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Hidden Love chinese drama review
Dropped 10/25
Hidden Love
23 people found this review helpful
by NCloudY
Jul 11, 2023
10 of 25 episodes seen
Dropped 3
Overall 6.5
Story 4.5
Acting/Cast 7.5
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

This is a romance story, only romance.

I've been waiting for this drama to air since the poster was released. I hope to enjoy this drama until the end, when this drama is trending I feel happy because I feel that I was not in vain waiting. But when I watched, I was disappointed.

I feel that this drama has one mission, which is to make Sangzhi and Jiaxu become lovers. That, that's all that needs to be done in this drama. I really feel like every groove just revolves around the two of them. Many of the rest of the cast just feel like NPCs. As a viewer, I feel like I don't know any other characters besides Sangzhi and Jiaxu. Maybe this is also the reason why I quite like SangZhi's Brother SangYan, because he's the only character apart from Sangzhi and Jiaxu who feels 'alive' in this drama.

I liked the first four episodes, it was quite enjoyable and I liked the bond between little Sangzhi and Sangyan. Although I feel that the actress playing little Sangzhi is too young to be called a middle schooler, but the child's acting is quite good in my opinion, so I don't mind. The problem was when Sangzhi grew up and became a high school student. I don't know where the mistake lies, but high school Sangzhi feels more like a child than middle school Sangzhi. While watching it I felt confused as to why Sangzhi High was so much more immature, childish, and acted like an elementary schooler. Even Sangzhi lost his confidence when he was in high school. I know it might be due to some reason, but this drama doesn't explain why Sangzhi High School is more childish than Sangzhi Middle School. I can't blame ZLS for this. Because maybe that's what it says in the script. But to be honest it's quite uncomfortable, seeing adult women act like elementary school children.

Actually, I also don't really feel the 'green flag' of a Jiaxu. I felt that Jiaxu didn't have a strong character, and every scene with Sangzhi felt like 'flirt'. I tried to watch up to episode nine because everyone told me to watch until that episode to like this drama. But even up to episode ten, I only saw the relationship between the two which felt very slow and full of slow motion. I mean, not all scenes of look into each other's eyes or touching each other have to be in slow motion... I heard that Jiaxu had a trauma, but up to episode ten this trauma had never appeared. Even when in the past Jiaxu was depicted as poor and had to constantly earn money, the portrayal in the drama did not show Jiaxu as a busy person at all. Although in some scenes he looks asleep, it's just that for someone who is really pressed for money, Jiaxu seems to have a lot of time to go back and forth to take Sangzhi courses, even taking him to the planetarium. I feel like maybe the scenes of Jiaxu working in multiple places should help a bit to better illustrate how hard Jiaxu has to work to stabilize his economy. Unfortunately it was never shown, and we are immediately taken to the timeskip when Jiaxu is already working and has a car. And once again I feel that I don't have a close relationship with the characters around Jiaxu such as his co-workers and the women who chase him, all of them feel like NPCs.

Even though I think there are many characters that can be shown better in this drama. But even characters like Sangzhi's parents, Sangzhi's roommates, even Jiaxu's co-workers feel like just extra characters. They don't have a 'story' for themselves. So even when they appeared, they were only acting as characters bridging the romantic story of Sangzhi and Jiaxu. The other characters really feel lifeless apart from Sangyan. Even the conflict between Sangzhi and his high school friend was reviewed in the simplest way possible just to get the moment Jiaxu saved Sangzhi. Even though this part can be reviewed further, such as why his friend chose to do that. Or what happened after that. But all resolved very quickly. Characters that bothered Sangzhi were immediately eliminated, with no time for Sangzhi to develop when hit by a problem.

And that's the reason I dropped this drama. During the ten episodes running, there was no character development from the two main characters. They just changed costumes, but still act like high school kids. Sangzhi in college was the same as Sangzi in high school, and so was Jiaxu when he was working, he was still the same as when he was in college. Either they lack an antagonist who can develop both characters, or it was just like that from the start. Oh, and I also don't like the character of Sangzhi's parents, who feel like they pamper Sangzhi a lot. This also makes me feel that Sangzhi can't face big problems. And I feel this is why this drama really focuses on romance, because maybe for Sangzhi's character who is used to being spoiled, romance is a big problem for him.

I know this opinion is quite controversial, even here the drama's rating is very high. I am also quite sad because I can't enjoy the drama that I've been waiting for for a long time like other people. I was really looking forward to this drama, maybe that's also the main reason why I'm getting more disappointed. But it comes down to preference again, so I hope that even if I don't represent the majority, I can voice my personal preference a bit.

*note, I still really like Sangyan's character until now*
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