Hao Hao Sheng Huo (2021)

Not What I Was Expecting

From the description, I expected this to focus mostly on the main couple with the obligatory 2nd couple. However, this drama actually has 1 main couple and 3 other side couples. This is really a story about a woman and her 3 best friends and their individual paths to finding love. It focused on their careers as well but I wouldn't say that career growth was a major storyline even though they are often at work and talking about work.

Although I really enjoyed the first and last quarters of this drama, I was a bit let down by what I thought it would be and also what it could have been. Since it wasn't what I was expecting, a romance with 1 main couple, and instead had the 4 female friends, I was thinking it would focus a bit more on their friendships but this just didn't happen. The friendships felt forced and other than the 1 female who joins the company of the other 2, we don't know much about how they met or how long they've known each other.

Also, there is so much that feels unresolved about what happened in the past. Why did someone leave someone else? Who is the other person involved in a certain little scandal? I have questions and never got the answers.

Honestly, I think I would have dropped this if not for the ML (Lin Yu Shen) but I really love Yu Shen so I stuck with it. To be fair through, sticking it and watching the whole drama I really enjoyed the FL's (Elvira Cai) acting and would be happy to watch her in other dramas. Lin Yu Shen and Elvira Cai were pretty entertaining to watch but the rest unfortunately just fell flat.

Would not recommend
Would not re-watch

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To sum it up, this drama bored me. I would've dropped it if there weren't 2 new episodes almost every day, and if I didn't have a MangoTV subscription that I'm trying to get the most out of. (The English subtitles on MangoTV are terrible though.)

Live Your Life explores themes of friendship, pursuing career goals, relationships with parents, finding love, and letting go of the past. I liked most of the main characters but I wasn't necessarily a fan of their storylines. The middle part of this drama really dragged and then towards the end, a lot happened at such a fast pace. Also, the series begins by introducing a car accident, and I had expected it to be addressed earlier in the drama—but at least it wasn’t used in a melodramatic way.

Cai Wen Jing (aka Elvira Cai) is pretty charming and only occasionally cringey as the spirited and determined Wu You, while Lin Yu Shen's He Xi Ya is more serious and unbending. Although I usually like bickering/dislike to mutual respect/friendship to love narratives, I never felt invested in these two as a couple. The balcony scene towards the beginning really made me laugh out loud but there aren’t many scenes later in the drama that stand out. I cringed when they spoke to each other affectionately. The most fun part of their storyline is when He Xiao Yu is introduced at episode 17—he’s such a bright and funny character, and I loved his interactions with both Wu You and He Xi Ya. I also liked He Xi Ya’s friend and colleague Liang Kuai but it’s too bad he’s only used for comic relief!

As for the rest of the friends, Lu Man's character was too over-the-top and Tu Bing sometimes got on my nerves. But at least she was a rich heiress who is actually interested in working hard and pursued her own goals. I *loved* her love interest Lin Qing, who is played by Zhou Ting Wei (I recognized him as Mu Ci from Ashes of Love!). These two actually have a similar bickering/dislike to mutual respect to love path, but their storyline was so cliched (and rushed) at the end.

I ended up skimming through the storylines of the other two main characters. I really liked Qian Jia Yi (played by Jane Cheng)—she’s the marketing director at the same company Wu You works at, and is smart and confident. (Love her hair, too!) Her storyline explores ideas about marriage and having children, and I really liked her perspective but I truly despised her love interest (and his cousin!!!). Jia Yi is resolute in her choices and lifestyle and has a strong personality, but I think over time she could've slowly changed a little as a trusting relationship formed. He claims to accept her as she is but has his own agenda (for example, "accidentally" bumping into his friend). Lastly, Su Fei live streams her own show and she was a very loyal friend but I just wasn’t interested in her storyline. I’m also not a fan of a certain character tricking her into moving into their house, but at least she calls them out on it!

Overall, this wasn’t the worst modern c-drama but it just wasn’t memorable.

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