I started this one straight after "Put Your Head on My Shoulder, which was a real gem. I then discovered that the same writer, Zhao Qian Qian, was involved with both of them AND another all-time favourite, A Love So Beautiful. Which made the leaden dullness of this one even more disappointing.
Perhaps it's because this was a remake of other material, while the others are not listed as such. The writer may have been constrained by the source material, I don't know. I do know that the source was a Thai MOVIE, while this is a 36 episode Drama. And that's a big problem right there. The material is far too thin to stretch out from a movie of under 2 hours to a Drama of something like 24 hours runtime. The contrast with PYHOMS was especially painful because that Drama was very short, just 24 40 minute episodes, and felt lively throughout. In this one, the story proper was barely starting by the time I got to episode 10, ugh!.
Also, with both ALSB and PYHOMS, the Dramas hooked me in episode one, especially the female characters. In THIS one, the female lead was uninteresting and unmotivated, the only characters that drew a reaction in the first 4 episodes were her AWFUL little sister and her only slightly less awful mother.
As a fan of romantic Dramas, I have no problem at all with clichés and tropes if they're presented through good acting and good writing. This Drama was 0 for 2 by the end of ten episodes, so I dropped it. I will be interested to see if Ms Zhao's next Drama, not listed as a remake, is a hit like her other two, or a miss like this one.
Perhaps it's because this was a remake of other material, while the others are not listed as such. The writer may have been constrained by the source material, I don't know. I do know that the source was a Thai MOVIE, while this is a 36 episode Drama. And that's a big problem right there. The material is far too thin to stretch out from a movie of under 2 hours to a Drama of something like 24 hours runtime. The contrast with PYHOMS was especially painful because that Drama was very short, just 24 40 minute episodes, and felt lively throughout. In this one, the story proper was barely starting by the time I got to episode 10, ugh!.
Also, with both ALSB and PYHOMS, the Dramas hooked me in episode one, especially the female characters. In THIS one, the female lead was uninteresting and unmotivated, the only characters that drew a reaction in the first 4 episodes were her AWFUL little sister and her only slightly less awful mother.
As a fan of romantic Dramas, I have no problem at all with clichés and tropes if they're presented through good acting and good writing. This Drama was 0 for 2 by the end of ten episodes, so I dropped it. I will be interested to see if Ms Zhao's next Drama, not listed as a remake, is a hit like her other two, or a miss like this one.
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