First thoughts
Name: Le Coup de Foudre
Writer/director:
Date: April 2018
Number of episodes: 30
Genre: Romance, Slice of life, Youth
Based on book/manga?: Not sure
Why did I press play? I was sold by the name and plot.
Updates, as I watch, are at the bottom of the review.
Thoughts: I’m not sold on this drama, it feels contrived, and falls into many camps – It’s ambiguous. After several episodes, questions (that shouldn’t be there) are bubbling to the surface. What’s the point of this story? What message does it strive to convey? What genre is it?
The marriage interviews are somewhat of a novelty but feel like someones had a “cool idea” of doing that, instead of it being significant. If you’ve been married for four years, and have known each other for 13, it’s unlikely you’d focus and care a lot about interactions in high school – so many other things happened since then. Knowing they have a happy ending somewhere makes watching the story more stressful.
Towards episode 11, (in an unnatural way) most of the story uses the characters to teach a life lesson, instead of following a natural arch – it feels a tad patronizing.
As mentioned above, this is a more serious drama, by the end of the episodes, there is a light foreboding and not many laughs. You can feel the stress of their impending misunderstanding/”break-up” hovering around.
This drama is good in the sense that the melancholy draws you in and many experiences of the characters are eerily relatable.
The good
- The acting is spot on (well 92%)! No matter where the story goes, it’s relaxing that each actor can handle (and handles) their characters marvelously. They do such a good job, that it’s evident these are real people (characters) that have so much depth and we only get to see what they choose to show us.
- No character is shallow or two dimensional.
- Despite not hitting the mark, there is something special, unique about this story.
- The characters are just so amazing. Apart from the love triangle girl, I love every character and no one hogs a scene. The writers did a superb job on characters development.
- The interjected humor of the classmate being Yan Mo’s uncle.
- Second leads and uncle are my favorites. They are generally more relaxed.
The bad
- A few loopholes
- The dreamlike cloudiness they put over the high school days. It’s where most of the story takes place – can’t they give us a clear view?
- How downcast Yi is and how a lot of it is a strain from her family situations. Regardless, it’s draining to watch moping.
- A particular used Melancholy musical tune is played too often to make a scene much more serious than it is. Often it contradicts the vibe of the moment before it places. For example in episode 11, when Wu Yi, rejects Guan Chao’s call.
Who are the main characters? Which actors play them?
Yan Mo played by Zhang Yu Jian
Zhao Qiao Yi played by Janice Wu
Zhao Guan Chao played by Zhao Zhi Wei
Hao Wu Yi played by Ma Li
Update:
- Their reunion as adults in episode 16 is shallow, corners were cut, and feel random. For example. After angst in seeing each other again, she’s at his house acting cute and like he’s a friend she regularly sees. His attitude is also out of whack to the situation.
- Guan Guan being a player when it comes to the ladies. His infatuation and almost-game like attitude towards girls feels odd. Considering his background and personality, this trait makes no sense – this feel more toxic when you see he’s still a player as an adult. This becomes more potent when he’s an adult and it’s still going. There is no logic behind his behavior and the writers imposes on him with this attribute.
- A part from Wu Yi and Yan Mo, the acting quality is losing steam.
- Qiao Yi’s lack of character growth and perpetual sulkiness/insecure becomes old and again doesn’t really make any sense.
- I did like when Wu Ji’s mother gave her a reality check – although it was not well received.
- Close to finish line, I lost too much interest to finish: particularly how the phantom pregnancy is handled.
Theme: Things are complicated. The challenges of going to different directions after high school.
What it’s good for? Not sure
Drama Delight 