Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
Who doesn't love a bad boy/good girl romance? With all the thrills and problems it implies . . . *Discussion of Red Flags at the end*
This modern romance has the life/death feel of a historical drama set in the present day. Li Xun is your black sheep general or heir, highly strategic, intelligent, competent and cold as ice. Zhu Yun is your earnest and bubbly sheltered daughter of a palace adviser who has a hidden righteous fury. Li Xun could conquer the world in one step, if not for his weaknesses which are the family and friends around him especially Zhu Yun. Their journey to happiness takes years of twists and turns, revenge plots and separations.
The beginning creates a lot of suspense by jumping back and forward in time. The end is touching and perfect acknowledging the years that have passed. In the perfect last flip of perspective, Li Xun never says it, but we get to see that Zhu Yun was the best thing that ever happened to him.
Chen Fei Yu as Li Xun excels at a smirky teenage cool. Zhang Jing Yi as Zhu Yun excels at a straight-forward eagerness and stubbornness. They have excellent chemistry together, but limited range. Even as the years pass, you do not get a sense of any time passing for their characters. There's no large moments of self-doubt, no hidden flaws or temperaments that only come out later on. What you see is what you get. Zhao Zhi Wei as Gao does a much better of job of changing into a more bitter, muddle headed adult.
Music is fine, and I wouldn't really rewatch.
I grade on other criteria:
Complex Themes: 9.0
Men who have chips on their shoulder, jealous, unscrupulous and thirsty to succeed can indeed be bad partners. But, these men can come from any economic class. It's wrong to assume that ambitious men who grow up in poorer circumstances will have bad values compared to those from other wealthier backgrounds. Upfront, straight-forward, reliable people of whatever background are worth a dozen schemers.
Complex Characters/Character Growth: 5.5
Gao changes a lot and it’s a very believable change, that he was unable to accept his own limitations, and had unhealthy level of grudges and aggression that grew with time. Li Xun and Zhu Yun stay very consistent throughout.
Complex Women/Complex Relationships Between Women: 7.5
Zhu Yun and her mother have a very complicated and contentious relationship. With her mother unable to see her potential, and so sure that her daughter is the same as her. So, some points there. Otherwise, there are women friendships and characters but they are drawn a bit thin.
Production Value/Cinematography: 5.0
This is filmed very straight on with not too much creativity to clothes or sets let alone camera angles. There’s a camera choice for the very end where it switches to Li Xun that is powerful, but otherwise this category did not stand out to me at all.
*RED FLAGS*
Both Li Xun and Gao display numerous red flags including: smirking in the face of distress, not showing vulnerability, taking away people’s choices, defensiveness, feeling like you are ‘above the rules’ or ‘above the law,’ a lack of friend/familial relationships, uncomfortable feelings, dreams outsized to current reality, quick to sacrifice other people’s feelings to meet your goals etc.
The highly problematic myth of the bad boy/good girl romance is that the love of a good woman can ‘tame’ or soften a bad boy and these traits, and that myth is highly on display here.
What’s worse is that Zhu Yun shows all the signs of someone in the thrall of limerence/obsession running after Li Xun and getting crumbs for 95% of the show. She declares at the end that she knows he will soften/ripen like a peach, but we the viewers see little indication that that’s the case.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
Mediocre slow paced drama focused on coding and revenge
This drama is highly rated so I decided to give it a chance. It is focused on the relationships between Li Xun, Zhu Yun, Lao Gao who met in college. The beginning started off with Li Xun being released from prison, the next 23 eps goes back in time of how these three have met and build up of their relationship. There are sweet moments between Li Xun and Zhu Yun, and also the bitter relationship between Li Xun and Lao Gao. The drama itself is very slow paced, although I did enjoy some of the sweet moments, I felt it has dragged for finally when there are some action on eps 23+. This section is focused on how Li Xun build himself up from after prison to get revenge. I still end up skipping a lot of scenes as it is draggy. Overall, romance and revenge is sweet on some parts, but can't make up for the drama being draggy.Li Xun is handsome but his acting is dull (in fact not just this one, I seen about 3 dramas from this actor already), maybe the drama would've been more enjoyable with a better actor.. Zhu Yun does portray her character pretty well. Lao Gao face is just hateable, I guess that means he did his part for the drama?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Great Script, Great Casting and tension-filled
This show was so emotionally draining, but in a somewhat, good way? I’m not a fan of high-angst or hate-to-love troupe or the girl chasing the guy storylines and despite Lighter and Princess having all of those, I was pretty much hooked and addicted from the very first episode.The best part of the drama was casting and script. I hadn’t seen Chen Fei Yu since Ever Night and even then he was a baby doing his best to become the best Martial Artist. I have to say, he did very well in Lighter and Princess as the tortured, cold and stoic chip-on-his-shoulder ML.
Zhang Jing Yi was excellent in Fall in Love and so it didn’t surprise me how well she did in this drama and the chemistry between her and Chen Fei was the BEST part of the drama. The tension between the two was so addicting to watch. I also love that they are close in age. Even though, both are babies in their early twenties, they played the older-parts very well.
I didn’t like that the drama started out in the future. You get the sense something bad happened and then it rewinds and you start the drama from the beginning. After watching that, it like, I was waiting for the ball to drop during the entire series. I guess you could say that amplified the angst for me.
I did enjoy the parts of the kids in college the best. The rag-tag team of kids they casted was pretty adorable and the side storylines were enjoyable. There was the singer, the nerd and the flirt. I liked that the drama was about computer programing, so it was fun for husband to watch with me and explain some of the technical parts of the drama.
There’s a lot of push and pull between the main leads. This is a ROMANCE drama, but not an easy one to watch. The FL truly chases the ML through-out the drama which at some parts could be trying at times, since he’s not the best person. The ML isn’t the hero of the show, as much as we should love him. I do love how strong they wrote his character, but he is written with lots of flaws. But you take the bad with the good and eventually he redeems himself.
Overall, it was a beautiful drama to watch, very fresh and new. I loved the casting and the chemistry between the leads. It’s a tension filled angst fest with lots choices to be made and lots of love to be tested.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
You will never regret watching this
probably the best drama I have seen and in 2022saw this trailer from my YouTube recommendations and spark my attention. waited for 2 months for it to come out as expected it didn't disappoint me. This story plot is so interesting and gives off the fresh youth vibe. The acting was so on point that I fell for both the male and female leads not to mention the villians also did very great. The set up to gao jian hong arc is very understandable and realistic. The music choice for this song is SO SO NICE and the fact that the side cast sang it makes it even better. I love the casting for this drama , Chen feiyu did a amazing job potraying li xun and so is Zhang jingyi I can literally see zhuyun in her. I have finish watching this drama almost about 2 weeks ago ? still not over it. I am planning to rewatch it again soon. BUT THIS IS SUPER RECOMMENDED
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
A Love All Women Want
Lighter and Princess is hands down the best c-drama I have ever seen. The story was exceptionally good. It portrays how we all make mistakes in life but you have to have the grit & determination to jump back up and go after what you want. The love between the main couple is so heartwarming. The FL was steadfast and loyal to her man from the beginning to end. The acting and the chemistry between the leads phenomenal. You can feel the love between them just by the way they look at each other. The music was also very good. I usually don't enjoy Chinese music but the songs in this show are very catchy and it's hard to get them out of your head. I can rewatch this over and over, it is just that good. I would recommend this show to all out there.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
SHE WAS PRINCESS AND HE WAS HER KING
Writing a review for the first time.At first place, I gave it try was just because of its first poster which I came across in Instagram and the actress Zhang Jing Yi. In the course of the journey I started to fall for the Chen Fei Yu's acting skills and expressions.
Unlike any other C-drama this drama's plotline was not too draggy and you could feel the lead's chemistry. Although it was slow burn but there chemistry was on point. And Zhao Zhi Wei did a very good job in playing a negative character.
MUST GIVE IT A TRY, YOU WON'T REGRET IT.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
Honest Review
The only reason I was able to watch this till 19 episodes was the male lead. He is damn handsome!!The story is slow paced and after few episodes is annoying. Everyone is literally on their computers 24×7. At night, at day, at home, at workplace, at school, at restaurant, literally everywhere. This is such an unrealistic drama.
The main lead is a genius who can crack any code within minutes and never fails at anything. He is a super genius who treats his fellow mates poorly and looks down upon them. The female lead has nothing to do except working for the main lead. A drama totally obsessed with computers.
If you are watching this for romance, it's slow paced. Their chemistry is good but the writers failed to present it. Only watch this drama if either you're obsessed with computers and coding or you're obsessed with any of the leads else it's a time waste
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
The One Who Never Betrayed Him....
Overview of Plot :-Lighter and Princess is the story follows Li Xun and Zhu Yun, the students of Computer Science...
Li Xun, a true genius in computer programming in internet world... The top scorer in college entrance examination but not interested in cooperating with his batchmates and loves to work alone.
Zhu Yun, a pampered girl from wealthy family, enrolled in Computer Science Department because her parents made this decision for her.
Li Xun and Zhu Yun are like fire and water and don't have a favourable opinion of each other from the very first interaction, yet fate made them encounter again and again. What will happen when they start to fall for each other, will the water evaporate or the fire go out, dive in to know more...
Key Characters:-
Li Xun (Chen Fei Yu): An arrogant and aloof genius who loves to work alone. Making friends is a waste of time for him. His computer is his wife and coding is his life. A hardworking person who believes in his own abilities. He desires and work hard to develop a software to help society. He is a person who has flaws but also many qualities. As leader, he thinks well of the member of his team but his method of doing things for their development may not right for everyone. As I said previously he has flaws, it's one of his flaw but it's what makes him more realistic.
Zhu Yun (Zhang Jing Yi): An innocent and cheerful girl and princess of her parents. Not a clingy type but actually intelligent, loyal and responsible person. Because of her protective parents she is a bit naive and not fully aware of cruelty of world. She used to be obedient girl and her parents made every decision for her in life until she met Li Xun. She is a person who knows how to acknowledge other's intelligence and never afraid of admitting her defeat.
My Impressions:-
This drama is literally good. The thing touched my heart is that Zhu Yun never betrayed Li Xun even after that much happened between them. She never broke up with him even when Li Xun tried every means that to happen. She supported him when everyone was against him. Though Li Xun is a genius but in my opinion, after his fall, without Zhu Yun supporting him unconditionally, he would have never achieved whatever he wanted to do lawfully. She is one of best female characters I have come across. She is loyal and determined towards her love.
As for Li Xun, I think his own behaviour isn't that great to become a favourite of mine. He has flaws, so has everyone, but that doesn't justify rude behaviour with others. One might be a genius but when living in society, one still need to be considerate of the feelings of his close ones or friends. Being rude to anyone in public might lead to hostility and if the other person holds grudges, it will lead to downfall even of a genius. Teaching someone by scolding in public or by being rude can never be a good way, even if it's for their own good.
People may justify his behaviour saying that he is a genius so he can be rude because he has ability and is realistic but that's not how the society works. If rude behaviour and arrogance can be justified because he is a genius then no one should complain about what happened to him after that and should not put the blame on Gao Jian Hong, his jealousy is also justifiable then.
Additionally, compared to Li Xun, Gao Jian Hong was way worse. He wanted to compete with Li Xun. He could have done it fair and square but the means he adopted can never be acceptable. He doesn't know to admit his defeat and lacks the bravery of admitting other person's intelligence being higher than his. This lead him to end up losing everything, including his own abilities, intelligence and ofcourse his friends which could have become his most important support in his life. He destroyed everything he once has by his own hands because of jealousy and hatred.
There is one more character I loved other than Zhu Yun. It's Tian Xiu Zhu. He is so fine, not having a single flaw. He has sense of humour and is very supportive. He is definitely a boyfriend material.
Acting and Chemistry:-
Acting was pretty good by leads and also from other actors. Despite the young age of leads they delivered great emotions making viewers smile with them and feeling heartbreak with them. From being naive and cheerful to mature and serious, Zhang Jing Yi played everything beautifully, so did Chen Fei Yu. The chemistry both the leads have, can be considered as top-notch. Li Xun's teasing is on another level, honestly.
Overall it was an emotional ride from comedy to heart wrenching moments... For me, the most worth watching thing in this drama is Zhu Yun. She is the reason I stayed with this drama. Stream or skip it's upto you now.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
First love, Friendship, True Love Never Die
Thank you L&P casts and crews team. Thank you for making such a precious drama. This drama show us, true love never die, friendship is more important than unfaithfulness. We can see this How pretty of Li Xun and Zhu Yin’s love. When Li Xun went to jail, I felt so sorry for Zhu Yun, and I got tired of watching her feels, her depression. When Li Xun give a lesson to Hou Ning, Zhu Yun thought that Li Xun would do something stupid like that again last 3 years. So, she run and run to him and then she saw that he push Hou Ning down, she slapped to him. I understand her feelings very well. She doesn't want the person she loves to be overwhelmed by such stupid work days again. I remember this line of Li Xun “No matter how many times it hits me I can stand up again, but she can't.” Zhu Yun’s Line “ I can bow my head but he can't. i don't allow”. Ah… These words show how much they both love and care. I can say for sure that we will definitely remember this beautiful drama forever. Yesssss, this is best Youth Urban Drama Of 2022 for meeeee. Bye Bye Li Xun, Zhu Yun we will always remember.Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
The story of true love
This story shows the true face of friendship. The character of LX is very cold which can not be liked by all but his life is full of saddnes. this story also teaches us that a true love can fadeAt the last I would say that the drama is really worth watching, but be careful of addiction ?
And LX and ZY is love ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
?
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Deze recentie kan spoilers bevatten
The captivating script, the perfect cast, heart-stopping chemistry between the leads and the moving soundtrack make Lighter and Princess one of the top modern romance dramas. The storyline moves through several years and brings us into different phases of the leads' lives. The story is tight with enough tension, character development especially that of the main lead Li Xun and even that of the second lead Gao Jian Hong, enough heartbreak and of course, enough kisses between the leads that kept me hooked through the 36 episode. My only grouse is that the reconciliation only happened at the 2nd last episode - it would have been good to see the leads together for a longer time at the end. Chen Feiyu was perfectly cast as Li Xun, a character who is outwardly arrogant and blunt to the point of rudeness but deep down is a caring person who goes all out for the people he cares about. This care drives him to actions that seem incomprehensible and they are to his own detriment. Li Xun is an unyielding perfectionist and is very hard on himself. His love for Zhu Yun and the belief that she is better off without him drives him to break her heart and at the expense of his own heart. His words are often unbearably harsh but Zhu Yun continues to believe in him as she understands him well. Zhang Jing Yi too is correctly cast as Zhu Yun, someone who is optimistic and caring whilst also having the capacity to push herself to excellence. It was also very interesting to see Gao Jian Hong's development as a student who was initially like a 'puppy-dog' to Li Xun but ultimately, the darker side of him emerged after being unable to accept his inferiority to Li Xun. There is never a dull moment through all the episodes and you finish the drama with a feeling of sadness that it is over. I enjoyed watching both leads and I will look out for more of their dramas.
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
A True gem
I rarely ever write reviews and the fact that I'm writing this itself is a sign that it was an amazing watch. Although it starts out with your typical cold arrogant male lead, it has you hooked from the first episode. This definitely is not your mediocre teen romance. No BS, not cringe charectors. The entire story is well written and underlying message makes this drama stand out from the average romance cdramas. The plot towards the end has its loopholes but in all was a great watch. One of the most meaningful cdramas out there. Plus, has a great OST collectionPS the chemistry is like none other
Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
