STORY: It details the lives of the two main characters and their group of friends through roughly ten episodes set in high school, ten in college, and the last ten as they start their careers. I really love how this was split because it really feels like you are with the characters as they grow and mature throughout the story. (Not sure if this will be fixed later, but the synopsis on this site is slightly incorrect). There's really no villain, rather the story is driven by time and the changes in the characters as they mature.
ACTING/CAST: I'm sure the male lead is pretty recognizable from the very popular dramas Love O2O and Guardian. The female lead, however, is relatively new to acting and she's VERY good. In fact, most if not all of the acting in this drama is really natural. Granted, they look a little too old to be playing in the first arc as high schoolers, but ignoring that fact, they really make you believe in these characters.
MUSIC: It was quite good actually. If I remember correctly, they had the leads each do a song. There was nothing I particularly loved but the songs fit well into the drama.
Overall, I think this drama is very well made and pretty underappreciated. Sure, it's a simple story, but it was definitely a good quality production.
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THE GOOD: Realistic relationships and romance done right. Also some pretty good acting and good pacing.
Having a realistic, wholesome romance seems so simple, yet it's amazing how much I love this drama BECAUSE of how well the romance and relationships are done. You won't find any cliche plot twists or evil and petty romantic rivals here. Instead, the villains in this show are time, distance, change, and circumstances of life. Sure, there are some romantic rivals, but it's astounding (and almost UNrealistic) how RATIONAL and normal they are! They respect the fact that the people they're interested in are in relationships and don't try to sabotage or intentionally mislead. Which seems pretty standard in real life but is really novel for drama-land.
Both Bu Guan Jin (who plays He Luo) and Bai Yu (who plays Zhang Yuan) are so great and natural in their respective roles and really bring each character to life. Part of what makes the show and the relationships and character growth feel so real is in the acting! There's no stiffness and they emote so well. The pacing of the show is also good, with time devoted to high school, college, and post-undergrad so that we can really watch the characters grow over time.
THE BAD: I'm being nit-picky but -- random anime scenes and confusing passage of time.
This might be a personal thing, but I really didn't like the anime scenes that frequently showed up in the beginning of the show, and gradually disappeared. I get that it might be an homage to the original novel, but to me they felt random and didn't really add to the story. I would rather get more time spent on some of the side characters!
I also found the passage of time really confusing throughout the show. The scenes flowed together, which made it feel like each episode was only spanning a few days, when in reality sometimes they would cover whole months or years. At one point I thought only a month of college had passed, when in reality the characters were already in their second year! What! I only remember two parts of the show where the passage of time was actually shown in captions. It would have been a lot less confusing if they had shown some sort of intermediate shot showing the passage of time. Maybe the seasons changing? It didn't really detract from the viewing experience, but just made me confused.
Overall, I would highly suggest watching Suddenly This Summer if you like realistic romance and slice-of-life dramas! It can be a little slow and doesn't have a ton of ups and downs -- I didn't really cry or squee -- but it's wholesome and will leave you feeling good.
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Must Watch - Quality Slice of Life Coming of Age Drama with an organic love story and great acting.
This interesting drama depicts one of the most natural high school romances I've ever seen on screen. The leads have chemistry and the way their relationship develops through the high school portion feels organic and their falling in love plays out slowly and naturally. The last time I saw a relationship portrayed so honestly it felt like watching 2 real people was in the Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight Trilogy. So in this aspect the show succeeds.The dialogue feels like it was lifted from real students. The pressure to study, get good grades, get into a good university to secure a bright future, all that is real, and all that is what every parent wants for their Child to do in order to "succeed' in life. This is how the culture in Asia really is, academic pressure, parental expectations, kids rebelling, others like He Luo (Bu Guan Jin) being frustrated at their inability to keep up and "escaping" from life using various means (Comics for FL). But then she meets the Zhang Yuan (Johnny Bai) and everything changes. He is smart, but tends to mess up his life by sacrificing himself to help complete strangers. I want to be angry at him, but I can't even ... because deep down he is a GOOD man who will stand up for justice no matter what it costs him. Such men are "keepers". His flaws and pride get worse later which leads to misunderstandings, without which there would be no drama!
The story follows a group of 6 friends, who are made up of 3 "couples". The best thing about this drama is the friendships depicted are real. They grow up together, starting in high school and we see them struggling and helping each other through tough times in life, through university and then on to the world of working for a living after. They visit each other, dvice is given whether it is needed or not, and the friend's advice usually contains shockingly profound insights. This is the kind of advice a REAL friend would give you if they really KNEW you that well. These types of scenes are so well done I ended up crying multiple times throughout this drama. Good script plus good acting means emotional resonance with the viewer.
As someone who has lived through over half the situations portrayed in this drama, I can relate maybe too well, as scenes would actually transport me to my past. The good memories have a golden glowing "summer" halo around them, and yet they are bittersweet because you can't go back to re-live them no matter how hard you try, the best you can do is see them play out in your head when you visit the places they happened, just like how this show portrays it! Everyone has experienced this to some extent. I'm guessing the ratings aren't as high as the younger people who haven't been through the stresses of "working" life probably gave the drama a lower rating for the last third, but it's extremely realistic how things played out and this left me with "the feels".
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Their should little bit dialogues like why you decide to break up and why you decide to patch up , did you even realize what will happen with me after listening this word break up ,even though i came to look after you ,crazily writting a letter every day to you inorder to know about you that where r you ?how you r doing ? It went something wrong which make you feel me as burdern of your life but meet after that and you say you were tired to meet me ,after all you decide everything why why why ....you knew how much i love you ,how much i crazy about you ,i can't handle a moment to separate from you ,you are bad ,very bad ,heartless and then he hugged her and she beat his back and then drama ends or they show their marriage atleast so then drama become perfect ...
Drama is good if you like the drama ' A love is so beautiful' then you will love this drama too.
Second male lead also look cool but felt very bad about him . I like story and beautiful lovely seen between them ,I love their friendship ,school friends bonding...
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Messy but beautiful in the end
At first I never think I'll gonna give this drama this high score. But I really satisfied with the end, so yeah I raise the score.This is one of the most complicated youth drama that I've ever watched. This is not happy go lucky kind of youth drama, this has seperation & sad story to tell. Fell really Hurt when we see Zhang Yuan hold his feeling for He Luo (HL) all that time. But that also because of his own stupidity & if I were HL I didn't know will I ever forgive him & accept him again in my life.
But like every drama, all has it's minus and plus poin....
Plus poin:
+ The relationship between our main lead is too real. How they develop from high school, university until mature age, every though they have like grow with them according to their age.
+ The difference in the cast make up & style to differentiate when they were in high school, university & later on...
+ How in the end Zhao Cheng Jie finally decided to drop his feeling for Tian Xin (TX) & how TX react with it quite real. It's like someone cut the rope that attach themselves with us & our feeling of unwilling to see it finally cut by other party not by us.
+ The anime scene that has similar story with our main lead... I like the drawing of that anime & how they made it into their thing...
Minus Poin:
- Too focus to our main couple, I really regret they not tell us more story about Chan Feng (CF) & Li Yun Wei (YW). From the moment CF suddenly disappeared until how he & YW make up again is never been told. We just got the ending, that they together again & everything is OK for them.
- Again... Why Why Why they have to choose man & woman at age 20 nearly 30 to play high school & university student.... :(. Why not they choose cast at age early 20 to play the role...
- The passing time sometimes unclear how long it's been past. Sometimes yeah they tell us how long it's been going, but sometimes just point blank... Like the time they in the university, suddenly it's already their 3rd year or the moment after HL moved to US, it's just like we just read that 1 year has passed but suddenly it's just 2 year passed...
Overall this is really one meaningful youth drama for us to watch.
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I wish I could get my thirty hours back
I completed this drama about 24 hours ago and I'm still upset at the ending.This drama spend 10 years on high school storylines, then about 12-13 episodes on college storyline and then 7 episodes making me regret me ever starting this (or career storyline).
I loved the first ten episodes. I thought it was moving and beautifully shot. You immediately empathized with the FL and wanted her to get the grades she needed. I liked the ML who stayed beside her even when she yelled at him (when she was upset about a grade/studying). He was a great support and behind the scenes supporter as well. I liked the manga storyline. I cried and laughed.
Then disaster.
It just all fell apart. They grew apart because they were in different cities and the plot just got messy. In the first 10 episodes I felt like we got to see all of the couples and their storylines. When we got to college it just was so boring. I felt like it was mostly just ML and FL and the people who wanted to get with them. The leads fought over the same things repeatedly, some of which was worth fighting over and some which didn't matter. It just became boring and generic. I started watching at like double speed just to try to get to their career story line.
We got to the storyline and I really thought the story was going to right it self for awhile. I was sorely mistaken as everything got messy and pointless. The ML pushes away the FL and then....he doesn't do much of anything? Everyone tells him he's stupid, he becomes an alcoholic, he starts working at a company doing computer stuff. The one thing that bothered the FL (which was having the pretty friend from college around, working with him at the same place while SFL liked the ML) the ML still did. He never stopped working with her and still kept a very close friendship. She even said she wanted to stay next to him in any capacity (which why?). I don't think he did anything different to move forward or get the FL back and he became very annoying/pathetic. It was like they had all these romantic elements put into place to show that the ML did miss and still love the FL but they weren't executed. It was bizarre. It just kept getting messier and messier until I just wanted the FL and SML to get together. I didn't care about the ML anymore.
This ending made me so mad. It was a very open ending that was very very very rushed and was so bland and boring. She runs to him because she figured out he really loved her and he found out the same thing about her and runs to her. So they are rushing to the same place and then they are staring and smiling at each other and then it cuts to black and it is over. I felt like the whole show was building towards this great reunion and then never did it. It was super unsatisfying.
Rewatch value: -10. Do not watch a first time.
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Trip down memory lane for those who lived in Beijing or Qingdao in the end 2000s and into the 2010s
A beautiful story of growing up, making one's way in life, and choosing between conflicting sentiments and gratefulness.The FL is He Luo (played by relatively unknown Bu Guan Jin ; she has since played in a number of dramas, including the main role as Chen MeiRu in witty "Dear Diary / My Babylonian boyfriend" of 2021). She is a little girl who only knew how to challenge herself on the track field until she met Zhang Yuan (played by Bai Yu, who featured in "Love O2O", and in 2018 also appeared alongside Zhu Yilong in the web drama “Guardian” : a drama that developed an online cult following which led to the actors increased in popularity )
Zhang Yuan spurred He Luo on to her new goal, which only him saw as more than an idle joke. For lack of two points, caused by a freak bicycle accident he never revealed to her, their common path in Beijing Huaqing (modeled on Qinghua) was thwarted, and He Luo was courted by another worthy young man, Feng Xiao (played by Lu ChengJue who was then a relative newcomer in c-dramas)
Feng Xiao followed He Luo to America and saved her life before step by step moving to propose. Meanwhile, Zhang Yuan had changed paths, despite his youthful promise, and struck gold with a game, but being too rash and trustful, he lost so much that he felt ashamed to hold He Luo back when he might become just another loser and drifter. His worth was still recognized by one company that helped him get back where he belonged, faithful followers, and friends ; Li YunWei and Chan Feng, Zhao Chengjie and Tian Xin (who rejected Zhao), and Zhang WeiRui "Zhang CaoCao" who boldly looked up to Zhang Yuan, but realized that his happiness was elsewhere.
Yet, for ZhangYuan to win back his girl after having pushed her away was going to take time again, and luck, and Heavens did not seem to make it easy for them to reunite, even though He Luo realized she still had feelings for her Zhang Yuan and none, beyond gratefulness, for Feng Xiao.
She could have ended up forever single, like in the song Houlai. But the drama ends on a chance meeting that could be a spark of their getting back together after having both overcome their struggles.
The story brings back many memories, for those who lived in Qingdao and Beijing in the end of the 2000s and in the 2010s, with depictions that ring very true : the angst of exams, the rally by all on the news of the Wenchuan earthquake, the life transition after the gaokao verdict, the rise of online gaming, the threat of epidemics (H7N9 avian flu of 2013 here, rather than the 2009 swine flu pandemic, caused by the H1N1 influenza virus and declared by the World Health Organization from June 2009 to August 2010 or the SARS outbreak of 2003-2004 (when severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus infected over 8,000 people from 29 countries and territories and caused disruption in travel and confinements in China).
But the story starts around 2006, and it ends before 2018, when the drama was made and released, so there's no SARS/Covid scare yet.
Some epochal events are only mentioned quicky such as the 2008 Olympics, but just as in reality, the scarcity and towering price of tickets for the live event were beyond the reach of most people, especially young students (if they were not involved in the preparation and work there, in some form).
The changing skyline and way of life is touched on by the purchase of the apartment in the He Luo development, the dinners with karaoke gatherings when the former schoolmates meet up., and the revamping of the comics store-café in Qingdao. Iconic buildings of the SOHO group in Beijing are seen, and also signature views of Qingdao and Shenzhen. There is mention of the demise of the Ferris wheel in Qingdao, which underlines the urgency of time flowing away and memories becomling bittersweet as things disappear (such as the Thanks scribbled onto a hidden corner on the roof of the school). The Ferris wheel comes back in many romance dramas and, at least since 2017, there's one standing again, 68 m tall, called the Qingdao Eye (it is located on the shore of Tangdao Bay on the west coast of Qingdao; and it has 36 viewing boxes). But this new Ferris wheel does not feature in the drama.
Food features a lot in the drama, but many signature dishes and snacks of Qingdao or Beijing (Peking duck...) are just hinted at in passing ; the dishes that comes back in cooking is the crucian carp porridge (as a difficult, but nourishing dish!) , the fangbian mian (that causes He Luo to be poisoned by gas in America, though thankfully not being exploded to pieces in her apartment), the fried noodles that Zhang Yuan gets in Beijing at the eatery, and some jianbing filled with vegetables (including the one that had a worm in it, at the university canteen). Bizarrely, He Luo who is supposedly fond of snacks and savors jiaozi or a simple stuffed baozi at her friend's grandma, favors spicy food and Sichuan hotpot: it is indeed popular throughout a good part of China, but not typical from Qingdao where she spent her childhood, and not seen in her home, where her absent dad is only stationed in Sichuan or "the south". As for beverages, beer is ubiquitous, although there is no dwelling on the signature Qingdao beer, and no hint of other popular brands of Beijing. Orange juice is often seen, as well as the Nongfu spring water bottles. At one moment Zhang Yuan hurts his stomach through accepting a drinking challenge involving drinking Moutai from the bottles (!) Lesser or more expensive brands of baijiu (Beijing erguotou, or high end Wuliangye) are not seen. There are dinners at a sushi restaurant, but in other ones, I noticed the absence of the habitual watermelon slices or juice..
All this contributes to the slice of-life feel of the drama, although there is so much focusing on the sentimental struggle and job- or studies-related entanglements, that sometimes, it detracts from a clean and legible storyline. The reluctance to kiss, hug, touch or more by the protagonists of what is a romance feels sometimes extreme, although the slapping away Feng Xiao's hand is quite in character at the moment it happens. This drama is not for those who yearn for kisses and sweet touching on screen. The growth of the characters through the years is accompanied by changing outfits (although nothing spectacular) and make-up, but i am puzzled by the ML hairstyle in the later episodes, which does not really tie in with that of a director, be he a geek gamer or not.
The OST music at the beginning and end of episodes is pleasing and the performance by He Luo at various moments of some signature songs of the time too (Houlai, by Rene Liu, was first released in 2000, but was indeed very popular at the end of the decade and even into the 2010s.) But sometimes, the background music interferes with the dialogues.
Will this be of rewatch value? Maybe. I watched it as a comparison with the "90's Beijing Fantasy", another youth drama that triggered a trip down memory lane, for me.
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Ep3 @ the beach scene of the leads
What's wrong about Filipinos?!Hell the brain of the series, who includes this mindset!
Maria is a character in the Religion of Cathoilic and Catholic was from Spanish invasion in the Philippines, so its not my problem that you use that mindset about Filipinos and/or the Philippines! You use even a slight of sarcasm and offense to brainwash viewers about Filipinos. Where in fact, you enjoy and find the Philippines a relaxing vacation destination out of places to go-to in the Pacific area. ?
Mabuhay sintang Pilipinas! ✊?
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