Love Designer (2020)

If I had to write the synopsis for this show I would write this:
This story is about two girlfriends who are strong independent women, balancing their parents’ cultural norms with their own need to live life on their own terms; pursuing their own dreams. It is about how they find love customized to them and supporting each other along the way.

We see familiar themes as each “sister” finds her own unique (“Customized Love”) love story:
-Compromise between traditional parental values and modern notions for marriage
-Female empowerment for career and dreams within the context of relationships and marriage
These are not new themes but worth retelling - and the acting and chemistry in this drama makes it worthwhile to sit through and embrace the message again.

I found myself enjoying the relationship between the leads in this show because the characters are written to have mutual respect. Both main couples are honest and open with their feelings and mature in their handling of falling in love. When they become a bit childish there is a best friend to pull them back from the edge.

If all you want is the romance, the tantalizing interactions between the main couple should satisfy this need in spades! I found myself thinking many times, “I wonder if they captured that movement while they were taking a break from filming and decided to use it?”. Their interactions were very organic and natural. I felt the same with the friendship between the female leads. They have great chemistry as well – I wanted a best friend like this.
This was the best part of the show for me. Because I enjoyed the romance and feeling you get from this type of on-screen chemistry, I was able to finish the drama.

However, it was not without the liberal use of the fast forwarding button - the show definitely could have been done in less episodes. I also found there were characters showing up conveniently to move the story (as with all dramas) but in this case it is awkwardly done (abandoned storylines) and this distracts from the quality of the show.
There were also a few points where the script failed the actors (this tells how well they did their job because they were able to shine regardless).

…but the pretty fashion, gorgeous sets and SIZZLING CHEMISTRY makes it worth sticking through to the end.

Side note: There are messages in the drama that resonated with me:
First half: The fashion industry fighting to protect original design in a world market that is overrun with knock-offs due to mass consumption.
Second half: Security of our online data has become an important aspect of business and has the potential to destroy firms.
Throughout: Run your life/business with integrity and be willing to compromise and forgive in love/life.

Finally: did I mention the chemistry, easy banter and skinship of the two main leads? :)

Leggi di Più

So amazing worth a watch

I love the storyline. It’s very interesting their are parts that make you frustrated but the acting is so amazing. Theirs a lot of natural skinship and kisses. For the majority of the show the two leads are actually dating so theirs so many cute moments. Some characters like Luna and her mom annoy me but their not a big deal. There’s a happy ending and it’s just such an amazing show and the two leads have so much chemistry. I also wanna add the ML relationship with his sister was so adorable and watching his sisters character development was amazing even the sisters relationship with the FL was so cute.

Leggi di Più

Better than I anticipated. I went into it half expecting to drop it eventually or skip a lot of scenes, but neither occurred. The series did start off to a slow start, but picked up pace once the main leads went steady in their relationship. Perhaps some viewers may actually prefer ML pursuing the FL and the constant back and forth between them in the beginning episodes (let's say, ep 1 - 20), but I don't like when the inevitable is unnecessarily drawn out. We know they're going to end up together so get on with it already, is my view. Sure, I do love the chase as well, but it shouldn't overstay its welcome. Those dramas where the leads only get together at the end of the show are the worse.

Thankfully that didn't happen here. Once they got on board with each other, they stuck together and I enjoyed the show a lot better. And definitely they were the best thing about this drama. They had incredibly GREAT chemistry (a few decent kiss scenes & some sweet, cuddly moments, though not enough for my tastes) and played massively well off each other. They seemed very convincing as a couple. I think these two genuinely enjoyed each other's company as they were filming because it came through very well on screen.

And can I just say, the ML is sooo hot. I dunno if his voice was dubbed or not, but I loved listening to him speak. His bad boy swagger will have you drooling all over your computer. Can't believe the actor was only 27/28 at the time of filming; he had a more solid, big man vibe to him. I really loved their interactions & dynamic as a couple. This was a mature and strong couple who communicated well and worked out their problems like grown adults. The ML more so than the FL.

ML was the perfect modern gentleman. He was a protector, he doted on the FL (I love how playful & teasing he was toward her), gave her a lot of space & leeway to be herself and do her own thing. Sometimes the FL didn't seem to appreciate how much he cared for her, which was a bit off-putting when considering how chivalrous he was. At times she was a bit on the immature side, a little too self-absorbed and entitled as many modern women are. There were moments that felt like she took the ML for granted, acting in inconsiderate ways without thought or consequence for his feelings. Or putting other people before him. Perhaps there were some cultural codes at play that I didn't fully grasp (guanxi), but I didn't like how she handled certain things. Loyalty is super important in a relationship and at certain times she didn't appear very loyal at all to me.

Her good points were that she was ambitious and capable, but not as obnoxious as some FLs are in western shows. This definitely was a drama geared toward women with a clear feminist undertone, but it wasn't man-bashing and I certainly hope Asian shows never go that route because I really hate how woke culture has destroyed western entertainment. Most western shows have basically become totally unwatchable for me. Overall, FL was a good heroine and I guess both of them can't be perfect.

I wasn't a major fan of the 2nd lead couple. They both seemed too immature to really know what they were getting themselves into. I think both their parents were right to be concerned. The 2ML was particularly earnest, but I just couldn't warm to them as a couple. Qin Qing seemed too spoiled and self-centred to care about anyone but herself in the long term. And maybe because I much prefer alpha male leads than sweet cuddly ones? That's definitely a part of it, but not entirely. I would have much preferred to see more scenes with ML's rival and his wife than these two.

Some of the negative comments against this drama are a bit frivilous (typical on MDL :/). People down voting the drama for product placement and a ring tone ... ::eyeroll::
Sure, the product placement was quite obvious in this drama. You really couldn't miss it, but that's kind of the point, isn't it? And at least they incorporated it well into the story, rather than just randomly placing it in scenes where they don't belong. I've seen worse product placement attempts in K-dramas. As for the ringtone, yes, it was a bit repetitive and quite odd that everyone had the same one, but it wasn't a big deal. Certainly nothing to give this show a bad rating for. Those first 2 reviews on the drama's front page are totally out of line, imo.

Anyway, it's been a minute since I watched a K-drama, but overall, this drama to me is a lot better than half the K-romcoms I've watched over the years and somewhat of a huge improvement on other C-dramas I've seen. While there's a lot of censorship in both C-dramas & K-dramas, I like how C-dramas deal with love, romance and familial matters better. Sometimes K-dramas are just way too conservative and cringey in their portrayal of modern day romance. Moreover, I couldn't imagine a lot of the stuff going down in this drama happening in a K-drama (ie. cohabitation b4 marriage & 2ML telling off his interfering mom & not groveling to her later on). On that alone, Love Designer scores major points.

Leggi di Più

Business versus personal issues

I rated this drama 8 because overall the story was overboard, a beautiful independent amateur designer fallen in love with a high level e-commerce businessman that they met incidentally before they even got tangle with business dispute. I don't know why Chinese drama is so often portraying over the top personas with abundance wealth as the characteristic in so many dramas. The chemistry between Dilraba and Johnny Huang was so hot, they made out way better than other typical peck on the lips or cheeks. The struggle of being in the business was relatable, it isn't easy to own and manage business, I got it. Up and down in relationship happened in many ways, weather they're going to give time to the other party to reconcile true feeling and where they wanted to take the relationship further exploration. Although Johnny Huang character was pretty obvious, took him all effort to win her back. Struggling between business and personal issues, I can say Song Lin (Johnny Huang) was the real winner, because whatever hard reality hit him - he came out big and better. One thing I learn from this drama is their fashion statement, men wore something feminine/layers as so called fashion forward, I don't get it. Men being men..don't need to show off their manly beauty with something girls wear. Standard shoes/snicker, coat/suit, shirt/T-shirt, dress pant/jeans I think we girls dig in. That's probably I love Li YiFeng or Xiao Zhan so much...they don't over dress themselves. Johnny Huang is a handsome down-to-earth kind of guy...with that he won himself adoration from girls.

Leggi di Più

Could have been better.

First of all I will start of with a positive. I have never seen Johnny Huang (if that's how you spell his name) in anything before and I was very pleasantly surprised. He is a good actor and I will watch more of his drama's. The way he plays the cocky, self assured CEO character but still brings a bit of cheekiness and playfulness into it isn't something just anyone can do.

The two main characters where good together simply because the actors where so good at playing them. The chemistry they had onscreen was electric and really carried the show for me. There were times in the show I actually rewound a scene simply to see those two together. However the way both characters where written left plenty to be desired. Zhou Feng had lots of ambition but very little actual talent, and she kept falling into the same hole every time. I mean the woman is supposed to be smart so how many times does she have to fall for the same trick before she learns? It did get a bit tedious after a while. It was the same for Song Lin, a CEO who has raised his company from nothing and yet doesn't seem to see all the attacks coming, or really care when they arrive. He's too busy playing with his bikes or drinking with his friends. It just didn't work.

One thing I did enjoy was the interplay between the two leads and their respective teenage relations, Luo Luo and Xiao Di. Those teenagers did brilliantly and seeing the two adults slowly bought together and trying to work out how to deal with the troublesome teenagers, mostly Luo Luo could be hilarious.

On the downside the character of Qing Qing, I started to skip over her by about episode 10. She had gone from being the supportive and nice best friend to just being sarcastic and annoying. Between Qing Qing and her mother I'm surprised Zhuo Feng stayed sane. The other characters just where not interesting at all as they little or no character development through the whole show which was such a waster as the actors where good. Even the villain of the piece was made out to be bad without any clear reason. He wanted the business because of a line of clothing but why he wanted THAT line so bad was as clear as mud.

The music wasn't to bad but the fact everyone had the same ring tone, and a ring tone that was so annoying in the first place, just made my teeth grate. I know its a show about people achieving their dreams but I'm sure they could have found different ways of doing it that shoving that noise down our throats multiple times an episode.

All in all it was an OK show. But it was heavily carried by the two main leads. It defiantly had the potential to be much better.

Leggi di Più

The story development between both main characters were well done., the areas of improvement was the whole Company v Company war that was on and off. The friends/side character romance was abit annoying to watch, mainly because of their immaturity/behavior.

Dilraba & Johnny does shine in this drama, having seen Dilraba's work out of order from You are my Glory to Hot Girls to Sweet Dreams to Pretty Li Hua Zhen definitely shows her range of acting prowess, as well as ability to captivate the audience's attention. I would rank her performance here 2nd behind You are my Glory.

The one area they could've gone into more about was how the two companies got into competing, other than the fact one guy wanted to get revenge for Si uei, the daughter of one of their teachers that passed tragically. That story was brushed over, even though that's the main reason those two companies got into fighting one another to start with. Otherwise their feud is very pointless, as Bai Sai's chairperson eventually just gives up because (1) his competitor helped save his butt (2) his wife was about to divorce him. So the reason for all this feuding has to be significant like Bai Sai wasn't favored by So Yue, or they were ex lovers and she passed, so he was bent on revenge or something.

Regarding with the conclusion, it ended where it started which was perfectly fine, not everyone will find love & happiness, some are destined to keep searching. I did like how they kept to the title of the show, which was Love Designer, which could have several meanings ofc.

Leggi di Più

HOT SIZZLING Chemistry

The chemistry between Reba & Johnny is Craaaazy good, lots of pda and skinship. Yes 45 episodes are too long and too many gimmicks but I don't really care, seeing them acting together is just ????????. It's been a while since I watch something with this kind of chemistry.

Product placement a lot but doesn't bother me. You can just skip ahead right?

I like how FL and ML interact and their work ethic in this drama is ?? so bang.

Some tacky scenes here and there, but the again, I can just skip.

Great production with huge budget.


Can anyone recommend me another good c drama with great chemistry and great story line?

Leggi di Più

Good cast but stretched story

I thought Dilana looked really beautiful in this. Johnny was well matched. The story was too stretched it could have been finished in 16 episodes like the Korean series. Too much business talk and indirect ads.
More of a Chinese business agenda than a proper story. Think it went on and on.

Though I liked watching Dilraba on screen i just could not bare the story.

I thought it would end by the 40 episode but 48 episodes was just unnecessary.

If u like Dilraba then this watchable just to see her for longer on screen. Johnny and her expressions were what got me through the series

Leggi di Più

The Best Chemistry Cdramaland Ever!!!

Love the humor, the storyline (except it could have been shorter) and most of all, the male and female lead. Their chemistry is just out of this world!!! This is the second drama I’ve watched starring Johnny. I just love love this guy. For someone who has no formal acting training, he is up there with the trained ones in terms of his acting skills. He is no ‘Xiao xian Rou’, and to add to that, masculine, charming and sexy.
I just love how the story ends with the motorbike scene, the story came to a full circle, tying things up very nicely. It has one of the best happy endings in dramaland. Personally, I mostly watch dramas to enjoy, to relax and escape from daily grind, so endings like this one is just perfect.
I guess the only negative is as mentioned above, could have definitely done with less episodes or have those episodes explore/expand Su Yunsan’s background and history with Song Lin.
I have since watched it again .

Leggi di Più