Lighter & Princess (2022)

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MOVE ON? Li Xun and Zhu Yun will forever hold my heart. <3

I am not the best at writing reviews, so I rarely write them. But I’m going to do my best to tell you that this is probably one of the best Dramas out there.

Summary: Li Xun and Zhu Yun meet at university. Li Xun is cold, and withdrawn to everyone but strangely not to Zhu Yun. Zhu Yun and Li Xun have a friendly rivalry, and with time it’s obvious that Zhu Yun affects Li Xun unlike anyone else. From there on work together, they make plans, and dream big dreams and even fall for each other in the process. But just when everything was going great tragedy strikes. Because dramas just like real life are tumultuous affairs.

What did I love most about this drama?
- The Chemistry between Chen Fei Yu and Zhang Jingyi. They lit up the screen any time they were together.
Both the leads have done a fantastic job, there was never a dull moment with them. Chen Fei yu blew me away with his acting, every small micro expression told a story. He’s an actor I’d like to watch more of. Zhang Jingyi was amazing in her own right, she was Zhu Yun, I could feel the earnestness of her character, again I’m definitely going to watch more of her work.

I saw a lot of comments that said the first 20 or so episodes were boring, if you’re looking for drama, action, massive plot changes it’s not in the first 20 episodes. The first 20 episodes are uplifting, they are funny, they are adorable, they are the meat of the storyline. If you skip the first 20 episodes you will miss out on everything. You won’t get to see Zhu Yun and Li Xun fall in love, grow up together, make a bond that is unbreakable. And if you miss out on the first twenty episode you won’t get to correctly experience the raw pain, the angst that would follow those episodes.

All in all, I can only say that you will regret missing out on L&P. So give it a watch because you will not regret it.
But I warn you this show, it’s not one that’s easy to move on from. The show, the soundtrack, the characters they’ll stay in your head rent free for many years to come!

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A broken lighter and a run away princess... who turns in to a knight

Another drama that could have been great if they only cut it in half... or skipped a bunch of draggy scenes and unnecessary detours.

As this is indeed the story of the pretty naive but bad ass princess who falls in love with the broken lighter. The broken lighter has a bunch of red flags and completely lacks communication skills, he has however learned the hard way how to manipulate his surroundings to get what he wants instead of using actual verbal words.

The princess, has parents who pretty much want to control her, do not value her opinion at all an basically oppress her in the name of "mommy knows best" basically forcing her to either do as they say or find ways to lie to them. And while the parents here are pretty much as awful if not worse than most parents in c- dramaland they do make way for a lot of character development for the female lead and are one of few examples of controlling parents who actually contribute to the plot in a good way. However this was underdeveloped and I can not believe I am writing this but I would have wanted a little bit more screen time for this part of the plot.

The romance in this is top tire, with or without being in an actual relationship the leads have great energy, bickering, great chemistry, a bunch of beautiful scenes and though you will have to wait for the kisses, the drama does offer a bunch of steamy kisses and more. The female lead is pretty much addicted to the male lead but manages to be so without becoming pathetic (odd but true). Oh and they do seam to have a basic idea about consent .

So what is it I am trying to say here...
The main coupe may not be goals but they are indeed entertaining and fun to watch. However the surrounding plot with all its twists and turn make little to no sense, there are some good and important lines and scenes here and there about second chances, struggles, bullying, jealousy (a lot of jealousy), needing help to climb mountains, betrayal, inequality all done pretty ok, but they made it feel cluttered and draggy and just prolonged the main couples struggles and took up screen time.

Some parts of this are great others meeh, the pacing and time skips are kind of off too. Some of the long build ups are wrapped up with unsatisfactory lines or flash by in a second. One moment they are kissing the next moment it is 3 years later. Inconsistent as it may be it is gif worthy, and binge worthy fluff worth a watch.

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A must watch Cdrama of the year!!!

This is my first time rating and reviewing a drama. Thanks to this one which forced me to do so. I would just share my thoughts about this drama. Firstly, why you should watch this drama?.... Not just because its a good story its a really a good story. Its really different from all those stories that I have watched up till now. It is a wholesome drama where you not only find romance but also can actually relate this with your life too. It has soo many motivating scenes that boosts you up, especially for the youngsters and also who are working soo hard to be successful in what they love. It inspires you to cherish the things that you love the most and work on it without giving up. This is what I find something one of the best thing that I see in this drama.

Secondly, the characters are really special and unique in there own way. Each character has its own good and bad qualities, which is again one of the most admiring thing I could find. The character I liked the most is Li Xun. His qualities, actions and the "Never GIVE UP!!" attitude drawn me the most. Although sometimes you would feel that he is a complete jerk but as you keep watching him you would realize that you would be the same on his place. The more you try started hating him the more he makes you to love him. This is how he is.

Thirdly, thanks to Chen Fei Yu & Zhang Jing Yi for taking up these roles and bringing up such an amazing and speechless chemistry to there viewers. There chemistry never felt like they are trying to acting it out, it all felt soo real, natural, effortless and heart warming through out the episodes. Never felt awkward, cringed or tiring.
Also a big thanks to its scriptwriters, directors and everyone behind the screen for there unending efforts for making a perfect drama. From the very 1st episode till the last it caught my full attention. Never skipped a single second of any episodes. Every episodes where spectacular and never felt boring.
At the end I would say its worth your time and watching it...
Thank you!

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The best drama ever

I think that drama "Lighter and princess" is one of the best drama I have ever seen!!!!The story is very romantic but also has elements like agony,jealusy,betrayal and friendship.It has also a continuous plot that you would never get bored.The combination of the past and the present ties all the pieces of history together.The music is so emotional that you feel the right feeling in the right scene .The songs have such a beautiful melody and the lyrics are meaningfull.Iam pretty sure that the next period those songs will be a success.Concerning the acting the male lead actor and the female lead actress are amazing .Overall I strongly recommend this drama!

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Boring ,Long , NO self respect

I really liked this show in the beginning and it kept me hooked but the story eventually became boring and now I just decided to drop this show, The story is not that unique but not that bad either . The ML Lin Xun is a bad boy with a genius brain but is arrogant with everyone while the FL was smart , brave in the starting but later she really annoyed me when she left her own Self respect and like a puppy followed the ML everywhere even after he mistreated her and this was one of the reasons I am not watching this show anymore like I was expecting her to be a smart girl but it looked like she was nothing but tail of the ML. The relationship was good but sometimes it looked toxic as the ML made all the decisions in their relationship and the FL who is Zhu yun just ran after him and eventually forgive him, it looked like she was obsessed with the ML to that point that she was on the verge of suicide during their breakup , like girl common , I really wanted her to be strong and not run after Lin xun and have her own life and start loving herself first before loving anyone else.
The other cast was good and the enemy Gao was a jerk, though I knew it from the start that he is going to betray Lin xun (ml) after seeing their heated relationship. Ost of the drama is nice specially " FALLING YOU" and "Love cycle" .
In short you can watch this drama if you are okay with the problems I just mentioned I had with the show and if you love a drama that has revenge and love then you can atmost watch this drama for once.

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IT WAS SICK, I’M HOOKED

I finished it on Friday but i’m still stuck. There is so much to talk about but lets start with the story which is so good I, as a CS student love it and because i’m a CS student that what makes it more interesting. The whole thing, it was just so amazing. Now lets move to the characters will only talk about the main one, Zhu Yun the MFL was so fking sweet and caring how she cares and believes in Li Xun it was so refreshing to watch. Now Li Xun the MML although he looked cold from outside but was a complete softie at heart just not for the girl but for his friends too. I personally think my personality relates so much with Li Xun. Both characters were very well played they are still on my mind. They were so good its hurt to watch them, especially Arthur Chen because he is so pretty its actually hurt to watch him. Lets move to the plot, not gonna say much or i will give a spoiler or something but the whole plot was so fking good. All scenes were fire, the dialogue were fire. The whole cast was fire. I love almost all the characters except from Fang Zhi Jing and Gai Jian Hong, Especially Fang. I think they played it so well that I actually hates their characters.

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True Love Will Take Its Course

It has been a long time since I last saw such a perfect Cdrama. This one is a masterpiece. I hate jerk MLs. And contrary to what some viewers said, the ML is NOT really a jerk here. He was quite a cold and complex character and Arthur Chen did an amazing job portraying him. This is my first drama of him and I am quite impressed. The ML is understandable and lovable if you try to see things from his POV.

The FL is my favourite. Maybe the best FL I have seen in a Cdrama. She is the epitome of STRONG. She goes against the world for the ML . And she doesn’t look pathetic doing that. She is the knight in the shining armour in this drama. Some people might call her dumb but the same people would have lauded a ML for the same actions.

The love story is BEAUTIFUL.. The build up was done right. I didn’t get bored at all which is my common problem while watching Cdramas. The banters, teasing, flirting before they get into the relationship is just chef’s kiss. The separation was truly painful. I was so touched by the FL’s emotions when he goes to jail..The ending where they get together after so many hurdles was very satisfying.

The only problem was the friend who later becomes the villain. The whitewash of his character to make viewers sympathise with him has gone wrong. Nothing can make me sympathetic towards him after what he did.

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Princess and Her Dauntless Guard Dog

This is the enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers, mutual pining couple I didn't know I need.

The story centers around Zhu Yun and Li Xun, the princess and the lighter, or rather, her fierce, dauntless, tsundere guard dog, for lack of better terms. It started from their college days when they were freshmen, up until they are working adults. Their story is a slow burn, but it's not boring at all with the conflicts here and there that keeps mounting up to the big problem. I still watch this mostly with 1,5x speed because the pace is a bit slow, but it's still good.

What I love the most, though, is the acting. CFY and ZJY as a pair lovers is very convincing. Their looks, their constant need to always touch each other, their pull towards one another looks so natural as if they are truly in love. I love every scenes they have together.
The supporting casts are all very good, I dare say this drama is character driven as well as plot driven, because their personalities are pretty complex and layered.

For a youth drama this is a bit dark, with some frustrating and sad story arcs that boils my brain. Don't expect green flag characters from this.

I expect more closures for the ending actually, but it's already good enough for me. After it ends, I was in quite a slump because of how good it is and how strong the aftertaste is.

If you can stand the first two episodes, do continue. This is a very good one.

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A Mature and Memorable Story For The Ages

Never did I expect such a beautiful story when I first started the series.

In terms of the plot and storyline, I did find it hard to digest at the beginning due to one unnecessary time leap at the start, but I can tell that it was meant to be artistic. The show follows the story of our main protagonists, Li Xun [played by Chen Fei Yu] and Zhu Yun [played by Zhang Jing Yi]. They meet in college where they fall in love despite their rough first impressions and disputes. Alongside their friend Gao Jian Hong [played by Zhao Zhi Wei], they become a sort of unstoppable trio when it comes to programming. The show follows them through their college days into adulthood where you see how much they grow and change, while still maintaining their original personality. While other shows may add new conflicts that appear out of nowhere simply to add drama, this show does really well in keeping everything connected. When conflict does arise, you can actually see where it is coming from and anticipate it. The writing for the show was very smart and well done. It tackled plenty of hard topics that don't often get addressed in C-dramas and gives the viewers a realistic view of the world.

I found the acting to be incredible. Since the story takes place over several of years, from college into adulthood, the show had to make a couple of time leaps. Even with this, the actors did so well in portraying different levels of maturity at different points of the characters' lives.

Yes, the show is great, but it isn't perfect. While a lot of the plot makes sense and is realistic, not all plot points do. Even then, the ones that didn't seem realistic are minor and can be overlooked. As mentioned before, there was a time skip at the start of the drama that I found unnecessary and more confusing the first time watching than needed. However, if I were to be rewatching the show, then I would understand why it was written this way.

Overall, I would highly suggest this show for anyone who is a sucker for a classic enemies-to-lovers story with a genuine plot!

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I must have been watching a completely different show than everyone else

Please remember, this is just my personal opinion. I'm not telling anyone else what they should think about this show, only putting my thoughts down (mostly because my memory is so bad that I have to have reminders of what I thought of shows, so I don't waste my time on something I've already watched).

1) I thought this show was PAINFULLY draggy. Do they not have editors in China? Are they trying to get an award for the greatest number of episodes with the least amount happening? Do they get paid by how long the show is? It's a mystery to me. Unfortunately, I find this to be true in most of the C-dramas I've watched, even more so than K-dramas. I was keeping track of what episode I was on, and I felt like I was watching paint dry. There was so much time when there was actually nothing going on. Lots of time spent walking from one place to another, sitting at computers, staring at each other while trying not to be seen staring at each other.
2) Too much programming/code talk. I get it, that's what they were doing, but we could understand that without having to watch the process.
3) ML. When you have a tsundere character, you need to be able to see him changing over time. There was some at the end, but even then, there wasn't much expression change. And I think if we hadn't been shown the prison stuff at the beginning, his behavior might have made a little more sense. But I just kept wondering why he was so mad all the time, especially before prison.
4) FL. To me, she was extremely irritating. Why did she keep following him? There was something so "I'm better than you are" about her, I just couldn't like her. She was always just around him. Was that supposed to show that she would support him regardless? Which brings me to...
5) Chemistry. This was a relationship that I just couldn't get behind. He was mean to everyone, and he was the same with her. She didn't like him at all and made no bones about the fact that she didn't like him. This was supposed to be enemies to lovers, apparently, but I never saw a moment that made sense for them to start liking one another. Why would you like someone that treats you so badly? Granted, for my own sanity, I had to fast forward through a lot of it, maybe I missed it. They were somewhat cute at the end, but I still couldn't really feel the chemistry, maybe because I didn't like either character.

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Slice of life + hot chemistry between bickering main leads

The drama tells the love story between a genius computer programmer male lead and a hard-working programmer female lead who face many challenges together throughout their university and adult lives. Last year, I dropped this at episode 6 but now decided to give this drama a second chance.

The drama is split into two parts. Part one is their university life and how they fell in love. Part two is their adult lives and how they deal with the aftermath of what had happened during their university years. Many people in the comments say that their adult life story is better and I agree. The second part of the drama was more exciting to watch but at the same time I might have not appreciated it enough if I hadn’t seen their university life first.

The best thing about this drama is hands down the fire chemistry between the leads. They are the reason that I decided to give the drama a second chance and also what kept me going. I loved that the main leads were often rivals/bickering with each other but at the same time always supported each other even for the little things. One of the highlights for me was the villains. They made my blood boil but in a good way. They were exciting characters to watch and so horrible that I was constantly rooting for the main leads to destroy them.

The worst thing about this drama is the extremely lengthy computer dialogue at university and later at the job. I actually know many of the things they were saying but that doesn’t mean they were interesting. I found myself ff/skipping tons of things. Also some of the side characters had too much screen time and were boring to watch. In general, I would have enjoyed the drama more if it was shorter.

CHARACTERS:
I had issues with the male lead at the beginning. He appeared to be an arrogant jerk but with each episode you realise that he is quite misunderstood. He always has a different perspective from the mindset of everyone else. He is a genius and I felt his personality was realistically flawed. Genius people in real life can be insensitive and not able to fully sympathise with people because their brains are more focused on the logical than the emotional. Even though at times I definitely didn’t like his behaviour towards the female lead and he showed quite a few red flags, he was an interesting character to watch. He is cold towards people and pushes them away but later you realise that he has gone through a lot of emotional trauma that has made him closed off to others.

The female lead is a friendly, outspoken, hard-working and brave girl. As the title suggests, she is a princess in a sense that she has had good upbringing and never felt any lack of her life in a material sense. She goes through a lot of emotional turmoil because of the male lead that makes her stronger. She is one of the most devoted female leads I’ve seen in a drama.

POSITIVE:
- Hot chemistry between the leads. The tension between them was always on point. They didn’t even need to speak, their eye contact was enough to light the room on fire.
- Hot kiss scenes between the leads.
- Villains made my blood boil but in a good way. They were interesting to watch and elevated the story.
- No stupid love triangles.
- Opposite attracts. I love that even though the main leads often had the opposite perspective of life, they were learning from each other and their personalities seemed to click as the story progressed.
- When characters had arguments, the drama did well in helping you understand both perspectives.
- Meaningful storyline. The plot and dialogue always had a deeper purpose and didn’t feel cliche.
- Campus setting vibe was done right as I started to reminisce about my own university years.
- Second part of the drama (adult life) was done very well with many parallels with the first, and in general it helped me to appreciate the university part more.

NEGATIVE:
- All the computer/programmer dialogue was extremely lengthy (during university and later at the job) which made the drama very boring to watch at times.
- Some side characters were boring in the first half of the drama (university life).
- University life (first half) felt quite lacklustre compared to their adult life (second half).
- Lots of ff/skipping. In general I feel the drama was too long. The core of the story is the relationship between the leads which I loved, however the rest was easy to skip.
- Not enough cute romance. The main leads were always together but not together as a couple. Sometimes I wish we would have seen more cute scenes between them but at the same time I can see that the way the plot was set up didn't allow that.

OVERALL:
This drama is perfect for people who want to watch a slice of life drama with bickering main leads and many emotional/meaningful life moments.

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Bela História

Tinha deixado de ver drama chineses e hesitei ver este mas ainda bem que decidi ver!
Na verdade a minha explicação para deixar a séries chineses prendeu-se com o facto de em 99% dos casos as actrizes chinesas parecerem crianças, não só no aspecto mas atuando como tal. É ridículo ver alguém a desempenhar um papel de uma mulher de vinte e muitos anos e passar a maioria do tempo aos gritinhos, a fingir que é tímida e a ter diálogos de adolescente.
Nesta série, pela primeira vez em muito tempo, todos os papéis atribuídos às mulheres são maduros e coincidentes com as idades.
Quer a actriz principal, quer as secundárias, agem com pés e cabeça e defendem aquilo em que acreditam sem exageros!

Os actores são soberbos, em especial o que desempenha o papel principal. Grande actor pois consegue transmitir todas as emoções e pensamentos sem dizer uma palavra! Actua com o olhar e as expressões faciais.
A história está bem contada e consegue prender o espectador, sobretudo os mais jovens que se identificam com o mundo da Internet. Confesso que as explicações sobre programações passei à frente, pois sou da velha geração.
Voltarei a ver esta série um dia mais, pelo que recomendo vivamente este drama chinês

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