Somente Por Amor (2023)

Waste of Time & Potential!

I did it. I finally watched every single episode without skipping. I was miserable, but I did it because I really love Bai Lu & Dylan Wang. I wanted to give them my full attention until the very end.

This drama had so much wasted potential. I even took down some notes on my phone while I watched. How could a drama with such an amazing cast be so terrible! Okay it's time to let it all out.

Negatives:
- Unnecessarily long staring/pondering scenes. LIKE SUPER unnecessarily long.
- Yi Yang was a useless character. He added nothing to this show. Pure annoyance. This guy couldn't and wouldn't take no for a damn answer.
- Lack of communication within all of the characters. Everyone pretty much knew each other but didn't know that they all knew each other mutually. Does that make sense? Like with Guan Ji and ShanShan... why didn't ShanShan tell her best friend ShuYi that she knew who he was? And even towards the end when GJ and SS got together, she didn't even tell ShuYi until she found out for herself. I actually liked this couple in the beginning, but boy oh boy were they so damn annoying later on!
- Speaking of ShanShan - she gave the WORST relationship advice to ShuYi. And it doesn't help that ShuYi is so dumb. They're basically dumb and dumber, except dumber is giving dumb advice. HAHA.
- Nobody is straightforward with their feelings except the niece, ShiYue.
- So much hesitation with talking & texting. I can't tell you how many times they typed out a decent message but decided to delete it and not send it.
- Many many missed opportunities to clear up misunderstandings. MANY!!!!
- ShuYi's Mom meeting ShiYan was SOOOOO disappointing. We didn't get to see her true reaction to him really being ShuYi's boyfriend. That scene was so boring and the Mom just left right after? What the heck was that all about?! They could have made it so much better. I wanted to see her surprised, but instead she just looked bored and annoyed the whole entire time she was at the house.
- The wedding scene with Tang Yi and her hubby was so awkward. They didn't even kiss... they just hugged it out?! LOL.
- Ending was disappointing and felt empty.

Okay that's enough negatives, now onto the positives:

- I really enjoyed ShiYue's character. She seemed to be the only one giving decent advice, had her head screwed on, spoke her mind most of the time, straightforward about her feelings, great friend and so fun!! Loved her character.
- Great kiss scenes between ShuYi and ShiYan.
- Aesthetically pleasing actors & actresses.

Overall, this was not worth the watch. 36 episodes was way too long. This definitely could have been 20 episodes or less. What a frustrating drama with wasted potential. Disappointing!

Leia Mais

Would I recommend this drama?

If you want to watch a realistic drama, move over, this is not for you . If you want to watch fluffy make your heart smile drama, then yes I will recommend you to watch this.

The pull and push in the ML and FL relationship is just so awkward. But don't worry, this drama gets better and better.

I read some parts the novel as I finished watching ep 20 to see which one is worse, the drama or the novel. The answer is, the novel by heaps! Why? Because the novel has no Bai Lu and Dylan. At first I thought this was an adaptation of an anime, so I was surprised to find out it's a novel. The novel is so badly written, so cringy.

I would certainly have dropped this drama after just 1 or 2 episodes if not because I love Bai Lu and how good looking Dylan is as the CEO. In fact, I wouldn't even touch this drama if not because of Bai Lu and Dylan.

CONS:
1. FL continuedly lied to ML all the way (well so far anyway, I'm at ep 20 now).
2. The second leads (Shan Shan and Mr Gu Jnr)... What the heck?!? Fast forward all the way.

PRO:
Bashing this drama aside, I do enjoy watching Bai Lu and Dylan - and the 2ML, and 3ML. This drama is definitely swoon worthy and full of eye candy. I smiled and giggled watching this. I would even rewatch just to watch the ML and FL chemistry. So according to my enjoyment level, I'm giving this an 8.5 (the novel I would give a 4.5!)

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Che dire.... ADORO ADORO ADORO ❤️❤️❤️
Adoro la coppia Yu You/Qin Shi Yue, e il modo di lei di essere un'adorabile stalker ??.
Adoro la coppia Guan Ji/Bi Ruo Shan e la loro paura dell'amore.
Adoro la parte lavorativa di Shi Yan.
Adoro la parte lavorativa di Zheng Shu Yi.
E adoro follemente loro come coppia, il modo in cui facilmente si avvicinano, il modo in cui si allontanano altrettanto velocemente, i pensieri di lei le prese di punto di lui, gli sguardi che si danno che veramente non hanno bisogno di parole.
Didi e Bai Lu sono due attori eccezionali presi singolarmente che hanno una grande intesa messi l'uno davanti l'altra: li guardo e veramente provo i sentimenti che dovrebbero arrivarmi in quel momento❤️.

Leia Mais

Red Flag

Reposting because my review got deleted to manipulate the score

I watched Dylan Wang's and Bai Lu's previous work and I love them however this show didn't sit with me at all:

First few episodes were amazing. Shu Yi, a beautiful woman aware of her charms, good at her job,
bold and confident, she was a perfect female lead in a pile of female leads where a woman is represented as an insecure average woman, unaware of her good looks and why men like her. Loved her being straightforward and flirty putting the cold male character in a position of being adorably flustered by her charms.

Shi Yan, a beautiful and cold man whose charms come from his love towards his work. He is determined, ambitious and charming. Despite being distant and nonchalant with most things, he makes sure that around the woman he likes, he is ready to be the one to take the first step without shame. Especially if he is jealous.

However, after the 10th episode the story starts going south in many different ways. It is unclear whether Shu Yi immediately falls for Shi Yan's charms or if she is only doing that to assure her interview with him which doesn't fit her character. She is someone who's familiar to everyone she writes about. We are constantly told how amazing she s at her job which doesn't explain us why she has to seduce him in order to do her job properly since that did not help with anything.

She continues to send him flirty texts but the moment he takes the matters in his own hands, she pulls back despite her being the one to initiate it. The amount of times the character avoids and rejects the male lead's advances and kisses starts becoming annoying where the excitement before every kiss is followed by disappointment where it doesn't create the effect of suspense anymore.

Only in ep 20 do we find out her feelings about him which is extremely late. The story makes us think that Shi Yan's cold attitude was an issue but instead, it was always the female lead's insecurity of her feelings that was the issue. The fl is also put in a situation where she goes out on blind dates with another man due to her mother's nagging ignoring the fact that she already has someone she can introduce?

The show keeps repeating the same scenes. We see more finance related things and their work instead of romance. Numerous conferences which keep repeating whenever there's nothing else in the show.

The characters don't have a proper bonding time and everything they learn about each other is through a conversation of other people and eavesdropping. Most of the conversations happen over the phone not allowing them to have a single honest moment with each other to learn about each other which makes the relationship hard to believe in.

The couple keeps going back and forth until a certain amount episodes where the scriptwriter decides to suddenly throw all deep kisses at once which should've happened gradually in much earlier episodes.

Shi Yan's character is not supported by anything other than his looks and little lore we get from him acquaintances making us yearn to see more of him.

However, the actors did a good job at acting but the execution of the story was extremely poorly done for my taste. It is probably the fault of scriptwriter and not the actors themselves.

Lastly that the only well done execution of the character was Shi Yue, who, from a spoiled rich girl learns her obligations towards her work, her boss and also towards the one she likes.

Leia Mais

How not to extend 20 episodes of content into 36 episodes

Started strong, finished okay, middle was a dumpster fire. They didn’t have enough content, so their solution was a) make everyone emotionally stunted, b) make sure no one communicates with each other. Ever. And c)have the FL lead three guys on. She says she loves the ML, then proceeds to date two other guys.

Keep in mind these are 30 something year old people who have all had previous relationships.

Anyway. Waste of a good cast. If you watch the first 15 and last 6 episodes it’s actually good. And honestly you’ll miss nothing but frustration at the terrible writting skipping the middle.

Leia Mais

You can only enjoy this drama if you throw logic away. Great actors, very bad script and editing.

This drama had a promising start but wasn't able to keep up till the end due to a really terrible script that throws logic away. If you want to watch a drama just for the sweet and heart fluttering moments and just shutting off common sense, this can be an enjoyable drama as we have at least five (5) pairs:
1. ML and FL
2. 2ML and 2FL
3. 3ML and 3FL
4. 3ML Father and FL's editor-in-chief
5. ML's assistant and FL's office friend

For me who cannot fathom glaring flaws in storytelling, it's a bad watching experience. The screenwriter seems to lack ideas so a lot of plots are recycled over and over again.
Case#1: Moments between two leads keep getting interrupted by either a phone call or somebody else, then FL will run away and hide.
Case#2: When FL is saying something else in her mind but ended up saying something else in reality
Case#3: Car ride scenes

The FL's character was also written poorly where she was supposed to be a top notch magazine writer that could land big shot interviews for their magazine, thus, who should have 1) good communication skills and 2) excellent EQ but a lot of misunderstandings happen due to her lack of these two. It started with her misunderstanding about who the mistress' "uncle" was and just proceeded with her thought that it was the ML. As a writer, she should have good investigative skills and thoroughly checked the identity of said uncle. This defies the logic of her character. She also is written as someone who supposedly values honesty but her actions towards ML roots from a lie. When her lie was exposed, she didn't give the ML a proper apology. She only apologize for the sake of their collaboration with her digital magazine. Even if deep inside she wanted to say sorry, in reality she just keeps talking about work. And this was dragged for so long. There are multiple scenarios when she could have said "I'm sorry" sincerely but no, the writer dragged this out. And when the ML got really mad at her and decided to keep away from her, she made herself the victim. I can go on and on about the flaws in logic I saw in this drama as there are too many to mention. If it's only a few, I could have ignored those flaws and enjoy this. Thus, story is 3/10.

The OSTs are good but didn't leave a mark on me so 5/10.

The only salvaging point of this drama are the excellent acting of all the actors. Thus, I rated Acting/Cast category as 9/10. I could feel the sizzling chemistry between the leads. And you can see how they work so hard portraying the roles given to them. That I appreciate much knowing how hard they worked on this drama for several months.

So, watch at your own risk. I would never recommend this drama to others nor will I rewatch this in the future. 1/10

Leia Mais

They have popular stars, that is about it?

When I knew this was another story about a controlling/dominant CEO, I hesitated.
I still give it a try since it has Bai Lu and Dylan.
I find the series has the popular stars , but the rest does not impress me. The story is not interesting and it keeps dragging. I don't know if it is the script or the director, I can't feel/see how their love developed.
What is with phone ringing every time when they are about to kiss? If the FL is not ready, can 't they make her telling ML she isn't ready? Why always overuse the phone ringing or 3rd party as interruption? Once may be OK, but this one, multiple times. It is tiring to watch.
The characters, how they handle love are frustrating me as well. ( I might like them better when they are handling work and rival).
Their 'love" may start to show some progress near episode 20 , but I am already worn out and losing my interest with this show.

Leia Mais

Wasted potential

First of all, what is this show about?

It’s Zheng Shuyi, a journalist who comes to know Shi Yan, an entrepreneur, as the uncle of her ex-boyfriend’s mistress. She gets closer and closer to him and sparks form, yet she still hides the reason of their meeting. At the same time, there are the love stories of Shuyi’s best friend, Shi Yan’s assistant, Shuyi’s boss and Shi Yan’s niece.

What can be said that’s good about this drama?

- Amazing cast. This show reunited some of the most famous and most recognisable Chinese actors, with Dylan Wang (LBFAD) and Bailu (Arsenal Military Academy) at the helm, accompanied by Wei ZheMing (Unforgettable Love) Jiang Pei Yao (Go Go Squid! 1), Zeng Li (LLTG) and many more. These are indeed also great actors, with Dylan Wang having grown majorly from his questionable acting in Miss The Dragon, although nothing could beat his acting in Love Between Fairy and Devil.

- Additionally, there seems to be quite a lot of budget for this series, with nice camera work, lots of closeups and flattering light. There’s also some pretty decor, background and overall good composition.

Now this is where everything will turn as this is the end of the positive aspects of this series.

What is bad about this drama? Too many things honestly. But what are the most apparent things?

- Storyline and bad use of time:
In the first part of the drama, the romance is dragged way too much, and there is little time dedicated to the progression of the secondary couples. It’s only when we get to the middle that we see the secondary characters become important. Near the end, we are disappointed and annoyed at the amount of couples that they tried to fit in this story. Some seemed natural, while others were completely forced and added nothing to the already heavy storyline. There are at least 6 couples shown in this, with more than half having little to no real screen-time.

- Lack of continuity:
They give us situations, that have obviously been filmed out of order, but when information has already been given to us previously, they go back on it or don’t know this information exists, as if some later episodes were written and filmed before the earlier ones.

-Rushed ending:
Near the end, they struggled to tie up the loose ends created throughout the series, and most were still open. They introduced so many storylines but didn’t do anything more to meaningfully contribute to the story. We are left with so many questions.

-Useless Characters:
They added characters out of nowhere, only to be used for one or two situations and then never be seen again, like a disappearing act. They were also used to force the main leads to experience the famous clichés (Jealousy, cheating, miscommunication, Rich CEO boyfriend, fake rumours…etc). One character appears in the end of the story, we’ve never heard of her, we don’t know where she comes from or why she’s here, but she doesn’t serve any use other than making the FL jealous and looking innocent.

- Main Leads personalities.
The ML was pretty basic, cold CEO who doesn’t like to talk much, and Dylan’s acting makes it a tiny bit enjoyable. What’s bad is the FL’s personality. It makes no sense. She is shy, yet courageous at the same time. And immature all the time, despite being an accomplished journalist respected by many. She tries to fit the mould of the soft, submissive female lead but all of her attributes fail to build a harmonious personality.

-Useless problems/intrigue:
The whole problem with the relationship of the main leads is the total lack of communication. And that the problem is resolved immaturely from both sides, and then forgotten.

To conclude:
This story tries to be the perfect overbearing CEO with a cutesy FL series, partnered with every cliché known to the CDrama industry. With the amount of budget it had, it’s disappointing story wise and doesn’t give us a proper ending.

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