Ciao Mr. Gu (2021)

A light romantic comedy

If you want a light and beautiful romantic comedy, this one is for you. Sure, some parts were shaky, and characters I think were overdone, but I liked this series overall. The story of an arranged marriage or engagement under a written contract is an overused concept, so when I watch a show like this, I expect something different, unique, or special. Well, I got special this time, and I couldn’t be happier. This show was a masterpiece by Yan Zhi Chao in her debut performance. I was amazed that she could carry this complex female lead so well. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I thought Chen Jing Ke also did a great job with the male lead.

Some C-Dramas are slow and drawn-out with repeated scenes, but the 30 episodes in this one flew by for me. Each episode was relatively short, so I think you’ll find them easy to watch. I binge-watched it, so that’s a good sign that it kept my interest.

The story itself was a struggle to watch at first because the ML was constantly browbeating, punishing, humiliating, and abusing the FL. That doesn’t make for good comedy or drama, in my opinion, so I struggled to watch it. The problem is, you can’t build up a weird, sadistic character like that and expect it to melt into a romance. They ran the risk of tearing the character down to the point of no return. It reminded me a little of the show Full House, which I didn’t particularly like when I rooted for the side character and was disappointed when he drove off and left the FL with the ML. But they pulled this one together just in time. In my opinion, the strength of Yan Zhi Chao’s character Zhou Jian Qing pulled it together. She was super.

The supporting characters each did a good job adding to the storyline. My favorite was the woman who played Gu Nan Zhou’s mother. Not sure who she was. FL’s brother was a little overbearing. What man in his right mind walks into the home of a complete stranger, even if the door was open, and walks into the bedroom? He had no idea his sister was even there. Normally in most societies, that would get you in big trouble. Zhang Yin had that eternal puppy dog look, but his character was always pleasant, giving everything some balance.

Jian Qing is constantly pressed by interfering people. I’m not sure which is worse, the overly aggressive brother or the assistant/wanna-be boyfriend who is always around. He comes off as needy, but he seems to be a good guy, so I ignore him. I won’t even mention the female assistant to ML, who can’t seem to disappear. The second level relationship between Jian Qing’s brother and her best friend is slow to develop. As with most long Chinese dramas, I know I have to be patient.

Near the end, and, still, I’m not too fond of Gu Nan Zhou, but I like Jian Qing’s brother even less. Why does he think he has control over his sister’s life? It feels like he is overplaying his part when he talks. He doesn’t act like a brother. He acts like a controller. There is nothing, and I mean nothing endearing, about him. He treats his sister like a commodity. Little did I know he would soon surprise me.

One of the pluses of watching Chinese TV series is the unusual architecture you can always count on seeing. I loved the unique structure of the apartment building the ML lived in, and I even screen captured it. His office building is even better. Ahh, the little things that make a show better.

Subtitles:
If you don’t care about subtitles, ignore this paragraph. Translations turn into subtitles, and occasionally I take the time to talk about them. The subtitles in this one were a little strange. When two people are talking, and one decides to leave for whatever reason, they would normally say, “I’m leaving now” or just “I’m leaving.” I don’t know what part of the world says, “I’ll make a move first” or even “I’ll leave first.” The only time you would say. “I’ll leave first” is when who is going to leave first is in question. “I’ll make a move first” is just strange. I don’t know; maybe other English-speaking countries use that term. I see it a lot so it must not be uncommon.

Another one that bothers me is “I’m into you,” which is slang and flippant. I’ve only seen that term twice in all the shows I’ve watched, here and in Birdie Buddy. If you ask someone if they are “into you,” it usually means something sensual and can get you in trouble, or you may even get a laugh. It rarely, if ever, means love or like. It’s slang and makes me cringe hearing it coming from ML. Also, I never heard it said that a man has a good figure. You would normally say he has a good body. Women have good figures.

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Shallow as Glass

I can't think what the screenwriter was thinking when she put this one together. The story itself had potential, but somehow got lost in the very shallow characters portrayed in the drama. The premise of a man growing up with the psychological scars of a trauma in his childhood, then finding a love to heal him was intriguing. This writer certainly did not do that scenario any justice!

The performance by the actors wasn't the problem, as I quite liked the ML's character and his growth by the end of the series. I liked the FL's brother and his silly girlfriend; I liked the ML's assistant and the FL's 'assistant'. I even liked the ML's mother. The character played by the FL was the one that spoiled this for me. She looked like a schoolgirl in a group of adults and professionals. She was so shallow, self-centered and insensitive to everyone and everything around her. She was petulant and demanding and spoiled. The choice of clothing for her was very unfortunate - making her look like a child, again, playing in the midst of adults. It was almost cringeworthy to watch the love scenes because while the ML looked hot, she managed to look like a frightened child who didn't know what was happening to her. (I hate the fish-eye trope when these couples are kissing. It is so unattractive!)

Let's mention the 'bad guys', shall we? Talk about plot holes and loose ends. What happened to the evil 'uncle' who was trying to sabotage the company every which way? What happened the bitch girlfriend-wannabe after ML found out she had tampered with the papers and caused all the plagiarism backlash? And they never even found out that she had sabotaged the FL in the first place. Again - the screenwriter dropped that ball!

I suffered through the 30 episodes with the help of the fast-forward button and a morbid curiosity to see how Karma might be served to those who deserved it. I got no such satisfaction. I persevered to see if the romance factor of both the couples would compensate me for my time and effort. Very little satisfaction there, although I will admit to some sizzle between the second couple - and a little between the lead couple if I could get past her looking like a minor. Still, there was very little development of the romances per se - one minute they were enemies the next, they were kissing and voila! A couple!

OST wasn't all that - so I couldn't give many points for that. And I definitely wouldn't re-watch this.

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The story was soooooo ordinary
Nothing new, very shallow and very slow pace
The main leads took ages to confess to eachother
Then they quarrelled so fast
After lots of no need details they bothered us with,
The end was too rush

I gave it 4 just because of the ML's character only
I loved it
he is so cute except one point
He had a negative behaviour towards his secretary actions

The FL I dislike her character and many times I saw her shallow and annoying
Inspite of her strong character I saw her very weak in many situations

The FL's friend I dislike her acting so much she was very weak

The secretary was a real B**** I waited the whole drama to see her got punished and that didn't happen

I like the ML's mom character so much she is very nice

Just to watch once and u r going to get bored half way through

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Relationship is not believable

The usual trope of CEO demanding marriage in exchange for help. Each of the actors does their own part pretty well... they just don't come together as a cast. We are supposed to believe they fall for each other, but he's a jerk and never changes, and she tolerates it because he's had a "tough" life. The one saving grace of this show is that she finally does dump him because he's a jerk. Sadly, they do get back together, in theory because he's finally addressed his psychological issues, but it's not believable. I ended up reading episode summaries rather than watching, and skipped large chunks after about episode 10 or 12.

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Your typical cliche drama of a contract marriage...

This drama's genre is marriage contract, so you know that more or less there will be a similar storyline. It's a pretty cliche drama overall, from the start of not liking each other to the forced contract marriage, aka female lead is in need of money moving in together, slowly liking each other, finally together, bumps in the relationship, plus 2nd female lead liking male lead, sabotage, company fail, break up and finally get back together! This is basically the drama in a nutshell.

Was there something special ? Yes and no... I felt like in this drama they had very cute and sweet moments.Definitely many accident kissings/pecks of the lips. 2 to be exact but then it goes for a long time before they kiss again. Their relationship is pretty cute and full of fuzzy heart beating moments.

However they really lacked the communication! like the reason they broke up was due to the male lead not having enough time to spend with the female lead, but in reality the male lead 's company was on the verge of going bankrupt/lose all of their investors. She is more of a simple head, naive girl, while the male lead is more complex. Their way to express love is also very different. The male lead gets me mad for not having enough balls to say I love you to the female lead. Lol the female lead said I love you to the male lead while she was drunk. Also the male lead is so freaking dull when it comes to relationships haha. Like very straight headed and one minded haha, making the female lead mad all the time.

I initially liked the female lead portrayal, she is very clever in making money, she is bold and a talented anime artist, but her character doesnt have too much growth. The storyline is more focused on their relationship and the relationship between her best friend and her older brother. The episodes become more of a back and forth bickering, and at some points got pretty boring. I would say that 30 episodes is too much... 24 would of been better.

Also Im not that fondle of 2nd lead being a green tea.... ( that means in front of the male lead she's all innocent but to the female lead she does stuff to sabotage and make the female lead look bad. And or course the 2nd female has to be in the male lead's company and is basically the male lead's right hand man.

I liked the music! but overall not that bad of a drama but not that good. It's still a decent watch.

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It’s Good, But Way Too Long...

This was a great series for the first 10 episodes, then you stick around for another 10 because you wanna know what happens, then it's kind of a drag to complete the last episodes. I was disinterested probably at about episode 18-20. The storyline gets old, characters are also losing their spark. And I kinda dislike the b*tchiness attitudes of the leading ladies in this series, they could've been much stronger characters, but their conniving attitudes were quite unappealing to watch. But, I have a feeling this suits, as it's a mainland Chinese series with its local culture. It was good to watch once, discovered the male actor Chen, and am hoping to watch his other shows.

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It wasn't a bad show but just cliche. Like you see this storyline so often and you're like I like it because it's familiar but also it takes forever to watch it because it's predictable. So pushing through gets a little hard and sometimes it was actually kind of boring, even the drama they tried to input was boring and some things seemed kind of unfinished but doesn't mean it was bad. I liked it, it was a filler show for when I needed something for my time to flow but it wasn't top drama of the year at all by all means; I liked the leads though, not bad chemistry there and overall just pretty cute and cliche.

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Text book rom-com with a love of clichés

The TL;DR version: it is a very tropey, cliché laden rom-com that failed to hit any heights and ended up meandered for too long before a predictable ending.

The longer version: This show started fine. Very tropey setup with cold, rude CEO ML and feisty college student FL in a contract marriage. The logic behind the plot was questionable but we'll let that pass for now. It was set up and running within the first 2 episodes. Consider the show runs for 30 x 30+ mins episodes, you would think that there is lots of time to develop the characters and watch their relationship blossom but alas, the real confession didn't happen until late in the show and nothing much happened (drama wise) between those two points. It was overstuffed with every colour of clichés that I wish I was a cliché spotter! Time and time again, just when you see the obvious set up and waited for the ML to utter the 4 immortal Chinese words (我喜欢你) and seal it with a kiss, the scene faded to black and they took a collective step back.

They did amped up the sugar moments after the confession but it was all bait and switch as the writer threw even more CP roadblocks in their way and culminated in the predictable plot arc. If you think that I'm talking about the OTP both dying in a plane crash then you should get a job with them because you are way more creative.

I'm not saying that every rom-coms have to be full of original ideas but better ones handle clichés like delicate building blocks, be creative with them. This show used them with extreme prejudice and with little return. It was like they took the "Chinese Rom-com for Dummies" to the pitch meeting.

Acting was patchy. The FL is fine. A feisty college student is bread and butter for young actors these days. The ML suffered from the Chinese idol syndrome. They have the looks and the physique but his acting skills are limited. Stoney face might be ok for the cold CEO role but when the role expanded and he couldn't stretch to meet the demands then we have a problem. The FL's BFF and one half of the 2OPT was problematic as well. It was almost painful to watch her in some of the lovey-dovey scenes with the 2ML. There was little chemistry with the second pairing but they can be cute together. There was a decent amount of skinship with the CP's but not a whole lot of passion. One surprise was the ML's mum. She was a scene stealer and a fount of wisdom and so sweet and understanding. Shame that she didn't have a bigger role.

There was little growth in the characters, more like Jackal and Hyde personality changes. This was especially true for the ML and not in a good way.

The ending was sugar coated and the FL's male junior did the honourable thing but the happy ending was never in doubt. It was a decent conclusion. I'm not too sure why they did the CGI chapel in the end. Seemed a bit unnecessary.

OST was serviceable. Rewatch value is low.

I started off enthused, gradually became irritated (aka almost dropped) and then finally settled on resigned indifference.

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Disappointed

The story started with the typical clinch, contract marriage, ML save FL. Poor FL in debts and ML helps solve issue. All can be accepted becos after all, thats what we expect in a idol drama right ? But since the show has started, shouldn't the ending end well too?

In the last few episodes, the story is seen to be rushing to create problem and solving it below par. Some necessary details of the story are not stated but just added clammy kissing scenes without substance.

Both ML and FL has good visuals. Their acting skills are good too. Just disappointed with the storyline esp the ending episodes.

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Very Cliche

I have watched a good amount of Chinese romance dramas and I always find that the ones who have some cliche but still bring something new to the table are the best. Unfortunately, in my opinion, this drama had all the cliche without bringing anything super new to the table:

- contract relationship
- Second male lead giving up on his feelings and helping the main ML
- main couple knew each other as kids
- female rival that uses dirty tricks to get ML
- break up that could have been avoided with simple communication
- etc

One thing that was different in that the female love rival ends up hurting the ML more than the FL, she ends up hurting his company just for attention which was new because usually, they hurt the FL and her reputation.

Overall it was a decent drama, I wish the cliches were at least executed better and in a fresh way.

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