Best Choice Ever (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.

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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?

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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 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 if it's wrong or right."
-Mai Cheng Huan

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

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Plot is about How to Bring Up a Dysfunctional Parent

While Yang Zi and Xu Kai are technically the leads, the drama appears to revolve around an unlikeable, and dysfunctional mother character. Even though the show only has 38 episodes, I stopped watching at Episode 35 - the mother character overwhelmed the whole story, even as I could not find any sympathy for this character. The moral of this story appears to be that children should forgive emotionally abusive parents, a premise I totally disagree with, since the effects of emotional abuse last a lifetime. The show was stressful to watch as it contained many scenes of emotional manipulation from the mother character, while showcasing filial children who frustratingly, forgave it all.

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MOM! Stop it!

See if you agree to some degree with my rant.
I was really enjoying this 'coming of age albeit at age 30' family drama but Mama's incessant obstinance to judge and meddle could no longer be tolerated as 'it's just her way of showing her love." Perhaps the actress played shrewish single mindedness on securing money so well it finally became intolerable for me. So I've stopped midway as the story takes a ridiculous turn even though it did set up 'the move in' of the ML-- it's far to contrived for someone to do (I was going to say normal person but part of the set up is that he hasn't grown up in a normal household)....but if having an over overbearing relentlessly meddling mother you tolerate for 10 years (of adult life) is normal, sorry I don't get it.
Add a over the top mean potential sister in law whom nobody seems to be able to stop the vile from her mouth (and also wierdly lives at her parent's without her child and husband for pregnancy (again, an apparent set up that her pregnancy is why she lives with her parents?) AND a lazy rich boy who gets by playing video games yet is supposedly a dream boyfriend for 3 years to a smart and industrious girl AND a well off best frend who can open a jewelry store and pay for whatever a drop of a hat yet doesn't have the business savvy to fend off her ex...and sorry this story gets too melodramatically ridiculous.

I think part of also why I am stopping here is that the end will be obvious--the two will end up togehter (btw,, yes, their acting in these roles do click) with or without marriage, and Mama will realize her life's ambition for her daughter to secure wealth (skipping that she has nearly zero after thoughts for her son's happiness-which even that is set up in backstory as to why she's little invested in his happiness and the father utterly absent in connecting with his son) and herself to finally be wealthy due to exploiting the good things that come her way vs her daughter who works for it (btw where does her daughter's wisdom from anyway since it's clearly not from mom--oh yeah, the other setup--the wonderful non-biological Grandma (yes, this relationship was sweet to watch)). Mama will likely have some sort of aha (though I can't tolerate the story progress to see it happen) and our guy gets a 'normal' family and their joint efforts to run Grandma's legacy will be solidly successful after a few more bouts of obstacles from the stereotypical bad person (ooh, but it's fresh-it's a woman! --being sarcastic).

When I run out of things to watch and this runs its course, I may go back to finish it just to see if the twists and turns in the last half are surprising and fast forward when Mama appears (again, her character is a plot device to make many of the roll your eyes 'events').

Highly suggest Blossoms in Adversity instead for a more rewarding watch about a tenancious businesswomen and family.

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In the race of chicken or the egg, the mother hen wins!

Let’s just get the easy bits out of the way first. This series is watchable and entertaining at times. The OTP are well matched and they have good chemistry. However, this is where things get complicated.

As one of my friends commented after finishing the show, who is the FL of this drama? Ok, maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but she does have a point. While there is no doubt Yang Zi is the FL, her mother’s role is more titular. In fact, so many of the subplot radiate from the matriarch that her screen time and presence more than rival the FL’s. Furthermore, a lot of the time, most characters are placed in a reactive roles due to her machinations and has little agency.

I can understand that this will resonate with a lot of Asian viewers because they are probably living in a similar situation or knows someone who is. It is a reasonable premise to kick-start the show and give the FL reasons to grow. In that sense, the first half of the show is the best. This is helped by the sage like grandmother who sees all and pulls the strings to get our OTP pass the frenemy stage. Her presence counterbalances the mum’s and provides a safe harbour for our leads.

It all changes after she passed. The FL’s mum’s presence looms larger than ever before. Her interference reaches new heights once we factor in the grandma's legacy. I understand that it is an effective way to introduce some angst as the official antagonist was a bit light weight. However, it also means that the show becomes unbalanced and lacks focus. Everyone is tiptoeing around the mum and keeping secrets from her which set up more confrontations later. It is a vicious cycle.

In the meantime, the mum continues to meddle in people’s affairs and guilt trip her family regularly. It is tiresome to watch and might trigger some viewers. It distracts us from our CP’s romance. When love is in the air, it is sweet and swoonworthy, but they are like deer in the headlight. After more confrontations and some heart-to-heart talks, the mum finally tones down her actions, but it is an uneasy truce.

The problem from my perspective is that we can't really hate the mum because she is not evil in the literal sense, but her constant meddling is annoying and very harmful to her closest and dearest. Yet she always falls back to the old chestnut of “I’m doing this for the good of ….”. Hence all the characters are in a no-win situation.

This shunted several characters into the margins. Chief among them is the ML. He should have a much stronger presence but between helping the FL in her business and being the peacemaker to her family, he became just the nice guy putting out spot fires. In fact, the mum casted such a big shadow that no characters are spared. This is even more dramatic in the last 3 eps when it is all about the mum.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for a mother centric show and there have been some excellent ones. However, in this case, it felt like the mum was initially used as a catalyst for change but ends up taking over the show. The series is still watchable, but it can be very trying at times.

Ultimately, if you are looking for an escapist rom com then this might hit too close to home to be fun. If you want a family melodrama then this is inferior because it is just a hotchpotch of tired tropes. Throw in the PITA matriarch and we have an inverse trifecta. One time watch for me.

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Family means everything (I will leave it for you to interpret whether its good or bad)

This is a family focused drama with romance as a main side focus. The FL mother is honestly the star of the show. Great acting!! (to the point I really cant stand her but for Yang Zi, I watched till the end).

Lets, start with plot. As mentioned above, this is a family focused drama. It talks a lot about values and "filial piety". Coming from a different background from this drama, I had a very hard time understanding the FL mother behavior. The FL is a people pleaser: pleasing her mother and her ex bf. Essentially, eventually she also got tired of it all and this drama follow the route of how she grows. (did she though... maybe?)

I actually did enjoy how the romance part of this drama played out. From the FL ex to the ML, the transition of how the FL moved on was smoothed. Good chemistry between the FL & ML.

Conclusion:
This drama is not for everyone. A lot of Chinese audience seem to enjoy this drama. But if u come from a different culture, the FL mother's behavior may boil ur blood and ruin ur enjoyment from watching this drama.

Side note: FL mother is the main role not Xu Kai! Once u watch the drama, u will understand what i mean.

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“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.

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