Here To Heart is one long drama for the romance genre. Compared to K-drama rom-coms such as Her Private Life and Something About 1 Percent, this mainland drama is indeed more long-winded and melodramatic. You must have the patience to sit through it because there is a lot of back and forth in the push and pull relationship between the 2 leads. However, the acting of Hans Zhang and Janine Chang is full of emotions and their chemistry is evident. An example is a scene whereby they sang the Here To Heart drama song, Without You, during a karaoke session. The tears just flowed. Without this on-screen chemistry, this drama could well be one big bore.

I guess the producers of this drama probably wanted the viewers to be able to feel deeply invested in the love life of the characters. So, they dragged out the interactions between Wen Nuan and Nanxian as the 2 characters explore their feelings and start a guessing game as to what the other wants. It’s kind of frustrating to watch at times because they could have easily solved their problems by having a heart-to-heart talk like adults rather than torturing themselves unnecessarily.

However, I suspect that the novel probably contains a lot of internal dialogues that describe what the characters are thinking and feeling. This is pretty standard in romance novels. Hence, you can understand their motivations and relate accordingly to each of the scenes as you read. But on-screen, it is hard to make viewers fully understand merely from facial expressions and conversations. So, the drama feels long-winded as the different characters interact. Because it could not effectively flush out all the internal dialogues and emotional turmoils within the characters, you may end up being frustrated over Wen Nuan’s insecurities and scratching your head over Nanxian’s actions at times.

Should You Watch Here To Heart?
I won’t go so far as to say that I wasted my time watching it because I like the chemistry of the 2 leads. But I definitely won’t spend another 40 plus hours to re-watch. If you like a slow burn kind of romance drama, Here To Heart might be your cup of tea. A lot of patience is needed to follow the ups and downs of this love story. You can fast forward or skip certain episodes as you won’t lose the plot. But you won’t feel as emotionally invested in the characters then. This is because certain scenes might seem boring but they are done to slowly build up on the sufferings of Wen Nuan and Nanxian and how much they love one another in the viewers’ mind.

So, if you plan to watch it, I would suggest that you dedicate over 40 hours of your time to watch it from start to end. I don’t think the drama would be able to bring out that kind of emotional satisfaction and flavor if you skip some episodes even if it seems long-winded. It would also make you understand Wen Nuan and Nanxian’s relationship a bit better. The bottom line is Here To Heart is a long-drawn-out drama that aims to bring you on an emotional rollercoaster. So, be prepared for a long ride with some boring stretches in between once you get on!