To Dear Myself is a wonderful slice-of-life drama that explores the journey of six 30 year olds who are doing their best to make a living in the ever-bustling city of Shanghai. To be honest, this is the genre that I never normally would have been eager to venture into. As a sensitive, perhaps slightly fragile person, I have never been someone who would actively search for slice of life/melodramas because I felt that they hit too close to home for me and were way too real. I watch dramas to get AWAY from life issues, not to get CLOSER to them. However, despite the fact that this drama explored topics I would rather not face, such as infidelity, (a teensy bit of) domestic violence, and boring business dealings that seem to go on forever, this drama was still surprisingly intriguing!

In the beginning, I admit that I was not that intrigued. Because I was unused to how realistically flawed these characters were, I had defaulted to disliking them. Li Siyu and Chen Yiming relationship's made me so angry. I hated how they were unable to compromise or understand the viewpoints of each other, and at many times, I found myself itching to scream at them. I hated the way Zhang Zhizhi was unable to stand up for herself, and the way that her husband, Liu Yang treated his family so disdainfully. As for Lei Haowen and Gu Xiaoling, I didn't care at all for them at all and probably wouldn't feel like I missed anything if both were completely removed from the drama. At first, I was watching because I genuinely despised the characters and wished to see the outcome, but I later found that it was because of their imperfections that I liked them. The hilarious, fluffy, romcoms that I usually adored watching simply avoided creating real, genuine characters like the ones I saw in To Dear Myself. As the story progressed, I started to realize how incredibly realistic and interesting they were. The story taught me so many life lessons. It was fun to analyze character motives and predict what they were going to do next. I loved that I was able to analyze the characters myself and how each character had so many layers. Every character was deeply flawed, but no character was fully good or evil, just like people in real life. Even though some of them were absolutely terrible balls of walking human trash, they still admittedly had some good qualities or ideas I could relate to. Characters tackled many situations that could be found in real life. There were no cliches because everything was based on life itself and not a fairytale. However, when I got to the end, I was pretty disappointed. Up until that point, the drama was very realistic and interesting, but at the end, a bunch of crazy things got mashed together, and it felt pretty absurd. For that, I deducted one star from my original intended review. However, that doesn't mean that the entire drama is bad just because of that one episode. I'm sure I can come up with my own ending instead. I do not regret watching this at all. It was very worthwhile for me, and I was so happy to have been able to share this journey with the characters.

The acting in this drama was amazing. Before this drama, I had only ever heard of Kan Qingzi and Zhu Yilong, (so I will mostly be featuring them in this review). I know that most of the cast is comprised of seasoned actors and actresses who are very good at playing the parts. Well, that showed. Before, I had only ever watched Kan Qingzi, actress playing Zhang Zhizhi, on multiple variety shows. My impression of her was that she was a very bright, outgoing woman. However, I was absolutely shocked by what I saw onscreen. All traces of the real Kan Qingzi had vanished. The character she plays is a needy mother who was severely deprived from self confidence. The actress never once went out of character, despite the fact that her character was so different from her actual self. I was so impressed by how she was able to someone so different from her so well, and even now, when I see Kan Qingzi as her actual self on variety shows, I am shocked at the difference, and part of me can't even comprehend it. As for Zhu Yilong, I knew that he was an amazing actor but had never paid attention to him. In this drama, he plays his part amazing! I was very impressed by all of the expressions he pulled off and how professional he was. It was almost hard to distinguish between him and the character because he was so natural and in his element. The others were also a treat to watch. Overall, I enjoyed all of the actors and actresses and their depictions of their characters.

Although I was disappointed by the ending of this drama, I still think back on it with fond memories. The great acting, the wonderful camera angles and shots, the beautiful OSTs, and the important life lessons will be remembered by me for a long time. That being said, this drama is absolutely not for everyone. It's pretty melo, and as stated above, there is infidelity, slight domestic violence, manipulation, and long business deals that will likely make you fall asleep. The drama is called "To Dear Myself", so it's mostly about the journey of finding oneself. Do not expect to see a huge amount of romance or cute couples (the couples are more scary than cute). However, if you're interested in a cast who clearly knows what they're doing, over-analyzing character motives, or exercising your own brain to come up with an ending because this one sucked, then maybe this drama is for you!