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Circle of Love chinese drama review
Ongoing 24/24
Circle of Love
2 people found this review helpful
by Alena
May 29, 2023
24 of 24 episodes seen
Ongoing 4
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 9.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 7.5
This review may contain spoilers

Toxicity taken to the next level

First of all, I am definitely not dropping this one cuz everything about the ML infuriates me!!!!(and I wanna know how it ends...)
Also, Youku is on a roll this year...!!! I mean- most dramas that have been released this year are from Youku, and all of them are are somewhat successful!!!

But back to the drama(10 eps in)- the story is not anything new, though, it is a bit more racy than most chinese dramas.
Just to be clear, (right now) this is not a romantic drama- athough it certainly has mildly sexual content. It depicts a "relationship" between an abuser(ML) and his victim(FL) and illustrates the ways he uses to emotionally and physically abuse her. In my humble opinion, the ML has no redeeming qualities whatsoever- he acts as if his behavior is justified, since he has suffered a trauma in the past ,so that later on, when there is a 180 degrees change in his personality(i guess, I am only halfway through) and he is suddenly nice and sweet, we forgive him- I certainly won't.
Believe it or not, so far, the FL in here is not being overly annoying, stupid or dramatic- that is hard to find these days.
I do care about the characters- I despise the ML from the bottom of my heart, pity the FL- that is probably a sign that the acting is good.

In fact, it's more than great, especially for a short-length drama(sld). Moreover, the cinematography/good production value were another aspects of this drama that surprised me-in a good way. I am so happy that "I don't know who" decided to invest more money in sl dramas so that quality wise, they are on par with the better ones of normal-length dramas. If only it had more episodes coming up!!!

Unpopular opinion (don't hate me, pls): It's not like this drama is a masterpiece, but I was more immersed in this drama + the acting here was more convincing than in some other popular dramas airing right now *cough*...back from the brink..* cough*

Overall, it might be one of the best short-length dramas. I was pleasantly surprised by the cinematography and the acting, but I deducted 2.5 stars because honestly, I think it is irresponsible to release a drama with such a toxic message/plot.
I know that won't be the case, but I still hope that in the end, FL teaches ML a lesson and gets as far away from him as possible.

edit ep 11- the story got a bit more bearable, it is already in the phase where the FL is not a prisoner anymore but is clearly suffering from stockholm syndrome ...

edit after watching all episodes- the plot evolved the way I expected it to, which is kinda disappointing because that man is a monster no matter how heartwrenching lines he says and how sweet he could be at times- he doesn't deserve her. But at least he was depicted as unlikeable throughout (nearly)the whole drama,
I thought when they broke up the first time that that would be it but no they went on and off again .
If that last scene was cut out that would have been the perfect ending for me- well it seemed more logical to me to end it like that .

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