This review may contain spoilers
First I have to say that I did truly enjoyed watching this drama. I felt that the story it self was interesting because it was not your typical boy meets girl story. There were a lot of obstacles and misunderstanding between the characters, which is normal when you do not know each other, that I felt helps people develop and helped them fall into a relationship. Their development of each other also helped each other grow, especially the male lead, whom started stepping outside of his comfort zone and I did enjoy him doing things out of character for her. However there were times were I felt he was a bit unfair to her, and that because of issues that he personally had he treated her unfair, especially when she felt that she was helping. The female lead was just a bit to naïve for him and I felt that sometimes some of her decisions were just too focused on him and not herself. I do still highly recommend people to watch this drama since the actors were great. Was this review helpful to you?
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A good rom-com with an engaging story to back up the cute
The promise of this show is not new but it was executed well. Acting was good and the story engaging. The interesting thing about the plot is that the love line is integral to the story but it doesn't drive it. It is the decade old friendship and e-sport world that forms the core of this drama. Because of that, the romance was fairly straightforward. There was a little bit of angst but no more than a few bumps. However, I don't quite understand why they introduce the senior as a competitor for the ML as it was quite obvious from the start (that is why I don't consider this as a spoiler) that he doesn't stand a chance with the FL. If anything, the writer took it too far and he would have been better served if he just come to his senses and bow out gracefully. What we ended up with a sad and broken man for little gain to the drama.What is also interesting is the patriotic angle. Thankfully, it is not too jingoistic (except towards the end) and some may argue that it is more about making dreams come true for the younger generation. Whichever way you want to see it, it is not a hard sell and the drama is light and warm-hearted in most parts.
Back to the romance, there are several romantic plots in play, some front and centre and some were hinted at and stayed unanswered in the end. It was nice that there was not a lot of angst with the love lines and what there were was resolved fairly timely so that the OTP (and others) can spend more time being lovey-dovey and cute. Speaking of cute, the FL really knows how to do aegyo. Other FL can learn a thing or two from her. These romance sub plots were used well to space out the tense e-sport dramas and friendship angst and some of the funniest moments are generated by the interactions of the OTP.
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This review may contain spoilers
It was enjoyable but I think that I definitely liked the novel version more (somehow the flashbacks work better in the books). Another influencing factor was that the drama included the events from a series of novels so it was rather difficult to fit the entire backstory in 1 drama = LOTS of flashbacks needed. However what helped alot was that original author of the novel the drama is adapted from "Stewed Squid with Honey” i.e.Mo Bao Fei Bao was the screenwriter for the drama. So many times I've read the book & then the drama is NOTHING like the book (;￢_￢)Li Xian was definitely great as Han Shang Yan - he really brought the character to life. It was interesting that he was successful and influential yet still struggled with his personal relationships & being misunderstood by others. It was nice to see a ML that wasn't this perfect emotionless robot that could do no wrong - I actually became really invested in HSY's backstory and his friendship with the other characters.
Also the other K&K boys were so cute ~
Overall it was a cute drama that I enjoyed because the characters were human: they were ambitious, they had ACTUAL emotions (they laughed, they cried, they fell in love, they got jealous ☆｡ﾟ+.(人-ω◕ฺ)ﾟ+.ﾟﾟ), made decisions that they regretted yet they were always supportive of each other.
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Cute girl warms the heart of cold serious boss!
To start off, I dropped this drama once because of the first 20 mins of the first episode. I felt that the scenes were too cringe because the FL was like putting in her all to attract the attention of ML. But I must say I am super super glad that I gave this drama another go! This is probably one of my faves such that I am shipping yangzi and Lixian together! I loved how FL was able to slowly melt the cold heart of ML! It’s so cute how his actions start to change because of her! Other than the romance, another great feature of this drama is the team spirit, patriotism and brotherhood! I loved the chemistry between the ML and his old team mates, they are more like family and some people find the flashbacks abit too much but I really loved them! ML’s interactions with the boys under him is just too cute! He is like their dad being all strict but then he really shows how he cares for them! The patriotism of ML is really touching to watch, he really wanted to help make China proud and it’s not too overbearing! ML and FL may have a 10 year age gap but they’re both amateurs in love so it was really cute how they make similar mistakes!The e sports in this show is different from those that I watched before (love O2O & the kings avatar), in this show there is no character graphics in the game only coding. If you like those character graphics then this is not one of those shows!
I loved all the supporting characters, kk boys, wubai, Xiaomi, yaya, solo..... there is no bad guy in this show and that makes it so heartwarming!
The kk headquarters is so cool!! It has this like container concept going on! While watching this show I really wanna have the chance to go in there and play!
Also, I read that the ML role was first offered to yang yang but he couldn’t take it up because he was already confirmed for the Kong’s avatar. I love yang yang but I really cannot imagine anyone else other than lixian to act as Han Shang Yan.
If you like cute light hearted love stories and heart warming brotherhood, this show is a must watch! P.S. the OSTs are one of the best for C dramas!
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One of My Top 10 Favourite CDramas From Now On
I like everything about this show. Everything. The chemistry, the plot, the cast, the flashbacks.What a wonderful story about hopes and dreams and love and friendship and familial bonds
I will always remember this line: "People with dreams will always be young.,"
100% worth rewatching a thousand times. This will be my go-to drama whenever I'm feeling down from now on. Super inspiring and hopeful
Review Breakdown
1. Acting
- Perfect
- Li Xian is really super charismatic here as Han Shangyan. He really carried and expressed all Han Shangyan's hopes and dreams and fears and worries
- Yang Zi. Again another wonderful performance from Yang Zi as Tong Nian. She made her cute and charming without being annoying
- The supporting cast. OMG. From the actor who played Mi Shaofei, to the guy who played Solo, to Ou Qiang to the actors who played Demo, Grunt, 97, Su Cheng, Xiao Ai, Yaya, Lan Mei.. to Niannian's parents to Han Shangyan's grandpa.. and Hu Yitian who played Wu Bai.. Everyone did their parts perfectly
2. Plot
- I loved it. I loved how the scriptwriter tied the severance of friendship to the team's disbandment
- I loved the flashbacks to 05 period
- I loved the development of Han Shangyan and Tong Nian's relationship. Although it seemed cliche for Niannian to fall in love at first sight, but it was well done.
- This show is so good. It never has a slow moment. Never.
3. Casting
- Perfect. Everyone was perfect. Only 1 small thing bothered me.. Wang Zhener was great as Ai Qing/Appledog but she didn't have any romantic chemistry with Hu Yitian..
4. OST
This show has one of the best OSTs in Cdrama land and even Asian drama land.
无名之辈 is gonna be on my Spotify playlist forever.
I also loved the use of 海阔天空 to represent their lost hopes and dreams
Production Quality
- Amazing
If you've ever dreamt of being great, if you've ever feared mediocrity, if you ever questioned your purpose in this world, you have to watch this show. Because this show is for you and for everyone who's ever had a dream.
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This review may contain spoilers
This was a interesting drama, I liked it! It had like in-game, and like a lot of different stories going on as well. From the background of the team, to the love interest. I really liked Yang Zi who played Tong Nian, and Li Xian, who played Han Shangyan. But I think the one thing that did bother me was the age gap they made them to be, was it like 10years age gap?
Even though Asians don't Raisin and reality they were pretty much closer in age! I feel like it would have been a bit better if they were a little closer in age! But I know, not all stories are like that. I think one thing that annoyed me most was the mother, or just how she intervened in their relationship and ended up making Tong Nian really upset over someone she really liked!
I know Tong Nian was really young in the story, but I feel like they could have made her a little less clueless if that makes sense. But I did enjoyed the show altogether though, and really ended up liking Hu Yitian who plays Wu Bai, such a like cold character yet, smart and like you know he's just a cute little sweet guy you know <3
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Absolutely wonderful drama with the most adorable leads and a sweet story
This drama didn't have a huge interestingly suspenseful plot but it had a pretty good plot and the storyline was developed really well. It was very entertaining to watch and felt very satisfyingly joyful. It is a very good drama! The actors have done a great job and I loved watching all the actors, the leads had GREAT chemistry too! The cast have done a great job! The music too was just as joyous as the drama and complimented the scenes really well. Overall, This is a really wonderful drama with adorable leads that have amazing chemistry and a really sweet love story that is adorable and super entertaining to watch. ?????????Was this review helpful to you?
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Her Highness Squid goes on a hunting trip
I really liked this drama. It checks nearly all the boxes in the fluffy romcom genre. Despite the drama having 41 episodes the OTP's journey doesn't get boring for a second, almost every moment the two leads are on screen together is a joy to watch. Their chemistry is great & they have portrayed relatively unique personalities with a lot of charm. The female lead looks kind of like a chibi vampire, I found her visuals very amusing. The actor depicting the ML did a great job, Li Xian fits this persona well. It's also worth noting that the leads conveyed emotion superbly, they did not overdo what I call "super eloquent chill Mandarin speech", in other cdramas actors delivering their lines with almost robotic emotionlessness is a recurring problem..There is no love triangle, which is always a huge positive for me. The way how Little Squid chased after HSY in the early episodes was really fun, albeit a little creepy.
The ratio between the Esports stuff & the romance is about 50/50 which feels just about right. There are fundamental problems with the Esports related content, but still it's hugely more interesting to watch than office politics, or God forgive court life in a Saeguk.
The drama is nicely wrapped up, the ending is fairly satisfying.
I've been super entertained, hence the 9/10 rating, however objectively it should probably stop at 7. The biggest problem with the drama is that there is only enough meaningful content for about 30 episodes. In the first half there are way to many flashbacks of past events and more than half of these are extremely boring, using the fastforward button is a must. In the second half the flashbacks become even worse, some of them are just 1:1 repeats of flashbacks we've already seen and some others are just present time scenes from earlier episodes.
There quite a few additional things I can quibble about, don't take these too seriously, but here we go. ⇊
Hu Yi Tian role in this drama is a bit confusing & meaningless. Other reviewers talked about how he is too big of a star for this role and I do agree, but to me it seems he spent less than 1 hour filming most of his scenes. He is not present in most scenes, not sitting anywhere on the bus, simply he is just not there whenever the camera is pointing at multiple team members. It seems like first they recorded the dialog without him being there & then later they just showed us a close up of him reacting with a similar enough looking blurred backdrop.
How the inevitable breakup occurred irked me a little. Specifically how ML promised mom that he would break off all relations & stay away forever, a conviction that only lasted at most like two weeks. I mean it sounded almost like he is making on oath and then.. In the comment section I saw recommendations that it's the best to just skip episodes 20-30. Personally I feel that would be a pretty big mistake. The official breakup only lasted from ep22 to 26 and there is not much angst there, I wouldn't even call this real separation. Arguably those were some of the better episodes and I did not even care about the YaYa couple's story all that much.
Product placements were a real problem, some of them were so separate from the flow of the story, that they can just be considered regular ad breaks. At one point the team went to some sort of luxury resort. The ML who is supposedly always low on cash stayed in a room that shared a transparent wall with a giant aquarium with sharks in it and later on he invited FL over to stay in the presidential suite. (they called it "her room") There is no way those were not honking product placements, right?
Every now and then there were some weird dubbed voiceover happenings. This did not bother me too much, but I'm mildly curious if it was related to some sort of microphone failure, or they just changed some of the dialog in post..
CTF is completely different from how it's described in this drama. Reaction time and APM are hardly relevant things, it's more like highly trained IT experts/programmers solve puzzles, some parts of CTF competitions involve speed, but it's hardly the deciding factor. This is related to another problem, how moms in the show don't see the value in what these kids are doing. CTF competitors can easily get prestigious jobs in the IT industry. To me it feels like the novel this is based off of is about gaming & the writers were just too lazy to replace the story and dialog that seems clearly League of Legends related. Like there is no way in hell that a top of the line CTF expert wouldn't "speak the same language" as Tong Nian.
People doing intense mouse movements in gaming chairs, while a group of commentators can barely keep up with what's happening makes no sense in the context of CTF.
There were a few cringy foreigner related scenes. People speaking Chinese in an environment that does not make any sense etc.
Lastly the Chinese patriotism was a bit too much, then again I've seen quite a few American sports movies where they went even further..
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The Best of the Best
So I watch on 2019 and here i am watching again on 2021 and also I watched it 2020tooI lost count of the times I watched this
This is one of the most addicted drama I've watch . I keep re watching parts and the drama again and again . The cast and everything about this drama is perfect ♥️ Im still recovering from this drama and after watching this my expectations of dramas got high! Like i feel nothing is good a GGD ♥️ The main casts are so natural and homy and also the chemistry between those two were on fire ? it burns ♥️ The girl is so sweet and cute I could keep watching her all day ( no worries ) and Han Shangyan ? no need for words guys he's THE MAN ♥️
Im telling yiu guys please watch this
You won't regret ♥️ Believe me♥️
And im sure you gonna rewatch it like 1000 times
Love you all and Long live go go squid ♥️???
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Yang Zi is a veteran actress who have starred in numerous productions and this was my first time seeing a drama with Li Zian in it.
I honestly didn't have any expectations while watching this drama, I am a little familiar with the mainland Chinese entertainment scene and I started this with the mind of just enjoying the ride. The story follows Han Shang Yan as a cold, arrogant, yet skillful e-sports player who retired early due to circumstances (pretty cliche, right?) and Tong Nian as an optimistic, popular singer/influencer who crosses paths while HSY was wasting his time at a computer shop TN works at. If you think about it the story is one whole cliche plot about families surprisingly knowing each other, the backstory, and the like but surprisingly it entertained me. The team Solo characters were people you would like to be friends with. TN's friend Yaya is that typical second lead that needs to have a partner among the *tada* male lead's friends. Unfortunately, I didn't think of Wu Bai that much since his character didn't give much of an impact as well as those from team solo. He was just like the cousin who tags along with HSY's adventures.
Over all, I really liked the drama despite all of the clichés surrounding it. Yang Zi and Li Zian had chemistry and I liked those little moments where they bicker or while TN acts sweet while HSY is mostly clueless about it. Though I'm weirded out about this kind of plot in Chinese contemporary dramas. This drama was adapted from a novel and I've read it and know that the novel has *ahem* more mature scenes than the live action but is it a requirement for the leads to be always good in everything they do? Nevertheless, I still enjoyed this though. It was one drama that I could play in the background.
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