Apaixonar-se (2021)

Pleasantly Suprised.

I came to this drama for Evan Lin and didn't have high expectations for it. I haven't really watched any of the other actors/actress' dramas but have grown to really like them after this drama. It's also my first Republican drama.

Pace of the story was good and I thought the storyline was pretty interesting. I can appreciate a drama without obsessive/despicable SLs because I've watched too many dramas with those as of late. The beginning of the story was a little "whatever" to me as I didn't really like the ML's attitude, but I pushed through and am glad I did. Writers/actors did a god job of triggering emotions in certain parts.

Overall great story, acting and the OST isn't bad either. Would I rewatch? No, but I think it's worth checking out.

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Fall in love over and over again.

I lucked out on this one. Honestly, I picked this right up after Goodbye My Princess to somehow appease my unsatisfaction. This is my first foray in a republican era drama and I am so happy that I gave this a try!

Chen Xing Xu completely levelled up in this show. Not only in looks but in acting. His portrayal in GMP was already remarkable, but he was even better in Fall in Love. He portrayed Tan Xuanlin to perfection, it was *chef’s kiss*. I have to agree with the majority here, he was so damn fine in a uniform… but I gotta say, he looks hotter in a plain black button up shirt.. ha!

Oh and the FL, Mu Wanqing, you are an awesome heroine! I adore strong and smart female characters that goes head to head with the ML. Smart and cunning, she is an equal to Tan Xuanlin. Wanqing knows what she wants and she will get it. She is not your damsel in distress.

Secondary characters are all wonderful too. I teared up here and there. I must say the very last episode is a bit bland, but I guess that just me. It’s a happy ending though.

The story is mainly divided into 3 arcs. There’s a lot of plotting and scheming, it’s terrific! For romance lovers, there’s a lot of squeal-worthy scenes, guarantee you will not be left wanting (remember in GMP, where we almost got none?) Suffice to say I can’t stop smiling when watching, you will no doubt Fall in Love. So satsified, my heart is full.

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A heart-warming drama considering the period depicted

This is a rather typical, lighthearted romance, set in the turbulent period of the warlords in China.

Watched this after Winter Begonia so as to come out...

The strong point of the drama is the cast, especially the ML. He portrays the character very well, in terms of giving the appearance of a playboy and corrupt marshal when in reality, he is a caring but very calculating person.

Chen Xing Xu impresses me when he played the role of Li Cheng Yin in Goodbye my Princess and again, in this role of Tan Xuanlin. I just hope that he will be given more serious, intense roles as I feel that he has the capacity to go beyond these roles and to really give new/other dimensions to traditional male roles in dramas.

PS: Love the absolutely heart-melting looks he gives to his actresses when he is portraying love towards them. Wish that someone could look at me like that...

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Engaging Story

Fall In Love is surprisingly an engaging drama for me. I didn’t expect it to be this good but the story execution is nicely done that the tale flows cohesively at a good pace to make me hooked. This is not a pure romance drama despite the title because the fluff kind of tapers off after the halfway mark as other more serious issues of feuds and schemings start to take precedence.

Hence, you can divide the drama into 3 arcs. The first concentrates on the female lead’s family issues as she battles a toxic stepmother and half-sister. This runs for 17 episodes and it includes the budding romance of the main couple. The next 10 episodes is about the schemes to bring down the villain while the last arc talks about the villain fighting back and the push factors to lead the protagonists to lean towards the Revolutionary Army.

It is easy to have the misconception that this is a rom-com or something lighthearted. It is not. While it isn’t depressing like One And Only or has a painful kind of love like Novoland: Pearl Eclipse, Fall In Love still can’t run away from the serious issues of that era that revolves around war and tussles over territory. The drama is engaging simply because the screenwriters have successfully interweave the romance into the power fight for control over a city especially in the first arc.

A Cohesive Plot
Basically, the drama is really about feuding warlords. The male lead wants to establish his presence in Shanghai while the warlord in control of the city wants him out. The female lead becomes the center of attention because of her rich father who could provide financial backing to the warlords. Thus, the story of all the characters is logically linked together. Each of the character has a reason to be there and the plot doesn’t go all over the place but stays tightly focused.

Included in the plot are the schemes strategized by the leads. They are cleverly written rather than being superficial. Therefore, rather than just concentrating on the romance and the fluff, Fall In Love has also taken the pains to intrigue viewers on how the protagonists outwitted their enemies. I find it rather entertaining and different from the usual. This is certainly not the kind of simple love story like Love At Night or Once We Get Married, but a more well-rounded drama that has romance, family, power tussle, and higher ideals being cohesively bundled together.

Intelligent Characters
What makes Fall In Love more interesting is that the main characters are depicted as smart people. Xuan Lin is shown as flirty and playful often but he does it with intelligence to throw his enemies off. He is the type of man who can see through other people’s plan and think a few steps ahead.

Wan Qing may look courteous and quiet but she is not one to be bullied. She has brains to counter Xuan Lin and knows what his schemes are about rather than being blindly taken advantage of. She doesn’t whine and knows how to fight back.

Therefore, if you like smart characters with a backbone, you should enjoy watching Xuan Lin and Wan Qing. Even the second male lead is an astute man but simply too kindhearted and noble to resort to underhanded tactics. Overall, the annoying characters are limited to Xuan Lin’s younger sister who lacks maturity and Wan Qing’s stepmother and half-sister with their exaggerated jealousy. But they don’t dominate the drama with their limited screen time which helps to keep things balanced.

Great Chemistry
The leads have great chemistry together as a couple. From the very beginning, you can already feel the sparks in their interactions. So, when the romance follows, you will get the feeling that they are meant for each other. They look matching as lovers and you will root for them. However, the sweet scenes are pretty limited in this drama. There are kisses but also nothing that will make you go wow unlike You Are My Glory and Love Scenery. So, if you want a fluffy kind of romance with lots of hugs and kisses, Fall In Love will not be in that category.

As for the acting, Oliver Chen really gives Xuan Lin very unique characteristics. He gives it a playful personality but at the same time, also portrays him to be a responsible man with deep emotions related to a tragic past. Hence, Xuan Lin doesn’t appear as one-dimensional as Oliver Chen also manages to bring out the other aspects of the character’s personality to the viewers.

Zhang Jing Yi also plays the role of Wan Qing rather well. She depicts her as someone with inner strength through a stoic face and quiet determination in her eyes which is consistent with the character’s background and life experience. As for Evan Lin, I last saw him in Crush. He has that similar serious face and brooding demeanor in both Crush and Fall In Love. He did okay as Guang Yao but I think he still lacks experience to effectively flesh out the conflict in the character who is torn between his father and doing the right thing.

My Verdict – Watch!
I know many people don’t really like watching Chinese Republican dramas. This is because the stories in that time setting tend to be associated with sufferings, war, and female oppression. But do make an exception for Fall In Love. It is not a distressing drama despite the turbulent period but one that has enough wittiness and interesting dialogues to get your attention.

Some may find the male lead to be a jerk in the beginning but do continue on as he gets better as the drama progresses. The story development is sound and there is strong foundation for the romance to flourish. However, the ending could be better. Although all loose ends are tied up, there are new villains being introduced in the last 3 episodes. Neither would you get a sweet ending scene for the couple after all the scare that they went through despite this being a romance drama.

For this Fall In Love 2021 review, I would give it a score of 8/10. It has a well-executed plot to give viewers an engaging story. Many romance dramas with over 30 episodes will feel draggy but not this one. It has enough happenings in other areas to push the story forward rather than relying on the main couple’s relationship alone to drive it.

Thus, if you are craving for something very sugary, look for something else to watch. But if you don’t mind using your brains a little to follow the protagonists’ schemes, then this would be pretty interesting and different from the usual.

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I JUST FALL IN LOVE

Fall in love taught to fall in love in this type of genre—the Republican era starring Oliver Chen, Zhang Jia Yi and Lin Yan Jun. Apparently, this is my first republican drama that I enjoyed the most. I just came across of this drama because of Lin Yan Jun since I am hooked by him in his other drama Crush. However, I ended up falling in love with Commander Tan Xuan Lin (Oliver Chen). I am not familiar with him but because of this I might ended up familiarizing about him. The elements of this drama match up perfectly. So I listed those things of what I like and what I dislike.

What I like:
1. The Cinematography— I ended up loving the 1926 Shanghai. The quality of the drama, the places, their dresses, the lives of people in that era and many more are definitely established and showcased in the drama as if it was shoot during that time.

2. The characters — For me there is no single annoying characters. I like how they portray their own role. My favourite character is Tan Xuan Lin, from being witty to charismatic commander Tan. I like the way he give emotions to every scenario he has in. Also Mu WanQing , being the smartest female lead. I am not gonna say that I hate cute, dummy and clumsY female lead in cdrama land because thats the idea of fl I always seen in Cdramas but Mu WanQing is far from the opposite. She is strong, smart and independent FL in the drama that I totally admire. Lin Yan Jun's character, he is so handsome that cold Lin YanJun I know is back in this drama ?? but one thing that I am bothered about is that he is overdubbed. I don't know the other characters but I am familiar with his nice voice so I am quite disappointed. The other side characters and the secondary couple is so cute ( Tan Xuan Lin's sister ?? courting is an epic as she is with Pei Shao Jun ). The villain of the drama are praiseworthy. They made the drama more interesting.

3. The Plot— everything about the drama is beautiful. They put some funny elements to make the drama beautiful and artistic. I picked the drama on time ( about 32 episodes release) so I don't wait in vain.

4. The fight scenes— the fight scenes is very applausable. The camera tricks are doing pretty good job so viewers will make believe the intense scene is true.

5. The Ending — what makes the story beautiful is they make the drama a happy ending which many viewers are doting for. I personally love the ending as they resolve their conflicts smoothly and all the families reunite in one goal.

What I dislike

1. Gu Yue Shuang — I don't know why I am so disappointed how the writers abruptly made the decision of killing her in mid episodes. As I am loving her character romance with Junior Marshall Su.

I guessed that is my only concern lol

My personal rating would be 8.5.

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Bom mas não é perfeito

Esse drama tem muitos pontos positivos que eu gosto, como uma história boa e interessante daquelas que te prende a atenção e você fica doido para saber o que vai acontecer no próximo episódio , elenco bom e com boas atuações, uma protagonista feminina forte, determinada e inteligente algo que eu como mulher gosto muito de enaltecer e assistir personagens femininas assim. Uma personagem feminina que achei bem irritante e infantil foi a irmã do comandante porém ela não atrapalha em nada a história eu só ignorei a existência dela ali.

Mas confesso que da metade para o fim do drama eu me cansei, a história ficou arrastada, definitivamente não precisava de tantos episódios para se contar essa história, pois ficou bem longo e arrastado porém me manteve interessada , mesmo eu pulando algumas partes chatas ainda sim queria terminar este show.

Em fim achei agradável de assistir , se você quer um drama mais adulto e com varias reviravoltas recomendo que assista.

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Watch This if You Love Smart Lead Characters

I love this one even though it still can escape from some ridiculous scenes. Like on ep 1 where the ML kills the spionage woman by slitting her throat, the wound is more likely a non deadly scratch with inappropriate amount of blood to make someone lose their life; plus his decision to hide the body under a bed with a wide gap... some ridiculous keep appearing, but... still forgivable for me

First of all, I love how smart both ML, FL and SML. I'm addicted to how strategic ML. Like when he gives the secretary position to the SFL, makes her pay for the position, but then loads her with responsibilities beyond her ability, just makes me clap. This is the first 2021 drama which not keeping me busy skipping some parts and just sitting to enjoy.

The FL is also a very interesting character. She's just as calm, mature, smart and strategic as the ML. She's my most loveable FL in CDrama. Though I find it weird coz when she's in a situation where she's supposed to express her feelings, she still remains calm. Like when she's under hostage, she's not even crying or in a state of shock, or looking scared.... she's just... tooo calm. Sometimes I think she's kinda a psychopath, lol.

I also love how calm all the characters. Since the SFL is the only "screamer" character, it is still acceptable to my ears. I will give this 10 if it creates a smart SFL, so that I can enjoy balanced competition.

Overall, this is my best Chinese Drama in 2021. I'm highly recommended this for you who tired of ML with claimed to be smart genius or wealthy CEO with all of "comic typical handsome boy" (calm, arrogant, stiff, rarely smile); and  FL who acted cute, immature, innocent (but more likely stupid), playful, tacky with childlike kind of acting. 

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You really will "Fall in Love"

I am not into C-Drama but this really got me interested and I even LOVED the story flow. This drama is not your average drama because of the suspense and thriller scenes. I always loved historical dramas so this is a must rewatch for me. For those curious about this drama, I recommend this drama guys! I could even bet my life with this. ❤️❤️❤️ This drama will really make you "Fall in Love" with history again.

As for the characters, they really did a good acting. Especially in the action scenes, it made me feel the thrill. For the drama scenes, it made me tear up. And for the romantic scenes, it REALLY will make your heart flutter.

For the production team, kudos! Their costumes really captured the 1930s-1940s fashion but in some scenes, their clothes are repeated.

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A Hot Mess of a Drama

Alright, for starters, I love Min Guo Dramas. The romance, the danger, hot people in gorgeous period clothing - it's always a win. Except here. I was genuinely surprised to look it up and see that this drama has such good ratings here because... it is bad. Really, really bad. If you like it, I'm happy that you had a good viewing experience because this drama made me legitimately angry on a number of levels because the incompetence was just... staggering. There were moments in this drama that made me go "Oh, this is actually romantic" or "Oh, this is actually interesting", but most of it left me sighing, rolling my eyes, and wondering how I made it that far.

Things I Liked:
- The actors weren't all terrible. They genuinely had some good moments. I have no idea how they convinced some of these veteran actors to be in this drama, but they were good and the leads weren't terrible.
- There were some genuinely good, romantic moments, but not usually between the leads. The side characters had more chemistry in their couples than the ML and FL had in the entire show and I was actually invested in the romantic plots for them.
- Guangyao. He and his friends were what kept me going through this shown, not gonna lie.

Things I Disliked:
- Costumes. They were cheap and looked awful. Period dramas need good, convincing clothing to help set the setting. These looked like they were picked up from a fashion shop and styled to try and look like they were out of the early twentieth century. The hair on all of the girls were obviously all cheap wigs that were styled pretty badly and didn't fit the setting in the slightest. The uniforms were alright and the men's suits are hard to mess up, but everything else was... Yikes.
- The cinematography. Lighting didn't exist in outside shots. There was no color correcting or anything to improve how exterior shots looked at all. It looked like they just used the raw footage and did no editing whatsoever. The editing that was done was something you would see in a university film project. The facial smoothing was so horrible that it made people's jaws invisible, their mouths and eyebrows had to be re-edited onto their faces in a few scenes, it took away laugh lines and other basic features from older actors who should have them and made their faces look really weird, and was all around done in a way that made it look like a literal Snapchat filter would have done a better job. It was incredibly amateur. That isn't even going into the horrible CGI, the badly choreographed action scenes, and the terrible out of period props that got used constantly.
- The setting. It was wasted. I've seen a few reviewers here say that you need to "watch for the plot, not the accuracy" and things of similar nature, but in a period drama, the historical aspect makes up a huge chunk of the plot and background conflict that helps shape the characters. The Min Guo era in China was filled with suffering, death, drama, and war. The drama needs to reflect that or else the background means nothing. Like how the background politics of the Manchu and their states can drive a well written Qing harem drama, the clashes between the revolutionary armies and the backbiting internal strife between the various Republican warlords is supposed to help drive a good Min Guo drama. At that point, just set in in modern times because it literally never mattered. They keep bringing up the revolutionaries and the southern wars, but nothing about that ever really affected the plot at all. Having it set during this era was pointless outside of aesthetics.
- The Plot. It was... bad. It felt very forced pretty much every second that it was moving forward. My biggest gripe was that at no point did Xuanlin or Wangqing ever seem like they were in genuine danger. Xuanlin was always six steps ahead of Xu Bojun to the point where I was sitting there rolling my eyes because it was obvious he had some secret plan. The first few times, it was alright, but the plot was rinse and repeat for all 36 episodes of this same plotline. It erased any tension that these scenarios might have had by using this formula: Xuanlin gets spotted doing something shady, Bojun's spies catch him, they report it to Guangyao, Guangyao busts in and catches the bad guys, but no Xuanlin, Xuanlin gets revealed that he set the whole thing up to get his army what they need or remove some bad actors, Wangqing is somehow tangentially involved in a way where she doesn't have to do anything worthwhile except talk to some dude who immediately gives her what she wants or sees things her way, Bojun gets butthurt because he couldn't catch him, and repeat every three or so episodes.
- The leading romance. Holy heck. The romance between Xuanlin and Wanqing was AWFUL. Xuanlin at no point ever had a meaningful moment with Wanqing outside of their shared parental death bonding moment, and Wanqing fell in love with him pretty quick considering this man KIDNAPPED HER AND THREATENED TO KILL HER. Xuanlin blackmailed her, threatened her and her family, and borderline emotionally abused and manipulated her, and then ten episodes in, they're head over heels? If the build up was slower, it would have been alright, but it wasn't. They rushed it in and forced it earlier than they should have. It's one of the dramas doing this trend I've seen in a few C-Dramas where the ML is a toxic, shitty person and for some reason, the FL has an unrealistic change of heart and gets all "Oh, but he's just hurting, he isn't that bad" and suddenly loves him. It isn't romantic, it's kind of gross.

TL;DR This drama is a hot mess, wasted its setting, and is incredibly amateur in it's writing, editing, and directing, and the actors and VA's suffered for it. 2/10, do not recommend.

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Witty leads and fast paced story!!

Chen Xing Xu's acting in this drama is SOOOO refreshing!! He can pull off the smart/sly/playful/jealous looks and his character and dialogues are so CHARISMATIC, likeable and funny! Zhang Jing Yi's acting pales a little in comparison but her character is also pretty smart where she wouldn't go down without a fight! Definitely NOT the traditional damsel in distress!

Cdrama need to tap MUCH MORE into the Chinese Republican Era!! (Without the propaganda/patriotism)
The 1920s COSTUMES are sooooo gorgeous and its good to have a change of scenery from the typical modern/xian xia genre.
Plus its more natural to have villains committing kidnaps/instigating fights than in modern drama settings.

The only downside i have for this drama is the secondary couples. I'm sorry but they add no value to the story, ain't cute and are in fact, rather annoying.

Nevertheless, kudos to the screenwriter for the amazing strategies/ploys/story execution that catapults the leads and spare not a single boring moment. Also, 36 episodes is the PERFECT LENGTH. Thank you to the cast and production crew for bestowing me a great drama to end 2021!!

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