Falling Into Your Smile (2021)

This drama is the best e-sport drama I've ever watched. The story is good, funny, and very interesting. The plot is also light and not dragging. And the characters in this drama are nice and funny.

I really like ML, Xu Kai aka Lu Si Cheng. OMG, he's so handsome lol. His acting is good and his chemistry with FL (Cheng Xiao aka Tong Yao) is very good and adorable. I like the portrayal of ML characters who are cool at first but become flirtatious and jealous when dating FL. I can't help but smile while watching the scene of them together.

The supporting characters are also good. I love the story between FL's bestfriend, Jian Yang and Ai Jia. Their chemistry is very strong and their stories are also inspiring and adorable lol. I also like the characters of e-sport players, ZDGX, YQCB, CK, etc. The teammates at ZDGX are so cute and adorable. Each character in this drama is well made, complementing each other and building a relevant and interesting plot.

And I love the soundtracks! The first time I started this drama was because I heard WayV would be performing the soundtrack for this drama. The songs are very good and easy listening. It fits perfectly with the e-sport drama.

I really like this drama and this drama is on my comfort drama list.

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That reality check but totally feelgood drama you must watch

Lets just go through some basics and ratings:
Acting from ML. 10/10 FL 8/10(maybe 6/10 she wasn't consistent).
The rest of the crew were on point most of the time so Id give it 9/10.

Before the showering of compliments of the story, lets talk about the some things that made it not get a full score:
1. The BFF of the FL was really off the chart wtf? Most of the characters had some, even small, kind of background story connected well with the story, except the BFF which also had A LOT of screen time.
2. When in Rome... There are plenty of Korean-Chinese speaking actors, yet, they failed horribly with this. Nuff said.
3. Ep 27 was a really tough filler episode I wish I didn't even watched.
4. TBH, apart from the topic about female gamers (pro gamers even) the FL was really bland in general. Everyone else outshone her in both character and acting.
5. The overall pacing was decent but the last 8 or so episodes felt rushed and all over the place
6. Brand cars... I get it, it was to empathize the characters being rich and all, but cmon! Where is the common sense?
Or was it a product placement thing? Even if you are rich and all that, you would still NOT, especially under those situations drive an Aston Martin car.
7. Speaking of money; Unless you are Elon Musk, even in the esport industry, you cant just buy-out a team over a night.
I get it, fiction and all that but it was really out of place.


Now to all the goodies:

It was a lovely lovestory; it had sugar, it had sweet n sour, it had salty and to my surprise, the spice was chef's kiss.
Most of the things within the topic of the drama was realistic; the issues (money, family, the tourments, the fan-issues, the papparazzis, housing, even the injuries, sponsors etc), the pace, the background and cultures and even the game is not a nonsense gimmick but actually a real game. The same with most of the teams, they are irl teams, so I was really stoked about it (sure, the on screen team players were actors but not all).

I loved the parents here, all of them; from the good and the bad ones.

I loved the directors and everyone on the crew paid such attention to the even tiniest details; the commitment was amazing.

The flirting was solid. Im weak for such type of stories but even weaker for good acting on top of that.
Xu Kai aint ugly, but among many other Chinese actors, he aint the prettiest and most handsome; what he however lacks in looks (as per hunk-standards) he makes up with everything else. I kept telling myself how I was practically falling in love with him as the episodes went on. It was a slowburn til I couldnt even get enough and wanted more.
Then the intimate scenes came and it even made my **cough** maiden heart flutter and my face to blush.
I even felt some jealousy towards the FL, that bad.

But it wasn't just ML and FL's hot scenes that was aced, the second couple, to my surprise was as spicy and juicy.

In the end, what I loved most with the drama was that it was mature.
Young adults but not the kind of gullible nonsense post-teen newly popped from Uni kinda inmature grown-ups often seen in Asian dramas and movies, no, it was like..real?
The friendship and their teasing of each other, contract talking and a lot of things just felt adulty and relatable even for a non-gamer.

I think the story was good enough that it could perhaps even have a sequel and if done the same way, it would still be as good.
This is also one of the few dramas I even recommend for a re-watch.
It has enough elements that it doesnt make it naggy or too tiresome.

If not for the few aspects I mentioned first, Id give this a hard rock10.

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Sympathique mais avec ses limites

Depuis le Drama Chinois "Go Go Squid" qui se passe également dans le monde de l'E-sport, je ne mettais pas replonger dans cet univers. Je me suis donc lancée avec "Falling into your smile"

Drama sympa, où contrairement à Go Go Squid, pas seulement le lead masculin, mais aussi le lead féminin partage la passion et devient une professionnelle de l'E-sport également.
Déjà un bon point : On défend la place de la femme dans ce monde très masculin. Car elle doit, en tant que première joueuse professionnelle, toujours s'imposer et faire ses preuves.

Après, je ne suis pas une pro de cet univers, mais j'ai aimé suivre les scènes de combat d'E-sport, tout autant que leur vie quotidienne tous ensemble en tant qu'équipe. Beaucoup de scènes sont en fait les combats mis en animé, c'est vraiment particulier mais une excellente idée qui amène du rythme au drama. Des sujets divers sont abordés, dont le harcèlement, où les critiques sur les joueurs à la moindre chose, et comment ils arrivent à vivre leur vie malgré tout. J'ai trouvé ça très intéressant.

La romance tarde à démarrer, mais finalement est vraiment pas mal une fois en place.

Par contre, à mon gout la LF est vraiment à faire du boudin tout le long : Jamais contente, la mine toujours fermé, elle ne se déride que sur la fin. Vraiment dommage pour moi...

Sans être le drama de l'année, j'ai adhéré à nouveau à cet univers particulier et j'ai passé un bon moment. Mais j'avoue, Go Go Quid restera supérieur pour moi en terme d'histoire, de vie, de quotidien et de romance. Malgré tout, à découvrir.

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La romance l'emporte sur l'e-sport, dommage !

J'étais assez confiante une fois les dix premiers épisodes passés. Cela dit, je ne m'attendais pas à ce que l'univers e-sport soit effacé pour laisser place à la romance. Bien qu'on ne s'éloigne jamais de la scène e-sport, la romance va prendre de plus en plus de place donnant ainsi l'impression de parfois avoir affaire à un tranche de vie.

Cheng Xiao n'a que deux expressions à son actif : neutre et narquois. Son manque d'émotions ne permet pas de s'attacher à elle, au contraire, c'est l'effet inverse qui se produit. Elle apparaît comme une fille avec un sacré ego, ce qui ne joue pas en sa faveur. C'est une belle fille, oui, mais elle ne transmet rien. Sa meilleure amie est plus expressive qu'elle. C'est un bon personnage, mais qui se retrouve gâché à cause d'une mauvaise interprétation.

En revanche, Xu Kai s'impose sans problème. Si dans ses précédents projets il avait tenu ses rôles sans pour autant marquer les esprits, il inverse la tendance en tant que capitaine. Il porte son rôle comme une seconde peau, bien que de taquin il passe à nounours mielleux avec sa partenaire. Encore une fois, la romance impacte quasiment tous les aspects de l'histoire.

Concernant la scène e-sport, c'est une compétition féroce. Le problème de Falling Into Your Smile c'est qu'ils ont centré l'intrigue sur un seul élément perturbateur : l'arrivée de Tong Ya dans une équipe. Soit une fille dans un milieu essentiellement masculin. C'est dommage parce qu'il existe tant de possibilités, notamment en Chine où de nombreux joueurs pro ont de sacrés casseroles et de quoi inspirer.

La BO était très bonne. Mention spéciale pour Everytime des WayV et le titre des Seventeen.
L'animation vidéoludique était formidable et de toute beauté.

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Felling into your smile

Felling into your smile merupakan film yang sangat baik, mulai dari cara aktingnya, karakter yang diperankan oleh setiap aktor dan aktris dari para pemain felling into your smile sangat sesuai dengan judul flem yang diperankan, dan Cimisteri dari kedua peran utama sangat bagus. Dan berharap flem felling into your smile memiliki season 2.karena peran dari kedua peran utama sangat cocok dan sangat bagus. Dan pemeran pendukung juga sangat baik dan bagus. Film felling into your smile sangat baik, karena dengan karekter Tong Yoa yang memiliki semangat untuk menjadi pemain internasional yang baik meskipun dengan adanya liku-liku kehidupan yang hadapi nya dalam drama namun tidak membuat Tong Yoa untuk berhenti berjuang menjadi pemain E-sprot yang baik dalam memperjuangkan impiannya

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I really enjoyed watching this light and fluffy romantic gaming series. It was fast paced, didn’t drag and the leads had good chemistry. I’m not a gamer but I was able to feel the stakes for the characters every time they had a challenge, won a game or suffered a loss in their tournaments.

The ML/FL were adorable. I think this might have the funniest ML I’ve ever seen in awhile. He had this way of cracking a joke, insulting someone or being very sweet towards the FL with this deadpan expression which made the situation really funny. The FL was even more expressionless but it didn’t bother me; I think it’s because it made her seem calm and in control when she was gaming…and also because she had many funny scenes herself and her blank face made it more laughable. The other team members were also very likable and had good interactions with the leads. It’s great how there were episodes that focused on some of them and their back stories; it fleshed them out better.

There’s an OW here but what I like about this drama is that it doesn’t create annoying situations where the other party fakes something which causes unnecessary angst, separations and stupid decision making from the leads. ML basically tells her point blank that he isn’t into her and she respects it, which is how it should be. There’s also an OM at some point but it’s mostly played for laughs and all the characters are very respectful to each other.

One criticism I have is that the gaming is a bit confusing because the camera doesn’t zoom in enough and when it does, there’s no indication who is playing which character. They make use of characters from a real game called Onmyouji Arena, but the thing is that the characters here tend to look similar…it’s not like Street Fighter where the characters look distinctive. One remedy for this would have been showing a small picture of the real player when a character appears.

I think I might like this even more than LoveO2O but I liked that one as well, for different reasons.

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A Cute Watch

I wanted something to watch that was light and not emotionally heavy and this hit the spot.

I really enjoyed watching this and had some moments of laughing out loud. (I laugh whenever I see a jealous second lead)

This show is not like the super best amazing omg kind of drama but it’s cute and had me binging. There are definitely a few tropes and there was one scene which was a bit meta and made me laugh when the male lead expressed the male lead, second lead, and female lead set up. Oh yes, there is an annoying mom as well but she eventually mellows out.

Early on, I didn’t really understand why I was subjected to the animation of the characters fighting - only later in the series did I start to see it had some value. I am not familiar with the game they played (it is real!).

If you are up for some fluff, this works!

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At first i wasn't so interested in watching cdramas i only watched like 2 but my tiktok had a lot videos of falling into your smile . i found it interesting so i decided to watch it i never knew i would get so addicted to cdramas now that i watch almost 300 cdramas. I really thank this drama for bringing me into the c-kdrama world. Ok so let's get into what i think about this drama. The cast OML the casting is amazing. And many people think being the only female in the e-sports industry has many disadvantages but in this drama Tong Yao proved it wrong. She proved that she can be as good as the guys and she did! The love story was amazing and the cast WOW there teamwork is amazing. Though at first lao k didn't get along but later he found out tong yao was actually a very nice person and not someone who just came for fame. There teamwork is amazing not only that but the way they supported tong yao through everything is just amazing. Like once i remember that Tong yao cut her hand and all of them just ran for her after hearing her scream and they just left doing what they were. And when tong yao lost against the korean team and thought she was bad but later on she wanted to challege them and ZGDX supported her through that aswell my heart honestly melted. Everytime i rewatch this drama it feels like i was watching it for the first time. For the first time it might be boring bc when the gaming scenes come bc yall might have never played it but after watching the drama i started on my yoji and now after i rewatch it and understand whatever they are saying or playing with and it's actually so fun.

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ITS GOOD

I am just gonna start this review about all the good things about this drama
1. The plot was really unique
2. The development of the characters are very good
3. The visuals are good
4. Few annoying ass characters
5. Not cringy but still romantic and kinda cute
6. There were actually some signs of feminism in the drama
7. INDEPENDENT female lead like i mean one who does not need the ML to come and save her ass everytime cuz Cdramas are always written that way
Not so great things
1. Cheng Xiao's acting can definitely improve as her expression is always the same, which gets a bit boring if u keep having to see it, her eyes are also very cold, no emotions( not in a good way) but there are definitely rooms for improvement since acting is still quite new to her
2. Some of the plot was not conveyed clearly and it just feels like u missed some parts of the show but u actually didnt( just my opinion)
3. The FL mother looks wayy to fake, the heavy makeup is extremely obvious
BUT OVERALL , the drama is surprisingly better than i expected and actually quite appealing to watch and its really a source of happiness compared to the many recent dramas i watched that are very shitty.

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Pleasantly surprised

OVERALL
This is a true e-sport drama, but a decent one. Watch if 1) you're down with a bickering OTP, 2) you like cutesy female leads, 3) you're fine with the typical cool and aloof male lead. Reconsider if 1) you can't stand any of the above, 2) you find e-sports boring, 3) you're looking for a sizzling, swoon-worthy romance.

THE STORY
Because the last few C-dramas I watched were just average, I came into this one with low expectations and found myself hooked. By the end, the 1st half was the best, the plot started withering away in the 2nd half, but overall it makes a decent filler!

The Good
- the interactions between FL and ML. The bickering feels coherent and natural, not forced like in some other dramas.
- the 'falling in love' part is well paced, cute and fun.
- the drama addresses a few social issues realistically and successfully, like the idea of a female pro gamer or the problem of unhealthy fandoms and internet communities.

The Bad
- FL is fine (compared to others) but she's still childish cute, and we need more women acting like women. Women can be mature and cute. No need to make them childish... Part of the problem is Cdramas obsession with making FL go through slapstick and dumb, embarrassing moments. Makes them look so immature!
- ML is also fine (compared to others), but the cliché aloof male lead needs to go. It's irritating just how many Cdramas bring it up.
- their 'being in love' part is kind of lackluster.
- the 2nd half of the drama is just so dramatic and game-centered. It's not the worst, it all makes sense, but it just kills the enjoyment a bit. The last ep is legit entirely spent on games...I wish there'd been more time spent on relationship or character development.

THE ACTING
Ok, I guess. I wasn't super impressed but they all did well enough! Not much chemistry between the leads but it still works!

THE MUSIC
No comment.

REWATCH VALUE
Not high. Nothing blew my mind or made me swoon, so I probably won't ever be dying to rewatch. It was a nice watch though!

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Very Cute and Sweet, but wasn't perfect

I wasn't really expecting much when started this series, all I know is that my sister really really liked this cdrama to the point where she watched it multiple times.

At first, I wasn't really that hooked, so I watched it at 1.5 speed. The first thing that I noticed is that the ML acting is such a robot, that it has no soul or emotions at all. I mean, I get it he's supposed to be a cold character, but he's doing it too well... and the FL acting, like she can't act at all like there's only a set of emotes that she can do and because of that, it dragged the others acting like they're all newbies. There are some side characters that I think the acting was okay.

Once I got past around ep 4-5 the acting really didn't bother me that much because the story got interesting, so I'm finally watching it at normal speed. The dynamic between the ML and FL is getting cuter and sweeter, I think that's what finally sold me on this drama. The development and interactions are soo good.

Also, jinyang the FL's best friend, is what I was expecting out of Jingjing in 'A Love So Beautiful'. This is how you write a best friend character. Jinyang is the example of the best friend character done right, she knows the flaws of FL's ex and she points it out and she's advising the FL to not get back with her ex since they're also over now. I don't know the full story of FL and her ex maybe there's more to that, I kinda wish that we had more backstory scenes of tong yao and jian yang like they didn't really show much of their relationship, i was kinda invested in them or maybe because i felt bad for jian yang, but regardless.. I'm still glad that we got closure for their relationship, so that's good.

Jinyang and Aija's relationship is really cute too, it's like a good side dish that's there to enhance the dining experience more, I hope we get a drama of these two actors, their dynamic is really cute.

Something that's really bad BAD in this drama, that you can't really ignore, is the korean dubbing... Like WTF was that, it's sooo bad. It threw me off when I first heard it, cuz it's very different from the actor's voices and it's very deep too. It's very obvious that the VAs are reading a script and trying to match the lip flaps, cuz they're saying it so slowly, but it's very enunciated, so I'll give them that, but again it's very weird... they could've just made the actors say it themselves instead of dubbing it since it is not very prevalent in the show.

The gaming side of the show doesn't really interest me. The show is very meticulously done, like i noticed the small details that the director is trying, so I wish they could've taken the time and effort to add something that would explain the know-hows of the game, that they are playing for me to care about the gaming side. Good thing I used to play dota, I kinda understand the overall gist of the game and the terminologies that they're using. Something about the FL and ML's team that I wish that they would do that they actually did was, I hope they would at least lose once if not a couple, because them keeping a winning streak would be unbelievable. I mean, it's possible for it to happen in real life, but it's only a minuscule chance and I'm glad they actually did lose a few games, and that actually contributed something to the development of the characters and their relationship as a team, so good job.

Good thing that in the beginning they only focused on the mains and fleshed out the characters for us watchers to get invested, they didn't really add crazy plots. I was kinda amazed because it's just you're typical drama that you would watch, they're not doing anything crazy and new, they're just doing it safely and hitting all the points of the story that you would kinda expect. When they add side plots, it's mostly contained within 1 or 2 episodes, it's mostly when they need to build up the next enemy that the team is going to face in the tournament. and later on, they started expanding the business/politics side of esports and it was aight.

Around the later parts of the show maybe ep 27 above, i started kinda falling off again. I don't know, something felt flat and kinda rushed, so i started watching it in 1.5 speed again, i mean I'm already this far so I just wanna end it. The ending was okay. Overall it's a cute and sweet drama. As much as it was only okay to me, I think i will rewatch some of its parts again and i would recommend this to someone.

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