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Octogenarian and the 90s chinese drama review
Completed
Octogenarian and the 90s
1 people found this review helpful
by cocoon
Dec 29, 2022
43 of 43 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 7.5
Acting/Cast 8.5
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 6.0
This review may contain spoilers

romance my arse - slight spoilers/warning!!

this drama delivered half of what I was looking for... a slow paced, peaceful family drama.

THE STORY:
the overall story is quite simple. a young woman, Ye Xiao Mei, takes over the nursing home left by the late grandmother and looks after the elderly people there, which is when she meets Guo San Shuang, an opportunistic salesaman who sells 'health' products to the elderly. slowly they become closer and work together to look after the elders.

with this set up, you know there will be many sweet, fun moments, as well as some bittersweet ones, which is what made me able to watch 43 whole episodes.

now.....let the ranting begin because I have two main issues with this drama that I just have to talk about.

firstly, we have the fact that I was DECEIVED by the romance. now I love slowburn romance, so I was thoroughly enjoying what I thought was a slow 'buildup' to an eventual relationship but I was played. it wasn't slowburn, it was just slow. the chemistry was decent, but there where not nearly enough scenes to satisfy me. in fact I argue that there is not even enough romantic scenes to deserve the romance tag. for 43 episodes I watched the fl play hard to get, but you could not actually feel that she liked him at all, until the very damn end.

my second complaint is with the redemption arcs of the parents of the main leads. as you'll realise from the start, both of the main leads where raised by their grandparent, whilst their parent was absent. I hated both parents with my entire heart and soul, because they came to of nowhere expecting to be involved. they where entitled, shameless and completely undeserving of being parents. they ruined their children lives, and still have the audacity to demand forgiveness on account of being their parents still. what peeves me off even more is that the tone of the drama is that 'you should always forgive your parents because they are your parents' and I dislike this message because in this case the parent's sins do not deserve forgiveness. the sins don't match their redemption whatsoever.

ACTING/CAST:
the entire cast was good, and where honestly a delight to watch. watching the elderly go about their lives was quite heartwarming and they where all really good actors.

the main leads where also pretty good, although I never really warmed up to the fl's character.

MUSIC:
I don't really have much of an impression of the music in this drama, but I don't remember it bothering me.

REWATCH VALUE:
I definitely wouldn't rewatch this entire drama, I just have it as a semi-nice memory at the back of my mind.

with the knowledge that there is not much romance, and some characters are incredibly unlikeable, if you are still interested id definitely say you should give it a go.
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