Hello Mr. Gu (2021)

Si vous n'attendez rien d'original

Cette critique est saupoudrée de quelques grains de sarcasme. Toutes mes frustrations sur les romances contemporaines sont ressorties ici.

Bon ! Le topo habituel. Mariage contractuel, patron beau, riche et autoritaire. Jeune femme qui s'habille comme une adolescente et toujours positive, pleine de vie avec un peu de caractère, mais pas trop quand même, qui n'a aucune gêne/manières et est probablement aveugle.

Il s'agit du premier rôle de Yan Zhi Chao et ça se sent. Pas (peu) de charisme à l'écran, bien qu'elle soit capable de mieux s'en sortir que d'autres actrices qui ne savent tout simplement pas jouer. Son personnage est sans saveur et assemble tous les clichés du genre. C'est "la" fille qui va faire une différence, c'est la fille toute gentille qui va de temps en temps donner une tape sur la main. Elle a de grands rêves, mais croule sous les dettes. Ce mariage tombe à pic, mais attendez, elle a une fierté. Ah... Fierté qui semble mise de côté moins de 24h plus tard, ok ! Le personnage est horrible et je pense honnêtement que le manque d'expérience de l'actrice a juste rajouté une couche.
Quant à Cheng Jing Ke, son personnage n'a rien d'attrayant. Ok, c'est un beau mec, mais... Prenez deux/trois c-drama modernes au hasard et faites un mélange des ML et vous aurez une idée du bonhomme.

Côté histoire, c'est pas folichon. Après tout, y'a un beau mec et une jolie jeune femme, ça devrait suffire pour contenter le spectateur non ? En plus y'a un baiser accidentel, c'est parfait. Ce n'est pas comme si cette scène ne frôlait pas l'insulte maintenant... Celà dit l'image est agréable et le générique bien sympa.

Tout dépendra de vos attentes. Si vous êtes amateur/amatrice de ce genre de romances, vous allez adorer. Quant aux autres...

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Pas le meilleur à voir pour moi ...

Ce drama chinois est loin d'être le meilleur que j'ai découvert. J'avoue avoir été un peu déçue.

Tout d'abord, l'histoire est peu recherchée, et a donc donné lieu à des lenteurs terribles. A mon sens, trop d'épisodes dans l'attente de la suite... Quand enfin, on arrive au cœur de l'histoire, chaque épisode donne lieu à un rebondissement qui empêche l'histoire d'avancer, et j'avoue, ça m'a agacé…

Les derniers épisodes, je les ai carrément passé par moment en avance rapide.

Dommage, je pense qu'ils auraient pu en faire quelque chose de plus sympathique.

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enjoyed it more than expected!

This romcom started with every cliché there could possibly be for a cdrama: cold male (traumatized) CEO, dumb, childish, poor girl, contract marriage, accidental kisses .... You might need some time to get into this drama, but since it's always that way for me, I didn't mind too much.
The FL doesn't turn out as dumb and annoying as probably expected. At some point, I really started to like her.
I had a harder time adjusting with the ML. No matter how incapable of dealing with other people, their and his own feelings he was supposed to be, this was definitely no way to treat a girl lol.
There were some way too obvious plot holes you just can't miss, even to me, who watches dramas for pure entertainment and always oversees them. But it's okay, the overall story is good, and I especially loved the development of their feelings, so I guess you can just ignore some other things :)
The acting is so good! The ML's amazing, and the FL does so much better than expected. It's her debut drama, she's only 19 (!!), so let's be kind to her!
Also great chemistry between the first couple! Can't wait for further development :))
The FL always gets herself in trouble, and there were some issues that made me feel a bit uncomfortable sometimes, but they were surprisingly solved quite comfortably.

I just finished Ep14, and I'll do an update once I finished the whole thing. By now, it's far better than expected :) (Don't mind the rewatch value, I usually don't rewatch dramas)

EDIT: Okay, finally got to finish it! Sooo there's few things I'd like to add:
- Whoever said a good drama HAS to be non-cliché like, unpredictable and intense, I FUNDAMENTALLY diasagree with that!!
- Regarding my last aspect before the edit, this was definitely one of the things I enjoyed the most about this. Issues didn't take up years to build up and again years to solve, they came and went quickly, making the journey of watching quite comfortable and pleasant. However, the only waaay too consistent thing were the 2 more or less nasty sideleads who lowkey (or better highkey) tried to ruin their relationship. And there was no way you could ignore them because they were there ALL THE TIME :(
- This drama definitely focusses on character development, not business or the ML's phobia or anything else.
- The chemistry was OVER THE TOP. Won't say too much about this because I don't want to spoiler on this, but I don't doubt at all you'll feel it too.
- Second couple got only little screentime, I enjoyed their storyline a lot tho. It's not that I refuse "too much cliché" (lol don't watch this if you do), but I liked that they didn't make the second couple to that "one chasing the other" cliché too.

Last thing (I promise hahaha): It's a very very short drama. And the beginning was by far the worst part. It has 30 Eps of 30 Minutes, so that'd be 20 Eps (!!!) of 45 Minutes. (Not me actually sitting down and calculating that oops.) It's no shame to drop a drama if you don't like it, but here, it's also not that hard to stay through it for the ending :)

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Cute, sweet but not consistently though!

So it started well of as cute fluffy and very sweet drama, as a very good rom-com, I'll say. Naive, innocent FL and Cold, CEO ML our never-changing tropes of cdrama rom-com. But later it becomes melodrama more than the rom-com well don't take the word seriously not melodrama exactly but sure not rom-com though.

As usual, the problem that we see literally any drama. Silly misunderstandings... it doesn't have one or two this drama is kinds filled with them, till this point that I wondered if there's something called 'Communication' exist in their word. I mean can't you just talk with each other, ops but they talked then what's the point with the drama they don't have anything to stretch up other than the misunderstandings.

Talking about the leads and chemistry I kinda liked it but sure not the characters, well FLs character was indeed better than ML still not what I expect, talking about ML I liked him in the first half but there's the limit of jealousy man you can't be like jealous all the time on stupid things. Ah the SFL again don't forget it's filled with cliches so we got bitchy FL which surely the worst character here. The side couple was cute still not a big fan of their story.

So overall it was a cliches average drama nothing particularly brilliant in it!

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Enough with the dumb FL

30 episodes. It started well though. But I have gradually more and more problem on how they portray FL in Chinese dramas. It’s not a very nice way to show women.
They are all clueless, gullible and encouraging bullying. The only positive point is that this FL ha a bit more gumption than her counterparts. At least she holding her grounds, until she falls stupid for Mr. Gu and lose all common sense.
Mr. Gu’s character is no surprise. The typical overbearing boss who doesn’t seem to have any other purpose in life than work or torturing people around him. The actor is handsome but never smiles. Ok we get it he’s a cold one. But this is getting tiring.

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Predictable, cute happy fluff!

a very very typical rom com formula focused on the comedy and the sugar
it's super tropey with many trip-over-and-accidentally-kiss scenes
but they are so cute(!!!) and like they recognize it's tropey too with the manga/anime profession as the background

with all tropey dramas we worry that there would be evil 2nd leads trying to break the leads apart and that would get really draggy over multiple episodes
but the big sad valley here really doesn't last more than 2 episodes so you can rest assured when you dive into the drama
(and if you're really angry, fast forward is always an option... the ending makes up for it I promise)

so I would recommend if you're in for some cute happy fluff
plus the two actors, despite being very new to the industry, are surprisingly well-suited for their roles?
though I think they changed quite a bit of the script (based on how the voice doesn't match the mouth) so if you get very annoyed by the Chinese dubbing habit that might be some points off)

also check out the behind-the-scenes of their "3 minute long kiss" on YouTube
will add to your viewing experience for sure :)

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I don't know what to say

I feel like 30 episodes is too much. Like around episode 18 it got a little stale. I couldn't expect much from chinese romcoms, very typical story line. There's always that successful lady next the CEO that expects to be with the CEO. When things don't go her way, she ruins the guy to get his attention making matters worse for her. I don't know why this type of successful career woman always think she deserves to be with the ML and is better than the FL.

I have to say tho, Qing Qing is not as dumb as most FL in this scenario. She knows clearly who her rival is after the first occurrence. It's refreshing seeing a change for that.

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It went downhill right after you thought that the story could've been better

It started off really great, like your typical contract-marriage drama. Nothing's new. It'd be okay to me if they made it fluffy with no or less misunderstanding. But instead of doing that, they chose the wrong path. They made this drama too painful to watch, especially at the near end of the show. If I can summarize, this show has 70% bickering, 10% fluffy/lovey-dovey scene, 10% comedy, and 10% time for 2nd couple. A lot of bickering made me think that they were just toxic for each other thus they shouldn't have continued their relationship. The bickering also made me feel that they had no chemistry. Same goes to the 2nd couple. I also didn't feel any chemistry between those two.

Summarization: This show frustated me. I don't recommend anybody to watch this if they want to see a "healthy relationship" because this ain't it. I actually liked it until the time they confessed but it also started to go downhill right after that. It's so unfortunate that they had to choose this way ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ

Ps: I'm sorry for the broken english. I hope you got my point.

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ENJOYABLE CLICHÉ! INSANE CHEMISTRY!

For suckers of cliché, you might get hook to this drama. This is a debut series of the FL but she carried her character so well. ML has a great appeal on screen, prolly that made me giddy all the time. Hahaha!

Chemistry is palpable, plot line has no dramatic conflicts, so so 2nd couple, and too fluffy not to get giddy.

I recommend this drama if you are looking for a feel good, sweet, romantic, and cliché drama. I can't wait to watch the remaining episodes.

CDrama has an obsession with a CEO with abnormality + ordinary girl plotline. Hahaha, I encountered too many dramas similar to this, so far, this is one of the best. This is my second fave after My Little Happiness.

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Too long and less interesting...

Even the main couple is not very interesting...
I endure 30 episodes expecting that anything would be different and the plot would improve. I was wrong.
STORY – nothing interesting, even the theme, animation, is not well develop and it is almost unnecessary. Could be anything else and the drama would be the same.

ACTING – sufficient, but the characters were not interesting nor complex to me. However, most of them deliver.

MUSIC – interesting with a couple of themes that I enjoy.

REWATCH – no, I will never do it. Maybe, just maybe one or two scenes if I stumble with them…

OVERALL – Do not advise watching this drama because there are better dramas in every aspect, from the chemistry of the couple, plot, characters, etc. I prefer some actors to others but I am not that kind of fan that watch dramas because of them…
Believe me that i wanted to like more of this show, but could not...

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Typical and annoying

Yes, all the typical drama cliches - serious lack of communication, loads of misunderstandings and bickering, third & fourth parties, marriage contract, break up and get back together etc...

It started off quite well, some funny and cute moments. It ding-donged for quite a bit before they officially got together. After that there were some sweet romance moments, and then it just got annoying. I would say both ML and FL did some wrong things, so not one party was entirely to blame. The break up scene was quite heart-breaking though... I could truly feel his pain.

Many loopholes in the storyline, like how did Jiang Jixuan betray the company? There wasn’t really a background story or details to what exactly , and after that what happened? It was left hanging. The last episode seemed rather rushed.

All in all was quite disappointed. ML had a good physique, good looking - nice jaw line and cheek bones and dressed well??‍♂️ Which kept me watching till the end! ? FL is only 19 years old ? and her first drama apparently.

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A light romantic comedy

If you want a light and beautiful romantic comedy, this one is for you. Sure, some parts were shaky, and characters I think were overdone, but I liked this series overall. The story of an arranged marriage or engagement under a written contract is an overused concept, so when I watch a show like this, I expect something different, unique, or special. Well, I got special this time, and I couldn’t be happier. This show was a masterpiece by Yan Zhi Chao in her debut performance. I was amazed that she could carry this complex female lead so well. I can’t wait to see what she does next. I thought Chen Jing Ke also did a great job with the male lead.

Some C-Dramas are slow and drawn-out with repeated scenes, but the 30 episodes in this one flew by for me. Each episode was relatively short, so I think you’ll find them easy to watch. I binge-watched it, so that’s a good sign that it kept my interest.

The story itself was a struggle to watch at first because the ML was constantly browbeating, punishing, humiliating, and abusing the FL. That doesn’t make for good comedy or drama, in my opinion, so I struggled to watch it. The problem is, you can’t build up a weird, sadistic character like that and expect it to melt into a romance. They ran the risk of tearing the character down to the point of no return. It reminded me a little of the show Full House, which I didn’t particularly like when I rooted for the side character and was disappointed when he drove off and left the FL with the ML. But they pulled this one together just in time. In my opinion, the strength of Yan Zhi Chao’s character Zhou Jian Qing pulled it together. She was super.

The supporting characters each did a good job adding to the storyline. My favorite was the woman who played Gu Nan Zhou’s mother. Not sure who she was. FL’s brother was a little overbearing. What man in his right mind walks into the home of a complete stranger, even if the door was open, and walks into the bedroom? He had no idea his sister was even there. Normally in most societies, that would get you in big trouble. Zhang Yin had that eternal puppy dog look, but his character was always pleasant, giving everything some balance.

Jian Qing is constantly pressed by interfering people. I’m not sure which is worse, the overly aggressive brother or the assistant/wanna-be boyfriend who is always around. He comes off as needy, but he seems to be a good guy, so I ignore him. I won’t even mention the female assistant to ML, who can’t seem to disappear. The second level relationship between Jian Qing’s brother and her best friend is slow to develop. As with most long Chinese dramas, I know I have to be patient.

Near the end, and, still, I’m not too fond of Gu Nan Zhou, but I like Jian Qing’s brother even less. Why does he think he has control over his sister’s life? It feels like he is overplaying his part when he talks. He doesn’t act like a brother. He acts like a controller. There is nothing, and I mean nothing endearing, about him. He treats his sister like a commodity. Little did I know he would soon surprise me.

One of the pluses of watching Chinese TV series is the unusual architecture you can always count on seeing. I loved the unique structure of the apartment building the ML lived in, and I even screen captured it. His office building is even better. Ahh, the little things that make a show better.

Subtitles:
If you don’t care about subtitles, ignore this paragraph. Translations turn into subtitles, and occasionally I take the time to talk about them. The subtitles in this one were a little strange. When two people are talking, and one decides to leave for whatever reason, they would normally say, “I’m leaving now” or just “I’m leaving.” I don’t know what part of the world says, “I’ll make a move first” or even “I’ll leave first.” The only time you would say. “I’ll leave first” is when who is going to leave first is in question. “I’ll make a move first” is just strange. I don’t know; maybe other English-speaking countries use that term. I see it a lot so it must not be uncommon.

Another one that bothers me is “I’m into you,” which is slang and flippant. I’ve only seen that term twice in all the shows I’ve watched, here and in Birdie Buddy. If you ask someone if they are “into you,” it usually means something sensual and can get you in trouble, or you may even get a laugh. It rarely, if ever, means love or like. It’s slang and makes me cringe hearing it coming from ML. Also, I never heard it said that a man has a good figure. You would normally say he has a good body. Women have good figures.

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