Review: Love O2O (2016)
+ Recommended - TV Series, Chinese Drama, Romance
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(Light Spoilers Ahead!)
Love O2O, also known as Just One Smile is Very Alluring, is going down on the books as one of my favorite dramas of all time. I don't know what it is about this show that has me coming back time and time again, but I'll try to explain it throughout this review.
Our heroine Bei Wei Wei (Zheng Shuang) is an avid player of an online RPG called A Chinese Ghost Story. In the game she is one of the top players in her server, a red clothed swords-woman under the alias of Reed Wei Wei, while in her other life, she is a computer science major at Qing University in Beijing. After being unceremoniously dumped by her partner in the game, she is approached by Yi Xiao Nai He, the top ranked player on her server, and she begins an online relationship with his character. Unbeknownst to Wei Wei, her new online beau is also her real world crush: Xiao Nai (Yang Yang). The result of these two worlds colliding is ridiculously adorable.
Love O2O isn't the easiest show to track down if you're only using the mainstream channels. You can find it on DramaFever's app or the episodes are individually uploaded to YouTube, however the subtitles on YouTube don't always make the most sense. That's the other thing. There is no English translation out yet, and there probably won't be, so if you have an issue with reading subtitles, you'll be missing out. Trust me, there is a lot to enjoy here. The relationship between Bei Wei Wei and Xiao Nai is one for the books, folks. This is a drama, so there are misunderstandings and villains in abundance, but none of the confusion comes between these two. They have absolute trust in each other, working through everything together and coming up with some brutal payback.
The best is yet to come, though, because my favorite relationships in the show come from Xiao Nai and Bei Wei Wei's interactions with their friends. The main focus being on each counterpart's best friends, our cute and bumbling fools: Zhao Er Xi (Mao Xiao Tong) and Hao Mei (Zheng Ye Cheng). In return, the relationship between Er Xi and Cao Guang (Bai Yu) comes across as questionable. Cao Guang is a little judgemental for my taste, and when paired with someone as sweet as Er Xi, he comes across as incredibly harsh. On the opposite hand, we have the partnership with Hao Mei and KO (Zhang Bin Bin/Vin Zhang). The quick friendship (and perhaps more) that these two form is sure to make most viewers melt. Their protective natures end in situations that had me laughing (and still make me laugh every time I watch this show).
If you're looking for a noteworthy soundtrack, this is not the place to look. They re-use the same few songs over and over again, but it works for this kind of show. All in all, if you're looking for something to binge watch in between study sessions or work shifts, I can not recommend Love O2O highly enough. It's light and at one season with a total of 30 episodes, you won't have enough time in one day to finish it all. Do you have recommendations for what drama I should watch next? Let me know in the comments below, or by contacting us on any of our social media accounts!
