The Rational Life (2021)

pleasantly good

As someone that watched and didn't liked "Find Yourself" (another age gap romance drama), I decided to give this show a try as it appeared on my Netflix feed. This show turned out to be much better than I expected and it adds in different flavors compared to other shows with the same genre.

I really enjoyed FL and ML's interaction - their relationship is not a love at first sight/ you're handsome/pretty kind of thing. FL is a capable and independent working adult while ML is a young man fresh in the working industry, right off the bat I liked this contrast. ML's personality is very playful and goofy while FL is someone that focus on work and both of them has their own goals. The big age gap relationship was handled very nicely in a work setting, where both of them sees each other as trust worthy colleagues and went through all the office politics together which eventually developed into something more, their foundation is solid.

I've always disliked when such shows FL have to treat ML like a small kid/ heavily emphasize on the age gap - but this show managed to done it without all these! Overall, it's a good watch and there's good takeaway from this drama.

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A woman who balances various walks of her life

The rational life pleasantly surprised me.With a plot based on a woman who faces constant pressure from her mother to marry and settle,constant problems in her office from her colleagues to bring her down,guides her friends and juniors in in their life issues,strives to promote the business of the company she works in,and unexpectedly finds true love amongst all the busy days in her daily routine.
Shen Ruo xin,is a 30+ career driven woman who works in a car manufacturing company and also deals with various departments associated with cars,like insurance,on road pricing, models,and many more.
Qi xiao joins her as her assistant after their unexpected and awkward meeting.
Gradually they fall in love with each other.Qi Xiao is always there for Shen Ruo xin,even in her difficult situations,low points and helps her swim through all the struggles she encounters in her personal and professional life.
Their chemistry was good.
Calvin as Xu Ming Jie was good in his role.
The costumes,cast were good.
A decent drama which narrates the life of a 30+ contemporary woman.Go for it .

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Slow burning idealist romance

I've watched many kdramas and this is the first cdrama that I've finished. The others I tried were full of overacting and cringey characters that I couldn't watch. I feel like cdrama fans must be much more critical than kdrama fans. The rating for this show is currently 7.9 while some sub-par kdramas are rated at 8.7 or higher.

This slow-burn of a romance drama balanced with corporate politics has a modern feel to it. Our heroine played by Qin Lan, is a near-perfect person. Intelligent, rational, thoughtful, and poised no matter what comes her way. Although it can be hard to buy in to such a perfect character, her very natural acting brings it to life and she's very enjoyable to watch as Shen Ruo Xin. Dylan Wang as Qi Xiao is also an idealist archetype, but with a earnest and straightforward nature, and he pulls it off too. Their romance is mature, sweet, and calm.

The balance between the main leads and the supporting characters is well done. They grow their interconnections in smooth ways, and you get to know them quite well. I really enjoyed the innocent sweet relationship between Su Yang and Si Jia. And I absolutely loved the energetic, confident, and fearless Zi Yan as Ruo Xin's best friend. The two had such great chemistry as BFFs.

Some might call this drama flat or boring. I think it could have used a few more dramatic plot challenges, and the ones it did have could have brought more variation to the tone. However, I feel the script was very well written, almost as if it was capturing real life interactions, without cutting any lines out. If you are in the mood for following interesting and well-written dialogue, you will enjoy this and it won't seem boring.

This drama is filled with idealist representations of people. The maturity in the relationships and the smooth way in which the characters interact with each other and form relationships that go beyond isolating the main leads from the supporting characters is well done. The production values are beautiful. And the calm, mature feel of the show makes it really enjoyable. I'm so glad I watched this and now I'm off to find more cdramas like it!

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Unimpressive Story Line and Acting

I really, really hate myself for watching the entire series, all 35 episodes - basically became torture after watching about 7-8 of them. I kept hoping for some type of shift in the story line and it never happened. Typical family and friend relationships for this type of drama - blah, blah and blah.

I have to say, I'm shocked at all the positive reviews and I've only read on that was a realistic evaluation of the series. I watched the about 17 episodes before I started to fast forward, a lot, just to get through the program.

Let me start with saying the FL is a fantastic actress whom I've seen before in other rolls. However, she should have skipped this one - she should have a heart to heart with her manager about placing her in these types of rolls!!! In the beginning of the series, they portray her as this super tough and intelligent women climbing the company latter, however, in essence she turns out to be soft, caring and vulnerable women that needs the help of a 22 year old punk out of college - not a good look for women.

The ML bordered on being creepy in his pursuit of his boss - almost to the point of being a stalker. And, low and behold, nobody in the office noticed him hounding her every minute of the day. His facial expressions were extremely exaggerated and his acting was subpar in my opinion. He should go back to a acting couch and hone his skills a little more before he takes on any more big projects.

And, the actors who played her boss, Mr. Xu, is an excellent actor whom I've also seen before. This series was way below anything he should have ever entertained and shouldn't have participate - I don't care how much $$$ was involved..

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Autêntico

Não sei se eu mudei, se estava com saudades de doramas com o Dylan Wang ou se o drama é realmente tudo isso, mas só sei que esse é o terceiro melhor drama que eu já vi.
Dificilmente gosto das protagonistas de hoje em dia e dificilmente gosto de tudo em um dorama, mas esse carinha é diferente. Ele rompe barreiras e levanta temas disfarçadamente. A presença do emponderamento feminino é maravilhosa, pois a protagonista passa por CADA situação machista e desprezível. Ao mesmo tempo, também são retratados outros temas como casamento, materialismo, desmerecimento de pessoas jovens, as falcatruas em ambientes de trabalho, sustentabilidade..., mas acho que tudo gira em torno da temática feminina. Questões como "mulheres servem apenas para fazer filhos?", "mulheres não podem fazer o que querem?", "mulheres precisam gostar de crianças e agir com feminilidade?", "mulheres não servem para coordenar empresas?", "mulheres são frágeis e não pensam muito?", "mulheres não podem ficar com homens mais novos?".
Todas essas questões levam a seguinte resposta: NÃO.
Esse drama trouxe um romance lindo e simples, sem nada muito intenso e que me fizesse ficar extremamente presa, mas trouxe muitas reflexões lindas para guardar em meu coração. Fora que essa protagonista é perfeita, MEU DEUS!
Se você só quer algo meio meloso e clichê, não sei se é a hora de ver esse dorama, pois ele não segue a linha de uma garota pobre com um cara rico. Muito pelo contrário! Ela lutou muito para ter o dinheiro dela e o rapaz também trabalha muito todos os dias para ter seu sustento.

SOBRE O DORAMA EM SENTIDO DE ROMANCE:
Demora uns 25 episódios até você ver um só abraço. Sim, você não leu errado e eu não estou me precipitando. Também fiquei um pouco impaciente, mas eles te preparam para isso. Por ser um dorama com uma temática MUITO amadurecida, o romance também é amadurecido. Você consegue ver um romance nascer entre os dois. É quase como se você estivesse vendo uma gestação toda detalhada. Eu sou impaciente e fiquei bem calma até o momento. Acho que esse é um dos pontos fortes do dorama: a espera. Não gosto de romance que não é bem trabalhado e esse com certeza foi bem trabalhado.

Recomendo hoje, recomendo amanhã e recomendo sempre.

Lire davantage

So high review but it wasn't 10/10

Story was great and there relationship from start to end was Great too

They wasted lot of time on her BOSS. 20 episodes, trying to make her cindrella and then got denied..

Real flirting started from 21
Relationship started at 27 episode out of 35
Other then her childhood divorced sweetheart there was no villian

she did not let him even kiss her,
She did not introduced him to her friends herself he went there and she has to....
She was smart enough to understand YUTAO was a scambeg but she keep in touch with him and let him manipulate there relationship.
FL Asked him to kept that from her mother but he went on to tell her
He look down on FL and insulted her
But she just accepted all that because he is her childhood sweetheart ? Ugly look sweetheart.
She don't ask her mother who told her about how is her boyfriend ?
At least a SLAP he deserves from FL.
In e 34
I did not get it why she even accepted yutao call and even going to meet that lowlife, if she have that much free time then she should spend that with her boyfriend then a lowlife...

GU YU TAO DESERVES A HARD SLAP

Boring for 20 Episodes

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It a joy and a pleasure to watch it

I have been a Dylan Wang's fan since Meteor Garden, after Evernight 2 and waiting for his new incoming dramas.
This drama treat some important issues in China nowadays, women independence, the thing that there is nothing wrong with relationships between a 30s female and a young man, also family and old tradition matters.
The lead actress is exquisite on her acting. She has been a fantastic discovery. She along Didi, he plays a lovely, kind and loyal guy.
One more time, Dylan shows his awesome skill on acting, I'm proud.

The rest of the cast did great too. Totally is the drama to re watch it and enjoy it over and over again.

Lire davantage

A beautiful and realistic portrayal of (romantic) relationships in life

Such an amazing drama, with such a beautiful portrayal of romantic relationships through different stages. It also realistically portrayed the hardships people go through in current society. I liked how they showed the character finding and choosing their own happiness, just as we strife to do every day.

The casting was perfect. Each actor performed their role very well and the main couple just melted my heart with their sweetness.

Though this drama didn't have any big highs or lows that kept me at the edge of your seat, it flowed naturally like a real story would. I wouldn't recommend this drama to people who want to take their mind of things, as this drama does go into some serious societal issues. However for people for people who enjoy who enjoy slice of dramas this is a great pick.

Overall it was a very nice watch. I'm going to miss seeing these characters on my screen. 8/10.

Lire davantage

"The Rational Life" is a well-written and well-acted drama that covers office politics, sabotage, and sexual discrimination with a budding romance winding its way throughout.

The first two-thirds of the of the series was well-paced and held my attention completely. The last third featured excellent character development, but was slow at moments.

Notably, the working partnership between Shen Ruo Xin and Qi Xiao was dynamic & exciting. The dialogue was cracking, the chemistry was off the charts, and you had the feeling that you were really seeing two people fall for each other while dealing with realistic workplace issues.

Unfortunately, the romance overwhelmed later episodes as the couple faced pointless obstacles and they (yawn) talked their way out of them. The couple didn't really "do" anything together once Xiao left Zenpro. This was a shame because their interactions while working on the common project of establishing the electric car business were what made the show so compelling.

Dylan Wang is not the best actor, but he has a ton of charisma and was extremely convincing as mature 20-something Qi Xiao falling in love with his 30-something boss.

Chen Peng Wan Li who played Su Yang moped his way through the entire series but had a shining moment in the scene with his parents. It's a shame his back story wasn't better developed because he showed he had the chops to carry some of the show.

Watching the friendship develop between Zhou Yi Lan (Ruo Xin's mother) and Du Li Ting (Xiao's mother) was delightful. Both actresses gave beautiful, heartwarming performances as the sometimes infuriating but mostly lovable matriarchs.

The slower pacing of the last third as well as some missed opportunities and overdone story lines - Xu & Gu love interests why? - lead me to rate this series 8.5/10.

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Healthy relationships

A good balance between workplace drama, slice-of-life, family and romance.
The relationships portrayed, both family, friends and coworkers, are realistic and develops well, supporting the storyarchs and pace of the drama.

Acting was strong from pretty much everyone. Dylan Wang mastered the portrayal of a young person with sincere feelings well, and I must say the actress playing FL’s mum impressed me.

The “opposite age difference” is shown in a very realistic way, and I particularly liked how they addressed the concerns and obstacles through the views of different people around them.

The supporting characters’ stories did develop on their own archs, without being too dominating. They could have dropped some of it and made the drama shorter, as they were not really essential to the story, but those scenes didn’t feel like a total waste of time either.

All in all, this is a good drama to watch if you like more mature, healthy relationships.

Lire davantage

One of the most beautiful and memorable story

Just finished watching this series today, damn I really loved it I feel kinda empty now am done with it. The female lead character is the most lovable person have ever seen in a drama, if such a person exist in real life she would definitely be my role model. This drama would be one of the best Chinese drama have watched. It was a roller coaster of different emotions, I genuinely cried during the sad part, and I smiled also during the good part. I look forward to this writer new dramas he/she definitely deserves an award for this drama, I also look forward to the female lead and the male lead dramas. I loved the second couples too. I really wished it did not end. I feel sad the characters ain't real but fictional, I feel sad I won't get to see them more. I would recommend this to everyone who gets to read my review.

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