It’s only the beginning of 2020 so I wouldn’t be quick to say it’s the best romance drama of 2020 but it probably is.
The drama combines fantasy and reality but there is logic to it. Even the sci-fi elements are within reach. As much as you crave for romantic moments, you end up enjoying the storyline much more and how it will get resolved as it keeps you guessing right until the end. Imo, it’s quite easy to see what’s the outcome as timetravel is not something new but definitely not how it will get there,

The twists and turns are very well foreshadowed throughout the drama. Even with some of the redherring such as the steak and the bangs (you’ll notice when you watch close enough), it never affects the tight writing this drama has.

STORY
The premise is simple enough, it’s a romantic mystery drama about a woman, Huang Yu Xuan, who can’t move on from the presumably dead boyfriend, Wang Quan Sheng and ended up time-traveling. However, the time she traveled to is 1998 and the body she traveled to is that of the girl who looks exactly like her, Chen Yunru (who is dead in 1999). The story develops much further than that with unexpected revelations and the drama ended up combining a lot more genres beyond soap opera.

Although the first 2 episodes are deemed boring, they are extremely crucial to establishing the characters and their relationship. You won’t be able to understand the impact of WQS’s disappearance to HYX and CYR’s actions without fully watching them.

As the story unravels, the core of this drama is revealed to be valuing one’s identity and understanding others beyond the surface. The drama is full of moments where you go “ah, so that’s why he/she did it” and rather than blaming them for not expressing clearly, I find myself saying “I understand” upon deeper reflections.

The story is very tight and switches from past and present, what ifs and reality so I suggest watching this with full attention because you might miss something important. There is a reason Douban users rate the drama at 9.2 with 270k+ reviewers and Chinese netizens dub Li Ziwei as the “winter boyfriend” of this drama season.

Considering the script is developed for 2 years before shooting and the drama is shot months before release, you can guarantee that story is never being compromised by ratings or public opinions.

ACTING

This drama couldn’t have achieved this much success without the strong performances from Alice Ko and Greg Hsu. You can argue about their chemistry but I find it make so much sense for the chemistry to be slightly off at times because their characters’ relationship, imo, is bound by fate but forges by time. While Greg Hsu is phenomenal in portraying character progression, Alice Ko is amazing at portraying 2 identities with depth and complexity, best shown in episode 12. There’s no one man show here, the drama is completely driven by the acting of both leads and Greg Hsu might not even be hired without Alice Ko taking on this project.

MUSIC

I love all the songs from this drama and you can find them on iTunes. The scriptwriter is apparently a fan of Wu Bai and there are posts where people analyse Wu Bai’s songs to explain the drama. I have also been listening to Wu Bai thanks to this drama. Similar to Japanese dramas, it really feels like the songs are specifically written for this drama or they are purposefully chosen for it. Lyrics spoil a lot about the characters actually.

Shi Shi’s Someday or One Day > 831’s 想見你想見你想見你 > YELLOW’s Someday > Shi Shi’s Come Away imo.

REWATCH VALUE
Although the ending fully resolves the issues, you can always rewatch it to see if you have missed anything. I think I marathoned the drama thrice while waiting for new episode and the emotional moments still affect me a lot so please, watch it carefully and digest slowly before moving on to a new episode!

OVERALL 10/10 NEED THE BLURAY BOX SET.

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