Well-Intended Love (2019)

I was really enjoying this up to the twist (please see other 1* reviews for Spoilers), the characters were well played and the relationship was quite 'cute'. Wasn't totally happy with the male lead but thought he would find redemption through the love of a good woman in traditional cliche style.

And then comes the 'twist'.

I kept going until the waking up in bed scene then skipped to the end to make sure that my growing unease about who ends up with whom was correct.
It was.
I stopped watching.

It's over a week later and I'm still feeling uncomfortable about watching as much as i did of this, uneasy about the fact I was enjoying the leads 'romance', truly upset that people are watching this and thinking it's cute etc.

I wish I had checked this one out on here before beginning to watch it. This sort of behaviour has no place as part of a Romance. It's abuse.
Don't watch it.

2020 now and I still get upset when I see someone calling this a cute romance...

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The couple's chemistry is pretty solid. I thought that for the most part, they really sold me with their development as a couple. Individually though, it's quite basic and easy to guess where their individual development is going to since the dude is a boss who is rich and the girl is someone not as well off, but trying to get up there with her career. Nothing new, quite boring. I skipped some parts just because I was in need of some romance. I didn't thoroughly enjoy the plot twists or the emphasized plot points just because story telling was quite like a middle schooler trying to make a cringe fan fiction... if you know what i mean.

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are you looking for a light hearted drama that'll deceive the heck out of you, take a whole ass u turn and run you over? well then, you're in lucK hA

i already read the reviews and comments about this before diving head on this drama and when i did began to watch this, i thought "oh.... this looks okay? the main leads are cute.... how bad could this be?"

tHEN BOI OH BOI EPISODE 10

so voldemort (yes idk the ml's name) stalked xia lin for 2 ish years, faked her medical results and took advantage of the situation and tricked her into a marriage

love.... is the moment???????

i really can't wrap my head around it.... this isn't love... this is gross, creepy and hella wrONG on so many levels so whY oh why did xia lin forgive this guy???

am i supposed to sit here and feel bad for this dude? i would've liked it better if xia lin completely removed this guy from her life, contacted the police about it and ended up with chu yan

did i like anything here? yes. three words.
-ost
-doggos
-chu yan

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Alright - buckle up, fellow curious cats, cuz your nine lives are about to be w i p e d off the face of the planet with this one.

One day, in quarantine (COVID-19 - wash your hands, thanks), I was browsing through Netflix. I was honestly trying to find dramas to fill in the time while I was waiting for current ones on my watchlist to release and get subbed.
Lo and behold - I found "Well Intended Love". Surprisingly there was no description, but I read a brief overview that it was a typical contract marriage drama.
Sure - why not? I could get into that. So I started it, and honestly I was all for it for the first 10 episodes. I know you probably read every other review about this and get the gist of why people started hating on this drama after the first half.

You've got the cute flirty moments between the two main leads as they are working their way through their marriage. I was all for it. You've got the sweet gestures made by both main leads to each other. I was all for it. You've got the main male lead hiding the fact that he manipulated her into signing the marriage contract. I'm all f-- NO WAIT.
WAIT. NOPE. HOLD THE PHONE.
My brain just went numb right at that moment. This is not okay. NOT OKAY.

Here's the TLDR; XL (main female lead) finds out that she is diagnosed with Leukemia, and conveniently the only bone marrow match was the CEO of a big company, YZ (main male lead). He only agrees to helping to save her life if she marries him (hmm, now I wonder if this was a red flag to be considered?). She agrees under the assumption that he just needed a smokescreen for his love triangle with his best friend (CY) and his assistant.
So this is why everyone is completely appalled with this drama: She was never sick with Leukemia. She was just anemic. The reason why they gave her the wrong diagnosis in the first place was because the hospital she attended was owned by YZ's company and he forged it in a way where she would look for him to save her.

BIG YIKES. And an even bigger burn was the fact that the drama was ROMANTICIZING THIS. GIGANTIC YIKES.

And YZ intended to hide this from her until he believes she was ready to forgive him once the truth came out. GODZILLA YIKES.
She literally only found out after snooping around his things (in a bedroom they SHARE, might I add) to look for her medical records when she was suffering effects from anemia again (she even freaked out a bit wondering if it was a relapse of Leukemia).

This happened at the end of episode 10. Now you'd think, "Soap, shouldn't you have stopped then? Why finished the next episode?" Well I was hoping there was some super specific reason (not excuse) that YZ would do such a thing. A viewer has these hopes, you know?
Nope - you further discover that he had essentially been stalking her for 2 years because she was NICE TO HIM at one of the lowest points in his life. If this were to happen to me, I'd call the cops ASAP and get a restraining order. And THEN - to add the sugar on top - she wants to leave the house but he stations GUARDS AT THE ENTRANCE OF THEIR HOME so she can't run away. The only way she could leave was when his grandma intervened.

Um, NO? At that point, I had zero pity for YZ. I don't care how long you've been sitting outside on your car getting rained on while you watch XL's apartment window (because, good for her, she moved out of your house). XL was right - YZ is no different to the second female lead (AR) who tried to manipulate him into forgetting XL earlier on into the series.

There's SO MANY RED FLAGS.

I'd rather XL end up with YZ's best friend - CY (who is the second male lead). This is not second lead syndrome, people. I legitimately want to scrap the original couple and just have XL end up in a HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP with CY. I mean, seriously - they had a rocky start to their friendship when CY kept thinking XL was a gold digger but the more they helped each other out, the more they respected each other. Their constant teasing a bickering was not overshadowing the respect they held for each other as human beings. CY respected her for trying to be independent and earn a living on her own without get-out-of-jail-free cards from people (COUGH-YZ-COUGH - wash your hands). XL found out about his secrets but still kept it on the down-low out of respect for him as her senior (they both worked in the same company) and, as much as she finds him annoying, doesn't brush aside the fact that he has problems he can't always run away from on his own. She shielded him when he was suffering from an asthma attack in a public theatre (they were both celebrities - he was more popular than she was). When CY's dad was about to hit CY with his cane, she blocked it (because, as per her character, violence is a no no and she helps anyone who needs it). It went from a bitter colleague relationship to a friendship built off of trust. There was no manipulation there. They both were pretty honest with each other from the get-go.
I commended CY when he confronted YZ about how wrong he was to manipulate XL - and my depreciation of respect for YZ grew when the dude legit went like "Wow so my best friend is gonna slide into my wife's DMs now that we are both having a marriage crisis--"
No; you seriously need a wake up call. You've got your emotionally manipulated wife AND your long-time best friend calling you out on your toxic approach to relationships. It's not a legit marriage. You tricked her into marrying you.

So no, I am choosing to not continue. I've seen the trailers and the posters - the two obviously end up together at the end. I'm not opposed to forgiveness, but I can't see her staying with him even after forgiving him. Even after confronting him about his manipulation and control, he actually admits that if they were to start over again, he'd do the same thing.
This isn't romantic. This is abusive.

But enough with the negativity, yeah? Here's, um, a few good points:
- music was decent
- If there was a separate side-story drama between XL's best friend and YZ's assistant, I'm all on board the ship
- Samoyeds. I love Samoyeds.

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NEVER WATCH THIS DRAMA EVER ~ Extremely toxic main lead

~~SPOILERS~~


For the first time I'm actually writing a review in this site mainly because I advice not to watch this drama ya'all. Actually I first watched the second season before the first, in second season their chemistry was off the charts and it was so heartwarming so I thought of watching the first season. To my despair its extremely horrible.

Reasons~

TOXIC MAIN LEAD. I have never seen such a main lead ever to be honest he is the worst human EVER! After the 10th episode this drama takes a HUGE twist where the female lead found that she never had luekemia in the first place and the main lead tampered with her report which stated that she had anaemia and also told the doctor to tell her that Ling Yi Zhou [male lead] is the only donor. Since then I watched the drama in faith the he would regret his actions and improve himself but he didn't! After this story completely forgets about her anaemia and when she decided to move out he literally imprisoned and keeps stalking her every time.

Then when Xia lin with a child in her tummy ,gets kidnapped, Yi Zhou was busy drinking the whole time in the bar and as hanging OUT with women at the bar it left me completely REVOLTED! I've never seen such a jerk in any drama. Meanwhile the second main lead was so caring I really hoped a good ending for him and he did get :) Ling Yi Zhou does'nt deserve her at all. Except the acting everything was bad. Worst characters, bad plot, inhumane main lead lit.

This drama is very crappy not worthy of time if you want just watch till episode 8 not more than this. Wort chinese drama for me. Season 2 is waaaaaay BETTER there the leads are very genuine n caring much better watch it instead of this crap ;>>

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Are you serious

The guy is a literal stalker and toxic

He made the lead girl think she had CANCER just to trick her into marrying him when in reality all she actually had was anemia. And she still stayed with him?? I didn't mind the romance between the second couple, but the toxicity of the male lead was just too much. I tried watching the second season because they were trying to play the fated love card and finding each other in different universes, which is a trope that I absolutely love, and I hoped the storyline would be different this time. NO, HE IS STILL A STALKER AND LIES TO HER.

Don't waste your time on this show.

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And there is a season 2?? Really??

In this drama, if you dare to leave your husband because he abuses you, you are the worst woman in the world, the ultimate villain. If, on the other hand, you accept everything and shut up, you are the heroine. The mentality here is medieval. FL while she is expecting a child she says something like: if she is female I will teach her to cook, if he is male you, the father, will teach him everything. And this is a 2019 drama !! The second part of the story, after we discover that ML is a violent stalker, the storyline with the angry stepbrother that wants avenge does not make sense. the ending is even more absurd. This bad guy does pretty much anything to get caught. The society and human relationships described in this series are aberrant. Only two things were good: the fast pace, for sure you will not get bored, and the beauty of ML, he is undoubtedly hot AF.

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Well Intended turned to Sh*t Intended

The drama starts well.
Has all the aspects of what a brilliant rom-com could be.
Funny characters, raunchy scenes, naive yet complex flirting.
All this lasts for 8 episodes and after that, it's downhill.
The plot is wrecked, the writer kills it in every way possible.

It's a complete mess,
A mess you would certainly not want to complete.

The chemistry b/w the leads is sparkly but the writer sabotages it so often that you'll find it strange.
Moreover, the efforts of pushing a reverse harem let it down continuously.

This drama has all the aspects of a female fantasy.
3-4 males pursuing her, a controversial marriage, her independence bit of it mixed with a controlling partner, kindness towards everybody, successful career and love life.
A bit of drama midway full of lies and deceit.
Of course, this will be combined with a happy ending.

Basically, it's a juggling plot about what women desire secretly, even though they'll hate it on the face of it.

Overall, it's below average, it can we watched but just skip the scene with side characters.
The support characters are a pain in the a$$ to watch.

PS: The best part about this drama is there's plenty of fan service from the FML (¬‿¬)
The costume designer and the director took advantage of every opportunity to highlight her and make her appealing, which is something rare
Not explicitly but just the mere hints and expressions.
You know where the imagination works better than the real deal , that kinda fan service.

Also, the ML and FML didn't kiss, they just had lip locks , clearly indicating one of them wanted it as a condition to be part of the contract.

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SPOILERS

A series normalizing abusive and controlling behavior by a sociopathic male lead, with a female lead that ends up going back to him, and supporting characters that excuse his behavior and don't try to get her out of the horrible relationship.

The male lead fakes the female lead's cancer diagnosis to manipulate her into marrying him, after stalking her for 2 years, then when she finds out has guards stationed at the house so she can't escape, and steals the marriage license so she can't leave or divorce him.

Paired with a female lead that doesn't leave immediately, doesn't call the police when he basically kidnaps her, and doesn't report the huge medical fraud that happened because his family owns the hospital (both him and año te doctors are to blame here), goes back to him after 2 episodes and ends up having a real marriage and having his child.

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Great first half, horrible plot twist

I'm dropping this after only watching 13 episodes, mostly because it became too ridiculous for me to continue investing time in.

The amnesia, while cliche, was tolerable. The large secret the husband kept from the wife felt really wrong and kind of silly when you consider his postion, wealth, and power. The "killing" of a side character for plot progression *rolls eyes*. Plainly put, the villians felt juvenille and the plot twist was super dumb and borderline creepy, cultural diffrrences aside.

I wouldn't recommend this drama, even if the first half of the drama was enjoyable.

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