Ode to Joy (2016)

The series that you can definitely relate to!

This is the only series that i have rated a perfect 10 so far and the reasons why, here you go:

Actors - Each and every actors has played their characters really well, every viewers can definitely relate to at least 1 or 2 characters in this series. No doubt they are now the big nmes in C-showbiz industry.

Main Actresses' chemistry and bond - You will definitely love how these 5 ladies showed their love and support to each other, like a family to a point that you will hope u have "girlfriends" like them.

Romantic chemistry of the leads - you will definitely love the story and romance build up of each partners, i specially love Xiao xiao and Dr. Zhao and i can say their chemistry is soo natural and they really look good together.

Plot/ Story - this series will make you feel different emotions, it will make you smile, laugh, cry, mad, proud, etc.

I really need season 3!!!!

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I have started this drama last year and get bored, I ended up dropping the drama, i decided to give an other chance but no, None of the female leads were promising, each are more boring than the other one, Don't watch with for Wang Kai, you won't see him much in the drama. I feel like I was watching some sort of psychological drama.

This is a bit of Sex and the city w/o mature- sex content a bit of Friends the two American dramas I most dislike. If you do not like those two you won't like this, but if you like them you'll possibly enjoy.

Female leads are so loud first.

An-Di is the ice cube of all the girls living in the apartment
Ju Er is after hunting a rich man
Ying Ying is the most innocent of all

for me this was too boring, could not pass ep 7

One of the most over rated Chinese Dramas ever.

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A breath of fresh air but not without flaws

I think this series held a lot of promise but not all were delivered and some mono-tonal writing caused it to lose some points. I have to give the writers kudos for including so many societal issues in the plot(s) and hence generated a lot of online reactions in the Chinese social media. While that was a breath of fresh air in the local TV scene at the time, I can't help but feel that it was done largely to generate the said traffic and viewership but most of the issues are not really explored, a bit of issue du jour? This is not helped by fairly shallow character portrayal. Especially the two youngest women, Qiu Yingying and Guan Ju'er. One was naive and immature to the point of being almost an airhead while the other is timid and grey. When so little character development happens in 42 episodes, you have to start asking questions. Not that they don't play their roles, it is just that it almost becomes a caricature and tools for the writers. The whole love line for GJE was just ridiculous. Why/how does someone have an instant crush and then nothing come of it in the drama. Even if she put up a fight for him, it would have been good but it was just side glances and deep sighs. I have to say that Andy as a character was the most complex of the five but then again, I find it hard to ship the relationship with Qi Dian. The writers tried their best to build chemistry but I never felt it exited the friend zone. How hard he tried to get inside her pants was also a bit off putting. The show also have some double standards. They are happy to highlight social issues but at the same time, they also push success and wealth to the front. While they didn't go so far as using the "rich dude get away with murder" trick, so many times fun is equated to staying in 5/6 stars hotels , clubbing with the elites and eating in fancy restaurants. Don't even mention fast cars as they are on full display as moving PPL. On one hand, the masses will identify with the 3 struggling women on the 22nd fl but the have's and have not's are also in stark contrast so that there can't really be happiness unless you have money and power. I did enjoyed a lot of the show but there are moments when I have to stop myself from shouting at the monitor when things get stupid and/or dragged on. OtJ2 is over 50 episodes.

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Long live the sisterhood!

I have started watching the chinese drama Ode To Joy because I heard a lot of good things about it and I was curious as to how they would represent a show with five leading ladies. Especially because in the past I have come across some really silly, self-centered, only seen by her parents as marriage material or man-dependent women characters in chinese television. Of course none of this wouldn’t be a problem for me if such woman has an actual storyline that defines her beyond her romantic interest but that was not the case. So, I approached Ode to Joy carefully but hopeful because the whole premise of the show is that this is a story about five strong-willed and independent women making their way trough the world on their own terms.

Our story takes place in Shanghai and Ode to Joy is an apartment complex. Floor 22 has five residents: ANDIE, a smart and aloof business woman. Next door there is FAN, YING YING and GUAN sharing the space. And at the end of hallway lives spitfire XIAO XIAO. These are our leading ladies, they could not be more different from each other, and yet due to a elevator malfunction and shared loneliness, the five quickly form a bond that takes them from acquaintances to sisters.

The reason behind why I chose to write this review from episode 01 to 16 is because up until now there has been no romantic entanglements. Sure, there was that one nasty boyfriend but it was only a plot devise in order to push the friendship between the ladies to grow even stronger. And I can really appreciate a show that takes it’s time building up the friendship between women and trying to make us understand who these people are, instead of throwing us into a full-time romance from the set-go. This way we get to know our characters and fully understand their actions, their motivations, ambitions and dreams. On this the show has a slow pace but there’s always something happening, leading up to a storyline that eventually will play a bigger part in the life of one of the girls and by association on the others.

ANDIE (Liu Tao) has a very interesting storyline. Owner of apartment 2201, Columbia graduate and Wall Street genius, she couldn’t do better professionally. But we slowly find out she doesn’t like to to touch, and this social anxiety has crippled her in more than one way when it comes to building human relationships outside and inside the office. Until her neighbors come into he scene, her only friend is TAN (Jing Dong), who also happens to be her boss and is helping her find her brother who she lost touch with after they were both sent to an orphanage at a very young age.

But Andie also has an online friend, who she finally meets at one point between episode 5 and 10, and so we are introduced to who is probably the first real romantic interest of the show. WEI (Ding Yong Dai) is a middle aged man who so far has been trying to gently break down Andie’s walls in order to get her heart. Is she interested? She cares for him, sure, but she has her reservations and I think she’s right to have them. It could be due to her fear but it could also be her instinct telling her something is off about Wei.

Personally I don’t know if this character is truly sincere with her, and very much like Andie, I find myself doubting him. It feels like we are not getting the entire story and something will go wrong any minute.

FAN (Jiang Xin) works on the HR department of a big company. She is a good person with those she cares about, she also has a lot of experience on life and with people so she actually gives excellent advice to her friends on floor 22. But, at the same time, she’s also very interested in getting married to a rich man in order to achieve her dream of ending all kind economical struggles. My first impression, and I am going to be completely honest, was that she is a gold digger but the show slowly let me see through her and understand that she doesn’t want to a kept woman, she wants someone to share her burdens and struggles with. But she is going for the wallet instead of good intentions or heart, judging men for what they wear or the kind of car they drive. I can understand what her character is trying to say: having money makes life easier, and to a point, in we are being completely real, she might be right. When you don’t have to worry about things like getting enough money for rent, groceries and such, it leaves time to enjoy the things you like and give yourself presents. But is the way she’s going about it that is worrisome.

I’m particularly looking forward to see the development of her friendship with WAN (Zhang Lu), the owner of a small company and her former classmate who just moved to Shanghai in order to expand his business. It’s clear he is very much interested and she is letting him believe he’s got a chance, I wonder if it’s true or if there are other intentions.

GUAN (Yang Zi) unlike the other two is a recent collage graduate who moved to Shanghai in order to pursue a career. She’s probably the most introverted and soft-spoken of the girls, slowly trying to push through in a job she doesn’t like at all and in which she has to work overtime almost every day. Even though Guan is very capable and I’m sure she would do just fine on any job, she cares deeply about what her parents think of her and this, I’m guessing, will be a important point in her story. They are the reason why she choose this particular job and this particular company. Her father wants her to work at a big city and a big company in order for her to gain life experience, on the other hand, Mom wants her to comeback home, get a easy job and get married. On this, I agree with Dad since she is indeed rather green on life and job to the point of not knowing much about human dynamics or realizing when someone is giving her attentions in a special way. Guan has taken Andie as her role model and with he advice of Fan, you can already see her slowly growing into an amazing, caring and smart young lady. Looking forward to the day she actually gets to work on something she likes.

YING YING (Qiao Xin) is the most naive to the point I sometimes wonder if she’s not plain dumb but then BAM! she surprises me with a smart move and then I have to apologize to her character because she did so well. Doesn’t mean she won’t screw up again, this character is the kind that learns through crashing and burning which -as you can imagine- can be quite frustrating but her innocent personality makes up for it. I would say she will have a lot of growing up to do through the entire season in all aspects of life.

Finally, but not least important, we have XIAO XIAO (Wang Ziwen) who has recently came back from studying abroad (she was actually partying) under the request of her mother. Turns out Mom is afraid her father will name Xiao Xiao’s half brother the heir of the company. Yeah, she’s rich, well connected and crafty. Her story doesn’t concentrate much in the family drama, tough, it centers around how she’s building up her reputation as a business woman who is capable of taking the lead in her father’s company if ever needed to. But to be completely honest I’m not even sure if she truly wants to inherit he father’s company… I’m not even sure if she wants to work at all. It feels more like “business” is the only language her family understands, so she communicates her worries and desires in a business like manner, and making strategies to look good in front of her parents. Is she a fake? No, I don’t think she knows how to properly express herself when it comes to the people she loves and it’s only until you get to know her that you understand how caring she is for everyone.

I’m really excited about the new romantic storyline she’s starting because I want to see more personal development from her, apart from the sisterhood, and a romance with DR ZHAO (Wang Kai) seems like exactly what she needs. He takes no BS from anyone and she is full of it.

Overall and so far, Ode to Joy is a really good show with strong storylines and characters, and a slow pace where you learn something new with every episode. Like peeling an onion, one layer at a time.

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STORY:
Even though you're splitting the time between all five girls (obviously some have more screen time than others), it still feels fairly well balanced and spaced out. The stories intermingled with each other fairly well  but with so many leads, you definitely find yourself rooting for some more than others (or hoping for more screen time for a certain storyline).
The drama was highly rated, and I don't disagree. I normally watch more ancient dramas than modern ones, but this one had a good realistic feeling to it, compared to others I've seen. Everything that went on seemed like things that people could relate to more readily (family problems, being an older lady but still single, being a young entrepreneur, being an entry level worker dealing with relationships, or being new to the workforce and finding your footing in life). Many times, dramas have to overly exaggerate what happens to get people to feel intrigued, but I think Ode To Joy kept it realistic enough but still intriguing.
Plot never felt super lagging at any point. (It took me a while to get into it at the beginning, but a lot of shows are that way). Overall good with story lines.

ACTING:
-Olivia Wang: Had to mention her first because hands down loved the story with Qu Xiao Xiao and Zhao Qi Ping the best. I already loved Wang Kai coming into this drama, so I knew I'd like him, but Olivia Wang was a good surprise (I'd already seen When a Snail Falls in Love at this point, so knew they had good chemistry). At the beginning of the story, I didn't really like QXX. Her character was super snobby and standard scheming rich girl, but later on (and after she and ZQP get together) she soon became my favorite. Once her character developed more, you saw her become someone who had good intentions, even though sometimes she went about it the wrong way. I will argue though that a lot of times, she got blamed for something (which yes she instigated), but the real problem was with the person she schemed against.
-Yang Zi: Qiu Ying Ying - ABSOLUTE WORST  for me. I actually skipped through most of her scenes while watching. I'm not attributing it to the actress because she was following the script, but my god her character was annoying. I get it, each girl was supposed to have a different personality, so obviously one had to be the naive and bullheaded one. She honestly just annoyed me so much how she went about everything - blaming others for things that weren't really their fault (Yes I'm a little biased because I liked Qu Xiao Xiao). Again being bullheaded and impulsive are common traits that a lot of people had, but something about how her character went about it made me not feel sorry for her when bad things happened because she deserved it in some way (not everything, but most things).
-Liu Tao: Always a great actress. If anything I was hoping her character would open up more and develop quicker, but her character was the oldest of the bunch and fairly set in her ways.
-Jiang Xin: another great actress. Very good at showing off the sides of her character - the nonchalant one who goes to parties and dates, the lonely one who just wanted to find love, the struggling one dealing with her family issues, etc. I'd say of all of the characters, hers was the most rounded for me. You saw a lot of different sides to her, whereas some of the other characters (while not one dimensional) felt like certain parts of their character overtook the rest. Jiang Xin's character really felt the most balanced of all (showing all of her sides, I mean).
-Qiao Xin: Guan Ju Er - a very new actress, which kind of showed at times. She really didn't have a lot to do in the first season. Most of her focus was on being overworked as an intern with the small sprinklings of her one sided love. She had most of her progression in the second season where she really finds what she likes as a person and obviously finds love eventually.
Additional Characters: 
Wang Kai is always great for me. This was a new side of him that I hadn't seen yet. The playful and flirtation doctor, but still had a very strong moral upbringing.
The other males didn't really shine for me. They were all fairly one dimensional for the most part, just filling the space for what the girls were lacking.

REWATCH VALUE:
I'd definitely rewatch again in a few months or so (I just watched it through a few months ago). I'd honestly probably just skip around a lot and watch the stories that I actually enjoyed. (Aka, i'd honestly probably skip all of Qiu Ying Ying's stories again). A very good drama, but I definitely wouldn't rewatch the show in entirety.

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Each friend brings their own strength to this group of young women

8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2016 Chinese drama series with 42, 45 minute episodes.

First I provide a Unique Synopsis then review

Synopsis

The story is about five women who all live on the 22nd floor of an apartment building called “Ode to Joy”. Three of the five are roommates sharing an apartment and are existing residents when two, much more successful, career women move in. What evolves is a five way friendship where each has their own unique qualities to bring to the friend group. Some start out not liking each other but as life happens and they come together to deal with things they learn to appreciate their differences as well as their similarities.

The Five Women:

*Andy (Liu Tao) - 31 years old. Lived as an orphan abroad but builds herself up to be a sought after financial adviser. She returned to China to find the brother she was separated from when they were children. She does not physical touch and her only close friend is also her boss. Despite her aloofness she is actually kind and caring. The other women break through her icy exterior and find her to be the most logical and capable person to go to in times of crisis.

*Fan Shengmei (Jian Xin) - 30 years old. She is a highly skilled human resource professional. As the oldest of the 3 roommates she is often consulted in life matters. Her family is a black hole if financial requests which has led her to look for a wealthy husband to escape her financial worries. This makes others perceive her in a bad light at times.

*Qu Xiaoxiao (Wang Ziwen) - 24 years old. Her father is a wealthy businessman and she is slumming it to create some independent space. She was a hard partying girl with a band of groupies, until her friendship with the other women on floor 22 decreased her desire to hit the clubs all the time. If you want the pure unvarnished truth she is the go to. If you have a problem she likely knows someone that can apply just the right kind of pressure. Her unfailing honesty rubs people the wrong way at times.

*Qiu Yingying (Yang Zi) - 23 years old. Comes from a smaller town and is in the big city for better opportunity. She works standard office and retail jobs. She can be naive but has a temper when crossed. Very chipper and positive most of the time. She is a go to for someone to cheer you up.

*Guan Juner (Qiao Xin) - 22 years old. She is best friends with Yingying. She works at a company on an internship where she hopes to become permanent. She is very quiet and earnest.

Review

If you like dramas about groups of friends, this is a very good drama for that. It is lighter on romance as many of the relationships do not end well or never start. The dynamics between the women make for a very enjoyable series. It ends abruptly on some of the story lines and it is clear they planned for additional season(s). It ends overall on a happy note.

Spoilers

Andy appeared to have very high functioning autism. They make it out that she has some scary hereditary disorder like schizophrenia but all the symptoms point to autism. The brother also appears to have autism just of a more severe form. I thought her split with Qi Dian (Zu Feng) was sad because I thought he was very good for her. I understood her point and her test to see if he had a deep seated fear she would go crazy was valid. The live commenters when I watched the show were vicious to Qi Dian they thought he was too pushy with her to the point of being creepy. With her disorder I thought his firm nudging was appropriate.

Shengmei may have had her reasons but I did very much agree with Xiaoxiao that she was a gold digger. She was smart enough she should have known none of those men would marry her. So it was hard to watch her allow them to humiliate her. I was glad when she finally realized it was not all about the money.

XiaoXiao was my favorite. Yeah she could be a harsh critic and her honesty was often brutal but she was a force of nature. I loved when she decided she liked Zhao Qiping (Wang Kai) and the determined way she romantically pursued him. She was clear she liked his looks and there was no swoony first love vibe to it. She wanted him at first site but liked him after they spent time together. Other characters were mad at her for saying this or that but I found she said what really needed to be said.

I was a little mad at Guan Juner over her getting hung up on Dr Zhao after the mist limited contact. I thought the minute she found out he was Xiaoxiaos love interest that should have been the end of it.

I was annoyed how abruptly it ended. I do not like unfinished storylines as additional seasons can fall through.

#OdeToJoy

#LiuTao

#JianXin

#WangZiwen

#YangZi

#QiaoXin

#ZuFeng

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This series is definitely not for everyone, me included. It revolves around females neighbor that develop a deep bond of friendship. They face struggles, love and other issues along the way. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get past episode 10. It was a bit slow and uneventful. I did skip to the final 2 episodes to see how it would end. It didn’t seem complete either. I definitely think some may get a good laugh but I’m not at all entertained by naive/ ridiculously gullible characters, neither can I get drawn in by meddling rude ones although the writers portray them as free spirits. If you’re in for a movie night shows with the girls this one is kind of entertaining. I absolutely could not like this series but I seriously tried.

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