Lost Romance (2020)

It seems like a lot of people really love this drama. Having now finished it, I can see why. I can't say I really love this drama as there are flaws in the execution, but I did enjoy a lot of things about it as the story has some interesting story mechanics/concepts, and there are some genuinely good twists.

Xiao En is a fabulous female lead in the first half. She finds herself in the middle of a romance novel and takes full advantage of this to hilarious effect. Nothing's too embarrassing for her to try, she expertly handles the villains and their shady behavior, and she goes after absolutely everything she wants (principally the male leads heart), ultimately succeeding in turning herself into the female lead of the story. It's all incredibly charming and laugh out loud funny. But then she wakes back up in the real world, and the story takes a bit of a nosedive into mope-land for a time. On the one hand, I get it. Xiao En's spent 3 months (I think it was 3 months?) falling in love with a book character and making herself at home in the book universe. Then she wakes up and is brought back to reality that none of it was real, none of it actually happened (although I feel there should have been more awareness on her part about this), and she mourns everything she's lost. She just...mourns longer than I think she had a right to.

It's unclear how much of Situ Aoran's personality is the book character and how much is actually Tian Xing, because the drama doesn't tell us, but for my part, the male lead is bland as toast in the novel world. Seriously. Situ Aoran is incredibly uninteresting, lol. Tian Xing is an improvement, and there are glimpses of him having an actual personality, but we don't get to spend nearly as much time getting to know him as we do Situ Aoran, so it's hard to know just what he's like. (Maybe some of Xiao En's mourning period could have been spent on developing Tian Xing as a character and building a relationship between them instead.......)

Chu Chu, the female lead turned second female lead, has an unusual if also kind of stereotypical character trajectory, as she goes from being the male leads love interest to one of the villains of the story. I personally can't decide if this was a good writing choice or not. On the one hand, there are a lot of reasons this makes sense. Her role in the story is essentially snatched away from her, which would understandably be upsetting, especially if you're one of the leads in a romance novel. It's also a clever story twist to switch the roles of the female and second female leads in this way. But a number of viewers didn't like it, and part of me doesn't like it as well. The evil second female lead has been one of the most common tropes in Asian dramas for a long time, to the point that a lot of drama lovers are sick and tired of it. It's not uncommon today to see people complain about mean female characters in a drama even when they serve an important and appropriate purpose in a story. For me, it's hard to reconcile my feelings on this writing choice, so I've decided not to spend too much time thinking about it.

Qing Feng is, as they often are in these types of rom-coms, an absolutely lovely second male lead. He does everything right, is honorable and kind and a loyal friend, and he has a very hard time of it, lol. What sets him apart from so many other second male leads though is that while he starts the drama liking Chu Chu then switches his affections to Xiao En, his true love...actually isn't even in this novel at all. This is an incredibly unique twist that works well (even if I have a few quibbles around it). It can get hard watching so many lovely second male leads end up alone at the end of the drama, but that is luckily not a problem with this drama. Since the woman he really loves is from a different novel, you don't have to be sad for him that it didn't work out with Chu Chu or Xiao En, because Xiao En is such a good friend that once she gets back to the real world, she doesn't rest until he gets his happy ending. (This is one of those drama exceptions where a second male lead gets an ending that is truly deserving of his wonderfulness.)

The part of the drama that is the most flawed is all of the business and family drama. The real-world storyline around Tian Xing's family and his father's company could be a real slog, and I did a lot of skipping/fast forwarding through it during much of the first half of the drama. The business machinations and family drama were simultaneously boring and irritating. But then the sister's plotline became both interesting and quite heartbreaking, and I found myself slowly becoming invested in the family dysfunction. There's a lot of bitterness and distrust and hurtful behavior to go around, and it makes for a very sad family portrait. It may have been the actress portrayal (probably) that helped bring me around, but I felt a lot of sympathy for the sister. (Not enough to forgive any of her behavior but definitely enough to understand her better and hope she will change her ways and live her life differently.) I didn't have any hope for the rest of Tian Xing's family, sadly. Mom does have the tiniest bit of an epiphany about the role she's played towards the end, which is good, but I honestly was too apathetic about her to feel very invested in her change of heart.

The finale was surprisingly great. Lots of good storytelling choices. From the leads going straight to the courthouse to get married sans wedding ceremony to having a hitchhiking, camp-out honeymoon of all things! (I was seriously expecting that writing choice to not go well, but it was surprisingly romantic and appropriate for our leads.) And the sendoff for Qingfeng was perfection. It made me teary-eyed.

Despite the drama's faults, I understand why so many people love Lost Romance. It pulled off a lot of really good and unexpected twists. It's also just a lot of fun. But don't go into this expecting it to subvert every trope and avoid all the stereotypes of the typical rom-com Asian drama, because while it does subvert a lot of tropes and stereotypes, some are still alive and well in this drama.

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I did not think that would enjoy this!

Wow this caught me by surprise! i really didn't think that i would finish this series. i just thought it was the same as legally romance, were the girl was the only one who experience the long dream in a coma, boy was i wrong! This is different, everything was thought out carefully. I love that the writer didn't leave me with any wandering questions.

Oh my gosh don't get me started on the main leads chemistry. The chemistry was of the chart. It was not forced romance everything was so natural. I really believed that they were dating in real life. Oh and the kisses was my favorite part of the show next to the sweet romantic scenes.

The actors really became one with the script. The only character i didn't like was chuchu she really irritated the crap out of me. She was so whinning acting like the world owed her big time.. did she save the world in her previous life!??? But i guess we need her to make the story line more interesting.

Oh man, the make second lead syndrome... I don't know way but it always makes me feel so uncomfortable because they are always so nice and there for the female lead but yet always cast aside. The funny part if that even if they make me feel uneasy, i always want to see them in dramas. i don't know if it makes sense but it's like that. I guess second lead syndromes are there to make the first male lead realize how much he loves the first female lead.

The only thing i didn't like was the make up time. i really wish that he would have remembered her sooner, so that we could see more sweet kisses and romantic scenes. except for that i have no complains.

Lost romance is the first tai drama i watched and enjoyed.

I think that this series is worth the 20+ hours of your life so buckle up and enjoy yhe ride!!
I don't think your would regret it.

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Original

I can’t believe I kept putting this drama off for so long. Once I began watching it I couldn’t stop. The story line is very original. It will keep you engaged, wondering, hoping, guessing. Although I wouldn’t see this as a comedy there were moments I laughed out loud. I don’t want to sound repetitive in writing what other reviews have already said. So I will say what impressed me the most. First of all, the ML and FL had amazing chemistry. Sizzling kisses. Of course the fact that Marcus is the ML helped a lot. His acting was on point. Loved his little smirks and the times he spoke a little English was adorable. The FL was cute, quirky I guess a “weirdo”, but endearing as hell. Unlike a lot of FL she was also smart. The music was really good. I normally don’t focus so much on the music, but I really liked the music, especially the opening theme song. The only con in this drama were the business parts. I understand that it is a big part of the story but towards the last few episodes I kept skipping past them. Maybe because the episodes were so long I just wanted to get to the parts where the leads interacted. If you’re looking for an original and sweet love story, then give it a try.

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Cinderella and parallel world

I finally watched this drama after I put on my PTW list for maybe a year. At first I got scared cause of the amount of the episodes, 20 episodes with 1 hrs 10min runtime :\, and yes it's so draggy I think it should be enough with 12 or 13 episodes like most Taiwanese drama are.

The FL an editor who went in a coma and travel into the novel she is editing and become the main character inside the novel, she ended up working as a staff in a company own by the ML as a CEO who she is adoring in real life. She is facing ups and down interacting with company's staff, how she approach the ML for his love (but at first the ML just seeing her as a weird girl). Really beautiful and memorable OST, so may funny moments that make you LOL, the acting is so good and the chemistry is on fire :D, the kiss scenes is even more hotter than Yang Yang & Dilraba You Are My Glory. My problem is to many family drama just like others said (which I skip most of them). Overall is a good watch .

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When twilight breaks dawn....

Wow! What a ride this turned out to be! It was funny, interesting, nail biting, suspenseful, charming, well it was everything a drama should be! And still I had to put in an enormous effort to continue watching it after taking a break (for sleeping, eating and such!) which I do not understand! There is something escaping me here!

The story is not new: the FL is suddenly transposed from the real world into a romance book where she falls in love with the overbearing CEO of the ML. She takes the time to undermine and play with every romance cliché there is to the hilarious effect.

So here are my notes, a few thing I jotted down as I watched it!

Why is the beginning giving me such Dynasty vibes? It looks like your prime time US soap opera, with unbelievably beautiful and scornful rich people walking around as if they own the World? Such cartoonish, OTT characters!
Fortunately, things seem to be moving in the right direction in ep2. Like in Extraordinary You, the FL realizes she is not the main character of the novel she landed in and her reactions are hilarious!
After a terrible first episode when I almost dropped this, now and enjoying the ride immensely! I am loving the way they are making fun of all those "cold CEO & sweet and innocent damsel-in-distress" stories. Moreover, I hope I am wrong, but I am getting those SLS symptoms and that is not a good sigh. The CEO is hot but the girl lost in the novel has such sparkling chemistry with the CSO, CEO's friend!
The FL is funny and quirky and they are so mocking the usual drama tropes. In ep. 6 the book the white lotus damsel in distress broke a mirror and cut her finger: the injury is about the size of a needle top but the whole first aid kit is being used while she winces as she's being treated. So funny! I really hope this is going to stay like this! Even the book CEO is starting to show cracks in his armor from FL's constant mocking attacks! SLS I was afraid of seems to have petered out when FL and the book's SML become partners in crime!
Now I'm about to start ep 10 and I like book characters more than the cartoonish real life ones! Aren't book characters supposed to be clichés and unrealistic (well, they do have funny names....)? The FL has great chemistry with the CSO while the CEO is starting to realize that the damsel in distress is clumsy and boring. I just hope they do not intensify the SLS again unless they want them to end up together!
So at the end of ep 10: CEO fell for FL and sealed it with a dead fish kiss...promising? Maybe! But why make it smooth sailing? Now we add a jealous brother to the mix and the hidden side of damsel in distress white lotus: she is not goody too shoes after all and can show her claws when her plans are disturbed. And the FL completely ruined her plans. Unwittingly though! And why leave the SML behind! Ep.13 and that SLS is kicking in hard!
This drama is mocking the usual drama/novel tropes only to end up using them to further the plot for the FL! It is a shame they did not go all the way denouncing tropes and going against them!
In the real world, the sister is losing her marbles after being poisoned by her brother! Actually, I am starting to feel sorry for her: she needed to be ruthless to make it in the male dominated business world. Another life cliché: when men are tough and ruthless, they are praised! but when women are the same, they are deemed crazy, hysterical, evil and ugly! We need to change so many things in our societies.
On to ep 14 and they are in love, sharing stories. Situ Aoran's childhood memories are at the best confusing, the reasons he gives for him being punished and therefore developing fear of darkness are illogical: he was always a good and kind son, his brother was the one always getting in trouble so for all his efforts Aoran is locked in a dark cupboard while his brother and parents go to live in the USA in order to keep him away from trouble! Strange !
Tha ML's life story is also full of illogical events: his mother died when he was young kid but he had to hide from his mother that he failed an exam and had to work! Do they make 10yr olds work part time jobs in Taiwan?!? I wish the writers thought about how the construct the characters backstories and not say whatever is convenient and contradict themselves!
Now they are finally awake but ML's brother and uncle want him dead. But two bodyguards save the day! When I saw them fighting the bad guys, my first thought was: I can see them both in a nice BL! Frankly, they have crackling chemistry just standing next to each other!
The FL in the real world(ep.15 they finally woke up!) seems to have lost all her brain cells: she is suffering being apart from ML so she braves the guards to arrive in front of the ML's room and... wait?!? For what? The guards to come and kick her out?
Luckily, after the initial shock of him not recognizing her, had passed she became her old funny, direct and irreverent self and it has been great watching them trading quips and fall in love all over again! But I so miss the SML lost in the book world!
BTW, who goes to office wearing a tuxedo? What a strange wardrobe choice!
Is Snuggle a real brand? It is featured heavily in the drama including being part of the plot! They must have paid a fortune for it!

As you see, it has been an eventful ride. It reminded me a lot of Extraordinary You but the execution was so much better. The characters were nicer, the chemistry was perfect and even the second lead syndrome was manageable and it did not take over the plot!
The actors were perfect, the story was well written (with the exception of ML's two(book & real life) back stories which were illogical.
I loved all the female characters, they were all strong women. I wish I could see such characters more often! Luckily here not one single female character lost her brain and capacity to think when they fell in love! So refreshing!The male lead character had such a charming smile once he stopped being overbearing
The friendships portrayed were amazing: isn't it great to have such steadfast friends, people who are going to be with you through thick and thin?
There was too much music. Marcus Chang sings the main theme and it featured so many times in every episode! Tiring! The rest of the background score sounded familiar, so it must be some kind of generic score!

In conclusion, I love the female lead character: funny and smart and optimistic and I wish I could find more dramas with characters this one. I don't think I'll rewatch this because it is long and rewatching is a momentary pick me up session but, that said, it is rewatchable since I probably missed plenty of important clues so watching it again could be fun!

I enjoyed this so very much! When twilight breaks dawn, two worlds meet and magic happens!

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Swoon worthy!!! Give it a try, you will not regret!

Ok...my 2 cent after completing this..which is in itself is a big feat for me now a days as i keep leaving trails of half seen dramas... was not a fan of Ep 1 but my sis swear by all her holiness it will get amazing. Lol...so i did stick around for ep2, then 3..4..now after 20..here you go!!
Story: if not typical but very cliché...
Acting: to the point by everyone.
Vipers and Anaconda: it had its share of negative characters serving their purpose.
CHEMISTRY: wow, just wow...
Eye candy: well Marcus took care of that;)
Rewatch: not a fan of watching things seen, but i would rewatch maybe bits and pieces..
Fun Element: well lik extraordinary you, here also u get you see FL making fun of the unrealistic plot and scenes drama world has that are way too overboard..lol

OVERALL: Give it try, you might jus like it;)

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Perfect comeback!!!

Wow, Wow, Wow....
Ok so this is my first Taiwanese Drama since 2010. Yupzzz after kdrama coming to my life, I haven’t watch any taiwanese dramas ?. But this drama was gold! Perfect for my first taiwanese drama after decade. I almost forgot how good are Taiwanese Dramas.

Story : similar with W, and extraordinary you, actually i dropped those two kdrama after almost last episode ?. But this one i got hooke from first episode until the end. The story was hilarious and not boring, similar with the romance between rose and tiger, hillarious!

Acting : all the cast did great Job potraying their characters.
Marcus Chang! I’m in love with him, especially when he saying something little bit in English it was sound so sexy ? his facial expressions for Vivian in this drama just perfect.
Vivian Sung! Love her acting here, she was funny ?
And of course the chemistry between Marcus and Vivian was on the Top, you can tell from their steamy kisses start from episode 12. Beside the kisses i just love their interactions, didn’t have any boring scenes, always looking forward for scenes only two of them.

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'In the storm, you have to be like an adult. In beautiful weather, you have to be like a child.'

I was very excited to begin watching this drama because its plot paralleled that of the Romance of Tiger and Rose (which I absolutely loved!). Unfortunately, I didn't end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would. The first two episodes were boring, but it picks up momentum between episodes 5 and 12, and after that...mediocre at best.

The Good:

The cast is very likeable, particularly the three main leads and Chuntian. I'd only seen Vivian Sung in Our Times before and had no idea she was such a big deal in Taiwan because I don't watch many Taiwanese shows (I should have known better, she's an amazing actress who deserves every bit of recognition!). Despite her character's tragic backstory, her personality was so vibrant and endearing that she carried the show on her back. She was a hard worker who pursued love despite the fact that the odds were stacked against her. Our male lead, Hu Tianxing, portrayed Marcus Chang, was a fascinating character. Marcus's ability to portray two distinct (yet eerily similar) characters was flawless, and you could tell he's a seasoned pro actor. I must admit, however, that I was not particularly interested in his character because he was simply a conventionally written ML. Qingfeng, played by the stunning Simon Lian, was the show stealer for me; I adored his character and am grateful that this show introduced me to him. I rarely have SLS because the FL rarely gets adequate screen time with the second ML; thankfully, this was not the case in Lost Romance, but it made Qingfeng's character so difficult to watch because he was so palpably and deeply in love with our FL. It broke my heart when his backstory was revealed, and it broke my heart after when he and Xiao En could not be together. Chun Tian, Xiao En's best friend, was especially entertaining. It was heartwarming to see her stick by the FL through thick and thin.

The plot's concept was unique. I liked how we got snippets of the characters impersonating characters from popular South Korean dramas like Goblin and DOTS; it was hilarious how they got those bits in. At times, Xiao en's random use of Korean was very relatable, reminding me of my own life as a kdrama fan :p

I really appreciate the messages that the show was attempting to convey. Throughout the 20 episodes, there are numerous encouraging messages about life and oneself.

If you just look at it from the main characters' points of view, the ending is quite satisfying because they all got a happy ending. I expected the last few episodes to be rushed as our two leads reunited in reality, but the transition into their relationship actually made sense and was quite smooth.

(Very steamy scenes between the two leads, enjoyable if you're a fan of those stuff ahaha ;))

The OST is quite catchy, might have to relisten soon!

The Bad:

Oh well...I have a lot to say. First, I know the plot of the book was exaggerated and cliche on purpose but I was just bothered by a lot of tropes and dialogue. I think the writers had a solid concept at the beginning but lost their way in the middle lol. I did not enjoy the plot that was happening in the real world setting either because it was just so 'makjang' (for the lack of a better word) for me. It was a very generic plot and rather boring because it's something I have watched too often. I skipped a few episodes and even watched on 1.5x speed because I got annoyed by the plot.

What disappointed me even more was the characterization throughout the show. I didn't like how all of the women around Tian Xing were shown to be in love with him and to be 'mean girls' to each other in order to win his heart; this is a horrible trope that should be left in the past. I dislike seeing women portrayed in this way. In my humble opinion, they also did ChuChu's character a disservice because some of her actions towards our FL just seem out of character for me at times, even though I understand that's how cliche romance books are and the writers were probably merely mocking them. But, in reality too, they didn't do much with ChuChu's character other than make her a damsel in distress madly in love with the hot CEO. I had similar criticisms with other secondary characters like QingFeng and Chun Tian. To be honest, I enjoyed QingFeng's backstory more than the leads', and I believe an entire drama could be based solely on his backstory. So it was disappointing that we didn't get a deeper glimpse into his story and that he was sidelined (his ending was fine though, could have been longer but I understand why it was done the way it was). Chun Tian deserved a backstory as well; I'd like to know how she and our FL became so close. Perhaps a romance for her would have been nice as well. That being said, there was a lot of potential for a romance between the evil (turned less evil) sister and her secretary (?), and I kinda wish they went down that road. Don't we need more hot chairwoman x secretary/ bodyguard romance in shows? let's change things up a bit people! I've already mentioned it, but I didn't like how they made every woman around Tian Xing fall in love with him (I mean, he's a hot CEO, everyone should be in love with him, but eh), including Shanna. They could have simply implied that she regarded the CEO as a friend and kept it at that. Of course, I understand that giving each character a proper backstory would have been difficult, but a lot of time was wasted on unnecessary flashbacks, so...

To summarize, Lost Romance's plot is quite cliche in many ways, but it has a very pleasant cast and leads who make you want to stick around for the entire drama. The plot's overall concept is novel, but it suffers from poor execution. I'd recommend it if you're looking for a lighthearted romance with delightful main characters.

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Nice romance drama, like it, I love the leads

Nice drama, I like it, love the leads, tagal nga lng nila bumalik sa real world nila
- bagay c TianXIng at Xiao En, ganda ng mga kissing scene nila at sweetness??
- tagal nila bumalik sa real world naiinip ako
- I like XIao En parang strong minsan na di sya clumsy gaya ng ibang female lead din. Ganda ng ugali nya matulungin kahit sa love rival nya
- I like XIao EN she knows how to protect herself most of the time.
- Ang caring ni XIao En kay TIanXIng :)
-Iba pala c Tianxing in real world kesa sa time na nasa novel inside sila pero sya parin
- Ganun parin c ChuCHu mapa inside sa novel or real world nakakainis haha
-I like the drama really pero nakulangan lang ako sa scenes ng real world mas madami kase scene ng inside the novel ?

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Funny at first, then becomes more sincere and romantic

The beginning of this drama is so cheesy, I almost dropped it. The female lead falls into a romance novel and tries to break up the male lead and the girlfriend written for him in the story. This part was interesting on a "meta" level, playing with the tropes around the sweet, helpless romantic female lead and our aggressive protagonist's attempts to sabotage their relationship and take the ML for herself. But knowing it was a fictional world, her actions were over-the-top and often cringey and ridiculous. However the drama began to change for the better (in my opinion) as her relationship deepened with the ML and become more genuine. I'm not going to give details here because I want this review to remain spoiler-free, but there's a major plot twist between the fictional world and the real world, and it gives both the FL and ML the opportunity to act differently (and with more sincerity) as their relationship progresses. So even if you're a little wary at the beginning, I recommend sticking with this drama, it gets significantly better as it progresses and winds up as a genuinely entertaining and sweet romance.

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Oh my goodness, this drama I think beats the myriad of kdramas I have seen in all my years of watching! It's crazy good!! The presentation and writing was much more convincing and mature than I thought it was going to be after reading the description. The plot seemed interesting enough and I thought, "Oh okay, something similar to W: Two Worlds. I can get into another one of those storylines again." Although it had this slight similarity as W: Two Worlds, the vibe was WAY different once I began watching it. This drama stands on its own, and I dare not compare it to the kdrama. They each were good dramas for what they were. Both are in my top 5.

Without giving too much away, let's just say the following reasons why this drama is so high on my list of top favorite dramas are:

1. Loveable, charismatic characters
2. An extremely well-written story
3. Great pacing
4. Talented actors and actresses!! (just discovering the talents of Marcus Chang. The FL was great too!!)
5. The way things happened in the comic versus the real world
6. No fillers, any unnecessary drama (cannot stand it when shows do this just to add a "wow factor" but it adds no purpose to the story).
7. A very satisfying ending (did not leave anything unaddressed or unanswered).
8. The development between the main characters.
9. And my favorite one of all....the passion and chemistry between the main characters! No dead open eyes or robot kissing here, thank you very much!

I am so happy to have discovered this gem. This drama deserves all the recognition it can get! Bravo! Now that all the episodes are out, and I no longer have to wait a week, I will definitely be giving this drama another watch all the way through. That's saying something when I'm willing to give a show another watch. :)

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Worth it! just get past the first 6 episodes!

Really, if you're confused after the first eps, please continue, it does get much better. Trust me, I tried to watch it multiple times cause of great recommendations and just couldn't get through it. I went back to it one more time and I'm glad I stuck with it. An absolutely beautiful story, the confusion at the beginning fades once we get almost fully immersed into the novel. Teared up at the end. Marcus and Vivian's chemistry truly help make the story come to life. The complexity of Xiao En (Vivian's character) comes from her being just as confused as us when her reality is suddenly mixed with a novel and everything she knew is no longer what it seems. Without giving spoilers, when she's misunderstood as trying to sabotage the female lead of the novel, it gets frustrating for us as the audience but also for her as she tries to navigate through her new life. All of this contributes to her eventually moving closer to the male lead and second male lead. We start understanding her frustrations bit by bit. Situ Ao Ran's insecurities/flaws make his charm honestly, he's unabashedly a stereotypical lead on the surface but everything about his character is what helps deepen his relationship with Xiao En. If you're still reading and thinking of watching, do give it chance. 100000/10 recommend!

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