I ran out of (trashy) romance dramas to watch, so I finally started on my list of good dramas.
- Age: 15+, high school and up
- Romance:
- Genre: contemporary, family
- Episodes: 40x45min (30 episodes)
- Actors: 譚松韻 (Seven Tan), 宋威龍 (Song Weilong), 張新成 (Steven Zhang)
- Wiki: Chinese, English
- Released: August 2020
- Where to Watch: WeTV
TLDR for Friends
30 hours of drama watched in 3 days! That’s how good this drama was for me. It really had heart. But it would be better if you just go in thinking it’s a romance drama instead of family drama. Otherwise the constant 哥哥 in Chinese throws you off.
It’s definitely worth a watch because it’s so well executed, as long as you go in knowing about the potentially icky to you part.
Plot
Three unrelated kids become each other’s family after each losing members of their own. We follow their story from young kids to adult. The drama started as a family drama, turned into romance (2 of the kids got together), then went back to family drama.
譚松韻 (Seven Tan)’s mom died giving birth to her brother (who also died). Her loving father is a cook. 宋威龍 (Song Weilong) lives upstairs. His sister accidentally died under his care and his mom, who can’t get over her death, neglects him. His dad is a busy cop who can’t really deal with his mom’s grief.
譚松韻 (Seven Tan)’s dad takes 宋威龍 (Song Weilong) under his wings while his parents fight all the time. In the meantime, 張新成 (Steven Zhang)’s mother is introduced through a matchmaker to 譚松韻 (Seven Tan)’s dad. They don’t really click but she sees what a good dad he is to the two kids.
Eventually, 宋威龍 (Song Weilong)’s mother abandons him. And 張新成 (Steven Zhang)’s mother leaves him under 譚松韻 (Seven Tan)’s dad’s care. The 5 of them, 3 main leads + 2 dads become a ‘family’.
The two boys are forced to leave this family around 18 through some evil maneuvering when their original family comes knocking. They come back after 9 sad years. The romance part starts, then the drama goes all makjang with the original family interaction. But of course all’s well that ends well.
Not So Quick Review
This drama was so well written and well acted, especially in the early episodes. It was so funny! The first 5 episodes. It’s what lured me in. The characters were all very well developed and their stories really tug at your heart string.
This is why it’s one of my favorite dramas for 2021 and why I binge watched 30 episodes over 3 days. Despite its makjang parts, where many of the adults who abandoned the children being pretty awful characters. It did heart better than all the other dramas I watched.
I was drawn to the drama because of Steven Zhang (who did The Day of Becoming You) and he did not disappoint.
However, it took months for me to pick up the drama because some reviews said it was eww that the siblings turned into a couple. To me, the drama made it pretty clear from the child actors portion that everyone is well aware they’re not related; they formed a family, a unit that supports each other when their loved ones abandoned them.
But that family is in concept only, and really the theme the drama explores. What is a family? Is family blood relation or is it people who are unfailingly there for each other?
From the beginning, it was clear that 宋威龍 (Song Weilong)’s quiet, silent character, was drawn to 譚松韻 (Seven Tan)’s loud, friendly, boisterous character. At most we can say it was kind of iffy, the setup. Partly because the Chinese idea of 哥哥 is so…..weird. I mean, you could just call an older male friend name+哥哥 in general. It doesn’t need to be a family member.
That said, in this day and age, where your audience can be across the ocean, it would do the drama better if the female lead had just dropped the term once she got together with him.
I guess I didn’t really talk about the ‘heart’ part of the drama. Super well acted by all the main leads except 宋威龍 Song Weilong, with great dialogues, well shot to convey mood and feeling. It is definitely a drama to check out. There were so many great lines I wanted to take down.
What Parents Need to Know
But, if you kind of object to the non-blood semi siblings’ romance, you probably don’t want to watch the drama. There is also a very makjang mom who acts angry and manipulative in order to keep her son with her.
There is a scene with the main lead telling everyone in her family, who are all men, that her menses came. It was meant as a funny scene and yet so weird at the same time.
There are some acts of parents throwing things around in anger, parents fighting, and generally young children suffering due to incompetent adults. This may stress out young kids if you decide to show this to a younger audience. It is in general fairly PG (but still PG and not G!) except for the little romance.
Chinese Aspect or Things to Talk to Kids About?
As I mentioned, the drama kind of explores the theme of “what is family?” It also explores the role of the mother. Most of the moms in the drama are not ‘good’ moms in the traditional sense. One abandons her son due to grief, another abandons her son in order to give him a better life.
I also like to tell the kids that for Chinese parents, food is how they show their love. There is a lot of food and a lot of cooking in this drama.
