Girlfriend (2020)

Rom-Com sympa et bien jouée (assez fraiche) malgré les "grosses ficelles" du script

I started this drama because I wanted something cute and easy to watch.

STORY:
Encounter between a cold CEO, forced to cohabit with a poor actress. She was recruited by his mother because she looks like the CEO's ex. She will turn out to be (undoubtedly) the girl who saved him ten years ago and whom he was in vain looking for.
He decides to give her a chance to make a career thanks to the resources deployed by his group.
The storyline is quite classic, and at the beginning, I had an "déjà vu" feeling. But the themes are approached from a new angle (resemblance, independence, love vs. career, etc.).
Some coincidences are a little too obvious for us to fully embrace the story, but we can nod along thanks to the talent of the actors.

TECHNICAL:
Excellent casting for this rom-com. The CL is very cute and the chemistry is palpable. The relationship is built slowly (VERY) slowly, and Western viewers want to slap the hesitant, stuck, overly cautious ML. What is pleasant is the mutual trust and the absence of doubt about their reciprocal love. We are (alas) forced to go through clichés [1/ cancer 2/ I'm leaving you to protect you] , but it doesn't last too long.
The secondary actors are also excellent. The main secondary characters are well developed and the side romances too. I really liked the character of the mother, clever, mischievous, who protects her son. However, their relationship doesn't seem to be very affectionate (which doesn't make sense).
The production is dynamic, not too many flashbacks, not too many slow motion scenes. Good !
The OSTs are not memorable, but well adapted to the different emotions.
Nothing special about the framing: we can see some pretty landscapes, but the aesthetics of this drama will not be memorable.

CONCLUSION
Nice despite the obvious tricks and "dramaland" coincidences!
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J'ai commencé ce drama parce que j'avais envie de quelque chose de mignon et qui ne "prend pas la tête".

STORY :
Rencontre entre un cold CEO, forcé de cohabiter avec une actrice "don du ciel", recrutée par la mère car elle ressemble à l'ex du CEO. Elle se révèlera être (sans doute) la fille qui l'a sauvé des années auparavant et qu'il cherchait en vain.
Il décide de lui donner la chance de faire carrière grâce aux ressources déployées par son groupe.
La storyline est assez classique, et au début, j'ai eu l'impression de "déjà vu". Mais les thèmes sont abordés sous un nouvel angle (ressemblance, indépendance, love vs carrière, etc.).
Certaines coïncidences sont un peu trop flagrantes pour que l'on puisse adhérer totalement à l'histoire, mais on peut se laisser prendre au jeu grâce au talent des acteurs.

TECHNIQUE :
Excellent casting pour cette rom-com. Le CL est très cute et l'alchimie passe bien. La relation se construit lentement (TRÈS) lentement, et les spectateurs occidentaux ont envie de donner des baffes au ML, hésitant, coincé, prudent à l'excès. Ce qui est agréable, c'est la confiance mutuelle et l'absence de doute sur leur amour réciproque. On a (hélas) droit aux clichés 1/ cancer 2/je te quitte pour te protéger, mais cela ne dure pas trop longtemps.
Les acteurs secondaires sont excellents. Les principaux personnages secondaires sont bien développés et les romances annexes aussi. J'ai beaucoup aimé le personnage de la mère, futée, maligne, qui protège son fils. Cependant, leur relation n'a pas l'air d'être très affectueuse (ce qui n'est pas logique).
La réalisation est dynamique, pas trop de flashbacks, pas trop de scènes de ralenti. Bien !
Les OST ne sont pas mémorables, mais bien adaptées aux différentes atmosphères.
Rien de particulier sur le cadrage : on a droit à quelques jolis paysages, mais l'esthétique de ce drama ne sera pas mémorable.

CONCLUSION
Sympa malgré les grosses ficelles !

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Overall it’s a decent drama that wraps up everything decently well. To me, the drama happened in three arc: 1. Beginning - hired as a stay-home pretend girlfriend, 2. Middle - her becoming lead actress at his company, 3: End - romance and their wrap up. Honestlys, I think the first half is more interesting than the second half. I think I enjoyed the stay-at-home nurse/maid/pretend girlfriend portion of the drama more. The biggest problem with the drama is its overuse of tropes and cliches. It’s not just a few sprinkled here and there, it’s literally the whole story. The entire story is build on tropes and cliches. I mean I can stomach quite a few of them but at a certain point it became tiresome.

What I like
- Actually I like a lot of the couples in the show. I thought most of the are adorable and had pretty decent chemistry
-A lot of likeable supporting characters: ML’s mom, FL’s manager, ML’s cousin, director,
-A lot of nice feel good moments
-It wrapped things up decently I guess

What I don’t like:
-Some terrible characters: rapey director, terrible manager, annoying exes everywhere…lol. I’m fine with good well developed antagonists…but most of them are just shallow and one-dimensional
-Tons of cliches and tropes. I actually like a decent dose of cliches…but only in moderation and only if it adds entertainment value to the storyline. However, it’s just a little to much here and I feel like it takes away from the drama and sometimes just unnecessary
-Some over the top scenario and weird unnatural behavior from characters. Like you can't be a competent CEO of a media and hired a random girl who's acting you're not familiar to become a top star.
-There's so much repeated exposition, my god. Exposition is fine and use a lot times in detective drama. Here let me give you an example. At one point the evil ex who was a big star finally realize her behavior and thinking was wrong. It goes like this, she has a dialogue with her assistant/manager explaining why her behavior is wrong. She then had a scene with the ML's mom explaining why what she's doing is wrong. Then next episode, she had another monologue explaining why what she's doing is wrong (as a self-reflection) I guess. Look I get...she finally realized her behavior was wrong...but do we need to spend so much time and scenes on this?

Couples:
-Main couple - like the female lead and she’s a pretty good character overall. I liked how she handle her situation from the beginning to the end and how she handled her romance and life. Though she is Mary-sue-ish at times but it’s not overbearing. The male is decent most of the time but sometimes borderline annoying but overall I thought he’s tolerable. Their romance is sometimes cutes, sometimes romantic, and mostly reasonable. The biggest problem with them there constant pull and push on whether they like each other or not. It’s ok to have a bit of that but sometimes it’s just too much.
The secondary couple between ML’s friend and FL’s friend. They’re a very sweet and cute couple together and they’re both very likable character. The biggest problem I have with them is their story. There are constant overused cliches employed in their story: bad romantic history, bad rapey producer, misunderstanding…again and again, random fiance, disapproval mother, different class and social status. Imagine if you brainstorm a bunch of romantic couple cliches…that’s literally their entire story. Otherwise they’re extremely cute together, moreso than the lead.
The third couple is the director and the FL’s manager. Not a lot of screen time but I find their romance but be more subtle, simple, and cuter.
The ex boyfriend and his gf/fiancee. They play thei

Just some thoughts:
I’m on a modern Chinese drama binging run. Most of these light hearted romantic comedy drama is full of cheese, over-the-top behavior, and weird scenario so for most part I’m ok with it as long is it blends well together in a decent package. For this drama the two random ML and FL throw together in a fake relationship is a standard trope. One that I enjoy for most part, it’s ok here but not as well developed as it could’ve been. That there pretty much sums up what I feel about this drama by the end. It’s all just a bunch of popular tropes thrown together. If you wanna focus on standard tropes, I think the best is to have an interesting take on it. However, this drama seem to written by a committee of people brainstorming popular trope and using everything they can think of in it.

I love the characters but the story just isn’t there. And when the story is not well developed, 36 episode seems like a slog. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re a fan of these type of drama.


Some rant I have [MAJOR SPOILERS]
- That whole ML's obsession with finding out the girl with butterfly tattoo who I think he mistaken as a birthmark is just borderline weird. It's fine to try to find the person who saves your life and thank her. But to hinge that as the pivotal drive to your lovelife...is just weird. I mean the guy clearly never know her since he didn't even know how she actually looks like. This is one of the most important point that drove the entire drama. It's what led him to his ex and it's what caught the ML's attention on the female lead. And here's the twist, which is clear even since the beginning. Let me just spoiled it for you. Turns out, the FL is the women who saved him. That tattoo/birthmark was a temporary tattoo she had drawn on her based on a picture of the his ex (cause I guess she was a big fan of her....who at the time should have been a totally unknown...but let's not get too caught up on that). It's just thats such a weird crucial plot point.
- Is that cancer fakeout really necessary? It was just so abrupt and random.
- The way they wrap up all the antagonist is just weird. Pretty much they all come to the realization that they've been acting like jerks. It's find but the way they did it is so abrupt...AND it happened all at the same time. It's like the writers suddenly realized we're near time end so abruptly make sure the character repent and apologize for their behavior. They did that and gave all them all that and their personality just changed completely. Note that this all happened back to back to back. First, ML's ex realize she's wrong...and then FL's ex realized he was wrong...and then FL's exes fiancee realized shes wrong...:/

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