Firstly let me say that the acting is on point, no surprise there at all. These are all talented cast who've worked for many years. Guo Jinfei as Su Mingcheng was the overall highlight for me as I felt his character was the most difficult to grasp and had some intense dialogue, many of which were improvised. Of all the cast, I hope he gets some recognition for his performance. They also added a touch of Suzhou culture to the drama by inserting Suzhou "pingtan" (a traditional form of performing arts sung in the Suzhou dialect) that usually matched the scenes they were edited to.
It's hard for me to review this for several reasons. I think most people watching this would enjoy it as a good, emotional family drama. But let's set aside emotional manipulation and convenient plot devices because I feel that's lazy writing. What ruined this show for me was the ending that broke away from the novel's original ending in order not to aggravate TV audience expectations. The amount of toxicity and abuse in the Su family could not have realistically been resolved the way it was in the show. As a result, characters went through typical whitewashing, which I think completely missed the point of the original story and does a huge disservice to Su Mingyu and all people who have grown up in similar environments.
The message this drama passes along is that family is everything and no matter what, you should always forgive family because forgiveness sets you free. But I disagree, I find this message extremely invalidating and oftentimes unrealistic. Letting go of hatred is not equivalent to forgiving those who have abused you emotionally or physically. No amount of whitewashing, no reasons, serve as justifiable validation for people to treat you like trash, ever. Period. You can learn to let go of hatred so that you can free your present self from the grasp that shitty events in the past have on you without forgiving people who do not deserve your forgiveness, even if those people are family.
And that's why I'm conflicted about my thoughts about this. I don't feel like I have the right to decide how other people, such as Mingyu, personally handle these situations. We all choose our own way of moving on and letting go, and at best we can only be supportive instead of judgmental of what makes other people feel empowered and happy. I personally feel that the direction this drama went is rather fantastical and is something more often wished for than actually happens in real life. For a realistic production such as this, I expect less wish gratification and more stark realism. I can only say that in the original novel, Mingyu did not make certain choices she made in the drama, and I think the drama should have at the very least kept the choices she made in the book. Firstly because they make more sense character-wise, even if they are less wholesome; secondly because while I can't make decisions for Mingyu, the original author can and did, but her choices weren't respected. Most Chinese family dramas choose this type of ending, All Is Well did not bring anything new to the table even though it had the opportunity to.
There is also one error in the writing that doesn't actually affect the story, I only want to point it out because this is supposed to be a realistic drama and I really feel like the writer should have done some work here: The entire premise of this story is unrealistic in itself due to the fact that China established the one-child policy in 1980. The Su kids are obviously born after 1980, so yeah. Especially in a major area like Suzhou, given the Su parents' occupations (hospital nurse and school librarian) it's impossible that the Su family could have had 3 children.
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Acting/Cast - 10. The cast is made up of seasoned veterans that bring about a realistic take on the daily life and issues of a dysfunctional family. The actor playing the father and patriarch of the family was superb! He is well matched to the actors playing his children. It’s a great cast.
Music - 8 The music fits the life of the lead character, the father, and will be popular for his age group. There won’t be any rush for OST spinoffs.
Rewatch - 9. This will be good to rewatch after the raw emotions have subsided to be able to pay more attention to the plot without taking sides as the drama will force one to vehemently pick sides during the first watch. There is no middle ground the first time one watches this.
Overall Score 9 The drama is excellent and definitely worth watching.
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Was a true to life dysfunctional family story
I normally do not watch these kinds of dramas. Not sure why, I just don’t. But this one caught my attention and it was really good.Storyline - shows the lives of a dysfunctional family. I wanted to smack the mom around a lot. I have a hard time understanding mothers that treat their daughters (or any of their children) the way she did. But I have seen it in real life happen. I am glad it turned out better and in the end the kids became close and no longer blamed or treated each other with hostility. Was a rocky road but all is well that ends well.
Storyline was well written. Very well done. I really liked how it all came together and showed how everyone over came their prejudice towards each other and their father.
Acting/Cast - Was really well done. They did a great job and showed real emotion.
Rewatch - for me? I might but not sure when if ever. Some shows I just like to watch once and leave it at that. For me it is not one to watch over and over. But at least watch it once.
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This review may contain spoilers
Shows some of the harsher realities of life
I rarely write reviews and ratings, but I believe this drama deserves one. My whole family watched this drama together for once (usually we don't do that) because we would find the storyline interesting as we are doing our business around the house.SPOILER ALERT: My review will reveal some of the plots in a very general way but won't get to the specifics or include all of the plots. None of it will be in order in any way though, but if you want to find out yourselves maybe it's best to skip it. I can tell you my family enjoyed it though.
I think one of the most interesting aspects of the drama is how realistic it is. Like my headline says, it shows some of the harsher realities of life. It touched upon a lot of things in life that most of us would probably seldom mention. This would include the difference in treatment between siblings, disease/illness, childhood traumas, misunderstanding between family members, miscommunication between family members, economic problems arising from certain decisions, former spouses and their interactions (a lot of dramas don't explore separating but still entangled), etc.
It doesn't try to beautify anything. It includes things that can happen in life. It showed how hard growing up can be. While the solution it offers at times is to throw money at it (the family is pretty lucky to have some members capable of earning lots of money), it exposes A LOT of problems that can occur between people.
The best part for me is how well it ended. It shows that, at the end of the day, these people are still your family. It is not always a sign of weakness to give up something to accommodate each other. All the main characters had their own regrets in their lives, but they can still live on together while physically apart at the same time. They ended up finding a nice middle ground. Like the Chinese title (I don't think the English title reflects this as well) suggests, everything “都挺好.” It is not the best of things, but it is far from the worse.
Finally, I want to share what I feel like the message is. I think it is trying to say growing up is tough. Growing up is not about making correct decisions all the time, but to understand why some decisions/things happen even though you don't agree with it. Most of us will end up with a scar or two from bad decisions and mistakes, but that shouldn't stop you from living a full life with people that are important to you.
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The story is fantastic, it brings out how each of us are living in this modern world and how family members are struggling with their individual lives and how arguments arise from Disagreement. The plot is fantastic and its definitely a 10 stars rating, with a nice plot, if time allows, an individual can finish an entire 46 episodes in a few days.
This drama has very few ost and thus I do not know what to provide for the music, will be based on whatever music I heard throughout the whole drama, but trust me, this drama doesn’t require any ost, as the plot and cast acting is so nice natural that you will continue to watch without noticing the sound/music.
The cast acting, all 3 Su siblings, acted perfectly, each their individual character, timid, naive, fierce, impulsive, it was so natural that you can hardly pick any flaws. The father Su Da Qiang, I can say that his acting is definitely 10 stars, from his timid behaviour, to demanding father, unreasonable father, and the way he likes to show off, his acting is so well, just so well that you can laugh, you can cry, its really perfect. Not forgetting Zhu Li, wife of 2nd brother, her acting is one of the 10 stars actors as well, her demanding character, her caring character, and her down to earth character, her acting has seriously brought this character to life. The same goes for Feifei, wife of big brother, her acting is good but her character in this show doesn’t have much attention to viewers, and her scene is quite limited.
I can’t say much about the ending as I don’t want to be a spoiler, but I would prefer it to be dragged by 1 more episode as there are a lot more for us to know. Overall, this drama is a can watch and a must watch drama. Just watch it, you will not regret it.
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