Love O2O [2016]

[stroppyse]

 

 

Love O2O

微微一笑很倾城

 

 

Director: Lin Yufen

Writer: Gu Man, Shen Feixuan, Wen Ting, Ou Yang, Good Story Workship

Based on: A Smile is Beautiful by Gu Man

 

Original Broadcast: 22 Aug - 6 Sept 2016

Main Cast: Zheng Shuang, Yang Yang

 

source: wikipedia.org

 

 

Love O2O is a romantic comedy about Bei WeiWei, an underclassman who is considered the beauty of her university computer science department, and Xiao Nai, a senior in the same computer science department and considered to be a god by all of the students.

In addition to being a model student, Bei WeiWei is also a prolific online gamer whose character Luwei WeiWei is married to Zhenshui Wuxiang in the game “A Chinese Ghost Story” at the start of the drama. However, Zhenshui Wuxiang, played by the scion of a wealthy family, Zhen Shaoxiang, wants to meet for real, and when WeiWei refuses, he becomes suspicious that WeiWei must be ugly or even a man. So, he divorces her to marry a character played by a girl who is considered pretty in real life, and who quickly becomes his girlfriend.

WeiWei soon pairs up with Yixiao Naihe, who unbeknownst to WeiWei is played by their university’s most popular student, Xiao Nai, who WeiWei has a crush on in real life. Xiao Nai, however, knows who WeiWei is, having seen her play her character at an internet cafe and been impressed with how fast and dextrous she was at the controls of the game. So, Xiao Nai has deliberately approached Luwei WeiWei to form their partnership.

In real life, Xiao Nai comes from a good family with both of his parents being university professors at the university he attends. He also has 3 dorm mates who are his friends and with whom he plans to start up a tech development business once they graduate. There is also a second lead, a rich girl who is the cousin of WeiWei’s ex-virtual husband and considered to be the prettiest on the campus, who has a crush on Xiao Nai and keeps trying to arrange situations so that he will ask her out.

WeiWei comes from one of the provinces instead of a metropolitan area from a comfortable family. She also has 3 dorm mates who are her best friends, however, none of them are gamers, until her best friend Zhao Erxi starts playing.

One of the things that this drama does well is that it plays with the parallel worlds of online communities/relationships versus real world communities/relationships, and how they may bleed into the other, but are also different from each other. Bei WeiWei is firm about the lines between her real life as a student and her online persona, but that line is definitively crossed when Xiao Nai is revealed to be her online husband Yixiao Naihe. There are also instances of confused real life versus online identities, including one that fuels a secondary romance between Zhao Erxi and Cao Guang, a second year student who has a RL crush on WeiWei and thinks that he is gaming with WeiWei’s online character due to a misunderstanding. They also discuss the transient nature of online friendships, how someone can suddenly disappear one without a word and no way to find out what happened, and that is not unusual.

There are moments of satisfaction as when people who have assumed things based on their own prejudices and ego are brought down a peg, such as when Zhensui Wuxiang finally meets WeiWei face to face to realize that his ex-virtual wife is much prettier, smarter, nicer, and more modest than the woman he had traded her in for. It’s a measure of his shallowness that he immediately tries to make moves on WeiWei, showing off his personal wealth

There are a lot of other things going on in this drama apart from the various romances. For instance, there is the David vs Goliath struggle as Xiao Nai’s start up firm competes for development contracts with Zhen Shaoxiang’s father’s established company. As well as Xiao Nai’s ambitious plans to develop a new game engine that would allow for much richer graphics on games without overwhelming either devices or networks. Interestingly enough, there is also a small subplot about going up against an American company about intellectual property rights which Xiao Nai’s firm wins handily, of course. This sub-plot was interesting actually given how much international and US news deals with IP theft by Chinese firms and agencies, and this felt like a bit of a jingoist response to that.

There is also an allusion to homosexual love that was so lightly tread that I didn’t realize what was going on for the longest time. It made for an engaging drama, even when it wasn’t focused on the OTP interactions. It feels like a thoughtful, playful study about relationships both virtual and real life and how they can both be real.

This drama does have some weaknesses though. The first is that the leads Zheng Shuang and Yang Yang are both gorgeous, but not the strongest actors. Since I don’t understand Chinese, I had to rely on the subtitles plus the way the actors emoted to follow what was going on.

I’m not sure that I bought into Zheng Shuang as a super gamer or a computer scientist. Even more importantly, I’m not sure how much I truly believed that she was so into Xiao Nai. More frequently, she seemed content to stand there being beautiful and let the other actors react to her beauty. I suppose my strongest criticism may be during their kiss scenes where she had the classic look and reactions of a doe frozen in the headlights even as Xiao Nai finally loosens his control in his desire for her. This is after they had been dating for months, btw. Also, visually Zheng Shuang is extremely thin and her stylist seemed to put her into outfits that accentuated her gauntness which made her seem less like a beauty who is famous campus-wide. Not to mention I had to laugh at a scene where she complains about how stuffed she is after eating a few spoonfuls of fish broth.

Yang Yang was much better but his acting also felt bit stilted. However, he had the advantage that he’s supposed to be playing a tsundere character and so not required to be as expressive. Plus, there were enough bromance scenes of him playing basketball, swimming, biking, etc. that I could sit back and admire his beauty.

The cast who surround the two gorgeous leads seem very good, however, and that kept the various side stories interesting to follow. The entire cast was pretty much a young cast, though, except for a brief interlude for a subplot involving Xiao Nia’s father.

The game world that they created looked beautiful with the aesthetics, details and flourishes of the most immersive games, and stood in contrast to when they took the action to the real world which was more mundane. It helped to underscore the differences in interactions online versus real world, and also led to some juxtapositions as relationships started bleeding a bit into both worlds.

There is also an interesting point made that the art in the games may actually help to replace the knowledge of their cultural art in the young, especially as opportunities to see that art was disappearing or limited in the real world.

All in, I felt that this was a good, interesting romance, but telling a story that was richer than just a romance. I would definitely recommend it to a friend to watch, even if it’s considered a bit kitschy by other Chinese viewers. It allows for a relatively easily understood entry point into C-dramas, set in the modern day with modern day concerns and can be enjoyed even with a minimum of knowledge of the Chinese culture. Aside from some of the jingoism, it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch as a foreigner.

 

And, I think it has a good re-watch value, because I have watched it more than once, and it wasn't just for Yang Yang's smile.

Plot/story 9

Cast/acting 6

Production values 8

Re-watch value 9

 

 

 

[NiteWalker]

same here....one of the main reason i love the story is because it involve MMORPG type of games....

 

besides having YangYang for an eye candy hahahaha

17 hours ago, stroppyse said:

Yang Yang was much better but his acting also felt bit stilted. However, he had the advantage that he’s supposed to be playing a tsundere character and so not required to be as expressive. Plus, there were enough bromance scenes of him playing basketball, swimming, biking, etc. that I could sit back and admire his beauty.

 

hahaha....yes YangYang is really not the best actor however he is sure an eyes candy lols

 

the bromance with his other dorm mates is cute....i love the way they bicker and also how they actually form to become one of the invisible ally in the games.....its not easy finding good partner in a games as without rapport you cant take out an army or a boss, we need a good team in games to actually to take out the boss and also be one of the strongest

[stroppyse]

I should probably mention that I finally watched the movie version with Jing Boran and Angelababy in the lead roles. I actually thought that acting wise, Jing Boran and Angelababy did better with their characters. Jing Boran was able to bring a certain energy tto the role that sold me on him even if I still think Yang Yang is more believable as the cool king card of his campus that all of the female students want. Angelababy also brought a certain pixieish energy and mannerisms to her character that made her more believable as a university aged gamer girl than Zheng Shuang.

 

However, the issues with the movie version is that it chops and changes the original source material too much to fit a movie length time, making the plot less smooth flowing, whereas the drama version with its longer broadcast time was truer to the original novel. Some of the changes made sense, while some of it didn't really make sense unless you had also watched the drama and seen what the movie was trying to do.

 

So, plotwise, the drama version wins out for me versus the movie version.

[NiteWalker]

On 9/12/2020 at 12:23 PM, stroppyse said:

So, plotwise, the drama version wins out for me versus the movie version.

 

totally agree plotwise drama version win however for choice of artist i say that AB and Jing BoRan is doing a better job....

 

YY is pretty good as far as i can see however ZS as a good gamers, i didnt see that off her and her limitations to some of the knowledge is a lil irking and her passive reaction is something i cant take....however i still watch it for YY....he is definitely a visual for feasting

[Celebrianna]

On 9/9/2020 at 4:56 PM, stroppyse said:

 

 

Love O2O

微微一笑很倾城

 

 

Director: Lin Yufen

Writer: Gu Man, Shen Feixuan, Wen Ting, Ou Yang, Good Story Workship

Based on: A Smile is Beautiful by Gu Man

 

Original Broadcast: 22 Aug - 6 Sept 2016

Main Cast: Zheng Shuang, Yang Yang

 

source: wikipedia.org

 

 

Love O2O is a romantic comedy about Bei WeiWei, an underclassman who is considered the beauty of her university computer science department, and Xiao Nai, a senior in the same computer science department and considered to be a god by all of the students.

In addition to being a model student, Bei WeiWei is also a prolific online gamer whose character Luwei WeiWei is married to Zhenshui Wuxiang in the game “A Chinese Ghost Story” at the start of the drama. However, Zhenshui Wuxiang, played by the scion of a wealthy family, Zhen Shaoxiang, wants to meet for real, and when WeiWei refuses, he becomes suspicious that WeiWei must be ugly or even a man. So, he divorces her to marry a character played by a girl who is considered pretty in real life, and who quickly becomes his girlfriend.

WeiWei soon pairs up with Yixiao Naihe, who unbeknownst to WeiWei is played by their university’s most popular student, Xiao Nai, who WeiWei has a crush on in real life. Xiao Nai, however, knows who WeiWei is, having seen her play her character at an internet cafe and been impressed with how fast and dextrous she was at the controls of the game. So, Xiao Nai has deliberately approached Luwei WeiWei to form their partnership.

In real life, Xiao Nai comes from a good family with both of his parents being university professors at the university he attends. He also has 3 dorm mates who are his friends and with whom he plans to start up a tech development business once they graduate. There is also a second lead, a rich girl who is the cousin of WeiWei’s ex-virtual husband and considered to be the prettiest on the campus, who has a crush on Xiao Nai and keeps trying to arrange situations so that he will ask her out.

WeiWei comes from one of the provinces instead of a metropolitan area from a comfortable family. She also has 3 dorm mates who are her best friends, however, none of them are gamers, until her best friend Zhao Erxi starts playing.

One of the things that this drama does well is that it plays with the parallel worlds of online communities/relationships versus real world communities/relationships, and how they may bleed into the other, but are also different from each other. Bei WeiWei is firm about the lines between her real life as a student and her online persona, but that line is definitively crossed when Xiao Nai is revealed to be her online husband Yixiao Naihe. There are also instances of confused real life versus online identities, including one that fuels a secondary romance between Zhao Erxi and Cao Guang, a second year student who has a RL crush on WeiWei and thinks that he is gaming with WeiWei’s online character due to a misunderstanding. They also discuss the transient nature of online friendships, how someone can suddenly disappear one without a word and no way to find out what happened, and that is not unusual.

There are moments of satisfaction as when people who have assumed things based on their own prejudices and ego are brought down a peg, such as when Zhensui Wuxiang finally meets WeiWei face to face to realize that his ex-virtual wife is much prettier, smarter, nicer, and more modest than the woman he had traded her in for. It’s a measure of his shallowness that he immediately tries to make moves on WeiWei, showing off his personal wealth

There are a lot of other things going on in this drama apart from the various romances. For instance, there is the David vs Goliath struggle as Xiao Nai’s start up firm competes for development contracts with Zhen Shaoxiang’s father’s established company. As well as Xiao Nai’s ambitious plans to develop a new game engine that would allow for much richer graphics on games without overwhelming either devices or networks. Interestingly enough, there is also a small subplot about going up against an American company about intellectual property rights which Xiao Nai’s firm wins handily, of course. This sub-plot was interesting actually given how much international and US news deals with IP theft by Chinese firms and agencies, and this felt like a bit of a jingoist response to that.

There is also an allusion to homosexual love that was so lightly tread that I didn’t realize what was going on for the longest time. It made for an engaging drama, even when it wasn’t focused on the OTP interactions. It feels like a thoughtful, playful study about relationships both virtual and real life and how they can both be real.

This drama does have some weaknesses though. The first is that the leads Zheng Shuang and Yang Yang are both gorgeous, but not the strongest actors. Since I don’t understand Chinese, I had to rely on the subtitles plus the way the actors emoted to follow what was going on.

I’m not sure that I bought into Zheng Shuang as a super gamer or a computer scientist. Even more importantly, I’m not sure how much I truly believed that she was so into Xiao Nai. More frequently, she seemed content to stand there being beautiful and let the other actors react to her beauty. I suppose my strongest criticism may be during their kiss scenes where she had the classic look and reactions of a doe frozen in the headlights even as Xiao Nai finally loosens his control in his desire for her. This is after they had been dating for months, btw. Also, visually Zheng Shuang is extremely thin and her stylist seemed to put her into outfits that accentuated her gauntness which made her seem less like a beauty who is famous campus-wide. Not to mention I had to laugh at a scene where she complains about how stuffed she is after eating a few spoonfuls of fish broth.

Yang Yang was much better but his acting also felt bit stilted. However, he had the advantage that he’s supposed to be playing a tsundere character and so not required to be as expressive. Plus, there were enough bromance scenes of him playing basketball, swimming, biking, etc. that I could sit back and admire his beauty.

The cast who surround the two gorgeous leads seem very good, however, and that kept the various side stories interesting to follow. The entire cast was pretty much a young cast, though, except for a brief interlude for a subplot involving Xiao Nia’s father.

The game world that they created looked beautiful with the aesthetics, details and flourishes of the most immersive games, and stood in contrast to when they took the action to the real world which was more mundane. It helped to underscore the differences in interactions online versus real world, and also led to some juxtapositions as relationships started bleeding a bit into both worlds.

There is also an interesting point made that the art in the games may actually help to replace the knowledge of their cultural art in the young, especially as opportunities to see that art was disappearing or limited in the real world.

All in, I felt that this was a good, interesting romance, but telling a story that was richer than just a romance. I would definitely recommend it to a friend to watch, even if it’s considered a bit kitschy by other Chinese viewers. It allows for a relatively easily understood entry point into C-dramas, set in the modern day with modern day concerns and can be enjoyed even with a minimum of knowledge of the Chinese culture. Aside from some of the jingoism, it was thoroughly enjoyable to watch as a foreigner.

 

And, I think it has a good re-watch value, because I have watched it more than once, and it wasn't just for Yang Yang's smile.

Plot/story 9

Cast/acting 6

Production values 8

Re-watch value 9

 

 

 

Love your review. The bolded part is one of the reasons why I couldn’t believe the girl liked the boy. She was practically frozen up when he kissed her. I don’t know why this actress take drama with kissing if she’s going to react that way. Better yet, maybe the show could have done without kissing if she was going to kill the make-believe. And usually Chinese actors do better at kissing than the stilted pressed lips in Kdrama shows. Quite a few Chinese actors have mastered the art of kissing without actually kissing for real. 
 

Yang Yang was real nice eye candy in that show though. Currently I can’t bring myself to rewatch this mainly because of the lead girl. I liked the story though. They should do a remake in the future with different actors or maybe even in Korea. 
 

About the movie, I preferred the acting in there. The male lead is not as handsome as YY but he’s passable and his acting or character was not as standoffish as YY’s version. Angela baby was much better as Wei Wei to me.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Celebrianna

[NiteWalker]

Oh no Love O2O will be remove from all streaming side due to ZS scandal!!!

 

 

[Tofu]

57 minutes ago, NiteWalker said:

Oh no Love O2O will be remove from all streaming side due to ZS scandal!!!

Wow, that's horrible for everyone else! I think Love O2O is Yang Yang's most popular drama too.  Haha! I just read the tweet and realized they mentioned this. LOL!

[NiteWalker]

8 hours ago, Tofu said:

Wow, that's horrible for everyone else! I think Love O2O is Yang Yang's most popular drama too.  Haha! I just read the tweet and realized they mentioned this. LOL!

 

yes it is one of YangYang most successful drama to date