I gave it a really high score because I just enjoyed watching this drama. I saw many negative reviews about this drama so I'm pretty sure that they won't agree with me. The story is about two people in love who were separated by their own circumstances for 7 years. This simple story already attracted me but what made me love the story more was the flashback scenes during their college days which were very crucial in creating this kind of drama.

It was my first time to watch the main leads in a project and their acting was just fine . I also wasn't able to read the novel in which this drama was based from so I'm not quite sure if the readers' idea of Yichen and Mosheng was played faithfully by Wallace and Tiffany. More than the main leads, Xiao Xiao (Mi Lu) and Yuan Feng (Yang Le)'s story stole the show for me. They were so entertaining to watch that I wish they even had more scenes because they were so great!

Just like "Boss & Me", the music did not disappoint and can easily make you feel good. My favorite was the opening song by Zhang Jie with the same title as the drama. I'm already downloading the OST as of writing this review haha!

I'm not a rewatcher so I didn't give a high score for that though I'd be fine in rewatching some of the scenes that made me happy and feel good. Overall, the drama had its fair share of angst (also annoying) and romantic moments but still managed to be a relaxing watch which made me love it. I haven't watched so many good C-dramas yet but I consider this as one of the good ones so far so you may try this out if you're craving for some romantic/nostalgic-themed drama to watch.

Leia Mais

As a fan of Zhang Han, it has already been written in the stars that I would watch the drama that launched his career. It really made me wonder why this unofficial Chinese adaptation of Hana Yori Dango had such a low score here and also negative comments in different blogs. As I watched every episode of the drama, it also made me wonder how it became an unofficial adaptation when it followed the basic elements of the original story. Although I completely agree with others when they said that this was more like an adaptation of Meteor Garden compared to Hana Yori Dango. So we can basically call this an adaptception (I hope you'd get what I was trying to say here ;). I have also long accepted the fact that I would definitely come to love any version of Hana Yori Dango because I'm just so in love with the story no matter how cliche it is already now. I can honestly say that the first few episodes were quite boring and ridiculous (in terms of acting maybe) and definitely different from all HYD adaptations.

However, one must be patient in watching in order to enjoy it fully. One major thing that made me love this drama was the chemistry of our main leads, Chu Yu Xun and Murong Yun Hai. No wonder Zhang Han and Zheng Shuang ended up dating in real life! In terms of acting, Zhang Han playing the Domyouji character really made my fangirl heart jump out of happiness. I believe he played it so well next to Jerry Yan's Dao Ming Si. I also can't believe that Zheng Shuang was just around 18 or maybe even younger when she acted in this drama and she was just really adorable and fierce at the same time. The only thing that I could complain about her was that she was just too pretty to play the Makino character but this is hardly even a complaint. I have always been a fan of Hanazawa Rui (both in MG and HYD) but the one here really disappointed me in terms of acting and looks (sorry for being shallow!) but he just grew on me as I continued watching. I also found the other F4 members really cute and they actually had decent storylines.

I gave the music section a perfect score because I really love the OSTs that I'm even listening to them now as I type this. My favorite ones are Love's Waltz, Let Me Sing A Song For You, I Want to Soar, etc and most of them were sang by the cast members! It was a chance for me to actually listen to their real voices as they were all dubbed in this drama.

I gave a low score to the rewatch value because I feel that it would be dragging to rewatch everything all over again. I would also be unfair and say that nothing can beat the rewatch value of Meteor Garden which is why I gave such a low score. My apologies for writing such a long review but it only means that I'm very passionate because I believe that more people should give this drama a chance. A bit of chance that would entail just enjoying the drama alone and forgetting the other adaptations even just for awhile!

Leia Mais

I've been wanting to watch this movie because of the plot and because Zhao Wei is in it. There's nothing much to expect from the story since it's already a typical story line that a local and a foreigner would create comedy because of their language barrier. It is also expected that there would be drama because of their own stories until everything would just fall into place once these two have started knowing and liking each other. As for the acting, it should be no surprise that Zhao Wei's acting was superb and no matter where I watch her, she's just always a joy to watch. The music mostly used English songs which I think suited the tone of the movie. It's a light and fun movie to watch so I wouldn't mind rewatching it. I also found the role reversal entertaining since it was a story between a female taxi driver and a male make-up artist which isn't the usual case in most of the movies or other works of fiction and even in real life. Overall, I recommend this to anyone who would want to watch something light and funny.

Leia Mais

First of all, I didn't expect much when I started watching this and because I just felt like I had to watch it as a Jerry Yan fan. The story’s very simple and can be typically found in a lot of other dramas but sometimes even the simplest plots can lead to a really good development of both the story and the characters. There are also plot lines about revenge and business which may annoy you but at least it didn’t drag much compared to most C-dramas that I’ve watched that focused too much on those sides.

I actually have nothing to complain about the main cast because I felt that they played their parts very well. Jerry Yan's immature/childish Li Tang made this drama turn into comedy (especially his outfits). Despite his childishness, I just found myself falling in love with him more and more. Maggie Jiang's Fu Fangsi is very inspiring and I'd love to be someone like her. She doesn't let anyone or anything stop her from pursuing her dreams. She's a rare breed in dramaland and more female characters should be created like her. Ron Ng's Yin Haoran may be your typical martyr-like second male lead but because of this kindness, his flaws were also revealed. Viola Mi's Cheng Xiangnan may be the annoying antagonist but it's not always rainbows and butterflies in a supposedly feel-good drama. It also shows that she's an effective actress! I also have to give credit to the supporting cast because they added elements of fun to the drama as well.

I LOVE the music in this drama. I’m not into CPop unless the songs were used in a drama so it was only recently that I discovered that some of the songs used in this drama were not new already. I have always known that JJ Lin is a great singer based on people’s opinions since I never got the chance to listen to his music so it was just great that I got to listen to his music because of this drama. My ultimate favorite songs are JJ Lin and Kym's "Waiting For Your Love" as the opening song and Wang Su Long's "If I Could Turn Back Time" as the ending song.

Will I rewatch this drama again? There’s a huge possibility that I will because I started and ended it with the mere focus of blogging about it. So next time, I’d probably watch it out of leisure/enjoyment. And why wouldn’t I want to rewatch the adorable and funny scenes especially involving Tang and Fangsi? Count me in!

The cinematography/editing of the drama was well done and of high quality and I wish more C-dramas would learn their lesson from this drama. It’s also important to note that the story pretty much revolved around the world of fashion which makes it refreshing and pleasing to the eyes! Most importantly, the story’s really enjoyable to watch because of the splendid cast (both main and supporting). Overall, I recommend this to anyone who's just up to watching a refreshing C-drama in terms of its quality and theme.

Leia Mais

Romcom is my ultimate favorite genre then top that with elements of youth nostalgia, then voila: the most perfect combination ever. Our Times has a story that is pretty much overused and it has lots of cliches actually. But why did I give it an overall rating of 10? Plenty of reasons and let me divide them into parts:

STORY: I have watched a lot of similar movies but I find Our Times to be the most relatable of all. Let's put it into a formula to make it easier: Ultimate fangirl having a crush on the most popular boy in school and having a not-so-good guy help her to get him? Seems so simple and overused but it just worked so well in this film. It also helped that it has so many funny scenes. There was a point in the movie that I didn't get what was happening and my overall rating was supposed to be around a score of 8 to 9 until the film has successfully delivered the whole story near the end and cleared all my doubts about it.

ACTING/CAST: It was my first time to watch all the main leads and all I can say is that, they are all such good actors! It was so refreshing to see Taiwan's young talents deliver so well in this movie. I'm pretty sure that they have a bright future ahead of them int he industry because of their spectacular performances here. I couldn't imagine anyone else portraying Vivian Sung's Lin Zheng Xin and Darren Wang's Xu Taiyu because they really owned their roles. The same thing could be said to Jerry Yan and Joe Chen here, I'm so glad that they were willing to appear in this movie because I felt that their roles were created for them as well and no other actors could portray their roles so perfectly.

MUSIC: Since this was a throwback to the 90's era, the music was perfectly placed in the movie. While writing this, I'm currently listening to Hebe Tian's Little Happiness which is the official OST of the film and it just keeps giving me feels.

REWATCH VALUE: I'm probably one of the biggest fans of Jerry Yan out there so it's not surprising that I have watched his scene here a lot of times already haha! Technically speaking, I have watched this movie twice already because the video player wasn't working well so I couldn't fast-forward it but needless to say, it wasn't a chore to watch at all and I'm willing to watch it again someday.

OVERALL: I highly recommend this movie especially if you love this kind of movies like I do! I have watched a lot of other Taiwanese and Chinese movies similar to this but Our Times stands out for me because of the story and acting. It has also pulled my heartstrings hard, so hard that I shed tears!

P.S. I don't think my review gave justice to the movie so I suggest that you watch it instead and see it for yourself :D

P.P.S. Jerry Yan and Joe Chen should seriously star in a Taiwanese drama to revive the old glory days of TW dramas and because they have chemistry here!

Leia Mais

I remember including this in my PTW list for quite some time now just because it was one of the recommended movies in an MDL article. After learning this was Zhao Wei's directorial debut which also earned her the title as the most successful female director in China, I wanted to watch this film even more. The story was focused on the cast's youth or during their college days giving only a small portion of the film to the time when they all have become adults already. There were times when random story lines would enter and you'd get confused but what was beautiful here was the fact that everything eventually made sense in the end. The acting was good especially Mark Chao's and his role here became my favorite given that I've already watched some of his other works. There was nothing stellar about the music so I just gave it a passing score.

The movie could be dragging so I don't think I would rewatch it ever again. In addition, I wouldn't think that this would be that much of a huge box-office success if it weren't for the fact that it was Zhao Wei's directorial debut. However, I'm still happy that I was able to watch it because it was still well-crafted. I really have to say that China's really good at producing movies that more people should take notice of.

Leia Mais

While watching the final episode, I was torn about giving this drama a perfect score or not. I get easily entertained and pleased with a drama or a movie so giving a 10 is never an issue even if it has its own flaws. LNF seemed like a heavy melodrama at first but I actually found myself enjoying as each episode passed by. There were so many cliches in the drama that came up randomly and made it seem like it was developed poorly. However, the drama managed to tug at my heartstrings because of the chemistry of the family. It made me realize that I get easily attached to stories like LNF and Autumn's Concerto have but I won't compare these two since I only judge a drama on its own. To say that Tong Liya and Jerry Yan acted so well in this drama would be an understatement because this drama would make one realize that acting is both a skill and a talent that only (perfect) people like them would be blessed with. My other honorable mentions would definitely go to Liang Rueqi and Lin Jiandong because of the very enjoyable comic relief that they provided in the drama. I just wish that this drama wasn't dubbed but of course it was an impossible wish given that Chinese productions are almost always dubbed.

For the music, I just love the soundtrack especially the instrumentals and Jerry Yan's Having One of Me as both an ending and an insert song. I may have not heard his beautiful voice in this drama but at least his song was still playing in it ;)

For the rewatch value, I believe that there are only a few dramas worth rewatching since I'm also not a fan of rewatching. However, I'd love to rewatch some scenes because of the emotional impact that they gave me when I watched them for the first time. Overall, I haven't watched so many good C-dramas and I already consider this as one of the few good ones so I recommend this to anyone who's willing to try a good Cdrama. And for Jerry Yan fans like me, you definitely shouldn't miss this!

Leia Mais

SO MANY CHANGES HAPPENED. I'm not just referring to the fact that the actors who played Lan Gu, Li Li, two evil female classmates, Yu Xun's mom, Yun Hai's mom, and Lin Xiao Li were totally different but almost everyone had a 360 degree change of character. Just so you can understand more what I'm saying, Yun Hai's mom was just purely evil (given that this is still loosely based on HYD) in the first drama but she totally changed in this sequel and you wouldn't even know why or how because it just happened. Many plot lines ended up to be like that that you can easily say that the character developments and story were just poorly developed. I felt like they only made this sequel just for the sake of making a sequel.

Moreover, I thought that nothing could beat my hatred for Ye Sha from Meteor Garden 2 (the second female lead) but their version of Ye Sha or Jiang Yuan as she is called here is probably the worst 2nd female lead that I've ever watched in my history of watching dramas. I didn't even mind not watching her scenes as I was busy playing Candy Crush while her scenes were playing (lol I'm so harsh). Honestly, this was a chore to watch that it took me a long time to pick it up again after not watching for weeks but I can definitely credit my enjoyment at times to the chemistry of Zhang Han's Yun Hai and Zheng Shuang's Yu Xun. I'm already looking forward to watching their other dramas together!

There was really nothing new about the OST of the drama as it also used the same music in the first one with an exception of a few songs. I'm giving this a very low rewatch value because from what I've been through with this drama, I don't think I could ever stomach rewatching it. I'm just glad that I finished it already and just because I was just really curious on what would happen to Yun Hai and Yu Xun after the first drama. Folks, this is an example of a bad sequel and I hope you won't go through something like this ever (lol!)

Leia Mais

It was my first time to give a 10/10 for a Cdrama and this definitely deserves it! I initially wanted to watch this because of my love for Zhang Han and it really made me curious why it has such a high rating here on MDL. All I can say, believe the hype whenever it's high in this website! I understand now why they said that Zhao Liying gained 10 pounds in this show. I really enjoyed all of the eating scenes though! But what was I saying, I enjoyed every bit of this drama.

This drama never made me feel like it was a chore to watch since every episode of this 33-episode made my heart happy (and maybe even sad). It has the right amount of fluff and a bit of angst which is the formula for me of being a good drama. It's already a given that I enjoyed Zhang Han's Feng Teng and Zhao Liying's Shan Shan but all the other actors played their characters so well. Special mention goes to: Shan Shan's Dad, Liu Liu (Shan Shan's cousin), and Feng Yue (Feng Teng's sister) are my faves! For the music, I enjoyed the opening theme sang by Zhang Han and also Roll the Dice as an insert song. The only aspect that I didn't give a perfect score to was the rewatch value since watching this at least once is already good enough. On the whole, I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be in for a good Cdrama to watch and maybe to some who haven't been introduced to the world of Cdramas yet, this is a good one to try!

Leia Mais

Ever since I heard about this drama, I've always wanted to watch this because I have always been a fan of Ady An but her other Chinese works never appealed to me (they're mostly period/wuxia) but this one appealed to me because it's her comeback in the Taiwanese dramaland after her success in Autumn's Concerto;. Moving over to this drama, it was just disappointing in so many levels.

One would think, if you have Ady An and Mike He in a feel-good drama, how can it be so bad?! Well, that's what I thought too! I've never watched Mike He in anything before so it was one reason why I chose to watch it as well. I'm pretty sure that I chose the wrong drama to get introduced to him because his acting here didn't make me like him and I felt that his role would've been better if another actor played in it. I didn't have any problems with Ady's acting here because she's really one of the best actresses out there for me. However, even the supporting cast couldn't save this drama. The second female lead was the cliche annoying girl that you'd expect to find in a second lead while the other male leads had nothing special to offer.

For the story, it actually had some interesting parts in the beginning and in the latter parts but it just dragged on for so long that I actually couldn't understand what was happening already. It was partly my fault though because I was also busy playing a game in my phone. You just know a drama's not watchable when you've found something else to do haha!

I have this habit of downloading my favorite OSTs from the dramas that I've watched but it's just sad that the music here didn't even appeal to me at all. Sometimes the music can save a bad drama but this one unfortunately didn't... I'm pretty sure you already got what I've been trying to say. I didn't like this drama so there's no way for me to rewatch this at all.

The drama had so many flashback scenes that they could literally take up the whole episode. I also never thought that there could be something worse than not having kissing scenes... and they are fake kissing scenes! If you get to watch this, you'd totally understand what I'm saying. Overall, I don't recommend this drama and I only gave it an almost passing score for some entertaining and good parts and for Ady An as well. I really felt that so much potential was wasted when the production crew already got some of Taiwan's biggest drama stars in a project but everything else still failed to deliver in the end.

Leia Mais

Although much has been said about this award-winning drama and the fact that its Korean adaptation is in the works, I still wanted to write about it. This drama is far from the usual Taiwanese idol drama formula which is why it won 7 out of 8 awards in the Golden Bell Awards (Taiwan's version of Emmys) since this award-giving body rarely nominates an idol drama, much more when it's actually chosen as a winner.

The story of "In Time With You" is so simple and you can even say overused because it's the typical I'm-in-love-with-my-best-friend-but-I-can't-because-it-would-ruin-our-friendship. Yup, that kind of story and nope, I didn't spoil you. It is because the drama was not trying hard to be anything else but show the reality. I didn't know much about Ariel Lin and Bolin Chen's acting skills before coming into this drama but while watching this, I could totally understand how they were able to win the best actress and best actor award, respectively. The roles that they played as Cheng You Qing and Li Da Ren would make you feel like you were actually in their scenes because they would make you feel that it was all real. Many people frowned upon the arrogance and obliviousness of You Qing and also Da Ren's role as a doormat and punching bag but I felt that their characters were still perfectly developed and necessary to the story. Unlike most of the other TW-dramas that I've watched, this one did not have annoying or unnecessary side stories because everything just helped in moving the story well and also the fact that the supporting characters played their roles well.

While typing this review, I'm listening to the OST of this drama because all of the songs used were just so beautiful and appropriate for the scenes. "I Still Am" by William Wei as the opening song is probably one of the best opening songs that I've ever heard in a Taiwanese drama. The leads also contributed to the beauty of the soundtrack with Ariel Lin who sang the ending song called "Wings" while Bolin Chen sang "I Probably Won't Love You" as an insert song. There were also two beautiful insert songs entitled "Revolving Door" and "Tiptoe Love" respectively.

I saw how most of the people recommended this TW-drama for those who are not looking for something light. However, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who simply just wants to watch something beautiful in the most realistic way possible. I would also like to praise the director (who also won best director) who used such a simple story into a drama which was artistically and excellently done. I'm generally not a fan of rewatching anything unless it's really really good but this definitely fit the criteria! My tears were just effortlessly flowing while watching this drama and my eyes were literally glued to the screen because I really felt that I was part of the emotional journey of the characters. Overall, I really think that this is a must-watch TW-drama. Having watched a few really great ones (e.g. Autumn's Concerto, Meteor Garden), it made me wonder if I would be able to find another drama that could make me feel overly emotional and amazed with its beauty and "In Time With You" is definitely one of those dramas now.

Leia Mais

The title does not lie at all

I have been watching C-dramas for almost a decade already, but I had yet to find a modern workplace romance drama with such an overflowing chemistry and superb acting from the leads. The last drama I watched of the same genre was a 2014 drama, Boss & Me. Right after that, any of the other dramas with the same genre just could not beat Boss & Me. My point is not to compare both dramas, but I just wanted to highlight how this drama is just one of the best that I have ever seen. Reading a lot of comments here saying about how it's overhyped, the ML is toxic, story is lame, and so on prompted me to write this review. Yes, at some point, those are all true but watching this without any expectations (just like for almost any drama) was what made this enjoyable.

The trailer instantly got me even though I never had plans to watch it before despite liking Luo Yunxi from Ashes of Love. It ended up to be one of the best C-dramas that I have ever watched and definitely my plot twist last year. Sundays to Tuesdays were its airing days and never have I looked forward to these days until this drama came out. Again, there was nothing spectacular about the plot and the secondary couples/leads were such a bore. It was the chemistry of the leads that really brought the house down. Every scene shared between the two of them was a delight that even in the most cringe-worthy moments, I could not help but grin like an idiot. To be honest, I never thought that I would see Luo Yunxi have such a great chemistry with a co-star because I was just neutral about his chemistry with his previous female leads. As for Bai Lu, it was my first time to know about her thanks to this drama and everyone is saying that she is the queen of chemistry which I could already see based on this drama alone. I could probably write an essay about their chemistry alone but let me just save it for next time.

My main point really is that it has been more than half a year since the drama finished its run yet I still find myself rewatching my favorite episodes again and again. It really is my comfort drama. My form of therapy when everything in the world does not seem to go right. Call me dramatic but I never felt sorry for feeling this way especially that the leads, especially Bai Lu called this her "healing drama" too. I know that others would probably think that I am exaggerating but this is how I have been feeling towards this drama. It put me into a severe slump that I just could not find other dramas that would make me exude the same feelings as Love is Sweet.

I also want to take this opportunity to praise this drama for its cinematography because the shots were just really well-thought of (I had like thousands of screenshots!) amidst the outbreak of the pandemic. It made me glare at the other dramas which were produced from the same year of 2019-2020 with choppy editing and mediocre shots. Moreover, the soundtrack is just superb that I am still listening to it as of this time writing this review. Overall, Love is Sweet is the sweetest mature romance drama I have ever seen. I have long accepted the fact that it will take me a long time to move on from it, and I guess that's okay. We all have dramas/films which we could never move on from anyway. Even if you did not like it, I wish you could all find your comfort drama if you haven't yet.

P.S. I am just out here waiting for another collaboration of Luo Yunxi and Bai Lu. Hope no production house would sleep on their superior chemistry and acting skills!

Leia Mais

Ever since I heard about this movie, I have already been so excited about it given that it's a movie with my favorite stars in it who are Ady An and Jiro Wang. They are already great actors in their own right so I actually had no problems with the acting or the cast of this movie. However, this film failed to present what it was trying to show to their audience as suggested by the poster, plot, and stills that they used for the movie's promotion.

As I started watching it, I feel like it had so much potential to be a thrilling viewing experience because of all the mystery and tomb-raiding subject. In the end, it just ended up to be a low-cost film which actually had no intention of showing the process of raiding tombs. I'm assuming that they spent all their production money just to cast Ady and Jiro in this film but the production team seemed to have just wasted their actors' potential. All of the promotion posters even showed that they were raiding tombs with their cool-looking uniforms but you'd only get to see that for a maximum of 5 seconds. What a waste.

An overall score of 6.5 is still fairly high but I only left it as such because Ady and Jiro acted so well (as they always do actually). Some parts also actually scared me and left me intrigued but I really wished that the story went to the direction that the audience really wanted and expected to see given that they promoted it as a film full of mystery and secrets on the subject of tomb-raiding.

Leia Mais