A River Runs Through It (2021)

Journey from childhood to adulthood

A River Runs Through It : I just finished it, I loved it so much because it managed to show the genuine and true emotions. Selection of the title is amazing consider 'River' as 'Memories' or 'Life'. The drama has the 90s set up like walkman, cassette, video games, dvd player, computers, unknown/unnmed love letters, picnic, helping n friendly neighborhood, struggle of enrolling into college, exam/love failure phase. It brings back the nostalgia and memorable days of the School/College/Hostel life friendship & love.
The only thing in my time, girls dont have access to boys hostel/dorm and vice versa 😅. The storylines were relatable and touching. It manage to show the bittersweetness to the fullest. The bonding it shows btwn the parents & youth was amazing. The acting was great you can easily connect with the characters, beautifully presented the growth from childhood till adulthood with the ups n downs.

I was really touched 😭 by the school Teacher farewell speech:
"Dear Students,
Graduation isn't an end. Quite the opposite, its a fresh start. I sincerely hope you guys can be brave the wind & wave of you lives. Dont give up while facing difficulties. Learn to be grateful. Be grateful to your parents bcoz their love for you is limitless. And be grateful to yourself the efforts you made yesterday made you who you are today."

Also when the 5 went for picnic to cheer up Cheng Lang, then in back ground Xia Xiaoju reading these line:
"When you are in love with someone the whole of you will be attracted to him, facinated by him, worried for him & nervous for him.You miss him when he out of your sight and when he is right before you get shy and not even dare to face him."

Its true that you'll do all the stupid & crazy things when in love. To gain/win your loveable persons love, sometimes you end up getting hurt or hurting them but in this proccess you ignore the person who is really there for you by mistakenly you hurt them. But its better to end it on a good note, in the end you want you crush or ex to be happy.

I like that being in love rivalry phase also they manage to cope up with each other and maintain their freindship and always helpful.

I must say Lu Shiyi in particular really shined as a character. I felt bit bad for Cheng Lang & Huang Jun.

Music : The song live in my mind rent free from the drama 👇
Inexplicably, I have a crush on you,
I fall in love with you,
There is no reaaon for it,
Do you know, i am waiting for you....👍

The Disappointments:
* Menglu who purposely tried to break Huang Jun & Tao Tao. Huang Jun lied to Tao Tao even after she gave him another chance. 
* Lin You had the personality and character was ruined by breaking Cheng Lang's heart not once but THREE TIMES. 
* Storylines were rushed at the ending ep. 35 & 36.

But I'll definitely recommend the drama, worth watching until ep. 33/34 and I would like to watch again!

Lire davantage

The plot summary does not do this show justice!

I held off on watching this show for months because the plot summary made me think this was going to be draggy and not really romance genre. However, this show I swear made me staying up for over 24 hours a day to keep watching. It is amazing. I simply fell in love with the ML and I liked how the female lead wasn't made to be incredibly dumb or incapable. The chemistry between the ML and FL was amazing and this is definitely worth the watch. This show had me genuinely crying for the characters and the drama in the show is amazing. Very similar to my youth.

side note SPOILER: the only thing that made me sad was that the ML and FL only ended up together in the last part of the last episode so we don't really get to see anymore of their love blossom.

Lire davantage

A story of everyday life with progress and respect

I really liked this drama although it is completely out of my genre. The plot, the character developments, the scenery, the OST... I enjoyed all of it. But what me absolutely addicted to it, was the acting of all characters, especially the superb acting of Wang Rui Chang. He and the FL were acting so naturally, so believeable that at times I completely forgot it's a drama and not their real life. Which ususally does not happen to me. KUDOS to the actors. I also enjoyed that the plot was about normal people in everyday life, not super rich families with their super spoiled heirs and intrigues. Just people like you and me (actually rather my grandkids ;) with joy and worry, discovering themselves and how they want to stand in life. I recommend this drama for sure and will rewatch it for sure.

Lire davantage

An amazing high-school and youth drama

This drama is such a master piece the journey starts from high school they share such a beautiful friend ship during highschool and one sided love of xiouju with chenlang and it extends till the college atlast she realises her love for shiyi while he s going abroad then they will unite only in last epi If u are looking for romance and flouffy drama then it's not ur type this drama is about youth friendship and lil love the friendship between shiyi chenlang Bao Bao tao xiouju haunjun and their room mates were portrayed beautifully tao is such a amazing girl in the drama huanjun and tao firstwill be together but poor huanjun will not Cherish her and tao will end up with Bao Bao chenlang will be so much in love with linyou but linyou will go back to abroad with her ex and married another foreigner oh my poor chenlang he will not get a pair in this drama the cute fight between ml and fl chenlang is like their dad while solving their fights it's a beautiful drana with amazing storyline and cast ost is amazing spl thanks to the subbers yoyo YouTube channel for making bit available for international fans

Lire davantage

Perfect--except for the ending . . .

This would be my top Cdrama of all time if it had a better ending! I loved it so much. The acting was great, most of the characters and storylines were relatable and touching. The only people that were meh to me were CL and LY, seemed like neither had any personality. But LS in particular really shined as a character. I loved watching him grow and I think the actor did an amazing job.

At times I felt like I wasn't watching a drama, I was watching a documentary. A lot of people watch dramas to escape so they don't want it to be like real life and don't care how far-fetched it is; however, I watch them because that's exactly what I'm looking for. I feel like these characters were the first people I've "met" that feel the way I have felt. I want characters and circumstances to be real and this drama hit the mark better than anything else I have watched. It wasn't afraid to show the ugliness of life and that everything is going to be okay in the end, you can get through it.

I especially liked how things developed between LS and XJ post-confession for the sheer fact LS had a much different reaction than normal, instead of becoming defeated he doubled down--and I truly believe that is the best course of action you can take for someone like XJ. Some might see it as pushy but I think there are times when you need to persist because it's not that the other person is resisting because they are not interested, but because they are scared. It was refreshing to see a character who did not fall into despair because someone didn't accept them right away, instead they stood by their feelings AND their own value.

It was a great show . . . until the last two episodes. It was like they planned for 50 episodes but got to episode 34 and learned they could only produce two more. The storylines were rushed, they didn't really make sense, and frankly it was hard to connect with the wedding for example because it was so disconnected and out of nowhere that you had no emotional attachment to the couple in question. Then imagine the one you love leaves without telling you, you don't see or hear from them for FIVE YEARS, and they just show up and end up proposing after messing around with your feelings for two or three days. Like it was so jarring and disappointing, the pacing wasn't the same as the rest of the series and we never really got to see the main leads in a relationship or resolving the issues between them. It was a lot of buildup to something amazing and then it just crashed and burned.

I consider it a great tragedy how this show ended, it deserved better. I would honestly be okay if there was a season two and they were just like "Yeah those last two episodes were just a dream, let's get back to the REAL story." But I just finished it yesterday however and I already want to start again! So I'd still recommend it.

Lire davantage

Horrible Writing

Had so much potential at the beginning but so so so much flaws.

Female lead is obsessed with one side character for 90% of the drama and makes herself sad on purpose.

Side characters have the most awful writing I have ever seen in any drama. I could write so much but I’ll digress.

The characters have HORRIBLE emotional development, its supposed to coming of age story from highschool to college and adulthood but the characters have the emotional intelligence of a highschooler all throughout the 36 episodes; MOST SPECIFICALLY FEMALE LEAD.

This whole drama is about miscommunication and misunderstanding that never gets resolved and its just forgotten.

The only well made character is the second male lead - quite frankly the only reason I was motivated to complete this drama.

Lire davantage

*Contains Spoiler*

At first i was little hesitant to watch because this one had 36 episode & I am not someone who really watch more than 25-30 epis. Moreover if they keep dragging the confession btwn leads or not in relationship at least before 5-6 epis of the ending I will literally drop it. But damn this one. You wont believe the main leads literally perfectly get into as couple at the very last episode. & this is clearly not my type of drama. But the sole reason that kept me hold onto this drama to the very end is the beautiful friendship & the eye candy male lead Lu Shiyi. Lu shiyi is literally one of the best male cdrama character ever. I cried for him laughed for him felt pity for him. I literally felt All kind of emotions for him. He is literally the best. He can be your best friend a bro a boyfriend. He can be an annoyinh brat & tease the heck out of you but would fight the whole world for you. A fyi he isn't a toxic teaser. Its a teasing that will make you some funny fight with him. Throughout the whole drama his unconditional friendship & love for Female lead literally made my heart fluttered. From highschool, college, University & then job life wow it was a whole journey. As much as i love all the side Characters but Lu shiyi the male lead really slayed & ruled. I am not someone who praise ML of cdramas this highly. But yeah lu shiyi definately one of the best boy of cdrama town. Kudos to richard wang. His acting was super good.

Lire davantage

Beautiful beginning and a not-so-beautiful ending

A River Runs Through It has the beauty of the older and brilliant Chinese school dramas (With You, My Huckleberry Friends, When We Were Young, A Love So Beautiful). It is a tale of friendship, family, love, school, college life and of the numerous joys and sorrows that lace the journey of life. A poignant tale about growing up, its brilliant performances truly make this a strong watch. Every character was the centre of their own story, and I, like many others, laughed and wept with most of the characters.

Xia Xiaoju's relationship with her mother was so meaningfully written that when the two reconcile after Xiaoju has moved to college, tears ran down my cheeks. The show managed to make me cry or tear up many times - the world of ARRTI felt lived in and real; the characters felt real. The friendships were heartwarming and beautiful, and for the most part, the show was about these friendships- the deep understanding between the three main leads, and their affection for each other. Certainly the strength of show lies with its profoundly well-written friendships. From the five friends, to the three (and even four/five if we count Le Tao and Huang Jun) and then finally to the touching friendship between Xiaoju and Lu Shiyi. 'Growing up means separation' as Xiaoju says to herself later on in the show, in what I consider to be the most philosophical moment on the show: to grow up is to separate from friends and loved ones. People move away as life gets in the way.

Growing up however entails falling in love too, and this story has a lot of unreciprocated love, unfulfilled love, heartbreaks and breakups. Yet, unlike many other shows, I was invested in these relationships which largely involved the secondary (and even tertiary) characters. They felt believable and their stories were not centred around the main leads- they were the masters of their own stories.

I really liked the main leads together and separately - I rooted for them. The friendship between the three was absolutely lovely and when Cheng Lang wasn't with them later on, Li Shiyu and Xia Xiaoju were great friends of each other. They understood each other, cared for each other.

I would have perhaps sang many praises of this beautiful friendship had I not been utterly disappointed by the lacklustre ending. What was it with this ending? what was the point of this ending? Was it supposed to be like With You, and yet in With You the separation made sense (the broken Yu Huai did not believe himself worthy of love- he wasn't the best of himself and that was WHY he disappeared- it made sense). However, why does Li Shiyu disappear without telling her anything? Or without even contacting her through 7 years? He did not suffer from low self-esteem and self-worth and did not have the family burdens that Yu Huai did. Also, it's strange that he doesn't visit his parents in 7 years? In that case he would definitely bumped into her. (My Calorie Boy also did the With You-style ending, which did not work for me either)

The last two episodes were truly a disservice to the main leads. I felt very sorry for Xia Xiaoju- her best friend and the one she finally came to love just ghosted and disappeared on her. After 7 years, the writers decided to fix the problem in just two-three days of interactions. We did not ever learn why he disappeared; why he had pictures with that other girl, etc. The proposal scene at the wedding made zero sense too. Ah. well.

Although I am disappointed with the last two episodes, it does not take away from the beauty of the first half (and more) of the show. It is still a very good show, and certainly one of the best in recent years.

Lire davantage

Cinta Masa Muda

Drama remaja ter "the best" tahun 2021.
Cinta masa muda memang penuh misteri.Kita belum tau arti sesungguhnya menyukai ataupun mencintai.Itu semua tergambarkan dengan bagus oleh Xia Xiao Ju.Usia remaja yang penuh gejolak,bagaimana hubungan anak dengan orang tua maupun dengan saudara,membangun pertemanan dengan lingkungan baru,maupun bergejolak dengan perasaannya sendiri.
Sepertinya season 2 untuk drama ini diperlukan deh.......untuk memperjelas semua sampai menemukan cinta sejati itu bagaimana.
Endingnya terlalu cepat menurutku.Ingin tau POV dari Lu Shi Yi sendiri.

Lire davantage

I was not ready for this show to end. I admit, I actually put off watching this for a while because of how many episodes there are, but by the end I totally could have watched more. It’s done in a similar vein to the Reply series, where you watch a group of friends grow up together and the female lead actually even looks like Hyeri from Reply 1988.

The show offers a really realistic depiction of how relationships happen in real life, whether good or bad. Not everyone who dates ends up staying together, and relationships are messy and unpredictable and sometimes end in heartbreak. The show shows a diverse number of relationships and really strong friendships as well.

It’s my first time seeing Richard Wang in a drama but I really liked his character Lu Shiyi. He treated Xiaoju so well - buying her snacks, finding a job for her, even helping her figure out what major she wanted. He’s so thoughtful and kind, even when he knows that she doesn’t like him back. Lu Shiyi and Xia Xiaoju really were best friends and they share so many memories together it's like they are dating and she just didn't know it at the time. Xiaoju likes her other friend, and yet all of her romantic moments are with Shiyi. She even accidentally confesses to him. It's like before she knew it, he was the perfect fit for her. However, I honestly wish that we got more episodes showing their relationship after they get together and I feel like I'm left with so many questions about the show at the end.

Also completely unrelated to the story but the product placement feels very natural on the show, and is almost unnoticeable whereas most dramas nowadays are just FULL of product placement so that was very refreshing.

8/8.5

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