There were a lot of potentially interesting elements to this story. The fashion design aspect, the military/action aspect, and the business aspect. All three things that don't necessarily go together, but it seemed like it could work. The beginning of the drama wove those three plot points together fairly well in my opinion. Things seemed to make sense as you watched, but as you continued on, it basically seemed like they were giving up on these major plot focuses one by one.
Not even halfway through, most of the action side of it basically disappeared as they closed the plot that they introduced at the beginning of the drama. It went from being action scenes in almost every episode, to being basically nothing until the last few episodes. Honestly, the action side was the only thing keeping this from being completely another basic modern business romance.
I honestly feel like even the fashion element was thrown out of the window after a while. It went from focusing on designing for multiple different business projects and showing the designing process and trial and error, to just basically talking about it and saying "We're starting our own brand," but by the end was only really showing the business aspect of everything and everything else was just something they mentioned every once in a while to keep it in your mind. By the time they created the Qing Cheng brand, there was really NO mention of the design process. Scenes would go by and all of a sudden there was an entire store filled with clothes, whereas at the beginning when she designed the waterproof uniform, there was constant mention of how to make it, what materials to use, what the problems were, etc.
Romance wise, there was obviously a lot of that. It moved fairly quickly (the first kiss was episode 10 or so) and seemed to make sense as to why they fell for each other. There was a LOT of romance happening though. Four different couple pairings by the end of the drama. A LOT of split screen time between these four. There was a lot of focus on the second lead couple, but at this point the main couple was firmly established, so it was ok I guess.
ACTING:
Zhao Li Ying - honestly, ZLY is one of my favorite actresses. I think she always does a really good job with what she's given and shows a good variety of emotion and skill. This particular drama (and a LOT of people agree with me), I honestly think she shouldn't have taken up. Personally, I don't like her modern dramas (or modern dramas in general as they always end up about the same), but after seeing her being such a strong, smart, brave, etc. character in other dramas, it was really annoying to watch her just be such a Mary Sue character in this drama. She was talented and loyal and loving, sure. But that's about it. There were a lot of aspects where she was just a sideline in the process, or they talked about how important she was, but she didn't really show it. I have no problem with her having a cutesy role and whatnot, but I just feel like this character wasn't someone she needed to take up and there wasn't much about Lin Qian that made it a MUST HAVE role.
Jin Han - personally don't think he was that great. I've only seen him in supporting roles, and always as a bad guy, which I honestly thing suits him a lot better. I fall for male characters really easily in dramas, but there wasn't a lot about this role that I was infatuated with. The character himself was fine, but there was a disconnect for me between Jin Han's acting and the character coming to life.
Everyone else - No one in the drama honestly really stood out to me as being amazing. Whether it was character wise or acting wise. Again, this might play into the fact that I don't really care for modern dramas, but overall no one gave me a particular sense of joy while watching.
Side note - the portrayal of Peter really blew my mind. Not so much that the acting was amazing, but just the characterization was just WOW. I know he was supposed to be a bad guy in the drama, but the pill popping, sexual harassment tendencies, and general psychotic-ness was just a LOT.
OVERALL:
The drama wasn't terrible. The story made sense overall, it just was fairly boring (really just predictable and meh) by the end of it and again, the main aspects of the story that were introduced weren't all upheld by the end of the drama, turning it into just another fairly standard modern drama. I also again always have high expectations for ZLY dramas and really do think she's a very good actress, but there wasn't much with this drama by the end that made it super worth it (especially knowing how popular and in demand she is and how full her schedule is, I just think this drama wasn't necessary). Don't really feel the need to rewatch as there wasn't a lot in the drama that was super memorable for me.
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The beginning and end of this show feel disconnected. The first half of this show was almost entirely focused on Lin Qian as the main character, but the at some point it felt like her story line became second to all the other story lines they tried to introduce with many of the secondary, and even tertiary, characters. The second half og the drama felt like a handful of smaller story lines with no common direction. Story wise I think that it started strongly. Part of the initial story kind of surrounded Lin Qian trying to figure out who saved her. I actually think that this issue, among other initial incidents, was resolved too soon, causing the rest of the episodes to kind of branch off into less interesting stories. I also feel the issue of Li Zhi Cheng’s brother was glossed over a little bit. Like, it could have been a little bit more prominent and deeper than it was.
I did enjoy the fact that this drama avoided a few overused tropes. -There were no extenuating love triangles. -No extremely overbearing parents (mostly, Li Zhi Cheng’s father could be a little much sometimes but in more reasonable ways.) - I really loved Lin Qian’s relationship with her brother. He is super protective of her. Despite having his own opinions of what would be best for Lin Qian’s life, he is generally accepting and respective of her own decisions. They argue and butt heads but just about always make up.
The best part of this show: there are a lot of of fluffy romantic scenes between main and secondary characters respectively. Many of the characters have really great chemistry.
There are two characters towards the end of the show that show up a lot that are not Chinese. I am pretty sure that, like most Chinese shows, this show was dubbed over. But I really have to give it to the two actors and who ever did their voice dubs because I hardly found times were the voices and the movements on their faces did not match. They did a really good job. The voices also fit the characters nicely.
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the great thing about lead pair " they walk with each other as well as they looks in same direction" thats sign of true soulmate . which make their chemistry more interesting.
each character has balanced definition and concept which rarely you find in drama i'm happy with all actors they done great job . FL played a character of innocent girl who is full of dreams who met a tough guy ML who is not arrogant (people sometimes find it arrogant) but he resist to convey his emotion a kind of introvert person
if i taught about other characters any character is strong if it played by sincerely and scripted rightly. you can connect with all. till the end of the show you not say that you don't like this or that character it shows growth of each characters.
i hope people enjoy it as much i
....
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Best Drama Couple of 2018 - Li Zi Cheng and Lin Qian
I sat through the entire drama, unlike other C-dramas that I dropped, due to lack of interest.The casting of Jin Han was an excellent choice. He really lit up the screen, and he and Zhao LiYing had very good rapport. The casting of Zhao LiYing was another excellent choice, but there were serious issues with continuity, and her appearances on screen were not seamless. Her hair had varying lengths in the same scene, and seemed to grow several inches within a week.
Despite the perfect casting of the two main leads, I was bored with the remaining characters and their issues. Too much filler, too much dialog, too much bad editing, too much bad fashion!
For a drama set in a fashion industry, the fashions were fugly and painful to watch. Boss Chen wore the most ludicrous men's clothing, and Manager Ning wore two dozen or three dozen double-breasted busisness suits in every color, that were all two sizes too small for him. The male actors, who seemed to be in the height range of 5'9 to 6'0, wore clothes that were manufactured for males, 5'7 or shorter.
The haircuts were another story. Most of the actors had bad haircuts. Bad haircuts and fugly fashions weighed down the drama. Editing was bad. The scene with Lin Qin and Brother in the beginning episodes stretched over two or three episodes. The intercut scene editing made it look like they had been talking for twenty-four hours, and Lin Qian's hair length kept changing. That one scene should have been ten minutes long without the dreaded intercuts.
Flashbacking/flashback filler; this was almost as bad as Age of Legends, that I dropped because of the excessive flashbacks. The C-Drama Directors seem to forget that the viewers have a short attention span, and that constant interruptions only serve to disrupt the concentration. The Director should be trying to keep the viewer engaged in the plot.
Loud music; 75% of the time, the music volume was turned up when the characters were having a discussion. In real life, I don't think people have loud music playing when they are talking, unless they are in a dance club or concert.
Despite all the above criticisms, I found Jin Han and Zhao Liying to be charismatic, congenial, and refreshing in their characters. One might say that I loved the drama for these two actors, and the love story of their characters.
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What more is that the relationship between the male and female leads is HONEST and HEALTHY. They had GREAT communication which meant there wasn't a lot of misunderstandings between the two of them. They were a team, and it showed. There were SO many swoon-worthy moments too since they were just so adorable together.
I greatly recommend this drama and I will DEFINITELY be rewatching!
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Plot
I have never seen such a sloppy plot. There is no proper climax, no turning point and the plot has many loopholes. Seems like the director wants to show too much of his ability, so he added a lot action scenes in the battlefield but it was sloppy. I also don’t like that too much of the screentime are used on the likes of Ning Wei Kai and Chen Zhen who seem to be villian at first,and later transformed into good people.
Cast
Seeing Kim Han( who played as villain in most dramas) as a main actor is quite good but I think he still lacks something. The casts of Ning Wei Kai, Chen Zhen and Grace are not that great either. I even feel like it is such a waste of talent for Zhao Li Ying to be in this drama.
Music
The songs are not very bad but not very good too. They are just average.
Rewatch value
I definitely won’t.
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This review may contain spoilers
Good intentions, bad execution...
This is the story about a guy that retires from the military after his brother's death and joins the family business to save the family legacy and an aspiring designer and her way to develop her own brand.The idea behind this one sounds awesome, on paper..: The leads that never break up through the story which means that they conquer every obstacle together and develop their careers and dreams! A story with business rivals and the mystery around the brother's death. However, they failed miserably.
The acting is average, and the characters lack real motive behind all of their actions. The rivals do not compete using strategy, but illegal and unethical stuff, and turn into good guys as soon as the real villain shows by the end, which is basically doing the same thing they have been doing for most of the show.
The relationship between the leads is also lacking. No chemistry, a ML that looks like he likes the FL, but is dating her because he needs her for his business, and she claims that she wants to be independent and do things by herself, but ends up relaying too much on her boyfriend (husband eventually) and her brother (that opposed them for no reason.
This drama seems to have potential, but is completely wasted on execution. It does not matter how epic or beautiful the scene is supposed to be they fail with the setup, development and delivery.
Overall, a great opportunity that did not meet expectations.
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that he gave up the soldier job as he had to take care of his family buisness but I thought their is something regarding soldier story but from first episode drama shows the tragedy and soldier part is over ,in the whole drama I just enjoyed watching main lead and actress love story and lead actress friend's love story but nothing connected me much . They stretched the drama too much and secondly the bait his brother put in front of him when it get start and get over I even don't understand ,the synchronization part of last few episodes is not that up to the mark and when ending reach I didn't realize that the drama get over .With what expectation I started watching this drama ,it didn't reach to my expectation but one thing I like the most in the drama that gym part when they together do the exercise that part is so romantic for me .All I say it is not that bad and not that good drama ,one time watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
First I want to claps for another Ding Mo's pieces that being made into a drama~~~People who watch this maybe said "why is the opening different from the novel?" etc but the way they did the drama more logical and easily being made than the one in the novel. The actors and actresses did a good job to act their characters and QianZhicheng mysterious backer Lin Mochen being presented earlier and show he was a normal human than in novel.
The bgms, opening and ending songs were perfectly picked. I love the customs since it based on fashion theme the apparel not so much showy (tacky) and poor either (they change it from bag to fashion apparel). First 4 episode did a good job for attracting us to another episode, the tense per episodes perfectly made offer us to concentrate more, the lines, angles, and their position were good. Scriptwriter Ji An and Director Zhang Feng did a very good job make OGT like this~~~ What I was shocked that Meng Rui so excellent portrait the bast*** Chen Zheng.
Like The Eternal Love 2 this drama will be on my bucket list drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Conclusion: The drama plot changed halfway and it became messier. There was a lot of potential with this drama - the actors and love lines. However, the writer seemed to have diverged from the initial plot and introduced filler story that dominated the whole drama. Although the main characters were Zhao LiYing and Kim Jin, the amount of screen time the 2nd male/female lead had was (or at some point more than) similar to the main leads. In some episodes, you probably get collectively less than 10 minutes screen time of Zhao LiYing. I've read on some Chinese forums that the director had some last minute changes during filming but due to ZLY's strict schedule she was unable to refilm some scenes. Which could explain the poor progression of the story.
Another note, considering this drama is about fashion design - the looks that they 'designed' were somewhat unoriginal and seemed like they just purchased off taobao.
The drama had a lot of potential with the lineup. As a fan of ZLY, it is disappointing to see her recent works end so abruptly (i.e Princess Agent) and decreasing screen time as the drama progresses because of her tight schedule.
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I also don't think her costar has enough range to carry an entire drama yet. As other people have noted, he has mainly played supported villain roles in the past.
The supporting characters are decent but no real standouts. No annoying evil second female lead which is nice. The best thing from this drama is the beautiful clothes.
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