REVIEW: A Love So Beautiful [C-drama]
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Re-watch value: 2 out of 5 stars
SYNOPSIS
*From DramaList*
It starts off with high school classmates Chen Xiao Xi and Jiang Chen who are also neighbors. Xiao Xi, a cheerful girl who doesn't study much, is expressive about her admiration towards Jiang Chen, the popular guy known for his looks and high grades. Together with their fellow classmates the funny Lu Yang, athletic but loyal Jingjing, and cool swimming team member Wu Bo Song, they embark on high school life to university until their adult life.
RAMBLING
*beware of spoilers*
I didn’t expect, or want to see, a drama set in high school, and I almost quit watching because I kept thinking I was too old to be here, seeing them running around in their little school uniforms and shit. But after a certain point, I was committed to finishing.
This was very much a take on the Mischievous Kiss / Playful Kiss / It Started with a Kiss series. It’s a tsundere male lead that essentially grows up and spends high school with a very eager, love-obsessed girl who isn’t as smart or as graceful as he is. There’s cohabitation sometimes mixed in there for good measure. If you don’t like those series, then you won’t appreciate this one.
Throughout the show he was extremely guarded, and I did understand (up to a point) his annoyance with her and even indifference to her. But I liked that the show gave glimpses of Jiang Chen’s devotion and growing feelings for Xiao Xi. It wasn’t like he was a complete robot and stoic ass hole. As it always happens, he starts warming up to her: Hidden smiles. Protecting her behind the scenes. A little caress on the cheek. Moving her hair behind her ear Zombieland-style. These things were enough to keep me going because it didn’t seem like our little girl was wasting her time.
She was—no doubt—utterly ridiculous, clumsy, and foolish. She cock-blocked him every chance she could, did things and said things out of insane jealousy, but ultimately she was an open book, very transparent and honest about her feelings, something he has serious trouble with.
We do follow our couple into college, where Jiang Chen finally admits his feelings and starts a relationship with Xiao Xi. So the question now becomes, how does this relationship fail and get put through the ringer? Well, in classic C-drama and K-drama fashion, it’s miscommunication, people! Jiang Chen was always making plans in his head and telling others she was his girlfriend WAY before he communicated with her. No bueno.
When they’re in college and Xiao Xi gets a part-time job handing out flyers on the street, he tells her to quit even before she starts. She questions him, and he basically says Just because. The job might have been embarrassing and beneath him but it wasn’t beneath her. It was her decision, her time, and why the hell should he get to dictate how she makes money? It was a macho move. That didn’t rub me the right way at all.
The couple break up when again there’s a communication issue. Xiao Xi nearly gets raped when she goes house-hunting without Jiang Chen, and he isn’t available to her in her time of need. Instead, she gets mistaken for another one of Jiang’s admirers at the hospital and told that he’d soon be leaving for Beijing on a years-long residency. It was a huge blow for her, and watching this unfold was impactful to me. He was ready to turn down the Beijing offer, already telling his supervisor that he was about to get married—none of which he shares with Xiao Xi—and she shows up at her lowest low, when her confidence is shot, her trust in him busted… I completely took her side vs. Jiang’s side.
He waits for her at the airport thinking she might show up, and of course, she gets there too late. But he was so used to her pursuing him that he thought she’d just drop everything and follow him to Beijing for his medical residency. What? He waited for her and she waited for him. No one swallowed their pride, and really, he should be the one to step up.
That being said, I enjoyed immensely the time-jump to present day and him actively trying to win her back. All the childish machinations she used to do to win his heart, he was now doing. The tables had turned, and he was giving it his best to woo her, as it always should have been in my opinion. The white lies he told (he was hungry or he was thirsty—to get her to invite him upstairs to her apartment; the simple falsehood that he had all this shit in the backseat of his car and thus she needed to ride shotgun next to him) were hilarious and desperate. Good. He should feel desperate.
Bringing a fake girlfriend to Lu Yang’s bachelor party was too much, however. I thought that was cheap. And once everyone finds out about it, no one really gives him shit for it. Why? IDK.
Also, I couldn’t fathom why he thought it was a good idea to demand that she apologize to him. He hasn’t seen her in years, he gives her a ride home, and he makes her apologize to him before planting one on her. It seems to me that she had very little to apologize for.
Bo Song, our second male lead, turns in a perfect Mean Girls-esque call where Xiao Xi listens to Jiang Chen spill his guts. It was a long time coming. He says, “The thing is, whatever she doesn’t like about me, I can change. But I have no idea what she loved about me.” And I found that so profound. I don’t know what she loved about me. Wow.
Later, I loved when he grabs her hand, brings it up to his forehead and just says (and I’m paraphrasing) “please forgive me, I’m so sorry,” begging her to get back with him. The power dynamic was always in his favor; she was obsessed with him, always placed him before herself, and it was refreshing to see that she was independent and stable without him. Loving him was no longer a need, but a luxury.
Something else refreshing about this show is that although Xiao Xi wasn’t book-smart, she was a talented artist. And in the time jump to present day, we get a more refined character that dresses elegantly and doesn’t have a little-girl haircut anymore. She has a full-time job as an illustrator for a marketing company her friend runs. I thought this was wonderful. She became fulfilled career-wise and accomplished her dream, even without Jiang Chen.
All in all, this is an easy watch, a sweet couple with decent chemistry, especially in the last few episodes…
Did you see A Love So Beautiful? Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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