My Girl (2020)

This is the second drama Li Jaqui and Zhao Yi Qin starred in after seeing their chemistry in Wait, My Youth and I think this drama is better in terms of story line and the use of their acting capabilities. It was also a fun experience to me to discover several Chinese dramas with interesting story lines. I had fun knowing that their dramas are getting better even rivaling KDramas.

The female lead Meng Hui who is suffering from multiple personality disorder to protect herself caused from childhood trauma who entangles herself with the male lead Shen Yi who is coincidentally looking for the person he wronged as a child. I think this is sort of a story of healing and such while trying to face their past. Chemistry isn't even a question here since it was already tried and tested in the last drama they've been paired to. The story is simple and it was one of those dramas you can easily watch.

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Better.

I watched this drama with no expectation at all, but it is good. Actually, better for someone with no expectation at all.

Okay. First of all, the characters are all visually pleasing. Second, they all acted really well. The leading lady's portrayal of her character is not over the top, and that made me stay watching it.
As for the story, it keeps on making me want for more. What will happen next? The sub plots are not draggy, and that's good. Last but not the least, the humor!! oh i love it. the timing is perfect.

I give this drama an 8.5/10 because I'm not done yet. After trying almost 10 chinese dramas and dropping all of them, I'm glad I found something I like.

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Spoiler Alert for those who wants to watch this

I love it whenever her PTSD attacks she unwittingly helps Shen Yi ... first his goal of his company, then his relationship with his employees, now with his father. I also love their "food for thoughts" in every end of the episodes.

And this is drama verse, writers can do whatever they want with their characters so i will not judge whether her PSTD attack is accurate or not.

I hope when she found out the truth, her love for him will cover all the multitude of sins. And the chemistry of them both is so lit ?? ..

P.S. this the first cdrama i've watched where the CEO is the stingiest. But he gradually changed when he met his fated lover. And of course their OST's, love it. It's so meaningful esp if you watched the MV with english subbed.

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How Do You PROVE You Love Someone?

First, I can absolutely understand why this show would not be a favorite, or even liked by some people. It does require it's own form of alternate universe rules that end up being a common issue with any show dealing with mental health in China. Because of this there are quite a few negatives that some people will not be able to look past and I can respectfully understand this.

For instance, the oversimplification of saying Meng Hui has PTSD and not really mentioning anything about DID (or even an outdated MPD) can give people the wrong idea about what her issues actually are. However, I can honestly overlook this pretty easily as the DID is a symptom of the PTSD where she dissociates to the extreme.

Next people would bring up that the characters in the show ALL bend over backwards to give in to her delusions even having her run the ML's company despite having no actual knowledge of how to do this. Yes, this makes for a bit of an eye-roll but at the same time the STORY explains in a way why THEY choose to do this. People point out that it is stupid and the ML does not care. There are indeed people like this in real life. Is it illogical by "most" standards, yes; but it's still within the realm of possibility for people to like a person so much and want them to get better so much that they will go along with these plots.

As for the story itself, there are small little mottos/morals that often relate to the show themes and make-up at the end of each episode. I loved these as they were often very good words of wisdom. For instance, one of my favorites was Ep 17's "If the foundation isn't laid down well, any attempt at repair will only be a facade to cover it up."

Shen Yi / Meng Hui - Our main characters, these two are the most "obviously" broken to the outside world. Our ML is rich, has a rich father, and yet the first time he and FL meet on a bus he quibbles over $0.20 because swiping a bus card is $1.80 but paying cash is $2.00 so he will only reimburse her the $1.80. He starts out miserly to an absurd degree but this is good in a way that it allows the viewers a chance to see his character growth over the course of the show with how Meng Hui changes him for the better. Meanwhile, our FL is honestly a Mary Sue with a "flaw". Even the show admits this though as there is a conversation the couple have at one point where she talks about there being no such thing as a 100% perfect girl, so she was given the scar as a way to remove that 1% and make her a 99% girl. Their obstacles are her scar and the past. Questions about guilt vs love, taking responsibility for ones actions, saying you forgive someone vs ACTUALLY forgiving someone, fears of future resentment, being a burden to the other party, communication break-down and secrets.

The other characters in the story are also flawed and each has a small story so even if the main couple isn't the most attractive for you, there might be interest still in finding out about Jiang Jiang/ Ah Tao, Sui An/ Wei Lei , or you "might" even count ML Dad/step-mom as a very minor side-story couple.

Shen Yi / Sui An (bromance) - If you want a show with good bromance on a deep friendship level, the bond between Shen Yi and Sui An will ABSOLUTELY do it for you. Without giving away spoilers, there is a crying scene with these two in it near the end that will tear your heart out if you have been enjoying their relationship throughout the show. If anything could be a negative, I wish the spent even five more minutes on their relationship to give it that final polish of depth regarding their past, but easily 9.5/10 as is.

Jiang Jiang / Ah Tao - ML's assistant and FL's friend/therapist this is a sM/DF storyline. He is a wet puppy who was bullied in school and has a "servant's personality", while she exudes confidence and was the "Prince" of her school. They have the least amount of psychological issues to overcome which makes their relationship by far the easiest to watch. Their major obstacles are being on "opposing" sides at times and his feeling of inferiority towards her.

Sui An / Wei Lei - ML's best friend "since college" and ML's ex/FL's Best Friend ("very" minor spoiler) start out as a doctor/patient relationship. He is a plastic surgeon and she uses this to her advantage when she determines she likes him as she likes getting treatments. These two have honestly one of the worst relationships but who need the most out of their being together. Without giving spoilers, their issues have to do with inferiority, one person using the other, being worthy of love, guilt and a feeling of responsibility vs love, and the biggest one is probably the inability to let the other person into their head (they are a show-er not a tell-er and don't explain themselves)

All in all, this show went over a LOT for "only" having 24 episodes. Things that I personally was left still unclear on at the end were mostly past issues with the ML/ML mom/ ML dad, and weird editing with the original childhood timeline which had me questioning 1. how he didn't know her name, and 2. how long they had been talking to each other before the "incident" (this is mostly due to the scenes with she sitting down to lunch, asking mom for backpack, getting the backpack). These are all VERY minor issues for me though as they take up almost no actual time within the show, but they do seem to be plot holes.

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I was skeptical about this because both the leads looked like kids (they were skinny and baby faced) but this wasn't a school drama. But I didn't have anything to watch and I was craving a modern c-drama for some reason so I gave it a try and I have to say I was very disappointed.
First of all the story is unrealistic because of the scar. I get why she would get trauma because kids are pretty impressionable but a) no one makes fun of a scar. If they do they are the ones in the wrong (and an a-hole btw) not you. b) I have had experience with this and cut scars, especially at a young age are never that pronounced unless she got stiches which clearly she didn't otherwise it wouldn't just be a single line scar. I had a cut scar and a 3rd degree burn scar that I got during middle school and the cut scar faded and isn't visible unless pointed out. The burn scar you can see from a 100m away, so yeah they should probably have done that here that she accidently got burned or something to have that kind of trauma and very visible scar.

Secondly that split personality was sh*t. The first 2 episode it was my favorite part. She would go from this talented but insecure person to this talented and confident girl. But that didn't happen in the some of the later episodes. Her other personality just seemed a more high maintenance version of herself. Instead of seducing the ML with her charms like her psychiatrist friend claimed she would do, she literally just whined and annoyed the ML till he gave in and did what she asked. You can't just be an annoying version of yourself and claim you have a split personality. Like c'mon.

And lastly that ML sucked hard. Like initially he was clueless which is fine. He didn't understand why would anyone spend so much extra time, money and effort on a simple dinner date when it can be done for way less. And I was fine with that but in just a few episodes he went form clueless to insensitive. He understood that the FL genuinely liked him and he was an absolute jerk to her. Not to mention his initial intention was to simply use her to get what he wanted and he went as far as playing along her other personality to do that. He didn't help her because he wanted to but because he wanted to take advantage of her talents which is not a character trait I wanna see a lead.
Also their relationship went too far too fast. They were already a couple by the 2nd episode and broke up by the 4th. With 20 more episodes to go I just couldn't imagine how many times they would break up and make up.
The only watchable thing was the side couples but I just couldn't tolerate the main CP for 24 episodes so I dropped this.

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Ridiculous

The drama is ok, mostly because of the MC's other personality whom I love. The original, or meeker character was just a copy and paste of every other meek mousy girl/woman we see in too many Chinese dramas.
What made me completely stop watching was when the terrible accident that supposedly caused her DID (dissociative identity disorder) was revealed.

Honestly to call it a terrible accident is ridiculous and it is mostly about the extremely strange obsession about scars that they have in many asian countries. Cant be bothered with such frivolous concerns honestly and to turn this supposed accident into DID disorder is stretching it tooooo far since there is no way that is an outcome that is plausible. Trauma might be subjective .. but a trauma that is so extreme that it causes such an intense mental disorder requires more than the supposed "accident" she had.

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This drama has as many upsides as it does downsides, I'll discuss both of them and you can decide for yourself if it's worth a watch (it wasn't, for me). For the record, I might have too high expectations for this drama since it's from the writer of The romance of tiger and rose, which was wonderful.

This drama has a unique premise, which reminds me of Kill me heal me (one of my favs!). However, the "drama" part of this drama (the "scars" mentioned in the synopsis) requires a lot of suspension of disbelief: forget the whole multiple personality disorder as a result of PTSD thing (I'm a psychologist, and I can tell you....this is not what happnes), there are still many things that made me go "huh?" First off, how can a kid have such severe PTSD from an accidental blow & a scar? Why do you need liquid foundation to cover up scars when you have concealers?? And how can a scar not fade about 10 years?? Also that scar looks really easy for plastic surgery to fix if it's so traumatizing for the FL?

Besides the issues above, the characters are both actually very interesting: they're your usual romcom tropes, with fun twists. The ML is a CEO, but he's super stingy (a major source of comedy in the show). The FML is a Candy, but she also has multiple personality disorder, and her other personalities tend to cause her trouble. One of her personality is a badass confident hilariously delusional alpha girl that I wish was the "main" personality. The actor & actress are very cute and charming, but neither of them has enough charisma to fully realize these really interesting characters. The chemistry is also hampered by the fact that later in the episodes, we lose track of the internal-to-the-drama logic of when or why the FL switches personality, and how many she has. When she switches, she becomes very forward, and considers herself the ML's girlfriend. The ML, being the nice sweet guy he is, just goes with it (and later on, as the synopsis indicates, for business gains). Which, depending on how you see it, can be cute, or perplexing.

In any case, this drama could be a cute easy watch; I just wish they handled the story in a more believable way, the directing a bit crisper (many moments drag on 5 beats too long), and the acting a bit more nuanced.

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