Intense Love (2020)

Sweet drama with no melodramatic scenes and in-law problem

This drama is really cheesy type. The acting and cast is superb. The music seems to be sweet (I don't really understand the OST lyrics as there are no eng subs for them). If you're searching for "no melodramatic rom-com" with "no -in laws problem" then this is indeed worth watching. Their love progress is not very slow but not too quick. It developed as they lived under the same roof (in hospital, his family house and then his house). Their chemistry is toooo sweet to handle. The amazing part is when the Jinbei chases Shiyun and how the romantic moment progress graph goes to 100 and suddenly drops to zero with a joke in the beginning episodes. Ryan perfectly carved the personality of Zhou Shiyun, a cold man with warm heart whereas Yuxi's cute act is irrestible. Whenever a drama have 24 episodes, the leads confess and start dating by 16 but in this drama they start official dating in 10 only. Their kisses are indeed extremely steamy and we can hardly distinguish which one was the best but the most emotional one is in 15, "The Mud Kiss" and there's a "coffee bean shower" instead of flower shower.

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If you want an endearing romcom with explosive chemistry, then I highly recommend this!!

The main characters are truly the star of this show! I really can't be more in love with the main couple, they are the absolute cutest. Yes, the story isn't anything special or new, but the execution and acting of the cast, especially our MCs, makes this drama so much fun and endearing to watch.

The main couple does not disappoint at all; they were charming and adorable from the very beginning until the last second. Their moments do get cringy at certain points, but it's also the kind of cringy that just makes you want to smile. Aside from that, I think the characters as individuals were also very lovable; Jin Bei is so cute & Shi Yun couldn't be any sweeter. I like Jin Bei's boldness, it's quite refreshing, and I love the fact that although Shi Yun is "cold", he's also very caring & isn't afraid to express how he feels. Their relationship was mature, organic, and very engaging. Kudos Ryan Ding and Zhang Yuxi for their amazing chemistry because it was so natural, straightforward, and just absolute fire! I think the actors did a great job and played their parts very well (their kiss scenes were also plentiful & truly a *chef's kiss*).

Although I'm not nearly as invested in them, the side couples were also cute. At the end of the day, I was happy for all of them so I think that's the important thing.

I definitely think that what is lacking in the story is totally made up for by the acting and chemistry. I highly recommend this drama to everyone, even if you think you don't like super fluffy shows (because that was me & I absolutely love it). Will 100% be rewatching this in the near future when I need a cute little pick-me-up.

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I really tried

I really tried to enjoy this drama. I can enjoy cheesy, I like romantic, good chemistry, protective, decisive and caring ML, not complicated plots, I find all this great but, grown up women acting worse than 5 years old was unbearable and I ended up skipping a lot of the show just stopping in the rare moments the FL had a bit more depth. I guess that doesn't bother most part of viewers because of the general high ratings. I was actually more drawn to the support ML relationship development with the young sister of the first ML but after getting some good amount of screen time they are cut off and show later on in random scenes without a real follow up.

Positive: Beautiful buildings and homes. I din't give 1 out of respect to the ML who was quite good and able to convey love and emotions in spite of the FL character role.

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A romance drama with pretty people - but that's about it

Overall, I rate this drama a 3/5, ★★★☆☆, a pass. I got into this drama because I loved Ding Yu Xi in the Romance of Tiger and Rose. But I was a bit disappointed.

Let's take a closer look at Intense Love based on my seven criteria (see below for a detailed explanation of the criteria - Intense Love is my first trial to use these criteria).

1. Emotional rollercoaster: 3/5 ★★★☆☆: Intense Love is a simple, almost superficial, romance drama targeting young female audience. The drama has countless tooth-aching sweet scenes between the leads, but I did not feel a lot of emotions because of the lack of chemistry between the leads. The start was compelling at the start, with the female lead being very bold, creative, and a bit cunning, but this soon faded. Her personality became kind, some times even naive, well-behaved, and just helpless in love with the main lead. Dr. Zhou's character is even more boring and only a fraction as interesting as Han Shuo's character in The Romance of Tiger and Rose. This is also reflected in his acting (not sure if I need to blame his role or the fact he was less experienced at that time), which is a shame cause he is such a talented actor. The only watchpoint was these sweet loving romantic scenes between two beautifully looking people; some are beautifully shot (e.g., coffee shower?!).

2. Fantasization: 3/5 ★★★☆☆: I adore Ding Yu Xi, but I didn't feel much of a chemistry between him and Zhang Yu Xi. This might be the reason because both main leads have almost perfect personalities. Zhou Shi Yun: doctor, perfect-looking, kind most of the time, but takes charge when he needs to, can cook well... Bei Bei: actress, beautiful, soft-hearted, but has a cute temper! Like where in the world do you find these people? Why would these two already be engaged since birth and fall in love almost right away? I also find ZYX's acting a bit over.

3. Sleepless night: 1/5 ★☆☆☆☆: the story was never particularly dramatic at any point or particularly sorrowful at any point. I enjoyed watching it, but there was never an urge to want to know what's next.

4. Natural and intelligent Storytelling: 3/5 ★★★☆☆: The story was told fluently without many question marks. I guess the only problem I have with the drama was the setting. Except for some misunderstanding and roadblocks from female rival 2, it was smooth most of the time. To create some drama, the writer created a bit of out-of-character behavior misunderstanding between the main leads towards the end. This was a bit annoying but nothing to be too be angry about given the fluffy setting.

5. Loveable supporting Roles: 2/5 ★★☆☆☆: The best friend couple Wu Di and Xiao Yuan Song were the opposite of the "perfect main lead couple" - down to earth, real and funny. I really like them, yet, their story was not that interesting. I don't understand why XYS has fallen head over heels in love with Wu Di after spending just one night with her. I also don't comprehend why Wu Di would reject him this much. The main critic that their story seems to be just a parallel love story next to that of the main leads, as it has almost nothing to do with the main storyline. Supporting roles need to have a "supporting" function (that's why they are called this way!), yet this was not executed. If you are very strict, you could see them as fillers, a different type of couple to romanticize with.

6. Proper Pacing: 4/5 ★★★★☆: drama has only 24 episodes, just enough episodes to tell the story. There is some-slowing down in the middle, but I did not feel like pressing the fast-forward bottom.

7. Solid Finale": 4/5 ★★★★☆: I was satisfied with the ending. It was a predictable finale given the type of drama it was and the type of audience it was targeting. On the other hand, there was also no forced turn or artificial creation of dramatic, which would have been redundant. There is a 30min extra of this drama, which showed a parallel world in which the two main leads switched roles, jobs, and even personalities (the last one was not very clear). I found it quite refreshing a great add-on to this drama. I wish they could have made a few more episodes.

Overall, if you like pure romance drama, with not much thinking and plenty of pretty looking scenes with two beautiful people, this is the drama for you. Otherwise, I would suggest you spend your time elsewhere.

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Kotori's drama review seven criteria definition:

After having watched many dramas and also written several reviews. I have detected that I rate dramas based on specific patterns. I formulated those into seven criteria.

1. "Emotional Rollercoaster": the degree of how much my heart was moving from the acting, scenes, and story development (e.g., in pain, pounding, fluster etc.)
2. "Fantasization": the degree of how much I care about the fate of the main leads, how often I have to think about them in my everyday life, how much I wish the characters are part of my real life: I call this
3. "Sleepless Nights.": how much I have the urge to binge-watch this drama.
4. "Natural and intelligent Storytelling.": how logically the story was able to proceed and the roles are acting within their characters. I don't have a thousand question marks when watching the drama. The feeling that the makers are taking us viewers seriously and that we do not always think that this looks fake.
5. "Loveable supporting Roles.": how much I love and care about supporting characters. They are not merely tools to support the main characters but are 3-dimensional and have proper motivations behind their actions.
6. "Proper Pacing.": how well the drama is pacing and not watered down to fill the number of episodes.
7. "Solid Finale": how properly the drama builds dramatic and finishes with a satisfactory ending. I have just watched too many dramas that starts to lose its grip around half or 2/3rd of its way.

Obviously, many other criteria could be important as well, such as unique story setup, visual elements, camera work, music, costumes, etc. Some of the points are indirectly included in the criteria, and others are not this important for me.

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Intense Love was one of my most anticipated dramas of the year. I picked it up when it started airing but found it to be boring. I resumed watching this recently and overall it was a mixed bag for me. There were some cute and romantic moments and some were downright annoying. This drama would be a zero for me if not for the main leads.

STORY + CHARACTERS:
There was no story. It's just about a ditzy, vain actress who falls for an icy doctor. Yes, the leads were cute but I never got invested in them. It felt like watching a compilation of scenes where I felt like I missed the initial build up. Because there was NONE. They fell in love out of nowhere and I wanted to smack the main girl because she annoyed me to no end. Her dumbness wasn't cute after a few episodes. There was no growth in her nor the male lead's character, What didn't help was the annoying sister of the male lead. She was infuriating to no end. There is a secondary couple in the drama as well who got the majority screentime, a below average story and no chemistry. I didn't like anyone.

ACTING:
Here is where I feel bad. The actors did the best they could. Ryan Ding and Zhang Yu Xi are decent and watchable. It wasn't their fault that the script was lacking, there were no challenging scenes nor that there was no character growth. Entire drama seemed like a teenage girl's fantasy being adapted on screen. I liked Jiawei and the male lead's friend. They were both quite good at their roles.

MUSIC:
Didn't notice any. Meh.

OVERALL:
I like turning off my brain and watching cheesy romance films/dramas. However this one tread on boring and disappointing category for me. I felt like it was an insult to my intelligence had I kept on watching this story that started nowhere and ended no where. It should've been a middle-school drama instead of unrealistically portraying all adults as ditzy and shallow. I wish I could have liked this because it was a waste of the main leads' potential. I don't recommend this drama unless you have nothing to watch.

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Petty Women

This was so bad it was actually really bad... So bad that I watched it till episode 12 but could not take it anymore so I skimmwatched the rest... with the occasional pause to watch the fluff...

As I am pretty sure the writer either has never met a woman in his entire life or has a lot of built up anger against them. Whatever it is he definitely has a lot of stereotypes and truley hates woman from the bottom of his heart as every single one of these women is portrayed as a childish, scheming, petty brat. Who speak cutsie like you should not speak to infants (but people do) and cry, or sceme for no particular reason. There is no logic to anything in this drama, the settings are all odd, the hospital makes no sense, neither the division of work or how it looks inside.

I honestly doubt the creators actually visited a hospital in their life (and for that I envy them) for example there is a scene with a kid in this Huuuuuge space, that just as to go through a crowd of people with cameras, like they could not go around the crowd but just had to go through it... this was of course good for the plot but, had me thinking what the....

The female lead is kind hearted at best and very forgiving of people who scheme against her, I am going to assume it is because she understands them too well as she too likes playing games and does not really seem to understand the value of communication. This woman is also a prime example of the dangers of falling for drama cliches that romanticise lack of consent. As she creates troubles in her mind and expects the male lead to force himself on her and is utterly disappointed when he does not. She is also slightly obsessed with feeding and getting fed. Girl you have hands, use them...

There is however a lot of fluff, the filming is fluffy, the kisses are fluffy, the hoodies are all fluff, fluff everywhere fluff... Umbrellas, snow... sunshine and yep even a fluffy cat, bird and kid. And a unicorn amoung C-dramas, parents that are not evil... odd but true. There are some cool scenes here and there, mostly slow mo... but still.

The male lead is they typical iceberg, why he falls for the female lead is a huge mystery for me unless he has a shallow side to his otherwise melting ice berg. but fine whatever floats his boat. He does seem to have basic respect for boundaries and is lovely to watch, yes he is indeed the reason I kept at it.

So in conclusion, for the love of whatever you believe in, do not make the same mistake as I did, it is just not worth it, unless you want to hate watch and get to write a review that is as much fun to write as I had writing this one is. or skip most of the scenes to watch the fluff, because the fluff is indeed top of the cotton candy swirl.

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I tried! I was so exited to find a highly rated drama. Finished watching hospital play list! And also had in mind Arsenal academy so was in the mood for a good follow up drama! Wow what a huge disappointment. I wanted to go slow initially to allow the story line to develop. I apologize but I finished in two hours.
What a annoying FL with so much makeup and over acting. She really worked hard to act like a new teenager with raging hormones.
Only points they get were few good kisses. I was super disappointed at the unprofessional attitude of the doctors including the ML. I could not like a single character.
Please watch at your own risk. I apologize if I forwarded it so much of there was a decent story line but I didn’t get any hint of it from the snippets.

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With this pandemic and stress all over the world, this Chinese drama brings a good vibes, positive, light story and makes you feel the sweetness of love.

Its a breath of fresh air for viewers because there were some minor problems encountered on their love relationship journey. Yeah, some will say that it has a basic story line, but with this stress and worries happening, we need this kind of drama.

Female and Male lead brings overall sweetness. Its my nth time that i watched it yet im still watching and watching it over again.

I hope there's a real Dr. Zhou in all our lives. Kudos to casts, they nailed it. :)

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I have watched a lot of dramas. I love Intense Love so much because the actors delivered the characters to well. The story is not the same one as the other dramas i watched that have a very big problem and when it is about to be solved another big problem arises. When i watched dramas, of course cliche will be there. If you don’t want cliche don’t watch dramas! This drama is very light and feel good and a lot of sweet scenes. And the chemistry of YuXi couples is INTENSE! I hope to see a lot of dramas from Ding YuXi, he is a very good actor and a very expressive eyes. You can read the emotions in his eyes. This is his best asset for me.

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Watching this drama is like eating sugar

This drama by best exceeded all expectations I had for it. When I first read the description I thought it was going to be the typical drama with annoying second leads but to my relief it wasn't.
The main couple had a lot of chemistry and although at times some interactions were cringy its the type of cringy that makes you smile. I liked how they overcame everything and didn't break up. Also how they slowly fell in love. Jin Bei and Shi Yun are probably one of my favorite couples in Chinese dramas.

The side stories were also very cute.


I recommend watching this drama if you want a story with no annoying second leads, or meddlesome parents. Its a love story between two people. As soon as you get into the drama you will notice that watching it is like eating something very sweet.

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Bird in the attic

This drama appeared on many lists so I decided to give it a go.

I did not get emotionally invested in the characters but I finished the drama with a lot of ffwd. I can’t leave anything halfway. I found the female lead annoying and childlike. This did improve in later episodes but it got spoiled again towards the finale, with the baby talk and opening her mouth like a baby bird waiting to be fed. I still don’t know why perfectly capable adults need to be spoonfed lol.

The number of times the poor skilled surgeon/physician had to bandage or disinfect a poor foot or toe or other body part. But I understand it’s him showing his love.

Maybe I missed it between the trope and moments of cheesiness and almost posing, but not quite sure when all the feels grew between ML and FL. Felt somewhat disjointed to me. All seemed contrived. Issues also just ambushed without much discussion, clarification.

Second couple were interesting to watch as their relationship developed.

The little bird in the attic was quite sweet, although I didn’t know why it was relegated to the attic which wasn’t easily accessible. Perhaps the natural light. But yes that little bird had me pondering a lot more than the characters did.

Loved the cat. Hope the little bird went on to enjoy freedom. Flew out to sea, really thought it would head towards the trees.

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The drama was overall super cute and romantic. I really love the female main character. She is super likable. And, the male lead is definitely very handsome, and loves the female lead very much. He is one of those swoon worthy boyfriends, who can be awkward at times, but is also firmly committed and trusting of the female lead. It is their story line that made me keep coming back to the drama. While there is no necessarily super big or dramatic plot line, overall, it is a great drama to just watch because of how cute and bubbly it is.

The side stories had a lot of potential. The female lead's friend and the male lead's friends fall in love with each other. In the beginning, it was cute how the guy was vying for the girl's attention. And they eventually got together, but, it was unclear to me why they stayed together because they didn't really express their love towards each other.... As for the male lead's sister, she falls in love with an actor. But, it was also very abrupt and forced that they ended up together, because the male didn't really show interest in the girl until she helped pay for his termination fee. Overall, the side characters definitely are likable, just that their love stories fall super weak compared to the male couple.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this drama for something light and fluffy, and if you want an example of a swoon-worthy boyfriend :)

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