes you back to have more understanding. It was good but not "quite" to the degree of the first arc. It seemed as though the original romance in the past was "missing" something, mostly just time to show their feelings more slowly developing as well as lingering questions about the mythology surrounding what happens on the screen. That said, it was still GOOD overall. Part of the emotional investment comes from knowing what happens, having seen parts of it in first episode, and then watching every interaction with hidden knowledge of what's to come. It leaves you on the edge of your seat wanting to watch the screen through your fingers. The final end of this arc was rather abrupt and there was essentially NO transition between it and the final arc which was jarring. However, again, you could theoretically stop watching at this ending and fill in final blanks yourself and have a semi-satisfying ending.

Where everything falls apart is the last arc. Beginning with the no adequate transistion between arc 2 and arc 3 the entire editing process becomes a mess of trying to figure out what's happening on the screen and WHY. Conversations attempt to explain but feel like they refer to things you haven't watched, scenes are cut off and then the next scene begins causing you to rewind to make sure you didn't miss something, and characters start to have their "final thought transformations" so to speak (where they make up their mind to do one thing or another) but your left scratching your head on WHY they changed. As for the main leads, there are decisions that can only be said to be NOBLE IDIOCY on steroids. These decisions lead to an ending that makes you ask yourself AGAIN what just happened and fail when you try and see a bright side. It is very easy to say the last arc NEEDED at least 3-5 more episodes of scenes spread out to give every character the needed story wrap-up and follow-through to make the journey more satisfying and logical.

Aside from the editing issues with the story, I need to make note of the use of CGI and music.

While the actual music wasn't bad most of the time (pretty actually), it is VERY jarring to see someone playing a flute and HEAR a piano solo or piano/violin piece.

Secondly, the cgi was AWFUL. To the degree many scenes using it had the look that they could have been edited on one's phone using free editing software. For many scenes it was distracting but it didn't really get in the way and was good for an eye roll. There is one scene however where NO, it absolutely ruins the scene and I'm almost mad that such an emotional scene had such cheap effects slapped on top of it.

Act 1: 9/10
Act 2: 8/10
Act 3: 6/10
Final verdict 7.5/10

In the end I WILL recommend this but with a heavy warning of depressing themes and traumatic events playing out on the screen like watching a train wreck and that you WILL end the show with questions and probably not be satisfied with every characters individual arc ending.
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