Mergulhando em Seu Sorriso (2021)

It's aight, could be better, could be worse.

I picked this show on a whim because I was looking for something to keep me busy. I have watched the odd cdrama here and there, and I had never watched one with this type of premise.

Personal thoughts:
I feel like the show does a great job of talking about fan culture and internet celebrities; in the age of online personalities and this dawn of cancelling, the show reflects much of the online environments surrounding these topics. ZGDX are e-sport athletes, something that otherwise would not exist without the internet and the rise of online gaming. They are revered by men and women alike and are celebs in their own rights. But there's an ugly side to this hero worship: the second someone slips up, they're hated, reviled, sent abuse and threats for making a mistake deemed worthy of admonishing, and the show takes painstaking measures to portray this type of behaviour and how often this type of outrage is soon forgotten and that the second that these boys have another victory in the bag after a loss that gained them hate, all these people who criticised them will be their biggest fans again.

Another aspect to the shows commentary is the presence of women in gaming; Tong Yao is young, pretty, girly and she's also the best gamer around. From the onset, the show isn't holding back on portraying exactly what women go through in this industry, with TY getting her first slew of hate in the first episode when she's told by guys that she's only there because she likes how ZGDX looks. It goes on and on; TY is only there to date boys, she's only there because she slept with one of the team members, she's only there because the team wants PC points, she's only there to look pretty, etc. And TY calls this behaviour out time and time again, she's the only girl in the competition and has to face a barrage of misogynistic comments thrown her way constantly, but she withstands it all the same.

And that's.... all I really have to say about the show. It isn't bad, it just doesn't stand out. The main actress must be relatively new to acting, because she didn't stand out in any shape or form. Her expressions were cute, but she always had this strange look of confusion on her all the time, sometimes followed by her pressing her lips together or giving a small smile. I can't even really say what her personality was, or if she even had one other than: "yes she's a girl. yes she's a gamer. yes they exist". I will say I like the fact that the show made TY as a girly girl rather than a total tomboy which would continue to perpetuate the idea that you have to be masculine in some shape and form to be a gamer. But TY was out here doing her make up and wearing cute skirts and shoes and lipstick while kicking ass.

The rest of the cast were the same, albeit they shone a bit more. I loved Xiao Rui and Xiao Pang, Jin Yang is the best friend anyone could ever ask for. The rest of the cast didn't really stand out. Lu Yue appeared as if he was going to be super important for like two episodes and then he was quite literally pushed to the side and all but forgotten about.

But we are here to talk about the one, the only, the star: Lu Sicheng. I've not seen anything Xu Kai has been in but I just might because he really carried this show. LS was cold without being cruel, aloof without being uncaring, he was honest without being brutal. He cared a lot about his team and his friends, but he was pragmatic, if something needed to be said and done, it would be so and he would do his best to minimise any hurt or damage that might occur. He embodied the stereotypical cold male lead without actually being one; you can see that he cares and some times he's just not the best at showing it. Plus, Xu Kai is so dreamy, awooga awooga, jaw drops to floor, eyes pop out of socket.

What I didn't like about the show:
There isn't much because this show really washed down easily and there's nothing to actually hate, but there are a few things that did make me roll my eyes a bit.
- The overused joke of TY being short. I mean, she's not THAT short, maybe everyone else is just freakishly tall? I'm five foot and a size 3 in shoe (we're the same size) and it just kept being overused ALL THE TIME. Like, at first it was funny because LS would be like "quiet small child" and call her shorty, but then it started getting... weird? Calling TY a child, calling her a little girl, saying she doesn't even look like an adult because of how short she is, essentially it was a lot of infantilisation. Like, a LOT. I don't even know if the show states how old LS is but I believe he's in his mid-/late-twenties as LY is 23 while TY is 21 at the start of the show. The age gap doesn't bother me at all, it's the constantly saying she looks like a child does.
- I'm holding off on making this an actual reason why I didn't like the show as I believe that it's a translator's error but my enjoyment of the show was ruined with the constant use of the r slur. I do think this was the fault of the translators because they even changed the subtitles for flashbacks in future episodes, but it just made me icky and soured my enjoyment of the show.
- "Where's the chemistry? Ion taste anything!" Xu Kai was probably hospitalised from back pains after being the sole carrier of the chemistry in this show. He gives clear cut reasons why he likes TY and there's a part where he quotes that he doesn't know where the love began, only that it's now deep. It's a wonder Xu Kai is so tall with the burden of having to carry the chemistry between him and Cheng Xiao weighing on his shoulders. There were cute moments and they were all initiated by him. Some times it doesn't even feel like TY even likes him, maybe it's a cdrama thing to forbid a woman being attracted to another man because god forbid a woman be sexually active.

Anyways to wrap it up:
Xu Kai, i'll pay for your medical bills and physiotherapy after carrying this entire show with your bare hands.

Leia Mais

Chemistry!!! Fluff!! Comedy!!

So just finished watching this and I was impressed.
First and foremost the fact that I didn't have to like search online for recaps because it's a drag or just trying to fast forward spoke volumes on how interesting it was.
The story wasn't something new but interesting enough to keep you wanting more.

STORYLINE
It was well paced, no rush well maybe the ending felt a little rushed to me but was still satisfactory enough to say "that was a good one".
They were able to depict real life scenarios which was good making the drama relatable.
1.How, negative comments on social media can affect one's life.
2. How parents can either support your dreams or not.
3. How far can you go to get attention from people and are you willing to bet your livelihood on that.
4. Not keen on the whole e-sports thing but the fact that they were able to show us that with it comes injuries just like any other sport out there so gave it a different perspective on how it's viewed.

CHARACTERS
I just reviewed how disappointed I was that xu Kai didn't get to expound on his character in court lady and he didn't disappoint in this. His expressions, humor, timing and everything else he nailed it!
Well, I didn't know smiling before this but she really did a good job on not acting like a damsel in distress and portraying her character, being able to adapt in an environment that's male dominated and to not be tough or too whiny was a balance she did well.
-The chemistry between the two of them was really fun to watch!
- fatty!!! Aaah my funny comedic guy loved him and his expressions.
K- ( this guy is just too pretty) anyway loved him and his deadpan reactions when needed and when he has to be the voice of reason for his friend.
The second lead couples were so cute loved em
The other supporting characters were also enjoyable to watch hate em when needed loved em when necessary . A good balance.

OST
Not so bad , still loved the long ballad ost more but this had it's moments necessary for the drama.

GRAPHICS
Well damn!!! Now it was among the top ten I've watched so far and it was really good.

DOWNSIDE
-Not everyone knows the characters in the game so it was really difficult to know who was who when the characters came to life in the game. So was kinda disappointed in that.
-The ending was kinda rushed felt as if it could have wrapped up smoothly.
-I wish the other supporting characters had their stories developed more giving them more in-depth character development so that they don't just explode out of the blues.

Conclusion
Loved loved loved it!!! Well paced, good chemistry with all characters, graphics on point. Even though there's some controversy on it. I'm a customer who wants to be satisfied with what I get and this cdrama made me feel satisfied with what I watched about the rest I shall not comment all that matters is that I was happy at the end of the finale!!!

Leia Mais

Watch for the laughs but skip the fans

Cliché executed pretty well overall

Things that didn't work:
1. FL - her big blank eyes with zero expressions. She's lucky ML and supporting cast offset her inability to act.
2. Fans - Excessive nastiness. It got exhausting after ep 20 and felt super repetitive. Pretty sure you can fast through 10 ep of fan hate.
3. eSports - I see many complaints since this is more about Romance and less about accurate portray of eSports it really doesn't bother me
4. Relationship growth - if this was more focused on the romance they should've played on how they developed. It was ok just could've been better
5. Character growth - it's a fun fluffy drama so don't expect this

What worked:
1. Humor -- Lots of comical dialogue and short jokes which short girls will appreciate the struggles. Of course the subtle ones may be lost in translation
2. Supporting Cast -- Good supporting cast over all especially little fatty, he offers endless comical relief. I see some of the same cast in supporting roles in Love like Galaxy too.
3. Xu Kai -- Strong ML that executed his never exist in real world unattainable drama bf character flawlessly.
4. eSports graphics - Pretty cool graphics
5. Fun Fluffy Cringy all at the same time. There are plenty of people that enjoys this kind of stuff.

Leia Mais

Need season 2

This is be one of my favorite drama I ever watch. Not just great drama, but more than awesome.
Every scene, every actors, story line, are to amazing. I really falling in love with this drama.

I highly recommended for those people who love romance, comedy, and especially about games or e-sport. For romance, I like to see cheng ge and tong yao relationship, skinship or just teasing each other. And the romance also funny and cute.
This drama made my laugh so hard. Full of funny. The friendship made me envy too. When they tease or laugh so funny.
So many pretty face, handsome boy, like flower boy.
So I need season 2.

Leia Mais

Awesome story

I just love this story because is diferent , I think the female caracter is strong on her own way.

Another point to share is you can see the imperfections of the idols, so we can remenber.. At the end they are humans.

If we talk about cast, in my opinion they did it excellent, you can realized all the work behind scenes.

I hope all the people enjoy this story, also thé feelings of the caracters make thé people smule or cry with them. There's no words to describe exatly how make feel every single person, but in general the word is awesome.

What are you waiting for watch it?

Leia Mais

Nice e sports drama but could've been better!

This drama was pretty good as I expected. I took an interest in this drama because of how similar it was to the 2019's esports Chinese drama Gank Your Heart (which I find still better). The storyline was similar to Gank Your Heart but had few differences.

I liked how they added something new of having a girl (Tong Yao) actually being added as a player, which caught many fan's attention since it is VERY rare to see a girl be in an esports team. This is not usual to see because esports as the stereotype would call it are mainly for boys and not girls. Throughout the drama, Tong Yao received criticisms left and right about her being a flirt, rude, and etc. from netizens bc of situations she got into. However, despite being a girl, she showed tremendous gaming skills and proved to everyone that she, as a girl, is as best at gaming as other guys are. It was a great message shown in this drama to break those gender stereotypes. Also, this drama showed the sad reality of how parents are towards computer gaming as a career since they do not see it as anything but a hobby or fun pleasure. Parents cannot accept their child doing gaming as a career because of the fear of not becoming successful in life. Therefore, they in most cases disown them which was shown clearly in this drama when Ai Jia's mother disowned him. However, this drama showed a great message of how computer gaming CAN be a career and people can become successful.

I also love how they added the visual effects of the anime characters they play in the drama. It's quite more realistic to see and understand more than just keep watching through just a computer screen. It's better just visually showing the characters fight themselves and the cool effects.

The romance between Tong Yao and Si Cheng was very cute. There wasn't anything different or special about their romance storyline since it seemed quite cliche, BUT they do have good chemistry. The romance was a very slow development, but it is understandable considering how they are leader/teammate kind of relationship and it wouldn't be that easy to just get into a romantic relationship. You don't see a lot of teammate/leader type of relationships in dramas so it was quite new for me. Despite Tong Yao's hesitance, I love how Si Cheng was very affectionate towards her and did not care what others thought about their relationship and would most likely sacrifice a lot for it. At some points, Si Cheng freaked me out on how pervy he acted towards her during their relationship but it's funny seeing this side of him at the same time.

One flaw I found in this drama is how there's very little conflict between the couple. The whole entire drama was basically all cute, romance, cliche and very little conflict is shown in the drama which made at one point their romance storyline boring. Also, I sorta wished they dragged on the "love triangle" between Tong Yao, Si Cheng, and Jian Yang longer than ending it halfway. It probably would've made the romance storyline a bit interesting, less repetitive, and even affect how they perform on their matches.

I felt quite bad for Si Cheng's brother because he literally only played like once or twice out of all the championship matches in the drama. Like I guess it's understandable since he is only like a backup in case Tong Yao can't. But I felt as if his character wasn't as significant as the drama was trying to show he was. If they had given him some spotlight at times then maybe his character would have something. I found the back story behind Si Cheng's brother's scandal quite sad and interesting to hear about which cleared up a lot of misunderstandings about him.

As for other flaws, this may be my opinion bc of how I'm comparing this drama to Gank You Heart. Usually, dramas like this show how people or teams go through this journey and face obstacles in reaching the top of winning the championship. Like you'd be able to see character developments and maybe even sympathize with some characters because of how hard they r working to get there and the obstacles they have to overcome. For this drama... I didn't feel that. Although it is an esports drama, I felt as if the drama focused too much on the romance storylines of Tong Yao/Si Cheng and Jin Yang/Ai Jia. Like yeah they did show some parts of obstacles such as controversies the teams got themselves into but I didn't see any character development nor anything interest about their esports storyline bc of how it seems quite predictable how they're winning like almost every single match. Like there's no sort of twist of conflict that could make viewers find the esports aspect of the drama interesting or emotional towards characters. I would rather watch an esports drama that had the romance and a slice of life type of feeling where it takes you down the road on the team's struggles in reaching the top and their character development as the story progresses than just keep watching predictable scenes over and over again and a load of cliche romance.

Despite some of the flaws, I still enjoyed this drama. It is personally not as best as Gank Your Heart but it's still worth and an enjoyable drama to watch about esports and romance

Leia Mais

ONE OF THE BEST C-DRAMA

Lol this is my first time to write a review in MDL! I am writing this literally after watching the final episode. Loving all the cast, the story & the music as well!

The cast:
I love how they casted almost all good looking people here😝 Not to mention, their acting skill was good also. It’s a plus point for me! Good drama with good looking cast + acting skill😍😍For the supporting roles, their acting skills were also good. Bcs sometimes in C-drama, the supporting casts give a cringy acting🙃

The animation for the online battle was also good!

The only thing that bugged me is the dubbing with korean language. It didnt match the lips & the sound. Also it seems like they slow it with 0.5 speed.

Oh sometimes I wonder, why almost all mother in C-drama sounds annoying. They do love their children, but the way they treat their children was kinda annoying & toxic. Especially those who are treating their children as an ATM🙄🤐

But overall, I REALLY LOVE THIS DRAMA! The team work, the romance, the family problems, the fans problem were all captured well. I have the same feeling like after watching Go Ahead & Le Coup.

Leia Mais

Very pleasant

I started watching and did not stop until the end. I did sleep a bit at some point lol. There is really space for this type of storyline but it was a bit over the top romantic somehow. If they toned down just by 20% on the romance it would have lend it quite a lot of credibility. But actually I can not fault it even if I am a giving a bit of criticism. I give it an overall 10/10 just because it was such a lot of fun to watch.

I enjoyed the group matching scenes and the insight into celebrity life. How celebrities are also human and affected by criticism. One tend to think that celebrities are used to everything and should deal with any criticism but bullying people remains bullying whatever their status or position in society. I also love the sincerity of the relationships that are displayed which is one thing that attracts me to K dramas. The love relationships remain real and human but the integrity of being sincere in your relationship really appeals to me.

Leia Mais

Finding love in Arena

The FL and ML are the first that made me took in interest in the drama. If there is one series that made me fall in love again and again that might be this!

When you read the synopsis you won't think you will be addicted to the show, but once you started watching you just can't stop watching it. This is a story about a team of players of the game Onmyoji Arena.

They did great job about casting, Xu kai just nailed it! Talking about character Lu si cheng I really loved the way he is with all the emotions, being calm, a lovable smile but he is cold due to the position i.e., leader of the group. Here comes cheng xiao is the FL is definitely fair to the show who is involved into an E-sports girl proving that girls are not less than boys.

I too love the supporting characters who just nailed the show! I'll definitely suggest that you too would like it.

Leia Mais

E_Sports And Love(✿ ♡‿♡)

I've completed this drama Today.. And it was really beautiful (✿ ♡‿♡)(✿ ♡‿♡)(✿ ♡‿♡)(✿ ♡‿♡)....


If you are in a doubt whether to watch it or not, Trust me go for it, it's fascinating (●♡∀♡)(●♡∀♡)(●♡∀♡)

What I loved the most_

ML played by Xu Kai, his role was really peculiar, beautiful and his character change when both ML And FL fallen in love and started dating was so sweet.... (｡♡‿♡｡)(｡♡‿♡｡)(｡♡‿♡｡)...

FL played by Cheng Xiao, her role and character development was also a new kind that everyone is fallen for her ( as what happened with me "‿" )

About the other cast and characters, lot of people that you surely get fallen for ( trust me, 当然). All the sub characters are peculiar on their own way, there's an ex clingy lover, the new chaser, sissy and her passionate lover, bro man ship, team spirit, what more I can say everything that u need for a sweet drama.

OST___ There're a lot... Each everyone is best of the best, my personal choice is, "Follow The Light" by Chen Zhouxuan and "Signs of You" by Zhai Xiaowen and Feat FrankiD.

Chemistry between the leads, the best ever 💜 💜💜. The production is also really beautiful, and what I loved is, it hasn't changed the novel story a little bit also, that really touched me.

If you loves e sports, and romance like Go Go Squid, Gank your heart, Love 020,... This show is for you (^o^)／＼(^o^)／＼(^o^)／＼(^o^)／＼(^o^)／＼(^o^)／＼(^o^)

Leia Mais

So cute, but heroine is seriously lacking

The high ratings I gave this show are well deserved.

First, they tackle a lot of issues I didn't expect to see in an E-sports drama at all (like girls in sports, sexism, toxic dating habits (Not a spoiler, I promise!), etc.) and so that was really cool!

Second, the acting was really amazing! Some of the best I've seen in a C-drama! Xu Kai killed it from start to finish and I have no complaints about any of the other actors (which is so very rare for me)!

Third, the story was ridiculously engaging. I don't know what the writer's did to make it so interesting, but whatever it was, I want more of it. Because WOW did it work! Even though I had tons of other work and prior engagements, I watched this in a week! It really is that good! Seriously, give it a shot and if you're not hooked after the first episode, then I guess the magic of this show doesn't speak to you.

Now to get onto some of the bad things... okay, no singular bad thing.

The show did deal with sexism, which is great. Except that Tong Yao had absolutely no personality. She was so flat and giving Mary Sue for 95% of the show that I kept accidentally trying to attribute more character to her than she presented to compensate. She is a complete blank space for the majority of the series. You could've replaced her character with a literal plant and the effect would have been the exact same.

Now, to be clear, I do not blame Cheng Xiao. Her performance was excellent. 10/10. In the moments when Tong Yao does show a bit of personality, Cheng Xiao's performance blew me AWAY. So, like WHY was it covered up for the majority of the show?? I don't know, but it's clear to me that Cheng Xiao is not the problem.

The problem is the writers because it was the literal story and character concept that completely obliterated Tong Yao's personality. You're thrown into the shown with this badass, doesn't really care about the rules gal with a lollipop in her mouth, but within five episodes, she's been broken down by the industry and is acting like a "good" E-sports girl. And it's kind of like "so this show deals with sexism and how bad it is, but also can't have a feminist FL....?" like, literally what?!

It can get veryyyyy annoying, especially in the later episodes when the romance starts to heat up. Because Lu Sicheng is making your freaking heart melt and then Tong Yao is like *peace brah*. So, I need someone to explain to me why they did this, because it's jail. I will not accept it.

Also! literally every side character has more personality than Tong Yao. I ended the show feeling more confident about the rest of her team's personalities and freaking Xiao Rui than I did about Tong Yao, which is just simply not right.

SHE'S THE FL!!! How can I NOT be aware of her personality???? Is she goofy? Is she lovable? Does she enjoy anything other than Japanese food and cats? I DON'T KNOW!! And that's absolutely crazy to me!

So, mini rant aside and over with, this IS still a fantastic show. And I am going to re-watch it. So cute, so fluffy, so adorable! It gave me all the best feels! I just wish they'd gone full throttle with their "girls can do anything" campaign and kept Tong Yao as a badass with an incredible personality all her own, but unfortunately we can't always get everything we want *sigh*

Leia Mais