Hua Biao- the best hero of all the Chinese dramas I ever watched.
This is going to be my first review. It was beyond my expectations. I thought it is an overrated drama so despite having it in my to watch list for a very long time, I didn't start it until now. I cried many times watching this drama.I loved Hua Biao's character the most. He is the best hero of all the Chinese dramas I ever watched.
He is not the usual perfect, rich and egoistic hero. He is humble, VERY mature at such a young age, caring, loyal, friendly and brave who has a long way ahead to success. The last decision he took for his grandma left me heartbroken. I loved everything including the climax of this drama.
It's definitely worth watching. I didn't waste my 20+ hours for nothing.
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(A little spoiler)Amazing, one of the best!
This drama was by far one of the best. It displays friendship, and has all those tiny moments you would remember in your youth. The ones you'll look back on and thing of it as 'the good ol' days' The characters are complex, everything they do has a reason and logic behind it. Oh why doesn't Hua Biao talk about his finance situation? Because he doesn't want to worry anyone and he's quite content and grateful for everything he has. The story-line was amazing and executed well.The cast was amazing! They showcased the spirit of youth well and their expressions were on point! And to top it all of the music was good, upon originally listening to it I had a small heartache it gave me a small dose of nostalgia for NO REASON. How that works I don't know. And after the ending I couldn't help feeling like I was going to burst into tears. The ending is on point, some people walk out of your life, some you walked out of theirs.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drama was ten out of ten
Its been a year and I still am heartbroken
Cast: 10/10
Storyline: 10/10
Plot: 9.5 (thinking back now idek wut the plot was)
Music: 10/10
Rewatch: 10/10
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This review may contain spoilers
One of the Best CDramas I've Ever Watched
Story - 10/10This is a very beautiful and nuanced piece on the joys and trials of adolescence and life in general. At first glance, it seems like a typical dumb girl, genius boy high school romance but it's so much more than that. You'll feel every moment of friendship, heartache, young love, angst, and more. You'll feel it when Yang Xi gets berated by her parents yet'll you also feel heartache for her parents. You'll absolutely feel Hua Biao's heart break when his grandmother starts to get sick. You'll feel everything these kids feel. Maybe you're going through similar things now, maybe you've experienced them before and if you're from an Asian family, you can definitely relate.
I kinda thought the ending was bittersweet and realistic. It left things open. If it were like any other school romance, the male lead and female lead would end up together.
Cast - 10/10
Everyone was cast perfectly from the 6 main kids to the parents and family members to the teachers.
This is one of Hou Minghao's early roles and he's absolutely lovable and charming and so charismatic. And you will absolutely love his performance as he charms his way and bonds with classmates and gangsters alike.
Wan Peng is super funny and relatable. As the brash tomboy obsessed with wuxia novels, she's sharp and witty and angsty all at once. She's got a chip on her shoulder about not being smart enough and her struggles with her parents, especially her mom, are absolutely relatable.
Zhang Yao (Li Yu), Li Ming De (Situ Ertiao), Pan Mei Ye (Yangxiao Hemei), Dai Lu Wa (Huang Dengdeng) all delivered brilliant performances. They were perfectly cast.
Music - 10/10
Absolutely absolutely absolutely love it! Love the choice of the Beyond songs and Leon Lai's songs. I also love the main themesong, 北区楼四 。 It encapsulates the nostalgia the characters feel towards their youth and the nostalgia we as the audience feel for our youth and the 1990s.
Rewatch Value
100% would rewatch!
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This review may contain spoilers
(spoilers are at the end of this review)Story:
This is a combination of "A Love so beautiful" and "Reply 1988". If you haven't watched these I highly recommend them! The plot is about a group of 18 year old bonding and supporting one another. Absolutely beautiful friendship. The film tells us about the struggles of an 18 year old life, one of the main struggle is college entrance exams and studying for it.
Music:
I watched this through YouTube and huge sections of the film had their audio replaced with some random instrumental because the OST was copyrighted. Such a bummer :(( The only OST I could listen to was the opening which sounds nice!
Acting/ Cast:
The male and female leads are eye candy, both so beautiful. Hua Biao smile lights up your day. Yang Xi hair cut, eyes and the way she looks at Hua Biao gives me vibes from Weightlifting Kim Bok Joo. All the cast did an amazing job portraying their character.
Rewatch:
Absolutely! This was so funny, sad and heartwarming to watch!
Spoilers/rant:
The ending is not enough!! I want a season 2, I need to know if they all reunite again and at least one of them ends up together. Why isn't a single character together?!
Hua Biao - Yang Xi
Li Yu- Huang Deng Deng
Yang Xiao He Mei - Yang Xi brother
I'm satisfied that it's a logical ending, how they need to go their own ways, but I just hope that in the future they will be able to encounter each other again and actually be with each other as in bf and gf.
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and i wish some actors can get their major role soon
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This review may contain spoilers
Must watch
Honestly when I first started this series I didn't think it would be SO GOOD. I like every character in this series, there are no villains just relatable obstacles in our daily life. We can learn so much in this story personally I love each episode which is filled with meaning. If you didn't watch it then you are missing something really good story. I can relate myself in some scenes.I really REALLY have huge crush on male lead which is Hua Biao. I love his character soo much and when you watch it, you will definitely fall in love with him. When I first started the episode I really thought it is weird to see him smile all the time(even though it is cute) but after the story continues on you will realise that you have misunderstood him. He always stays optimistic which is really lacking in me. He helps his friends, and never turns his back on those who are in need, even though he is going through so much in his life he never complains . Everyone need a person like him in there life (personally I want him as my husband). His acting is on point. Even though second male lead is lovable , I never felt second lead syndrome because you will always will be rooting for the main leads. All the actors did a great job.
You can definitely feel a character development on everyone, each person learn something from someone. Our OTP is perfect and have great chemistry and their interactions are soo cute even I felt butterfly sometimes.
When you watch this show you must keep in mind that the story is in 96's and thay are 18yrs old. Parents are superficial and always pressure their children but as the story goes on you will realise the parents pressure and it has very realistic issue. DON'T FORGET THE GRANDMOTHER, she seriously nailed the character in this series and her relationship with Hua Biao is very heartwarming to see. Seriously I loved all the characters like teachers, friends, parents all of them.
The friendship between our group is VERY precious and whenever they are together I always felt warm like they always had each other . This story is a GEM , you must watch it or else you will definitely miss something. This is my top cdrama and I will definitely re-watch it. Really hope there is second season.
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This review may contain spoilers
Not Just a Cute School Drama
I went in expecting a cute school drama, but got so much more. When We Were Young is a coming of age drama that follows a group of five friends through their last year of high school. Together, they share many experiences, both positive and negative. The show is set in the late 1990s. This, despite growing up across the world, resonated with me. The show does an excellent job at portraying adolescence and issues teenagers go through. While watching, I was reminded of the antics I used to get up to as a teen. It was both nostalgic and, to be honest, a bit embarrassing. But fun nonetheless.There were scenes that were so funny I cried tears of laughter. These were so much fun. However, there were also scenes with serious undertones which tackled more profound issues, like taking care of an elderly family member. I was invested in both equally. Some of the characters were annoying, but I focused on the main ones and their stories. The acting was really good, the story was good, accompanied by excellent cinematography, and the ending was realistically bittersweet, evoking a feeling of nostalgia and unfinished business. And I wouldn’t change it for anything, even if it left me contemplating my life and my own choices as a teenager. As a bonus, Neo Hou sings two OST tracks for the show which fit really well with the theme and further drives home the feeling of nostalgia. I hope these friends find their way to each other unlike many of us.
Thank you to dusty for being my drama partner and Ari for keeping us company. You made the experience that much more enriching and enjoyable.
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Selfless and Generous friendships
8/17/2021I've watched quite a few slice-of-life type high school dramas and I find that they all a few things in common. You will end up loving the friendships and the relationships storylines. However, I also find it increasingly difficult to distinguish and separate these high school dramas from each other. They all seem to focus on studies, exams and esp. college entrance exams in all of them. The romance storylines might be a little different, but they are all very sweet and innocent in their own ways. However, this might be the only one (but I might be wrong) that they discussed a little bit about the physical changes of these teens - development of breasts, hair on their legs and even one wet dream.
The young actors did quite a good job considering considering this is the first drama for several of the leads. I've seen Neo Hao in "A Girl like Me" and I find his acting in this drama SOOO much better, even though this is a 2018 drama. I enjoy the selfless friendship of these teenagers. There isn't anyone that is jealous of others - school or love life. Even though we have a love triangle/square, the characters never hate each other out of jealousy. The bromance between the male leads is endearing and supportive. I especially love the grandmother/grandson relationship. I love grandma as she's so cute and also heartbreaking when she's battling Alzheimer's. Personally, I enjoy all the HK references, esp. music (The 4 Gods), having grown up listening to the same types of music and loving Leon Lai as well. If I am correct, there's a lot of live recording instead of dubbing in this drama. If there's dubbing, it will be the actor's own voice. What a breath of fresh air, after watching so many dubbed historical drama. I also enjoy the songs sung by our male leads.
On another note, I do find that the pacing is a little slow in the middle of the drama (I do have a tendency to think slice-of-life drama a little slow). I find myself being distracted by other things and lost my attention. I would like to see more development on the minor characters storylines - Class teacher's crush (what happened?), Yang Xiao He Mei and the brother's ambiguous friendship, Li Yu and Huang Deng Deng's friendship. I can see how many find this drama similar to Reply 1988. But I never doubt who the FL is going to end up with, unlike Reply 1988 which kept me thinking. I want more of the romance as there's a lot of back-and-forth without much going on.
Overall, this is a nice and sweet drama, but I don't think I will remember much of it later on. I also enjoy the songs in this drama very much. It's a good palette cleanser for me after watching "The Wolf".
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This review may contain spoilers
I actually didn't mind this series, but prefer high school aged individuals going on to adulthood and beyond so this type of "slice of life" isn't something I'd get into on a regular basis.
What is great in this drama are all the antics, the school environment and pressures that go with it, the strong bonded friendships and the stories connected to some of those individuals.
Hua Biao is a genius that lives with his grandmother and is poor yet does the best that he can to make things work and is always optimistic, thoughtful and kind. He never really tells anyone his problems or asks for anything if it can be avoided yet will listen to others woes and help if he can.
Yang Xi is not as clever and is long distance runner with "two secret admirers" including her childhood friend, Li Yu, and Hua Biao.
Li Yu is a straight A student who lives above Yang Xi - they both share the same birthdate and year. He is kind, considerate and will help his friends without them even asking plus keep it in confidence with no questions asked. He is also like another son to the Xi's.
Situ Er Tiao is from a wealthy family only is not into exams or school plus can be a bit mischief, but is loyal to his friends and will go the extra mile if he has to to help any of them.
I could relate to the hours of studying and sitting for exams and how, as friends, we rallied around one another and supported each other through thick or thin. So, I can remember being just like the students in this drama only we didn't exactly clean pools or sell dumplings nor did we really eat alot at each others homes. Also, none of the girls I knew were as whimsical or babyish as what I see in some these drama whether young or old.
We didn't cheat like how the whole class cheated in one episode which was really cool I might add, but we did sometimes have answers written on our wrists/arms or on rulers and erasers.
Brings back some fun memories!
What I don't relate to or agree with at all in WWWY is the mentioning of "forgetting teachers faces" or "teachers names" as time passes even if "teachers remember students after years." However, in that one episode, it was in reference to one teacher only.
I feel it is so untrue!
Like our parents, teachers have just as much influence and impact on our lives as we grow and develop from kindergarten through to university, so they aren't forgettable nor should they be.
I still remember my first day of primary school plus my very first teacher right through to middle school and high school.
Some of us don't forget our teachers no matter how much time goes by!
Hou Minghao did a fantastic job of his character as did the others and especially the old woman that acted as the grandmother.
I've read about the ending being "bittersweet" elsewhere, but I reckon it was quite realistic. After we graduate from high school we either go on to university, work or have a gap year so all the teens going their own ways seemed normal although it was all done in the last 15 to 20 minutes of the last episode. So, a bit rushed I suppose and not tied up in a way that would have been more acceptable for some.
This isn't something I'd re-watch over and over again, but am sure for some it will be the best drama ever!
In fact, it is a good drama only it is a bit on the young side for me.
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Overall, I gave it a rating of 10/10 because I just love everything about it It's not only about a romance, but it's also about youth, friendship, family, fulfilling our goals and dreams in life. It gave me the Korean 'Reply' series vibes because the setting is from 1996. I had mixed emotions throughout the drama (in a good way), it's so heartwarming, it made me fell in love, laugh out loud, burst out of tears, most of the episodes gave me a touching feeling, and most importantly, it gave us good moral values and realizations in life.
Acting on point, BGM on point. The BGM gave a very nostalgic ambiance which is very appropriate to the drama's time setting. Acting is superb and pretty convincing that's why I was able to move on tears on touching moments.
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Importance to watch
The most inspiring drama 8 have ever watched... It's worth to watch. You all should give it try... I just love this drama. It's so emotional and the story lining is perfect.Weird but yassss this drama inspires me to study hard and achieve my dreams.
It also teaches me friendship.
I'm just obsessed with this drama!!!
The best drama ever.
✨✨
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The thing i don't like about dramalist is that we have to write 500 characters... It can atleast move on to 150....like bruh 500 is too much.
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