Fate (2020)

First of all this was filmed in 2017... This drama if it werent for the Li yi tong and Lu yi, i couldnt get through it... and which i barely got through.... dont like this drama... storyline sucks..

Female lead is the daughter of the Xia corporation. She is rich, pretty, smart. In her high school years she befriends Su Mo ( aka bitchy bf), and Ling Xiang An ( second lead?) whom she had a crush on. Of course the second lead only has eyes for the white lotus Su mo. At that time su mo already had a bf which was the male lead. Due to the male lead's family disapproval, the second female lead Su mo takes the money of the male lead mom's and goes to university in United Kingdom. Second male lead decides to go with his white lotus ( second female lead) to United Kingdom. During this time the female lead goes to United Kingdom to find her mom. The phone number that she though was the mom's was the male lead ( lol what a surprise) Thus beginning their friendship. They go through their 4 years together in United Kingdom and decides to go back to China to find her mother and get revenge on the mistress of her dad. The mistress has been trying to get rid of the female lead, trying to cut all money ties and tries to take over the company.
Long story short , male lead slowly falls in love with the female lead.. but the ex gets in their way aka the lu cha biao Su mo.

The story is not developed well and there are quite a few annoying characters!
1) Su mo ( who was suppose to be the female lead's best friend.... but was always jealous of the female lead for having the perfect life) Su mo gets int the way of the two lead's relationship, when she already has a fiancee. What a bitch !!
2) Lin Xiang An ( the crush of the female lead when she was young) He only has eyes for Su mo, and never saw how good the female lead was. His character is of nuisance, and annoying.
3) evil mistress wanna be step mom.... such a despicable character and conniving. Trying to do too much to interfere between the relationship of the female lead and her dad.

The sweet moments of the leads were not enough. They were literally always bickering than being in love.lol I guessed right about when they would be together,, more than half way of the drama... predictable...

sighs... not my fave drama...arghh but i love lu yi and li yitong tho :(

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A most unexpected piece of brilliant screenplay

Up until the last episode, I thought I've be rating this drama either 6 or 7, but that last episode turned everything around. In fact, I'm thinking I would have to do a re-watch of the drama.... If you are not a deep thinker and just watch this drama as a rom-com, you would see this as a soap opera story and the ending as silly and nonsensical. If you are a deep thinker like me, you might realize the additional psychological implications that this drama has been hiding until the last scene. I'm seeing so much hints now, even the poster is suspicious.... isn't it weird that Xia Ran Ran is dressed in complete white while the rest of cast are in black? I need to talk to the director or scriptwriter!!

I like the start of the drama-- a spoilt rich girl with a sad past, was alone in England and had been partying wildly, so she ran out of cash and called home to ask for funds. She was denied and did not have money to pay the apartment rent. Then police received a tip and went to her apartment and discovered illegal drugs, so she was arrested. She did not have anyone she knew in England who could help her, except for the stranger whose mobile number she had thought was her mother’s. She called again and begged for his help. He felt sorry for her and went down to the police station and bailed her out. Without money and her identifications (police withheld this due to the investigations), she had no choice but to stay with this strange man. When she reached his home however, she was surprised that he was staying at the same address that her mother had given her. But where was her mother? And why was this stranger holding the mobile number and staying at the place where her mother should have been? The next sequence of events cleverly turned towards rom-com cliches—labour contract, aloof ML and cute-as-button FL, wild girl turned hardworking student in order to plan a revenge when FL returned to China…. Making me completely forgetting that initial mysterious setup.

And this is one aspect of the brilliance in the screenplay, how it set us up with a mysterious beginning then buried the mystery with rom-com and other developments until the last 10 episodes where the mystery was revealed. And the revelation is well done too, giving little stray crumbs to viewers to guess at the truth, yet not giving us enough to know the full story until screenplay was ready to reveal the truth.

The whole cast acted very well, special mention on Liu Xiao Zhen who played Dan Juan, FL’s sissy BFF. Except for Li Yi Tong…. I find her acting to be quite underwhelming and somewhat disconnected from the drama. BUT my opinion on her acting did a 180° change when I saw the ending….

Throughout the drama, Xia Ran Ran (Li Yi Tong) would occasionally talk to herself and have fantastical daydreams. I have thought these are adorable scenes that director puts in to add more cuteness…. BUT my opinion on this did a 180° change when I saw the ending….

It is a happy ending— everything turns up rosy for Xia Ran Ran, and she married Shao Mingzhe in beautiful fairytale-like wedding. BUT in the wedding scene, there is an exact same sequence that had appeared in the initial 10 eps, in one of Xia Ran Ran’s daydreams…. This very weird ending plus the above 2 points that I have mentioned led me to think that the screenwriter wanted to imply that the last episode is a fantasy of Xia Ran Ran, that she had chosen to live in a fantasized perfect world then face the reality…. The reality would be: she lost the tender, bank retracted back the loan support, they had to sell their home and properties to pay back the bank and maybe barely survived until police completed their investigations and returned the embezzled funds to Company.... Xiang An and Su Mo never reconciled and neither did Ran Ran and Su Mo..... As for Shao Mingzhe, Ran Ran could not be with him due to his mother's objection and she didn't want to sour their mother-son relationship....

Which in a way is logical, considering the amount of bullshit that happened to her, a normal woman would have slipped into deep depression. Instead she fantasized the perfect, fairytale ending to run away from her bitter and lonely reality.... Xia Ran Ran have maintained a cheerful optimism throughout the drama, she was so cheerful that she felt disconnected with reality, which bring me back to the point about how underwhelming Li Yi Tong had played Xia Ran Ran. On hindsight, this style of acting is exactly required to portray someone with depression and PTSD. I had a friend who had a bad car accident shortly after she received her driver’s license, and when we met her just after the accident, my first words were “wow, you somehow looked younger by a few years….” That’s what unexpected shock can do to a person, you might be crying and in shock internally but appearance-wise, you look younger and actually happy.

And this is why I am so impressed with the screenplay. You can interpret this drama 2 ways—a light-hearted rom-com with the perfect ending, or the sad story of a depressed woman who chose to live in a made-believe fantasy at the end….

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I enjoy this sort of drama, with an evil stepmother, business rivalries/power struggles, love triangles, etc, but it's so difficult to find one that's actually good from beginning to end and not overly frustrating. Initially I liked this so much that I was re-watching episodes while I waited for new episodes, but at around episode 25 I started to feel like the drama was unravelling, with a side plot thrown in that made you wonder who the heck thought it was a good idea! The ending was also really anti-climactic and unsatisfying.

I loved Li Yi Tong as Xia Ran Ran, who returns from abroad to take down her scheming stepmother while continuing her search for her missing mother. Xia Ran Ran is spoiled and impulsive, but also very upbeat and energetic. She reflects over her past actions, and I liked her relationship with Shao Ming Zhe because he helps her grow and learn. This is an age-gap romance, and I was never quite sure exactly how much older he was. (The one thing that bothered me was the timeline of his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, because she was in high school...) What won me over with their relationship is that they developed a friendship first and confided in each other about how they had been hurt in the past. They have great chemistry and I enjoyed their banter a lot, although at times I wished Xia Ran Ran could prove her ability without Shao Ming Zhe always helping her. I was only able to get through this drama because I liked them as a couple so much.

In the later portion of the drama, I couldn't stand that every single character learned a secret but left the person who it would hurt the most in the dark. When is that ever a good idea?! It felt like there was so much buildup for the moment this secret would finally be revealed, but when the moment came it was such a letdown because it was overshadowed by another storyline.

A big miss for this drama was Su Mo's character, because it felt like they couldn't decide what direction to go in. Sometimes the drama really made me hate her, but then it'd throw in a flashback that would make me sympathize and wish she and Xia Ran Ran could repair their broken friendship. These mixed signals from the writers ended up making her seem unlikable and untrustworthy, and her ending felt way too neat. Shao Ming Zhe's mother felt like an annoying, stereotypical character written just to set up some obstacles, and I wish there'd been more depth there. I didn't mind Peng Jing (the stepmother), because she was a formidable opponent for Xia Ran Ran, and her son was adorable - I wish there had been more scenes of Ran Ran and Chen Chen! Xia Ran Ran's father turned out to be more interesting than I expected, and his assistant Chen Luo was another potential love interest for Xia Ran Ran. I appreciated his character only because he made Shao Ming Zhe jealous, but otherwise Chen Luo was a pretty bland character.

This is definitely not the worst in the genre but prepare yourself with low expectations for the latter half.

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Mais um C-drama Que se Perde no Caminho

Bem, eu tenho uma longa história com C-dramas. Na maioria das vezes eles me decepcionam mas eu insisto em dar chance a eles.

Talvez pelo tamanho dos dramas (geralmente mais de 40 eps.) eles acabam não tendo tanta coisa para mostrar e se perdem no meio ou até mesmo nos primeiros 10 episódios. São muitas informações e cenas desnecessárias que todos sabemos que não contribuem para o desenvolvimento da história, pelo contrário, só atrapalha deixando o ritmo lento e por muitas vezes insuportável de continuar a jornada até o fim.

Com Just to See You foi exatamente assim. Os primeiros episódios não foram excelentes mas não estava desagradável mas nem foi preciso chegar na metade para a coisa toda desandar de vez. Parecia que estava em um barco à deriva abandonado lá no meio do mar sem esperança de encontrar uma pequena porção de terra com alguma civilização que pudesse me ajudar. Todo tipo de coisa acontecia mas nada acontecia, como pode?

Espero de coração que consigam (o mais breve possível) melhorar isto em seus dramas. Talvez se diminuíssem a quantidade de episódios a chance de sucesso aumente. Eles precisam urgentemente melhorar seus roteiros, é isto que espereço para o meu próximo C-drama.

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I liked it but I hated it too

Where to even start with this drama? Overall, despite its flaws, I couldn't stop watching. I like the main couple and the female leads best friend and the storyline though predictable in some spots and infuriating in others, did keep me engaged.
These are just some random thoughts that I had about the show and may not be in order:
-Off the bat, I didn't like that Ran Ran spent four years with Mingzhe and just up and left him in England with no explanation. This man was beyond good to her and though he had a weird demanding yet endearing attitude, you know he was a good person at heart. He deserved better then that. There was no reason that at the very least, she couldn't have called him on her way to the airport to say she was leaving instead of having him come home to an empty house.
-I liked the relationship that Mingzhe had with his cousin and it's a shame it had to go south.
-I don't like how some of the biggest mysteries of the show weren't fully explained, like why didn't Ran Ran's mother reach out to her after the accident? When she knew she was dying, why not reach out to her directly instead of leaving a video message and why did the man hold onto it for so long and not give it to Ran Ran years ago? Also, why did Mingzhe's father just disappear instead of saying he wanted to leave the mother to join the monkhood? It could have been so simple. Smh. Oh, and it looks like the father wanted to hold onto the marriage but it was Ran Ran's mother who wanted out, so why let Ran Ran think the stepmother was a homewrecker? And even further, why wasn't it fully explained to Mingzhe's mother that her husband didn't have an affair with Ran Ran's mother? Then she wouldn't have been so against them being together. And like a typical woman, more mad at the other woman instead of the man who took marriage vows with you.
- I was livid over how Ran Ran's father treated her. Not once but twice he took the stepmother's word over his own child's. Then even when he found out that the stepmother was scheming, he still allowed her to stay with him and even married her? Wtf?!?! Where was all this kindness for Ran Ran? I couldn't believe that when he found out the stepmother abandoned her in England he didn't get mad at her. There's no way in the world I could find out someone did my child wrong and still be with them. I lost all respect for him, no matter how much he tried to make up for it later on.
- I also loathe the lack of communication. I get that shows do this to create confusion and issues that will have to be resolved later on but it gets tiring. Why didn't Ran Ran just tell Mingzhe that his mother said he'd lose his position in the company if they're together so I'd rather sacrifice the relationship then let that happen? Let him make his own decision, it's stupid to make your whole relationship feel like a lie instead of givign him a choice in his future. Stop the self sacrificing crap.
- I hated Su Mo. She had the biggest chip on her shoulder and over what, exactly? A whole made up scenario she made up in her mind. Ran Ran was nothing but nice to her and Su Mo let her own insecurities take over. Also, Su Mo's fiance had to have been one of the worst characters I've ever seen. What he felt for Su Mo wasn't love, it was obsession. Why keep chasing after someone who obviously loves someone else? His blind loyalty to her made me want to vomit and I really wished they didn't end up with each other in the end.
-Speaking of the end...wtf was that? So they took a cop out and just made up an ending? Why not finish it out and have shown her going back to find Mingzhe and making up. That ending was beyond disappointing.

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Cheeky Not Worth It!

A cheeky drama that starts good but it turns to terrible quickly. The many triangles. The obsess lovers, The parents that try to control their adult kids. this one even has a bad stepmother and an innocent little step-brother. The lead characters that like each other, hate each other and like each other again. The secret that are kept from both the lead characters. Oh let's not forget all the misunderstanding because characters on the side that makes it happen. By the 10th episode it became annoying, so I started to fast forward thru the episodes. The lead characters had no chemistry with each other. They were suppose to be in love but they acted more like cold turkey. Even toward the end I could not see any real love emotion between them. The ending was terrible. I still can understand if it was a dream or did it really happen. But it was a usual ending were the last few minutes everything is happily ever after with no satisfaction on finishing the story. Terrible script.

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Unrealistic

Love triangles are fine, but this drama contained way too many. The director is trying to sell all love affairs on Earth among these approx. 10 characters. It almost feels like they didn't have enough money to hire more actors..

The ML and FL had no chemistry whatsoever and their relationship didn't really go anywhere. The main conflict bw the two main actresses wasn't solved either. The evil characters were not seen atoning for their sins or regretting anything. They weren't really punished either. Where was the climax of the story? No idea. My excitement rate was the same constant (low) level throughout the 40 episodes.

I don't think that anybody should bother with this drama. There are way betters out there so just skip this and save yourself 40 hours.

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