I just wanted to start out that I thoroughly enjoyed this. There were some flaws, but it was a good and quick binge-watch. I feel like it was one of the better crossing universe types of storylines. The beginning was quite slow to get to where we should be going, but it was doable. There will be major spoilers in the "Overall" section of my review since it's my ranting section. Skip that if you don't want spoilers.

This was a good take on crossing universes, the consequences of it, and the love story across parallel lives. I wanted to give it higher ratings all across but because I didn't feel as moved as I should be, I didn't. It's about this heart-wrenching story across two universes like they're meant to be but never meeting. I loved the storyline and concept but didn't feel it as much as I wanted to.

STORY
After losing her boyfriend, Wang Quan Sheng in an airplane crash, Huang Yu Xuan can't get over his death. It's been two years, and she is still hoping he would miraculously show up to their old spots. One day she is trying to find reasons to move on from Wang Quan Sheng and finds out that there are parts to him that are mysterious (after like 7 years together, she realized this).

After going to her boyfriend's empty casket funeral, she turns on the walkman she received from an unknown sender and plays the song. It was at this moment that she was transported into a parallel universe in 1998. Huang Yu Xuan became Chen Yun Ru, a girl who looks exactly like her and next to her was Li Zi Wei, a boy who looked exactly like Wang Quan Sheng, her ex-boyfriend. In 1998, Huang Yu Xuan has to figure out why she is now Chen Yun Ru and the connection between Li Zi Wei and Wang Quan Sheng.

ACTING/CAST/CHARACTERS
I haven't watched Taiwanese dramas in a long time. Maybe 5 years or so? I realized that I'm not used to their style of acting and camerawork anymore. It's not bad, but I'm not quite used to it. I'm not familiar with this group of actors and actresses, and I feel like the delivery could be a lot better in certain scenes.

Alice has a lot of crying scenes, and I didn't really feel her anguish and pain of losing Wang Quan Sheng. I felt the same for Greg as well. When he was crying over the loss of Mu Jun Jie, it felt awkward. Same with the scene where they were departing, the kiss was on the spot of a heartbreaking goodbye, but the crying just didn't nail it for me. Also, I didn't feel like the leads had great chemistry, but it was doable. They were cute together, and the scenes were well portrayed.

I will be keeping an eye out for more of their works. I'm quite surprised that Greg does not have more main roles under his belt, but I'm sure he will be taking more main roles soon.

MUSIC
There were probably 2 to 3 distinct songs in the drama for me. The first being the prominent "Last Dance", "Someday or One Day", and "Miss you 3000". "Miss you 3000" was probably the most impactful song for me throughout this show. There was this one scene, I don't quite remember which one, the orchestra instrumental of "Miss you 3000" came on and hit me hard. Once you watch it, the song will hit you harder than on the first couple of listens.

"What future high-tech is unable to simulate,
is the temperature of your hug.
If we travel to another dimension with another avatar
can we change the ending?

Missing you, desire to see you, from past to future,
I want to see you once more.
Crossing thousands of lifetimes
Stay closely among crowds.
Exhaust all my abilities of logic thinking,
to deduce the hardest mystery of love."

RE-WATCH
I would re-watch this again sometime in the future. It has 13 episodes, a gripping storyline with some romance, mystery, and a little thriller. The storyline was well written and overall didn't leave me feeling like I should expect more.

OVERALL (warning: spoilers overload)
I really enjoyed the realistic ending of this. It didn't make me feel upset over it because we knew that the "original" ending wasn't pretty. We knew that changing the past would have consequences for the future. So, I knew that I would be expecting an ending that wasn't going to be "fairy tale" like. Surprisingly, I wasn't left feeling bittersweet about this drama or empty. I just felt hopeful and content that this is the best way for everyone to be happy now.

If I seriously looked at the storyline, I wouldn't find moments that really moved me. There wasn't any particular moment in their parallel lives where I felt like it was so beautiful. I feel like it has to do with the fact that we already know that they are bound to fall in love. We expect that, so that beautiful moment is taken away from us. We don't get the experience of falling in love with them falling in love. Does that make sense? It would probably have to do with the way the story is written. We see them telling their love story and how they fell in love or how Wang Quan Sheng pursued Huan Yu Xuan. It wasn't painted for us.

I indeed felt that kind of puppy love "aw" moments when I see Li Zi Wei recognize his feelings for "Chen Yun Ru" and Wang Quan Sheng finding Huang Yu Xuan again.

However, I think I finally felt the beautiful love that transcends over parallel lives when Wang Quan Sheng was willing to get on that plane so that Huan Yu Xuan would fall in love with him. He could have made the selfish decision of not getting on the plane, but he knew that he would have never met her if he didn't.

I think it was only when Huang Yu Xuan lost Li Zi Wei did I really feel her pain of losing the one she loves. I didn't feel her pain of losing Wang Quan Sheng initially or throughout the show until now. The actual heartbreak of finally being reunited just to be ripped apart again. I felt like I was mourning with her. Thus, her going to her parallel self made more sense and was more heartbreaking than her just trying to figure out the mystery of Wang Quan Sheng.

One dislike that I have for the drama would be the jumps in parallel lives and years. We would be given a time jump/different parallel life and would have to connect it ourselves. For a bit there, I thought that Mo Jun Jie and Wang Quan Sheng were living in the same year, just parallel lives. I didn't understand why he didn't go find his best friend. I soon found out that they were showing scenes from different years and parallel lives simultaneously, making me think that they were living in the same year, just parallel lives.

I would have loved to see more interaction with Mo Jun Jie. I know that this drama is focused on Huang Yu Xuan and Li Zi Wei, but I felt like Mo Jun Jie had a really pivotal role in the story. It will have been more impactful if we see more of their friendship and strong bond.

I didn't like that when Huang Yu Xuan was Chen Yun Ru, she acted distant from the two friends. I understand that she has no connection to them, but she did spend a good few months as Chen Yun Ru with two friends who she confided in a lot. I am sure their friendship would have developed into more than just "two guys who are friends with Chen Yun Ru, and I don't want to damage that friendship, so I'll act like I feel indifferent about them."

I was also confused because Li Zi Wei was confused/surprised with Wang Quan Sheng gave him the ring when he should have known that he bought the ring in hopes of proposing to Huang Yu Xuan. Right? From my understanding, he woke back up in his original body, understanding the storyline. That was why his parallel self came to look for him at the airport because that parallel Wang Quan Sheng was him/Li Zi Wei. So why would he be surprised about the ring? Maybe it was because Li Zi Wei forgot about it, who knows. Yet, he mentions of Wang Quan Sheng being different than him/Li Zi Wei. So are they really in parallel lives or not?

As I see it, I feel like Chen Yun Ru and Wang Quan Sheng originally died before the "takeover." In the past, Li Zi Wei was able to take over Wang Quan Sheng's body to its full use. Huang Yu Xuan took over Chen Yun Ru till it's full use. This was used to move the storyline. If there were really parallel universes, it would have been great to see Mo Jun Jie and Chen Yun Ru's brother again. However, we can see Chen Yun Ru's uncle without seeing his other-self.

I feel like these parallel lives crossing could have been a bit more grounded, as in its rules. Why is it that some people have parallel selves and then others there is only one individual involved in both parallel lives? Eventually, the use of the walkman didn't seem to matter. It seemed like anyone could have just put it on and used it and would be able to go to a parallel universe.

Before we end this, major props to the opening scene. Once we get going, the opening scene makes so much sense. There is a lot of spoilers and symbolism in it! The little fast forward glitch with Li Zi Wei turning into Wang Quan Sheng. Then the backward glitch with Li Zi Wei bumping into Chen Yun Ru. We have the blue earphones that Wang Quan Sheng used. The red earphones that only Li Zi Wei and Huang Yu Xuan had in each ear. And many more once you finish, it's like, "this was all right in front of my face the whole time?" kind of deal. This was so well thought out, so serious chefs kiss!