If you’re on the market for a light drama with a good amount of cuteness and sweetness, and not too much angst, The Love You Give Me could just be your ticket.
Sure, it’s not as buzzy, and its production values are not quite as polished, as, say, Hidden Love (review here!), but I personally found this to be a very enjoyable – and still very pretty! – drama to unwind to.
Some lens adjustment apply, but they aren’t hard to make, and I’ll talk about that shortly.
This is a little gem of a show – provided you do like low-key, slice-of-life things.
Show’s main focus is the central loveline, and it’s all very youthful, sweet and wholesome, in a way that feels at once nostalgic and aspirational.
I also liked that Show also takes time to focus on the friendships that our characters share. Feeling like the invisible sixth member of the friend group was definitely a highlight of my watch too, aside from the very cute and very sweet OTP stuff.
Warm, sweet, comforting, and perfect for a binge on a rainy day – or as a drama nightcap, to put you in the right mind space for warm, sweet, comforting dreams. 🥰
Show’s got quite a few things going for it: it’s full of pretty polish, boasts a pair of good-looking leads who share a sparky chemistry, has a cast of likable characters (with the rare exception, for purposes of narrative tension), and has a very enjoyable soundtrack to score it all.
Show’s biggest strength, though, in my opinion, is its ability to serve up feels that feel at once real and relatable.
Our entire premise is the crush that our female lead Sang Zhi (Zhao Lu Si) has on Jiaxu (Chen Zhe Yuan), and Show’s ability to bring the feels to life, of all the nuances of how it feels to have a crush on someone, is so spot on.
A very easy, enjoyable, sometimes cracky watch, provided you get around some of the points of discomfort that some viewers experienced – which I’ll talk about later, in this review.
A gentle slice-of-life story, with an earthy-yet-squeeworthy OTP at the center, and beautiful yet rustic views of gorgeous Yunnan? So much Yes, for me, personally. 🥰
Watching this show is like going on a long vacation with these characters, where we get to be a silent member of the community, sitting in on their conversations, while lounging on their couches, like we’re part of this found family.
Sure, there are bound to be arcs that you like less (I personally wasn’t that interested in Mr. Ma’s arc), but there’s almost definitely something for everyone, among Show’s various arcs.
Plus, Show’s overall vibe is so warm and cozy, that it feels relatively easy to roll over any bumps in the watch experience.
As a bonus, Show shines a pretty educational spotlight on the topic of rural displacement, while putting faces to the phenomenon, and telling that story with heart. I liked that.
You do need to be in the right mood for this, so yes, you may not want to watch this right now. But when you do find yourself in that right mood, this is quite blissful indeed. 🥰
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Easy-going, laidback and quite breezy in a Disney-esque sort of way, Show could be a great drama to unwind to, after a long day of real life.
Sometimes Show leans into the silly, and sometimes, it leans into its more dramatic side, but either way, everything vibes simple and also, somewhat simplistic.
Show is basically a treacly-wholesome Disney-esque take on the daily life in the royal courts of Xinchuan, our fictional feudal society in which our story takes place.
Fair warning that there are people who do bad things too, in this drama world, and so, very occasionally there is some indication of (real, rather than comedic) violence, which might be disturbing for some folks.
On the upside, these characters always, always get their comeuppance, so that’s the silver lining.
Your mileage is likely to vary with this one, since some folks find it kind of meh, while others think it’s the most wonderful thing ever. But I’ll do my best to help you figure out where you’ll land with this one, even before you take off. 😁
Hi everyone!
Thanks for enjoying my episode 1-2 notes on Crash Course in Romance! Today, I thought I’d share my episode 1-2 & 3-4 notes on Meet Yourself [China], because I’m liking it quite a lot too, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗
These are my episode 1-2 & 3-4 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).
I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️
You know how I always talk about managing expectations and adjusting your viewing lens, in order to best enjoy your watch of any show?
Well, I tried with this one, you guys. I really did.
But, as you can tell from the title of this post, that didn’t work out at all the way I’d hoped. 😅
And so it is, that I’m tapping out of Unchained Love after just 10 episodes.
I’ll still tell you ALLL about it, though, so that you can decide whether you’d still like to give this one a try, even though it didn’t work for me.
Show isn’t going to win any awards for Best Drama, or Best OTP, but if you’re looking for a spot of silly, fluffy drama, this might just do the trick.
It took a while for me to warm to our male lead, but I found Shen Yue’s turn as our female lead delightfully charming, and that more than balanced things out for me.
On top of that, Show’s absurd premise and snappy pace kept things moving along in a pretty pleasing way, so that I didn’t even mind so much, when I didn’t find some of Show’s comic moments all that funny.
Add on a secondary loveline that I was genuinely interested in from early on in our story, and this worked out to be a pretty pleasant diversion, for a little while.
And sometimes, that’s just what you need in a drama, yes?
Hi everyone!
Today, I thought I’d share my episode 1-2 & 3-4 notes on New Life Begins [China], because I’m liking it quite a lot more than I’d originally expected to, and I was wondering if you’d like to join me? 🤗
These are my episode 1-2 & 3-4 notes, exactly as they appear on Patreon, ie, without screenshots (I’m saving those for the actual review).
I hope you all enjoy, and I hope you’ll consider joining us over on Patreon, for the rest of the discussions! ❤️
Show is not without its rough edges, but it works out to be more than enough slurpy fun, and more than enough of an epic love story, that I was more than happy to just roll with the stuff that didn’t grab me as much, in our story, to get to – yes – our happy ending.
Esther Yu is as cute as a button in this, which is fantastic, but it’s Dylan Wang who really shines for me, as our titular devil. He shows way more range than I’d thought he had, AND he looks amazing, in an almost surreal sort of way, through the entire journey.
My eyes; they were quite pleased. 🤩😁
Best of all, this OTP shares pretty excellent chemistry, from the bickery silly stuff, to the swoony, skinship end of the scale, and their loveline makes for a pretty great backbone to our story.
Very solidly worthwhile, in my opinion.