Three Make a Family

At just 24 episodes Unforgettable Love is surprisingly on the shorter side for a Chinese drama series, but they pack a lot into every hour. It's also a psychological drama and an odd-couple type romantic comedy all in one, so that was different, too. I watched this one because of Wei Zheming, the lead male actor, who is hilarious as well as interesting, even if he does play the same type of role all the time.

The series premise surrounds the psychological trauma of CEO He Qiaoyan (Wei Zheming) and his young nephew, Xiaobao (adorably played by Sun Sicheng), both of whom were in car accidents some years back. As a result of losing his parents in the traumatic accident Xiaobao does not speak. The five year old has become a real handful lately as well, so after a fateful meeting Qiaoyan decides to hire Qin Yiyue (Hu Yixuan), a child psychologist, to see if she can get Xiaobao to emerge from his silence and stop being such a brat. Yet his idea of hiring Yiyue is to offer her a contract marriage so she'll live with them and manage Xiaobao full-time. He has no idea that she is his exact polar opposite, as well as a clumsy but forthright person whom chaos and calamity follow constantly.

The little actor who played the young Xiaobao is really the star of this series, and did an amazing job with his role; he's alternately hilarious and miserable, and really pulls everyone together with his issues. There was a big support cast, two secondary romances and a lot of plot lines to follow, but I liked everyone and had no problem keeping up. Yiyue's best friend and roommate Yang Ruowei (Sheng Huizi) is so gorgeous you'd think she'd steal the spotlight, but instead she plays a really convincing BFF, and has a touching backstory. She's just as interesting in her romance with Qiaoyan's wealthy best friend Wen Gu (Yu Yijie, who also did a fine job in his role.) Romantic rival for Qiaoyan Lin Wei (Shi Qingyan) and Yiyue's senior from college Ning Fang (Wu Chongxuan) have less stage time and mostly deal with Wei's trauma, but in the end there's a promise of romance between these two.

Problems were not as numerous as they could have been; the production handled the usual product endorsement and government propaganda very well in this series. The main conflict was a bit too complicated, and yet it and the other conflicts were all solved rather easily. There were a few too many excuses thrown in to keep the leads from being together. All of the actresses are too thin (again) but none of them were constantly wailing about how fat they were, which was a nice change. I think the wardrobe department went a little overboard with dressing the wealthy men in this series; they often looked like lounge lizards or pimps, especially with all the jewelry. Yet on the plus side the wardrobe did fantastic with dressing the female characters, with the exception of Shi Qingyan, who looked almost ridiculous in some of the over-designed things she wore.

I think I might watch Unforgettable Love again, just to enjoy the main romance, which despite all the problems is really excellent. Available on Viki.com.