Drama Digest
This Chinese drama follows the lives of five women with different lives and where they find themselves in the journey of their lives through various challenges. The five main female characters are: Dai Xi Xi, Ding Hui Qiao, Wen Ru Xue, Wen Xiao Yang, and Qi Yue. While Dai Xi Xi has always dreamed of marrying and having a family, she is dumped by her boyfriend of 5 years, Liu Ke, just days before their marriage. Devastated and with nowhere to go, she tries to take the reins of her life by going to live with her friend Ding Hui Qiao who values her professional life more than anything. Wen Ru Xue is a successful wedding designer and loves to date but is reluctant about the idea of being tied down by marriage. Her sister, Wen Xiao Yang is an aspiring manga artist, who is tired of living her life in the shadows of her sister and mother. She meets Qi Yue who introduces herself as a manga artist and appears a little helpless at the moment so Wen Xiao Yang tries to help her, believing they are friends. But unknown to her, Qi Yue has a habit of stealing things.
The Feel-Good Part
This drama covers various aspects of the different lives of these women, including love, work and the different problems they face and how they overcome them. The story also includes a beautiful depiction of friendship and sisterhood among the female characters as they help each other in various ways. It also shows character development of multiple characters.
The Disappointing Factor
The drama at times, focuses too much in the side stories, which do not prove to be very relevant to the main plot. Many parts of the story seem dragged on for an unnecessary amount of time, while the ending feels quite rushed. Some characters like Ding Hui Qiao show little to no improvement throughout the series. Also, many stereotyped controversial comments were made by male characters, like blaming a case of sexual assault on the victim.
In-Depth Analysis
While many parts of the story show a very realistic portrayal of the different struggles that the five women go through and how they help each other out at times, the drama can get quite boring.
Dai Xi Xi is shown as a female who constantly needs a significant other to validate her and this changes very little as the show continues. Ding Hui Qiao hardly changes her views about the exclusivity of work and romance in one’s life. Wen Ru Xue’s love life is a series of ups and downs till the last episode. The show’s music does not have much to offer on terms of being remarkable.
Star Power
The cast did pretty well in playing their characters in most of the cases, especially Zhao Jin Mai, who did her part pretty well.
Overall Opinion
Overall, the drama did not really live up to its expectation of setting an excellent example of girl-power and feminism as you would expect. The ending was not exactly satisfactory and the overall story can get quite tiring to watch at times.
