Meet in Youth Love in Foods (2018)

A pleasant surprise going in without high expectation. The story has some substance. The writers did a good job keeping me engaged just when the pace gets draggy somehow an interesting element pops up. This drama was not devoid of cringe tropes, unrealistic situations, annoying decisions, plot holes and overdone acting, there were a few but nothing serious, overall everyone did a good job portraying their roles. Sabrina Chen impressed me the most in this drama so much better than her character rendition in highly rated Maiden Holmes which I found boring (sorry) so I put on-hold, maybe after this I will try to finish it. Xiao Rou and Gao Xing romance had the passion of an old married couple but somehow lacked the youthful discovery of love maybe because their characters were childhood sweethearts the writers did not inject any more romantic getting to know you heart-fluttering scenes leaving the main leads chemistry lacking sometimes. The second lead characters had interesting relationships- Li Da Bai and Dongfang Qi was a good comedic story along with Liang Chenhui getting in the mix to balance Gao Ya and Han Mu's restrained romance. There were no lingering evil villains in this drama. I think everyone had character development by the end. So what made me post a review is actually the amazing cinematography of this drama. I especially loved how most of the scenes were shot in real public and private locations, it looks like only a few scenes may have been shot in a film studio. It was nice seeing the characters in beautiful Sanya, the streets, buildings and restaurants in Suzhou and Shanghai- I even tried to look up some of these locations: ) The outfits were gorgeous, good job costume director. I would have given this drama a higher rating if there were less episodes than 42 or more romance arc between the main leads. Nevertheless, it has a happy ending so this is a good one time watch.

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