小欢喜 A Little Reunion (C-Drama Review)

Last Edited: May 2nd, 2020.

🥑🥑🥑: 3 Couch Avocados!!

This drama isn't like the usual genres I will willingly watch but came across 哇妹’s (a Chinese BiliBili uploader) 安利 (recommendation) so I was intrigued... school drama + family hmm not really my style but I ended up liking it and got very invested... it was so good and realistic at some points I felt very very very relatable and really made me miss secondary school + olvls period where everyone was working towards a common goal... even their family problems so realistic also, 3 different families showing 3 different parenting styles/相处方式 etc and yet none of them are absolutely correct or perfect... Really recommended! ⚠️⚠️⚠️This point onwards contains major plot spoilers⚠️⚠️⚠️

Likes:

1. 3 families each with distinct personalities, parenting styles and they never 垮 (break down) throughout the whole drama.. all of their decisions and actions to the way they talk to their children/friends/family members are all realistic and true to their personality in my opinion. It was to a point where I don't question the character's decisions and actions because it just connects well with the plot and the personality... I can't say it was seamless but at the very least it is very convincing.

2. They addressed sensitive topics carefully but decisively. They criticised the Chinese or Asian traditional mindsets and traditional methods by showing all the possible outcomes. Communication between parent and child, parent to parent, friends to friends etc studying and aiming for the top positions, top universities and comparisons with other children and also whether the children’s dreams matters... they even touch on mental health topics, sexual harassment, workplace harassment etc like they 一针见血 (straight to the point), clearly showing what they were trying to bring attention to. This kind of dramas are quite hard to come by actually because they risked being cancelled.

3. The young actors though young but can act sooooo well and naturally... They as 00’s are really good at portraying deep/conflicting emotions especially the main female lead... She’s 18(?) if I'm not wrong but she had to portray a teenager with depression and anxiety. She’s a vv cheerful girl in real life so it’s hard for her but she did so well... it wasn’t exaggerated so it made it look vv real and relatable, they made us follow through her 心路历程 (thoughts) right from the first episode so when I reached that part I couldn't stand it.. it felt like I/someone I am close to is going through it... the other actors were vvvvv good too just that she caught my attention the most.

4. The main point about this whole drama is that it is REALISTIC and cast a shadow on the lives of teenagers, not just those taking final year exams, making it damn relatable.

Dislikes:

1. I would have liked it if they expanded more on 林磊儿's (Lin Lei Er) line, like I know his back story etc and I know he isn't the main character but there’s so much more they can do with that character. Like how he is working hard on his dreams because of his mother, how he feels living with his 小姨 (aunt), his internal conflicts etc...! I really liked his character so I'm a lil sad that actually there wasn’t much about him :(

2. They shouldn’t have allowed 英子’s (YingZi) divorced parents to reconcile because their conflict was way too big and the way they reconciled was not realistic enough. Like everything is quite logical except for these few points... I get it, it’s possible that parents get back together to help their depressed child recover but how they did it was... a tad bit too 唐突 (sudden)... things like these don't happen in real life... if they didn't reconcile but become better friends and co-parent will make the plot a step closer to reality (I know I say it is very real already but might as well make it as close to 100% as possible right)

3. The teacher’s romance line is slightly redundant LOL... I wanna focus on the 3 families and I feel like the teachers should be a 点缀 (side plot) and not something to focus on, although their screen time wasn't very long but most of their romance brewing scenes wasn't pushing the main plot at all and I always skip... I don't quite understand the female teacher, she say grades aren't everything but she treats the students based on their grades... even suggested to split a class based on their grades and also encourage parents of lacking students to make them retain so their passing rates will raise higher.. I don't understand maybe it's because I skipped too much but I just don't have too much 好感 (good feelings) with her.

(Ying Zi's Family)