[Review] C-drama: My Best Ex-Boyfriend (2015)

Consider this as the condensed version of all the recaps + other thoughts that I wrote from before here 😉

It has hit 1.5 billion views in China, so why not try and watch it? 😀

Just like my First Impressions post, I’m going to divide my drama review into different sections to make it easier for both of us!

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DISCLAIMER/NOTE: Since this is a review, I definitely won’t be spoiling anything because I believe that a review is mostly used by people as their basis/reference for doing (in this case, watching) something. It may either persuade or turn you off in watching this drama but I’m just here to provide my own opinions and other thoughts about it.

If it’s your first time to read a post by me, then you must know that I’m a FAN of Jerry Yan so it might (or might not) actually affect how I judged/rated this drama. He’s my #1 love so I may show some sort of bias and I’m already apologizing in advance for that. Moreover, I can be easily pleased or entertained especially when it’s involving the Taiwanese/Chinese entertainment industry so what might be something just so average for you could possible be a 10 for me. Lastly, I always have a lot of things to say. Case in point, this disclaimer/note (lol) so it’s up to you if you’re still up to reading my review haha!

STORY/CINEMATOGRAPHY

Li Tang (Jerry Yan) and Fu Fangsi (Maggie Jiang) shared a very romantic past and so did Cheng Xiangnan (Viola Mi) and Yin Hao Ran (Ron Ng). Six years have passed and they’re still left with feelings that they have for each other despite the fact that Tang and Xiangnan have been engaged now. While Haoran and Fangsi have a special friendship which may possibly result to something even more special. The story’s very simple and can be typically found in a lot of other dramas but sometimes even the simplest plots can lead to a really good development of both the story and the characters. There are also plot lines about revenge and business which may annoy you but at least it didn’t drag much compared to most C-dramas that I’ve watched that focused too much on those sides.

The cinematography/editing of the drama was well done and of high quality and I wish more C-dramas would learn their lesson from this drama. It’s also important to note that the story pretty much revolved around the world of fashion which makes it refreshing and pleasing to the eyes! Most importantly, the story’s really enjoyable to watch because of the splendid cast (both main and supporting) and other aspects of the drama which you’ll be able to read more below 😉

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ACTING/CAST

One of my favorite photos of the cast 😀

Jerry Yan as Li Tang

After finishing Jerry Yan’s 2nd Mainland drama, “Loving, Never Forgetting”, I thought it would be the start of his mature role streak in the industry. As much as I wanted that to happen, I still secretly wished that he would do something feel-good (rom-com) like “Down with Love” (his last work in the Taiwanese dramaland). So I’m glad that he returned to the rom-com scene with this 3rd Mainland drama of his.

I will tackle three common things that bothered people about Jerry in this drama here:

1.) He keeps playing the same roles in his works. This is quite true but not entirely! As a big fan of his, I was able to watch almost all of his works this is why I can easily say that it’s definitely not entirely true. It just so happened that people could easily say this about him because his similar roles were the ones that appeared to be famous. If you want to see him not playing the same roles, then go watch “The Hospital”, “Starlit”, “Ripples of Desire”, etc because his roles were completely different here. This goes to show that he doesn’t really have a limited acting range that some people claim.

2.) Please go change your hairstyle already, Jerry. Aren’t you sick of it?! Well he did change his hairstyle for “Loving, Never Forgetting” because it suited the role. He had to grow his hair long here for the same case that it suited the role of Li Tang more. His constant hairstyle used to bother me but I couldn’t care less anymore after realizing that there are more things that can bother me about him as a fan (e.g. he rarely makes projects!!).

3.) What were you wearing, Jerry?! When I first saw the filming photos of this drama, I said the same thing! Like WTH? What a fashion terrorist! It also didn’t help that I found out that some of the clothes that he bought were specially made by a designer while some were from his own shopping in Japan. I already stopped caring about his outfits and just laughed (a lot!) about it when it was somehow part of the drama. Fangsi criticized his character for having such a poor taste in one of the episodes. Really funny! The designer I was talking about is also his friend, Chi Zhang (you’ll see his name in the drama too) so maybe it was also one of Jerry’s good deeds of promoting his friend’s designs.

Going back to his acting here, he played the very immature/childish Li Tang here very well which shows one of his strengths in playing in the genre of comedy as well. I believe that romance is one of the genres that he does best in too so his chemistry with Maggie/Fangsi didn’t disappoint! He also had crying/sad scenes here and my heart just couldn’t stop breaking whenever I would see him. I wanted to hug him so badly!

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Maggie Jiang as Fu Fangsi

Just like what I did with Jerry, I will write the three common things that bothered people about Maggie in this drama here:

1.) That was a disappointing kissing scene. I don’t want to spoil much about this matter but this definitely had something to do with her character was created towards Tang so I didn’t see anything wrong that she did here.

2.) I don’t know her sometimes added with: I don’t like her acting because she rarely smiles and has no chemistry with Jerry! I miss Jerry with Barbie! We all started knowing people without knowing them so it’s good that we finally know who Maggie is because of this drama. I pretty much said this many times already but I really felt that she had good chemistry with Jerry but I’ll still respect your opinion even if we don’t feel/think the same 😀 Speaking of Barbie, I’m a hardcore Jerry-Barbie shipper as well but it didn’t stop me from appreciating other female leads that Jerry shared the screen with and that definitely includes Maggie 🙂

3.) I hate her! Why doesn’t she care about Tang?! Same answer as the first! No more spoiling but she actually had her own reasons for not caring about him so we should learn to understand her character more.

Maggie Jiang as Fu Fangsi was a delight for me to watch because she really owned the character! I said this in my first post already but it goes to show that she was consistent until the end of the drama in portraying Fangsi well. I consider her as my spirit animal as well and I’d love to be someone like her who doesn’t let anyone or anything stop her from pursuing her dreams. Dramaland should create more female leads like her because as far as I know, someone like Fu Fangsi is still a rare breed.

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Ron Ng as Yin Hao Ran

Ron Ng’s Hao Ran played the second male lead role so perfectly. So perfectly that you would want to strangle him at times! He would always do his best to make life easier for everyone especially for Fangsi. It was like that too six years ago when he was very in love with Xiangnan. I have nothing much to say but all I know is that I’m satisfied with the ending of his character. He’s pretty much everyone’s hero so he deserves all the happiness in the world!

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Viola Mi as Cheng Xiangnan

You know what they usually say, when the villain/antagonist is annoying, it means he/she is an effective actor/actress. This definitely applies to Viola Mi’s portrayal as Xiangnan in the drama. At first, I didn’t find her annoying when everyone else did but my patience level has reached its limit so I ended up hating her as well. However, there were just many times when I pitied her character because I feel that she was only a victim of circumstance. Her materialistic and cash-greedy mother can also be held responsible for why she acted the way she did.

While watching her drama, her bitchiness and dependence on minions/followers actually reminded me of Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl that I actually felt that they had a slight physical resemblance. Aside from that, she had the best outfits for me in the drama because of the girliness and also because she looked classy in her clothes.

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Let’s start with them folks first!
Li Cheng Rui (Tang’s dad) – He played Jerry’s father-in-law in “The Hospital” and it’s nice to see them work again after almost 10 years and now as his dad 😉 He had sensible reasons for protecting his son even if they seemed unreasonable and ridiculous at first. He also showed his childishness so we found out where Tang got this trait from.

Mrs. Fu (Fangsi’s mom was left unnamed if I’m not mistaken) – Such a cute and jolly momma! She was always supportive of her daughter and you can even say that she was on Tang’s side more than her daughter’s! She’s the true FangTang shipper of this drama lol 😀

Mrs. Cheng (Xiangnan’s mom) – one of the worst moms that I have ever seen in dramaland! You really can’t blame Xiangnan for turning out that way because of her ridiculous way of parenting.

Hated them:
Ou Weya – She did nothing but say many harsh words to our heroine. Her motives were solely driven by envy and by also following Xiangnan.

Amy – Annoying from the beginning but I just didn’t care about her after. It was ironic that her reason for hating her job was still her ending. This is kind of vague but you’ll get me if you watch/have watched it.

Favorite supporting cast:
Da Luo – Li Tang’s ever-reliable manager/vice president of Tang Huang is one of the reasons why this drama was just enjoyable to watch! His tandem with Tang was just unbeatable and I’d love to rewatch their scenes if I want to have a good laugh again.

Xiao Nai – If Fu Fangsi’s my character goal, then I’d love to have my own Xiao Nai as well! She’s always on Fangsi’s side so who wouldn’t want a reliable and loyal friend on your side? Her story line with Tang is also one of my favorites that I wanted more of them haha!

Julia – the queen of gossip who doesn’t work in the designing department! She doesn’t work there but you can guarantee that she would be there to bring in the latest scoop may it be about Fangsi or her boss Tang. She loves to bet with her colleagues, Xiao Nai and Jiaxin, and she actually gets to win against them haha!

Jiaxin – the actress who played this is really cute that I want to keep her in my pocket! Expect her to be pro-Haoran all the way although I actually don’t remember if they ever shared a scene together (lol).

Benjamin – if Fangsi has her Xiao Nai and Tang has his Da Luo, Haoran has his own Ban Jie! I love him for always being Haoran’s wake-up call to reality because we definitely need a friend like that. I also love his love story line in this drama so watch more to find out who he’d be paired up with because I honestly didn’t expect it 😉

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MUSIC

For the list of the songs and the download links, you may get it here from AVirtualVoyage and thank them of course 😀

I LOVE the music in this drama. I’m not into CPop unless the songs were used in a drama so it was only recently that I discovered that some of the songs used in this drama were not new already. I have always known that JJ Lin is a great singer based on people’s opinions since I never got the chance to listen to his music so it was just great that I got to listen to his music because of this drama.

My ultimate favorite songs are the opening song by JJ Lin and Kym, “Waiting for Your Love” and Wang Su Long’s “If I Could Turn Back Time”. Can’t stop listening to the OSTs and because the soundtrack was really appropriate to the themes of the drama. The fashion runway music was also nice! It really made me feel that I was there watching the fashion show. I also love the background music whenever scenes of Tang’s shenanigans (may it be with Da Luo or Xiao Nai) would appear.

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REWATCH VALUE

Will I rewatch this drama again? There’s a huge possibility that I will because I started and ended it with the mere focus of blogging about it. So next time, I’d probably watch out of leisure/enjoyment. And why wouldn’t I want to rewatch the adorable and funny scenes especially involving Tang and Fangsi? Count me in!

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VERDICT

Overall, I recommend this drama to anyone who’s just looking for a new drama to watch. I feel that you won’t regret watching this because it had something new and exciting to offer (although some addition of cliches were just inevitable). I have watched a lot of average C-dramas in terms of quality and overall but this one’s definitely one that has top quality.

If you’re a Jerry Yan fan like me, this had lots of fan service from him to offer so just see for yourself! 😉 This concludes my “My Best Ex-Boyfriend” series of posts! Xie xie ni 😀