This review may contain spoilers
-Note: contains minor spoilers, read at your own discretion.-
I was a little disappointed with this drama mainly because it started out very promising. The beginning episodes were perfect in every aspect possible, but unfortunately, the story just dragged on. We had the same premise for 12 episodes: boy and girl have been best friends for years, boy is secretly in love with girl, girl is in a relationship with someone else... nothing more. While I was ok with this premise, I did not expect it to be the ONLY aspect of the entire story, which is how it turned out to be. But this is my biggest complaint about this drama (granted it is a very large issue).
The three things I look for in a drama are story, acting and directing. I have discussed my issues with the story, but there are also praises to be given. There were many deep messages and metaphors hidden in this drama were very well though out. I was enjoying these but they started to become scarce as the story progressed.
The acting was exceptional. Ariel Lin never disappoints, and while I have never seen any other work Berlin Chen has done, he was very well suited for the part of Li Da Ren. While Ariel and Berlin had great chemistry when they were just friends, that chemistry didn't extend to when they were a couple. It may have been due to their being friends for nearly 13 episodes, but I just couldn't see them in a romantic relationship.
Now for the directing... The directing in this drama was beyond brilliant for the first 5 or so episodes, and again, it began to get a little lazy, though never bad. I loved the whole clocks appearing everywhere for a woman who is obsessed with time and aging. The dream sequences were also filmed nicely, but my favorite part of the directing was the phone calls. I absolutely adored how the director portrayed Da Ren and You Qing's close relationship by having them appear to be so near each other, when they were actually cities, or even countries, apart.
My final evaluation of In Time With You is that it is a very enjoyable drama. While not perfect, I do not regret watching it nor do I think anyone will. If I were to review this drama based on the first half of the series, this would be a very different review, but due to the laziness of the second half, these were my overall thoughts.
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