Beautiful Secret (2015)

As someone who's grown up in a Chinese family, I've watched my fair share of mainland dramas. For me, the newer ones generally fall into one of two categories: nostalgia or just-plain-frustrating. I would put the second label all over this drama.



Let me first say that how this drama was marketed made it incredibly misleading. The summary and the promotional posters make it appear as if this is a show that's at least partially about our main protagonist achieving stardom despite all the obstacles that can get in her way. Spoiler alert (one for potential viewers' benefit): it's not. The plot is instead a disgusting mess of irrational decisions made by barely-likable characters that had me mentally writhing in my seat for 40 minutes at a time. There are predictable stories that can still be amusing to watch, and then there are stories like this that are just outright maddening. This whole show I was waiting for the promised moment when our main character would show her talent to the world and I was brutally disappointed.



The cast was possibly the least of all the evils that this show had to offer, and I ask that people take this even with a grain of salt. The reason for that is because no matter how in-character these actors were, the characters they played all were so unbearable by the end of this show that I wondered what on earth was going on in the writers' heads. Take for example Victoria's character, Mei Li. The drama shoves her in your face as the innocent, selfless, embodiment-of-kindness protagonist who, when she does something wrong, was righteous in doing so. Over the period of 40 episodes, this gets old pretty fast and a previously likable character becomes someone so unrealistically depicted that I was left astounded.



Admittedly, the only thing that saved this show from bombing even more than it did with me was the acting. Especially with some of the older actors, they portrayed some of the more emotional parts with enough persuasion that I did feel some sympathy.



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tl;dr: This show was a combination of irritation and crying from boredom.

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Beautiful Secret is a Chinese drama that falls short on almost every aspect. Some will still enjoy it though, especially if you are a fan of Peter Ho or Song Victoria.

In a nutshell:

Story:
- Illogical and frustrating, filled with stupid character decisions.
- Most of the characters are disgusting people that will make you unable to feel any empathy for them.
- Product placement is completely out of control - they are literally hanging bottles of booze from trees...
- The story relies heavily on juvenile misunderstandings and medical emergencies to create drama.
- Even the romantic scenes offer nothing new & original, it just repeats stereotypical "sweet scenes".

Acting/cast:
- From bird feather bowties to t-shirts two sizes too small - Peter Ho's styling is absolutely atrocious!!! :D
- 80% of the actors have difficulty conveying emotions, especially crying scenes can get cringy.
- Peter Ho was quite good, but unfortunately his character has been written as shallow and boring.
- The combination of less than stellar acting combined with bad writing doesn't really create an enjoyable or immersive experience.

Music:
- Considering this drama has a lot to do with music they really half-assed it. The main character supposedly has a beautiful voice, but it's nothing special in my opinion. She sings the same song again and again.
- The other songs in the drama are nothing special, but since there are no horrible songs in the OST it's pretty average and ok.

Rewatch:
- There is no way in hell I'm rewatching this. There were a few romantic scenes I enjoyed, but the writing of this drama made me unable to enjoy it overall.

Overall:
- Stay away from this drama if you hate bad writing, stereotypical plots and below average acting.
- Watch this if you are a fan of the actors or if you aren't too worried about silly drama plots.

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