Dear Parents (2021)

A Heartwarming Family Drama

I was looking for some melodrama and stumbled upon this one on iQIYI. I've never heard of this drama before. It's not one of those popular drama that you hear people talk about on social media. But I am glad I watch this drama. This is such a heartwarming drama about a big family that is joined by the parents' second marriage. Through the drama, you will get to see the journey of each of the family member and their ups and downs and their interaction with each other in the "step family" relationship. I like how close to real life this drama is. We all have one or two (or maybe all) of the characters in our own happy family :) This drama also shows how important family and friends are in your life, that in times of trouble, your family (and friends) are the only ones that you can turn to for support. This is also about second chances in life.

The drama is not set in modern times. I think this is the period where China started to open their doors to the world, so you will see the introduction of TV and Cell phone towards the second part of the show and for many parts of the drama, the main means of transportation is still bicycle. I thought it's interesting to see how people in China live before they became as developed and modern as now. The Beijing Opera part of the story shows the traditional cultures and values with the poetic words --> although this is also the part that I enjoy less. But it does add context to the time period.

The characters in this drama is likeable (for the majority of them) and I thought the actors and actresses played their role really well, especially Yan Ni and the father. They are also my favorite characters. I would also like to mention Jiang Mei, who is someone you would hate in the beginning, but she became one of my favorites as well as the drama progresses. She has grown so much and became a very strong woman with a good and loyal heart. Jiang Lin and Li Bing are also adorable in very different ways. My least favorite character is Wang Gai Feng. OMG, she gets on my nerves and annoy the hell out of me with her uneducated hill-billy attitude and that loud no manner voice of hers and she is so materialistic and selfish, but the actress who played this role did it really well. The fact that I get so invested in most of the characters in this drama shows how much I enjoyed watching this.

I thought the editing and cinematography and the background music is great too. I would definitely re-watch this drama sometime in the future.

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