CKDramaddicts
Canada
This review may contain spoilers
Flawed, angsty time travel romance for Fan Zhixin fans (and the ending is not what you think)
First, I will fully admit that my rating is slightly inflated because of Fan Zhixin. This is otherwise probably closer to an 8 for me, but I also think the current rating of 7.8 is fair too.
Present, is Present is an angsty, yet fun time travel series that starts off with a bang. The future prologue in each episode and the flashbacks to the past work well in framing the "present" that makes up the bulk of each episode. I had pretty modest expectations for this drama, given the lesser known cast, shorter episode lengths, and overall low-budget feel. In that context, I thought the show did a pretty decent job with pacing and keeping viewers entertained, despite some significant story/logic/execution flaws.
The premise itself was interesting, but the driving force behind the story (i.e. the villains) felt a bit two-dimensional and flat. While I genuinely like Tu Bing, I felt she was a bit miscast here as the FL, given her character is supposed to be several years younger than the ML. She is a lovely actress, but definitely felt older and more mature than Fan Zhixin (even though he generally looks older and more mature than his real-life age too). I love my "姐弟恋" (jie-di lian) stories, but this was not supposed to be one, so the chemistry felt a bit off somehow. Even so, you do feel the love the characters have for each other, especially the ML.
If you are a Fan Zhixin fan, he does not disappoint here either. He convincingly pulls off playing a broken husband in mourning as well as the rich obnoxious playboy that's still somehow charming. I only wished he had not been dubbed. Some actors sound so much better when replaced with a voice actor, particularly for certain characters (I am thinking Dylan Wang in LBFD), but Fan Zhixin has a great, expressive voice that did not need replacing. I actually thought it took away from his acting. But I get it, it's just easier and cheaper sometimes for productions to just dub everyone.
(ENDING SPOILERS HERE)
Finally a word on that ending.
It was NOT a dream, guys! I actually found it surprisingly more satisfying than I expected given this is a shorter, half-hour series, and given how hard it can be for Asian dramas to "stick the landing" so to speak. Some viewers seem to think it was "all a dream" to pass censors, but I disagree. I actually thought it was vague enough that it was an effective way to circumvent the *possibility* of censors having a problem with the time travel element without taking anything away. It was also clear enough to me that it was DEFINITELY NOT a dream. Why else would he sleep with his marriage certificate under his pillow every night? The way he panicked looking for it upon waking was not the product of a one-off nightmare. He simply still has PTSD (who wouldn't!) given he carries with him all the memories of every previous attempt he made to save her, including the one where he saw all his physical memories of her disappear in front of his eyes. He finally got his happy ending, but it was not without lingering trauma. (I would also not be surprised if this drama was originally small enough for censors to not care too much anyway -- a lot of the shorter and lower budget dramas get away with time travel, transmigration, steamier scenes, etc. that would never fly with bigger budget, higher profile dramas with bigger names.)
Present, is Present is an angsty, yet fun time travel series that starts off with a bang. The future prologue in each episode and the flashbacks to the past work well in framing the "present" that makes up the bulk of each episode. I had pretty modest expectations for this drama, given the lesser known cast, shorter episode lengths, and overall low-budget feel. In that context, I thought the show did a pretty decent job with pacing and keeping viewers entertained, despite some significant story/logic/execution flaws.
The premise itself was interesting, but the driving force behind the story (i.e. the villains) felt a bit two-dimensional and flat. While I genuinely like Tu Bing, I felt she was a bit miscast here as the FL, given her character is supposed to be several years younger than the ML. She is a lovely actress, but definitely felt older and more mature than Fan Zhixin (even though he generally looks older and more mature than his real-life age too). I love my "姐弟恋" (jie-di lian) stories, but this was not supposed to be one, so the chemistry felt a bit off somehow. Even so, you do feel the love the characters have for each other, especially the ML.
If you are a Fan Zhixin fan, he does not disappoint here either. He convincingly pulls off playing a broken husband in mourning as well as the rich obnoxious playboy that's still somehow charming. I only wished he had not been dubbed. Some actors sound so much better when replaced with a voice actor, particularly for certain characters (I am thinking Dylan Wang in LBFD), but Fan Zhixin has a great, expressive voice that did not need replacing. I actually thought it took away from his acting. But I get it, it's just easier and cheaper sometimes for productions to just dub everyone.
(ENDING SPOILERS HERE)
Finally a word on that ending.
It was NOT a dream, guys! I actually found it surprisingly more satisfying than I expected given this is a shorter, half-hour series, and given how hard it can be for Asian dramas to "stick the landing" so to speak. Some viewers seem to think it was "all a dream" to pass censors, but I disagree. I actually thought it was vague enough that it was an effective way to circumvent the *possibility* of censors having a problem with the time travel element without taking anything away. It was also clear enough to me that it was DEFINITELY NOT a dream. Why else would he sleep with his marriage certificate under his pillow every night? The way he panicked looking for it upon waking was not the product of a one-off nightmare. He simply still has PTSD (who wouldn't!) given he carries with him all the memories of every previous attempt he made to save her, including the one where he saw all his physical memories of her disappear in front of his eyes. He finally got his happy ending, but it was not without lingering trauma. (I would also not be surprised if this drama was originally small enough for censors to not care too much anyway -- a lot of the shorter and lower budget dramas get away with time travel, transmigration, steamier scenes, etc. that would never fly with bigger budget, higher profile dramas with bigger names.)
Was this review helpful to you?
