A Melhor Escolha de Todos os Tempos (2024)

Best Choice Drama is the Worst Chinese Drama In History, No romance!

Best Choice Drama ia the worst Chinese Drama in history.
I got frustrated, stressed watching this drama. As my previous comments,
Is this drama about the romance YZM and Huan or the mother.
Huan's Mother gets so much screen time, she is manipulative, selfish, inconsiderate and lots of us get angry with her bad behaviour, She wants her family to be submissive and treated her as a Queen, worst of all, they are all giving in to her. She planned with Huan's ex boyfriend sister and prepared the Engagement party for her daughter Huan's without her knowledge, when her daughter refused and wants to walk out, she gave her daughter a tight slap and threaten her daughter if she leaves, she will sever ties with her daughter Huan's. She only cares for her own interest and not her daughter happiness.
Luckily her daughter refused to submit to her. What kind of a mother is she to embarrassed her daughter Huan by slapping her in front of public.
Anyway I fast forward when Huan's mother come to the screen.
This drama is mainly about her mother not YZM and Huan. No Romance!
Even the last few episodes is about Huan's mother sickness. Who Cares! After what she done to her daughter, she wants her daughter to marry into rich family. Hated it when Huan's mother always said I don't mind to live in poverty but not my children. Bullshit!!! Huan's already own the hotel given by her grand mother.
After all the tormenting, mental torture and was looking forward for the wedding but no wedding, wasted too much time on this stupid drama. Feel Cheated!!! No Romance only Mental Torture by Huan's Mother.
WASTED MY TIME WITH THIS STUPID DRAMA!!! Bad experience watching Chinese Drama, Very Toxic.

Leia Mais

Unless you can endure melodramas for Xu Kai or Yang Zi, I would advise you leave...

I think this show had potential. Family dramas have the tendency to be a little bit one-dimensional and boring, but I think this could've gone a lot of different places. From insights on filial piety to motherly affection to individualism in today's society, there were so many things that could've been explored in this drama. None of these things were touched, which was disappointing. Even more so...

The part about this drama I can't stand (probably influenced by my implicit biases, but anyway) is the story. The mom by herself didn't bother me like the other viewers were bothered. The mom was an over-attentive, un-empathetic, but ultimately caring person... you know Mrs. Bennett from Pride and Prejudice? Kind of like that. That type of character, while definitely unlikable, doesn't bother me if either A) they end up developing in order to represent/symbolize some sort of message or B) they just don't appear all the much.

This drama does not check off EITHER of those boxes. The mom is the only main lead, as other reviewers have noted, in this drama. She gets more screen time I daresay than Xu Kai, and possibly even more than Yang Zi. Even worse, the drama ends on the note of 'we should all quit our jobs to help our well-intentioned mother (which is fair) because she's ultimately the best for us (untrue as evidenced throughout this drama).' I think filial piety is a common theme among mainland dramas, and one that was expressed both as a prison for the female lead and also... the happy ending? There was no growth or insight that led up to this result either. The mom stayed the mom. The daughter adapted for the mom, no matter how much she was tortured and trapped by the mom's antics. This drama doesn't teach how to be a good son/daughter more than how to get stuck in an unhealthy parent/child relationship. It bothered me... and still does to this day. The saving grace in terms of insight for this drama could be the grandma, but then you'd have to stop watching after the first few episodes.

Beyond that, there's basically no plot or direction to this drama. Many good dramas can be summarized in one overarching statement. Nirvana in Fire describes an exiled general's revenge strategy to reclaim honor for his army. Reset describes two people stranded in a time loop on an inevitably exploding bus. This? It feels like a WebToon. The plot seemed improvised as each episode went on, and ultimately, it didn't really go anywhere. I couldn't summarize it unless I told you everything that happened. And that would be unhelpful.

Finally, although this doesn't really affect my personal rating, do note that if you're a huge celeb-chaser or your idol is in this show you'd probably not see them a lot. Xu Kai doesn't really get screen time until episode 8(?) and Yang Zi gets it but portrays the same scenes over and over again. Not a whole lot of development going on here...

Oh! If you're here for the romance, go find romance dramas. This has about as much of an inkling of romance as Nirvana in Fire does. I guess there's a kiss, but anyway.

Peace out ._.

Leia Mais

WARM FAMILY DRAMA

I definitely didnot know intially that it was a family drama. Xu kai was absolutely outstanding in his acting. He skillfully went from being cold and using Yang zi for his purpose to falling in love with her and giving up evil desires. Xu kai was such a cutie. His smile made the time stop for me. Yang zi as usual amazingly portrayed the role of a daughter. But dragging it for 37 episodes was not really necessary. It overall gives insight about hardships a family especially a mother faces when their children grow up, the constant anger and bickering, the extra consciousness of the mother regarding the society and so on. Just not a romance plot and definitely more than that.

Leia Mais

A beautiful drama ruined by annoying characters

I always had this problem with Cdramas where they don't understand what a normal/ not so well off family looks like. They usually show these " poor" characters with an extravagant lifestyle, beautiful clothes, an expensive apartment and so on. For a change they finally showed a poor household which looks believable. A small apartment with small rooms, stuffed furniture and not so elegant looking interior.
What is good:
This story is something that you can watch with your family. It revolves around family values closely knitted together in many Asian cultures, FL's relationships and her struggle in a competitive work environment. The story is not something that you haven't seen before and I have seen Xu Kai and Yang Zi portraying similar roles before yet this drama is much better than all of them together. It is obviously slow burn and little draggy especially with second ml's storyline and fl's overbearing and nosy mother but you will enjoy the two main leads and their interaction a lot. Grandma's character is the best for me. She had a different aura altogether. You will totally adore her. Storywise it is not the best but not too bad either. Writer do not shy away from showing competitive and greedy human nature in the drama. Acting is really good whether it is the main lead or the side characters. Believe me you will literally hate some characters. They are just that good.
What will make you drop this drama: *WARNING RANT AHEAD*
Among all the dramas that I have watched (and I have watched a lot) never have I ever seen a character as annoying, overbearing, nosy, without much dignity, full of selfish bul*sh*t, and totally without any hint of character development like that of the Mother of FL in this drama. In the beginning I sort of forgave her for everything knowing how parents could be little nosy in some families. Then I thought her character might change, something will develop in her arc but to my utter disappointment there wasn't an ounce of guilt or change in her character. I don't know but looks like writers were obsessed with her to an extent that she was more on screen than ML. There is a limit to bear with such a character but writers do not give a damn instead they will introduce a whole set of relatives to irk you further. Nobody really points out what is wrong with mother. Dad and brother's characters were the weakest. They just see the whole scenario like a passerby and even cajole mother despite her being super wrong. *Sigh*
I tried really very hard for Yangzi and Xu kai but I gave up after a while. FL's brother's arc wasn't really interesting plus I felt way too much second hand embarrassment for FL throughout the episodes. I would not recommend this drama to anyone just because of ONE CHARACTER.

Leia Mais

“Romance” should be removed as a genre

There is nothing romantic about this show, it’s purely a family drama, focused on generational differences, family struggles, values and how important those factors are in Asian culture. The overbearing mom was intolerable most of the show, but is quite accurate and relatable to our own. Cast and actors were great, I only stuck around for xu kai and yang zi but the first 28 episodes were not exciting, and didn’t really pick up till episode 30. This is one of those kind of shows you don’t have to focus on, can multitask with it in the background, and still not miss much. Some moments will pull at your heart strings, but that’s about it. Wish I could’ve rated it higher but not when I didn’t care for 2/3 of it.

Leia Mais

Do not underestimate this drama.

Best Choice Ever is genuinely one of the most thoughtful dramas I have ever watched. I know some people will possibly not like the first few episodes and drop this drama, but let me explain. Best Choice Ever may not have the most surreal, romantic or funny drama, but it sure is realistic. In the modern world, when people start to change and grow, they leave their parents. Now in the story, (no spoiling, don't worry) MaiChengHuan starts to have issues in regard to her family. But the character development in this drama especially of the mother, the independence yet rational of MaiChengHuan, as well as the life of YaoZhiMing and them going through realistic life struggles shapes this drama to what it is. Yes, I would agree, the first episodes of the mother definitely got on my nerves. But with that, let's remind us that we are pissed off of the mother because of her character, not because of any external force. Meaning, the acting is really realistic and touching. The more episodes you watch, the more realistic, touching and genuine this drama becomes. Even just MaiChengHuan's thinking is something many people should try to learn from. Even when she has a mistake or is in a really stressful situation, she is very optimistic and rational. This drama teaches many lessons that people tend to forget in this world. This includes the importance of family, learning to grow and move on, learning to leave a situation, learning to work hard and be independent, learning to be rational and learning to love. The family aspect is so deep, so thought-out and just realistic. Even with MaiChengHuan's brother, his character is also well-thought-out. I would rewatch this drama and reflect on my own life, making me think different about life. It teaches SO MANY valuable lessons, and with two wonderful actors, I think those lessons were really well implemented in this drama.
Now onto friendship and love. You can almost trace each part of their relationship. Unlike some other dramas that revolve around "love at first sight", this drama has a very reasonable love plot. The love is actually established earlier in the episodes, but by doing so, the rest of the many episodes show how they start to trust, love, and actually add each other as family. Even the smallest of details, like approval from parents, is well-thought-out. Usually, I find it hard to believe in other dramas that parents support their children's partner in 0.1 seconds. It takes time, it takes thinking, and sometimes leading to overstepping. But it is not what these actions are that are the problem, it is how you do them, etc. So again, this drama has taught me many lessons and realisticality.

Therefore, I highly recommend this drama. Yes, you may feel annoyed in the first episodes, but just you wait. This drama is one of those dramas that can fit anyone's appetite.

If you have read to here, thank you! And tell me, what do you think of this drama?

Leia Mais

For family-drama (with a side of romance) lovers, YES.

I'm actually quite shocked at all the people who dislike this drama, I actually loved it a lot.

In the end, they teach us that, after all, your mom was also once a little girl with passions and dreams. In the end she gave up those dreams to love you and build a life for you. The scene in previous eps where the Mom came back to her old house and cried for her mother really touched me, in her vulnerable moments she cried for her mother who was no longer with her, and whose house she left at a young young age to go to an unfamiliar scary place like shanghai. I cried a lot during the opera stage, Huan was witnessing her mother relive her childhood and unfulfilled passions, which was so so heartbreaking, bittersweet, but extremely touching. As a mother-daughter story with a side of romance, I enjoyed this drama very much.

While the mother was annoying at times, and quite nosy in her childrens' lives, I think everyone had major character development. Their mother learned to live her own life in the end, and love her children from a distance. And her children in turn learned to love their mother even more, because in reality she sacrificed the most for them. Their mother came to the big city, abandoning her dreams, and her kids eventually grew up in an environment where they were able to pursue all their passions. I think they start to realize this by the end of the drama, as they are especially grateful to their mother.

I think through this drama, I have come to terms with my own family's issues. I think my understanding for my parents has grown, especially because I see some of the sacrifices made by the parents in this drama reflected into the one's my own parents have made. I hope I can one day help my mother and father pursue their unfulfilled passions just as Huan and Ming did.

The only storyline I hated was the Zhiming father coming back plot, it was wildly unnessecary, esp if they were just gonna kill him off in the end. But I guess his father's story was important because he served as a major player in getting that evil woman arrested.

While a little more romance may have been good, I was pretty satisfied with the amount they gave us, the haters to lovers development was perfect, and we got quite a big amount of their romance in the first half, which I loved. Big kudos to ZhiMing because the whole drama he had to deal with huan's family drama, which was a whole bunch. At least we know from that that he truly loves her, because tbh idk if I could put up with all of that LMAO.

This drama for me is comparable to the kdrama Live Your Own Life, but I enjoy this cdrama a lot more because they do the family bonding genre very well, and the drama in LYOL is just way too crazy, not to mention the mother in LYOL is way worse than the mother in this drama (LIKE WAYYY WORSE), which I think is another reason I was able to tolerate the mom here. Overall, I would really recommend this drama if you enjoy family-dramas and slice of life! For haters to lovers enjoyers this is also a great watch, just the romance becomes very minimal in the last 11 eps, and more focus is on the family.

Leia Mais

Home is our driving force and Love is the reason we stay put. A Family can make or destroy a person.

Overview of Plot:-

The plot mainly revolves around the female lead Mai Cheng Huan, who belongs to a middle-class family. The drama depicts the personal development of characters and value of relationships and choices in a person's life. This is a family drama mainly focused on mother-daughter relationship or it won't be wrong to say it's focus on how to deal with controlling parents.

Key Characters:-

Mai Cheng Huan (Yang Zi):- The almost perfect girl from a middle-class family. She is mature, responsible and cheerful. She is an independent lady who supports her family financially the most. A bit emotional but determined and confident. The urge of doing her best and earn more along with keeping everyone happy around her is what she aspires to. She wants to give her best in her relationships and career.

Yao Zhi Ming (Xu Kai):- An oversees returnee and a successful person in his career. He is money-minded and cunning who only seeks benefits in business and never allow any feelings to meddle in his business. He believes in keeping private and professional lives seperate. Zhi Ming is not a type of person who always pulls a long face and never smiles.. instead he is a bit cheerful type. He knows how to take advantage of others to get his way. Money is what gives him satisfaction as he believes it's the only thing which will never abandon him. He doesn't know what is the warmth of having a loving family as he never had one.

"Nobody can avoid the temptation of power, and those who can avoid it, it's because they don't have power."
-Yao Zhi Ming

Liu Wan Yu (He Sai Fei):- The mother of female lead. She is controlling and overprotective type but deep down not a bad person. She wants her family to be happy and see them leading a rich life. In order to make the life of her family easy she did everything regardless of right and wrong which made her character overbearing.

My Impressions:-

The drama perfectly fits under the family theme. Don't expect it to be romcom though a modicum of romance is there. This drama is more focused on family relationships, how to handle them or deal with them. There are always some people in our lives whom we don't want to hurt but when these people start to think that they can control our lives then it's time to take stand for ourselves. This is what this drama wants to convey all along.

Female lead's mother is a domineering character though she thinks good of her family but her controlling nature ruins everything for her. She is a bit greedy as well as believes in showing off wealth. In her opinion, money brings happiness and parents have right to fully control the lives of their children. Children needs to obedient, they mustn't go against the parents and whatever parents do, regardless of right and wrong, it's always the best for their children, that's what she believes. Because of her this nature, she falls out with her loving family eventually. Though she enraged me many times as her acts weren't all acceptable but I never think she is an annoying character to be honest.

Female lead's father is also not that great. He never spoke up whenever he must had. He never tried to stop his wife's ridiculous acts or talk some sense into her. Just an agreeable and obedient husband. He lacks the sense of being an elder of the family. With a personality like this he can never be considered a good husband nor a good father in my opinion.

The best relationship in this drama is the sister-brother relationship between female lead and her brother. In addition to that, the leads relationship is also great because they support each other when needed, they helped each other to grow higher and to become the best of their own-selves. Furthermore, they respected one another's career and family. They never meddle in one another's problems yet always remain supportive of each other. Their relationship developed slowly yet firmly.

Grandma Mai is also a worth praising character here. She is the wisest person in this drama. She was an emotional support to both Cheng Huan and Zhi Ming.

"We are free to cry, but we must cry with good reasons."
-Grandma Mai

And there is one more good character and that is the secretary and best friend of Zhi Ming. He is such a fun boy and never failed to make me smile everytime he was on screen.

Female lead's ex is one of the worst character, the boy has no backbone. He wants to marry Cheng Huan but can't deal with his own parents, neither want to built his own career nor respects Huan's career, playing games all day and still wants to marry her. Initially, he looks like a cute and lovely boy but as the story develops more his inability to take stand for right thing came into light.
"Only love can not provide everything in life, one needs to be realistic and also work hard to be financially independent."

Secondary leads' relationship is more looks like a filler to me which was definitely not needed. Their chemistry seems awkward and I couldn't make myself invested in their relationship.

There are also few complaints I have. Firstly, Xu Kai as being the male lead has very less screen time especially in first half. If we analyze justly, he even has less screen time than the female lead's mother who is listed as support role. Honestly speaking, female lead's mother seems the only main character here and other are looking like support characters including female lead and male lead. Apart from that, his back story wasn't handled well as a main lead.

Additionally, I didn't like the take of drama on parents mistakes. The drama tries to justify wrong actions of parents in the name of them being parents and demands forgiveness and a second chance for them no matter how misdeed they did in past.

For example, Huan's ex's father had an extramarital affair with his secretary. When they get caught then the drama takes an u-turn on his actions after he was betrayed by his own lover. He started to singing praise for Huan and drama tried to show that he had an extramarital affair because his children are not close to him, and they just want his money and such kind of things. But in my views, it's still can not justify him having an affair.

Same goes with Zhi Ming's father. He didn't spare a single chance to destroy his own family. Had Zhi Ming not been this sensible and without Grandma's support to him, his life would have destroyed already. Yet the drama advocates for forgiveness to his father that now he wanted to change so Zhi Ming should forgive him. When a person is this irresponsible towards his own family and almost destroyed them then he doesn't even have the right to ask forgiveness or to get close again.

Acting:-

Acting is superb from all of the cast. Yang Zi and Xu Kai are amazing as always. I have nothing more to say about them. I'm amazed that Xu Kai and Yang Zi used their own voices in this drama. He Sai Fei did her job perfectly as she made me enraged time to time throughout the drama.

Conclusion:-

I tried my best to include everything I could in this review without spoiling much. For me, acting and leads relationship is the best thing in this drama, OSTs are average but plot isn't that great or exceptional nor the execution of the story. I enjoyed some parts and there are many I disliked and wanted to skip though I never skipped. Personally, I loved the conversations between Grandma, Zhi Ming, Cheng Huan and Cheng Zao. If come to number of episodes then 37 is big number for this plotline, 25 to 28 episodes would have been enough.

"Life is like opening a blind box. When you make a choice, you never know if it's wrong or right."
-Mai Cheng Huan

In the end, it's upto you whether you wanna watch this drama or not.

Leia Mais

Good Drama, but hated the mother...

Before watching this drama, you have to decide whether you're intending to watch for the romance or the family drama.

If you're seeking a romance-heavy plot, this drama might not be your cup of tea. "Best Choice Ever" is heavily centred around family - specifically revolving around the female lead's mother.

The female lead's mother is depicted as nosy and overbearing, embodying typical Asian family pressures/expectations placed on their child. Such as the emphasis on marrying a wealthy husband, raising children, gender roles in marriage and maintaining a good reputation among relatives and friends. This show offers valuable life lessons and includes moments of romance and heartwarming interactions between family members - a bit touching.

That being said, as the series progressed, I found myself increasingly irritated and frustrated with the female lead's mother. I couldn't fathom how the female lead managed to stay calm and comply with her mother; if I were in her shoes, I would've left due to the constant nagging and pestering. Her overbearing nature made me consider dropping the drama altogether. However, I pushed through, and by the final episodes, she had redeemed herself (Sightly...) I began to understand the mother a bit more, but still... (she said she would change, but barely did. I understand that mothers wish for their kids to live better lives and to give them what is best, but at some point, it seemed more like the mother wanted her kids to fulfill the dreams she never managed to achieve herself... never considering the consequences of her actions, or what her children want.)

I think all characters had some form of character development, but some are more significant than others.

While I don't consider it a must-watch, especially given its 37 episodes, each around 40+ minutes long, it does have its unique appeal. There are many other good dramas out there, but if you decide to watch this one, be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions, especially regarding the female lead's mother. I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way!

Leia Mais