There Will Be Ample Time (2023)

underrated slice-of-life that feels "homey"

A well acted story about four female friends in their late 20s to mid 30s, who could not be more different in career, character and romantic storyline.

Although it does not necessarily bring anything new to the table of these types of dramas, it feels very "homey" thanks to the story taking place in Chengdu, where a heavy dialect is only one of many things that sets it apart from Beijing based dramas.

Three of the four women, as well as two of the guys, went to the same high school, where as the youngest among the friends is the daughter of their former teacher. Wu Yun and Dan Dan are also cousins. It might be a bit confusing at first to figure out the character relations and backstory but you'll figure it out in due time. The fact that they grew up together but their life turned out so differently was refreshingly realistic and relatable. Another plus is that the love interests are all nice guys that know to treat their lady right and it's all ML chase FL first.

It's a slice of life, with mother-daughter relationships, romance and a lot of sismance, therefore it's quite a chill watch with nothing too exciting happening - but I really liked that. If you are sensitive around death & grief, I might be careful tho since there are multiple character deaths at various stages of the drama (not the leads). This is also where I see ties to "Remembrance of things past". The Writing around ep17-26 reminds me a lot of the writing style in that drama.
Admittedly I put the drama on for background noise in the beginning and watched the first 15 episodes with only 50% attention but by episodes 17 I was locked in and could not stop binging it.

I rarely have a favorite episode when it comes to dramas but episode 25 (the camping one) is so good that I will surely re-watch it. Generally in a drama with multiple mains, when they finally are all in one frame including their love interests, the screenwriters can really shine - and oh they did here. Even if you don't wanna watch the full drama, you can just watch this episode and get the feeling of chilling by a fire pit and watching great actors play off each other with cute interactions.

In terms of the couples, I was the biggest fan of Zhang Pei & Xin Yiang. The actors are veterans and have that extra something in how they carry themselves and use their entire body to act. Xin Yiang is a great guy, he doesn't appear perfect but is very down to earth and naturally playful. Ren Su Xi is one of my favorite actresses and her playing Zhang Pei only solidified her placement on my favorites list. Zhang Pei is unintentionally relatable and funny in a way that you have to see in order to understand.
The character dynamic of this pairing is playful and they joke a lot with each other. Although all couples are slow burn in terms of actual romance, it doesn't feel forced.
I liked that each couple had a completely different story and way of getting together. I wasn't bored with any of them but if we're playing favorites, aside from Zhang Pei & Xin Yiang, I liked Jia Xi's coupling a lot too.
Only Dan Dan's story made me roll my eyes once we reached the last 10 episodes. Initially I thought having a single mother as one of the FLs would be interesting but she definitely got the short end of the stick in terms of character writing. Aside from her love interest, that is way too nice to her, she is quite unreasonable and has terrible ex-in-laws. Wu Yun's pairing is wholesome and I liked that they did not make jokes about her appearance, but rather everyone liked her the way she is. (just saying this because whenever we get the token not-super-skinny friend in a cdrama they usually make fun of them).

Aside from the romance, sismance really shines and they are always supportive of each other. I loved that they all had very different careers and non of them were particularly admired jobs(murder mystery parlor host, insurance broker, streamer, city maintenance office worker), nor were they super successful or rich. Maybe that made it feel more "homey" too? I'm a bit sick of the rich CEO stereotype. Everyone in this drama hustles for their coin but the career aspect is never overpowering (after the initial introduction of the drama) and sometimes they appear to have quite a bit of free time... a bit too much almost :D
The main conflict, if you can even call it that, happens between the women figuring out their life and love, while their parents (especially moms) have different ideas. I liked that there was growth even in the parents and they got to a point where they could apologize for their mistakes but they still have the "asian mom" worries like 'when are you getting married', 'you need to get a good job', etc.

!!! ENDING SPOILER !!!

In terms of what I did not like it's mostly just minor things but aside from Dan Dan's story line I'm quite happy with the entire drama. The final few minutes did really try to squeeze those tears out of me but I felt prepared so the only thing that bothered me was the break up of one couple. Similar to Remembrance of things past, the couple that got together the earliest didn't make it but not quite understandable in my opinion. They were great together with no real fights and I do think they'll meet again but I still want to point out what bothered me about their break up. After doing long-distance for a few months, they met again and danced together(she is in Theater), where at the end there is only a voice over of him asking "growing old together or short-term journey?" and you hear her voice saying "short term journey"... nothing more. That was odd and felt unreasonable as a break up, but judging by the last minute of the drama they'll probably meet again.


To end this review, I think it's quite underrated and deserves more love from people who like this kind of plot. In case you watched "Be Your Own Light", you'll probably also like this even if it has less career focus.

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