Only for Love (2023)

You can only enjoy this drama if you throw logic away. Great actors, very bad script and editing.

This drama had a promising start but wasn't able to keep up till the end due to a really terrible script that throws logic away. If you want to watch a drama just for the sweet and heart fluttering moments and just shutting off common sense, this can be an enjoyable drama as we have at least five (5) pairs:
1. ML and FL
2. 2ML and 2FL
3. 3ML and 3FL
4. 3ML Father and FL's editor-in-chief
5. ML's assistant and FL's office friend

For me who cannot fathom glaring flaws in storytelling, it's a bad watching experience. The screenwriter seems to lack ideas so a lot of plots are recycled over and over again.
Case#1: Moments between two leads keep getting interrupted by either a phone call or somebody else, then FL will run away and hide.
Case#2: When FL is saying something else in her mind but ended up saying something else in reality
Case#3: Car ride scenes

The FL's character was also written poorly where she was supposed to be a top notch magazine writer that could land big shot interviews for their magazine, thus, who should have 1) good communication skills and 2) excellent EQ but a lot of misunderstandings happen due to her lack of these two. It started with her misunderstanding about who the mistress' "uncle" was and just proceeded with her thought that it was the ML. As a writer, she should have good investigative skills and thoroughly checked the identity of said uncle. This defies the logic of her character. She also is written as someone who supposedly values honesty but her actions towards ML roots from a lie. When her lie was exposed, she didn't give the ML a proper apology. She only apologize for the sake of their collaboration with her digital magazine. Even if deep inside she wanted to say sorry, in reality she just keeps talking about work. And this was dragged for so long. There are multiple scenarios when she could have said "I'm sorry" sincerely but no, the writer dragged this out. And when the ML got really mad at her and decided to keep away from her, she made herself the victim. I can go on and on about the flaws in logic I saw in this drama as there are too many to mention. If it's only a few, I could have ignored those flaws and enjoy this. Thus, story is 3/10.

The OSTs are good but didn't leave a mark on me so 5/10.

The only salvaging point of this drama are the excellent acting of all the actors. Thus, I rated Acting/Cast category as 9/10. I could feel the sizzling chemistry between the leads. And you can see how they work so hard portraying the roles given to them. That I appreciate much knowing how hard they worked on this drama for several months.

So, watch at your own risk. I would never recommend this drama to others nor will I rewatch this in the future. 1/10

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They have popular stars, that is about it?

When I knew this was another story about a controlling/dominant CEO, I hesitated.
I still give it a try since it has Bai Lu and Dylan.
I find the series has the popular stars , but the rest does not impress me. The story is not interesting and it keeps dragging. I don't know if it is the script or the director, I can't feel/see how their love developed.
What is with phone ringing every time when they are about to kiss? If the FL is not ready, can 't they make her telling ML she isn't ready? Why always overuse the phone ringing or 3rd party as interruption? Once may be OK, but this one, multiple times. It is tiring to watch.
The characters, how they handle love are frustrating me as well. ( I might like them better when they are handling work and rival).
Their 'love" may start to show some progress near episode 20 , but I am already worn out and losing my interest with this show.

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Ordinary sweet love story but did not really catch interest.

I am honestly so disappointed how it all went to certain extent. The drama was good only because it had all the popular and highly anticipated actors in it. Yeah, we had a lots of famous figures in it, who are quite popular in lots of famous dramas which have got the best drama recognition from viewers. But the story was disappointing.
Looking back at the comment section, you can guess, how much highly anticipated drama this was, so maybe that's the reason for the heavy disappointed, probably because we expected too much.
Now, coming to WHY DISAPPOINTING?

- Character sketch: Apparently, the character sketch of fl, and her bestie disappointed me the most in the whole story. One is weak and dumb when misunderstandings stand, other is worse in giving advices, and barely held her own relationship. It kinda annoyed me that everytime, their male partners were the one taking initiative, yet they kept acting as if they were being ignored and excluded.

- Plot- too ordinary, too flat, too uninteresting. Once again I would say, it barely got so many viewers because it had popular actors, literally so many popular actors. Even the supporting characters acting mother, father and colleagues are quite famous. That's the only reason it was continued by so many and not dropped. Mainly because we expected since it has our fav actors. The plot seemed a lot draggy.
I am guessing all of the popular actors took this because they wanted to expand their reach internationally, since these kinda modern sweet love stories attract the foreign viewers first, that isthe genre us foreign viewers all started with, when we entered the Cdrama industry. But to the regular viewers, who have been regular watchers of their dramas, it turned out to be a flop :(
Umm, that's all I guess was there to it. That was my personal opinion, I hope, you would have happy time seeing this, and it won't seem disappointment to you, like it did to us. Happy watching!

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Fantastic cast. Horrible script. Lighthearted mindless watch.

I’m only giving it a higher rating because of the actors. I don’t recommend this drama. I usually start my reviews by writing about the general plot of the drama. But the plot is non-existent here. Not only that but the main romance is so ridiculous! Adults who are in the most superficial relationships and communicate like teenagers. It saddens me to say that the script is trash as I love the actors but their talents were seriously wasted here.

POSITIVE:
- Easy to watch before you go to sleep or if you’ve had a long day of work and just want to relax.
- Fantastic cast (literally the only reason I didn’t drop this drama).

NEGATIVE:
- Superficial relationships with childish communication.
- Conflicts that could have been solved with one sentence dragged on for many episodes.
- Stupid “romance” consisting of texting 24/7 of small talk and staring at each other for no reason.
- Zero character development. Zero deep conversations. Just extremely shallow relationships.
- Non-existent plot. Literally nothing happens in this drama. Nothing! All they do is stare at each other, have small talks at dinner, text useless things and go to boring work meetings.
- Kiss scenes were cut! One in particular snowy kiss of Bai Lu and Dylan was shot for 3 hours but on screen shown for 2 seconds.
- BTS of Bai Lu and Dylan are better and cuter than the whole drama which sounds crazy to me when I write it but it’s true.
- Business talks were ridiculous filler scenes.
- Too long and draggy (it would have been better if it was only 24 episodes). I’m sure the 36 episodes were done for more money.
- Underwhelming ending. After 36 episodes you don’t even get to see the wedding of the main leads unless you watch the special episode.
- Secondary couple with the biggest commitment issues was depressing to watch most of the time.
- Weird camera angles. Horrible white filter that makes the actors look like vampires (this might have been fixed by the network later).
- Aesthetic wasn’t appealing. The outfits and the settings were not nice to look at.

COUPLES:
Main couple: their romance was just texting stupid things 24/7 and having small talks during dinner. In 36 episodes they never had even ONE deep conversation about life. This made their relationship feel extremely superficial, shallow and meaningless. Their chemistry was kind of on and off. When he was assertive I liked it but when she was chasing him, it felt forced. At some point when the female lead continued to chase him after many rejections, she looked like she had no self-respect.

Second couple: they started off as the hottest and sexiest couple in the drama but ended up being the most depressing one. Their fun cat and mouse game turned into seeing them depressed 24/7 as they both had commitment issues. Just like the first couple, their relationship had zero communication and felt very shallow.

Third couple: the niece and professor were the best couple for me. Although too repetitive at first as the girl chased him (just like the female lead chased the male lead), their relationship developed more organically. They actually TALKED like normal adults. And resolved conflicts better than the other couples. Unfortunately they didn’t have enough screen time which is a shame as they were the most likeable characters.

OVERALL: If you want to watch a lighthearted mindless drama before you go to sleep, without any character development and adults who communicate like teenagers, this is for you.

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Basically a cute dumpster fire

I think most students learn to write summary statements for stories in elementary/secondary school, if I recall correctly; sadly, this one would be unbearably difficult to write one for. Perhaps it's the poor writing, or the combination of fluff scenes with no intention/purpose whatsoever and a typical, overdone romance plot... or is it the absolute empty-headedness behind each and every one of the supposedly intelligent characters? Regardless, these factors make for a drama with a storyline held together by a single thread and simply not worth watching.

Where do I even start? Ah, maybe the characters that are so easily contemptible...

The FL has got to be one of the most braindead characters I have ever seen. Going into the drama's first few episodes, admittedly, I was pretty interested in her- what's not to like about a smart, strong, bubbly, yet ambitious female lead? With most C-dramas portraying the FLs as weaker, cutesy (at best), and mellow (not that there's anything wrong with that), this one was a promising change of pace where the FL (Zheng Shu Yi) chased the ML and established herself in a difficult career... but oh. OH. Now, we're flopping. By episode 26, ZSY became absolutely unbearable. She did not represent any love or affection, loyalty or caring, etc. towards the male lead more so than a warning against all male audience members against similar women (oh, the woe). She ended up going out a couple times with another man during the 'break-up, cold shoulder stage of all C-dramas that we just can't do without apparently', who she knew harbored romantic interest for her. But of course, we have the ML to love her despite all her brainlessness and lack of morality...

The ML, Shi Yan, could easily be the subject of a tragic love story- one of unrequited love. While you could say some of the relationship faults (communication, etc.) were his, he probably didn't deserve what he got from the naive female lead. Furthermore, his lack of personality and development just did not make him stand out... at this point I remember only that he's quite good-looking and one of those 'tsundere' (in anime terms) characters that pop up here and there.

With that being said, the side characters do manage to salvage the show. The second lead couple is cute and depicted realistically, and over time, I just wanted more screen time for them and less for the main pairing. This one's worth watching, especially to get to know the lesser known female actress who does a beautiful job portraying the bubbly, warm, and affectionate Qin Shi Yue.

I guess that's about it for the characters. Moving on the story, it was more of a culmination of fluff scenes (with no real purpose in the development of the characters' relationships) and every dumpster-fire trope (love triangles, distrust, break-up and then back together, etc.) that's ever existed. It's not really worth paying attention to, and beyond the love story, there isn't much to explain about the story. It's not particularly memorable, either... actually, it's just pretty terrible. The holes and lack of logic is too much for even me (who fills in most logical gaps for shows because I notice them easily).

BUT, this drama does have a saving grace.

To those who love an eye-candy main pairing and cute scenes, some of the scenes are cute enough to watch separate from the drama and the two lead actors do a great job for what they're given. Bai Lu's wonderful (as always) and Wang Hedi portrayed Shi Yan handsomely (though it's not like I couldn't imagine another actor doing the job). The 2nd leads were wonderful as well (Shen Yu Jie particularly), and I would definitely look to find more of her shows.

The music isn't bad either, and reminds me of the typical modern-drama music. Nothing special about it, but definitely nothing bad either. The lyrics are pretty cute for what it's worth and the songs are not absolutely terrible to listen to : )

So, to conclude this long review (hopefully not to boring), you should watch this only if you like cute scenes between two very charming actors. Or, if you watch just the beginning episodes, it's bound to be nice. But if you want a drama that you remember until the end of time, or one with beautiful writing, or one with a realistic, logical love story, please, PLEASE do not watch this. There are better things to spend your time on.

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Staying a bit too true to the source material, failing to make a enjoyable TV adaptation

Zheng Shuyi (played by Bai Lu) is an ambitious reporter for a financial newspaper. In order to write another cover story, she wants to interview well-known entrepreneur Shi Yan (played by Dylan Wang). The only distraction from her ambition comes from her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, who is cheating on her with another woman. Zheng Shuyi vows revenge by focusing even more on her career - and seducing the rich uncle of her ex's new girlfriend. A series of misunderstandings leads her to accidentally mistake Shi Yan for him. And then there's Shi Yan's real niece Qin Shi Yue (played by Shen Yu Jie), who soon starts working as an intern at the Zheng Shuyi newspaper under a secret identity. Follow their tangled love story through 36 episodes of misunderstandings, awkward car rides and boring business talks.

I never have high expectations of modern dramas, but the combination of Bai Lu and Dylan Wang got me excited. There were quite a few scenes that made me giggle like a teenage girl, and some of the suspense kept me coming back to the show every day. However, there are a lot of things wrong with this show.

The main problem is the failed attempt to transfer the charm and humor of the web novel directly to the drama, without making an adaptation based on the different type of media. There were many scenes that had the typical web novel/manga elements - frozen characters, puppy eyes, awkward silences. As drawings, these are usually expressed with additional text or symbols. Since this kind of editing is only done in variety shows, all we got was the characters staring at each other or making awkward facial expressions. The show also failed to use music to convey the meaning of these scenes. This left us with a drama that lacked chemistry between the leads and made the acting seem wooden and boring - and this in a drama with the queen of chemistry!

On top of that, the show lacked an interesting subplot. Almost all the exciting scenes and anticipated revelations were related to the niece, who became my favorite character. The business scenes were incredibly badly written. At times, it felt like they had just used placeholder lines instead of writing actual dialogue.

This all contributed to a disappointing drama with some of my favorite actors. If you are a fan, the drama is still is partly enjoyable, but ultimately the weakest work in both Bai Lu's and Dylan Wang's filmography.

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A little flat in the beginning just skip to episode 9

First episode started with a bang # heatbreak, it flow nicely didn't have to force to watch it, it looks promising ? I cant wait to see what's to come.

Second episode is boring found myself more on my phone than watching it, maybe it was because I came straight from a 40 episode fairly tale drama. IDK.

However for the sake on Dylan and Bai Lu I'll watch it.

Am on episode 7, nothing spectacular is happening so far, no chemistry between the male & female lead.
and the story line is flat.

I think for these two amazing actor and actress this drama was not fitting.

I will give it until episode 11 if I dont see magic unfortunately ? I may have to drop it.
its making me sad writing this, I was counting down the days for its release.?
But I can't hide the truth its boring. ? ? ? ?

What's CHANGE. (Update)
FROM episode 9, it gets better, a few jokes, a bit more chemistry between the ml & fl and the other actors are starting to get into there characters, and a few story line is coming alive.
I'll update as it gets better or worse.

Getting there!! Update.
Ok so its getting a little captivating, you know that drug feeling when your watching a drama and you got a little busy so you had to stop watching, but you can't wait to get back into it, its on your mind all day!! Yes" Only for love," is getting to that mental dopamine stage.
And Episode 14 is straight out of, fifty shades of grey, jealously inspired scene.

You might read alot of reviews that said its boring, you will notice 95% of them that said its boring didn't make it pass episode 10 lol ? ? almost including me.

And the other percentage of reviewers will tell you. Have patience and watch on! I will tell you, I encourage you to watch on.
But if your a little impatient just skip the entire 10 first episodes lol trust me you won't miss much... ?
Ok back to the drama I go, cause I do it " Only for love, "
?
Ciao.

Ok am now at episode 27, from 24 to 27 was rather boring, with scenes that didn't make much impact, and the story line got drawn out. Heavy sigh ? I am still going with it tho, I have hopes it will get better. The music choice is also boring ? ? ?
King The Land is a similar drama much more captivating.
Well just finished episode 28 that also lack emotional connection so safe to same it was boring. ? will still watch because all a fan of Dylan and Bai Lui. I think maybe Dylan & Bai Lui is big of star for this drama. ? However we shall tug away with them until the end.

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"Chasing Dreams and Chasing Love---->Only for Love"

"Only for Love" is this rad drama that's airing right now, and it's flipping the script on the typical romance story. Instead of the usual girl-getting-pursued-by-a-guy scenario, this show's got our girl Shu Yi going after the super handsome, but oh-so-stiff Shi Yan. And let me tell you, Shu Yi is all sorts of adorable with her funny faces and cute antics that had me in stitches. I was laughing so hard that my family thought I'd lost it, wondering what on earth I was watching.

But what's really cool about Shu Yi is that she doesn't waste her time moping over some jerk who did her wrong. Nope, she's got big dreams and isn't afraid to go after them, even if it means chasing after a guy. When she straight-up asked Shi Yan, "Can I pursue you?" I almost choked on my water – that's some serious girl power right there! She's become like a role model for girls who are out there chasing their dreams.

"Only for Love" isn't just another mushy-gushy romance drama. It's all about showing how hardworking and ambitious women can be. Shu Yi is all about her career, and it's super inspiring to see her go after her goals with such determination.

The soundtrack in this show is lit – the music fits each scene perfectly. The funny moments with Shu Yi and Shi Yan are made even funnier with the background tunes. It's on point.

Now, let's talk about Bailu and her character, Shu Yi. She's got some intense staring going on, and it's a little cringe, to be honest. But it's also cute in a weird way. She's got these inner monologues that are totally over-the-top and immature, and I can't help but smile at them.

So far, the chemistry between Shu Yi and Shi Yan isn't full-blown romantic, but we're all waiting for that moment when he does something super cute or makes a grand declaration of love. Right now, there's no clear villain in the story, which is kinda different, but it seems like this show is all about being cute and romantic.

Overall, "Only for Love" is a breath of fresh air in the romance drama scene. It's got relatable characters, a strong message about pursuing dreams, and a killer soundtrack. Sure, it's got some quirks, but that's what makes it stand out. We're all just waiting to see how Shu Yi and Shi Yan's romance unfolds and if it'll get even more adorable in the future.So, don't miss out on this unique and charming drama that's got all the ingredients to win your heart.

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I tried. I tried really hard!! I stayed with this drama for the leads but I finally had to admit defeat. A drama with more internal dialogue than actual communication and even then, I didn’t understand the push and pull. ML as a CEO just wasn’t convincing enough… even with his glasses. He was socially awkward, borderline Asperger, and just off. He liked FL yet refused to do the simple things for her like give her a ride. He acted like such a jerk cuz he liked her? Umm… you’re a 30 year old CEO. FL… so smart, so resourceful as a reporter… yet she didn’t find out all the facts before making decisions in her relationship. I assumed it would be second nature to think inquisitively and see all perspectives as a journalist.

And the music. The build up … that flopped more times than not with FL running away or the phone ringing. Drama has a serious case of FOMO. Voice mail is built in for a reason. You are important but it’s okay to not answer and check your voicemail once in a while!

Oh well…may their next drama be better than this one!

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Missed opportunity

I was so hopeful but I can’t say I loved this one and I’m a fan of both of the leads. I like the idea of a smart career woman being dedicated and good at what she does. I love a man that follows his path as well. That being said our two leads were academically and business smart but had the social/relationship competency of 12 year olds (not cute or entertaining).


The cons: misunderstandings lasted until episode 31; direct communication was very poor, they talked more in their head than directly to each other. They texted more than they talked. I’ve never seen so much screen time on screen. It lasted until the end. The relationship remained undefined for so long and then when it was, it was a break in it.
I ML was suppose to be domineering business man but it didn’t seem to fit or maybe it was just that he never lightens up. Usually you see a change, it kept it going.

I so wonder what it would have been like, it they spoke a quarter of their internal thoughts that the viewers heard. It could have made it much better.

I can accept a misunderstanding but I hate when it’s dragged out and poor communication. Although we’d all love a smooth sailing romance, I don’t think I could say there were any swoon worthy moments. I think I got whiplash.

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