Intense Love (2020)

It's important to know exactly what this drama is going to be about before diving into it so that you manage your expectations. Don't watch this drama if you're trying to use your brain cells to think about plot points or important things. Do watch this drama if you just want to watch a prince and a princess fall in love in a fairy tale and live out their happily ever after.

**There are no ogres, witches, evil stepmothers, curses, or other assorted evil characters in this fairy tale.

Story: This drama doesn't win prizes for plot. It's about two rich, beautiful people who fall in love with each other. But I think there are a couple things that this drama gets right:
- Our prince and princess fall in love relatively early on in the drama, so that means a lot of this drama plays out during their actual relationship. This is quite rare in drama land, and I love it!
- No love triangle. So refreshing. We don't have to suffer through episodes of the female lead torn between the male lead and the second male lead, while the audience cries buckets for the second male lead along the way.
- A female lead that actually knows who she likes and goes after it! Can I emphasize how rare this is? When was the last time you found a female lead in drama land who was like, "I want him, get all these other second male leads out of my way!" and literally chases down her guy? The last drama I watched with this concept was Novoland II.
- A female lead who is pretty and knows it. I can't stand drama land tropes that cast pretty actresses and then cover them up as Ugly Ducklings so that somehow the male lead discovers her "inner beauty" and falls in love. When does that ever happen in real life? This drama is super real in that sense - part of the reason why the male lead fell for her so fast was because she's very, very pretty.
- Supportive female friendships. The bond between the female lead and her agent was such a power couple. Her agent absolutely kills it as the female lead's staunchest supporter both in life and in work. Some viewers might roll their eyes at the female lead for the way she treated her sister-in-law as well as Gao Zitong, but I thought the female lead showed high EQ and maturity in the way she handled those relationships. She saw people for who they were, understood their motivations, and then made the choice to treat them with kindness. That's grace and maturity. That's also how relationships work in the actual, adult world, with your in-laws, and at your workplace.

Acting/Cast: Chemistry is 10/10. For anyone suffering from withdrawals after finishing this drama, go watch their behind the scenes clips. The actors' interactions when the cameras aren't rolling are even sweeter than the drama. Go watch that iconic clip where the male lead was playing with bubble guns with the female lead while hugging her waist and the director (I kid you not) had to yell at him to drop his hand and control himself. Given how flat the script was with respect to their characters, I applaud the two actors for making the characters so real and likeable.

Music: 10/10. I loved the songs!

Rewatch value: I think that's actually where this drama shines/is poisonous. I've been rewatching sweet interactions from this drama this whole past week, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching Dr. Zhou cooking breakfast for his Beibei, or Beibei pushing Dr. Zhou up against a wall. If you go on Mango TV's website or their Youtube channel, they've actually been posting condensed versions of the drama with just Dr. Zhou and Beibei's interactions. It's like a mini drama that you can rewatch over and over again without feeling the need to skip scenes.

Anyways, this drama has been like a drug during quarantine. It's escape fantasy at it's finest. Somewhere in another world somehow, Dr. Zhou and his Beibei are living out their fairy tale life happily ever after. Thank you to this drama for gifting me with an immense amount of second-hand embarrassment and many nights laughing and blushing. It will forever have a sweet spot in my heart.

Lire davantage

Strange...

I read the book before watching the drama and I have to say that I had a strange experience of watching the drama. The drama is an adaptation of the novel but I feel like the novel is the better adaptation of the drama.
The novel mentioned but failed to explore several intriguing relationships while the drama completely omitted said relationships and instead added new relationships that were never mentioned in the novel. Also, the script really messed up the characterisations of most characters which I did not enjoy. Other characters especially members of the Su family were omitted and why did the script even have to change the origin of the betrothal?
I also hate how Su Jinbei was made into a Mary Sue character that couldn't even get angry with a white lotus who tried several times to destroy her lie.
All in all, I think I would have enjoyed this drama more if I didn't read the novel before watching.

Lire davantage

Ryan Ding saved this series.

Love wasn't that intense but kissing scenes were. Hehe.

There were a lot of ridiculous and unrealistic scenes. And first few episodes will make you wanna drop the series. BUT Ryan Ding's visual will make you stay. (Or maybe just in my case. ;-))

Both ML and FL are so good looking. And they were so so cute and so so sweet. I almost had tooth decay. :D

The plot has great potential. Could have been better. ML is so perfect. A rich handsome Doctor who can cook and is a good kisser. I want him for me. Hahaha.

I also love that there is no overly dramatic heartbreaks. Just two sweet and understanding leads.

I really really hated Dr. Zhou's little sister. She is so annoying at first though it got better. But still hated her childish tricks.

Things I still find confusing after watching:
- IDK what I missed but ML and FL just suddenly got lovey dovey. Like, hello, they haven't really had their moments.
- FL was too kind. I mean, she's too kind handling Zitong. Zitong did her dirty and yet she still almost beg her to be friends with her. WTH.
- Sudden love story between Jiawei and Su ying. I know Su ying likes Jiawei but Jiawei just magically like Su ying. I know they had some of their moments but it was just too sudden. They could have build up their relationship more.

Anyway, if you can bear with the first few episodes. Please watch it. It's good for killing time. FL and ML are also so cute and sweet so it's worthy.

Lire davantage

I started watching this drama only because of Julio Wan Yan . I loved his character in THE LOVE EQUATION .

Story- The story is all about the two families who gather themselves to arrange their children engagement but they didn't show up. But when they met in the hospital after an accident of the FL and then she get to know that her incharge doctor was her fiancee. After that she desided to chase after the doctor (ML) and take the revenge because he didn't show up on the family meeting but they ended up with true lovers.

Things I liked- I like the chemistry between the doctor and the actress . And most important thing is they both are rich not like other dramas where the ML lead is rich and the FL is poor. I am fed of watching these type of drama and good to see this Drama. I also like the chemistry between WU DI (WU YANG) and DR. XIAO YUAN SONG (JULIO WAN YAN) . The ML was so supportive. And the most entertaining character was DR. XIAO YUAN SONG ( JULIO WAN YAN) . I found his character same as he was in the Drama THE LOVE EQUATION but still I liked it so much.

Things I don't like- They didn't tell much more about the past of the ML & FL. Also they didn't tell much about the past of WU DI. There's no need to show the chemistry between the sister of ML i.e. ZHOU SU YING ( LIN XIN YI) and the actor or the collegue of FL i.e SU JIA WEI (SHI MING ZE) but if they showed than they have to show properly,they only show in the last two episodes that I feel very bad about this drama.

If you want to watch Sweet Drama with no melodrama than you may recommend this drama.

Lire davantage

Su Jin Bei and Zhou Shi Yun were adorable and quite mature together because they never dragged out their misunderstandings. I also love that there wasn’t much emphasis on love triangles. Both leads were sure of what they wanted and stayed focused until the end. While watching, I couldn’t get over how beautiful Jin Bei and Shi Yun were together. Honestly, both actors are remarkably good looking. The only part of their story that threw me off was Jin Bei’s supposed pregnancy in the last episode. I don’t remember when they showed or implied that this couple had sex, so the pregnancy troupe was totally out of place for me. Was I the only one confused, or did I miss something? Let me know in the comment section.

The side couples were also great together. Although I didn’t care much for Zhou Su Ying and Xu Jia Wei’s relationship because of how both characters started out.

Lire davantage

The reason I started this drama is because I wanted to acquaint myself with Ding Yu Xi before I start watching the popular drama, Romance of Tiger and Rose.

I guess this drama is okay. Not much from the plot but the premise is that the male lead who is a doctor and the female lead who is a popular actress apparently are engaged due to their families. They try to walk out of the engagement and meet each other unexpectedly when the female lead was hospitalized with her as her doctor. She's attracted and later realizes he is her fiance. It had moments, but the plot didn't really stick to me.

Lire davantage

Well, this drama is a very light drama without too complicated plot and no "real" villain. There's a lot of cringey part where you want to pause it and cover your eyes,lol But don't get me wrong it's cute and funny at the same time. I think Ryan Ding is really good when it comes to developing chemistry with his screen partner. The FL is sweet and kind hearted but not a push over, while ML, is not the typical guy who bullies the girl. Also, both of them came from a rich family so it's not your typical rich guy-poor girl type of drama! Have fun watching!!!

Story- as I said, finally it's not the usual rich guy-poor girl story. Although, there's a lot of cliche from this drama, you can ignore them because it is written in a very interesting way. FL and ML, both are kind hearted and they were able to clear all the misunderstanding really fast, so it saves you from tons of heartache where most drama would love to dragged misunderstanding almost until the last episodes.

Acting/casts- Haven't watched any drama of any actors in this drama, but after watching afew eps, I checked Ryan's page and saw The Romance of Tiger and Rose, so I started watching it as well (another drama that I would recommend people to watch).

Music- meh, they can do better.

Rewatch value- yup will definitely rewatch this a from time to time while waiting for another good drama.

Lire davantage

No chemistry, No comedy, No conflict

I wanted to watch this drama after having seen clips and hearing about the kisses but 11 episodes in and I think watching paint dry would be more fun. This is labeled as "Friendship, Comedy, Romance, Life" but I didn't find any comedy here. What was supposed to be funny?

Where is the conflict? Please tell me the ML's annoying little sister isn't the only conflict here. Conflict is important to push the story along and keep the viewer engaged but almost half way through and there's still no core conflict. I wanted to get hooked in but almost halfway through and that hasn't happened.

Although both leads are very good looking I felt no chemistry between them. I've seen both actors in other dramas that I did like and did see chemistry. Unfortunately, I did not see any sparks between these two here. :/

Would Not Recommend
Would Not Re-Watch

Lire davantage

I’m partial to historical C dramas mainly because the modern ones are ridiculously tropey. The male leads are either CEOs, doctors, or e-sports players while the female leads are dimwitted, cutsey waifs who are struggling to survive. The plots aren’t that deep either. Mostly, the dramas rely on idol actors to ganer ratings. The Xu Kais, Wang Yibo, and their peers populate this genre which of course is the reason most are popular.

Intense Love is fluffy. The plot is asinine and watching the acting will make you wonder who greenlit this mess.

I stopped at episode 21 (of 24) cos my brain was melting. Watch if none of the above bother you.

Lire davantage