This is a youth love story with a pinch of mystery and a whole lot of heartache. Initially, I was interested in this drama because not only did I keep hearing about it but also because it has been compared to Someday or One Day which is one of my top favorite dramas.

For me, comparing this drama to Someday or One Day was setting the bar a bit high. While Shining For One Thing shares similar themes of youth, mystery, and a deep love between the main couple. Someday or One Day’s focused more on the fantasy and mystery aspect while Shining For One Thing focuses much more on the youth aspect.

Things I Loved:
- Lin Bei Xing (FL) is smart, capable, and brave. I loved those moments when she wasn’t afraid to give her opinions openly and without caution.
- Zhang Wan Sen (ML) is incredibly sweet and though he’s very smart, he’s not cold, just a bit shy. I don’t think he has a mean bone in his body and loves fiercely, albeit quietly.
- Mai Zi, everything about him is pretty much wonderful and anyone should be so lucky to have him as their friend. He is friendship goals.
- There are some absolutely heart-wrenching scenes as well as some really beautiful happy scenes.
- The cinematography was done very well. There are many beautiful and memorable scenes throughout this drama.
- The OST is fitting and complimented the story and scenery very well. (I’ll be adding a few songs to my OST playlist for sure.)


Things I Didn’t Love:
- A lot of scenes were repetitive, (mostly flashbacks). While this is to be expected in any sort of time-loop/time-jump/universe jumping genre, they flashback to the same scenes over and over and over. If I saw the fire scene one more time I swear…
- They spent a lot of time on the youth and school stuff which I wasn’t really expecting. I understand this is to show the relationship building between the mains but there is this huge mystery looming in the background and there were several episodes where it had very little focus if at all.
- I could have completely done without the 2nd couple. Even now, having just finished the drama yesterday, I can’t remember anything interesting about them.
- Although there are wonderful and thrilling scenes, for me, it felt very “hurry up and wait”. What I mean by this is that I often felt like I was waiting for an exciting scene to happen but when they finally happened, to me they felt a bit rushed. Something about the pace of this drama just felt a bit choppy.
- “Why is no one calling the police?!?!” <- I must have said this to myself at least a half dozen times. There are so many times when the police should have been called which likely would have prevented the very event Lin Bei Xing was trying to avoid.
- A lot of things about the universe jumping weren’t explained. In a drama like this where you’re trying to piece together the mystery yourself, I find it frustrating when you’re left with too many hows and whys. In that aspect, the drama feels incomplete.


Overall, I’m happy I watched it. It was mostly very enjoyable and I think people who like the youth genre will love this drama. However, for me, because it was compared to Someday or One Day my expectations were different and I think that may have hurt my opinion of Shining For One Thing. This is not a bad drama by any means, it just didn’t hit me as hard as I was expecting it would.


Would Recommend
Will Not Rewatch - (However I will watch the movie when that is released)