L'amour Est Doux (2020)

Fun office rom-com, not as light as it seems on the surface.

This drama is really good so far. The casting is incredible. The leads have great chemistry and you can really feel the history there. The music fits well, although it does repeat the same songs fairly frequently.

One thing to note is there is a plotline involving sexual assault which took me by surprise. It is a plotline being handled very well at the point I am at, but I know some of the description in episode 8 may be problematic for some viewers. That said, I maintain my high rating and do recommend it as a fun romcom drama that goes a little deeper than most.

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Paternalistic propaganda

First, an important disclaimer: I am a middle-aged male, and as a glance through my watchlist will show, I'm a hard-core Brony. I love me a good romcom. I don't mind the usual clichés and tropes if well-executed with clever writing and good acting, and can put up with a lot for the sake of credible chemistry and a sweet story. Which is why I tried hard to like this drama, because so many people raved about the beautiful chemistry. I didn't see any in the six episodes I survived.

What I saw was the sort of chauvinist propaganda that is very common in current PRC romcoms. It was clear after six episodes that the ML was deceiving and manipulating the FL because he knew best, and was doing it for her good. Barf! This toxic trope is one that I cannot stomach. It is possible to have sweet, even clichéd OTPs where the two are in fact equal. There are dramas in which the two are not equal but in which the male lead still avoids treating the female lead with condescension or manipulation. Two of my favourite examples would be Queen In Hyun's Man and Le Coup de Foudre.. Dramas like those show that it is possible to set up formulaic "cute" OTPs without paternalistic posturing. The smug assumption of superiority by every male character in this drama was just too much.

No doubt some who are fans of the drama may feel that I didn't give it a fair shot, but at my age, life is too short to waste on bad dramas. It's also too short too waste on bad on dramas that not only don't grab me quickly, but actively repel me - no matter how amazeballs some insist the OTP becomes. I gave this one a decent shot, watching 1/6 of the entire drama, but can't be bothered wading through more of its "men know best" motto.

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Chemistry and Economics.

I'm writing this review solely as a reminder for myself about why I dropped this drama in the very first place. Don't worry. It will not affect the rating system as I have not seen enough episodes for it to get counted.
I tried giving it a second chance, but I just couldn't move forward past the first five minutes of EP4.
Now... lets get down to business.
If Chemistry along could drive a drama, then this one should be it. Both Leo Luo and Bai Lu are talented actors and they pulled off their roles beautifully. Their premise was good. But... the plot.
When it comes to the plot, in the first three episodes, we see Jiang Jun pull a few strings and get into Yuan Shuai's company much to his displeasure. Then we have about 50% of the conversations revolving around why she was not fit to do the job. Then the next 50% with him tasking her with something hard and she going about trying to desperately prove herself. The sweet stuff is scattered throughout in between. Its even funny at times. Even that was not enough for me to stick to the drama. Had I watched it completely I'd have skipped 80% of the episodes to just fast forward to scenes that I actually wanted to watch... which would be pretty much half of the drama.
I know nothing about Investment Banking and half of their conversations bored me so much that I stopped watching the episode in between or outright skipped to the fun parts. I did not care about Xu Lei and Xiao Chuan's romance. It seemed childish and might have been intentionally inserted to appease viewers' tastes. But, I simply skipped all their scenes.
In short, the overall backstory or the main plot made zero sense to me, due to my little knowledge about the business world. The romance was good. But, that alone couldn't make me stick to the plot.
If you are a fan of the leads and find their scenes sweet - please do watch it! But, if you want some actual basic plot that leads to their romance... you might understand and tolerate it better than me for sure.

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