A Romance of the Little Forest (2022)

WATCH IF YOU DONT HAVE ANY OTHER GOOD DRAMAS TO WATCH

- Handsome ML but Irritating FL( Esther is an awesome actress and she can act better than this i.e., i understand it's her voice and she needs to act cute for the story but honestly she was not cute but super irritating. Please watch Moonlight to love Esther and AROTLF to hate Esther)
- Super Cringy second leads. No other comments except waste of time to watch their part.
- Good Direction(with good VFX) but poor storyline.
- Loved the Male Lead and his smile is very touching but if Esther could have supported more this drama could have been a good hit.
- Very Poor acting from Esther in the crying scenes. OMG - couldn't imagine she did the role in Moonlight. I love Esther but if she acts the same way she will be soon thrown out.
- ONLY WATCH IF YOU HAVE NO OTHER GOOD DRAMAS.

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get ready to be besties with your fast forwarding button !!!

I had so much hope for this drama but the writers and editors really just sabotaged it...Don't get what I mean? let me elaborate. Yu Shuxin and Zhang Binbin are honestly so cute together and had so much chemistry but there chemistry alone couldn't save the show. As most of the reviews mention the second couple is what really makes the drama unwatchable, because they are boring and have no chemistry and take up most of the screentime and that's what made the drama bad. Also their are WAYY to many plot holes to the point where you can't really enjoy it anymore. like its so bad to the point where you can't even turn off logic because the plot holes are important to the story. For example how on earth does he not question why she’s leading classes and field trips etc. and has students always around her? He name must even be on the door or something when he went to search for her in Ep. 30. But yet he still doesn’t know she’s a PHD? Would have given the first half of the drama an 8/10, but the second half is taking it down to a 6.
I loved Yu Meiren so much but her as an influencer >>> assistant professor. Also look I love myself some cute FLs like xiao lanhua (shuxins other drama) but yu meirens character regressing was so painful to watch. It’s time for the FL to act like a grown woman who earned a PhD, not a 12 year old that has just discovered the opposite sex. She came on super strong in the beginning, only to retreat to being a literal baby.
Als I thought we were going for the whole you don't have to work a a job that other people generally consider Smart in order to be smart. I was hoping for a whole scene with the male lead where she discussed her motivation for becoming an influencer and how it was something she felt passionately about just as much as birds or whatever. Something so there was depth to the character.
And Zhang yu was just boring, he's pretty but boring
I'll say you should watch the first half because that's really good and cute

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Light & refreshing drama

This story deal about insecurities while growing up at school , where student bully one and another student for being ugly , fat etc sadly it is a social problem these days. Our heroine Yu Mei Ren was one of the victim , for her wearing makeup give her the confidence that she is beautiful. Nevertheless she is smart , intelligent witty and she finished her PHD in Ornithology, her side business she is a beauty blogger where she recommended people buying makeup products. It is fun to watch how she make the cold hearted professor to fall in love ?. Anyway it is a light comedy romantic drama had an Happy ending ! Since she had to wait for a year, since of his research, finally when he publish his research thesis he specially Thank his love Yu Mei Ran . Hope you Guy enjoy watching this drama.

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Casual, Basic, But SWEET!!!!

Okay, I'm dropping this review while I'm still watching.
First, this drama is a basic rom com, I mean, the fluffy one where you smile and get mushy just by watching the leads. Taking a look at Yu Meiren , the female lead who simply sidelines her academic accomplishment to go after her passion for makeup and fashion, becoming a blogger. I found it as a turn off at first , but her charms are just too much and I gave in to her cuteness. She might come of as dumb, but she can actually stand up for her self and hold her confidence to an extent.
And Zhang Bin brought out the charms of a nerdy make lead!!!
I won't say more about the characters.
Generally speaking, this drama is nice and if you need something sweet and light hearted without unnecessary complications. Then this is IT.

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So disappointing... But with great chemistry!

I'll start by what really didn't work for me : like almost every one, the 2nd lead couple.
Non seulement they had way too much screen time but en plus the setup of that deception is really so deep that there should've been no coming back (to be honest I skipped their scenes so I don't really know how he got her to forgive him)

Next, the poachers story doesn't feel organic and is just a way of adding useless scenes and episodes (with all due respect to the wonderful butterfly -worthy scenes of our leads there)

Now the main couple. To be honest, I was expecting something healthier there. The premises work ok for me : She is is funny and the way she's acting OTT is cute. And her bestie is all of us, TV Drama fan almost eating our pop corn on the front seat while a real life drama is unfolding before our eyes. I particularly love when TianTian tells Lv Jian that, as every 2nd ml before him, he's too late :D
Anyway, with the promising start and now being used to really healthy love settings (Forever Love, You are my Glory, Fly with you, Her Private Life...) I was hoping that the story wouldn't drag the "when will they..." For so long.
And ep. 28-30 (where I am right now) there are those useless lies she spouts for no reason. Not fan.

On the up side, I really dig every scene they share. I had vaguely met BinBin in Love O2O and even there is explosive... Sex appeal (??) was not lost for me.
And it was my 1st encounter with Yu Shu Xin. And I really love some expressions she makes with her face. So now Love between Fairy and the Devil got on my list, to see more of her.

I'm sorry my review is a little all over the place, I couldn't seem to organize my mind...
The next one will be more structured.

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Extremely frustrating show

This was a difficult show to rate, because actually there was a lot of things I absolutely loved about it, and there was equally as many things I couldn’t stand.
Zhang Bin Bin and Esther Wu were amazing together. I loved almost everything about them and o found the beginning part of their story quite intriguing. The scenery when they were back in the village was beautiful too and I found the plot concept interesting enough, her initial revenge etc. The couple had stellar chemistry. I loved it up until the ridiculousness of him leaving for a full year and not saying a word about it, she blocked him yes, but my god there was a million other ways to pass a message along to her about what had happened. Why he didn’t for a full year was a ludicrous writing decision.
But I digress

The second leads whole everything was absolutely terrible. I have never skipped portions of a drama in my life before this one, but after suffering thru several episodes of being annoyed by their relationship I came to realize it had 100% nothing to do with the main plot so I started skipping. Best decision ever. What I did see was absolutely awful. Just the guy lying to her over and over again, they drew it out sooooo long before he finally confessed. Strangely, they have so much airtime to this couple. Some episodes it felt like I skipped the majority of the episode cuz it was entirely about their boring relationship.

One thing I did love tho was the music. I would find myself humming the intro song all throughout the day. It’s very beautiful and they played it a lot and I never got bored of it.

I also highly recommend, I think around episode 23 there’s finally an almost kiss scene. It was actually edited out because the FL was drunk in the scene, however you can find it on YouTube and you should stop the show and watch the cut scene imo, because it really hot for one thing, but having it be an actual passionate kiss from both of them totally changes the story.

After that episode tho things really go south. You just get annoyed with the writers for about 10 episodes straight when it’s clear they’re trying to extend the story with nonsense filler. Finally in the last 2 episodes things get back on the rails and it ends really well. But not before driving the viewer crazy with frustration towards the writers. If you watch it, you will understand what I mean.

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That’s time I’m never getting back

The story was soooooo slow! There was so much unnecessary stuff in this drama, my fast forward button really got a workout.

I really didn’t like the FL. Always trying to be “cute”, stalking the ML, and do not even get me started on how irritating her voice was! Why do they tend to use female voices that are so high pitched and irritating? It was like she was talking baby talk through the whole thing.

I’ve seen the ML in other things, and he always plays the same type of character.

So, for me, this was one I’m sorry I wasted my time on.

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A pleasant surprise!

This drama was a surprise and I love it. I started this right after watching Yu Shuxin from LBDAF which I truly enjoyed, and I was not sure what to expect from this drama. I saw the promotional materials of the drama before airing and I have read the summary but did not expect much. Also, I know Zhang Binbin and tried to watch his other recent dramas, but it failed to interest me, so again I was not expecting much.

When I watched the first episode, I was really taken aback by the chemistry of the main leads. I mean I just finished LBDAF and was totally enjoying the main CPs story there, but I personally, I found myself enjoying more the CP here.

This drama is sweet, relaxing and very heartwarming. I also became a fan of Yu Shuxin, who is very, very adorable and Zhang Binbin! I really don’t care much about ZBB before and have watched him from my other fave dramas like Eternal Love and Love O2O but now, I just love him! s

I heard that they are planning to film a Season 2 which says to compensate for the lack of time given to the main CP so hopefully, it will push through and I’m so looking forward to it!

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Beautiful people with a lot of chemistry falling in love...

- The main couple have great chemistry, I loved every moment of them. The show had a lot of problems regarding narrative and pace which I'll talk about later. But the leads are the best part in the show which wasn't a total waste of time just because of them. I loved the way they looked at each other. Esther Yu is so beautiful and cute, she's perfect for the role. While Vin Zhang was also great as the stern professor.

- Second couple started out really annoying. Mostly because of the guy, he just forces situations with her and it's just wrong sometimes. However, from ep 15-ish they became watchable. In the end I began liking them a lot. I just have one thing to say: I felt that they should've told us what was that problem jin xi had in the past that he had been in a wheelchair. I thought they were gonna show us in the end, before he and tiantian reconciled but then it comes the revelation that he had lost his leg and apparently it wasn't related to anything he already had. So I just think this became a loose information in the show, one that could aggregate to the character if used, but was completely forgotten by the writers. And this fact takes me to the main problem with this series, which is its writing.- Right in the beginning things are running smoothly. She had a crush on him in the past and he was an asshole to her (at least that's what she thought) bc she wasn't smart enough. And now she is this stunning beauty influencer who's also a PhD and who wants revenge on him. That was okay. And I was looking forward to how she was gonna do that; how he would react when he find out that he's in love with a girl that's beautiful but not that brilliant until he'd find out that she actually is brilliant. Anyways, it had potential from the beginning. However, it became a little confusing whether the fact that she's a doctorate was really a secret bc at some point it wasn't clear if she was actually hiding this fact from him since when she started ministering classes at uni he acted kinda normal to this and she wasn't hiding from him at uni. So the main plot which is her revenge was completely forgotten by the writers.

- Another thing I found annoying was how the main couple took too long to get together. Although it didn't bother me that much since I was able to enjoy them throughout the series, I couldn't understand why the writers chose this way. They could've become a couple way earlier. There was some point, after he came back from his trip, which she wasn't mad at him anymore like she was in the beginning, but they weren't together either. He was putting so much effort for her to forgive him that I thought this was like a love confession from him to her, and they would finally begin dating after that. At least that's what I thought, but it didn't happen. They were okay, as if they were together, but it wasn't clear. And if you haven't watched the series yet, this is around 30th episode, which means that they got together only in the last episodes. And that becomes a bigger problem since the second couple starts dating way earlier in the series. When the leads finally begin dating the SLs have already dated, broken up, and reconciled. The second couple have a lot more interactions and kiss scenes than the leads. I didn't hate the second leads as many people did, I enjoyed their moments on screen. But the leads had much more chemistry and I wanted to see THEM together. If the writers focused more on the leads or just balanced each couple maybe the story would've been better.

Well, that's it. It's clear this drama had a serious problem regarding its narrative. It was slow at times, the second couple had too much screen-time, and from middle to end it's like the basic plot has been forgot. Although I said a lot of negative things about this drama, I actually liked it. Like I said, the leads have an overflowing chemistry. It wasn't hard for me to keep up with the show cuz they are amazing together on scene. My 8.5 rating is only because of that cause really this show is a 5. I'd reccomend this drama only if you just want to see beautiful people with a lot of chemistry falling in love. Don't expect anything from the story.

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Chill, bubbly and light-hearted drama

It is a chill, bubbly and feel good drama. Though it's nothing too special in terms of story, it's cliché but nevertheless enjoyable.

Things I enjoyed are:
- Main lead's chemistry is so good, each scene is really enjoyable for me. I love replaying their scenes so much.
- The whole drama OST is really good. Especially the Opening and Outro songs, are really good that I could not skip them. (The main leads also sang the Outro song and also side songs from the drama)
- The location, I'll be honest especially the village was so breathtakingly beautiful.
- Zhuang Yu's (ML) character development is good. You see how much Yu Meiren (FL) had affected his character through the series.
- I love how they touch on different careers, a blogger and a professor in botany. Also how they show the importance of conserving birds (wildlife) and the sacrifices that botanists makes for their research.

Cons are:
- Story is a bit dragging and slow
- 2nd leads took most of the screen time, and I really dislike their story so much as it deals with lying about sickness, it wasn't cute. Screenwriters should have done something much different to the 2nd leads story, so that it could be executed better. I really do watch 2nd leads' stories on other dramas, but this was too much and had to skipped them. (Don't feel bad in skipping the second leads)
- There are some plot holes and wish they fleshed out more several parts of the drama especially for the main leads.
- There are times you have to question the main FL, she's known to be really smart but the way she acts might make you question her doings.
- The story had so much potential due to having so many romance troupes, but drama editing and lack of focus on the main leads did not do them and the story any justice. Tbh, there's so many deleted scenes on the main leads especially their kiss scenes; if you are not aware of the deleted scenes the future scenes might not make any sense to why the characters acted like that.
- Related to the last point, I would understand why the first actual kiss was cut out, since FL was not in the right state of mind. But I still wish they have retained it and executed it in a way that one of them would stop. Because it would make FL's action more understandable on the following episodes.

Some people might find this as a con, but it didn't really bother me so much... the main FL is very childish that it can get cringey, and she actually does have a childish voice that it might be grating to others who may dislike this kind of voice. But since this is the actress' real voice, and it does match Yu Meiren's personality, I didn't mind it so much.

I really stayed for the chemistry between the main leads, they made this drama more interesting and I enjoy every interaction between them. I love how it's 'She fell first, but he fell harder'. I enjoyed it much more on the later episodes. But kudos to the team, they really did a good job in casting the main leads and hoping to see these two do another project together in the future.

Zhang Bin Bin really was so handsome and looked so younger in this drama, he did a good job in portraying Zhuang Yu. Let me just say I absolutely love the micro-expressions he does to his character. You can feel how much his character was changing and falling hard for the FL.

While Yu Shuxin, did a wonderful portrayal as Yu Meiren. A very bubbly and sometimes too over the top cutesy acting. But she really gave the character life.

I heard this might get a Season 2, but honestly I wish they just go for a movie or special episode(s) for the main leads. To be honest I want more airtime from the main leads, but not too much to the point it might become dragging again; unless it'll focus on a different main lead and them becoming the 2nd lead or cameo.

Overall:
The drama is just really adorable and enjoyable when you watch the main leads. I really suggest watching this if you just want a chill or non-heavy plot drama to watch. Just skip the second leads' story line, since they don't really contribute much to the main lead's storyline.

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Career oriented drama

Me as an undergraduate botany student, totally loved this drama. First it's completely a new genre. 2nd the writers expressed theie whole respect for botanists and ornithologists. Their sacrifices, thier will to change the world, even thou this subject isn't in a very high demand, i think the world shoud show their respect and fund various labs. Caz they are the ones that can save this earth from being polluted and destroyed.
Coming to the love story, it was cute and pure.
Music, so relaxing
And acring...ahhh on dfrnt level.
I m just in love with Zhang now.
Lastly it's a must watch drama.

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Cute, light and Cringy for a bit???

Watched the drama merely for Esther and got hooked with her chemistry with Vin Zhang. Tbh, the plotline was a typical cheesy rom-com drama and the 2nd CP was way too cringy imo. And the storyline somewhat draggy too. The rating I gave merely because of the chemistry between ML and FL. Their chemistry both on-off screen made me screamed and felt fuzzy inside lol. Hoping for them to work together in the future for historical drama maybe? and also hoping that Esther will potray as strong, empowered female lead in the future since I've seen a lot of feedback online saying that she potrayed same type of female lead character.


p/s: review isnt helpful since I dont know how to write review or comment on the story much. Pls do watch the drama for light and easygoing romance!

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