Love Me, Love My Voice (2023)

A No Drama Drama

To be honest, I rarely watch a Cdrama to the end. And even though I rate this drama poorly, all things considered, I did finish it. So that's something. As other reviewers have said here, there really was no story at all - just good-natured people dating and supportive friends. Here's what I enjoyed:
1. The information about voice dubbing culture and fandom in China (something I've always been curious about).
2. THE FOOD as love-language.
3. The "friends/colleagues having fun vacationing together" vibe.
4. The travelogue to Guijin (bucket list location)
5. No backstabbing or miscommunication tropes

Here's what troubled me:
1. The lack of nuanced characters or character arks (nobody is that good all the time).
2. The age-gap thing, how ML pursues FL. All they have is surfacey love for each other based on their voices? And he's way too mature for her. She acts like she's 12 - is that a cultural thing? Do college aged women act like that - all obedient and eager to please? I would definitely find him sus, if he weren't so sweet....
3. The whole thing seems like a Chinese propaganda show.
4. NOBODY SLEEPS WELL.

Here's what I'm curious about:
1. Why isn't sleep prioritized?
2. Is their representation of the voice-dubbing and traditional Chinese music culture accurate?
3. Wouldn't her parents have been more involved?
4. How are there so many cousins, while China had the one-child policy in place? I really don't think that Cdramas have a realistic portrayal of the effect this policy would have had.

Overall, I think I continued with the show until the end because I am really heartily sick of what's happening around me - awful politics, environmental disasters, etc, - that I just needed a break. This show was a break. The people are good and well-intentioned, they all think of others before themselves, and care about relationships.

Leia Mais

I LOVE IT!!!

This is THE BEST romcom I have ever watched and it will be for a very long time!!!

There were no crappy, annoying or frustrating people or events in the mix, the entire show was just a sweetness overload!! At every moment, I was so afraid that there would be frustrating things happening or annoying people appearing. I was always worried at the beginning of every episode - it felt too good to be true! That is literally how much I'm used to terrible things happening in all the other dramas I watch. But this C-Drama did not disappoint!! Even the music that they made was beautiful and amazing!!

I was so sad when I noticed that I was reaching the end of the drama because I knew I would never find another as good as this one - the bar had been set way too high!!

Overall, saying that this drama was beyond amazing would be an understatement. The fact that this drama is underrated is just crazy. I highly recommend watching this, you will not regret it!!

Leia Mais

Beautiful, romantic and exquisite OST

this is one of the most beautiful dramas i ever seen. It really make me relax and enjoy the music and the romance/friendship in the story. Was so relaxing, without ups and downs bc is a story that make you believe in love and the power to have good friends. love the chemestry between the couple. the acting and performance of Tianci make me acknowledge how spectacular artist he is, singing, dubbing, acting (he even dance but not in the drama). With the craziness of the real life this drama make you step back and enjoy the calmness with one of the best OST i ever know.

Leia Mais

Love TJC, Love TJC's voice

Total fluff out of a lovesick teenage girl's play book. ML's a full time doctor, a voice actor at least part time, sings like an idol, cooks like a chef, speaks like a therapist AND never dated. He'll love this girl for years only based on her voice and music without knowing what she looks like but thankfully she's equally hot and pure. That characterization right there already puts this drama in the unplausible fluff category.

It's a very slow & mellow drama with uninteresting interactions between the leads but both are good looking.
The supporting couple is cute too.
Both couples are with significant age gap and maturity gap making the relationships even more unbelievable. Age gap is not noticeable when both people are working, but one is in college & one's been working. Even when the age gap is not a big deal the maturity gap feels huge.

TJC fans will probably watch just to hear his voice. Most of the time this drama feels like a one giant cooking music video.

Leia Mais

This show is of course quite good, there are literally no love triangles, misunderstandings or angst, but there is still fun content that's enough to fill up about 25 episodes, unfortunately we had 33. Still the filler is not so bad either, overall it's full of chill swoony stuff. The couples were all great pairings with excellent chemistry. I just feel a bit annoyed how little -meaningful- screentime the side couples had. (especially considering how much filler their scenes could've replaced) One thing this drama did exceptionally well is portraying new couple awkwardness & progress into becoming comfortable with each other. (but then they just had to make several "sleep together in our day clothes prim and proper" scenes to annoy us with)

I've said this before in other cdrama reviews, but saying it again, it felt like I watched an amazing show twice in a row, that's why the rewatch value is low, because I feel I already did it..

Also there were quite a few epic moment opportunities that were intentionally missed. I was really looking forward to some of them too, so that stings a bit. (for example ML meeting FL's cousins, I mean could they have made that any tamer?) Censorship makes dramas like this possible so here it could be considered a net positive, but the blunting effect on the excitement is a bit too much for my taste.

(Also we could talk about how incredibly offensive to women some of these acts of "classic" chivalry are, but hey what else is new? This is still a Chinese drama)

I really liked the proposal scene in this one. I usually cringe whenever I have to suffer through proposal scenes, not here...
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Overall this is one of the better Asian dramas I've seen this year, but it's very far off from the best ones in the chill-conflictless genre. (in fact 'Meet Yourself' is a 2023 cdrama as well that I think is much better)

Leia Mais

Started great but ended on a dull note

I loved this and rolled my eyes in disappointment at the same time.

I'll call the female lead as sheng and male lead as Qiang for review purposes.

Let's talk about the positives first:
- Interesting portrayal of voice actors and musicians
This is the first drama I've seen that focused on voice actors and contemporary-traditional musicians and I quite enjoyed it. I liked how serious they were about their work and the soundtrack was also fun to listen to.
- The casting of the male actors were great
Since the male actors were playing as voice actors, i was curious to hear their voices and I must say that I wasn't disappointed. Their voices were great and felt natural.
- Lighthearted and cute plot with no drama
I liked that the plot didn't have major drama. It was perfect as a palate cleanser from watching serious dramas. I was waiting for the conflict but nothing major happened which I was glad to see
- Fun supportive cast
The supporting cast were fun to watch. They didn't have deep character stories but they just added light humor and it was nice to see non toxic characters on screen.
- Costumes were on point
I loved how they incorporated fusion chinese attire for the musician characters. It was refreshing to see and I really wanted to buy them. It gave a unique edge and feel to the whole drama. Kudos to the costume team !

Now let's talk about the negatives:
- Can we please not make the female lead a toddler?
This has been my complaint with age gap romances for a long time: A childish and "very cute" female lead. Why is she talking like a sloth and why are her gestures like a child ? (Example: her cup holding and eating everything using two hands). She's 22 for God's sakes and is an adult. I had to skip forward whenever she talked in the earlier episodes since she took a long time to say one sentence.
- How can a perfect man like Qiang exist ?
I get that they wanted to show Qiang as "perfect" but isn't this too much ? I know how busy doctors are and him being an avid cook and a top voice actor on top of it didn't make sense. He also has a perfect temperament and has a flawless personality. It just didn't feel realistic and made him feel like a robot. I wanted to see some flaws or character growth but it didn't happen.
- The second couple could've been written better
I personally didn't like the casting for Xiaoning. I could understand the casting choice for Junmei since he is supposed to look wild and mature but the second couple didn't match well. They looked more like siblings than a potential couple. I couldn't feel the chemistry and their relationship was even more of a slow burn than the main couple.
- Did they get paid by China tourism to do an ad?
I could understand them going on a trip once but this drama had too much vacation scenes. They went on three group vacations in this drama and honestly I was bored most of the time during their vacation. The shots looked great and story wise I was bored.
-The second half just fell off
I personally wish they could've ended this in 24 episodes. I knew it was a chill and relaxed drama but there was literally nothing happening in the story. I just skipped most of the second half since nothing exciting was happening.

Overall:
A great watch if you want something sweet and fluffy but don't expect it to be great with an exciting plot. 7.5/10.

Leia Mais

Feel good fluff with good music

It’s a very sweet, innocent story line. There are no bad guys, no devastating life events. It shows a lot of the cute awkwardness that comes with a first crush. (Though he was almost 30 and should have been past that by then.) There’s barely even any drinking. It follows the relationships with the backdrop of a LOT of good music. They are musicians and voice actors, so they worked some amazing performances into the story. I found myself getting caught up in those.
In any good romance, the side kicks are key, and these did not disappoint. Hou Wen Yuan and Huang Jing Xian were my favorites. The actors did great, and the characters were adorable. Mumu is an unsung hero. I hope to see a lot more of them both.
And, of course, they traveled in the show so there was some really cool scenery.
The down side: The story itself moved too slow. After almost 6 months of dating, she still ran away when he tried to kiss her. And she never really grew up. It was even more evident in the last episode that she was mentally just a child. While he was cooking for her, planning trips, rescuing her when she was afraid… she just sort of stared at him and smiled stupidly. She didn’t bring much to the table and it seemed a very unbalanced relationship. She was talented, but not much for dating material. That got to be annoying.
Overall, it was cute and mostly entertaining. The last episodes got a bit long and weird but not awful. If you’re up for something light and happy, this is a solid choice.

Leia Mais

Une histoire d’amour parmi d’autres

Ce drama était dans ma liste car comme beaucoup j’ai développé un amour certain pour Tan Jian Ci à la suite de son rôle de Xiang Liu dans « Lost You Forever » (Oui, je sais, commencer un drama pour un acteur n’apporte pas toujours que du bon x’D !)

L’histoire ne m’a pas vraiment attiré au premier à bord, mais une romance où TJC à la fille à la fin m’inspirais (séquelle de LYF ? Aller savoir ^^). Je me suis donc lancée et j’avoue ne pas avoir passé un mauvais moment.

Points positifs :
- Personnages bienveillants
- Un milieu qu’on ne voit pas tous les jours : Le monde des doubleurs ainsi que des chanteurs de musique traditionnelle chinoise.
- Pas de jeux, je t’attire, je te repousse (qui sont classique dans les dramas x])
- Les couples sont mignons & non toxiques (important de le souligner xD)
- L’ensemble de l’OST est sympathique

Points négatifs :
- Le personnage de Gu Sheng est rendu trop « prude », elle a 22 ou 23 (je ne sais plus) mais se comporte comme une petite fille…
- Mo Qing Cheng est trop « PARFAIT » ! J’en étais agacée. Oui, il est dans la compréhension et le respect mais il y a des moments ou cela en était insupportable à voir. (Finalement, il est tellement parfait qu’il en devient lisse…)
- La romance entre Jue Mei & Xiao Xing met trop longtemps à se mettre en place (et finalement, ils se mettent en couple sans qu’on le « voie »)
- Peut-être un peu beaucoup d’épisodes pour ce genre d’histoire tranche de vie.

Dans l’ensemble, c’est un drama que j’ai pris plaisir à voir, il ne prend pas la tête & nous avons droit à un beau panel d’acteurs qui savent convaincre. De plus, j’ai fort apprécié l’OST.

P.S. : Si vous avez faim, ne vous mettez pas devant ce drama, c'est la frustration assurée x'D ! (Car on prépare & mange beaucoup dans cette histoire... Quand il n'en parle pas en nous illustrant la recette... Ca serait moins drôle si on ne nous faisait pas saliver devant l'écran... [Comme si Tan Jian Ci faisait pas assez baver... (Ceci était une aparté non nécessaire, je le conçois :D)])

Leia Mais

Plotless but addictive... just like eating : )

This show is basically eating, and smiling, and more eating. There's not a whole lot of communication going on, but there's also no problems apparently...

I think this drama is fine. It's a wonderful introduction to some traditional Chinese music and its ideas (often inspired by poetry, landscapes, and utilizing pentatonic notes) as well as some of the tastiest Chinese cuisine (I don't know if I watched this drama for this, at this point). Either way, it's an introduction to a lot of ancient Chinese culture from both the mainstream and ethnic groups (notably in Yangshuo). If you want some insight without having to read articles and do legitimate work, this could be it for you. Oh, I forgot to mention... it does introduce you to dubbing and voice acting, which is honestly quite interesting : )

It's also very sweet. The romance is romancing, and there's a lot of... 'chemistry' going on. I think it's cute, but also a little pointless. It's just cute and cute and cute and then cute again. It gets pretty monotonous and repetitive for me, but I still watched the whole thing. You do have laughs and giggles and whatever else from this drama, and I think it's a fun watch while you're doing it. You don't get a lot out of it though (I think that's the intention, to be honest).

There is no plot. Note that. If you like complex, intricate plots, this is not where to go. But if you want to cleanse your palate after one of those hyper-intense plots, this may help you. It is a little long for how much it talks about though... 10 episodes honestly could've done it for me.

Finally, it did raise a couple of questions for me even as it killed my brain (brain-rot sweetness warning):
Do people really just start liking each other because of the other persons voice?
How do you really understand another person if... neither of you talk to each other?
Why am I never seeing dubbing conventions, etc., in real life? It'd be interesting to see one....

While this drama is pretty plotless, I think it is INOFFENSIVE. You couldn't really go wrong with it, even if you don't go right!

Leia Mais

Beautiful music, incredible food, and a sweet love story

If you love easygoing relationships with lots of romantic moments then this drama is perfect. If you're looking for exciting drama this probably isn't the one for you, but you could give it a try.

The amount of music was such a nice addition to the drama and I honestly loved watching him cook everything even though that likely contributed to such a long series. However, I enjoyed every episode and getting to see more sweet moments with the leads and also the activities of the dubbing studio.

Their relationship was so cute to watch and it felt like we got to watch them fall in love and spend time together. What I love so much about this drama is that the relationship develops so naturally and realistically. Neither one of them is overbearing or irrational and they actually love and respect each other and show it too. Their personalities worked so well together and stayed consistent throughout, Mo Qing Cheng was calm and caring and Gu Sheng was kind and shy but a reasonable amount.

I did like seeing the side character stories but there wasn't that much going on compared to some other dramas. However, I like that it focused mainly on the two leads but the story varied so it didn't feel boring despite the lack of drama.

I would definitely recommend watching this drama for a sweet relaxing time if you're wanting a break from love rivals, miscommunications, and random plot twists (not that I don't love drama but this was nice to watch).

Leia Mais