Only for Love (2023)

Romance Drama Perfection!

Disclaimer first: I'm a huge Dylan Wang fan since MG2018, so some bias may occur.

If you're a fan of the 'OMG when will they finally end up together and get over themselves??' - genre, this is the drama for you. The sweet taste of frustration when any of the characters does not speak their mind and/or heart, letting misunderstandings rise and being unnecessarily shy or insecure. It's horrible, but I love it. Especially when these shenanigans are being portrayed so perfectly as here. ALL 3 (or 4, if you count the boss lady and the uncle) have this trick down hard.
It's a drama like a one of those paperback romance novels. Including the hothothot kisses. I will for sure put this one high up on my re-watch list!!

This is the 3rd drama I've seen with Bai Lu and Dylan Wang as leads and I must say they are indeed a match made in heaven. Their chemistry is electric and they are so natural together. Bai Lu has great chemistry with more actors, but this pairing is exceptional.
Dylan Wang is getting better and better, but his best performance is still the 'Tsundere', the on the surface cold and distant man, but when thawed is a big bowl of charm.
This couple is playing the attract and reject game like pro's. I have been yelling at the screen at them en almost cried in frustration. They could have been married with kids in the first 10 eps, but instead choose to listen to horrible advise and their own huge inferiority complexes. Even a monk telling them they're meant to be doesn't help.
The 2nd couple is possibly even worse! 2 people very much in love but both thinking the other likes their freedom more than them and purposely misunderstanding or running away. Aarrrgghhh. I love it. It keeps me continuously entertained and invested.

Even though there's continuous drama, it never gets boring or bland. This is mostly due to the actors, who are so good at emoting and subtext. The best scene? For me the suduction sequence, where FL tries to get ML to sleep with her, but he has no clue, until he literally gets the message.

Does this drama have Red Flags? Ohhh yess. Many. Women as well as men. All of them have their own shade of red.
Does this drama have cliche's ? Almost nothing but. But that's also why it's so comforting and appealing to me. I really miss these kind of cliche's done well. Here they're done perfectly.
Is this drama for everyone? Probably not, but who cares? Give it a try!

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You will either love or hate this drama

As the title goes, you will either love or hate this drama. I guess the fact that I listed love before hate is a clue that I liked the drama. Admitedly it isn't the best drama but at the same time I don't consider it a bad one. For me this also isn't the best Bai Lu or Dylan Wang starrer, but one of the things I really liked about the drama is their very strong chemistry.

Bai Lu is Bai Lu what more can I say. She was perfectly cast to play Zheng Shuyi. Honestly I've never seen her look bad in any style of dress she wears in her dramas and she does look good in red and also black for that matter. I appreciate the way she can shift from being jolly one moment then sad the next. When she cries I feel sad too. Without being sexist IMHO Zheng Shuyi has the bigger share of the blame between the two. If I put it into numbers, I would say 55 vs 45. She was already told for the professor that the way she apologized to Shi Yan wasn't appropriate because she kept on using her work as the excuse instead of apologizing as proper boyfriend and girlfriend. She simply has too much pride that it is getting in the way of her love. The only thing that I didn't like about her character was she kept on accomodating the advances of the younger suitor. If she loves Shi Yan as she keeps on saying then simply tell the other guy sorry and be done with it.

Dylan's being cast as Shi Yan was also good because he looks the part of an aloof CEO. Between the two leads Dylan's character has less emotional range because he hasn't really let go of his emotions. Shuyi has cried a lot but Shi Yan tries to drown everything with alcohol. I said above that both are at fault for their break up, and the only reason why he had the smaller blame was due to the fact that Shuyi approached her with ulterior motive. But what he did after wasn't really good. He also has too much pride and regardless if Shuyi kept on mentioning the colloboration between their companies, instead of banging his phone on the table, he should have just kept his emotions in check. The straw that broke Shuyi's back was his double edged statement with the reporter's of talking things out instead of walking away. It was already too late when he tried to message Shuyi only to find out they are no longer friends in WeChat. Well he did do it first to Shuyi.

I guess the Chinese writers are taking notes from South Korean writers now. They are getting good in annoying the viewers by dragging out the suffering of the two lovebirds. I guess a polite way of saying this is too much filler episodes. Can't be helped though with a total of five pair of lovebirds in the story. Regarding the other lovebirds I prefer the niece and the professor over the reporter and the muscle car driving rich guy.

I know this is a happy ending because there is a wedding in the opening credits, so I will soldier on with the last 6 episodes. I just hope there is less scenes involving the annoying suitor and please please please don't reconcile on episode 36. Give the viewers a few episodes of happiness by reconciling in episode 34 or 35 at the latest. Depending on what happens in the last 6 episodes my rating of this drama will either go up or down.

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7 couples and phones, but still sweet

I came for Bai Lu, and despite the sometimes infuriating story with constant phone interruptions leading progression back to square one, and the plethora of couples to keep track of (almost like south American latin soap operas!) there were many nice moments, and a very sweet ending to this drama, especially for those who got to 36.5 to have the leads wedding ceremony and not only one of less colorful couples' one.

The story has no less than 7 couples :
1/ Shi Yan and Shuyi, of course (Wang Hedi and Bai Lu manage to make their contradictory characters keep interesting, even though detractors will have a ball that a successful capitalist is so little outspoken, and the successful reporter is so flirty, childish, and unable to escape the snares of her own deceptions. Before the satisfying owning up and getting to last episodes, with hearts, flowers, and everything romance audience wish for.) ;
2/ Yu You and Qin Shiyue (Miles Wei Zheming and Shen Yu Jie, very young woman and an older university professor, reluctant to accept her forthright requests);
3/ Guan Ji and Bi Ruoshan (Liu Dongqin and Jiang Peiyao ; one of the "three musketeers" of the company, wealthy heir, but profligate, and seemingly butterflying best friend of Shuyi despite working in a different news agency) ;
4/ Yue Xingzhou and Qin Lezhi (from the start, they are despicable and represent the worst of yuppies who rely on schemes and corruption to hide their lack of trustworthiness, of filial attitude, and of work ethics.)
5/ Guan XiangCheng and Tang Yi (Nie Yuan and Zeng Li, the father of Guan Ji and the editor of the financial news company, who have a hidden affair) ;
6/ Chen Sheng and "Nan Nan" Kong Nan (Liu Ming Hao and Vian Wang; Shi Yi's assistant and Shuyi's tablemate in the office, who strike up a sweet acquaintance in the first half of the drama, but don't hog much time) ;
7/ Shi Wenguang and "Song Le Lan" (Kou Zhenhai and Zhou Xuan who has sung a couple of well-received songs in the past, but is not really that well known a pop singer, more known as actress in support roles ; they play Shi Yan's dad and his idol singer mother, who are so discreet that Shuyi does not get to,know their identity until last episodes.)
To these 7 couples, we might add the mother of Shuyi who wants her to get married asap, perhaps wanting more security for her daughter Shuyi, who also has a stepdad (played by Shi Yu) This couple is not much shown together.
Yu You's dad and mom are also not much shown.

Some third wheels, either over confident or straight antagonists are :
Xu Yuling (played by An YueXi) who is the jealous colleague of Shuyi ;
Fiona (played by Tu Zhiying) a young student returnee who thought her familiarity with Shi Yi would help her romantically and professionally, but had to realize it was her wish thinking ;
Yi Yang (played by Daniel Zhou) a "dark horse" indeed who set his aim too high and ended up, as expected, beaten into toeing the line set by Shi Yi in love and business;
and the relentless phones!

The story was adapted from Qiao Yao 's novel " Wrong Flirting ", supposedly rather true to original. Despite a good start (albeit rather expected story line there in those beginning episodes) it became rather chaotic, even frustrating at times. But it also had some beautiful, cute, exciting, or fun moments : the visit to the temple, the quote of a line of poetry (Du Fu's famous poem 客至 ké zhì, that is attached to the landmark Du Fu thatched cottage in Chengdu, Sichuan), the climbing tree and fairy coaxing, the standing together for inspection of factory; the comforting Shi Yi in his "darkest moment" when Yi Yang snatched the lead in the tech companies ; the last episodes of Shi Yi and Shuyi's relationship, the "Call Me Uncle" quip (that embodied the complicated Chinese family ties hidden in the drama)..... These ending episodes made up for some frustration that could have accumulated on the way. I even found myself going back re-watching some of the cute and sweet moments, looking at the Beijing cityscape of the high tech district, the pictures of the temple (perhaps Zhizhe temple in Jinhua, Zhejiang) and other cityscapes : "jiang Cheng" city could be in Zhejiang, there is a brief glimpse of the Zhejiang water city of Wuzhen, and perhaps another city. Filming took place in Zhejiang according to Baidu, between November 22, 2022, and March 20, 2023, so it was remarkable that it took so little time to air 2023-Nov-03 to 2023-Nov-22, with the 36 episodes scheduled + the 36.5 additional one that shows the wedding of the leads.

The 11 song OST with theme song Passer by (sung by Zhou Shen) and episodes' ending theme song Lemon Soda (cute song, sung by Lai Meiyun) was quite nice. Full OST can be listened to on YouTube, and translation MVs of Only for Love songs lyrics have been posted there by Peachey Blossom. But I am not sure what were the titles of the snippets of songs Dong Xuan sang nicely, when she acted the singer on stage, in episode 10.

In a year when three dramas featuring Bai Lu were aired (Till The End of The Moon earlier, and Story of Kunning Palace, almost simultaneously to Only For Love) this drama of course elicited heated comparisons and even some controversies. To my mind, it is not really fair to compare such very different dramas. In my personal scale of Bai Lu dramas, it may remain among the "lesser ones", because TTEOTM and One and Only, even Arsenal Military Academy and SOKP are going to rank first in costume categories (ancient or Republican era) and OFL will also rank behind Love is Sweet in the modern office drama category, where Luo Yunxi proved a more versatile actor than Dylan Wang Hedi in this one. Nevertheless, although I had a bias about his acting too much with same expressions as his former Daoming Si (MG) and Devil (LBFAD) characters, I still think Wang Hedi did honorably well as Shi Yi in this drama enough that this drama will not be dismissed in his growing filmography.

Do I recommend Only For Love ? Yes, this drama is, despite its quirks and flaws, quite watchable for those who have time, don't mind the quirks mentioned, like either or both leads, and don't go fast forwarding at each secondary couple or phone alarm. But maybe it is not for everybody if the frustration level outweighs the rest. But it does not deserve the venom of a certain Youtuber lady (who never watches till end what she guns down, and is proud to spew what she read elsewhere after having "watched" trailers, or a couple episodes). Since I liked Only For Love nonetheless, I will not be stingy with rating, but it is my own rating for my own list. I totally understand others could disagree, or even rate it higher.

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Only when You have Time

This series was packed with a wonderful cast, good locations and decent storyline. However, when our overly educated leads lack decent critical thinking skills personally, it makes the flow of the series lack-luster. This drama was a slow burn romance with swoon-worthy moments near the end. The ML and FL had good chemistry yet on and off relatable communication which led to filler episodes that could have been left on the cutting room floor. The support cast was great with their give and take of trial tribulation, minor distractions and sub-plot romance developments. The business aspect was intriguing and not overbearing. The OST was just right for the 'feel' and 'tension' of the intent of the drama. The series overall is good with parts that drag and an opened-end finish. Nevertheless, due to cast and production, it is a solid watch.

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Misunderstanding, Misinformation, Misleading, Misinterpretation; Just an Overall Miss

Have never seen the leads before this so was interested to see how they did. All I can say is that I hope their past and future work has better scripts than this absolute mess of one. The novel readers made it sound great and interesting with a new concept but instead it was a misunderstanding, with misinformation, misleading, misinterpretation, basically an overall miss.

Pros: Literally the chemistry of the leads and second leads, working relationships. The business aspects of it as it showed how different firms worked. Some comedy. That was it! The actors did as well as they could with the shredded mess they were given. I under no circumstances fault them.

Cons: Who in the 21st century still writes FL's with zilch EQs? Nearly 30 episodes of 36 revolved around a misunderstanding so absurd I don't know how it was even pulled off. FL took some dumb chick's who broke up her already ridiculous relationship words as gospel instead of finding out the truth as she was supposed to be some brainiac reporter and with that proceeded to act cringey beyond belief trying to get close to ML a CEO at new but major company. The bestie with her dumb as bricks advice that made things worse when she couldn't make her own life work made you want to scream.

When the truth came out finally, the FL still didn't reveal it to ML even though both had genuinely fallen for each other. Their relationship was originally built on a lie and once exposed it naturally crumbled. The FL was a selfish, self-absorbed moron that I wouldn't have forgiven as easily as the ML did. This show could have been made just fine with 24 or 26 episodes. The dragging of the ridiculous lies and misinformation, was unnecessary.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely not. This is probably one of my shortest reviews but nothing after the leads got back together even redeemed it for me. I am watching BL in a costume drama right now where she's killing it and I hope to see Dylan in the future in a great written drama. Save yourselves the aggravation and just run.

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Another overhyped mediocre drama

The obvious drag of a simple story line, mature but cringe fl,their phone playing 50% role in the drama,the flaws goes on.The toxicity this drama shows makes the drama a little overwhelming.
Let me start with the middle school flirting skills of the fl though the drama shows her as someone mature. The bestfriends having no quality of being Bestfriends cz nobody actually shares what they are upto with each other.Always lying or trying to cover up.The bestie of fl pissed me off so much,cz she was a major source of bad relationship advise anyone could give,she herself was unable to have a proper healthy relationship.The lack of communication between each other,The miscommunication is such a overkill throughout the drama.The only sensible character being the niece. And female antagonist being actually a victim of constant criticism and lack of support which the fl gets everywhere.Started at a good pace but ends up being an obvious skip able drama

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Cellphones Do Not Have Silence Options in the Only for Love World

Okay…

I started this despite not being a fan of modern/contemporary Chinese romance dramas because these usually feature nonsensically convoluted plots and too many misunderstandings. However, I like both main leads and wanted to watch something with Dylan since I will not be watching his other dramas from this year. I thought that having other cast members, like Bai Lu, Wei Zheng Ming, and Lui Dong Qin, all of whom I also liked even if I didn’t fully enjoy the shows they were in, would make it more bearable. It did not. I never expected a masterpiece, but had hoped for a decent story with relatable characters or at least characters who would allow me to live vicariously through them. This, also, did not happen.

The premise of the show was all based on a misunderstanding which dragged on for too long. On top of this, there were other couples whose dynamics were fun at first, but later entered the realm of toxic and stalkerish. As if having already three dysfunctional couples wasn’t enough, at around the 20th episode yet another couple was added.

Another part that bothered me was the romance between the main leads. I usually like slow burn romances, it gets me excited for when the fire finally consumes them and they cannot “fight that feeling anymore”, but for the love of all sacred monkeys, this wasn’t even a slowburn, it was almost no burn and the damned cell phone ringing was the main character, as one of the watchers so aptly commented. Someone wanted to clarify something, the phone rang. Someone wanted to confess, the damned phone rang again. Someone was about to kiss, you guessed it, the phone rang. It’s as if they didn’t know phones have silence options.

On top of this, some scenes that looked like they were finally going to get things rolling ended too abruptly. For the first kiss scene, I blinked and almost missed the kiss. There were too many filler-like scenes which featured their workplaces, business dealings, conferences, introduction of new antagonists, and talking about things I had no desire to listen to, or more specifically read about since I read the subs, especially in Shi Yan’s case. So I fast-forwarded these scenes or, in later episodes, just watched the drama as background noise. This leads me to another issue, this is a romcom. This drama is 36 episodes and personally, I believe romcoms should not be this long. This drama would have probably been a lot more tolerable to watch than it was if they had focused on less, because sometimes less is more. The addition of all those unnecessary subplots made it draggy and boring.

I don’t remember the OST and I do not plan on rewatching or recommending this to anyone. I added .5 because despite the drama being terrible, I still like Dylan Wang , Miles Wei, Lui Dong Qin, and Bai Lu.

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Needs some improvement

Drama about a boy who has fallen in love with a girl at first sight but he revealed this to her at the end.
Story started with the girl who worked in a news channel or newspaper office where she takes the interview of renowned personality and for this she awarded and at that time she came to know that his boyfriend was cheating her . She tried to overcome from this . Normally it takes I guess minimum fifteen days but in her case she had normal in one day and went to take an interview of renowned business who was the boy . But he didn't react to see her. As it become difficult to take his interview she started fluttering with him just after her broke up . Normally such behaviour would show that she is emotionless. And then she used him ,she made him fool to made him believe that she is pursuing him . He gave many chances to reveal the truth but she always did opposite to it. The day she decided to say him truth but everything was over between them . Now at this stage as viewer I would think she should not forgive. In such type of story normally such girl had shown a villain or a negative character. Here nothing had happened. He still loved her so indirectly again started giving her more chances to say him that she really love him and at this stage true love story started and for this I was waiting but it had only last three episodes.
I liked other two couples also.

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The most important thing I has know about is love is very important.

When is coming to give a Review about this movie is amazing. Besides Watching this movie has shown me that love is very important. And if coming to love is not a joke because love inspires everyone who believes in it, That is why they decided to have this movie to let everyone understand and be inspired by love and happiness. Between That, I'm very grateful that this movie had taught us to understand love. Last least Thank you to the cast and crew who did a great job to let this movie come to life and to everyone to be inspired in love.
Thank you, for reading this I hope the cast and crew might see this and decide to have season 2 in the future. I 10/10 for this awesome movie.

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Ridiculous with poor acting, terrible script, and just plain sexist

Y'all were watching the same drama as me right?

I feel like this drama took MISCOMMUNICATION TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL. I have seen toddlers non-verbally communicate better than these two leads, and frankly all the side characters. And to lie to my face and pretend that these characters are ADULTS, in a professional setting with awards and shit? Shut the fuck up. No seriously. Shut up.

And that one bish second female lead who literally was giving what she thinks was relationship advice, needs to work on holding down a relationship before she speaks. Sure, the female lead was still dumb as hell to begin with, but that bish was saying so many nonsensical things that I wanted to choke her.

The men were suppose to be somehow attractive but I was just confused by all of these idiots. What is so attractive about these type of men? They were awful.

The women felt like traitors to all women-kind acting the way the acted knowing damn well we did not need this shit. It is 2023, stop putting this shit out.

To top of this toxicity and dumb-assery, THERE WAS NO CHEMISTRY in this whole drama. For fuck sake's, AT LEAST have that.

Honestly, I should be blaming myself for watching this when I knew it was bad. I don't know why I did it but I'm only thankful that I at least skimmed through most of it. I don't know who could possible watch every second of this garbage and not skip.

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Not enough love

Sigh. Where do I start? The amount of potential wasted on this series..

The casting is stellar. You got 3 handsome and ridiculously great male leads. You got 3 great actresses for the female leads. And then you get possibly the most immature and dumb female lead.

- Constant misunderstanding
- ZERO communication, only texting or thought bubbles but nothing exchanged between the leads
- FL is written as an idiot, constantly running from kisses or any potential intimate scenes
-ML has no dimension, none, just the typical cold and emotionless

If you want to watch a series that’s about 2 good looking people in their 30s, who only text each other, but never actually communicating, good luck.

I skipped skipped so many scenes. Such a waste of talent.

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