Friday, November 22, 2019

356. Put Your Head on My Shoulder 致我们暖暖的小时光 (2019) Chinese

Xing Fei, Lin Yi, Tang Xiaotian, Zheng Ying Chen

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: A

I guess I really liked this one, or at least it was what I wanted at the time, because I literally finished it in one weekend, starting it right after my last one and finishing it like two days later. That was not great because I was supposed to actually get things done that weekend, but oh well. I guess that's what this weekend is for... But it was super cute, and addictive, and I really enjoyed it. It was seriously cute from episode one. It was very slice of life and coming of age, with a cute romance between an ambitious to be in advertising accounting student and a genius physics student. I think that dynamic is literally one of the oldest tropes (spunky girl/staid genius) but this one did it much better than most because he wasn't the classic stoic genius kid, but he was a fairly realistic scientist. She was also not the typical spunky girl, because she also super practical and had all the street smarts he was lacking in his academic smarts. I absolutely loved how they portrayed him in that aspect, because he was so clearly in love with her for the start, but his approach to it was so logical and scientific that you wondered if they would ever be on the same page.



It was a fun journey seeing them both grow and develop, especially growing in confidence in their different areas. Situ Mo started off  as an accounting student who wanted to be in marketing, who had been in a long term crush with her best guy friend Fu Pei, who happened to be Gu Weiyi's roommate. She was a bit wishy washy in her commitment to jump the accounting ship (her parent's chosen major) and joining the advertising world. But she was very committed to waiting for Fu Pei to finally date her, since high school in fact. He kept her hanging around, as a friend, and basically led her on. Then his roommate Gu Weiyi meets her, and basically does everything that Fu Pei is supposed to be doing, and is in fact even forced to do so by Fu Pei, who is too busy for her (like always). This includes saving her when she gets her purse snatched and taking her to job interviews in remote locations.

I loved how they started out with the classic fate/bad first impression approach, where they get into an accident, bag switch, and then things get messed up for both of them because of it. He misses a test and she messes up an interview. They could potentially be on bad terms after that, but instead they both realize the mistake was neither's fault and instead try to help each other. What a great concept! The fate part ties in mostly with them just bumping into each other everywhere, and him being able to help her in ways that Fu Pei keeps failing to do. We also have a very random forced living situation, which I am all about, and our boy being subtle as heck to try and keep it happening, because he wants any excuse to spend time with her.

So, it skirts around those classic tropes, but is instead more realistic and nurturing. There are potential love triangles, but they are not the over dramatic ones. The biggest slowdown/conflict is that she likes his roommate, and he's not going to just steal his roommate's girl, so he struggles with that. Annoyance that his roommate doesn't treat her right, jealousy that she still likes his roommate at all, and the whole "bro code" thing or whatever. I was just super ready for roommate to move on so this couple could become a thing. That got annoying, but never to the extent that some annoying second leads get. He actually, once we got more of a back story, made a bit more sense, but was still one of my least favorite characters, not that that's saying that much. I pretty much loved everyone in the show.

Other main source of conflict: this kid is a scientist who doesn't understand how to get a girl. In fact, some of my favorite moments were the three scientists (Weiyi, Professor Jiang, and Zhou Lei- the other student lab assistant) trying to figure out how to confess and win this girl over. They were all so collectively clueless about dating that it was hilarious. They even had to call in Professor Jiang's wife for advice. Yes, let's confess using an advanced math equation, because girls really like that.

I did like how through all the messy tangles of romance, no one was willing to jeopardize their friendships. They were all super open and honest with their friends, and even acquaintances who were interested were willing to do the same. Like real people, who aren't trash. It was wonderful. Just like in real life, our couple had their own problems and issues to cause conflict and slow things down that they didn't need any evil second leads to mess things up. It was truly slice of life in that aspect.

It was a joy to watch and while I did binge it too fast and now miss it, I don't really regret anything. I would rewatch it just as fast probably. It was super cute and engaging the whole time.