I Don't Want to Be Brothers With You (2022)

Brotherhood, Self-sacrifice, Touching, Funny, Great Acting

This is an uplifting youth drama. It is humorous and heartwarming with amazing story telling and fantastic acting. There is no romance, which I’m very pleased because I’m tired of the tropey romance that has been churned out repeatedly. This story is about brotherhood and friendship, set in the year of 2005 when flip phones were in use, in a third tiered city north of Beijing close to the border of Korea where the Korean language is widely spoken.

Ye Xiaowen (Chen Youwei) is a 17 year old orphan living in the orphanage when Gao Yang’s (Xin Yunllai) father, Gao Bin (Lu Fangsheng), a divorcee, finds him and takes him home to live with them, without telling Gao Yang Ye Xiaowen's background. Gao Yang is also 17 years old and both kids sit together in class and sleep in the same bedroom. At the beginning, Gao Yang cannot understand why his father has taken home a boy whom he has never known, to live them and he’s pretty unhappy about it. In every way, he tries to make life difficult for Ye Xiaowen. Ye Xiaowen is an introvert who doesn’t show his feelings easily and endures all the abuses Gao Yang throws at him. Through misunderstanding and rumors, both Ye Xiaowen and Gao Yang had thought Ye Xiaowen a bastard child of Gao Bin, and this has created hilarious events until Gao Bin proves that he’s not the father. Gao Yang later finds out that Ye Xiaowen is an orphan and since then, he vows to take care and protect Ye Xiaowen with everything he can.

Gao Bin is a PE teacher but he’s not very well disciplined and Gao Yang has no confidence in everything his father does. Ye Xiaowen is a competent long-distance runner and Gao Bin becomes his coach and he aims to help Ye Xiaowen compete and win scholarships to get into his dreamed university. However, due to Gao Bin’s lack of discipline, his son becomes Ye Xiaowen’s second coach and both go through ups and downs together, never abandoning each other. Their relationship grows over the days and brotherly love for each other is solid and genuine. They encourage each other and want the best for each other.

This drama gives the viewers very strong character development, from an undisciplined teacher to a responsible one whom everyone loves and respects, from a lazy and rebellious boy to a hardworking compassionate young adult, from an introvert to a bright, hopeful, striving youth. All the other side characters also undergo strong character development and achieve their dreams.

My Verdict

This is a great story of compassion, selflessness, courage, and brotherhood. It is touching and yet very funny. All the characters are relatable as they are just like your everyday neighbors with similar flaws. There is a lot of genuine care and love with community spirit; everyone watches out for each other. The acting is very natural and believable, the directing and the editing are close to perfection. All the scenes are delightful, and the sad scenes can draw tears because we, as viewers, can relate. Every character has a story to tell and a dream to fulfill. The selection of actors is appropriate and the chemistry between the main leads is wonderful.

There is nothing BL about this drama. To me, the relationship is not even bromance, just simple brotherhood and trust, like a family.

This is a fun drama for the whole family. Don’t miss it!

Strongly recommended!

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Amazing Bromance/Brotherhood family , school , Comedy drama

This drama is the first Bromance chinese drama that have been released since the official banning of Bromance dramas in china at the end of 2021
It's a family drama not Gay Love or BL drama ,,, pure friendship and brotherly love that's it
I've been watching the drama without subs and with horrible english subs from Mango TV and I'm enduring it because it's worth it also it's easy to understand ,, the acting is really good and the characters are obvious nothing complicated at all about this drama ,,,, it's light funny comedy bromance between two teenage boys becoming brothers in sort of way
you will laugh so much and you will relate to this drama because it's piece of real life at school ,, no Clichés about it and no romance ,,, nothing that will make you cringe but some times the female lead who they made as annoying as possible sometimes ,, the way she speaks and talks like a little girl is really irritating but she's not the focus of the drama at all so it's fine
The friendship between the classmates and neighbors in this drama is the best ,,, no horrible people or villains in this drama unless you count the mother is the villain LOL you will understand why when you watch it
The relationship between the father and son also one of the funniest things about this drama ,, his father is as hilarious as the main lead and the other poor boy is so warm and will make you emotional for him most of the time
This drama is just as warm and fuzzy as it can be in this genera ,, I love it so much that I took the responsibility of subbing it to My own language Arabic and trying to figure out the horrible english subtitles from it ,, I upload the Arabic subtitles for it on facebook and subscene website for Arab fans
I recommend this drama to anyone who likes family warm and brotherly dramas this one is for you ,, you won't be disappointed at all also it's not dramatic at all but it's similar to real life in high school
the best relationship between two new found brothers is the best thing about it

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For bromance fans

For anyone who looks series with bromance, you might like this. The story is about Gao Yang who lived with his father, and suddenly his father brought Xiaowen to live together with them. At first Gao Yang didn't agree but eventually he treat Xiaowen as his brother. As for Xiaowen, his past made him to hard to connect with people, but eventually he warmed up to Gao Yang and Gao Yang taught him some stuff that he reject at first. So the story revolving around them and their friends, how they manage to get by in school and how they fight for their future.

For the story, since it revolve around Gao Yang and Xiaowen, people who like bromance might like this. I think it has one of the best bromance. The acting also pretty good.

As for the music, there's only 4 ost in youtube, and I like some of them. Some a bit mellow to show how teens not all jolly and play.

Rewatch value? Well, half and half I guess. I like the story so far and want to rewatch it. But its mangotv and their translation is the worst, even google translate might be better. Watching a good story with horrible subs kinda ruin it. Unless you fluent in mandarin of course. And i don't know if other platform (netflix wetv viu iqiyi) would take series from mangotv.

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Friendship, Family, Realistic and Wholesome

I like the build up of their friendship and how they all grew up, slowly accepting and understanding each other. The father duo was super duper noisy that I sometimes wonder how did they even memorize and deliver those lines ahahaha but it was really great watching how they care for each other even with all the fighting and yelling around, like they have their own point, they just can't express it nicely, like father like son ahahahah. I agree with Gao Yang's Mother when she told his father that bringing Xiaowen is such a reliable decision because he become a bridge to the father duo and at some point to the mother, let's just say to their family to be somewhat at peace. I also liked the friendship of their circle of friends especially how they would always support each other, just wanting to see more of Da Wei's story. The relationship between Beibei and her family and how her character develops was also a touching scene, I think almost all the family relationships here turned out great by the end with Mi Jia and her aunt and also with the Music boy with his parents. I also liked the friendship between Gao Bin and his colleagues ahahhaha, imagine just yelling and arguing with the principal or president of the school and just getting away with it by the end ahahaha. It was wholesome and very realistic especially in the ending. At first, I was really hoping that Gao Yang will pass the exam and be with Xiaowen that year (Congratulations for passing Gao Yang's Friends especially Beibei and the Qing University Girl), but watching the ending is actually fulfilling, it was a realistic approach that adds to the meaning of the story. Thank you Gao Yang's mother for realizing what he actually wants and giving him a chance!

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You need to watch this. Top notch!

This is a masterpiece! How could everyone isn’t watching this series?! This is very good in so many levels. I’m amazed with the characters, the plot, everything is really awesome and well-written. Gao Yang and Ye Xiaowen’s relationship as brothers was growing up so beautifully and became something really strong and for life. They needed each other, this is for sure. I’m really happy that i found this hilarious, thoughtful and incredible show, and I’m going to advertise to everybody from now one. I’m speechless about this drama, it really connected with me, it’s everything that I enjoy watching, in all aspects. 30 episodes was great! And if there’s more, I certainly wanna see it. And you should too!

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