Youth | Recap and Review

A light drama trying to be dark; a dark drama trying to be light. Passed this up the first time I saw it but trying it now because I'm a new fan of Yu Shu Xin.

Notable Actors/Actresses
He Lan Dou: Lin Xiao Chun
Yu Shu Xin: Chen Chen Chen
Yang Zhi Ying: Ni Jin
Wang Yang Zhi: Han Yi Tong
Shen Wei: Zhang Sheng Nan

Chinese Title
最親愛的你
Dearest You

Genres: Contemporary, Romcom, Sismance, Comedy, Contemporary Romcom

Network: Youku

Year: 2018
Episodes: 26

Jump to Review

The Story

This drama revolves around this cupboard. Each of the five girls have their Pandora box, a secret they cannot reveal. However, with each other's support, they develop the strength to face their biggest fears and become an even better person.

Mini Recaps

[Ep1] Lin Xiao Chun is the new roommate of four other girls. Her first day at university she meets her prince charming, no it's not the cute soccer dude, it's the other dude with the long wavy hair. Her taste, lol. Although I love the potential cute romance, its the living with roommates part that resonates.
[Ep2] Lin Xiao Chun portrays social anxiety at its max. It's funny to watch.
[Ep4] Ni Jin's perfect life (a glamorous lady from a rich family with prestigious education) isn't as perfect as portrayed. Everything she said was a lie. She's got three boyfriends, all of whom are like work to her. In other words, she's a hooker. A proud hooker. Meanwhile Chen Chen Chen, often cheery and ditsy, can really be a bitch sometimes. I don't know who I like more...

[Ep6] The famous kiss scene between Chen Chen Chen and Ni Jin after CCC calls her mouth dirty.
[Ep8] Awww, the girls finally accept Ji Nin now. I like her too, straightforward, no hassle.
[Ep9] Why is Chen Chen Chen just realizing what a jerk her boyfriend (Gao Lin) is?

[Ep10] Yang Yu and Xiao Chun are indeed the cutest couple. The girls are organizing a party as an excuse to invite men over to provide more "Yang" aura to dispel the cupboard ghost. Xiao Chun wants to invite her crush, but with Yang Yu's intervention, she gets rejected. She wails and wails in front of Yang Yu. He asks her what she likes about her crush and she tells him: everything. She likes the way he looks, the way his voice sounds, the words he uses, just everything. Hearing this, Yang Yu's poor heart shatters bit by bit.

D-Day comes, and Yang Yu is the first to show up (with flowers) at the party. The party turns out to be a failure by the way. However, he manages to successfully confess and make Xiao Chun's fragile heart flutter.

[Ep12] Two episodes later, Xiao Chun and Yang Yu go on their first date. He goes in for a kiss but gets a head butt from her instead.

[Ep14] All the girls protecting Ji Nin’s cleavage lol. They’re helping Sheng Nan cover her part-time shift at the convenience store.

Yi Tong and He Ling engage in a yawning fight. These two are goals

[Ep18] Yi Tong's love life finally blooms. He likes her. He definitely likes her.

Poor Sheng Nan. Everyone's giving her stress and she's hit rock bottom. When can she be happy?
[Ep20] Ni Jin officially gives up her life as a hooker. She finds her first job and takes her first trip on the subway. Sheng Nan is her secret role model.

[Ep21] Meanwhile, Sheng Nan also takes a step forward in her love life. She asks Jiang Heng for a date. The boy is bursting with smiles. But it's actually her farewell to him, and to everyone. This episode is actually a sad one. Her mom pulls out her own son's life support to free her daughter. I cried.

The episode gets even darker. The jerk, Gao Lin, kidnaps Chen Chen Chen. He's a psychopath. The puzzle pieces finally fit. There's a reason why both of them, Gao Lin and Chen Chen Chen, are so obsessed with each other. They both have an inferiority complex. When they're together, he gives her the love she yearns, and she gives him the admiration he needs. Gao Lin is truly mentally ill though mixed in with the abandonment from his mother.

[Ep22] Daaaamn. Now it's getting scary. Gao Lin brutally slaps her her to shut her up. He's keeping her limbs tied up and tapes her mouth shut.
[Ep23] As if a ghost has possessed her, Xiao Chun calmly walks towards a panicking Gao Lin who's yielding a knife, telling him to kill her instead. I seriously thought he cut her neck when she collapsed. It was just her hand... The drama finally returns back to its light-natured self. Chen Chen Chen is at a psychiatrist but instead of talking about herself, she's bitch talking all her roommates LOL.

Yi Tong's mythomania is exposed. The cupboard ghost she talked about was all a lie. She had wanted to confess but never found the right moment. Although the cupboard ghost doesn't exist, it symbolizes the fear and the guilt that exists in each girl.

[Ep24] The girls are attending Sheng Nan's brother's funeral. The three girls minus Ji Nin try really hard to cry at the funeral, especially Yi Tong (lol) but instead they start laughing. Aw. It's so inappropriate but also so appropriate. 

Yi Tong and He Lin's romance progress: He Lin eats her love letter from another man. LOL.

[Ep25] I'm confused if Ni Jin really did love the old man. She likes the fatherly-figure type? And why did she get such an awful hair cut?

The only interview that has me laughing. The interviewer asks Yang Yu all these questions about his love for Xiao Chun and he's got the same answer for everything: "She's very cute" and the same goofy smile every time he says it.

[Ep26] The Pandora box opens. Each girl reveals their deepest darkest secrets all to comfort Chen Chen Chen who's just gone through a trauma herself. Xiao Chun confesses to feeling guilty about her father's death. Sheng Nan reveals she actually felt relieved the moment her mother pulled out her brother's life support. Ni Jin concedes her part in another girl's death. Yi Tong admits she's a mythomaniac, a habit that started from the missing presence of her mother. Finally Chen Chen Chen bursts in tears recounting all the trauma she went through under Gao Lin's brutality.

It's a happy ending by the way. Yi Tong and He Lin may not be official yet, but they're right there! So close. Yang Yu and Xiao Chun are stable and still cute. Chen Chen Chen is starting to love herself. Ma Ke finally confesses to Ni Jin who's hard at work improving herself. Sheng Nan is letting go everything to find herself, but doesn't forget to give a little love to Jiang Heng.

Characters & Love Lines

Lin Xiao Chun & Yang Yu: The cute hot guy and a plain, shy girl. If she's got a weird taste in men (with long silky hair), so does Yang Yu (in girls with weird bangs). Her awkwardness oozes out of her soul and perhaps that's what captures him the first moment he lays eyes on her. His sweet (drunk) confession makes her flutter and that's what puts him on her radar. She never thought that such a man could love her. But he does and he loves her a lot.

Han Yi Tong & Zhang He Lin: The bickering couple. I think she's super charming but not a lot of guys see it. Except Zhang He Lin. He's her companion. She looks to him for advice. Actually, she looks to him for everything. I  thought he liked her first but apparently she had a crush on him since high school because he was the only one who believed her or I should say he's the only one who knows when to believe her. 

Zhang Sheng Nan & Jiang Heng: Jiang Heng's love for her makes me envy. Of all the men in this drama, I love his character the most. Silently supporting the woman he loves. Doing everything he can for her, even the little details. So patiently waiting for her to step out of her shell. And she's deserving of it all. Her life trajectory is painful to watch. She's boyish because her mother raised her that way; she had always wanted a boy. Her brother is in a vegetative state. All the financial burden is on her. The conflicting feelings she has for her brother is completely understandable and I think I would feel the same way as her about her brother. 

Chen Chen Chen & Gao Lin: I've constantly come to dislike Chen Chen Chen but she always manages to bring herself back to likable. My favourite scenes of her is when she's getting over her breakup with Gao Lin and getting over her trauma. You go girl. Instead of a relationship, she needs to learn to love herself first. I still don't exactly like her bitchy side, but Yu Shu Xin manages to make Chen Chen Chen endearing. 

Ni Jin & Ma Ke: The two hookers (almost) hook up. Their love doesn't get a lot of spotlight. However, Ni Jin's character does. I don't buy her as the glamorous lady though, the actress just doesn't fit that character. Except, as a girl, I do love her personality the most. She's given up on her superficial life and is working from the bottom up to find her own success.   

Review

I had no intention of giving this drama a chance until I started liking Yu Shu Xin. I'm not always into these types of dramas with multiple leads because screen time is split somewhat equally between the five girls, which means I have to like all five girls enough to engage in each of their individual stories. Luckily, it doesn't take long for me to like (almost) all five girls. The mysterious elements also keep me intrigued. Initially, I thought the drama was being a hoax in pretending to be dark, but then it really did get dark. Was not expecting a psychopath to appear. Sheng Nan's story, I was expecting, and so glad they took that route with her character. On the other hand, the boys were so 2D. Still they were cute. The couple that got me into this drama was Xiao Chun and Yang Yu; the couple I ended up loving is Yi Tong and He Lin; the couple I envied is Sheng Nan and Jiang Heng. 

I appreciate the complexity of each girl. I guess the credit should go to the original Kdrama Age of Youth? I never watched that drama so I don't know how closely they resemble. However, this group of girls did an amazing job and lived their character to the fullest. They made me believe their characters were truly alive. 

Rating: 4/5