439. My Little Happiness 我的小确幸 (2021) Chinese

Xing Fei, Tang Xiao Tian, Huang Yi Lin, Li Chuan

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

I started this one because I needed a modern Chinese romcom to help me be more patient while waiting for Love Unexpected to be subtitled. I had been hearing good things about it, and I was curious to see Tan Xiao Tian be the male lead after watching him be the second lead in Put Your Head on My Shoulder (also seeing him have a serious glow up since then too, rawr). It's the same girl too, which is always funny. Something for all those SLS shippers, I guess. Totally different characters though, which gives props to Xiao Tian. I really loved the dynamic between the leads. They had great chemistry and also it was a much less misunderstanding filled plot than most. Which means that yes, there were a lot of misunderstandings (the biggest one was annoying but manageable) but that they were solved really quickly. Mostly, I loved how mature the main couple was for the most part. They were both working professionals (she was interning to become a lawyer and he was a surgeon) and respected the other's profession a lot.   In fact, their proficiency in their professions was even an attraction for them. The fact that she fell for him at first sight because she saw him save a man at the airport and he had that competent doctor glow is just cute. I really love how much they supported each other in their jobs too, and supported each other with their jobs too.

I loved the opposites of characters attracting. She was a little fireball, social justice warrior. Very blunt and clear about her opinions about law, while hiding her feelings about love and stuff. He was a very soft spoken, gentle giant who was super open about his feelings (and constantly flirting) while only being fierce about things when needed, and usually about protecting his patients or loved ones. His mildness personally almost belied how intense he would get when teaching his students or saving patients. But it also made for great bedside manners. Those opposite approaches to their same passion for helping people almost put them at odds until they realized their same goal of saving people in their own ways.

I was super invested in the second couple too. In fact, I was more invested in them at points because they were at least making some progress when the main couple wasn't. Although they ended up taking longer, because of course they did. But I like it when there are multiple couples rather than huge love triangles. They were another set of opposites attracting, since she was a one-track minded simple but passionate type, and he was a chill, done with everything, what's left to be passionate about type.  But they also balanced each other out, since he made her more chill and she pushed him out of his apathetic existence. There were love rivals, but they either excused themselves early or never did anything but be mopey butts, so it was fine. That's about the level I can handle these days anyway.

I don't know what else to say about it. It was cute. There was a TON of kissing in it. Like more kissing in one episode than some C-dramas will have in the entire show. Once the couples got together they were not shy about the kissing, which was interesting since there was a huge height difference. Did their necks/upper backs ever hurt during filming? Well... the dudes weren't shy about the kissing anyway. That might have been a minor struggle for the main couple as he was like: I'm going to kiss you everywhere! and she's like: Me no likey the PDA. She did get awkward about expressing emotions around others. Thankfully, she slowly got over it and just wanted to be cute with him too. Not that I'm saying PDA is better, but having them on the same page was nice. Less of the owl eyes kisses and being awkward about being affectionate the better. So yeah, super cute, watch it.