Firstly the poster is misleading because Zhang Yun Long who is part of that poster is barely in drama, not even in one quarter… so if you are going to watch it because of him then please don't lol you'll end up being disappointed.

This was supposed to air 4 years ago… so to this date, it's quite outdated in terms of almost everything. The title is a bit weird and definitely gives melodramatic vibes.. well yeah it's actually a melodrama but leaned towards business and the business politics. Even I'm not in much favor of the original title 佳期如夢之海上繁花 same as the novel having literal meaning "Variety Flowers at Seaside"

Talking about the story… it's just meh, so tropey cliche-filled and absolutely nothing special or extraordinary to offer, though it had some engaging factor in the start that made me give it chance being honest I'll say.. to endure it. The story being okay-ish, it could have been better with proper execution but that never happened. Jumping from one scene to another, uncoordinated time jumps its pace, the development it failed by every means. To be specific, there's one scene that's related to the second leads.. after 8 months time jump happened, and then it was shown that they were talking about the incident that happened 8 months ago as if it happened yesterday… okay so who talks about the relatively insignificant incident that happened a very long time ago lol what's wrong with editing they would have shown it before time jump.

The characters don't have their own identity they just react as the story needs… most of the time they are out of their character behaving totally differently. I'm annoyed by characterization, at the end I stopped caring about anyone coz they behave stupid.. teens know to behave better lol

One of the very few things that can be considered as good was acting, not the best but decent. I didn't notice any song other than the opening so no comment on the soundtrack. It's back from 2016 so don't really expect much from cinematography, styling, or aesthetics.

As this is a hate-to-love trope… where the male lead has a prejudice against the female lead due to one incident.. (the synopsis is wrong, the drama doesn't even include anything about one-night stand) so the hate and misunderstandings in the start seem forced. Now talking about the part that I really liked was the friendship between them it felt natural, easy to watch, and very good in terms of relationship dynamics. I like when friendship is shown before Romance starts as friends talk with each other… but then, of course, there was big trouble in front of them that messed up everything and after that out of nowhere they are in a relationship (I'm not talking abt having feelings for each other but there wasn't any scene that there's the conclusion where they get into the relationship) now that's the worst part, that made me think this even don't deserve Romance as a genre, coz it doesn't exist. Male lead doesn't know there's the thing called communication exists in the world, he does things as he wants without explaining to anyone... I mean what? I'm supposed to endure that nonsense? But yeah as anything can happen coz this is drama he just has to behave cute and clingy for some episodes then everything is fine.

The supporting roles are the worst and very annoying.. almost every character is unlikable and that includes even leads... I wouldn't recommend this at all, this is just pure torture, that'll end up giving you frustration. If you are a diehard fan of Li Qin and Shawn Dou.. that you can endure any nonsense and trash plot for eye candy I won't deny it sure has good-looking leads then you can go for it.

I'm not being any generous towards rating, why should I?