Divided Halves

This is my first review. ...

**I did not complete this drama. I dropped it at Episode 20 and there is a very slim chance i will actually finish it**

First Half (Episodes 1 - 12):
In the first half of the drama, I quite enjoyed it. I thought it was hilarious and entertaining. The leads acting was very fluid and even though at times it was over the top it kept me engaged. I liked all the characters present. The main reason why I chose to watch this was because of the title, "Dating in the Kitchen." I love a great cooking drama, and this sure started as one. The Female lead, Sheng Nan being the chef and paving her way through a typically male dominated career was nice... even though it was from the help of a rich CEO, but it still was nice to see some female power in a Chinese drama. Her best friend, Zhao di, however, did not shine. I found her character to be quite unlikeable and not much of a friend. During this half, I really felt the chemistry between the leads, the age gap didn't feel so present and watching their romance bloom was fun and exciting.

Second Half (12- 24):
Even though I couldn't finish the last four episodes I think I have a pretty good idea of how they would've went. Boring, irrelevant, business chaos. I truly love business dramas and I don't mind issues sprouting up in one that is primarily set in a desk job office setting. However, the viewer is following Sheng Nan, she's the main main character, we are with her the most, we know all her friends and background from the beginning. This begs the question: why are we now following Lu Jin and his CEO antics? It's called "Dating in the Kitchen", but at a certain point cooking scenes stop, the kitchen is barely showed, why is Sheng Nan now following Lu Jin around all the time when I thought she would be busy in her field. It was incredibly disappointing to see the once-strong Sheng Nan turn into a puppy following its owner aimlessly. The business drama was boring and uninteresting, the cliche in-law hating felt drawn out and redundant. I honestly wished this drama ended early instead of dragging in and stuffing this show with filler. This half of the drama made the actors once bubbly chemistry vanish. It instead started to feel like more of a questionable Father-Daughter relationship. What I mean by this is that you could really feel the gap between these characters at two different stages in life. One freshly starting her youth and career and the other drained by his career. In the business drama you feel more of his age, and his once youthful glow and innocent in the first half has vanished.

Should You Watch This?
Well maybe. I really loved the first half. However, I would recommend you watch the movie "This is Not What I Expected" instead. I feel as if they acting was better, I felt the age gap didn't feel so large due to their appearances, and the premise is exactly the same just concise and not packed with useless filler that was only added to get to the 24 episode mark. They tried making this a good drama, but like most Chinese dramas, they all fizzle out with a lackluster ending and you are left feeling disappointed that they tarnished a good start.

Thank You.

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Very Realistic Lockdown Movie

I'm not the best at reviews but I'll try my best. You can watch this movie on Netflix!

MY OPINION (no spoiler version):
Watch this movie if you want to watch something to I guess "reminisce" on how lockdown was. This movie focuses more on the events, news, feelings, activities during quarantine more than the actual romance at hand. There is romance but not strong enough and not concrete as other romance movies. Not horrible, not bad movie, but the ending felt abrupt and made me rate this movie lower. Definitely could've been better, if you are looking for more romance, definitely skip out on this movie. I feel like maybe this movie will be better years from now when covid isn't as fresh as it still currently is.
REALISM:
The story was very realistic taking the events from quarantine. I do not live in the Philippines, but I do live in the US and there were many similarities regarding lockdown, and like different activities like that Korean whipped coffee, video calling, screen sharing a movie to watch together. All these things were depicted very realistically. Even the fact that the two leads met online was super realistic as I was doing the same thing during the lockdown. They even touched on the hopefulness of covid being over in a month in the beginning and then the contrast of losing hope in the future towards the end. Which I feel a lot of us went through.

DIRECTING STYLE:
Realism gets cut short when the leads are in the same setting during a video call but were not touching each other just looking at each other. One cool bit is that the director would cut to different settings that both the characters are in when they are on a video call but the leads will be featured in the same room. This showcased the video call but still made the movie seem vast with them being in the "same" room. However, in one scene they shared headphones during a bit of a montage so I was confused into thinking that they were in the same room.

ACTING:
The acting was very good. The male lead sang very well in one part. I especially loved how the FL's mom was a front-line worker and the worries that come along with that were also very realistic. The leads had phenomenal chemistry especially shown during the cooking scene. This left me wanting to see more from these leads, more romance. However, this movie simply tapped a level of romance which was so unfortunate. At one part you think they'll meet only for it to not happen. This happened twice. And the second part was at the end.

CRITIQUES:
I wanted to see more romance. The leads never got officially together, there was a plothole to who Ros was. Was she actually the ex??? More importantly, the ending left you unsatisfied. The leads never meet as the ML decided to ditch their "date" to go home. Fair enough. But it just ends there. No message from the ML, the FL unfriends him. You are left with more questions and confusion. It felt like it needed a second movie or just more time in general. It felt like the part of a movie where conflict was right before the resolution. Except, there was no resolution, just credits. This is a shame because the leads shared such amazing chemistry and tension. When I got to the ending I was genuinely confused, I was like "is this it? This is the ending? Credits are playing now?" it just felt so abrupt. Also at times, the leads in the same room during a video call did get a bit confusing, you'd think they are together but really have to look for the phone propped up or the background change.

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Strong Start, Disappointing End

NO SPOILERS! This is my second ever series review, sorry if it's all over the place!

MY OPINION:
This drama fell down my rating scale very quickly. I'm seeing a pattern with the Chinese dramas I watch and that is that they always start off super strong and end off super weak that I can't even finish it. I loved the first half of this drama. I sat and binged the first half to the point where I couldn't remove myself from the couch from the morning to late at night. Then it got to around episode 20 where I couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore. There are so many plot holes, undeveloped characters/plotlines, stale characters that felt like filler, negative character development, and forgotten important messages. However, these issues were not present in the beginning, they were shown towards the ending half. This made it unbearable to watch. I absolutely adored this drama at first and now I'm sad to drop it cause I can't bring myself to continue this mess.

DIRECTING STYLE:
Some scenes were very well done. However, I feel as if there was a lot of hiccups. So many things left me in questions to the point I was looking in the reviews for answers as I felt like I missed something. Or things would be so poorly explained that I would be left confused. At parts, I wished they showed more instead of telling. Within the side couple, I wished they showed more instead of telling. Some parts I would think to myself, "why didn't they show more of this instead of a quick montage or flashback to something we have no prior knowledge of."

ACTING:
I always find C-Drama acting to be very hit or miss. But in this case I really enjoyed it. I don't think these characters were voiced dubbed by someone else. If they were, I couldn't tell unlike in other C-Dramas. I thought the male lead acted very well and I found the female lead character to be pretty well done. The side couple, I didn't like them at all but their story was so weak, so I don't blame the actors for working with a weak storyline and uninteresting characters

TLDR:
Watch the first half and then drop it. Or honestly just skip this drama overall. Nothing was groundbreaking since their initial message of the drama was lost as it continued.

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Tong Yao: You Make Me Proud

I put off watching this show for a while now. With many excuses being too many good reviews, too many episodes, having bad experiences with C-Dramas, and lastly disliking Go Go Squid.

So if you are like me, always focus on the negative. My word of advice, listen to the positive reviews just the one time!

This show has changed my outlook on Cdramas and on Asian Dramas as a whole. I am someone who loves gaming but never got into esports. So how was I supposed to love this drama?

The female lead.
My God. She just may be the best-written character in all of C-Drama Land maybe even in Asian Dramas as a whole. I have never come across such a powerful written female lead before. Never once did I find her annoying, obnoxious, whiny, or anything negative. I grew so fond of her character I was surprised because I have never really fully enjoyed a C-Female Lead before. There has always been something off. My only complaint was her being called short and then googling her height to find out she's 5'6 but that's such a small thing that it's so irrelevant about how amazing her character was.

Do you want mean female second leads? Shady best friends? In-Law Drama? Complicated love triangles? No?
Well good, this drama has really no drama like that. Yes, there was a love triangle here, maybe even a crush a male lead there. But it never was that pungent enough to get you furious and it was short. The "love triangles" were some of the healthiest I have ever seen. Now don't get me wrong this is not me saying there wasn't conflict but it was all realistic stuff that would happen.

31 episodes seem like a lot?
Yeah, I said that once too. Yet, I binged this whole show within 5 days. Yes. No big breaks in between. In my past experiences with C-dramas (*cough* Go Go Squid *cough*), I would take long breaks and then eventually end up dropping the show. Or the only way I would stick with the show is if I watched it as it was airing. This time no breaks. Completed the drama and enjoyed every minute of it. No skips were needed, the story hooks you in, even when you think it wouldn't

I don't play video games, and I don't watch Esports, will I like this?
Fantastic question, I am biased. I like video games, however, I don't play competitive games so I thought the same. How would I like this? I don't like action in dramas... I always get stressed over the littlest of things. And yes, even though I was indeed stressed from watching the competitions, I never skipped through them. I was never bored of them. You must understand this drama is about an Esport team, so it is heavily based on esports, training, and competing. Just like a school drama is about first love, homework, big exams, graduating. So don't expect there to be little competitions. I found myself so engrossed within the competitions. The animations were amazing, I never felt bored. Plus, this game was wayyyyyy more interesting than Go Go Squids boring competition which felt very one-dimensional.

How's the romance?
I don't know what it was about this drama, but it felt so fresh. The way the male lead looked at her, the transition from teammates to friends to lovers. At first, I thought "wow they make such good friends how are they going to transition this?" That transition, their interactions, had me GIGGLING like a middle schooler watching her first drama! It was so cute and felt so new and fresh.

I think that covers most grounds. To the first drama, I have enjoyed from China in a long time. Thank you for reigniting my love for Asian Dramas. Surprisingly, never done by me before, these couple scenes are rewatch-worthy!!!!

So go on! Stop hesitating and watch this cute drama!!!

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