So if the viewership was even higher for C-drama Are You the One it might be in contention for biggest hit of summer 2024. Alas the viewership was merely good so it makes the Douban opening ratings of 8.0 even more astonishing. I have been watching the drama since it premiered and have mixed feelings. I love the OTP, both Zhang Wan Yi and Wang Chu Ran and their performance, characters, and onscreen chemistry. But I have zero interest in the broader story and find myself more and more FF those bits until the entire last ten episodes all I do is watch the OTP scenes lol. I even got confused between the girl who ended up marrying Chang Hua Sen‘s future emperor character and the clingy cousin to Zhang Wan Yi’s character thinking it was the same girl for a few episodes haha. If there was ever just an OTP cut of this drama I would highly recommend, but also want to make clear that C-viewers think the drama is solid all the way through from good supporting characters, friendships, and growth stories. That was the case for me watching Love Like the Galaxy where I didn’t FF any scene but here I did so I think it’s just a matter of personal preference. The drama ended its run this weekend so if you’re waiting check it out. It made me a fan of Wang Chu Ran which is my biggest takeaway from it.
It always a matter of preference .
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Although this drama is not to my taste, I’m glad its getting good reviews for Wang Churan’s sake. She’s pretty and has decent acting skills. Poor girl was so unfairly hated just because of a dislikable role.
I really like both Zhang Wan Yi and Wang Chu Ran in this drama. I like ZWY from Lost You Forever but he didn’t get the girl. So happy that he got his happy ending in this drama. I am at Ep39. He can transit from the serious to comedic scenes well and he’s got a nice voice too. WCR is really pretty and has a lovely voice too. Their couple scenes are so sweet even though there isn’t much skinship. They are just equally matched in terms of wit and talent. They do make a great team. Height-wise it would have great if he is taller cos she is a tall girl. But overall there is good chemistry and I enjoy the dialogue, humour and warmth of this drama. And Zhou Shen who sang the main drama song – it’s really so good! The lyrics are hard to understand but they are so poetic. Drama is 9/10 for me!
I love Zhou Shen…😍😍
I usually hate when story started w lies and pretense. But this drama did that part really well, so it encourage me to continue this drama and not drop it after just watching a few ep. I am glad the douban rating is high despite lack of popularity because I enjoy it
Wow, it’s a very high score.
I think it’s the fandoms of the actors working hard on it.
I do enjoy the drama but I do not think it’s good for me so far.
There are many flaws and one of the most annoying things is ZWY’s acting which I’m finding it to be very bad to the point of making weaker actors look good compared to him. WCR is acting circles around him at few moments when she is considered a mediocre actress by so many people. The other very annoying flaws are the makeup, the edition and the direction at so many scenes.
Nah, I don’t think either of them has this kind of fandom. On the contrary, Wang Churan has her own cohort of haters ever since that firefighters drama. No, I think that many people love the show if I am to judge by the reactions I can see here, on Reddit or on YouTube (Marcus here + AvenueX). Of course these are mostly international viewers, but I think this is the kind of show that can be well received by all audiences: cute, little to no drama, good acting, good directing, satisfying OTP and sweet support roles/couples.
The general consensus among C-netz is that this rating is bought.
It’s pretty unbelievable for the drama to get this high rating even for me who like the story. But I rarely see a high rating douban that were bought. I only see low rating because of haters
Where does this “general consensus” come from because there are so many people praising the drama for what it is. Also, big production with way bigger stars failed to buy Douban and got their ratings of 5 and 5.2 and this medium sized production with two medium sized stars found the way to do it. Next thing we will get a “general consensus” that Wang Churan must be the Douban boss’ niece or that Zhang Wanyi must be dating his daughter and got an opening rating as a gift!!!🤣😜
@Guest Because these two stars are nowhere near having enough fans to justify the current rating headcount. If there’s really so many people praising this drama, it would have been a hit but it wasn’t. It’s general consensus that it’s much easier to buy high ratings on Douban if you don’t have many antis giving low ratings.
Seems like the other regulars here who frequent Chinese sites share the same opinion with me on this. Random unfamiliar faces, however, are taking opposing views. LOL.
@ lilith Exactly, even though WCR has haters, it doesn’t steam from her being an actress that is a competition to other actresses but rather from her dating scandal with yang yang. So those haters are not really interested in her shows to rate it done in the first and zYI doesn’t have enough either which leave the show being rated in fair assessment from their fans. That why the rating was good for this show . And Duoban just like any other rating site is influenced by all kinds of fans ( antis , real fans and passerby). I find it funny when when some audience feel ratings there are the best to go by because it the view of the Chinese audience. Don’t get me wrong, some show r rated fairly but a whole lot to rated unjustly ( good and bad).
@Mercy Not just fans. They don’t have enough fans to justify the current headcount, since the drama wasn’t a hit, it can only mean the ratings were bought.
The score doesn’t make sense for this drama. The general Douban forums and XHS bash it to high heavens. The discussions of other 8 point dramas are much different.
It’s a high score because the number of people who rated it is miniscule. Basically just fans.
It didn’t do well so there are no passers by and these two are basically irrelevant so no antis.
I dropped it, he was too horrible to force myself to watch. He was also who netizens who did watch didn’t like. She was really good.
Nah, not miniscule. It is a medium-sized success and almost 50000 people have rated it. For comparison, Snowfall, a drama that many here tried to present as God’s gift to drama-viewers was rated by 6200 people.
Rating is well deserved. Good script mostly and with both FL and ML having good performance. Wang Chu Ran is very expressive while Zhang Wan Yi nailed the subtle and micro expressions with nuanced performance. I just feel like there is almost always a comic turn in many of the OTP romantic moments when I still have not gotten enough of the romantic moments
I love it, it made me a fan of Wang Churan and Zhang Wanyi too.
Really enjoyed this one too and I guess lots of others did as well. I would say it’s unlikely either leads has the type of fan base that could inflate ratings dramatically. Wang Churan is absolutely stunning even with the bad makeup here! She played this role perfectly. Interested to checkout more of her future projects.
I love the pairing and both are good but somehow it lacks the oomph. The setup was pretty good and the opening scene looked exciting but then it settled into a slow tempo with everything generally ok so it gets the 8.0 douban score. I can see now the dramas that get a high douban score – they generally seem good overall in all aspects and not have any extremes either side, not bad/boring nor too all over the place, showcase chinese values, customs, tradition, equality, women empowerment, the latter seems very integral these days but if you think about it those days women had very little power or say, so these dramas are using current theme to make their story adapt to modern times.
The rating is well deserved imo. It is a small scale drama with a lovely otp and nice supporting roles. The director and the actors are doing a great work and I find myself quite often smiling at the screen.
Actually I don’t know how they rate or who does it. If I can vote I would. 9/10! I really liked this You are the One drama compared to the other drama I was watching Love’s Rebellion by Zhang Ling He and Jing Tian. Zhang Ling He is more handsome but the drama plot isn’t so great to me. The couple also didn’t have such cute chemistry.
I’ve enjoyed this drama and I didn’t expect to. It’s one of the few dramas where I love all the couples, even Chang Huasen and Yuan Yu Xuan as the Emperor and Emperess. The chemistry between Zhang Wang Yi and Wang Churan is not overwrought, but very believable. And I loved the humor.
Agree! The dialogue can be quite humorous so it isn’t just a stuffy but actually quite fluffy drama. I wish they can do an epilogue of their married life and their interactions for all the 3 couples in the show. Actually Wang Chu Ran does action sequences well too in Ep40. All in all I wished there were more episodes.
I think it’s normal for cdrama, I also only watch Eternal Love for the main couple and skip the second cp. Cdrama feel like they try to cramp 2 stories in 1 drama. If they only focus on main couple they dont need 40 eps