Hello, the Sharpshooter (2022)

Too Long, Good Ending

Unlike most sports dramas, there wasn’t much focus on the actual competition, more on the training and team dynamics. It also focused on the social media aspect and the story of the ML and FL too. Although ML & FL had chemistry, it was not utilized enough. There were too many episodes, it could’ve been condensed and I think that’s why a lot of viewers rated it lower, due to getting bored [they waited until Episode 32 to tell us about ML & FL incident in the past]. That’s the fault of the writers though, not the actors/actresses or production team. The theme and episode music was often played so loud that it was hard to focus on what the actors/actresses were saying.

The production was good and scenery well shot to show location changes. I watched this because of Hu Yi Tian and Xing Fei. I’ve been waiting a long time for Hello, the Sharpshooter! I did like how they concluded the drama, especially how the pocket/locket watched tied into everything and why it was shown frequently throughout the show. I also liked the character growth of the ML and FL the most, although some of the other supporting characters romances also had growth. But again even that was dragged out too long. Basically the last five episodes of the show, were the best. The ending was predictable, as most of the drama/tension moments of the show were.

Overall it was okay, but not as good as some of the other dramas the ML and FL have stared in or even other dramas that are sports/competition related. 5.5/10.

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Could've Been Good

I have mixed feelings regarding this show. Initially, I loved the first 15 episodes of it. Sadly, the more it progressed, the more burdensome it became.

The writers included too many psychological traumas from the past, plus bullying and sexual harassment in the present; what started as a light and feel-good show, became too heavy to watch.

The growth and strength of both main characters are commendable. But, I have got to say that each and every character carried the show. The show won't be as compelling as it was without all the supporting characters. Even their stories and shenanigans are worth watching.

Would I rewatch the show? Sadly no. As I've mentioned the story just became too heavy and has would not be enjoyable to watch again in the future.

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It Sad< But Not Worth it.

I really did not like this drama. I wish when writers try to write about a sensitive subject that they would research it. To start with the psychiatrist was so fake. To let one of her patient take responsibility to cure her other patient would not happen. If both the patient were involve she would have tried to have a group meeting and also treat then separately. To give responsibility to someone else would never happen. There so much about her that was to fake for me. I love both leading Leads. I know they are great actors but I could stand these characters. The FL was everyone's consultant but she also had mental problems. She seem like a light bulb going on and off being stable and then showing her mental problem. The ML seem obsessive with very little emotion. There was very little chemistry to me. I wonder most of the time did they really like each other or were they obsess to be each others partners. To me the whole team had some kind of mental issues. The 2 youngest I wonder why they were kept on the team. To me they were there to lazy and comical. I did not find them series enough to be on the team. I was really disappointed and I am being generous with my rating. I really like Hu Yi Tian, and Xing Fei. but this drama was just not good for you. You are better then this. This drama did not need to be this long. I felt that the writer kept lingering on about things just to keep the story long. The writing with is ups and downs was useless. The director was all over the place and I stop being interested about the sport and the characters.

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The drama isn't as bad as some people are making it out to be

If you are a fan of Xing Fei I say watch this drama. It you are a fan of Hu YiTian I say also watch this. If enjoy sports with a fun storyline then yes.... I want a serious drama with serious storyline this isn't for you

The drama goes stale after episode 30.... So you will sit through bit of pain for good 8 episodes.... The writers let this drama down, not the actors.... The Second lead pairing dialogue was not organic but they did OK considering the script they were given.....

Xing Fei bailed out an even worse script in PYHOMS.... Acting again to perfection....
I have never been a Hu YiTian fan, best acting performance by him to date....
Kido Ma & Luo Qui Yun both acted well as second leads....
The third lead pairing of the Pychologist & Boss maybe not as great but same time not horrible

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They are each other’s prescription.

Plot: The plot is actually good but the execution and some lines can be less appealing. The selective amnesia wasn’t really the focus of the drama but it’s about the aftermath of their story, creating a new foundation of their ‘forgotten/lost’ love and growth of their relationship along with their targets in life. It was also sprinkled with loads of sugar and humor.

Acting: They all did good, convincing most of the time but definitely not top tier acting. Xing Fei’s Tang Xin character is my least favorite of hers in all her dramas, however, that doesn’t mean she didn’t do justice in it. She actually did great in interpreting a meek girl with low self confidence/esteem(but not to the point of being a doormat) that you can actually tell the difference of her acting from her previous dramas. However, I believe that Hu yitian shines the most in this drama. His acting improved a lot and you can see a lot of unseen or new facial expressions of him, especially the playful and boyish charm side of his character that looked natural and real. You won’t be able to count how many times he genuinely smiled here because there’s a lot! His eyes also speak volumes. The rest of the team did all good as well, even the villains.

Music: No complaints. I love every song and even the sound effects.

Rewatch value: I definitely rewatched all the sweet moments, even the tantrums of Captain Shen because it’s just too cute. Some may be cheesy but the execution and acting was really funny, I just can’t take it seriously. ? Especially those laugh out loud moments of Haiya Team(including DLF, of course).

Things I didn’t like:
•Some dialogues are just cringe-y and embarrassing, you’ll know when you watch it but it’s not the fault of the actors. They did their best, especially Xing Fei. Despite many embarrassing lines, you just can’t help but adore her cuteness! I just wanna pinch her cheeks most of the time. ☺️
•The sudden stuttering — I wish they could have done better in highlighting the root of the problem because it took a few episodes for that to get over with and the explanation wasn’t convincing enough for me.
•Dubbing. There were some scenes that their dubbing sounds weird and unpleasant that ruined the overall feeling of the scene or conversation. Even the sound of the steps were distracting. ? (I can be very particular with that but I guess external noise can’t be controlled)

Overall: It’s definitely not a perfect drama, or even close to being a masterpiece, however, it was entertaining for me and has a lot of meaningful foreshadowing and underlying message. Although they didn’t go deep to the topic of trauma, sexual harassment, and gender equality, the fact that they raised awareness and touched the sensitive matters of society is a plus for me. It was also a good introduction on the importance of mental health and basic information about pistol shooting and the game.
Basically, this drama shows a new meaning to ‘soul mates through thick & thin’ and gives that warm fuzzy feeling of Pure Love. Executed in a conservative way because the entire drama was a tease. Haha! Here’s a reminder: Don’t expect too much intimate scenes and you’ll enjoy their love story. In the cdrama world full of kissing scenes, this will probably be not included on top of your list but it was also a reality slap to me that not all love can be measured by the amount of skinship they show you but rather by expressing it with actions and deep understanding of your partner.

Additional message/favorites: Apart from other issues of the side characters, the irony of a psychiatrist having her own problem is actually a good idea. It was realistic and it signifies that we are just normal human beings, despite our status, professionalism, age and environment, we have our own struggles and issues in life and the things we can initially offer to others are patience and understanding, same goes when it comes to watching the drama. The pace of revealing both of their pasts is quite realistic as well, I mean, if I were in tang xin’s shoes I wouldn’t also expose everything in an instant especially if it caused a traumatic experience for me. However, the power of being able to tell everything to someone you trust and still respects and loves you is a big step in healing. It’s like getting out a thorn in your heart and you can finally breathe easily. I also like how the recovery of Captain Shen’s memory doesn’t feel rushed, it needed therapy and triggers. Plus, I totally love the ending. It was a beautiful ending for Captain Shen/Tang Xin and Dr. Ding/Boss Zhou. Their lines were subtle, warm and precious. I can’t fully explain how beautiful it was but it was like a much-needed hug that can give you energy to tackle the day. Or that first sip of your favorite hot coffee in the morning. That’s how this drama made me feel.

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Less romance than healing drama about rather serious issues

I liked that drama for its tackling a lot of serious issues such as PTSD, OCD, harassment, behavioral issues, and ways of healing.
It had some good conversations between the quartet of FL, ML, SFL and SML, that shed light on how young people can be triggered into reacting positively as well as negatively to some traumatizing situations, with some suggestions for coping and healing those traumas.
Many on that sharpshooting team, and other ones, seemed to have serious issues, which made me wonder if the management and recruiting of athletes there could avoid spotting some personal traits potentially negative to be included in a team. Even if the bullets were not deadly, it was shown that they could hurt, and the requirement of a necessary stable psychological conditions to allow these young people to wield arms was tackled. First through the routines to disregard sudden noise or taunts, later in the coach having doubts about the champion, because of his lingering amnesia and the moments when he isolated himself. But I had the feeling that this stability requirement was put on the same level as their just following rules (such as forbidding athletes to leave the training camp).
Could being (apparently) a high functioning Asperger's slightly sociopathic loner and a mild obsessive (like the weird sleeping under beds) be tolerated and diregarded if the athlete kept peforming to an impressive points result?
Could the almost manic smile of the hyperactive livestreamer be viewed as an asset for her profession? Her coping mechanism of singing/rapping to overcome stuttering is not as outlandish as it could seem: singing has indeed been included in some recognized ways of calming stressed people. Running is another one.
Some of these attempts were funny, but the humor was not frequent in this drama. One of the more funny moments was when SML cross dressed in skirts to seek forgiveness from his love interest.
The psychologist herself was not very credible to me, with her own set of problems that dragged on through the drama.
I suppose the co-cure she advocated was more for the dramatic effect of having the two leads get closer on screen (with some of the more humorous effects), instead of an actual realistic way of healing. So o this was a stretch that may annoy those who work in the field of clinical psychology. But it was interesting to see that psychological support was highlighted together with the athletic skills, as necessary to prepare a competition. The importance of courteous, rational and calm communication was also something that was emphasized, which is not so frequent in romance dramas I' have watched.
Using a pet for emotional focus has indeed been advocated from what I read and saw about autism or PTSD sufferers. That they chose a hedgehog was cute. Was it the same one as in Lie to Love? C dramas seem to like to repeat some scenes from other ones, like carrying the female on the back of the taller lead: such cross references or tropes becomes almost expected. The physical touching scenes were limited. The point seemed to be that some behavior that is usually common in older dramas, like grabbing females to forcibly kiss them "romantically" is, in fact, questionable. Such resraint in the script certainly left the actors with less leeway to express a tender budding romance.
Nevertheless, my opinion is that they performed quite well to handle both romance, healing and healthy reaction to new potential traumas encountered by their characters.
Not knowing anything about this sport, I found the technical details woven in quite interesting. It was a bonus point for novelty for me and I was pleased to be introduced to it this way. There was a moment when the livestreamer was assigned to try shooting in a friendly pairing, which puzzled me, but maybe it was only exceptional, to give some variety to the shooting sessions and make the sport look less removed from audience. Does it happen realistically in this sport is another question.
But watching dramas is an exercise in suspension of disbelief to find entertainment or food for thought. This was done thanks to the good to excellent quartet of actors (Xing Fei, Hu Yitian, Kido Ma and Wenfy Luo) who carried the drama. Therefore, despite the objections raised before, I still decided not to rate this one as harshly as some did.
I also liked the songs from the OST some of which had tunes that I found different from run of the mill romance dramas.

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wasting so much time and end up fast forwarding the rest of the episodes

One of the most anticipated Chinese drama of the first quarter that fall into huge dissatisfaction in my opinion.
Definitely great actors were casted but not a good script to begin with.

The 39 episodes were too draggy with too many unnecessary scenes as a filling. Should have been a better series with less than 30 episodes.
Filled with so many despicable tricks from the rival which I don't find it logical in professional area.
It would be much logical if the story took place in high school background, not the professional Shooter team.

The typical role of Hu Yi Tian, the cold and not speak too much with the bright Xing Fei. I could not find a good chemistry between them, everything was so awkward to watch. The 2nd lead couple was having more chemistry than them.

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The show was carried by the leads but the weak plots and problematic script is hard to ignore

This is a sports-centric rom-com. The chemistry of the leads helped to push this Show past the finish line but only just.

I can understand a lot of sports have been used as subject matter in c-dramas so finding something novel is a challenge. So air pistol shooting is about as exotic as it gets. On the surface, the Show did a reasonable job in making the sport engaging and the people involved as well. There is still a big gap to fill and a lot of that responsibility fell on the leads and they did the best they can. They are a good looking couple and they are sweet, loving and devoted to each other. My concern here is that the FL has been in several shows playing similar roles. I do worry about over exposure and typecasting.

It would be good if the 2OTP can pull their own weight but the script had them pushing and pulling in every direction for the longest time. The 3OTP was set up to fail. It was a counterpoint to the sweetness of the OTP but it was done in such a low key and passionless way that you have to wonder why the Show bothered.

Sadly, 40 episodes based on this sport and the CP's chemistry was a bridge too far for the writer, a 30 episodes run would have been more realistic and yield a tighter drama. To draw out the episode count and kept our "interest", the writer resorted to a lot of old tropes and angsty unproductive sub-plots.

Scripting issues are most evident when we were drip fed pieces of information on a key historical event, I assume the plan is for the writer to give us the grand reveal at the time of his choosing. The viewers are supposed to be intrigued and hungry for more but honestly, the plot was fairly thin so once a few pieces fell into place, there is not a lot left to the imagination. It became awkward when the viewers worked out the secret before the protagonists and we are left tapping our fingers waiting for the show to catch up! It was less of a mystery and more like a marathon.

There is the usual ensemble casts of competing teams and coaches and most were hired straight from central casting. Bulk of the angsts were generated by the win-at-all-cost attitude of the competitors. This meant dirty tricks and outright cheating. I hope Chinese sports are not like that in real life. This plot was even used in an international competition. Is that necessary? It paints a fairly grim picture of the sport. The other antagonist was the older male predator type. It was old school before the turn of the century. The way the show handled this cliché storyline was poor and feed into the misguided trope that speaking out will extract a higher price on the victim. This is a tired and questionable message for this day and age. Needless to say, good triumphs in the end but the resolution was long time coming and felt weak and contrived. After suffering through many episodes of their hapless scheming and loathsome acts, it came down to a few sentences of denouncement and "official" sanctions.

The potential is there for the show to hit a 10.9 but the weak plots and problematic script dragged it down. It was a one time watch. Peace out.

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Why give a title and a synopsis about an athlete when the whole drama is about silly love story?

I gave up watching in episode 16, and even then with a lot of fast-forwarding. Still hoping in the middle of the drama there will be something interesting. Turns out? Nothing at all, it becomes even more absurd. I'm a psychologist and the psychological symptoms that the female lead shows are ridiculous in my opinion. It's getting worse when she suddenly recovers, ugh... Chinese drama, please... if you want to bring up the topic or issues of psychology, do some research! I can't watch it. I prefer Tennis Prince and Hikaru no Go, both dramas about sports, but they really highlight the sports element, the romance and friendship elements are felt by themselves without being forced. Although the acting is a bit exaggerated due to the adaptation of the Japanese manga, but the plot is clear, the sportsmanship is strong, and the characters are interesting. Isn't this drama airing around the same time as the Olympics because of its theme and to attract the market, but please, there's no real Olympic spirit in it.

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Set your Expectations & You will be Okay

I didn’t hate it as much as everyone else did. I think it’s because I read the reviews prior to watching, so I kind of set my expectations and that’s the key going into Hello, the Sharpshooter.

We all love Hu Yi Tian from A Love So Beautiful and Xing Fei from Put Your Head on my Shoulder and My Little Happiness and because of that, I think we had expectations of another hit C drama. Hello, the Sharpshooter doesn’t give you the perfect chemistry and drama you are looking for, HOWEVER, it’s still overall, in my opinion, a very decent watch.

A few things to note:

The main storyline is the best storyline. Like any other C drama, you are going to have your typical past issue and current relationship problems between the leads. It’s very typical and that’s okay for me. I’m going into for the actors.

As much as I love the male lead, and he’s come a long way from his first drama, he still has a little more to go, but he’s face is very handsome to watch so not all is lost. I think the ML has the stoic, passive face down, he just needs to work on his light expressions. He’s not selling me that he’s in love with the FL, but he is fun and loving to watch. I like his lighter expressions more.

The female lead is carrying the show. She never disappoints me in dramas and she’s always the bubbly warm personality I look forward to in my shows. I love her short stature and approachable presence. I do hope she picks a different role next time. I want her to be the aggressor and maybe pick a different hair style? I know long hair makes her look young (since she is so short), but I’m ready for a new look. I do appreciate they didn’t reuse wardrobe as often and that’s huge when watching.

There isn’t any chemistry between the leads, but that’s okay. I kind of see them as two actors playing their parts, than the actual characters. Since I’m a huge fan of them, I was fine with that.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the second couple, nor did I pay attention to the 3rd couple. I found the second couple a little immature and as much as I love watching two pretty people bicker and fight, it was a little much. I do appreciate that the 3rd couple was older, so it was different, but their storyline was too intense and it didn’t fit right in the drama.

A lot of people complained about how slow and draggy the story is and to my surprise, I kind of like the slice of life pacing. It’s not all about shooting, I mean, a good deal of the plot is about the shooting, but the ML actual shooting time on the show isn’t huge. A lot of the plot is the couple working on past, present and possible future issues, which I enjoyed watching. I guess I liked the main couple the best because as much as they faltered, they always were together, more or less and I kind of liked that.

Overall, I think if you set your expectations just right for the show, you won’t be disappointed. So, I’m glad I read the reviews because it made my watching experience more enjoyable.

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It is actually worth watching! (it is not as draggy and predictable as people are saying)

I do not usually write reviews but I felt the obligation to do so on this occasion since I believe this drama is being unfairly underestimated. I almost did not watch the drama because of how discouraging the reviews were, but after watching it has actually entered my personal top ten of c-dramas!
The main reasons people criticise the show is that it is supposedly unnecessarily long/draggy and contains too many clichés, therefore I am going to address these two claims and give my own opinion.

LENGHT OF THE SHOW
I did not feel like the story was too long, I actually believe every episode was needed.
In terms of plot, they definitely did not need that many episodes but they were necessary to develop and discuss important and sensitive topics such as sexual abuse and mental health care (especially how it is overlooked in the sports field). I personally was positively surprised by how well they handled these issues and by how they seamlessly introduced them in the story, considering that c-dramas are usually mainly light and fluffy romances. These topics were given the focus and respect they deserved, and it was clear that the writers had the intention to spread awareness around them by challenging the common misconceptions and stereotypes attached to them. The main leads' acting skills were also a major plus which further helped to convey the message.

CLICHES
Yes, there were some common c-dramas' cliches. But then again, they are called "c-dramas' cliches" for a reason, so why are you here watching c-dramas anyway if they bother you so much?
As other people have said, if you have already watched Go go squid and PYHOMS you can easily spot some similarities. It was definitely smart by the authors to use details that they know have worked in past famous dramas and they honestly blended everything pretty well, so it does not seem like a collage of dramas. I actually enjoyed this drama more than PHYHOMS which, in my opinion, is draggier than this one.

OVERALL: It might not be the most original drama to date (except for the sensitive topics that they discuss, which is quite original for a c-drama) but overall it is very enjoyable, the main actors are great as usual (Xing Fei always manages to draw some tears), the OSTS did not disappoint and you might find some familiar elements to other dramas which are, in my opinion, just a nice add to an already pleasant and well-written story.

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