Lose and Win (2021)

It Should Have! It Could Have! It Would Have... But!

This could have been a great non-tropey successful drama. However, the direction the writer took adversely affected the whole drama’s hit capability.

The Story:
The writer ruined a perfectly good story. It started interestingly well, with the two protagonists starting to fall in love while battling over who gets more sales. The female lead worked for one company and the male lead for the competing company.

They went to war with each other, meanwhile, they had sizzling romantic encounters. In the meantime, there were constant backstabbing, lies, and fierce competition between these two companies.

However, most of the drama was taken over by the business end of things, which was very hard to follow since it was written in a very choppy way. Lack of continuity, some scenes jumping from one to another without a meaningful transition.

Unless you like minutia business details dealing with technology, I would stay away from this drama.

The Acting/Cast:
The acting was fantastic by all the cast members.

Male lead Chen Kun was excellent in his role as Zhou Rui. His rugged handsomeness, his facial expressions, his voice, all in all, quite a package.
Female lead Xin Zhi Lei was equally as good. Her role as a beautiful but aggressive, highly competitive, vengeful type was almost too much to watch.

The Music:
The OST was wonderful. You can find the selections on YouTube.

Re-watch:
I, personally, would re-watch the last 3 episodes, 38-40 since those are the best.

All in all, I wish the writer could read the MDL’s reviews and the comments made. As a side remark, there were very few timed comments while I watched it on Viki.com. Was anyone watching?

Thank you for reading my review.

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Lots of office, little romance

Too much office stuff and some things I didn't understand: What evil did ML do to make FL break up with ML so radically, despite her supposed great love?
What motivated Du Heng to go to great lengths to ingratiate himself with FL when he was actually indifferent to her? Why did FL accept this Du Heng as a lover so quickly? Then she gets the receipt for it, from this piece of crap.

In my opinion, this whole part of the story is completely illogical and unsuccessful. FL behaves absolutely badly in this phase of the story, just think of her behavior concerning the wonderful grandmother who died while FL is having sex with DuHeng at about the same time.
But ML is supposed to be the unforgivably bad one, according to her?

It takes the "Deus Ex Machina" (the storm) to reunite the two. That is weak.

But actors and especially the main characters are excellent. And Xin Zhi Lei as FL is so beautiful! Also the Intro-Song: "I Am A Bad Boy" is great!


Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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The CP is great but never trust a contemporary Chinese drama with 40 episodes.

It was a ride.

I was fine with a few misgivings here and there, with some anger issues the female lead character has, BUT just not the later 30+ episodes. The plot has taken a 180 and I feel like I might have missed at least one episode because there's no way Fang Wei became like that in an instant.

Nevertheless, maybe the drama could've done it without those stuff and just plain focused on the CP afterwards. BECAUSE THE CP WAS HOT. I never knew I needed Chen Kun and Xin Zhilei doing a fiery couple with so much skinship that doesn't feel too awkward.

It was understandable to some point (maybe it ended up this way because it's somewhat funded by the state/an organization to promote cloud computing or tech stuff) BUUUUUT they could've done it while tying up the plot towards the end a lot neater than the mess that it was.

I personally waited and anticipated this so well. I am also looking forward to the sales aspect as I am in marketing and is currently looking for inspiration. It was like that, at first, until it went on with the conspiracy that was Fang Wei. (I thought I'd like him all throughout the drama).

Overall, the problem is in the script. (And a few angles of the camera that was so WTH towards the end) What saved this was the acting. I did not sense any amateur acting. Only stupid script.

Final thoughts. Xin Zhilei and Chen Kun deserves better. Petition for another drama with better script. -_-

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Who can resist Chen Kun?

So we all finished at the same time...lol Days after I've finished this I'm perplexed. Shouldn't be surprised...It's a Chen Kun drama. I definitely see his style infused with this. Xin Zhi Lei really brought it and no I'm not talking about her sneezing and binge eating. I'm talking about her eyes. Very few actors can act with no words. Chen Kun is a tough actor to play against. He played the homely unassuming IT guy really well. I really thought he was a sleeping tiger ...but alas he really was just a scientist.

Their relationship was tumultuous...sorry this word is used alot in romance novels...lol. However, everyone's relationship was somewhat insane. I felt like the director was giving a reprimand ...but for whom? Women for being too emotional when it come to business versus love...or men for always choosing business over love. However, just to get glimpse of the main leads love connections was worth it...definitely a meeting of the minds.

Then the IT side. One ...I don't think China wants to advertise they're behind on IT technology or behind on anything. So is this a wake up call to the tech world? Have no idea...I do know it was interesting just for the acting. No doubt Chen Kun is a huge magnet...I don't know if I needed 40 more episodes or 20 less episodes. You decide for yourself.

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