Today’s review is about the historical drama, Are You The One starring Zhang Wan Yi, Wang Chu Ran, Chang Hua Sen, Liu Ling Zi, Zhang Chi, and Yuan Yu Xuan. Is it really good? I’ll give it 3 stars and this is why.
If dragging was a drama, this would be it. I’m not kidding you, they keep circling around everything. At the start, I had no problem with the Cui Jiu fake identity and all the cover-ups. It was fun to watch and it kept the story going. I saw the whole fake identity thing as one of the pillars of the storyline. It was paving the way for what’s coming up, that’s what I thought. Even the memory loss plot just complimented the fake identity story well. I was invested in the story even though I guessed what would happen when Liu Miantang regains her memories.
The problem started when ‘Lu Wen’ and Cui Xingzhou ended their games. Liu Miantang was no longer used as a ‘chess piece’ in their game. This was a perfect time to get rid of the fake identity story. But they kept dragging the whole thing coming up with lame excuses for cover ups. This made Liu Mingtang stupid, her entire character was ruined by those cover ups because even a kid can see through them.
It’s also nearly impossible to keep your identity hidden that long when you’re an important figure and you’re going to war. It’s stupid and as a viewer I feel like they’re undermining my intelligence. How many times did they cover up the identity thing? How can someone who’s useless, who can’t even help his wife fight troublemakers be able to command people in war? Isn’t that surprising to his wife that he’s suddenly brave and can hold a sword? It’s stupid. 17 episodes of circling around.
I continued watching the drama and it got better when they went to the capital. Besides Cui chasing after Liu Miantang, there was Ziyi. This was something like a love triangle plot. Ziyi was Liu Miantang’s ex and he’s so obsessed with her. I’m not a fan of love triangles but I watched because of one thing. Ziyi had the power to destroy Cui. I just wanted to see how they will face this challenge. Cui is a court member and Ziyi is the emperor who’s still getting used to the position.
He doesn’t have much support and he has the same enemy as Cui. Both of them are targeting Prince Sui, and both of them want to protect Liu Miantang. This made me wonder if Cui would rebel against Ziyi or will Ziyi use his power to get rid of Cui since he’s obsessed with Liu Miantang. I was only interested in that and their collaboration to get rid of their enemies. It’s always great to see enemies collaborating to remove one common enemy.
I won’t say the story is boring and I also won’t say it was great. It was an ‘on and off’ thing. One moment everything is good and I’m going with the flow. In the next episode, things just fall out of place. We have different tastes, maybe you’ll find the story more exciting than I did. I just found myself not feeling some of the plots. What’s more disappointing for me is there wasn’t any surprising twist in the drama except for Liu Miantang’s identity. Her identity was also a 2 minute spark and then it was no longer useful.
I’ll end my review here, I only focused on the storyline instead of other elements. Some of you might be asking, Are you the one have a happy ending? It does have a happy ending and the drama itself isn’t tragic or heartbreaking. The romance between the leads is something I have to complement. Not to forget the acting skills of the entire cast, they delivered. I do recommend Are You the One to anyone who’s looking for a drama with a smart and strong female lead. This is one of the dramas similar to Dream of Splendor and even Jun Jiu Ling. Oh, man! Now I’m experiencing some burnout from watching these dramas in a row.🤣
