Midsummer Is Full of Love (2020)

Watered-down rendition of a classic

Ever watched full house?

This show is essentially a diluted and bland version of the original, with a few questionable tweaks to the plot.

The relationship between the ML and FL was so forced, and there was barely any development in their relationship worth noting. The original version gave reasons as to how and why their contractual marriage proceeded as it did, while this version simply rams it into your face and forces you to accept it.

Every single one of the characters lack depth. The FL's friends were supposed to evoke immense hatred and wrath from the viewer, but this chinese version merely sprinkles confetti over their socially unacceptable deeds. Also, this version of the ML reminds me of a toothless lion cub - adorable but unrealistic and too harmless for its own good. (Strange analogy I know, I'm still scratching my head over it)

Overall, watch the original, and only watch this if you are desperate for another drama with the same premise.

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I'M A TIMMY XU FAN! SO REVIEW MAYBE BIASED

This is the first time for me to write a review for any drama in MDL, but I just couldn't keep myself out of it. As a Timmy Xu fan, I'm so proud of how he acted throughout the drama. It's a must watch for all his fans & also I loved Yang ChaoYue's acting so much in this. I didn't expect much from the story & as I know it's a remake, I know it would be criticized a lot. But I just don't care ? But as a person who watched many dramas, I'll surely recommend it to the people who just wants a cute, sweet, light hearted romance story.
Also have to say that their chemistry was outstanding! Both BTS & on screen, they are the cutest couple ever! And there is not those skinship & kisses.. it's just those hugs, bickering that set them apart. They weren't hotly passionately romantic but was definitely the cutest & most adorable
Also Timmy Xu! I'm truly proud to be his fan. I've known him since Addicted & he truly proved himself again with this drama, his micro Expressions, I live for that. His eyes conveys a lot & with those little expressions he conquered my heart again.

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Don't waste your time with this melodramatic nonsense.

Do not bother with this one. It is just a compilation of overused plot lines; for example, she gets amnesia after falling on a bike...These triangle relationships always have such a double standard. The guy always makes the relationship clear and draws a line with the side girl, but the girl always flirts and leads the side guy on. It is starting to get annoying. They make the FL lead appear oblivious, like oh he's just a friend and take no responsibility for making their significant other feel like shit. Throughout the story, it is literally the ML that takes all the suffering, while the FL is the cause of all of it and she is completely oblivious. She did not apologize once and the ML keeps taking the blame and is the bigger person because if he doesn't the FL will just leave him; and it is kind of pathetic. Even when her friend tells her straight up that the ML sacrificed a lot to be with her and the ML explicitly tells her he is very jealous and does not want her to be alone with the side guy, she keeps doing it. She literally treats the SML better and is way more considerate of his feelings, but when it comes to her husband she has no clue and does nothing for him. The ML is so hurt by the FL literally going on dates with the SML while they are married and he still does not blame her. One moment when the ML confronts the FL while she ran away to live with the SML and says I'm sorry, the SML tells him to fuck off in front of the FL and she takes the SML's side. It is absolutely ridiculous. The FL's character is absolutely terribly written; although she is cute. I really feel bad for the ML here as he is just a punching bag. No one cares about him at all. I do not think the FL actually acknowledged any of the pain the ML was going through once. Like does the SML not have any other friends? why is she spending a romantic candlelight dinner with the SML on his birthday when she is married? And then the SML walks her home and first thing she says to ML is "you're not mad". If you knew it would upset him, why do it? make it make sense. But the FL makes the ML the bad guy for feeling jealous. You are literally going on a date with the SML...The FL is actually terrible. When the ML goes to the hospital to take care of the SFL, the FL asks to go with him cause she is jealous. Why can't the ML feel the same. The ML and SML are childhood friends can he not go with her when she meets the SML? She does not understand this once...it is infuriating to me. I do not know why people like this stuff.

At the end the ML sacrifices everything for the FL, and then she RUNS AWAY and boom 1 year time skip. Then the ML finally finds her after 1 year and almost no convo happens; he just proposes and she accepts then queue happily ever after. The ML comes back from retirement after marriage by singing the FL's composed song. They do not show any moments of this and just queue happy ending. It would have been nice if they focused the plot on the leads actually loving each other. One wants to be a composer and the other is a famous singer. They could have made such good moments of them working together but nope, lets just do melodramatic garbage.

They had cute moments between the leads, but those were rare and most of it was just a lot of melodramatic garbage that i had to skip through. I could not imagine actually watching the whole thing.

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Love is to give happiness and freedom

Loving someone takes up a lot of courage, going through the process of falling in love needs a lot of persistence ,and being in love needs our faith in that person.To me,writing reviews about dramas i watch doesn't come naturally,but this drama caught my attention since the trailer and now when i have ended the final episode it did not disappoint me for a single second. Each person's love in this drama had its own value. Jin Ze Yi showed love that was innocent and pure ahereas Luo Tian Ran was kind and affectionate in her love towards Ze Yi. Both of them never gave up their love for music. Although Tiffany was depicted as a negative character ,when she thought of Ze Yi and his career ,she was ready to sacrifice anything and everything whereas Yun Shu felt love for Tian Ran as she was his childhood comfort in times he felt lonely and unwanted.All these characters made the drama worth watching and the story added colours to their talent in acting.Overall it was something from which there is a lot to learn about the price that celebrities need to pay for their popularity and how every love is meaningful and unique in its own way.

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It is a heartwarming story

Even though sometimes you might not like the what is happening, at the end you will be happy with the results.

There will be times when you want just want to cry, or you get anger, but that’s what makes it amazing, since you are going to be so invested in the emotions and what is going on. So if you want a series that makes you feel the emotions and connect with what is going on, then this is the best for you to watch.

Overall, you should watch this if you want to watch something that can get you to connect to what is happening, and that makes you side with certain character, or want to talk with them to make them change their minds.

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A Light hearted story!

I haven't watched the original version of Full House so I don't know which is better. But surely I find this plotline cute and Heartwarming. Most people don't like this drama because the male lead is a bit unreasonable with FL in the beginning. But in my opinion, ML is not unreasonable because that's how a person will naturally behave if he catches someone recording him. ( Especially because he's an Idol and even though it's a misunderstanding!) So I believe the drama delivered an okay plotline.

Acting - Yang Chao Yue's acting very matching with the character. ( I am a fan of her from Love You Seven Times so...) Timmy Xu is, well, I haven't watched his dramas before, but this one has left a good impression on me...

Overall, even though it is not the best enemies-to-lovers drama you can find, those who love cute, bickering, funny dramas, should give this a go!

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Review of “Midsummer is full of love”. (Spanish, English, French)

(Spanish)
“Midsummer is full of love” es una serie que, dentro de los 26 capítulos que tiene, le falta contenido. Es una serie que habla mucho, pero dice poco. En primer lugar, la trama no es demasiado realista. ¿Quién inventaría un matrimonio para solucionar el tipo de problemas que tienen Luo Tian Ran y Jin Ze Yi? Es decir, es una trama notablemente forzada. La historia de estos personajes, aunque al principio no se gusten el uno al otro, podría haber comenzado y seguido de otra manera. En segundo lugar ¿por qué hacen a Jin Ze Yi tan estúpido? No me gustan los triángulos amorosos pero, todavía me gusta menos si hacen al personaje principal tan inútil. Cualquiera que conozca a Yun Shu pensará que él era una mejor opción para Luo Tian Ran. Está claro que Yun Shu está muy enamorado de ella. Si los guionistas querían hacer una verdadera historia de amor entre Luo Tian Ran con Jin Ze Yi, debieron hacer que este último se esforzara más. Por otra parte, ¿en qué momento se enamoran los protagonistas? Yo no consigo ver el amor verdadero entre los dos y parece que el afecto del uno por el otro es muy repentino, incluso diría que forzado. Ellos al principio no se gustan, lo lógico sería que se fueran enamorando poco a poco, pero no ocurre así. La trama se vuelve aburrida, carece de contenido importante. Apruebo esta serie porque me gusta mucho la canción del Elefante Rojo.

(English)
“Midsummer is full of love” is a series that, within the 26 chapters it has, lacks content. It is a series that talks a lot, but says little. First of all, the plot is not very realistic. Who would invent a marriage to solve the kind of problems that Luo Tian Ran and Jin Ze Yi have? I mean, it's a remarkably forced plot. The story of these characters, although at first they don't like each other, could have started and continued differently. Secondly, why do they make Jin Ze Yi so stupid? I don't like love triangles, but I like it even less if they make the main character so useless. Anyone who knows Yun Shu will think that he was a better choice for Luo Tian Ran. It's clear that Yun Shu has a huge crush on her. If the writers wanted to make a real love story between Luo Tian Ran and Jin Ze Yi, they should have made the latter try harder. On the other hand, when do the protagonists fall in love? I can't see true love between the two and it seems that their affection for each other is very sudden, I would even say forced. At first they don't like each other, it would be logical that they would fall in love little by little, but that doesn't happen. The plot becomes boring, it lacks important content. I approve of this series because I really like the Red Elephant song.

(French)
« Midsummer is full of love » est une série qui, sur les 26 chapitres qu'elle compte, manque de contenu. C'est une série qui parle beaucoup, mais qui dit peu. Tout d’abord, l’intrigue n’est pas très réaliste. Qui inventerait un mariage pour résoudre le genre de problèmes que rencontrent Luo Tian Ran et Jin Ze Yi ? Je veux dire, c'est un complot remarquablement forcé. L'histoire de ces personnages, même s'ils ne s'aiment pas au début, aurait pu commencer et se poursuivre différemment. Deuxièmement, pourquoi rendent-ils Jin Ze Yi si stupide ? Je n'aime pas les triangles amoureux, mais j'aime encore moins s'ils rendent le personnage principal si inutile. Quiconque connaît Yun Shu pensera qu'il était un meilleur choix pour Luo Tian Ran. Il est clair que Yun Shu a un énorme béguin pour elle. Si les scénaristes voulaient faire une véritable histoire d'amour entre Luo Tian Ran et Jin Ze Yi, ils auraient dû inciter ce dernier à faire plus d'efforts. En revanche, quand les protagonistes tombent-ils amoureux? Je ne vois pas le véritable amour entre les deux et il semble que leur affection l'un pour l'autre soit très soudaine, je dirais même forcée. Au début, ils ne s'aiment pas, il serait logique qu'ils tombent amoureux petit à petit, mais cela n'arrive pas. L'intrigue devient ennuyeuse, il lui manque un contenu important. J'approuve cette série parce que j'aime beaucoup la chanson de Red Elephant.

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Bland

I can't complain much about the actors, most played their roles well. The FL I hate to say isn't very good at expressing/conveying romantic feelings in this. However,the biggest issue is the story itself is poorly written. The bickering main couple have chemistry, it's just written that they are pretty much platonic, so gives more of a bickering sibling vibe on the FL's side. The ML does admirably to portray the romance, being able to convey longing, jealousy, desire, and love with a script mostly devoid of skinship and an overly childish partner. Literally has only a few episodes of hand holding, 3 kisses, and the occasional hug. Most of the side characters only pop up here and there to move the plot along, before disappearing. The FL is supposed to be cute and "innocent" , and to show this she was stupid, wore pigtails with a tshirt and shorts or a jumper most of the time, demonstrated no real desire/attraction towards men, immediately forgave everyone that harmed her, (except for the ML), literally taking every stranger as her best friend no matter what they did, pouting, and singing a silly song repeatedly like a 5 yr old. Only character that demonstrated growth was the ML. Story and characters suddenly changed out of the blue, so problems would be created and solved instantly...ie agent's storyline. She repeatedly damaged ML's career trying to break them up, not out of jealousy but because she was concerned him being in love would damage his career. She was really in love with FL's guy friend...sure that makes sense. The scheming BFF that talked FL into signing the marriage contract to get the house back, was shocked to find contract later on and realize the marriage was fake. There are more examples, but those are the worst. OST is forgettable, actual romance is lacking, will definitely not rewatch.

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Another Contract Marriage series that’s NOT so charming and fun

The contract marriage trope is one of my favorites. However this one doesn’t work as well as others I’ve seen. Despite the reason for the contract making some sense, how they got to that point made little sense.

Some how the female lead’s BFF manage to get control of the deed to the FL’s home and then sells the house behind the FL’s back. First off I’d think that’d be fraud. What’s worse is the FL continues to be friends with this girl who committed such a betrayal and continues to do questionable things to her throughout the series. Though I liked the interaction between the leads, their relationship was more like a friendship at best or a very innocent puppy love at worst. It was not believable that they fell in love or could have a real marriage. They never kissed, hardly hugged and there was no sexual tension between them. I know this is an Asian drama and therefore sexual tension can sometimes be scarce, but the director did nothing to play up a potential romance brewing between the two. The relationship really came off as two people who were kind of lonely, especially the male lead, and as result, they developed a friendship and really liked living together. I didn’t see a love story.

There were many missed opportunities though to build a believable love story, specifically on their “honeymoon” and when the female lead lost her memory. There were opportunities missed to really create some romantic moments that had an air of sexual tension. But it just didn’t happen. Also, I was confused as to whether the agent who was managing the male lead’s career wanted him for herself or just didn’t like the fact that she was no longer the only woman in his life. Moreover, her “romance”, if that’s what you want to call it, with the female lead’s male BFF was awful. They had zero chemistry. He looked like a kid standing next to her. They weren’t even close to being compatible considering their vastly different lifestyles. The relationship was completely forced.

The second male lead was annoying in that he fell into that trope of having met the female lead when they were kids. He was being bullied, but she was the only kid out of all the kids he knew who was nice to him. So from that he has decided she is the love of his life and he must reignite a relationship with her. RME. SMH. Very ridiculous trope and childish for a grown man, or woman, to be living their life by such an idea.

The acting was it the best. The female lead had pretty much the same facial expression throughout the series. Even when something dramatic was happening like the male lead confessing his love, she had no response. Or when she was supposed to be crying or upset. There was no emotion in her eyes. She just stood their blank and looking pretty. The male lead sometimes made the right acting choices, but at other times was too over the top, especially when angry, which made his character seem as if he could potentially become abusive. The second female lead, and the male lead’s family, were the strongest actors in this and thus the most believable. Everyone else were not very good.

The only thing that I consistently enjoyed about this was the home the leads lived in. It was a beautiful unique design. I liked the airiness of it, all the natural light, and that it was on the water. Everything else about this show was just okay.

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Some cute moments but largely forgettable

I think this series will mainly appeal to big fans of the two leads. Otherwise, there is really little reason to watch this rather predictable series. The storyline is rather unreal and unbelievable, despite the context and setting of a modern, paparazzi and fandom hungry celebrity life. The main characters are seemingly rather one dimensional, with not much development as the series progresses.

Yes, there are some cute moments (eg some of the scenes of the two leads bickering with each other, and the scenes where Jin ZeYi professes his love for Luo TianRan), but other than that, I thought that the series was too draggy and dull in many parts. It also wasn't helpful that the two leads, while individually attractive and appealing, have almost zero on screen chemistry. The acting was average to below average, saved only partially by a strong performance by some of the supporting cast members such as the actress who plays Tiffany.

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Midsummer is Full of Love seemed interesting to me when the trailer came out. At first, I couldn't make out that it would be the remake of Full House. However I did some research and decided to give it a try in spite of the mixed reviews it was receiving.

STORY + CHARACTERS:
Nothing special - it's a cliche done multiple times before. However, I felt like this version had a charm that maybe the older versions lacked. The story isn't ground-breaking by any means but it kept me entertained enough. It has a fresh cast that pulled me in, with a beautiful summer backdrop (what a BEAUTIFUL house and LOCATION it was) and some cute scenes. Our leads are young and blend well. The heroine is sweet and stays innocently so till the end. The male lead is a bit immature but he was more likable than other version leads. What I liked was that the story wasn't replicated 100% but still retained the charm that Full House series has to offer. They did away with some infuriating plots and added other annoying ones - which leads me to rate it lower than my enjoyment factor.

The story drags in places and in some places the pacing was fine. I had a SLS syndrome in this version although the childhood angle was cheesy as heck. I wish they the main leads had more romance but I liked that the male lead was sincere towards the female lead more than the previous versions. He was always respectful to her, which I liked (original version had yelling all the time). There was no female childhood love interest which he pined after which was a PLUS. The unexpected amnesia plot and the ending made no sense to me otherwise I would have rated it higher.

CAST:
I don't think the cast were great at acting. However they were charming - especially the main leads and the 2nd male lead. The actors were what kept me glued till the end and I was unable to drop this drama. Even the female lead's friends were well-casted and were very good-looking. I must admit the visuals of the cast added to the overall likability of the drama. The parents and grandma were all likable as well which I enjoyed.

MUSIC:
I skipped the music scenes. I barely ever make out the OST of C-dramas because I always turn down the volume and watch as I can't stand the dubbing much.

OVERALL:
I'd recommend to watch this if you have nothing to do. I happened to have a bit of free time and patience hence I rolled with it. It wasn't a memorable drama but it was worth my time and I enjoyed giving this a chance.

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