The Tale of Rose (2024)

Refreshing modern female oriented drama

When casting is top notch & the story is not filled with over toxic characters, it's enjoyable to watch.

The story starts off with everyone captivated by Rose's beauty. Beauty is not just standard Chinese beauty but also the energy, 气质 she exhibits. Picking Cristal Liu is perfect for the role. She has that artsy, sophisticated 气质 and she looks young enough to play college age to 30's mom age.
She comes from a healthy family with loving parents with an overprotective brother. There isn't the idea of girls are any less valuable than boys hence she grew up free pursuing what she wants rather than what her parents want for her. She's smart, sassy, confident but also with many imperfections. She's not afraid to take chances on love and in life.

Ep 1-12 1st love. She's impulsive and the relationship progressed fast without deeper understanding. Break ups, fights, yelling feeling semi toxic as they find out more about each other. Very relatable to many people's 1st relationships.
Ep 13-28 Mr. Wrong Husband. She wanted someone stable and settled with the obvious wrong choice, but the series got draggy that I almost dropped the series. The best part was the divorce where she wrote to her daughter: "Divorce in my view only represent an end in a relationship and not a life failure."
Ep 28-35 Mr. Soulmate. At this point she regained her career and she's on a happier path. They have undeniable chemistry and connect on that artistic level.
Ep 36-38 Younger crush, not enough to make an impact.

What's enjoyable:
1. Good female supporting characters small or big parts. Even in the beginning a woman blaming her breakup on Rose, acting all crazy, Rose said "You are smart and beautiful, why waste more time on an underserving guy?" There was no female bashing over love interest like in other dramas.
2. Rose's Loving parents. Positive supportive parenting & nonjudgmental. "Life is only few decades long. If Happier times > sad times, then life is worth it."
3. Modern topics: Career women/Married, unmarried, divorced/Single parenting/Multiple loves, realistic that love moves on (None of that drama love trope of 30-year-old never been kissed, waiting to be reunited from their 1st unrequited love from 10 years ago because they met at 5 or something)

What could've been better:
1. WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY less episodes on boring husband choice
2. Use those extra episodes on Soulmate

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Not a cliche romcom

If you came here looking for a tear jerker, cliche storyline, typical romcom, or your typical boy meets girl, you have the wrong show. This is a refreshing approach on a young lady and her journey to love. All three stages of her life are reasonably similar to the average person.
Initially I thought I would not want to see her going through relationships. When characters portray their role convincingly you form attachments and it would make the transition difficult for the viewer. Although I had moments, it was wrapped up nicely. I am looking forward to the closing of storyline 3.

Storyline 1: Steamy. Passionate.
Storyline 2: Considerate. Family development. Growth.
Storyline 3: Enduring. Eternal. Truth.

Also let me add that the music is phenomenal. It is the first time I considered buying the soundtrack.

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A Very Realistic Contemporary Drama

This drama was everything it promised to deliver, we had the free spirited female lead, the supportive family and 4 different male leads

Pros:
1. the Story was executed very well and it was extremely realistic
2. Many opportunities to analyze psychology behind the character
3. Real life issues faced by women all over the world
4. Beauty comes with many many benefits but also just as many complications
5. great osts
6. Excellent cast - they executed everything to the best of their abilities

Cons:
there are 2 reason as to why this was not a 10 star watch for me:

1. The open ending did not make me feel content and the younger male lead was unnecessary in my opinion, his character was not done justice as he only got around 3 eps of screentime. I wish they gave the viewers closure on whether she is eventually happy ( more details on her ambitions for her future) or if they chose the romance route I wish they showed us who she chose and whether she remains single

2. THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON WHY: The male leads (rose's exes) never fully move on from her, although she is able to leave them in the past they are always held back by the memory of her. This is very unrealistic, although ZGD being single makes sense (him being career oriented) , i don't see someone like FXW staying single for over 6 years just for her. In reality although it takes time to move on, you don't always stay in the past, whats more surprising is how only she moves on

Overall a great watch if you can deal with mature romance and love psychoanalyzing things

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Its About Rose…

I watched this because I always like Crystal Liu YiFei’s acting, very natural and down to earth. Every role she takes, she is always able to represent her character well, furthermore this show has a few good MLs.

The story…of Huang Yi Mei (a.k.a yellow rose).
This is based on a novel and although some small parts of the story is modified to better fit in drama expression but the storyline, characterization and ending is true to the original novel.
Thought also shared this:
Yellow roses symbolize friendship and joy. Often represent feelings that are associated with relatiinships such as warmth, delight, gladness, caring, and affection. These blooms were once used to communicate jealousy, during the Victorian era.
We followed the life of Huang YiMei Rose, our FL, a young vibrant, talented, but still naive, and yet knew very well how to use her valuable beauty assets to trap bees (men).
First infatuation on poor Rose, was by her internship boss (her brother’s friend) who is already engaged and planned to marry a long term girlfriend. He fell head over heels, one-sided love, thinking that Rose will reciprocate his love. He became a scumbag to loser, who broke off his marriage, lost his job and yet he pursued Rose. She openly rejected him, humiliated him and also gave a strong advice to his fiancé. Although many viewers felt he is dislikable because of his betrayal to his fiancé, but I felt he couldn’t help himself, as he is like a fly attracted to lights and willing to die for it. In the story his life destroyed and has to go back to his hometown to start over but he claims he could never forget Rose, a rather self delusional love.

Rose actual love line began with these three other guys that cross paths in Rose’s Journey of life.
Rose first love, Eric, self-centred, narcissistic, self-confident and successful. Their relationship was fiery, intense, passionate and impulsive but ended quickly as he will never prioritize love over his own goals. Through him, Rose was truly hurt but she learnt the important of self-respect and who she wants to be.
Then came along the convenient second guy, Fang Xie Wen. Most hated by viewers because of his character flaws and terrible mother, played by Lin Geng Xin, he did such a great job that many hate him. When he chased Rose, he was self sacrificing and persuasive, not even sure Rose love him but she was at this phase of her life looking for stability. So he proposed and she marries. But not realizing her husband
is the most narrow-minded man, holds a male chauvinistic view with strong insecurity and tends to put a fake front. When Rose marries, she was in a phase of looking for stability, I always doubted that she loves him wholeheartedly but she marries him, thinking it was the right thing to do. Subsequently, Rose became like ‘a frozen rose’, preserved or kept alive in a glass’ without natural sun and breath of live. Rose tried to be a good housewife and mother, that’s where she started to discover her husband’s flaws, his selfishness, insecurity kept her trapped. A struggle that many women fear to do, she made a courageous decision to divorce and fight for her daughter’s custody.
Finally, she met the third guy, played by the actor Wallace, in the show, he is her soulmate, most similar and aligned to Rose’s personality.
But it’s also the saddest part of the story and the peak as well as a turning point of her change and growth. I shall not provide too much spoiler but we all knew it ended because the guy has a terminal illness but their love is the most profound, intimate, an strong emotional connection which every women would long to have.
Although the story ended with possibility of a last younger guy that came into her life, we don’t know as Rose wouldn’t need love to live her life to the fullest.
Our Rose has learnt acceptance of life and letting go.
She develops her true potential in her career and becomes a successful person, living a carefree life and embracing the present moment.
There is also a side touching story of Rose’s brother and his love line which there were also quite a lot of exploration of theme of trauma, abusive parents etc but achieved their happy ending.
In Rose’s life, she has good friends, supportive business partners, parents, brothers who are always there for her despite her struggles.
Personally I feel that not every woman would envy what Rose has gone through but the different phases of Rose’s experience may resonate with some of us, hence this is partly a very realistic healing story. Every sadness there is hope, growth and self-discovery, we can only focus on what we can control and learnt to find the courage to let go of those we can’t. Many chicken soup type of themes, slice of life.
A good watch if you are in the mood for a melancholic journey to a positive message.

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Slice of Life at its very best

In my personal Drama-watching database I scored this 11/10. It was my 50th completed #CDrama, and it is a tale of life, done right. There was romance, but it was not a "Romance" Drama. It was a Drama about life, the good, the bad, the smart, the not so smart. LOTS of personal growth, and (unusually) the State-propaganda was NOT "The Marvellous Might of the Middle Kingdom" but genuinely positive messages, about speaking up for victims of sexual abuse, the importance of organ donation and the like.

There was no makjang, and pretty much every character made mistakes and learned from them. Also, one trope I LOATHE is the mother who is forgiven all simply because of biology. No matter how evil, no matter what she does to whom, how often and for how long, in the end she gets a free pass because of an accident of birth. This Drama delivered the most brutally ruthless and 1000% deserved demolition of that vile trope I've ever seen.

On the romance front, the arc involving Rose's brother and boss was AMAZING. The most unusual confession setup I've seen, and the way they grew together was truly beautiful.

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Brilliant show with amazing acting. Makes you think a lot about life, love, and dreams

I rarely watch modern Cdramas as most of them tend to be boring, not deep, or poorly acted by the actors and actresses. But, here we're given great actors and actresses in 1 single drama and it makes me think a lot about life and love. It's controversial as each characters in drama makes many rooms for discussion. This is one of the 3 most favorite C-dramas in 2024 for me (the other 2 are The Legend of Shenli and The Double) and even 1 of my all-time favorite Cdramas. This will be a quite long review that I'll post here and on the review section since I know most people tend to read the comments first before the review section. 8.5/10
Acting:
- Liu Yi Fei: is great in this role. I love her from the beginning part of this series. She pays attention to details very well in every scenes she's in. And guess what, I find her to be very beautiful in an ethereal way and she's very capable to distinguish her chemistry between her costars. During her first love phase with Zhuang Guo Dong (Peng Guan Ying), she was able to make us believe that she was passionately in love for the 1st time in her life. She was impulsive and yet she had that sizzling and magnetic chemistry with her 1st love. During her 2nd love phase with Fang Xie Wen (Lin Geng Xin) in the beginning of their love story before their marriage was destined to go down the hill, she showed us how she was comfortable, safe, and peaceful to be in love with her husband. And that chemistry with her husband was shown to us very well in that way. While she was with her soulmate, Fu Jia Ming (Wallace Huo), though it was not as strong as her 1st love, but she was able to show us how she felt free and unrestrained with her soulmate.
- Tong Da Wei and Wan Qian: they are good and have good chemistry though I like their characters when they are not together in 1 scene. Huang Zhen Hua and Su Su are likeable characters, especially Zhen Hua. First time watching Tong Da Wei in a drama and he's really good in portraying comical scenes without any awkwardness AT ALL. He has great chemistry as brother and sister with Liu Yi Fei. So rare to see such natural banters between 2 actors.
- Lin Geng Xin: I really liked him in Shenli and To Love and here, I was made to loath his character. But, his portrayal of Fang Xie Wen is brilliant. After redeeming himself after the fight for custody, I was able to relate to his character a lot, especially during the last episode. How inferiority affected and consumed him wholly that he regretted that a lot losing a very loving, kind-hearted, amazing woman who supported and loved him unconditionally. His controlling nature and his patriarchy surrounding made his love for his wife became so suffocating and in the end, he regretted. He portrayed that scene in the most heart-wrenching way. But, IMO, he is quite lucky to be able to live happily with his daughter. Though Yi Mei is not his wife anymore, but at least he gets to see her more often than Guo Dong. I like his chemistry with Liu Yi Fei in the last episodes and initial episodes when they were still in good relationship.
- Peng Guan Ying: This is my first time watching him in a drama. I must say, his portrayal of Zhuang Guo Dong is really really good. He exudes great chemistry with Liu Yi Fei. His character is the most pitiful one in my opinion. His character lingers to his past love with Yi Mei and that is what's so pitiful. When I first watched his scenes with Yi Mei from ep 3-12, I felt that he was selfish and so career-oriented, but then I realized that it was his choice to begin with. He regretted that he didn't go back to Yi Mei earlier but for making him still linger in his past was really torturing.
- Wallace Huo: His chemistry with Liu Yi Fei was quite good and his arc was endearing and sad. But, I have to admit that his part was not that convincing for me. Either their scenes were not that much or for other reason, I didn't feel much except when they were climbing the mountain and I felt the sadness for their story.

For those who haven't watched this drama, give this drama a chance and try to watch it with wise perspective, then you'll find this drama to be amazing in its own way

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LOVELY SUMMER ROMANCE BEACH NOVEL

So much to say, and so BULLETS --

1. During the first nine episodes you may wonder if you’ll finish this series. On Ep. 10 you’ll stop wondering. If a show gets better as it goes – that much better than getting worse, right? It gets better and better and the pace is faster than most C-Dramas.

2. Crystal is far more graceful here than in A DREAM OF SPLENDOR. She's going to be a big deal. She’s nothing like my fave rave Zhou Xun, but she’s the heir to her legacy as a great leading actress.

3. The cast is terrific. I believed each and every person was real, with the lone exception of Tong Da Wei. Sometimes I could see him acting. He was perfect in DISAPPEARING CHILD but here he perhaps struggled playing such a sometimes comical character.

But his cohort Wan Qian steals the show. She rises from cold and forgettable and becomes downright riveting. Wan Qian may be the new Dong Ji and I’ll definitely try her coming work.

Lin Geng Xin's 'Fang' is an achievement in making a terribly annoying manipulative jerk appealing and worth of compassion. He was insane for Rose, but simply couldn't back off a bit and relax. Had he done so this series would have only been like 21 episodes, lol. What a great performance.

Rose's on again off again boss Zhu Zhu endears more and more with her each return. First as Rose's mentor, but then as Rose's fangirl. I enjoyed the small gag in the show where she wonders why Wallace is still single. This is funny because Zhu and Wallace will soon costar in a new show that asks the exact same question.

4. The music is good but also odd. Some songs are sung in English by Chinese artists, while others are all Chinese. Frankly I found there were too many songs , and they played too often. Too intrusive. I fear this show wanted to make this adult drama more appealing to younger viewers, and so they slapped on some decent but unnecessary pop songs. That said, the song at the end is GORGEOUS and worth listening to all 38 times.

5. This isn’t high art. It’s merely a lovely SUMMER ROMANCE BEACH NOVEL. A soap. But it’s so well made I suspect it’s rather literary anyway.

6. I hated how the show pushed hard liquor to ridiculous extremes. The world’s most beautiful boss drinking all the time with no wrinkles and a pleasant attitude? Rosie’s butt.

7. Editing and translation got sloppy during the Wallace Huo episodes. For example, wedding guests hear an ambulance coming – but then they call one afterwards. Little things like that but they took me out of the story. As did several translation reversals, like, ‘I would kiss you’ instead of ‘I wouldn’t kiss you’. Big difference, lol.

8. Wallace Huo appears briefly towards the end of this show. He simply oozes top tier actor and yet the show rose to his stature by the time he arrived. And yes I said ‘rose’. ;)

9. For reasons that are beginning to fascinate me – Chinese Dramas almost never end at the ending. It’s like they include an ending, and then ramble on a bit more anyway. Nearly every time. It’s so reliable a thing I’m starting to wonder if it’s embedded in Chinese culture somehow

I’ve always been confused by the Chinese expression, “I’ll leave first.” I asked a Chinese person in America about this and she only confirmed it is indeed a way of parting. I pick up from this the idea that, perhaps, ‘leaving’ is rude in China. That instead of saying ‘Goodnight’ quickly to a child you put in bed, perhaps you want to do it slower.

Maybe this slower goodbye comes from the Imperial Days, where you had to slowly back away from the Emperor instead of saying “Later” and spinning away and leaving.

This series builds up to a picture perfect ending – but then does a few more episodes anyway. As if to say, “Now that the plot is over, let’s talk about the message and theme a little longer.” It wasn't so bad this time, but it does irk.

10. I have a 17 year old niece and I told her to use this show as a 'Girl's Guidebook to Life'. Because it really warns a pretty young lady the many types of things that can go wrong... as well as go right.

11, Some reviewers forget this is a soap. So they become confused as to why Rose has the best hair and makeup any woman has ever had, no matter the situation. This is part of the romance novel genre. Otherwise, yes, it's ridiculous.

12, I'd recommend this as a MUST watch -- providing you enjoy soaps. I'd even get excited for THE TALE OF TAICHU, a sequel series. But don't be in a hurry to make the sequel. I want an actress the age of Rose playing the daughter.

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A Woman's Journey of Love and Growth

I know I'm pretty late writing this review, but I only discovered this C-drama a while back. I am a huge K-dramaholic, and I haven't watched many C-dramas, but this is my first review, so please bear with me. Also, I'm an MDL newbie. (Note: this is quite long, so u might wanna buckle up for this one)
First of all, I'm sure you know the basic storyline of this series: It tells the journey of Huang Yimei (Rose), as she explores love and more importantly, grows as a person.
Rose is overall, a very broad-minded and independent character who doesn't limit herself, be it in love, life, or career. She loves exploring and learning, and that's exactly what she does in the whole series. Throughout the series, she has 4 lovelines. Here's the in-depth:
#1- Zhuang Guodong- In my opinion, the two had really good chemistry, except their relationship was so obviously not going to work out. The two were just beginning to enjoy a peak in their careers, and they had begun their relationship after meeting as colleagues. They had promised not to bring their work to their romance, but that's exactly what brought issues. ZGD was Rose's first love, and she was quite impulsive in the relationship, but so was ZGD. They had fights, but they made up just by kissing. Yes, that's where we know that this relationship wasn't gonna work out. Rose valued her up-and-coming career as an art curator, but she valued the relationship more, while ZGD was more career-oriented. They decided on a long-distance relationship, but that too ended up in a disaster. Honestly, it was quite painful to watch Rose get neurotic when they had fights- throwing things and screaming, and it almost made me dislike her character. But, I was quite satisfied that it ended. They do become friends though. Although ZGD still has feelings for, Rose manages to keep a friendly distance from him.

#2- Fang Xiewen- My least favourite of the lovelines, and I think many would agree with me. I felt that Rose fell for FXW because she was out of the passionate relationship with her first love, and was looking for something peaceful and secure. And boy, was her decision wrong. FXW fell for Rose at first sight, in college in Shanghai (he was her senior). After entering in an relationship, she even supports him financially for his start-up. FXW had subtly implied on many of their early days of dating that he wanted her to stay at home, but it was so subtle you could hardly notice. Things went downhill from the day Rose introduced FXW to ZGD (her first love). This triggers FXW's insecurity and he decides that he wants to be better than Rose's first love. This plus his narrow-minded mother, honestly, ruined Rose's otherwise bright future. He got so controlling after the marriage, but he made Rose believe that he was doing it for "their" future, when in reality, he was just feeding his insecure self. He got so manipulative to the point that I realised he was the toxic one, and not ZGD. He had pretended to be open-minded, but only became more old-school. I was so relieved when Rose had bravely stepped forward to divorce him. The way he and his mother treated her and her family was ridiculous. Like, what's wrong with crying when you meet you parents after years? What's wrong with going to your parents' house when you miss them? It was so hard watching those scenes. At the end of their relationship, I especially loved and admired how Rose handled the divorce situation. She didn't break things or scream, unlike in the first relationship, so we can actually see how she has grown in the past few years. Also, this loveline was unnecessarily lengthy, but honestly, it gets better after it ends.

#3. Fu Jiaming- Rose's soulmate played by Wallace Huo. Rose is now out of the controlling marriage, and she and her daughter are living in Beijing at her parents' house. Her career also gets better and she is again back on track as the carefree and independent woman she was raised to be. She meets FJM, an artist who is also very similar to her. The two share the same philosophies of life- living freely without any bounds. Sparks fly since the first day they meet, and it's obvious to everyone (including them) that they're endgame. However, it is not so true with that tragic end the writer gave to their story. But still, that's not what I hated in this loveline. What I hated was that they didn't even have many episodes. Her previous disastrous relationship was too long, and this one was too short. I would have loved if they had extended this loveline a bit more, and ended it a bit less heartbreakingly.

#4. He Xi- Ok, I don't even know if they actually date. The two definitely have some feelings for each other, but at the finale, Rose says- "Don't promise the future." So, the ending was open-ended, and we don't really know if they actually date or not.

Despite the amazing character that Rose is, my favourite was Su Gengsheng. She was absolutely BRILLIANT! I loved how she transforms from a sensitive, reserved person to a secure and happy person. She has a backstory that worked so well with the otherwise light-hearted plot. But most importantly, what I liked was her relationship with Rose's older brother- Huang Zhenhua. In fact, I loved it even more than any of Rose's relationship. As I watched more of it, I realised that I was watching the drama just because of them. They had such a healthy and mature relationship, bringing out the best of each other. They did have a few secrets from each other, which I thought was unnecessary, but instead of breaking up, they worked on their shortcomings and stayed beside each other. I adored how HZH played a gentle, kind, at times a bit childish, but protective character. Su leaned on him and found security, which I supported. Their enemies-friends-lovers storyline was AMAZING and worth the watch.

The Music- OH MY GOD! It was beautiful! Especially the ending theme, which literally gave me the chills. Seriously. Phenomenal OST.

Thank You~
P.S. I loved Rose and HZH's parents so much. They're GOAT!

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Not your usual romance

I think I really enjoyed this drama. I initially watched it for Kenny Lin but his character in this drama gave me frustrations beyond compare. However, I came out with a lot of lessons about life. I think it is a drama I would recommend to people who love matured themes and want to enjoy stories about relationships told from a realistic point of view. It is the tale of rose but the lesson is not everything is a bed of roses. I love the acting of the actors and actresses. Most are actors that I’ve skipped multiple of their dramas but now I will go back and watch whatever is on the table.

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