The Romance of Tiger and Rose (2020)

Funny drama

The Romance of Tiger and Rose was a hilarious drama that managed to maintain its humour throughout without being cheesy except on one occasion. It had a great storyline and it was quite interesting to watch how certain issues turned out and the FML way of problem solving. The FML and MML had great chemistry and i really enjoyed watching them together.
The only problem i had with the drama was at times the main leads didn't portray their emotions very well. I think they could have portrayed it with greater depth to evoke emotions from the viewers. I also didn't really enjoy the ending except for the very last scene.

I would recommend this drama because the writer had really great humour and the drama was directed quite well! In addition, i never got bored of any episode and finished it within 4 days because it was that interesting!

Read More

Definitely in the running for cutest OTP of 2020

This show was such a nice surprise. I didn’t expect much from a fantasy/historical(ish) rom-com, but this was (1) laugh-out-loud hilarious, (2) really well-made and edited, (3) had a story that didn’t completely go off the rails, and (4) had characters that were memorable and lovable.

The premise is silly and most of the show is. But it never takes itself too seriously or tries to explain too much. It’s really funny and cool how meta the show is, with the screenwriter (aka the female lead) commenting on the holes in her script or how she regrets how certain characters are written. I also like that rather than a fish out of water scenario, the main female lead knows the world she’s in perfectly and thus is actually more knowledgeable than a lot of the characters. Thus the jokes are less centered around “look at this modern woman try to figure out ancient times” instead it’s “look at this screenwriter try to desperately save the plot and confusing the hell out of everyone.” Rather than being just a silly person to begin with, she’s actually a pretty rational person who has been placed in an absurd situation.

So yeah, I really love the female lead, she’s probably my fave, but a close second is the male lead. He's also hilarious in his own way, going from being a seemingly ruthless, ambitious man to almost instantly smitten with the female lead (though she’s just being nice to him to try to prevent him from killing her lollll). It’s cool how a lot of the characters develop in different trajectories from how both you, the audience, and the screenwriter expect. In general it is fun how the show takes tropes and makes fun of them and/or they play out in different ways.

It’s pretty remarkable that in a show that isn’t necessarily plot-driven the plot was actually good! I find with shows like this they tend to lose steam towards the end. The romance and comedy are the best part of the show but the plot was well placed and I was really invested in how it was going to end. This show was also surprisingly progressive with its perspective on male/female equality but it did have a few moments where I wasn’t okay with what the characters did (male characters forcing themselves on female characters is never my fave).

Tl;dr this show is 100% watching for the characters, the couple, and the plot. It’s a really fun ride and I enjoyed it immensely.

Read More

The drama that unexpectedly made it to my most fave c-dramas

Watching this during quarantine was one of the best decisions i've made. The only reason i watched this at first was because of zhao lusi and ding yu xi as the main leads. I had no idea what story was about so I didn't expect it to be so good!! I was hooked right after i watched the first episode. This drama made me laugh a lot and made me cry at times. The acting of the casts are greatt especially the two main leads. Zhao lusi's crying surely hits me. The plot and characters are all interesting. I also love how I didn't have a hard time relating to the characters as i'm not really the type of person who watches dramas where the setting is not in modern time. It's been a while but I hope to see zhao lusi and ding luxi in one drama. Their chemistry is undeniable and they're just too adorable together!! Anyways, This drama is worth a watch everyone!! I just hoped there was to it for them in the modern time.

Read More

I enjoyed the comedy and some of the fluffier scenes and the leads formed a reasonably good pairing, but I found the drama quite frustrating. Usually if the romance is on point & I get enough sugar I can be quite forgiving when it comes to bad writing, however the annoyances should be at least below a certain level! Tiger and Rose is unfortunately full of majorly annoying plotlines, situations and events and the writing is just extremely juvenile. None of the major characters have a consistent personality, there were way too many arbitrary happenings & actions without an acceptable motive. Perhaps binge watching made it worse, because I'm sure I would have largely forgotten about much of the conflicting dialog, had I only watched 1-2 episodes a week, but still I felt quite a few things were just intelligence insulting.

Even if I begrudgingly accept, that due to the "drama within a drama" setting, the regular cast were just sillier than normal, at least the FL should have been somewhat sane, right? Chen Qian Qian however is perhaps the dumbest, most unreasonable FL character that I have seen in a cdrama thus far.

I cannot help but compare this show to Mr. Queen. That show also had quite a few annoyances if I want to be entirely honest, but it was not nearly as infuriating as this one and also Mr. Queen is just HUGELY funnier and everything is just massively better, from the production quality to acting performances, the OST etc.. Oh wait, never mind, the ending is perhaps even worse in Mr. Queen, I forgot about that for a second!

I sense that censorship made a significant impact in this drama. That's probably the main cause behind the horrid ending, which follows the same template as in The Day of Becoming You.

Lusi seems like a very talented actress, she's totally romcom queen material. This drama and Dating in the Kitchen were just a waste of her talent in my opinion.

Read More

one of the best comedy C-Dramas

Story/Production: I think for a novel adaption with limited budget, they did a good job. Story is compared to the overused time travel plot through the opposite power for the genders very entertaining with it's comedy. After all there's nothing much to criticize, the producers even tried to keep the drama part in check compared to the average works imo.

Cast/Characters: The main leads have great chemistry and are very natural in acting. They stood out the most to me. The side cast is doing fine imo, nothing outstanding nor bad.

Overall: One of the best Chinese dramas with the comedy genre imo, worth having a try. Entertaining with great leads but without too much bad "drama".

Read More

Highly enjoyable, light drama.

When you start watching this drama don't expect high production value or an epic historically accurate period piece. This is 100% a fun romantic comedy, and that is the reason why it is so loveable.

I found the story to be well developed. It is an Isekai fantasy. The FL gets trapped in a drama she wrote as one of the minor characters. There she gets to see first hand what is wrong with the script she wrote. By being there she gets to flesh out the story and ends up changing it, albeit desperately trying to make it return to the original plot line.

The chemistry between the two leads was great from the get go. I really liked that the ML once he set his mind was devoted and did not let other things get between their relationship.

This drama was funny, sweet, and fun to watch.

Read More

The best historical romcom cdrama of 2020!

The cast are amazing. The chemistry between leads are the best! Love how they can turn serious scene into a funny one.

No moments spent on this drama regretted. This drama worth all my time in this world 😍the best cdrama of 2020 for me!

Hope to see more of the leads project in future. They made such a great pair!

Totally recommended for those who haven't watched it. The OST's are exceptionally really good. My fave is the ost sang by the female lead actress herself.

Best fantasy+romcom+historical drama I've ever watched!Best couple of the year! Lusi & Yuxi👑

Read More

An Amazing Short Drama

This story is very hilarious and highly recommended for drama lover who want a short, quick series. The actors themselves had great chemistry that was very natural and comfortable. It felt like they actually liked each other and there was not a hindering amount of scenes in which the director forcibly pushed the lead together for the audience to go "oh yeah they're the main couple." The supporting cast was amazing in their roles as well. I also really loved how Zhao Lusi sang a song for the drama and voiced her own character (it's kinda weird why they didn't let the male lead do the same for some reason). There was one issue with the color with the shots as one the brightness and vivacity of the setting would be different throughout the drama (and sometimes even within the same episode). I have heard it described as if two editing teams had worked on it but didn't communicate with each other, so it resulted in drastic coloration at different scenes. Other than that, everything else was amazing. The interesting plot brought a new sense of fresh uniqueness and the acting was commendable as well. It certainly is one of my favorite dramas.

Read More

Comedic break-the-4th-wall moments

These days, I somehow love dramas who could break the 4th wall and laugh at its own typical troupes and cliché-ness of romantic dramas. A drama about female scriptwriter being stuck in her own story in parallel historical female centric world? Sounds intriguing for sure, and plenty opportunities to poke a hole or two on the 4th wall.
The thing about breaking 4th wall though, where they were overly done or where they missed the mark, the drama would feel like a try-hard than witty. Not RoTR though – the moments were well executed, illogical and sometimes even crazy as they seem.

Chen Qian Qian, being stuck as a character who was supposed to die in episode 1 in her story, only focused on wanting to survive until “Happily Ever After” so she can go back to her real world. Han Shuo, a calculative and cunning heir with a terminal disease since young, only wanted to get the cure and mine ore from Chen Qian Qian so he can return gloriously to his city and succeed the title. Both have different motives, but both got more than what they asked for, even more so when they fall in love with each other.

Their servants also deserve a highlight – these two have the cutest dialogues, expressions and interactions. A lot of the comedic and perfect execution of break 4th wall moments come from these two and this drama would feel very different without them.

While it was a good ending, it feels like there were some loose ends, perhaps left untied intentionally. Hope season 2 would be here soon!

Read More

really liking the drama's approach to addressing gender discrimination ♡

this was a really sweet and funny series! i kinda wish it was clearer how and when the main leads fell for each other (maybe i missed it) but when they started seeing how much they cared for each other, their chemistry was really beautiful ;;; i also wished the ending part was longer but oh well it was cute lol and i loveddd the way the male lead looked at the female lead...his little smiles and laughs are so ♡ i have to admit i skipped quite a few scenes and didn't Really get interested until the last few episodes, but overall i enjoyed the development of the storyline and the characters' relationships! highly recommended!!

some spoilers and my essay of thoughts are below lol bewaree

*****spoilers ahead*****

lmao I've never been so invested in writing this much for a drama but i have time and passionfruits so here we go: my mini essay on gender discrimination in both cities of this drama

one thing (out of many) that i appreciated in this drama is how the drama later addressed a flaw in the female lead's script, where each city had its own bias towards a gender in the gender binary (women/men). at first i disliked that fl's idea of a "feminist" city was just a matriarchal (female-dominated/female-centered) society where women abused their power and treated men as the inferior sex (i might be wrong but i understood that the fl thought the princess' matriarchal city, Huayuan City, had a more "equal" society as compared to the prince's city, Xuanhu City, which was patriarchal or male-dominated). i felt that the princesses' city was nowhere close to having reached gender equality or equity - it was almostt the same in comparison to the prince's city and the unwelcoming patriarchal society that a vast majority of us live in today.

i mean maybe the fl wasn't aiming to make her script into a specifically "feminist" work but if she did, then I'd have to argue that she had a Lot she needed to change in her script, which she kinda started doing after she realized later on that Huayuan City was actually practicing gender discrimination in similar ways Xuanhu City was.

but yeah, feminist works don't aim for women to overpower men or anyone. while feminism does center women as their focus, ultimately it aims to address and tackle inequalities and oppressions, and to help uplift those that are underprivileged (I'm reading into this part of the drama quite heavily but lol i promise i understand that this is dramaland and that the attempt at a female-centric drama is refreshing and brave).

anyway, like i said,, in the last few episodes our fl realized how unfair and unequal Huayuan City's practices regarding gender actually were. when she resolved a lot of her storyline's issues and gained more royal power, she quickly worked w the city to help give women And men the same opportunities to educational, political, and economic power.

alllll that being said,,, i admit i was amused when, at the beginning, the women of Huayuan City were chastising/punishing and heavily criticizing men for various things that women in our REAL world constantly face and struggle with. it was satisfying to see and hear them say to men what irl men always say to me/women (specifically in my own asian community). and i say "satisfied" not to mean that i agree w that kind of system, or that i want to see men w a lower social status, or even that i like how men are treated poorly based on their assigned sex. i say that I'm "satisfied" to mean that it was nice how the drama blatantly pointed out the sexist ideas that exist in real life towards women, except this time the roles were switched and the "normal" in Huayuan City was to be sexist towards men.

to some people, women in Huayuan City may have seemed excessive or overbearing, but this happened in the fictional world...real life men/societies are actually like this and a lot of us are okay w it. I'm not excusing Huayuan City's ideas on gender roles,, I'm hoping that the seemingly ridiculous/dramatic presentation of gendered ideas in Huayuan City will let more people acknowledge the gender disparities in real life. through the mouths and positions of women in this drama, i felt that a lot of people (mostly men) in real life were called out. again, hopefully this factor in the drama planted a seed into people's (men's) minds and helped them realize how unfair our current societies are towards women.

i hope this all makes sense btw lolll it's midnight and I'm in my thoughts

sadly the world today is still very much like how ml's city, Xuanhu City, was (a male-dominated society). i saw this especially clearly when our fl moved to Xuanhu City. the way Xuanhu City's men treated their women, and even the way the women treated each other based off patriarchal influences....it all felt too painfully and frustratingly real. well, bc it is real for me.

oh and i also don't mean to make it seem like after fl improved the cities' situations, everyone in the cities instantly had equal social status - changing practices that are so deeply rooted in cultures and lifestyles takes much, much, Much more work than that. buttt, again, this is dramaland and the drama took a very courageous approach to addressing this issue.

i very much liked seeing the attention on gender discrimination overall. the shift in people's mindsets about gender roles, expectations, and stereotypes was nice too; for example with fl, minister pei, ml's parents, and the palace people in Xuanhu City. ml's dad was especially annoying - at a certain point of the drama he was wayyy more annoying than the second princess loll even tho he only appeared for like 2 episodes?? maybe he reminded me of men i know irl..lol

okay maybe last point for now: i teared up when ml helped support fl and women in front of his parents (esp his dad) and palace people. this hit me hard...bc irl, the support of men and their acknowledgement of both an unfair society for women and the lack of action from men,, are Such important factors in stepping towards a more equal world for women and men.

when ml talked back to his dad and genuinely supported fl and women in general, i began to love the ml That Much More. like, in this drama, ml is really genuine towards fl...he gives her everything he has while still being true to his feelings (altho i still struggle with seeing how he Really really started liking her so much lol sorry). he stands by her side, admires her and cares for her, and supports and understands her. more importantly he changes his thinking that women are of lower status than men, and goes against his upbringing and city's traditions (i also struggle with accepting how easy this happened tho lol...what can i say, dramas aren't perfect).

maybe this hit me harder bc Xuanhu City's patriarchal ideas reflect many of our own societies... altho i do see that Huayuan City's "matriarchal" ideas are also problematic in its respective ways, i don't feel as bothered (oops). maybe it's bc i view Huayuan City's female-centered practices as being highly fictional rather than real.

okay FINAL THING (I could go on forever lolll): i found it so funny and cool how ml's mom is...mulan? like at least i think she is......which is Super cool..she's awesome i love ml's mom w a full heart!!!

Read More