Today’s review is on a fantasy modern drama called Don’t be shy also known as Countdown to love starring Li Yu Tong and Lu Yun Feng. I didn’t make a spelling mistake, it’s Li Yu Tong not Li Yi Tong… I was also confused at the beginning. We will not be using the usual layout of the review on this post, I’m just discussing few sections.
Synopsis.
Story.
Story doesn’t only sell in marketing, it sells everywhere. When the drama opened up it’s first moment, the Female Lead told shared an interesting paragraph where she used time as a metaphor which is very relevant to the original theme of the drama.
Then they arouse the interest in you by showing both leads, looked like they were on a beach laying motionless, facing each other. What’s the reason behind that? You just have to continue watching the drama to find out, that’s the whole point of the opening scene. The cemetery scene at the beginning of the first episode was very creative.
The main leads are both at the same cemetery but attending different funerals. Shi Qianji was attending her father’s funeral and Zhou Qingyang was attending Doudou’s funeral, a pet (He runs a pet funeral shop). I’m mentioning this scene because of the way they used a wrist watch held by Shi Qianji to create a story out of it. When the funeral was over, both leads crossed paths and the watch fell on the floor and Qingyang returned it back to Qianji.
The whole ‘clock/ countdown/ time’ thing is presented more in the behavior of our Female Lead Qianji who surprisingly has incredible time management skills. I respect time and always stick to my schedule but she’s taking it to a new level. Her time management habits then takes us back to the opening clip where she narrated a paragraph about time and love. The paragraph begins to makes sense and viewers begin to understand why she values the watch she held at the funeral. It obviously indicated that it belonged to her father since it was a man’s watch and she also mentioned that her father taught her to respect time.
I expected The other world to be a little different when Qianji went there. The place looked like she travelled back to the 70s or 80s, not a place you would find dead people but it’s acceptable. I love the concept of a bus station where people would wait for a bus that will take them to ‘heaven’ or the afterlife. It makes a lot of sense and it’s easy for anyone to understand the meaning behind it. One thing I don’t understand is how Qianji got in an accident and woke up at her house unscathed after returning from The other world.
She should’ve woken up in the hospital to solidify the claim that she died and came back to life. Anyways, this is a fantasy drama so there’s no need to make everything realistic, it just have to make sense. On the company’s side, the writers did suck with Qianji’s uncles and the takeover. It wasn’t even necessary include the company in the storyline. It would’ve been better if they mentioned the company in dialogues or have Qianji work at home(sometimes).
Cast.
Shi Qianji’s (Li Yu Tong) domineering behavior was exposed at her father’s funeral when her uncle talked about taking over the company. She values time and money over everything, personal relationships are a waste according to her. She’s living with the mindset that she people follow her because of the value she brings to them. She is a domineering female CEO but they kinda ruined her when they made her weak against her uncle. For a moment I thought she would show dominance when they wanted to suspend her but she couldn’t even defend herself. They even made things worse when ‘The third wheel’ stepped in and helped her out, not a good way to build a dominant character.
Zhou Qingyang (Lu Yun Feng) has Expression Management Disorder Syndrome which occurred after his father’s death. We are learning new diseases from Chinese Dramas everyday. It means he doesn’t know how to control his emotions, he cries when he’s happy and he laughs when he’s sad. Besides the disease, he is just a normal person and is beloved by people around him. There’s a scene where he was jogging and people were greeting him with happy faces, they even called his name to show how familiar he is to them.
Lu Fan (Zhao Huan Ran) and Julie (Wen Mo Yan) are just the supporting roles with no proper background story. They did give a little background story for Lu Fan but they only mentioned him because he grew up with Zhou Qingyang. Their duty is to pursue each other and make the main leads look good on screen, that’s it. They’re literally the babysitters, the main leads always call them up even for useless things. I’m not familiar with the cast except for Wen Mo Yan, I watched her on The Only Girl You Haven’t Seen and she caught my eye. She’s an amazing actress. I don’t know about you but she always grabs my attention whenever she cries… weird but true.
Romance and chemistry.
I can’t deny the romance in the drama… yea, too bad for single people like us. We have two couples and they are really on fire, there’s no dull moment. The main couple’s relationship was moving slow but had the best built up. At first they didn’t see eye to eye and both of them were too stubborn to submit to the other. Then they get into a contract and slowly develop feelings towards each other. What I didn’t like was the third wheel, it’s nearly impossible to watch a Chinese drama without the third wheel (old intimate childhood friend). His appearance was too sudden and out of nowhere. He just came and then started trespassing into other people’s private space. He never gives people a chance to respond every time he communicates with them. It’s even wrong to say ‘he communicates with them’, he’s basically talking alone. Besides his behavior, I don’t have any problem with his appearance and I loved the way they kept his return short. The second couple was my favorite but they had more, if not better screen time than the main leads. If you start watching the drama from episodes 5, you would think they are the main couple. I can see them telling the main couple, ‘you lead the drama, don’t worry about the romantic stuff because we will handle it.’ Second couple was taking the spotlight especially when they wanted to ‘do the deed’ and got interrupted by the main leads a couple of times.
Let’s put the lovey-dovey stuff aside for a moment and talk about the chemistry between the four leads. Zhou Qingyang and Lu Fan are friends… no, friends is an understatement… they’re brothers. The two of them have been friends since the age of 10 and they lived together ever since. Anyone would envy the bromance between these two. Lu Fan has always shown that he cares a lot about Zhou Qingyang. He made excuses to stay with Zhou Qingyang so that he(Lu Fan) can take care of him after his father died. Zhou Qingyang on the side doesn’t usually express his emotions because of the disease but you can see the love he has for Lu Fan, who wouldn’t like Lu Fan?
Shi Qianji and Julie’s relationship isn’t a boss and assistant type, they’re are also friends. Throughout the drama, the ‘sisterhood’ seemed to be one sided because of Shi Qianji’s behavior but Julie didn’t mind that. In the beginning, they only met for work related reasons but their relationship changed as they got close to the two young men. Shi Qianji had time to sit down talk with Julie, which is something she rarely does. Julie really cares for Shi Qianji, she would drop everything just to help out Qianji. It’s a shame we will never witness Qianji taking care of Julie in her weakest moment because she and Lu Fan had zero problems. Their only problem was the two main leads they had to babysit till the last episode.
Ending.
The final episode wasn’t useless like other dramas. They used the final episode for something fans always want… CLARIFICATION. This is a fantasy drama with a unique story, something new to most of us so we come up with our own theories as we watch the drama. What we want at the end of a drama is a proper explanation of how and why did it happen? I just love the fact that they gave us a hint with The Ferry man at The other world and then paused a little. You begin to write your own ending and come up with different theories in your mind regarding the clues they’re giving you. When you think you have all it covered, they twist the ending and your jaw is on the floor. They explained a lot of important things like the watch, how Qianji got to The other world, Why did the time stop when she was close to Zhou Qingyang. These are the questions I expect the writers to answer when the story ends. If you watched this drama, you might be wondering about Qingyang’s state at the end like ‘how could he remember everything?’ There’s no obvious answer in the drama but the clue is in Lu Fan’s explanation at the end. The bigger question besides Qingyang’s involvement, I want to know how long did Qianji’s therapy last? A day?
Conclusion.
I’m not a fan of modern drama and I always hunt for a negative thing to say about modern dramas but this drama didn’t disappoint. I loved this drama, loved the storyline, loved the romance, the comedy, the music and even the cat. I don’t see why I shouldn’t recommend this drama, it’s even suitable for beginners. I’m giving it the rating of 8/10. It would have been a waste if they extended the number of episodes. Our preferences won’t always be the same, some might not disagree with me and some might agree with me. The best option is to watch it yourself and see how it goes.
