Perfect Wedding (2016)

Since there is no any review about this drama, only comments that formed bits and pieces of reviews, I took the advantage of being the first reviewer, after painstakingly watching this drama till the end. I was following the talented lead actress Andy Yang Zi's works when I found this drama and it took me sometime to find where I can watch it with English subtitle. From a tip given by one commenter below, I was able to track down the raw English autosub of this drama from Huace Global Fun channel in YouTube. Raw English, yes, as literally Youtube translate the Mandarin words word by word which can be very confusing to the conversation, that leads me to 'translate' the raw English dialogues to understandable meanings. They also forgot to sub one episode into Mandarin (which can be autosub by YouTube), but not necessarily lost my understanding as a whole story.

STORY: Probably it can be heart touching, if the whole drama was translated to English well, as there are a lot of stories on what happened in the Xia Ran's family. But I skipped MOST of the scenes of the supporting roles to avoid boredom caused by frustration from the inadequate translation. I gave a pretty good score for the story though, as the office stories are quite entertaining, especially about Xia Ran's clients. Every client's case is touching, especially since both main leads actually worked together to solve the proposal/wedding cases.

ACTING/CAST: Definitely Andy Yang Zi is the pull for this drama as well as other cast. She is pretty, energetic, bossy, animated, and sometimes mean. Qiao Zhenyu is a bit stiff as the cosmetic surgeon Jin Zhihao, but can pull unexpected moments related to the female lead. Their chemistry is great, starting with being hating each other due to some misunderstanding, compromising due to some agreements made, room mates, friends or brother/sister when they are forced to live in the same room, and finally (after more than a half drama rolling) they became lovers. The second pair (Xia Ran's boss and Zhihao's ex) is just meh. Notable, is the young actor who plays Zhihao's little brother, who delivers a refreshing and fun acting stood out among the complicated adult's love stories in the drama.

MUSIC: Since I'm not into OST of dramas, I never make notes on OST

REWATCH VALUE: No, unless I find a website or channel where I can watch it again with an understandable English sub,

OVERALL: Again, Andy Yang Zi is the only main reason I (and probably also for many viewers who follows her) I watched this drama, and the attraction of mini stories of client's wedding plans delivered in this drama.

Read More

Great start turned into girlfriend-from-hell

I was looking for something that really showcased Yang Zi (FL) 's acting. She gets great reviews, but mostly I've just seen her do the character who is cute and fun and hardworking and smarter-than-she-looks.

The first episode had me hooked. She was an amazing, articulate, self-assured business woman. Set goals, expressed herself, resolved disputes. And had fun doing it. I was really pleased to find this show. The chemistry with ML was great -- wow did they hate each other :). The end of episode two continues with an amazing depiction of the scariest drunk you've ever seen. I can't say how much I'm impressed with her acting. (And chemistry with ML continues.) Yang Zi wasn't acting as this woman, Yang Zi *was* this woman.

It turns out that her acting was so good that I began quickly to hate the story. I couldn't *stand* that woman. I wouldn't wish her on my worst enemy. There was a red flag in the first episode, in the interaction with her boyfriend... she doesn't give him a chance to say even half a word. And she tells her parents that he'll do whatever she says. In the relationship: screaming, tantrums, never listening... you name it. At work: mature and sensible.

I watched two more full episodes before realizing that there was *no way* I would be able to watch all 44 episodes. I just couldn't imagine spending any of my free time with someone like that.

Because there have only been two other reviews for this 2016 show (now early 2022), I decided I had to watch enough to justify a review. I skipped ahead to episode 10, then 20, then 30, then 40, and finally 44. I was curious to see whether the new relationship improves. In other words, I was looking for a character redemption arc, which might have been interesting enough to go back and fill in the gaps. While the amount of screaming does fade a bit, she never really becomes someone I could respect. So I haven't gone back and filled in the bits.

The production was odd -- audio was always off the video. You see hands clapping or doors slamming, and then 2 seconds later the sound appears. Voice, background noises, and music are misbalanced. In terms of subbing, myasiantv had an engsub version, but some episodes didn't have sub titles, some had subs that misaligned (like 5 minutes off what you're watching). The subs, when aligned with the scene, were accurate to the story.

Read More