Let’s quickly get straight into the review of Yong’an Dream starring Xu Zhengxi and Ouyang Nana.
First Impressions
I’m disappointed by the fl’s voice, it’s dubbed by the same voice actor who dubbed Ren Min in The Longest Promise, and Yang Chao Yue in The Journey Of Chong Zi. I mentioned these two dramas because I just couldn’t stand the Female Leads and the voice made it worse. I recognized that voice the moment she opened her mouth and it’s a -1 point for me. I’m not against the voice actress and her voice, it’s just that she usually dubs “spoiled” characters and everytime I hear it I immediately know the character will be boring. I can already hear her saying “Shi Fu”😒. Again, I’m not hating on the voice actress, or the female lead.
Storyline
The storyline is nothing but gold. It’s a simple storyline with few subplots and less misunderstandings. It only focused on one story which was to find the culprit behind the West canal case. Minister Shen was framed and this is where Lu Shiyan met Shen Zhen. Then they brought up this dream which is so confusing and I couldn’t understand the meaning behind it, but I’ll discuss it later.
The West canal case got bigger when they introduced Xu Wei, who was obsessed with Shen Zhen. Xu Wei played a huge role in getting the story more interesting by making it seem as if he’s the final boss. This is what made this drama very interesting. It was hard to predict who is the culprit and who was working with them. It’s like playing a video game and on every level, you get a new opponent who makes you think you’ve reached the final level. Credits to the writers for keeping the real culprit a mystery.
I don’t want to drop spoilers to some of you so the next point I’ll put it this way. The mind games the writers played with us are something most people should study. You’ll notice this once you watch all the episodes. From the beginning, they’ve been creating evidence and building suspicion to the wrong person. Each piece of evidence they gathered pointed to one person and the real culprit had clean hands. This is so genius! All this time, I was like “oh, yeah, it’s definitely her”. This is because that person was also presented to us as someone who would do that crime.
And the reason why I fell for this is because they made it look like they were going to use the “cliché” script. I’m sure I’m not the one who thought about it.
This Is Too Cliché Nowadays
I got bored of this “childhood sweetheart” story, it’s too cliché. It got to a point where I skipped their scenes, such a waste of time. How many times have we seen those dialogues of a FL’s childhood friend returning and being the ML’s love rival? I still don’t get the FL wouldn’t get straight to the point and tell the other guy to back off, simple. Too predictable, but hey, it’s never a Chinese drama without those. Luckily, they didn’t drag the drama with this and they ended it quickly.
Chemistry
I’m no science student but I can tell when there’s chemistry in the room. Lu Shiyan and Shen Zhen had a great chemistry, no doubt. I liked them from the beginning and they grew on me when they pretended to be married. Xu Zhengxi and Ouyang Nana seemed to have fun playing those characters and they were comfortable with each other.
On the other hand, there’s Shen Ran and Official Zhou. Man, I love the dialogue between these two. The way Shen Ran looks at Official Zhou is so🥰🥰🥰. Love was in the air when they met for the first time. And I wondered how they would get them together since Shen Ran was married and she seemed to be in love with her husband. But then you can see she loved official Zhou.
What Dream?
I understand the name Yong’an Dream obviously indicates there should be a “dream theme”. I also understand why they used the dream to make Lu Shiyan experience heartaches whenever Shen Zhen cries. What I don’t understand is the dream itself which was never elaborated. They brought someone who might elaborate it but she didn’t give out any proper explanation and she was a scam. It would’ve been nice if they gave us an explanation. I mean, we don’t sleep at night because of these dramas so we don’t dream🤷🏽♂️how can we understand something we don’t do? I’m just kidding, but they should have explained it.
Yong’An Dream Ending
Yong’An Dream has a happy ending and with a little message from the crew. I loved the way they ended the drama, it wasn’t the same old same old “The End”. I have a complaint by the way. The real culprit never explained why they framed Minister Shen, or did I miss something? Since the storyline started with the west canal case, they should explain why they to targeted the west canal in the first place.
Conclusion
With just 24 episodes, Yong’an Dream did better than most dramas with more episodes. I honestly don’t like dramas with more than 30 episodes because they drag a lot. Anyways, I highly recommend this drama, it’s just a simple drama with more comedy, more romance and clever storytelling. This is something you can watch after watching a drama with a sad ending or you need something to lighten up your mood.
