My Love, Enlighten Me (2020)

This is one of my pick me up dramas since it's a bit on the lighthearted side with its light comedy and cute romance and that you’re not gonna end up heartbroken after the last episode. It's one of those dramas that won’t betray your feelings and trust at the end.

STORY
So the drama mainly focuses on this group of people who try to find themselves in a harsh society, especially Nuan Nuan and Han Xue after their dreams of becoming an idol come crashing down one night because of their friends betrayal. And of course Nuan Nuan’s story, as she finds a new dream and love with her friend’s brother Han Che.So the story starts on that fateful day, when three best friends Nuan Nuan, Han Xue and Lin Jia Yi compete to finally debut as a girl group only to be betrayed by Lin Jia Yi, who orchestrated (with their agency’s director) to literally steal the spotlight and with the help of Light and Stage Director King. Jia Yi shot to stardom while Nuan Nuan and Han Xue not only ended up being embarrassed as “back-up” dancers for Jia Yi but got kicked out of their agency as well.

Both girls are not just heartbroken and mad at their friend's betrayal but at a loss, they have trained together for years dreaming of becoming a girl group and to finally debut together and have no back up plan. With Han Xue’s family money, she had no other worries except for Nuan Nuan. Nuan Nuan has no one in the city and will basically become homeless after she moves out of the dorms and so she offers their family townhouse, her deceased grandmother’s studio unaware that her aloof, cold, OCD and genius brother Han Che is back in the country and is set on staying on his grandmother’s house.

With their contrasting personalities, the two did not start well and he ended up throwing her out. It turns out that Han Che a.k.a KING (ikr!) is back in the country not just because of his new company but he wanted to search for his “benefactor”. Back story on that, when the Han sibling’s grandmother died, Han Che was so sick he could barely get up of bed and a mysterious person takes care of him, even though he has hyperthymesia (person who can remember everything) the one thing he can never remember was the face of the girl who took care of him that night.No matter how hard he tries he can never remember her face but he does remember her three white flower hairpin. And on that fateful day he mistook Jia Yi as his benefactor and helped her in becoming a star and unknowingly hurt the real one.

So the whole story will be about Nuan Nuan as she tries to re-invent herself, Han Che tries to “make it up” to her, Jia Yi and Han Chen’s a bit obsessing over our main leads, Han Xue still trying to make herself famous and Gu Li becoming her knight and shining armor.I love the growth of the female leads on this drama. The three girls who started off as best friends, their fall out, their personal growth and realization to finally making up and finding love amidst all the chaos of their life. Especially Nuan Nuan and Han Xue, their journey from who they were at the beginning to what they have become to the end, was really cute and touching.

The chemistries were extremely cute specially for Nuan Nuan & Han Che and Han Xue and Gu Li. I kind of appreciate that the “third parties” on the love story wasn’t despicable characters, Jia Yi and Han Chen even though have expressed their love but they knew the lines not to cross ‘cause even though they are in love they weren’t exactly so blinded by it that they throw their common sense out the window (like most third parties in chinese dramas) and that they value their friendships more than that love.

Which was quite funny ‘cause I was literally waiting to hate Jia Yi if she does something outrageous and stupid and I was genuinely surprised when her character didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was hoping it would, which is definitely a good thing. There were times that did annoy me but they weren’t that bad for me to label her a bitch like most third parties on dramas in general.The ending was really cute and definitely did not disappoint my heart since they have a good, cute and satisfying happy ending. It wasn’t over the top but it was the kind of happy ending that puts my heart to ease.

CHARACTERS
- Liu Nuan Nuan is an aspiring idol who dreamt of nothing but to perform on stage. She is kind, optimistic, lovable, caring and understanding. She is the type of friend you wish you would have. In between the hot tempered Han Xue and goody two shoes Jia Yi, she was mostly the mediator and the overall troubleshooter; whenever her friends have a problem, she is always there fixing them and will do anything to help them out.

She is dependable and loyal but a bit clumsy. She is kind to a fault. But don’t mistake her as a weak girly girl who loves pink and needs constant saving ‘cause she is definitely not that! Nuan Nuan is playful, mischievous and gives off this girl-next-door vibe. She is not too girly but she’s not boyish either.

- Han Che is a famous Visual Director who has finally established his own company. He is cold and brutally honest, with OCD tendencies and hyperthymesia, he has the quadruple threat (lol) He has a bad habit of deciding for others, like he did on the championship. But like most male leads, he has his soft side too. He is not extremely heartless or ungrateful. He is just having a hard time expressing himself in a way that does not sound harsh or rude to most people.

He likes to keep to himself and is perfectionist when it comes to work. But when it comes to Nuan Nuan (after he finally acknowledges his feelings), he can just be himself.

At first I kind of doubted the love story, ‘cause in a way it looked like he was only doing things to repay her kindness but it was quite obvious that what he was feeling was no longer out of debt but he was genuinely falling in love with her. Her clumsiness, her personality and her messiness didn’t bother him in a bad way. Instead it healed him in a way they both didn’t expect, she made him open up as he assisted her to grow as a person. He is always blunt with her and even though it sounded mean at times, it made Nuan Nuan mature and to finally accept the things she couldn’t.

- Lin Jia Yi is Nuan Nuan’s friend who shot to stardom after the championship with King’s help. Jia Yi is viewed by the public as an innocent beauty. She has the face of an angel and the voice of one too. Although she was a bit selfish, she is actually pretty decent compared to other third party characters in most Chinese dramas.

- Han Xue is friend to Nuan Nuan and Jia Yi, she is the outspoken, party girl and hot tempered one in the three. She and her brother Han Che both come from a rich family, their parents have immigrated to america and both have been quite distant to them. Han Xue’s dream was to be famous. She is a bit like Nuan Nuan, she is a bit optimistic but she does have a temper.

She is not very close with her brother or any of her family. She used to be a promising track athlete with a huge possibility of joining the national team but she threw it all away when she decided that she wanted to become an idol.

- Fang Han Chen is a solo artist signed under the same agency as Lin Jia Yi. He has a pretty stable career and a huge fanbase and he actually willingly risked all of his life's work when he tried to stand up for Nuan Nuan. Even though I was not his biggest fan, I admire him for letting go.

- Gu Li is Han Che’s childhood friend and business partner. Well most of the time, he was acting like Han Che’s secretary instead of a business partner (lol). He had long secretly loved Han Xue and would do anything for her.

CAST
The one who brought me to the drama was Eleanor Lee, whom I saw on Fake Princess with Zhao Yi Qin from My Youth and Accidentally In Love. I love Eleanor on Fake Princess so I automatically wanted to watch her more and she did not disappoint. I love that her characters weren’t girly girls or the damsel in distress type but rather the “I’m kind of a badass and I can kick your ass if I want to” kind, they are not pushovers.I didn’t know that Leon Leong was in the 2018 adaptation of Meteor Garden since I have not watched that version but when I looked through his filmography on MDL, he has a good list and most of them have quite good reviews. I love Leon Leong and Eleanor’s chemistry, they don’t look awkward or forceful at all. They look really good together and their portrayal as a couple is really nice to watch, it wasn’t cringey but rather envious to look at.

FINAL THOUGHTS (Rating: 9/10)
Like I said it was Eleanor Lee that brought me to the drama and I honestly had no expectations at all. I just wanted to pass time as I wait for another Wuxia Drama I can watch so I had little to none expectations at all and that is what makes me love the drama even more.

Instead of being influenced by anyone or having a set of expectations for the drama, watching it with basically almost nothing made the drama worth every watch. ‘Cause when you read the synopsis, it might seem like your typical damsel in distress girl who’s life turned upside down and she gets “rescued” by a knight and shining armor and they live happily ever after but instead I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t go that way.Even though yes, our male lead did offer a helping hand, our female lead found herself, she matured in her own way and found her own colors. Which I really appreciate since it breaks away from a lot of modern romantic comedy chinese dramas.

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