olewis
More layered than I was expecting
Alice Ke, Roy Chiu, AND Joanne Tseng? How could I resist?
I first started watching this drama mainly for the star-studded cast. The first episodes are pretty soapy and catty, but around episode 6, the plotline and characters develop much deeper layers, and things evolve in more interesting ways. In the end, I was impressed by the show's quality and was surprised by some of the twists and turns.
The cast was great; Joanne Tseng and Roy Chiu have such cute sibling chemistry and an authentic, complicated relationship. They fight, they scheme, they commiserate...I loved watching them on screen. And after finishing Office Girls, it was funny to watch Roy Chiu and Alice Ke star as love interests again, only this time with a whole different dynamic. Alice Ke plays the complete opposite of her Office Girls character; as Huan Zheng, she is super confident and powerful. In the first few episodes, she's pretty annoying, but once you see her layers under the surface, you start to root for her and her romance with Hao Meng.
The storyline itself, while nicely layered, wasn't without its soapy or unrealistic turns. I liked that they included a storyline for the parents and made them more of three-dimensional characters than usual, but that whole plotline also seemed really uneven and half-baked. Like the parental storyline would pop up in some episodes and then disappear again for a while.
Like with most T-dramas, the theme song and soundtrack are pretty fun. The production design actually seems a lot higher than most T-dramas.
Overall, a fun, worthwhile drama. Good if you want to practice your Mandarin listening skills because they use a lot of fun, colloquial phrases. Also, some of the older characters speak in Hokkien too, which is always nice.
I first started watching this drama mainly for the star-studded cast. The first episodes are pretty soapy and catty, but around episode 6, the plotline and characters develop much deeper layers, and things evolve in more interesting ways. In the end, I was impressed by the show's quality and was surprised by some of the twists and turns.
The cast was great; Joanne Tseng and Roy Chiu have such cute sibling chemistry and an authentic, complicated relationship. They fight, they scheme, they commiserate...I loved watching them on screen. And after finishing Office Girls, it was funny to watch Roy Chiu and Alice Ke star as love interests again, only this time with a whole different dynamic. Alice Ke plays the complete opposite of her Office Girls character; as Huan Zheng, she is super confident and powerful. In the first few episodes, she's pretty annoying, but once you see her layers under the surface, you start to root for her and her romance with Hao Meng.
The storyline itself, while nicely layered, wasn't without its soapy or unrealistic turns. I liked that they included a storyline for the parents and made them more of three-dimensional characters than usual, but that whole plotline also seemed really uneven and half-baked. Like the parental storyline would pop up in some episodes and then disappear again for a while.
Like with most T-dramas, the theme song and soundtrack are pretty fun. The production design actually seems a lot higher than most T-dramas.
Overall, a fun, worthwhile drama. Good if you want to practice your Mandarin listening skills because they use a lot of fun, colloquial phrases. Also, some of the older characters speak in Hokkien too, which is always nice.
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