After having my life completely ruined by “Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms“, I thought that I would never be able to rise from the dead or probably just stay as an immortal forever. I was wrong because an innocent and nostalgia-themed drama picked me up but only to leave me become a soul because this drama killed me a lot of times.

Hundreds of dramas dealing with these kinds of themes have already been made, some stood out while some were just forgettable. Given that this drama’s premise isn’t unique anymore, then what made people love it so much? Read more to find out why this drama is closing out my 2017 on a beautiful note!

STORY:

Truth be told, I did not fall in love with the story right away as I saw it as a rip-off of my beloved “It Started With A Kiss”. It made me think something like, “oh, this must be China ripping off famous dramas and remaking them would cost more so they’ll just change it up a bit”. A young, dumb, and innocent girl outwardly expressing her admiration towards a cold, genius, and basically Mr. Perfect? Pssshh I know what’s going to happen already, writers!

I was not completely wrong, “A Love So Beautiful” for me became a more realistic and smarter version of “It Started With A Kiss”. The former didn’t have a crazy earthquake hit the female lead’s house only to find herself closer literally and figuratively to the male lead. The female lead also didn’t live her life completely devoted to the male lead, she had her own dreams to fulfill which made me so happy. It may be unfair to compare both dramas as each drama had their own share of highs and lows which could also be attributed to the time difference of over a decade but both stories are still worth watching.

Moving aside from the comparison, this drama’s story was not as fluffy as I expected it to be. I felt like I got more dashes of angst which makes me demand for a second season (please, please, please!). Every episode was vignette-like as it starts from a new day instead of continuing from where the previous episode left us off. It ticked me a bit because I wanted to know how the characters were feeling after a certain event but the way of story-telling grew on me as it came to me as a fresh concept in dramas. Unlike most dramas, the story did not rely on flashbacks to support the current story. They actually relied on cut scenes and the epilogue that the story could live without but of course it was better for a fan like me to have those and of course, I want more!

ACTING/CAST:

Hu Yi Tian as Jiangchen
I would give him all the awards for being the most tsundere of all the tsunderes that I have ever watched. For drama newbies out there, a tsundere is a type of character development who’s cold but eventually shows his warm side which is usually triggered by someone he likes. In terms of the character’s lines in the script, he had the least number of lines to memorize because a tsundere doesn’t really talk much but he still managed to capture the hearts of the girls around him.

Jiangchen will always have a place in my heart because who else could make me squeal a hundred times and replay his scenes over and over again?! Maybe Dao Ming Si, Ye Hua, and all my other favorite male leads could but it’s been a while since it came from a male lead in a nostalgic-themed drama. So what’s my point now? My point now is that Jiangchen is such an ideal guy but he can be very real too. His tragic flaw was that crazy jealousy of his that could consume him if he let it but at least he won over it in the end. Moreover, he made sure that he was fighting for his dream while also staying by Xiaoxi’s side. A true dream come true for any girl *sighs*.

Being in his first lead role, I don’t really have any other works of Hu Yi Tian to draw comparisons from. However, he still amazed me with his ability to act especially when he was showing his feelings for Xiaoxi given that he only had limited emotions and words to express it. I feel that I will be having a hard time watching him in another role as he made the character of Jiangchen unforgettable.

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Shen Yue as Chen Xiaoxi
She may be portrayed as a typical dumb female lead but for me, I don’t find Chen Xiaoxi dumb at all. She may be dumb academically but we could see that she really didn’t need that to excel in her career as she eventually became a comic artist. She followed this dream of hers without compromising anything, she didn’t have to choose love over career (now that’s new, dramaland!)

Xiaoxi is very relatable, she is your average highschooler who just wanted to be liked by someone that she has been crushing on for years. She is innocent but she wasn’t scared to show her emotions no matter what she was feeling. When she was happy because of Jiangchen, I was happy and squealing for her. When she had her heart broken, I was crying with her too. I feel like she was a close friend of mine that I’ve known for a long time. One thing that I really liked in this drama was how they showed how Xiaoxi matured from Jiangchen’s #1 fan girl to becoming an independent woman who would rather think twice instead of impulsively making decisions.

Just like Hu Yi Tian, Shen Yue is also a fresh face in the entertainment industry but I’m already looking forward to seeing her play in other roles (Shancai in “Meteor Garden” remake! *squeals*). Her first leading role already made us see that she has a bright future ahead of her but I will forever remember her role as the adorable and entertaining Chen Xiaoxi whom I cried and laughed with.

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Wang Zi Wei as Lin Jing Xiao
Oh the ever-loyal Jing Jing! I was only supposed to have long descriptions for my OTP but I feel that it would be unfair to the greatest drama best friend of all because she deserves it. In most of the dramas that I’ve watched, I tend to get bored when watching side stories but Jing Jing’s stalker adventures were enough to entertain me.

Without her, no one could push Xiaoxi beyond her limits in pining for Jiangchen so she basically made our OTP possible. This is why we really love you, Jing Jing! She’s very smart, strong-willed, cool, and most especially supportive to Xiaoxi. She has everything that you would ask for in a friend, no wonder Lu Yang fell head over heels for her. When they grew up, she was focused on her career that we could not see her that much anymore as Xiaoxi’s best friend so that bummed me a bit and how I wish she had some encounter with that gorgeous school doctor.

Okay, that’s enough of wishing for me now but what I was just really trying to say was that, Lin Jing Xiao was an amazing best friend and dramaland needs more people like her!

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Gao Zhi Ting as Wu Bo Song
If I had a severe case of second lead syndrome, I would have probably threw my iPad and phone in the air while watching this drama. But guess what? I rarely get that syndrome and I remained to be SLS-free in this drama. It’s not that I dislike him or anything but Jiangchen really had me under his spell too. This boy did EVERYTHING for Xiaoxi and come to think of it, he was the dumb one in this drama.

I can’t blame him too because that was his chosen way of loving someone but it really sucked to be in his place. Feelings were never reciprocated, not even 0.1% was but I guess that’s what made this drama even more relatable and real in terms of love. He continued loving even when he knew that he was going to lose because according to him, he still wanted to try.

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Other notable characters:
Sun Ning as Lu Yang
I didn’t really have enough feelings for Lu Yang that could make me write in paragraphs. Lu Yang was only loyal to his beloved Jing Jing then he would switch sides among Xiaoxi, Wu Bo Song, and Jiangchen. It would usually just depend on how they would bribe him (snacks and drinks from Jiangchen worked well haha!). Even so, Lu Yang surely brought in a lot of laughs and I’m happy for him that all of his hard work made him win the girl of his dreams.

Zhang He Hao Zhen as Li Shu
Doctor, doctor, my throat hurts! I swear I need this doctor back in my screen. I wanted more of him and when I saw that he had a developing story with Lin Jing Xiao, I thought he would be there until the end *sighs*. On the brighter side, he got to pursue his dream instead of dealing with the students’ fake illnesses but I  still wanted to see him bump into Jing Jing like when Xiaoxi’s dad got admitted to the hospital where Jiangchen was working. That would have been really nice, writers (but okay, I’ll move on).

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MUSIC:

I loved the OSTs of this drama especially the opening song entitled “You’ll Know Just How Much I Like You”. I saw a post online saying something like “you know you’re obsessed with ‘A Love So Beautiful’ when you don’t skip the opening song” which is totally true because I usually skip the opening to save time but this one’s an exception. This song also had a significant role in the drama as Xiaoxi’s Super Girl audition piece and it was really made for her and how she was feeling towards Jiangchen. It’s just so light and fluffy that I don’t think I’d get tired of listening to it.

The ending song was sang by no less than our dearest Jiangchen in real life *squeals again*, Hu Yi Tian. It was just growing on me when I was listening to it for the first few times but after learning that it was sang by him, I could not help but have an automatic bias and placed the song in my Spotify playlist already haha!

All in all, the OSTs were a great accompaniment to the mood of the drama and even the instrumental music was making me feel lighter and happier. I don’t see myself skipping this drama’s OSTS anytime soon in my playlist.

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REWATCH VALUE:

Will I watch this drama again? Definitely! I actually just finished rewatching my favorite clips and still smiled alone like an idiot. Following what the cold but romantic Jiangchen said, what would be my life without this drama? Now I want my season 2! This drama goes down in my list of favorite C-dramas and I don’t even have a lot of C-drama faves to begin with which already says so much about my love for this drama.

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OVERALL RATING:

Yup, you guessed it right! It’s a 10/10 for me because only such highly-rated dramas of mine could get me back to blogging after quite a while. This drama gave me nothing but happiness, it made me feel like I was floating on cloud nine. I really hope I could still find dramas that gave such a light and wonderful feeling.

No matter how familiar the story is, these fresh faces gave us a new perspective on the importance of friendship, the innocence of youth, and the excitement brought about by the roller coaster ride that is love. With Lu Yang and Wu Bosong’s perseverance in love, Jing Jing’s strong-mindedness, Jiangchen’s subtle expressions of love, and Xiaoxi’s innocence and maturity in the end were the main components of making this love so beautiful. 

This drama can make you dream of a love so beautiful because we all have that Chen Xiaoxi in us who dreams of her own Jiangchen to love her and always stay by her side.

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And that’s it for my review of this beautiful drama! It was a great way to end my 2017 and here’s to looking forward to Hu Yi Tian and Shen Yue’s upcoming projects! I just randomly placed my favorite screenshots of our Jiangchen because why not? If you loved this drama as much as I did, I hope to see you in the comments section below 😉 if you didn’t like it, I deserve an explanation below too haha!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!