This review may contain spoilers
Beautiful cinematography series but with plot loopholes
The start of this series is slow and cringe worthy when both FL leads are playing younger roles. But it does get somewhat better, especially when Nan sun's dad committed suicide.Both FL's character personality changes are also huge for this series. From Suosuo's love and greed for money to suddenly giving up everything to have a "family" even when she has a daughter (this is very different from the novel). Likewise for Nan sun, to have been so trusting, "loving" and even emotionally dependent on Zhang an ren in the early episodes but yet she changes drastically once she is in debt and with a seemingly perfect Wang Yong Zheng. This character flip flop for both the FL is just hard to buy.
Its hard to watch the changes as well, which i feel is not clean nor weave the series well. Reality vs Idealist seems to the be the theme for the later episodes.
The plot loopholes are a major annoyance for me in this series.
1. Nan sun debts that are owned isnt even a huge amount (look at the list, maybe 11 names? less than 2 million yuan surely) if she could return it to so many debtors, she could secure a loan (especially when she is connected to so many rich people) and repay to just 1 party. When she requested that Zhang an ren helped them when her dad ran into those debtors but yet refuses to reveal it to Wang yong zheng.
2. When Ye jin yan can give up his position in jing yan just for Suosuo, this is a huge plot twist from the novel and made me sigh at the unrealism of it, especially when Daisy went back to jing yan to help him, saying he doesnt care. But eventually adding the story of her daughter's suicide still doesnt make it convincing and just because suosuo have the same birth date as his daughter.
3. In spite of all the debts that Nan sun have and suosuo not having a job, they still live well, can still afford that huge rental, eating heartily every time, doesnt look to be suffering from poverty anytime soon.
Its still a watchable series, not for the plot (the plot, character and ending have been changed from the HK movie adaption and the novel too) but for the FL leads and great support casts (there's so many great support casts to mention) which carried this with their acting abilities. Suosuo always looks sensual and sassy through out this series and Nan Sun has that innocence attraction.
As for the friendship, that is at least convincing due to the acting and the extreme challenges that both FL faces. I am sold that both FL will do anything and protect each other. Yet it does not carry this series, the hook really is the romance of both FL. For Nan sun and WYZ, this pairing works because WYZ is so carefree and seemingly perfect, even her ex boyfriend Zhang An ren did well being a selfish, self centered and scheming character, Li Yi Fan is another romance interest but his character is bland and robotic. For suosuo, she has 4 controversy romances with the driver MA, her cousin's infatuation, ye jing yan and finally xie hong zu. Yet the romances arent a huge part for this series, it exists but its not everything.
However ending is very open ended and doesn't clean up any of the loose ends. This is where this series failed badly.
The OST is memorable, the cinematography and palette used is warm and calming which have a slice of life feel.
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This review may contain spoilers
I started watching this drama because my mom noted that the two female leads were quite famous (my knowledge of C-Drama actors / actresses is rather limited unless they're people who I've watched in other dramas before). In my opinion, the storyline started off pretty slow and I was honestly ready to drop it after the pilot episode. However, one of the things that we always do is end up hopping around dramas after episode one so decided to try our best to continue on.The drama did progress to get more interesting, and I found the actors to do a great job at portraying their roles. I've really come to love some of the characters even if I found them to be a bit annoying at the start.
[ spoilers below ]
However, there are so many plot holes that I can't understand.
1) Nan Sun - her breakup with Zhang Anren was never fully explicit until you realize she's suddenly with Wang Yong Zheng, which was strange considering how she was portrayed as having really disliked him in the past (and it didn't really seem like it was just because she had a boyfriend though that certainly did contribute to it). However, it was like they were enemies one moment and the next, ready to make out without much development.
2) Suo Suo - her relationship with Xie Hong Zhu also makes no sense. One moment she's professing her love to her ex-boss and the next, she's getting married to the guy who's been chasing her who she's told time after time that she doesn't want to be with him. While I admired Xie Hong Zhu's persistence, I think that if I were in Suo Suo's shoes and really didn't have any interest in him, I'd be thoroughly irritated to have this guy following me around all the time. Maybe these things will get sorted out in the final nine episodes, but for now, it feels almost random that she's rebounding off of him like this.
3) Yuan Yuan - her reappearance in the drama shocked me. I knew she looked familiar but it took me a moment to realize just who she was with her new name and new identity. I'm not sure how much time has passed since we last saw her, but it's surprising to me that she's suddenly recreated herself in what seems like such a short period of time.
4) Ye Jin Yan's obsession with helping Suo Suo - throughout the drama, I quite literally thought that maybe he was her dad or something with how much he cared for her, only to find out that wasn't the case at all. Even the scene where he explains why he's helping her makes the whole idea seem rather ridiculous. Not sure anyone would actually have such a good heart to help this woman that has no relation to him aside from the fact that she shares a birthday with his late daughter.
And then just how the whole story ended ... oof, I felt no resolution as it quite literally ended with Nan Sun listing off everything that happened but it felt like a rushed way of trying to tie everything together when they probably could have cut out a lot of things throughout the drama to properly end it in some way. Love myself a time skip but there was no actual time skip to show for (maybe they didn't have any more money to do so, who knows).
[ spoilers end ]
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this drama to others. There were some heartwarming and funny moments that I enjoyed, but as a whole, it felt lacking in direction and ended up a bit choppy in its flow. Also, time passes A LOT in the drama, but it's hard to gauge just how it passes as it feels like it's just happening over a span of a year at most but actually must be a lot longer.
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Slow paced with a good character development
The story was derived from the point of view of the bestfriend Jiang Nansun.It's was annoying at first few episodes due to slow paced. Once the characters was gradually introduced, each characters showed their strength and flaws.
Zhu Suo Suo is the most misjudged character, maybe because the revelation of her character was slow, but once it was revealed her character was spontaneous and you can easily find out what kind of person she is, what's her life since little and why she's acting like a money hungered adult.
Jiang Nansun on the other hand is the opposite, she's pampered and she lack nothing. At first I find her annoying because of the ways she's attached to her boyfriend who has no disposition in life. As her father gradually fell into a bottomless pit because of a pile of debts, Nansun became a vulnerable and unpredictable character. Although she learned her lessons the hard way, it's worth it, she grew up into a formidable woman ready for all the challenges.
Ye Jinyan is a character who hid his pain because of his daughter's passing. Because of this he treated Suo Suo differently and nobody knows the reason but he is not romantically involved with the girl, he just looked up to her as a reminder of his daughter.
Wang YongZheng is one complex character and Tony Yang acted well.
I love the rapport between Fan Jingang and Suo Suo as well as how she treated Yang Ke.
Acting wise, this drama was cast by good actresses and actors. They did justice to their character.
Cinematography indeed adds up to beautify the story.
The musical score gave a good impact too. You can feel the mood of every scene.
For me, the writers did their job well, but one point I notice is that they wanted to create the flaw in the story so they make these two main leads keep their financial situation from the people close to them. They don't want to involved more people. They want to face the adversities by themselves. For me, it's the flaw of the story. It's understandable to cast a lot of people but I found some unnecessary characters or those not suitable for some reason.
I noticed that every person that each character met in the early part of the story will later be a permanent part in the latter part of the story.
This story has a lot of flaws but to me, I don't mind it because I felt the story is realistic with lots of good moral lessons. They consolidate friendship, romance, business, family matter and sexual harassment in office setting which to others may seemed too much but I really liked it.
A lot complains about the ending but for me it's acceptable, the type of ending I really foreseen!
If you are a viewer who is easily bored with dramas with lots of conversation, this one isn't for you.
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This review may contain spoilers
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Love the story between these 2 bestfriends, but prefer Zhu Suosuo story line than Jiang Nansun’s. The acting of the actors are superb especially Chen Daoming who played Ye Jinyan (no doubt). Suosuo chemistry with Fan Jingang and Yang Ke are too cute. The only disappointing point in this drama is the relationship story! (Suosuo with Hongzu is meh) and for Nansun (Wang Yongzheng is better than Zhang Anren, but don’t really like him lol). Zhu Suosuo deserves a better ending!! I don’t know why i ship her with Ye Jinyan despite their age difference and i swear Ye Jinyan is one of the most charming chairman ever!!Was this review helpful to you?
The shocking Disappointment of Plot direction
First I want to say this is my first written review of a drama. I have done lots of word of mouth stuff but because of my disappointment I feel I need to say a couple of thingsThe story of the two woman best friends is very nice to see in drama its not often in my experience that we see to FLs being together who are not related by blood.
The drama kinda has two story lines one from Nan Sun life and one from Suo Suo life even though they live together
I enjoy all the different relationships and hard ships of the women growing up and even the hardships and they had more than some.
Money and debt was a key plot point for Nan Sun she had wealth then debt
Money and drive key for plot point for Suo Suo who doenst have education of her friend but is a fighter
I enjoy all these things I have discussed above
What torn me up for this drama is direction the show goes from 28 forward so much I cannot watch any more I am so sad and disappointed its gut wrenching what the director and script writer has decided and I dont care if novel adaption its says loosely so you can change stuff
The more this is decided as Ok is society the more Cdrama will continue to think its normal and keep doing it
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