Youku Modern Romance C-drama Eat Run Love with Chen Fei Yu and Zhuang Da Fei End Run as a Boring Dud
I don’t know what Youku was thinking greenlighting a C-drama with a nepo baby male lead and a female lead with negative rizz to headline but the results speak for itself. Modern romance Eat Run Love with Chen Fei Yu and Zhuang Da Fei wrapped it’s totally underwhelming viewership run and slinks off to the annals of utterly forgettable dramas. I watched an episode and was so thoroughly bored by the usual corporate intrigue coupled with the first loves separated but are meant to be and will reunite set up. It was made worse by Chen Fei Yu going through the motions onscreen and Zhuang Da Fei confirming for me once again that she exudes actual negative charisma onscreen as she did in Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero. The set up also reminds me of Lighter and Princess and I realized Chen Fei Yu had a way better character there and also I need to give more props to Zhang Jing Yi for bringing energy to the party. The Douban reviews for Eat Run Love are mad bad and go read for sheer lolz. Reportedly this flop is giving both leads a step back in their growing their career chops and getting better roles.
The title of drama in the title of your post is “Eat Run Love” while it is “Eat Love Run” in the post itself. Either way, even the title doesn’t seem appealing.
I have neither watched nor planning to watch this. I am keep re-watching old c-dramas and actually planning to drop it all.
Zhuang Da Fei acting actually quite good, people just judge her based on LOCH character not like usual Huang Rong.
The female lead definitely has potential but seems to have a bad eye for scripts. Her dramas always seem to fizzle out.
Both leads lack appeal nor do they have chemistry in this drama. I liked Arthur Chen in Ever Night 1 (where he did a way better job than Dylan Wang who was the ML for the sequel), and he was pretty impressive in Lighter & Princess. I never thought he deserved any flak for his backing from celeb parents. He appeared very promising. But the heck this drama is just not for him. As to ZDF, I’ve never understood her credentials as a leading lady. She was even cast as the FL as Huang Rong in the high-profile movie of Director Tsui Hark and ML Xiao Zhan. She ruined the most iconic female character of Louis Cha’s fictions. She has zero chemistry with her MLs so far including Xiao Zhan and Arthur. Any supporting actresses in Kdrama acting department can outperform her and also outshines her looks. Interesting how she got all the leading roles.
I heard ZDF is a nepo baby which might explain her leading status roles despite her lack of broad (star) appeal. I don’t think she’s a bad actress, just that she’s bland and uncharismatic. However she mostly does Youth/high school/college dramas and she’s not bad in those cause the expectations are low.
Arthur Chen is very charismatic in the right roles, however playing a bland beta-type male is just not for him. I guess his production is trying to win back credits from his scandal a few years ago by giving him these bland roles, but it really isn’t working for him. They should cast him in more as a bad boy or gray type roles- he does those very well, I would even like to see him as a villain. I think he would do justice to it.
I did start the drama because of Arthur but dropped it by the third episode cause I could see it wasn’t going in any direction I was interested in watching and I have no regrets.
She also does movies. She was in the Condor Heroes movie with Xiao Zhan and tbh she is the most uncharismatic and ugliest Huang Rong I’ve ever watched. She’s also the female lead in an upcoming historical film with Yang Mi and Zhang Ruoyun in supporting roles. But yeah while people criticize Arthur for being a nepo baby, I feel like at least he has his own charm when cast in the right roles.
I see a lot of actresses in the mini drama market that can devour the young dull actresses of the more prominent chinese drama industry. I mean I would take a Zhong Xi, Meng Na, Yue YuTing, Wang Ge Ge, Yao Yu Chen, Yu Yin etc… over a Zhuang Da Fei, Zhang Ruo Nan, Xu Ruo Shan, Bai Lu etc…
Yesssss! Yue YuTing would eat her for breakfast. Zhou Ye would throw her scraps to the raccoons. Acing-wise, of course.
@Sirey, you mentioned another dud, Zhang Ruo Nan. Why couldn’t she shut up in the drama? I literally mean closing her mouth! LOL. ZRN is another extremely boring actress, always acting the same drama after drama.
Zhuang Da Fei, another addition to the lot of cdramaland dull actresses.
I dropped it shortly too…Chen Feiyu is really not great at romance…I have yet to enjoy him in any. Even in Ever Night, he is great in the drama but not in romance department. There is only as much his parents can help him…if he still dont shine, he will not get the opportunity he gets now. Just my opinion, no offense to his fans.
Don’t mind it. I actually liked the first several episodes. It’s nothing heavy; easy to digest. And that’s what I like about it since I just finished watching a super heavy show. But that’s all I’ve seen and after watching a couple reels on YouTube, it looks like it’s going to start dragging out their relationship with repeated plot points which I don’t like.
I liked it. I also like both ML and FL. To me it’s so much better than the frigid “First frost” which is exasperating beyond belief, and which I stopped halfway.
I finished it actually. Simply bcuz i had nothing to watch back then. The story was pretty boring, that’s why i fast forwarded many scenes. The characters were boring as well. They had zero chemistry. But then, it was better than xianxia drama lol. At the end of the day, it’s all about preference.
I thought she looks like korean actress roh jeongeui when I saw the poster on ott
Well I don’t know both and the visuals doesn’t appeal to me so probably will not even try this
Unfortunately, I agree! I much preferred the character in Lighter and Princess. I still keep trying to make it through Eat, Run, Love; but it just isn’t keeping my attention. I keep wishing they had found a more creative way to tell the story.
I couldn’t digest FL’s personality (+Zhuang Da Fei’s acting is not doing it for me) and I’m so over the simp ML. I really like Chen Feiyu and think he has it (visuals and acting chops) but I couldn’t bring myself to finish this one…dropped at episode 20 and let me say this, drama makes me want to avoid Zhuang Da Fei’s works in the future. She’s definitely not lead material.
Super boring plot, cold tone this drama has…I didn’t even finish it….the last drama I watched that made me high dopamine is Zhang Linghe with Xu Rouhan is The Best Thing
I do not understand the negativity. First, I just love Chen Fei Yu ever since I saw Ever Night I have been a fan. Second, I loved lighter and Princess. Third, I think Eat Run Love is great. The only thing I hate is waiting till each episode pops up for viewing. I also felt Chen Fei Yu gave his first emotional performance that showed the character’s vulnerability when in love and self sacrifice. As Taylor Swift says, ‘haters gonna hate hate hate hate—shake it off’. Once all episodes play and I watch them, I will watch again consecutively.
I believe in the old saying, ‘opinions are like axx hxxxx, everybody has one. I understand if you don’t like a drama but why the heartless nasty personal comments of the individual actors? First, I am a fan of Chen Fei Yu. Second, I loved Lighter and Princess but I loved Eat Run Love more and the reason is Chen Fei Yu. His ‘romance’ acting was very believable. This was the first time I felt the vulnerability of his love or feelings came through. As Taylor Swift says, ‘ Haters gonna hate hate hate hate- shake it off
Hey CFY is a good actor regardless of who his parents are…he didn’t just magically cement his way into acting without going through the proper channels and that’s literally attending Bejing Flim Academy…and it’s also normal for his parents to help him but he is the one whom have to do the work and show what he’s got…so far he’s good and not just there because of connections…
I will agree though that this one was a miss for me though…its setting up was pretty much similar to L&P but didn’t quite equate to it’s success…the storyline and plot just seems meh..and that’s it.
For his comeback into dramaland I think they should have aired his Xianxia drama first…and he really needs to chose better scripts that shows his diversity and strength as an actor more…so far I’ve seen the badboy and conservative character…I need to see him in more challenging roles.
This drama is supposed to be based on a web novel. Unfortunately, the screenwriter didn’t leave much of the original novel. Neither the characters nor the storyline are left intact.
The novel plays in the american chinese expat student community. Two sides of the coin. He is a rich second generation and a very physically attractive amateur athlet.( very buff). Her mother got her in via an overseas marriage, tax imbezzelment, etc It shows a very interesting contrast. There relationship, at least from her side is portrayed very western(fast intercourse, a fling before graduation )
In the second arch there is his company expansion into Vietnam as a factory owner. How takes advantage of lower wages and lower working conditions ( becoming a real capitalist). All that is missing or portrayed rather benignly.
Both protagonists have other relationship/marriage in the time they are not together.
None of this comes across in the drama version.
I was wondering,if it had anything to do with chinese censorship.