TOTALLY WORTH IT!
I watched this series twice already, I haven’t written a review until now.Storywise, definitely for me is a factor. Love how they played with the characters and the story itself.
Acting wise, SUPER LOVE THE MAIN COUPLE! I totally shipped them. Their acting is so natural even their lovey dovey moments.They are so comfortable with each other, no awkward moment. I love their interactions!
Music wise, it’s totally addicting. Love listening to it.
All in all, I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THE DRAMA SERIES THAT I CAN’T HELP TO WATCH IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. TOTALLY RECOMMENDED!
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average cohab romcom plot, with above average execution
My Love, Enlighten Me 8,5/10 -cdramafrom quite average romcom drama with cliché story and basic template characters, became in later part quite nice, cute, funny romcom worth watch.
firstly whole drama looked to be more low budget romcom with Btiers actors. Which may be truth, but they managed to dig out potential of this piece.
story is more or less, about FL getting kicked out as trainee of entertainment agency and now trying to find her space and meaning in life + romance storyline.
plot - A 22-year-old hopeful and kind-hearted pop star named Nuan Nuan is forced to reinvent herself after the girl group she is a member of disbands on the night of its debut. Overnight, her dreams come to a halt as she's hit with the harsh reality of her situation.
While she struggles in her search for a post-pop career, her life gets intertwined with a man named Han Che. Han Che is a successful sound and light engineer who also happens to have an impeccable memory and a cold personality. However, despite his amazing memory, Han Che misremembers something very important, which can later threaten to jeopardize his relationship with Nuan Nuan.
Meanwhile, Nuan Nuan, who has always had a keen eye for fashion, begins to explore her love of clothes - hoping to secure a permanent spot at a clothing store’s headquarters. Although their relationship is often adversarial, Han Che and Nuan Nuan also have a growing fondness for one another. Han Che tries to help Nuan Nuan, and she slowly starts to melt his icy heart. But can they withstand it when the past comes to the surface, or will it get in the way of their blooming love?
(Source: MyDramaList)
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Natural Acting, Great OST
I had seen the FL actress in The Big Boss before and her acting really still holds up in this drama; she's just really natural at showing every emotion — I felt everything she was feeling from the very start. I just really loved the development of the main female lead's professional career; after getting her dreams dashed, we followed her around as she tried different jobs and it felt like a really relatable and natural journey. Even though you might think that being a singer or fashion designer isn't very common or relatable, that wasn't the case at all. This was actually a really inspiring drama and I loved seeing her overcome all the obstacles she ran into. She's bubbly but not stupid, hard-working but not a doormat.I think the chemistry between the main leads is definitely there. The banter and skinship all feel super natural and I liked how the male lead was labeled cold but actually very logical and straightforward in his thinking. With that being said, however, I felt like the plot had some holes missing. There were repeated miscommunications that I felt like they never talked out — it was like the relationship and story moved forward and got over it and any clearing up either took place off-screen or they just didn't bother doing it.
I also think some parts of this drama were problematic in regards to consent; there was a moment where two side characters slept together when one was clearly drunker and I did not like the way they addressed it. Other than that, I enjoyed the more casual dynamic of the second couple as well even though I didn't like how they also had communication issues that took very long to solve.
Overall, I still think this was a really nice drama to watch, and the OST is really great. It's light-hearted and touching in all the right places and I think a lot of people who usually dislike c-dramas for the dubbing and hate how FLs often have to act "cute" would actually appreciate the main character in this drama.
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First straight drama I liked after getting into BL
Okay, truly speaking I don't know how y'all expect me to write a review. But I truly wanted to say this. So here I am, probably a year and a half after watching it.During the early pandemic, I had started watching tons of BL series and I got so addicted to them that I started getting bored with most of the normal straight series. But this one......it was truly an exception. Istg, I was truly amazed too. It was the FIRST straight series that I had gave up my sleep for after getting into BLs. I enjoyed the storyline and maybe also because I am into these cold looking, introverted, extremely intelligent and kind of dominating male characters haha. I loved the chemistry of all the couples. The leads, Leon looked cool and Eleanor looked really really really cute (not cringyyy at all- it is definitely a tough job to pull up a cute, jolly character without making the viewers feel slightly cringed). I felt as if the script was truly customised for them. LOL.
Talking with context to my drama preferences, I am someone who hasn't yet finished A Love So beautiful, Put Your Head on My Shoulder, etc. I mean they're good but I was not truly hooked on to them. But I swear I don't mean to say that these are bad though. It is what I experienced and maybe its just otherwise for you, no comment. What I mean to say is, it's really hard for me to enjoy all the storylines. And I think this one did get me good.
So I highly suggest you all to try this. You may like it or may not. Not everyone has the same preference. But I just wanted to say what I truly felt.
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STORY
So the drama mainly focuses on this group of people who try to find themselves in a harsh society, especially Nuan Nuan and Han Xue after their dreams of becoming an idol come crashing down one night because of their friends betrayal. And of course Nuan Nuan’s story, as she finds a new dream and love with her friend’s brother Han Che.So the story starts on that fateful day, when three best friends Nuan Nuan, Han Xue and Lin Jia Yi compete to finally debut as a girl group only to be betrayed by Lin Jia Yi, who orchestrated (with their agency’s director) to literally steal the spotlight and with the help of Light and Stage Director King. Jia Yi shot to stardom while Nuan Nuan and Han Xue not only ended up being embarrassed as “back-up” dancers for Jia Yi but got kicked out of their agency as well.
Both girls are not just heartbroken and mad at their friend's betrayal but at a loss, they have trained together for years dreaming of becoming a girl group and to finally debut together and have no back up plan. With Han Xue’s family money, she had no other worries except for Nuan Nuan. Nuan Nuan has no one in the city and will basically become homeless after she moves out of the dorms and so she offers their family townhouse, her deceased grandmother’s studio unaware that her aloof, cold, OCD and genius brother Han Che is back in the country and is set on staying on his grandmother’s house.
With their contrasting personalities, the two did not start well and he ended up throwing her out. It turns out that Han Che a.k.a KING (ikr!) is back in the country not just because of his new company but he wanted to search for his “benefactor”. Back story on that, when the Han sibling’s grandmother died, Han Che was so sick he could barely get up of bed and a mysterious person takes care of him, even though he has hyperthymesia (person who can remember everything) the one thing he can never remember was the face of the girl who took care of him that night.No matter how hard he tries he can never remember her face but he does remember her three white flower hairpin. And on that fateful day he mistook Jia Yi as his benefactor and helped her in becoming a star and unknowingly hurt the real one.
So the whole story will be about Nuan Nuan as she tries to re-invent herself, Han Che tries to “make it up” to her, Jia Yi and Han Chen’s a bit obsessing over our main leads, Han Xue still trying to make herself famous and Gu Li becoming her knight and shining armor.I love the growth of the female leads on this drama. The three girls who started off as best friends, their fall out, their personal growth and realization to finally making up and finding love amidst all the chaos of their life. Especially Nuan Nuan and Han Xue, their journey from who they were at the beginning to what they have become to the end, was really cute and touching.
The chemistries were extremely cute specially for Nuan Nuan & Han Che and Han Xue and Gu Li. I kind of appreciate that the “third parties” on the love story wasn’t despicable characters, Jia Yi and Han Chen even though have expressed their love but they knew the lines not to cross ‘cause even though they are in love they weren’t exactly so blinded by it that they throw their common sense out the window (like most third parties in chinese dramas) and that they value their friendships more than that love.
Which was quite funny ‘cause I was literally waiting to hate Jia Yi if she does something outrageous and stupid and I was genuinely surprised when her character didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was hoping it would, which is definitely a good thing. There were times that did annoy me but they weren’t that bad for me to label her a bitch like most third parties on dramas in general.The ending was really cute and definitely did not disappoint my heart since they have a good, cute and satisfying happy ending. It wasn’t over the top but it was the kind of happy ending that puts my heart to ease.
CHARACTERS
- Liu Nuan Nuan is an aspiring idol who dreamt of nothing but to perform on stage. She is kind, optimistic, lovable, caring and understanding. She is the type of friend you wish you would have. In between the hot tempered Han Xue and goody two shoes Jia Yi, she was mostly the mediator and the overall troubleshooter; whenever her friends have a problem, she is always there fixing them and will do anything to help them out.
She is dependable and loyal but a bit clumsy. She is kind to a fault. But don’t mistake her as a weak girly girl who loves pink and needs constant saving ‘cause she is definitely not that! Nuan Nuan is playful, mischievous and gives off this girl-next-door vibe. She is not too girly but she’s not boyish either.
- Han Che is a famous Visual Director who has finally established his own company. He is cold and brutally honest, with OCD tendencies and hyperthymesia, he has the quadruple threat (lol) He has a bad habit of deciding for others, like he did on the championship. But like most male leads, he has his soft side too. He is not extremely heartless or ungrateful. He is just having a hard time expressing himself in a way that does not sound harsh or rude to most people.
He likes to keep to himself and is perfectionist when it comes to work. But when it comes to Nuan Nuan (after he finally acknowledges his feelings), he can just be himself.
At first I kind of doubted the love story, ‘cause in a way it looked like he was only doing things to repay her kindness but it was quite obvious that what he was feeling was no longer out of debt but he was genuinely falling in love with her. Her clumsiness, her personality and her messiness didn’t bother him in a bad way. Instead it healed him in a way they both didn’t expect, she made him open up as he assisted her to grow as a person. He is always blunt with her and even though it sounded mean at times, it made Nuan Nuan mature and to finally accept the things she couldn’t.
- Lin Jia Yi is Nuan Nuan’s friend who shot to stardom after the championship with King’s help. Jia Yi is viewed by the public as an innocent beauty. She has the face of an angel and the voice of one too. Although she was a bit selfish, she is actually pretty decent compared to other third party characters in most Chinese dramas.
- Han Xue is friend to Nuan Nuan and Jia Yi, she is the outspoken, party girl and hot tempered one in the three. She and her brother Han Che both come from a rich family, their parents have immigrated to america and both have been quite distant to them. Han Xue’s dream was to be famous. She is a bit like Nuan Nuan, she is a bit optimistic but she does have a temper.
She is not very close with her brother or any of her family. She used to be a promising track athlete with a huge possibility of joining the national team but she threw it all away when she decided that she wanted to become an idol.
- Fang Han Chen is a solo artist signed under the same agency as Lin Jia Yi. He has a pretty stable career and a huge fanbase and he actually willingly risked all of his life's work when he tried to stand up for Nuan Nuan. Even though I was not his biggest fan, I admire him for letting go.
- Gu Li is Han Che’s childhood friend and business partner. Well most of the time, he was acting like Han Che’s secretary instead of a business partner (lol). He had long secretly loved Han Xue and would do anything for her.
CAST
The one who brought me to the drama was Eleanor Lee, whom I saw on Fake Princess with Zhao Yi Qin from My Youth and Accidentally In Love. I love Eleanor on Fake Princess so I automatically wanted to watch her more and she did not disappoint. I love that her characters weren’t girly girls or the damsel in distress type but rather the “I’m kind of a badass and I can kick your ass if I want to” kind, they are not pushovers.I didn’t know that Leon Leong was in the 2018 adaptation of Meteor Garden since I have not watched that version but when I looked through his filmography on MDL, he has a good list and most of them have quite good reviews. I love Leon Leong and Eleanor’s chemistry, they don’t look awkward or forceful at all. They look really good together and their portrayal as a couple is really nice to watch, it wasn’t cringey but rather envious to look at.
FINAL THOUGHTS (Rating: 9/10)
Like I said it was Eleanor Lee that brought me to the drama and I honestly had no expectations at all. I just wanted to pass time as I wait for another Wuxia Drama I can watch so I had little to none expectations at all and that is what makes me love the drama even more.
Instead of being influenced by anyone or having a set of expectations for the drama, watching it with basically almost nothing made the drama worth every watch. ‘Cause when you read the synopsis, it might seem like your typical damsel in distress girl who’s life turned upside down and she gets “rescued” by a knight and shining armor and they live happily ever after but instead I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t go that way.Even though yes, our male lead did offer a helping hand, our female lead found herself, she matured in her own way and found her own colors. Which I really appreciate since it breaks away from a lot of modern romantic comedy chinese dramas.
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This review may contain spoilers
Fluffy but Cliche Drama
Personally, this was a good watch. It had all the elements one needs: two couples, cliche scenes, toothpaste kisses (just wait for it), and shattered dreams. The premise was set up perfectly, but the scriptwriter just had to ruin it with cliche plot twists and a very bad character development arc for the Male MC.The couple was going smoothly, and the male mc's condition didn't even add any value to the story. In other dramas, hospital conditions help the leads get closer and prove their love, but this one just had Nuannuan (Female MC) get back with him though she didn't forgive him yet, and immediately go back to hating him. I think that doesn't make sense because why would she pretend to like him in the first place....?
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Liked:
- the story line of Nuan Nuan and her determination to go after her dreams/goals. I liked that she was so determined and multifaceted. She knew what she wanted and persevered towards it.
- the main leads had really good chemistry! It was nice watching their relationship slowly unfold throughout the series.
- side characters were really cute. No mean character that you wanted to hate (which I much prefer, although it can also be fun to have strong negative feelings towards a character where the actor/actress does a really great job being evil)
Disliked:
- the misunderstanding/betrayal and how it played out, although for plot purposes, it made sense
- did not like the additional mini plots towards the end that didn't fit into the overall story (in my opinion), the series could have a been a few episodes shorter
WATCH!! :)
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Miscommunications and manhandling
This drama had promise, but I felt that some opportunities were missed. The storyline really dropped the ball on the potentially interesting aspect of his medical condition. They used the physical condition called hyperthymesia – but that is a condition that related to a person’s past (remembering all aspects of their own life and “living in the past”), not having an eidetic memory, and this was not how the character was presented. Toward the end of the drama the medical condition came to the forefront and then was never fully explained/resolved, other than with a sentence tossed out by the male lead. As I find with most Chinese dramas, there was an awful lot of filler, multiple storylines, etc.CHARACTERS: Han Che (played by Leon Leong) had some real issues for me. I can totally buy into the cold person being changed by the woman he loves, but he was so cold throughout most of the show it was like he was an automaton. Did he really have any emotions? Add to that his manhandling the female lead over and over again, I just didn’t care for him. It’s not love to be forced to kiss, it’s not love to be dragged from one place to another over and over again. In addition, his total inability to communicate with her and keeping things from her was unacceptable.
Nuan Nuan (played by Eleanor Lee) was pretty well-written. I really loved her attitude and her drive to succeed. The opportunities that came along for her really demonstrated that if your initial dream doesn’t work out, that’s not the end of it. However, once she and Han Che got together, I really didn’t like her attempts to be “cute” – it came off as childish and immature. Also, she had communication problems of her own in that she held a grudge against Han Che multiple times, which was immature as well. Her one friend totally threw her under the bus more than once and she forgave her without any issues, but Han Che was a different story. Also, her asking him to repeat his question over and over again at the end of the drama was especially immature and I felt like she was making him jump through hoops.
I liked the secondary couple and their storyline was cute for the most part, but again, the miscommunication/no communication/misunderstandings was overused here.
I didn’t care for the potential rivals for Han Che’s and Nuan Nuan’s love. I felt that the acting of these two, especially, was not very good. They were wooden and one-dimensional.
CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE LEADS: Many open-eyed kisses. They were both very attractive, but I just wasn’t feeling the love between the two. Han Che’s character had some very well-written and touching lines about love, but their chemistry was lacking.
I don’t often do this when watching a drama, but I found myself thinking “if only they had gone in this direction with the character” or “it would have made more sense for her to say something else”. And even after the final lines of the drama, the title of the drama made no sense to me.
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The perfect rom com in between more demanding dramas
The Perfect Rom Com… what a great great surprise… the 2 ML couples are extremely cute together… along very addictive and highly entertaining story lines…you wish it would be longer … the Chinese approach to romance is Very different from Kdramas, (which I love too) where the ML end up together after at the end of the dramas… here they grow fond of each other and end up together early in the plot… and you enjoy watching them grow together…lovely heart-warming and fluttering…There is a limited level of stressful stupid situations,, however since the ML delays disclosing to the FL that what happened to her and broke her initial career dreams ( ultimately for the better) was because of him, the discovery will be reasonably painful. I also loved the personality of the ML, reserved because of highly gifted , but so genuine and loyal to his friends.
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I did not thought that the ML and the FL would have such great chemistry. But as I watch this movie, I slowly saw their superb chemistry. They act naturally. Their characters suit them. Eleanor acts cute but it is not cringey. Leon Leong's character also suits him really well. The supporting actors/actress also did a great job.
This drama gives a lot of emotions. I cried, laugh, get annoyed and feel kilig. It is like a dish that have a lot of spices which made this drama GREAT.
I feel sooooo KILIG with their sweet scenes. OMG! This is my Favorite Chinese drama ever! I soooo LOVE this.
Plus, the OSTs are supper awesome. I even downloaded them and listened to the OSTs before I go to sleep.
I really hope that Eleanor Lee and Leon Leong would have another movies together in the future, them as the main leads. Jiayou! Rooting for the both of you.
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This review may contain spoilers
Would have been good if not for the serious lack of communication between the leads.
I don't much like Han Che at certain times, not because of his peculiarities, that in itself I did not mind. That made him an interesting character but he often threw tantrums without even trying to talk to Nuan Nuan about it. He found out that Fang Han Chen confessed his feelings for Nuan, so he ghosted her for a while, even though Nuan clearly said that she said no to the guy. Later, the incident with the cufflinks, she had a bad day at work, so while we all understand what needs to be done logically, she just wanted some comfort, instead he just made things worse for her.The drama lacked conflict resolution, things were often glossed over. The entire concept was so flawed, it reminds me of the show "Well-Intended Love" in which the ML was a crackpot.
In "My Love, Enlighten Me", the ML was overbearing and made decisions that were not really good for others. The FL while fun to watch, wasn't really all there. The entire setting lacked the intensity required for the script and concept. They could have focused more on the emotions to make this drama more memorable.
The second couple were also so flawed. They again refused to directly communicate and resorted to tactics like using another person to make the person you like jealous. Too childish for me, so skipped most of their scenes.
That's not to say the entire thing wasn't worth watching. The leads had some chemistry and the FL was charming enough to stay on.
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