Better than expected

I'm on a modern Chinese drama run and they're all flawed in their own way. This did remind of me Kill Me Heal Me. However the split personality aspect is really weird. How that single incident where a boy accidentally scarred a little girl, left such a traumatic impression on 3 individual is kinda far fetched. Not only that, the way her split personality work is kinda weird....she essentially manifest personality every time she's stress...on the spot. He goes out of his way to deal help the FL lead every time she changed personality is also pretty weird. I mean, at one point, he essentially let her run his company...lol...a person with no experience running any company. Oh yes...the FL is very Mary Sue ish btw. She just excel in everything she does despite have no prior experience in this field. Also for him, the way he almost essentially threw away a girl he love when he thought the girl he had injured was another woman...was just weird. Even if you find someone you'd wrong and want to make up for it...how is that supposed to affect your current love life? Oh yes, so the ML is supposed to be a genius heir of a conglomerate that excel in a lot of investment beside his make up company. He sure acts like an idiot at times. He's a miser to a fault and acts more like a kid than a successful businessman. So the point is...people here in this drama operates in extremely weird logics. Also, one of the biggest plot point was her scar. A scar, in which she had successfully concealed with makeup...so how is that such a big issue is weird. I'm telling you...this drama operates in wacky logic.

But if you suspend all of the bad logic in the story, and its true of a lot of these Chinese drama, it's a rather enjoyable experience. I do like the FL's character and personality. The ML's is in his way quirky and cute. The doctor has a really good bromance with the ML. Lots of feel good, cute, and funny moments.

Pros:
- Fun cute romance with lots of cute scene.
- Do enjoy some of main couple.
- Do like the secondary couple with the ML's assistant and the FL's friend/therapist.
- The doctor and the ML's ex coupling is alright but never cared for that pairing. I prefer the bromance between the doctor and the ML.
- The ML's parent...though initially disapprove of their relationship are surprisingly supportive of them later on. Even going along with one of her personality change.

Cons
-As mention terrible logic everywhere. Every time she changes personality, people around her help her by trying to find a way to fulfill her desire. It's an interestingly plot device but the extent they're willing to go along with this...is...just weird if you think about. And EVERYONE plays along.
- Antagonist is alway bad: main one is the obsessive co-ceo of his makeup company I guess. Initally it was the ML's ex but she became her bff after she sacrifice her chance to fix her scar so she can fix her nose.


Despite how much I rant on this drama, I actually enjoyed it quite of bit. And one of the main reason is that they find ways to keep things interesting despite how far-fetch a lot of this scenario is . And they probably played a major role on how much I enjoyed this drama. It's not boring and they main leads are a like-able couple.

Read More

Overall it’s a decent drama that wraps up everything decently well. To me, the drama happened in three arc: 1. Beginning - hired as a stay-home pretend girlfriend, 2. Middle - her becoming lead actress at his company, 3: End - romance and their wrap up. Honestlys, I think the first half is more interesting than the second half. I think I enjoyed the stay-at-home nurse/maid/pretend girlfriend portion of the drama more. The biggest problem with the drama is its overuse of tropes and cliches. It’s not just a few sprinkled here and there, it’s literally the whole story. The entire story is build on tropes and cliches. I mean I can stomach quite a few of them but at a certain point it became tiresome.

What I like
- Actually I like a lot of the couples in the show. I thought most of the are adorable and had pretty decent chemistry
-A lot of likeable supporting characters: ML’s mom, FL’s manager, ML’s cousin, director,
-A lot of nice feel good moments
-It wrapped things up decently I guess

What I don’t like:
-Some terrible characters: rapey director, terrible manager, annoying exes everywhere…lol. I’m fine with good well developed antagonists…but most of them are just shallow and one-dimensional
-Tons of cliches and tropes. I actually like a decent dose of cliches…but only in moderation and only if it adds entertainment value to the storyline. However, it’s just a little to much here and I feel like it takes away from the drama and sometimes just unnecessary
-Some over the top scenario and weird unnatural behavior from characters. Like you can't be a competent CEO of a media and hired a random girl who's acting you're not familiar to become a top star.
-There's so much repeated exposition, my god. Exposition is fine and use a lot times in detective drama. Here let me give you an example. At one point the evil ex who was a big star finally realize her behavior and thinking was wrong. It goes like this, she has a dialogue with her assistant/manager explaining why her behavior is wrong. She then had a scene with the ML's mom explaining why what she's doing is wrong. Then next episode, she had another monologue explaining why what she's doing is wrong (as a self-reflection) I guess. Look I get...she finally realized her behavior was wrong...but do we need to spend so much time and scenes on this?

Couples:
-Main couple - like the female lead and she’s a pretty good character overall. I liked how she handle her situation from the beginning to the end and how she handled her romance and life. Though she is Mary-sue-ish at times but it’s not overbearing. The male is decent most of the time but sometimes borderline annoying but overall I thought he’s tolerable. Their romance is sometimes cutes, sometimes romantic, and mostly reasonable. The biggest problem with them there constant pull and push on whether they like each other or not. It’s ok to have a bit of that but sometimes it’s just too much.
The secondary couple between ML’s friend and FL’s friend. They’re a very sweet and cute couple together and they’re both very likable character. The biggest problem I have with them is their story. There are constant overused cliches employed in their story: bad romantic history, bad rapey producer, misunderstanding…again and again, random fiance, disapproval mother, different class and social status. Imagine if you brainstorm a bunch of romantic couple cliches…that’s literally their entire story. Otherwise they’re extremely cute together, moreso than the lead.
The third couple is the director and the FL’s manager. Not a lot of screen time but I find their romance but be more subtle, simple, and cuter.
The ex boyfriend and his gf/fiancee. They play thei

Just some thoughts:
I’m on a modern Chinese drama binging run. Most of these light hearted romantic comedy drama is full of cheese, over-the-top behavior, and weird scenario so for most part I’m ok with it as long is it blends well together in a decent package. For this drama the two random ML and FL throw together in a fake relationship is a standard trope. One that I enjoy for most part, it’s ok here but not as well developed as it could’ve been. That there pretty much sums up what I feel about this drama by the end. It’s all just a bunch of popular tropes thrown together. If you wanna focus on standard tropes, I think the best is to have an interesting take on it. However, this drama seem to written by a committee of people brainstorming popular trope and using everything they can think of in it.

I love the characters but the story just isn’t there. And when the story is not well developed, 36 episode seems like a slog. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re a fan of these type of drama.


Some rant I have [MAJOR SPOILERS]
- That whole ML's obsession with finding out the girl with butterfly tattoo who I think he mistaken as a birthmark is just borderline weird. It's fine to try to find the person who saves your life and thank her. But to hinge that as the pivotal drive to your lovelife...is just weird. I mean the guy clearly never know her since he didn't even know how she actually looks like. This is one of the most important point that drove the entire drama. It's what led him to his ex and it's what caught the ML's attention on the female lead. And here's the twist, which is clear even since the beginning. Let me just spoiled it for you. Turns out, the FL is the women who saved him. That tattoo/birthmark was a temporary tattoo she had drawn on her based on a picture of the his ex (cause I guess she was a big fan of her....who at the time should have been a totally unknown...but let's not get too caught up on that). It's just thats such a weird crucial plot point.
- Is that cancer fakeout really necessary? It was just so abrupt and random.
- The way they wrap up all the antagonist is just weird. Pretty much they all come to the realization that they've been acting like jerks. It's find but the way they did it is so abrupt...AND it happened all at the same time. It's like the writers suddenly realized we're near time end so abruptly make sure the character repent and apologize for their behavior. They did that and gave all them all that and their personality just changed completely. Note that this all happened back to back to back. First, ML's ex realize she's wrong...and then FL's ex realized he was wrong...and then FL's exes fiancee realized shes wrong...:/

Read More

I binged all 24 episodes in a day. The story caught between and light-hearted romantic drama and a serious court drama but honestly it is didn't do either well. However, the romance portion is probably much better the rest. It's a decent drama for what it is and I did enjoyed the drama from time to time.

First off, it's a low budget production but I never let the budget stop me watching any drama. I simply mentioned this to help people tempered expectation on what this drama is. Also, I'm not sure if it's a budget issue or writing issue but its budget production hinder the drama from being better than it is.

Story
Based on synopsis the story reminds me of Love in the Moonlight but nowhere as good. However it's very different if you look past the concept of a girl pretending to be an eunuch to enter the royal palace. So half of the story is about the romance between the ML and FL and the other half is about his political struggle to go from a puppet king to an actual king in control of his own destiny. What made me decided to keep on watching in the beginning is the ML protraying of a king. Early on, I think the very first episode, the FL disguised as a eunuch straight up told the ML that he looks a guy with power but is powerless to do anything...and that a stab in the ML's heart is exactly the situation he's in. The emotion that he display, the emptiness of his crown, the loneliness and hopelessness...I thought is done well.

He's a young king and the Empress ruled on his behalf as a regent the court is divided into Empress's side which wants to hold power and the loyalist side which want the king to rule on his own. He seems to useless puppet king but is actually really intelligent. So part of the early intrigue for this drama is his struggle to and when he slowly falls in love with the FL, the emotion that he display and hopelessly he has knowing the situation he's in and his inablity to protect people close to him.

Acting/Cast
Ash Zhu (ML - king) - Young king of Dong Cheng kingdom, Empress (not blood related) rule as a regent on his behalf. He has no actual power in the beginning and Empress side is doing everything to withhold power from him. Ran into FL in the beginning and befriended the FL because he found her interesting especially since she didn't realize he's the king. She was unruly but frank with her words, a level of honesty hard for him to see in the palace so he decided to keep her by his side and eventually found out "she" is in fact a women. Despite the fact he's being controlled by the Empress, he secretly building a plan to eventually rule on his own. He's very intelligent at times and very stupid at other times...especially when it's related to the FL. Yea...one of those character.
Ash Zhu not the best looking guy in cdramaland but I thought he did well in the drama. He displayed a wide range of emotion in the drama and his acting in very convincing for the role he's playing. I thought he did well.

Ma Meng Wei (FL who pretends to be a eunuch) - The daughter of a Shangshu (尚书). Her mother is comes from a lowly background so she wasn't raised as a noble lady. Instead she on the street smart side. Came disguised in eunuch to chase after a debt owed by one of the eunuch but instead ran into the king. Initially the she doesn't know he's the king. Despite the fact she's supposed to be street smart...she's the type of character that made a lot of mistakes that gets her into trouble. Now part of it is just the king withholding his plan to her. But other time it's totally her fault. For a person that snuck into the palace pretending to be a women, a crime punishable by death that could even affect her family. She sure act super reckless some of the time.
Now she fells in love with the king...sometimes she's seems very understanding of the situation. In other time, was so reckless she put herself in danger and ML.
She's ok I think. However, my view on her is tinted by the type of character she's playing. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of this type of character.

Lin Yan Qing (second male lead, fiancé of the FL) - He's in love with the female lead. He plays a very righteous character who came from noble family loyal to the crown. He's a noble fool...righteous to a fault. He's deeply in love with the FL but she never reciprocated her love. I know he's playing the tragic 2nd ML with the unrequited love. But I just never care to deeply about him. The tragic part about him is he has to struggle with his loyalty to the king despite the fact the king is essentially stealing his fiance. I thought the actor did well for what he's given. I'm just not too fond of his character.

Gong Zhi Yue (second female lead) - Childhood friend of the king and deeply in love with him. Unfortunately she's the daughter of the general, which is one of Empress's side. She is playing essential the same character as the 2nd ML. Like they're just mirrored image of each other. She's simply more tragic because she's literally in the middle of the power struggle. So she has to deal with her love and loyalty to the king vs her family. She did ok but at times she's just doesn't have a look of a daughter of a military family that's supposedly good at martial art and fought in war. She's more lady-like that the FL.

Empress - Token evil queen mother who desperately want to hold power from the king who's not her blood-related son. Nothing else to say. The problem I have with this character it's a shallow antagonist.

General - He's more interesting in the he's part of the Empress side but has his own agenda and ambition. Beyond that, he's also another shallow, token antagonist. In fact, he's friction and plan for his own ambition and what gave way for the king to take back his power.

Other characters - There are two guards (mainly comic relief) that know the FL and helps her when they found out she came to the royal palace. A 3rd FL (bratty princess of the king, in love with FL's fiance) and 3rd ML (king of nomadic enemy state, in love with the 2nd FL). FL's mother and father...also comic relief. FL's gangs of hoodlums...lol...but they're terribly underused and barely in the drama. An eunuch loyal to the Empress. All actor/actress are just...ok...The most compelling is probably the two guards...they played a pretty dynamic duo but strictly for comic relief

Music
Modern music in a historic drama...ugh. Nothing compelling. Weak overall. I hated the alt rock music that constantly played when the king did something "epic". You'll know what I'm talking about when you watch the drama. I thought some of the music that played in the romantic scenes are nice but it's nothing memorable. So music is lacking

Rewatch Value
Really no reason to rewatch.

Final Thought
Would I recommend it? It seems like I have a lot of negative and very few positive. One thing I like is that some of the voice is not dub. Like ML is original voice but FL is dubbed. Again despite it lousy writing and token character, it is decently enjoyable the first half. I thought second half as pretty lousy. There's a certain mystique to the character when you don't know what's going to happen to them. However, once it's fully reveal...you're like....hmmm that's it. Meh

Read More

It's ok...a decent-ish rom-com

It's a decent drama overall. This reminds me of What's Wrong with Secretary Kim except not as good, both in terms of story and the main couple. They're not as likeable as the kdrama. They sorta flipped it in which the boss is the one with the memory loss and the secretary is that one the knows about their past relationship. The main problem with this drama is the use of so many recycled plot points especially related to memory loss. It sorta gets tiring when they do that whole memory thing loss a second time. So the ML has an amnesia condition in which he will forgot the woman he loves completely when he falls completely in love. He had it after witness his mother attempting suicide after his parent relationship ends in divorce. This is such a bizarre and ridiculous memory loss trigger. They tried to present this as an emotional and tragic twist but it just comes off as kinda funny and hilarious to me. When something is too over the top, it simply takes away from any dramatic impact the writer wants to achieve.

Tons of overused themes:
-amnesia main lead, ML in this case
-incompatible social status: rich vs poor. rich male lead dad disapprove of female lead social status. poor female lead's dad this male lead rich social status will not bring his daughter happiness/stability. both side mother approves...lol....
-dominating rich boss vs poor workers: the boss being a dick in the beginning for the sake of being a dick. like for example in What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, even though the ML there are being ridiculous at time...I never felt like he intentionally go out of his way to be an ass to the female lead like what I see here in the drama. especially the beginning...he make her run difficult errands for no other reason beside being he's the boss and he can order her around....also (very funny when I saw it) he made her planned romantic set-up misleading her to think it's for someone else only to tell her it's for her at the end....what? did he just made a girl plan and prepare her own romantic date? lol
-foolish self sacrifice: female lead running away from the relationship despite fighting back against ML's dad in the beginning but left after his memory because...she thinks this is the best for them. then once ML know of his amnesia trigger after they got back together after the 2nd memory loss, he decided to push her away in the same manner because he realized this constant situation of him treating her as a stranger is unfair to her. you know the usual "let's not come together to make a decision as a couple because my decision is the best decision even though it's selfish to exclude your partner from the decision making process" standard romance drama lead's behavior...which in and by itself is not a necessary bad thing but i prefer writer approach it a different angle

Couples (since it's a romance drama, I guess this is what's important to people)
-main leads - i'm not too familiar with either actor and actress but i thought for most part their acting is ok. most of my complaint with them is how their characters are written. as for chemistry between them...it's ok. they're pleasing and good looking couple but it's nothing spectacular
- the idol-chasing secretary with the ML's psychiatrist doctor - yea not feeling this couple. as mentioned by other...the idea that girl chase a guy around like a girl chasing idol...is weird. How they try to present this as cute instead of creepy....is creepy...imo.
- the female star and the FL's old boss. i actually quite enjoy this couple. they both started off chasing the ML and FL respectively...but both walked away from that situation respectfully (the guy much earlier than the girl) and decided to hook up later in the story. i find their love-hate dynamic with each other cuter compare to the other two couples


Final Thought
I gave it a 6.5 but it's not decent drama but nothing really stands out...not the story, not the cp, not the comedy.
Catch it if you have time but it's skippable.

Read More

Enjoyed this WAY more than I thought I would.

On top of my head this drama the drama's premise initially reminded me of My Love From The Star, another drama which I really like. However, once you get past the fact it's rom-com between an alien and human...it's pretty much completely different.

The thing the drove this drama is primarily the FL. Chai Xiaoqi is a quirky and naive alien character who has this fish out of water curiosity to her that behaving unnaturally that lead to rather funny and interesting moments. She came to earth on a simple mission to study plant life here, I guess, but one day while trying to save the ML she lost her annunciator that help transmit a signal back to her home planet to retrieve. Turns out it was embedded into the ML's heart during the car explosion which knock her into river nearby. The ML is a character who suffers from amnesia, in which every time it rains...he'll forget the women in his life. This made the ML extremely difficult to start any meaningful relationship in his life, that is until he met the FL. Something attracted him to her and eventually he found out that he could actually remember her after one of the rainstorm, so he suspect she might be pivotal to help him cure his illness. Once you get past the extremely weird premise, you'll find a really quirky, fun, light-hearted romance drama.

Pros:
-Likeable main leads and supporting characters. Lots of cute moment. ML
-Cute relationship between the FL and 2nd ML. Although eventually 2ML fell in love with FL, FL has always treated him like a buddy and good friend.
-SML is the ML's brother, despite ML constantly being jealous of 2nd ML whenever he's chummy with FL, he love and supported him.
-FL live with a restaurant owner who, herself, is pretty funny

Cons
- Wacky premise that's really well explained...neither her alien origin or his amnesia make much sense for me even by the end of it.
- Tons of cliches but fortunately for me it's not too overbearing. This might be a major cons to some of you.
- No well-developed antagonist. There are three primary antagonist in the show: the step-mom (almost birth mom of 2nd ML) and her brother, the crazy ex-gf, and the weird scientist. And none of them make any sense, imo. They're just there to bring obstacle between the main couple really.


It's hard to describe what makes this stands out amongst the other rom-com. But I really enjoy the main couple and their romance and their moments together. So, imo, if you can buy into the main leads' romance, you'll enjoy this a lot. It could've been less then 28 episode, imo but it wasn't too long that it truly bothered me.

Read More

Decent Drama with Terrible Title

Randomly stumbled upon this drama and thought it decently well done. Horrible title though...I am also confused as to why it's called "Lovely Swords Girl". It's a light hearted drama with a little bit of wuxia backdrop and a very inconsequential political involvement. First of all the Chinese title is lianlianjianghu (恋恋江湖) which means "Romance in Jianghu(martial art world)", which in itself isn't a great title either but at least describe the drama better than Lovely Swords Girl. Because ,for one, though the female lead is part of a medical martial art sect and that she knows how to use the sword, she actually uses her medical skill far more than her martial art...which is also unremarkable compared to like ten other people who has better martial art than she does. As for "lovely", I guess she has a lot of love interest but she's pretty headstrong and stubborn. Despite people finding her frank and outspoken personality attractive, "lovely" isn't how I would describe her. So the "Girl" is probably the most accurate part of the title. LOL

Summary:
Yu Shengyou is a daughter of the Holy Medicine Sect, whose father decided to marry her off to the esteemed Gong family, well-known in the martial art world. One of the reason for this is that father know people are hunting down a secret manual related to elixir of immortality or something and he wanted to sent his daughter to a safe place. Yu Shengyou was once saved by Gong Yuxiu a few years back and was surprised to find out he the eldest son of the Gong family, so she was really happy when Madame Gong allow her to chose one of the three sons as a husband after seeing the second son in wheelchair and third son with massive pimple breakout. She chose Gong Yuxiu and married him but on the wedding night found out he's actually a fool with the mental capacity of a child. Turns out he went "mad" two years ago due to being "poisoned" or something and became what he is now. She was mad and realize she had been set up to marry the Gong's family idiot son after finding out the second son is in fact not cripple and third son did something that cause himself to break out on the day she chose her husband.

So obviously she tried to immediately annul the marriage saying it's not done in good faith. However, Madame Gong convince her to stay for at least two years and if she still want a divorce two years later, she'll grant it to her and at the same time hoping she would change her mind. He did. Despite Gong Yuxiu being a fool, he absolutely dotes her, stick to her constantly, and showered her with affections. Then her family got into trouble so she left the Gong family to help her father and then was eventually kindnapped by the Ghost Tribe leader, Aide Yude. Ghost Tribe was a foreign tribe whose people are fat and where food and obesity are favored. However when he was young, he accidentally meant Yu Shengyou who showed him kindness whereas all other kids teased him for his obesity. They became friend and he made a promise to her that one day he'll marry her. Aide Yude also treated her as well as Gong Yuxiu did. Although she had greater affection toward Gong Yuxiu at the time, things changed when in desperation to save her Gong Yuxiu "reawakened" his former self who was a prim and proper gentleman with superior martial art skill. Now overnight he's like a completely stranger to her. Despite going back to his former self. Gong Yuxiu, still retained memory of the last few years when he was a fool. However, he feigned memory loss...I think it's partially because he was totally acting out of character and thus don't want to think about them. Still he actually still loves her but he's no longer showing his affection the same way he once did which made Yu Shengyou really sad. Now caught between a love triangle between Aide Yude, who absolutely adore, and Gong Yuxiu, who desperately want to go back to his former self asking her for a new start...she has to decide who she actually wanted to be.

There are other aspect of the story like the secret organization that's hunting various sect because they all have pieces of the secret manual including the Holy Medicine Sect which the female lead was part of. I actually barely pay attention to this part of the story. It guess it's a good distraction to keep this from being a purely romance drama. There was the second brother, who although clashes with the female lead early on but was sympathetic to her when his brother returned to normal. He also secretly harbored feeling for Yu Shengyou but he eventually got along with Lu Ren Yi, Aide's cousin who also like Aide himself, and eventually they got together. Then there's also the third brother who clashes with Yu Shengyou's very dorky ditzy maid...and they very cute chemistry together.


Cast/Acting:
Yu Shengyou - I thought she did well for most part. Somehow I thought she reminded me of the lead from Goodbye My Princess. I see some people thinks her character is annoying. I guess I can see that but she the frank and outspoken type that is sometimes careless with her words so she could be reckless. Yes she seems very outrageous and unreasonable at time but it's not without reason. In the beginning, she's thrust into a situation she didn't want so she acted out on everyone who she thinks schemed against her including her innocent husband. At the later stage, she felt her true love suddenly disappeared and now forced to be with someone who she thinks didn't love.
Gong Yuxiu - He did both character well. He's a lovable fool in the beginning and though his antic is bizarre he was very easy to like. As the gentleman act stoically but express his conflict well when he knows the person she love is not the real version of him. Even worst, he's lousy at expressing his feeling in which his inhibited and foolish self have no problem of doing.
Aide Yude - a typical second male lead where at times seems more deserving of the female lead than the actual male lead himself. He willing to go through great extent to protect and make the female lead happy...including going on a diet which affected his body greatly because the type of martial art he practiced which required him to be obese. He was always there for the female lead, always trying to cheer her up...to the point where he swayed her enough for her to consider actually being with him. However, he realized that no matter what he did she will never love him the same way she loved Gong Yuxiu...so finally he made the ultimately sacrificed....he decided to let her go...which finally ended the love triangle. Again he's like the ultimate good guy who's willing to think about the one he love instead of himself. And like he said his biggest regret is not looking for and finding the female lead before she met Gong Yuxiu because honestly she wouldn't been with him easily had that happened.


Pros
- I think there are great chemistry between the cast. I thought the ML/FL has good chemistry in the beginning and at time FL had good chemistry with the second brother (who tried to comfort her especially right after Gong Yuxiu recovered and was lost as to how he should approach her) and Aide Yude (who always try to be there with her)
- Great relationship with all the character. There were no animosity between them...even the villain wasn't detestable despite killing so many people. So there are really no unlikeable characters.
-Story tied together fair well even thought it's pretty basic.

Cons
-Amnesia plot used not once but three times. Like literally everything pretend to suffer amnesia after getting injured :/. The only one that was reasonably was Aide Yude who did it to finally separate himself from the ML/FL. The most annoying one was Gong Yuxiu who not only did a lousy job of pretending to lose his memory as a fool but that one act probably cause most of the conflict in the latter half. All the FL wanted was the reassurance that despite how he changed he is still same Gong Yuxiu she fell in love with and that part is still within him. Instead, he constantly refused to admit he still has his old memory because...I guess he wants her to love who he is instead of who he was (i dunno). However he took the drastic effort to pretend to be the idiot version of himself when he felt she's slipping away from her. Only for her to get angry at him for trying to lie to her. Then he started crying and she started crying because all she want was for him to be honest with her about his feeling and that he'll love her no matter how much he had changed. So...yea...
But to be fair, I guess conflicts makes the story because if they didn't do that...the drama could've probably ended in 15 episodes.

Overall
I thought it's a decent drama. Not saying it's the best. I've seen better and I've seen worst. It did wrapped up nicely overall though.

Read More

Far more enjoyable than I thought

First off, this drama really doesn't have much of a story, which I found is common in a lot of these Chinese rom-com drama. It's driven entirely by its character and the couple's romance. In fact, as I was typing this review, I am struggling to even remember what the story is about. I only remember that they're one of the best couples I've seen recently. LOL You really only want it to see cute fluffy moment between the main couple and how they act in weird uncomfortable situation smiling and laughing at what goes on screen.

The drama is mainly about two people in an arranged marriage, a hot doctor and hot actress. Drama start with them both bailing their engagement dinner with family. FL got into an accident and ended up in the ML's hospital. Upon treating her, he found out she's his fiancee. FL's dazely kiss the ML but eventually also find out he her fiance. When she find out he bailed on their engagement, she felt jilted. She try to get "revenge" by seducing him...LOL. And their relationship start from there. As he gets to know her, he actually find out she's a very good and kind woman. He slowly fell for her but he naturally has a rather cold and distant personality so a lot of awkward moment between the couple.

Pros
- Great chemistry between the ML and FL
- Lots of cute funny moment

Cons
- Not much of a story
- No real conflict

This drama is surprising for how much I enjoy it despite having so little story. The real is that because of the lack of story, you'll think it'll be boring but it's actually not.

Read More

Overall I think this drama is decent. It has a nice romantic lead and decent enough story. I thought the FL's character is a more interesting female character than most. Even though she's just a doctor, she's witty enough to get by and smart enough to know some of the things going on around here. More often than not, FL is totally clueless and can't defend herself.

Basic Character Intro:
Tian Qi (FL, originally Shen Zhao Er) is a daughter of an imperial doctor who serve the Ji Manor. Her parent were killed and she's saved by a secretive female doctor (uncommon for female to be doctor). She trained in medicine so she can eventually go back to the Ji manor to find out why her family is killed.
Ji Heng (ML) is the young heir and head of the Ji family. He's a stern and respected head of the Ji family who handle not only the affair of his household but also various power struggle happening within the court. He's tormented by the fact he couldn't save his childhood sweetheart's, Shen Zhao Er (who although was around him a lot, never knew his real identity), parent and not sure what happened to her since he only found her parent's bodies.

Story:
Pretty basic. Tian Qi, posing as a man studying to be a doctor, finally become good enough to be assigned to the imperial court. However she secretly wanted to entered the Ji manor and powerful government official family. So she pulled some string to posed as a doctor to lady who was to be wedded to the young head of the Ji manor. The lady died shortly after Ji Heng came back. Because the emperor's betrothed was randomly killed, he's required to investigate and explain to the king what happened. Tian Qi, seemingly close to the lady was tasked by Ji Heng, who's also very suspicious of Tian Qi, to find out why she died otherwise he'll killed her. So throughout this Ji Heng got to know Tian Qi a little more and started developing feeling for her. Behind the scene, there are multiple parties who were involved revenge/power plot (like 4)...standard stuff. Ji Heng, also had a younger brother, Ji Zheng, who was attracted to the FL and actually found out she's a girl early on. So Ji Zheng is essentially relegated to a second male lead who had less power but at time are more willing to save the FL, who also realize his predicament (of having less power, thus less able to protect one he loves) became bolder and more willing to challenge his brother for authority. (a very standard 2nd ML type). The story is really nothing special but I at least applaud them for have a plot of somewhat but it's not like that plot is great to begin with.

So I'm just highlighting a few points for this drama:
1. No the ML did not find out about her female identity until episode 21-22 (out of 28 episode). Despite a weak attempt by the FL to pretend to be more macho...lol...and literally the ML made the FL dress up as a girl two episodes before but apparently unless he saw her half naked, he's not willing to jump to that conclusion. LOL
2. The revenge plot is weird. Not even much of a spoiler, but one of the biggest villain of a story is the son of a family who was taken out by the Ji family but he not only planted 1 but 2 figures inside the Ji family. These two sacrificed for nothing if you think about it. I mean he's not that great of a villian...even his final attempt at the end of the story came out flat.
3. The reason for why her family was killed was rather weak and a disappointing reveal.
4. One of the major plot point is that fact Ji Heng is tormented by not being able to saved the family of the girl he likes when he was young....who as mentioned before turns out to be the FL. He has constant nightmare and would wake up yelling out "Zhao Er" from time to time. Tian Qi, who is now a resident doctor of the Ji manor, somehow put the Ji Heng at ease at night (cause a sense of comfort he felt with her) so she's ended up spending many night at his residence helping him sleep. You would've thought Tian Qi would eventually hear Ji Heng yelled out her female name or...you know...as a doctor ask her patient find out why he's having nightmare (technically he did breifly mentioned not being to save someone he cared about...but no further inquiry on her part). Nope, in fact, he didn't find out about her Shen Zhao Er identity until after episode 22 (maybe around 24) and she didn't realize he's her little older brother (her childhood nickname for him) until episode 26, I think. Yes most of the reveal happened in the last 6-7 episode of the drama. -_-
5. Yes so if you're impatient about the reveal, just skip to episode 22.
6. There are simply no standout antagonists. It felt like everyone beside those very close to the FL and ML are bad guys. But they don't do much. Perhaps it's better to focus on a really good one instead of having a bunch of mediocre ones.
7. Yea, is a HE but it's really draggy in the middle portion. I feel like things could've been cut down to under 20 episode. Removed a few useless villians. For example, Ji Heng cousins (male and female) are a total waste of space in the drama. They offered absolutely nothing to the story.
8. The 2nd Male Lead honestly didn't do much in the story. They tried to give him something toward the end, especially with that reveal about Ji Heng's mom...which is also weakly developed. Nothing they did with him did any impact at all.

Final Thought:
I think the story had a decent structure but it's poorly develop. In other word, it had potential but in the end came out flat. Do I recommend it? It's not terribly bad, I like both the ML and FL and they have pretty good chemistry from time to time. I thought both the ML and FL are cute from time to time. FL for how she handles situation around her and ML for how FL made him fluster here and there. LOL And I did think the story was interesting at the beginning, though i don't think there's much of a payout at the end :/. Pick it up if the initial few episodes appeal to you but the FF button is your best friend if you want to go through the drama to the end.

Read More