This review may contain spoilers
One of the better low budget C-dramas
As my headline stated, it was low budget, but the acting and storyline was better than most of the short C-dramas on WeTv. Fortunately, the episodes were in 23 minute allotments rather than the typical 5 minutes or less (those type are so irritating because you've got to skip through the intro to get back to the story). That being said, we still have the 'engagement' to another woman device as well as that 'other woman' being the typical C-drama obsessed nut job who has an inflated opinion of herself. If I only had $1000 for each time I've listened to one of these love rivals demand to know in that screeching voice of theirs - 'Why her and not me?', I could buy myself a nice sports car by now. Granted, a lot of this ML's trouble, he brought upon himself for being too nice to a sick, old Grandpa and passively allowing the psycho chick to think they were really engaged when they weren't. Still, who the hell got the ring for the psycho chick, which she flashed in front of the media whenever she got the chance? And, tell me, was it the same ring ML gave to FL at the end????? Sorry but I'm not wearing a ring that's been on another woman's finger no matter if it was fake or not, fella!ML was likeable and clearly in love with FL from start to finish, but he was too passive when it came to the psycho chick and Grandpa (who are far as I know is dead when all the current stuff is taking place so why is ML letting Gu Jing to believe they're actually engaged?) In my drama experience, there's two types of Chinese MLs when it comes to obsessed love rivals - 1) the 'childhood friends', who because of their past friendship, are not stern enough with these crazies and allow them to wreak havoc or 2) the cold-faced, abominable snowmen that are just flat out rude to them. I prefer the second type because we never have to worry about whether or not he'll be swayed out of kindness to crazy girl or her family. Well, anyway, this ML is of the first kind, even though the viewer has no doubt that he loves FL and does not intend to ever, out of kindness or whatever, actually marry Gu Jing. He does show sufficient angst when FL keeps abandoning him, and as a result, he garners the viewers sympathy.
As for FL, she's likeable enough but has a habit of running away from her troubles. First, she abandons ML over the engagement thing without hearing his explanation, and she does so without even saying goodbye. She just disappears to France for five years. Then when she returns and gets duped into thinking she's ill, she once again disappears, but at least this time, she shows some character development and doesn't disappear for long. However, it's long enough to cause ML sufficient anguish. This girl just gives up too easily although she did finally find a backbone to get into a shouting match with psycho chick at a press conference. Unfortunately, she ends up fainting before giving the viewers a satisfying smackdown of the delusional Gu Jing.
The time spent on the second and third couples were blissfully short thanks for the limited episodes so I did managed to keep my finger off the fast forward button and take some interest in their relationships.
As mentioned above, this is definitely low budget, but it's better than 'Ex-Wife Stop' or 'If I Never Loved You'. It sort of middle of the road as far as shorts go. 'Campus Ace', 'Please Don't Spoil Me' and 'My Dearest Boss' were much better in terms of directing and acting.
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