Reviews

So Good!

Looking to escape into a drama that will make you laugh a lot but maybe cry a little but leave feeling happy?

There aren't many dramas where the ending leaves me smiling and feeling ridiculously happy and satisfied, but this one did. The Romance of Tiger and Rose is a new favorite. With how it kept me laughing while needing to know what was going to happen, it was one I couldn't stop watching. It was a bit longer than needed. Yes, it's short for a C-Drama at 24 episodes, but I felt like it could have done better with a little less of the very dramatic last 8 or so episodes. And poor Ding Yu Xi did a fantastic job acting, but the makeup (or lack of) was jarring after seeing him in other roles. Still, there wasn't much about this drama that I didn't like. It was just soooo good!

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Not nearly as bad as some people say.

The story isn't as convoluted as people were saying.

I will say one thing, though. China has no idea how to portray mental illness. The ML has bouts of PTSD from a traumatic situation where he watched a child and his mother die and the writers are like "Oh, he has some weird hallucination thing. NO IDEA WHAT'S CAUSING IT! HERE TAKE ALL THESE PILLS AND STAY AWAY FROM THE FL FOR A BUNCH OF EPISODES TO CURE IT."

It's just convoluted and messed up that this is their take on mental health. If you can overcome that significant writing hurdle, then the show isn't all that bad. Pretty typical Chinese misunderstandings/relationship drama.

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Nice blend of comedy, fluff and drama.

I have not much to say, just I was very entertained with this series.

The story is of course not the best, but the acting is top notch. The only downfall is the kissing of MLs which, in typical traditional japanse style, is a dead fish kiss. When you can overlook this point, you get a nice blend of comedy and serious elements, solid story telling and some fluffy scenes. Production quality was top notch, intro & outro song fitted also very well and overall it's really entertaining.

So, if you have not watched it and you need something more on the light side, this is for you!

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This Drama is a Glass Pearl

This drama is a glass pearl. It's almost the real thing, but not exactly. Pretty to watch and is unique in it's way, but not memorable enough. The story follows Danwu (Zhao Lusi) as she journeys through life from being a slave pearl diver to a respected and successful business women. Along her journey, Danwu meets Yan Zijing (Liu Yuning), an established merchant who mentors and paves her way into the business world.
The first few episode was great, but as the story progresses, it became a little stale. It was watchable, but not enough for me to go "oh, what's going to happen next?". Now, the story line did not grab me, but the characters as an individual did. A perfect example of great actors, but bad story writing and/or directing. Danwu is a lovely character. She is strong, willing to push through any obstacle and learns quickly to adapt to situations around her. It was not love at first sight with Yan Zijing, but he grows on me. Like most ML, he looks bad and cold on the outside but really he's a charmer after a few episodes. I especially like that he does not overshadow Danwu despite all the "power and riches" he already had. He didn't just hand them to her, she physically and mentally worked for her own. Zhang Jinran (Tang Xiaotian) was a character made to like in the very first episode to the end. He have justice, loves and care for the FL, and serves as a good love triangle. Cui Shijiu (Chole Xie) is an interesting character as a whole. I like her character set up, but her arc falls short because she never really learns from any of the tragic events that happens to her (except towards the end of the drama she finally "wakes up"). Unlike Danwu, she's hell-bent on vengeance. And unlike Yan Zijing, the writer made her vengeance scheming not so smart.
I would recommend this drama if you are a big Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning fan. I enjoyed watching every scene between Danwu and Yan Zijing, especially the sweet romantic interactions between them. However, if you're looking for good storyline to awe you, this drama will leave you luke warm. You won't necessarily dislike it, but at the same time clicking on the next episode won't be as tempting. Will I rewatch it again? Only if I want fan service of Zhao Lusi and Liu Yuning in a drama, then maybe.

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Unexpected

I really love this Kdrama. There was not even a single episode that I don't laugh and smile. The comedy is really good with a tons of romance thingy. The backstory of the main character is not being focused on that much, which I really like because it does make this Kdrama not cliche and same as other Kdrama as they always focus on the trauma thingy on that main character.

The main couple and side couple is really outstanding! They carry their role perfectly and I can see the strong chemistry between them tho.

In conclusion, this is a really good Kdrama. It is light and fun to watch. The romance and comedy is sooo balanced that you will love it.

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Beautiful drama! Amazing cinematography and acting

This was beautiful, I could watch it just for the cinematography, it blow me away.
The actors are great, every feeling and emotions greatly represented. It was a joy to watch.
The story is pretty interesting and consistent. I know it can be repetitive (his search and constantly being healed by her), but it was enough for me, much better than those confusing dramas with messy plots. The beginning of the story is more active, but the rest of it have such interesting pace, is lovely to what their feelings deepen, their live obsessions change, the importance of very little moment together. If you appreciate a poetic life of honor and commitment, this drama is for you.

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Overrated and overhyped

This has been on my watchlist, then i saw 8.8/10 and I was like oh wow, I’m in for a good time but alas it wasn’t so.
Ep1 was ok enough even though I wasn’t exactly seating at the edge of my seat in anticipation of the next episode but I’m like maybe it gets better since it has such high rating, half way through ep2 and I’m asking myself why I’m I here? 55mins into ep2 and the bank scene I was like yeah I’m out, I’m like is this for real, is this supposed to be a real bank?
I’m sorry to anyone who likes this but this is definitely not a quality series and it’s honestly bad, the background characters are just lifeless and screaming I am just an extra so loud, my eardrums hurt so much.
This very below average drama being rated so high is mind boggling, as someone who reads a fair amount of reviews here, I’m used to a lot of reviewers here enjoying mediocrity and some would rate highly anything their faves are in whether good or bad, I have long giving up hope of having the majority of the reviews and ratings here from people with working brain cells, most people who write reviews here have below average level intelligence, so when I continue seeing ratings like this, the hope that is dead gets even buried deeper.
This is going in the dropped bin
I obviously do not recommend

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Adorable

The leads in this show were so adorable and I love them SO much. Yukiko is strong and independent, bright and insightful, and just such an interesting character to follow. And Kurokawa is such a golden retriever character — the "looks like they can kill you but is actually a cinnamon roll" is probably my favorite archetype and he absolutely embodies this. I love how earnestly he approaches things he doesn't understand, and the dynamic between him and Yukiko is so heart-warming because of it. Most of the side characters also lovable and I love that we get to see each of their family/friend groups.

Overall, I think the drama portrays visual impairment really well. I definitely learned a lot about amblyopia, which I had no idea about before. The show goes into different accessibility tools and their importance, and I really enjoyed the explainer cameos by comedian Hamada Yutaro. There are a few hiccups here are there; there's a frustrating second female lead type of character who treats the FL really horribly and while the FL is shown as someone who is kind-hearted and patient enough to sit down and explain...it's kind of frustrating that she had to and I wish we'd gone more into the ableism here. The other part that was kind of iffy to me was her work at the restaurant. Once again, it seems like the drama goes for the route that hypes up the female lead and shows her resilience, but I think there could've been more discussion about making workplaces accessible. Showing scenes of Yukiko burning herself and carrying on didn't really make me think "Wow, she is so strong" as much as "Damn, they really did not make this workplace safe for her."

I think the most frustrating thing about this drama was the very typical "break up for their own good" trope in the penultimate episode. I'd been so impressed with how well they communicated prior to this and I really think it would've been much more in line with their personalities to talk it out rather than going the noble idiocy route. I very rarely like time jumps and this was no different.

Ultimately, I still found this drama really light-hearted and fun. It's a really comforting watch and Kurokawa is probably one of my favorite male leads.

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Cute comedy

I binge-watched all three seasons consecutively, which allowed me to sidestep the bittersweet conclusions that marked both Season 1 and Season 2. While the drama may not stand out as particularly memorable, I wouldn’t label it as terrible either. The acting struck me as commendable; it maintained a balance that avoided the pitfalls of excessive childishness and slapstick humor—two traits I often find off-putting in comedies. As for the plot, it was engaging enough and held my interest, akin to many other light-hearted comedies I enjoy. In summary, I believe this show merits a higher rating than it currently receives, as it offers more value than the numbers suggest.

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amazing acting, wasn't the biggest fan of the story

I was hoping that I would like this more. The premise is interesting enough: two people with trauma from their ex relationships forced together by an obsessed woman who gets off on controlling her ex-husband. As the headline says, the acting was absolutely remarkable, but with a cast like this, that's to be expected. So I will talk about the story, because while I see everyone here praising it, I didn't enjoy it so much.

There is a dead body, and it's connected to everybody. Honestly, I didn't really enjoy that part. It was a weird decision to add murder mystery to an already complex plot with a messy, broken marriage that has left a man reliant on drugs to sleep to a runaway groom who left without another word after being exposed as bisexual. The murder mystery didn't even feel like mystery because I literally could not give a damn about it lol. A 30-second clip of an interview isn't going to make me engrossed in a death story that has nothing to do with the main plot of the show...

Since I've mentioned the runaway groom, lets talk about that. What the hell was that? Guys like fr how is this good story telling? He appeared for a grand total of ONE episode after being made into such a big deal for the FL and then he just poof! Disappeared! Gone into thin air! An afterthought! He stabbed a man! Stabbed a man! ON THE TOPIC OF THAT MAN. He is an obsessed stalker. We don't know why he's obsessed; there is never a reason given. We don't know what's wrong with him. He literally makes NOOOO sense as a character I'm so sorry like literally none of his actions made any sense??? OPEN THE TRUNK. OPEN THE TRUNK. ONLY I CAN HAVE HER. WHAT DOES HER MISERY HAVE TO DO WITH MEEEE?? dog water writing sorry that upset me

The ex-wife. I understand she is obsessed. I don't understand why they justified her trying to kill herself while pregnant because her husband was soooo happy to have a baby. The real reason she tried to kill herself is because she couldn't bear the thought of his attention being taken away and given to their child. She's selfish. Simple as that. Not an ounce of pity for her in my mind.

I also found the music really weird sometimes. I think it was the MLs music? But they'd play it during like a serious aerial shot, and good god I could not take it seriously lol. This is ultimately a bland story, which saddens me because it had lots of potential. The trunk was irrelevant, which is funny because this drama is named The Trunk. Could have done just fine without half of the extraness they did, could have been developed better without it. I rest my case.

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Wish I'd liked it more

Oh I really wish I liked this more, but it does exactly what I don't like about the soulmate trope.

I like the idea of two people who get dreams about their past lives and feel like they've always been missing their other half, but it's much more interesting when two people fall in love with each other when they are reincarnated, rather than because of it. Dean and Pharm see each other from across the room and just know each other; from there, the romance seems to happen pretty quickly. I don't know, it all just felt...too easy? Dean/Pharm scenes overall got very repetitive to me. There are a lot of scenes where Pharm just ends up crying and I don't think any of it hit me emotionally, whether it was because of the acting or lack of development for the character himself.

Some other things about the drama also just feel like they jumped the gun, like all the students hyping up the Dean/Pharm ship when they haven't even met. The pacing of the second couple was also weird to me, and overall I think none of the acting was that immersive for me.

On the other hand, I think the past lives scenes with Intouch and Korn were the strongest scenes. I still wish there was a little more meat to how they fell in love (and not just how their story ended) but ultimately I still enjoyed their scenes the most.

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“Its’s all your fault”

This is a running theme throughout this drama - people are either blaming misfortunes on others or assuming responsibility for things they had no control over.

I have to say that excluding the ML, FL, 2nd FL and Old Gao, most of the other characters were not a major contribution to the story. instead they were all pretty annoying characters. The overly exaggerated and dragged out scenes with many of the characters were almost a turn off.

I love Zhang Han’s acting, and the chemistry between him and Janine Chang was palpable. There story could have been all that was needed to give this drama a better rating without any of the side stories which took up more screen time than the leads. And I noticed the repeat jewelry placement of the same pieces to multiple characters.

I watched this previously about 5 years ago, and had the same impression then. Even though I skipped a lot of the side stories this time, and was annoyed with the attempted nobility to take responsibility of every wrong in everyone else’s life and hide to avoid difficult situations, I still enjoyed the story between the ML and FL

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