Niche comedy drama

If you only enjoy idol costume drama you'll just need to avoid this one. This is a niche comedy drama probably only Chinese speakers can understand.
The whole cast has a local accent, not like an imitated one but natural sounding heavy accent.

Story starts out with Chang Zai, a timid cook (ML) just want a wife. He end up standing in for his Twin brother Chang Hai as the legendary sect leader navigating his way through the world of martial arts. I don't think there's really a directional plot because most of the episodes are just silly every day happenings.

Most of the comedy pokes fun of the martial arts world and not everyone will find it funny. I personally enjoyed it on the side and thought it was pretty entertaining.

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Best Costume Drama of 2022!

I am so sad that it ended. I honestly could use another 30 ep of this.

Sure the drama started out with all the excessive ladies gossiping & doing evil things trying to get the ONLY bachelor in town but aside that minor flaw the story overall was executed close to perfection.

Why the perfect 10
1. ML/FL amazing chemistry. I've seen every Rosy drama but this pairing with Leo Wu was perfect. Leo Wu is just a talented actor since a baby.
2. Supporting cast. There were so many supporting characters that I equally loved in this drama notably:
- 2 Generals by ML for comic relief.
- Mom and Dad of FL. Dad is so funny and the mom's facial expressions always on point. I actually loved her character
- The Emperor and the 2 wives. The emperor especially was entertaining.
- Brother / besties of FL
- 2nd ML , 3rd ML (Yuan Shen) started out annoyingly funny then through character development became a worthy 2nd/3rd lead.
The whole cast was incredible.
3. Story . On the surface it's about love and revenge. However it's got:
-Plot twists. Not overly complicated. Not overly outrageous
- Best character development of main and supporting cast. Shao Shang started as a playful 15 year old. She went through varies struggles to learn about herself and the meaning of true love.
- Family dynamics, relationships between friends, family members
- Strong female characters
4. Beautiful costume, cinematography & music provided that dream land feel.
5. Rewatch Value. I already rewatched 3x.
6. Happy Drama overall. Not like traditional dramas where every character dies because let's face it, SAD endings sucks.
7. Ending of every episodes. Actors playing some games.
8. No cheesy voice dubbing. Unless it's due to actors having thick accents then I would always like to hear their own voices.

Sadly I really felt I want more in the ending not necessary story continuation but more of grand happy ending scene.

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Disappointing script

I love the leads in many of their roles, so I was excited to see the pairing in this promising drama.
No fault to the acting but the script is too absurd.
Matched up with some overly annoying support characters like the Madam Yoo , the ex wife of ML, the Mother of 2nd ML, Female office worker.... it was really hard to watch.
The plot of raising an orphan child bride just served no purpose.
Then pops in the ex wife adding to the annoyingness of the whole story

The few parts I did enjoy:
ML's character in general. His awkwardness and comments in the beginning episodes were hilarious. The more awkward he got the more FL finds him cute.
Gay roommate/BFF/BF/Husband. His character is the most lovable.
Pretty much those are the only factors why I continued with the drama.

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Started out strong, downhill ep 12 on

The moment she left the train, all logic lost.

The story started out fun & interesting, so I thought it was going to be as strong as the drama "Extraordinary you."
Favorite aspects of this drama:
-ML Byeon Woo Seok did an amazing job and surprised me with that singing voice.
-FL Kim Hye Yoon always does a great job with these kinds of roles.
-The pairing is super cute, great chemistry

Not so great....
-Weak supporting characters & stories.
-Pacing started to slow down midway, and the constant crying scenes got repetitive. Nowadays the most annoying trend is for dramas to replay scenes that JUST happened 10 seconds ago as if viewers need a reminder.
-Ep 12 on the script went south as the FL made illogical decisions. And if you just go with those decisions she comes back to current time, shouldn't she try to find the SAME one-dimensional suspect? Girl has a cop friend/2wk ex/15 yrs 2nd lead she can ask..... Running away from the killer situation is not really fixing the source of the problem.

Downfall of many fluffy romances with strong beginning is the sloppy writing at the end.

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Make you miss S1

Everything felt different

Acting was still ok but the connection didn't feel as strong. Was there really feel of character development? Not really to me.
New addition was a fail. He wasn't funny and maintained his annoying status all the way through.
Evil characters - they out acted the good characters. I really enjoyed them actually. Kim Hieora played a crazy one eyed b*8ch really spiced up the show. I absolutely loved her acting. Kang Ki Young (one of my fav. supporting characters) who always played as the comedic supporting role really pulled off the evil role.

The story had too many loopholes that makes you ask why didn't ... that happen? Made no sense. Sloppy writing honestly.

Still semi enjoyable. if you just focus on the stunts and action. Prob should quite at S2.

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Love is a repetitive script

Watch if you love the leads as they are both big stars but literally its the same script over and over again. If the story , dialogue is good then a repetitive script with typical otp cliches can be done right. This is not that. Not only that the story was pretty much done for by ep 30 but they dragged it out by another 6.

Cliche story goes:
1. A boy who likes a girl in secret ever since a million years ago and never had any other love interest
2. The boy orders the girl around but is secretly helping her
3. Girl is COMPLETELY ignorant and cannot see he's helping her but thinks he's a bully instead
4. Girl is supposedly smart but yet let every one boss her around
5. Mean girl who can't get a clue or won't give up even after the leads got together
6. 2nd Lead who never had a chance but yet won't give up
7. 2nd Lead's confession is 20 ep too late? why not what? and of course the girl had no clue

Supporting couple not strong as well.

Few fun moments but majority is rather dull so if you are a fan of the leads then you might like it. Else skip for a better cliche love scripts that's done right.

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Started out promising, kind of a mess ending

Drama is packed with good actors and the story started promising (for mystery thriller fans)
A questionable murder with multiple suspects. Victim actress has plenty of reasons to be loved and hated so who could be the murderer and why? Is it jealousy? hatred? revenge murder? Combined with a troubled detective unable to move forward obsessed with the case. This is the standard recipe to a promising murder drama.

However, 10 ep in, the story gets overly twisted and complicated. Twists are good but shouldn't be over 3x. Quality over quantity but apparently, they can't stop with the "But way here's another twist plot."
Characters started out likeable, but more & more became unlikeable.

Felt like a hot mess heading to the ending. I did enjoy the solid cast and the real acting.

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Ep 37 she finally wore flats!

I started watching this drama for Dai Xu. It's been so long since I've seen him in a good drama like Burning Ice or the Legends.

But this drama is about a gifted housekeeper who can walk in high heels anywhere.
High heels walking on grass
High heels walking in the country side
High heels pushing a wheelchair down the slope

The FL "gifted housekeeper" can fix apparently everyone's problems (other than her own). She's a psychiatrist, a nurse, a nanny all in one. Much of the drama lacks focus since it's about everyone else's stories and not really about her.
I keep watching this for sometime of development but it never really happened.

Honestly the basis of the story line isn't bad. Had they drama focused more on the slow burn development between the FL and the Man bun ML (who will grow on you) then the drama would've been more watchable.
Instead I had to skip through the filler lines and creepy 30+ year old calling "MOMMY" left and right. ...

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Beyond your average Youth Drama

I found this Drama by chance because I enjoyed some of the prior works by the cast. This is not your typical youth drama that you can play on the side because you'll miss out on all the funny moments. It's a shame that this drama is under the radar as the subs are terrible. However if you do at least understand partial Chinese this would be a great pick even if you don't care for debate. Also I watched S2 before S1 and I am glad I did because if I watched S1 I would not go for S2 as the acting was so bad. S1 & S2 are completely independent stories because I saw a few same actors playing completely different characters (like Ma Nan & Tao Hao's ex)

What I enjoyed:
1. Cast. After watching Zhai Zi Lu (in "My Calorie boy") & Wu Jai Yi (from "The Letter from the Cloud") I thought the pairing would be super cute. Great chemistry between them and love the pace of development from friends to couple.
Ma Nan (Wang Ze Xuan) - I've only seen this actor in supporting bad guy roles, but his character was my favorite one in the show with the best one liners. Honestly it's a shame he hasn't been in good ML roles.
2. Actual story. Yes its the typical don't give up till you come out of the gutter and reach your goal, but there's actual depth to the script. I liked how they tied the debate topics to what the characters are going through.
3. Comedy aspect - Lots of laughs every episode mixed with subtle and OTP acting but all so entertaining!
4. Coupling - Very rare do I enjoy all the match ups
5. Ma Nan's Ending - Classic!

Could've been better:
1. First 10 episodes were really good and then the pace slowed down. A few episodes felt like pure fillers almost out of place.
2. Scene transition isn't always smooth like the development of supporting couple just went silent for a long time then all of a sudden they are together.
3. Team 1 Yin Nan's character came in as an one sided antagonist and then the great face off never really happened.
4. Team 2 captain Yan Ze, his voice was so mono tuned, it was hard to watch
5. Tuan Zi's doll dresses .... YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

How about S3?

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ML Lipstick ultra Fail

I can't believe so many good reviews for this. The story is nothing new which means script needs:

1. ML & FL Chemistry which none that I could feel. I've enjoyed both of the leads in other dramas but this pairing didn't work for me at all
2. Dynamic characters with witty dialogue and..... Lead characters were flat.
3. Great supporting characters, they had potential but not a lot of time were spent on them

Too many scenes with major lipstick fail on the ML. One restaurant scene his lip liner was 5 shades off from his spotty lipstick. It was just all too distracting. Other scenes his lipstick was heavier than the FL. Maybe it should've been a lipstick commercial instead.

Only character that stood out was the Lee Jae Woon, the rich friend and of course ALL other supporting characters were more interesting than the Main couple.

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ML's character officially killed the drama 7 ep in

FL actress is quite good and the storyline started out interesting. There's mystery of why she went into another world or did she? Going from highly privileged life to a girl with nothing. Her character is believable. I like the transferable skillset from her art major to hair and makeup is not so farfetched. She shows how resilient she is proving herself over and over again.

The ML's character initially is quite likeable. He's caring and helping her to survive in an unfamiliar environment.
However 7 ep in how the ML acted is so irrational making you think who write's this crap? That neck choke was way out of left field. It's not like she wants to stay here. Why go crazy serial killer on her? Doesn't help the ML isn't a great actor either. He's pretty much unwatchable after that.

I continued watching for the FL. Her emotions are on point and hits so I can see why she is such an upcoming actress. Her crying scenes are superb!

The story developed in a complete direction without things making much sense. Rushed ending to explain what happened and amend all relationships in one episode.....

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3 Strong MLs carrying the FL's acting

I've seen Sabrina Zhuang's prior works as she gets some interesting scripts. Its not that she can't act but it's just not amazing. Her expressions are pretty much the same in every character I've seen her in. The 3 MLs were all better. Huang Jun Jie's acting definitely gotten better over the years but the pairing didn't really spark any chemistry for me.

The story itself is quite enjoyable if you like less serious ancient detective genre types. (i.e Miss Truth, The Imperial Coroner, Maiden Holmes)

What I enjoyed:
1. Actual story - smart (but not witty) female litigator with the unique name of Tumi defends the powerless and fights for equality.
2. Bromance worthy between Han Wu Wei & Kang Zheng Yuan
3. Fan Zhi Xin (Han Wu Wei) stand out acting. His face is very expressive. I can't believe I never seen his works!
4. Father / Daughter relationship - I am a sucker for those
5. Decent fight scenes. This is not big budget production but I thought the fight scenes were not too shabby
6. Actual cases - no dragged out cases, not overly complicated, easy watch if even if don't fully pay attention

Downside
1. I wish Tumi was a bit less serious. Hardly any humor compared to other similar dramas.
2. Lots & Lots of words. My Chinese is limited so I may need subtitles and story focuses on arguing cases = lots & lots of tiresome reading subtitles.
3. Ending with no ending .... yeah I watch dramas so there are endings but which would you rather have? Not an ending or bad endings? It's a toss up. Waiting for S2 could be forever painful.

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Don't miss the Epilogues

Starting ep 2 there's mini epilogues at the end for about ~10 ep.

Underrated cute drama ruined by no subs but if you can understand Chinese and enjoys costume rom coms, this is a great pick.

Loved great cast & characters:
FL Shen Yu is super cute without over acting (which a lot of dramas tend to do). Her character is cute, witty & smart! I loved her expressions.
ML (Old Male Chicken) is a great looking actor and the young actor they picked is a perfect match too!
The back and forth dialogue between the leads is written pretty well. Of course with any rom com there will be the standard "catch & fall" moments but if its cutely done, its very enjoyable.
Zhou Yue - one of few females that can pass off as a male at least in a drama.
Gao Mo - Funny supporting character

If you enjoy dramas like:
Dr. Cutie
A love so Romantic
Chances are you'll like this one too but personally I thought the pairing & dialogue was better in this one.

The only down side is that like many C-drama ending's kind of a mess starting ep 20. There are also a few one dimensional bad characters that you can skip through.

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Lots of politics but must watch if you are a Zhang Ruo Yun fan

If you are a Zhang Ruo Yun fan this is a must watch and the fact that Wang Yang (the lawyer) is also a main character makes it that much better. They were my favorite pair in Joy of Life.

The story is unique but you can't get away from the politics so if you can't stand political dramas then this may be hard to watch. In addition the dialogue is quite complicated so hopefully translation can fully capture the meaning.

Loved:
1. Casting. Stellar cast and interesting characters
Shuai Jia Mo - Mathematical genius played perfectly by Zhang Ruo Yun
Cheng Ren Qing - sharp tongue lawyer that will help anyone for money.
Feng Bi Yu - Out spoken female character
2. Supporting cast. I love that many were not written as one dimensional good or bad characters
3. Few twists but not overwhelming
4. Overall story with a gratifying ending

There were no romances or side character's story lines so 14 episode felt pretty short. I wish the story could've been longer as I think many of the characters are interesting.

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