8.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 Chinese Romantic comedy set against an e-sport backdrop. There are 32, 35 minute episodes (actual episode time ranges from from 30-45 minutes).
First I will provide a synopsis then a review.
Synopsis: Qiao Jingjing (Dilraba Dilmurat) is a model, singer and actress who is isolated from regular social contact because of her fame. As such, she is only able to keep up with what is going on with former classmates through her close friends. One former classmate in particular, the guy who got away, Yu Tu (Yang Yang), turned her down in high school but she has never forgotten him. Years have passed but he is still handsome and brilliant and broke up with a long term girlfriend Yu Tu finds out through her circle of friends. She discovers by accident that he is a very skilled player in the mobile game Honor of Kings, which is a game she is advertising for. When fans found out she had been playing the game she needs to become a master or risk loosing the sponsorship to someone else. Looking for an excuse to see her former flame, Jingjing tricks Yu Tu into a face to face meeting for the purpose of enlisting his help as a tutor on Honor of Kings.
Review: (contains spoilers)
The romance portion is one of the best I have watched. I absolutely love the couple they represents everything that comprises a good relationship. They support each other and try to understand the other person's perspective. Although both have jobs that keep them away for long periods of time they ensure they are able to be part of each other's daily lives. She is no push over. When he rejects her she doesn't beg she walks away. When he decides he wants to be in a relationship with her she doesn't immediately accept his feelings. There are scenes when they are together where it is like they are the only ones in the room. When she was out with their classmates and he found out where she was he zeroed in on her. She was the most important person to him in that room and that shifted their relationship and made it so she believed he was sincere in his feelings after having rejected her earlier. The chemistry was there between them and they represented relationship goals.
Jinjing was someone who was fun to be around and amazing beyond her fame. It made it easy to understand how he could have fallen in love with her. She was mischievous, which was enjoyable to watch and was part of her overall confidence and unwillingness to accept being treated poorly. Both of the main characters underwent a lot of character development to become the best version of themselves for each other. She became less focused on material things and he became more fun loving.
I loved the sets and scenery. I felt like I saw parts of modern China that I had not seen to date. There were some beautiful places with lights, flowers, sculptures, architecture that showed the modern aspect(s) of portions of China. As they traveled, you got to see the diverse geography from desert to more tropical landscapes and from country to city. I felt like I got a mini tour of China it was nice.
There was slice of life of her career as a Chinese idol and that aspect was interesting and there was also slice of life of his career as a aerospace engineer. I found the aerospace engineering aspect less interesting because there were these long stretches where it was just him solving various aspects of space engineering puzzles. I remember when I was younger a popular saying was "I am not a rocket scientist" which was a self effacing way of saying you weren't an expert on something. It could also mean something was simply to do "it's not rocket science." In this case he was a rocket scientist and they went pretty far into the details of what he did to provide that slice of life. For me, I found it boring and actually fast forwarded through some episodes because it didn't show her much at all and was just focused on his issues surrounding his work. They could have cut out maybe 4-6 episodes that had heavy focus on rocket science. They didn't show Jinjing's work as much and her lifestyle was, to me, the more interesting of the two.
Overall I enjoyed this a lot and this is one of my top couples now. What detracted for me was just the unnecessary depth on rocket science. I recommend this highly, may watch parts of it again but would fast forward as I did through the "dry" episodes where not much is happening between them.
First I will provide a synopsis then a review.
Synopsis: Qiao Jingjing (Dilraba Dilmurat) is a model, singer and actress who is isolated from regular social contact because of her fame. As such, she is only able to keep up with what is going on with former classmates through her close friends. One former classmate in particular, the guy who got away, Yu Tu (Yang Yang), turned her down in high school but she has never forgotten him. Years have passed but he is still handsome and brilliant and broke up with a long term girlfriend Yu Tu finds out through her circle of friends. She discovers by accident that he is a very skilled player in the mobile game Honor of Kings, which is a game she is advertising for. When fans found out she had been playing the game she needs to become a master or risk loosing the sponsorship to someone else. Looking for an excuse to see her former flame, Jingjing tricks Yu Tu into a face to face meeting for the purpose of enlisting his help as a tutor on Honor of Kings.
Review: (contains spoilers)
The romance portion is one of the best I have watched. I absolutely love the couple they represents everything that comprises a good relationship. They support each other and try to understand the other person's perspective. Although both have jobs that keep them away for long periods of time they ensure they are able to be part of each other's daily lives. She is no push over. When he rejects her she doesn't beg she walks away. When he decides he wants to be in a relationship with her she doesn't immediately accept his feelings. There are scenes when they are together where it is like they are the only ones in the room. When she was out with their classmates and he found out where she was he zeroed in on her. She was the most important person to him in that room and that shifted their relationship and made it so she believed he was sincere in his feelings after having rejected her earlier. The chemistry was there between them and they represented relationship goals.
Jinjing was someone who was fun to be around and amazing beyond her fame. It made it easy to understand how he could have fallen in love with her. She was mischievous, which was enjoyable to watch and was part of her overall confidence and unwillingness to accept being treated poorly. Both of the main characters underwent a lot of character development to become the best version of themselves for each other. She became less focused on material things and he became more fun loving.
I loved the sets and scenery. I felt like I saw parts of modern China that I had not seen to date. There were some beautiful places with lights, flowers, sculptures, architecture that showed the modern aspect(s) of portions of China. As they traveled, you got to see the diverse geography from desert to more tropical landscapes and from country to city. I felt like I got a mini tour of China it was nice.
There was slice of life of her career as a Chinese idol and that aspect was interesting and there was also slice of life of his career as a aerospace engineer. I found the aerospace engineering aspect less interesting because there were these long stretches where it was just him solving various aspects of space engineering puzzles. I remember when I was younger a popular saying was "I am not a rocket scientist" which was a self effacing way of saying you weren't an expert on something. It could also mean something was simply to do "it's not rocket science." In this case he was a rocket scientist and they went pretty far into the details of what he did to provide that slice of life. For me, I found it boring and actually fast forwarded through some episodes because it didn't show her much at all and was just focused on his issues surrounding his work. They could have cut out maybe 4-6 episodes that had heavy focus on rocket science. They didn't show Jinjing's work as much and her lifestyle was, to me, the more interesting of the two.
Overall I enjoyed this a lot and this is one of my top couples now. What detracted for me was just the unnecessary depth on rocket science. I recommend this highly, may watch parts of it again but would fast forward as I did through the "dry" episodes where not much is happening between them.