Another drama to make googly eyes at Shawn Dou! He is totally rocking it with his turtlenecks and suits! I can’t seem to keep my eyes off of him!!!!
BEWARE OF SPOILERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
Title: Ten Years Late ( 十年三月三十日)
# of Episodes: 39
Release Date: September 19th, 2019
Where to Watch: iQiyi App (It’s FREE and has ENGLISH SUBS)
Why did I start watching this?
For Shawn Dou! ❤
Plot/Synopsis Recap
It’s been five years since he and Yuan Lai separated, and Jin Ran has been living his life in Japan where he is a successful businessman. Despite having a good career, he finds himself empty and realizes it’s because he misses Yuan Lai. And, when he sees a picture of her and Zhao Cheng Zhi, his old friend from college, posted online, it leads him to believe that they’re getting married and he abruptly decides to return to Shanghai when he is offered a job by a company.
Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Yuan Lai works as a manager at Feitu Travel Agency. She still maintains contact with Zhao Cheng Zhi, who has been deeply in love with her for the past 5 years. But Yuan Lai only views him as her best friend. Zhao Cheng Zhi is a lawyer who represents Feitu. After Yuan Lai is asked to the bridesmaid for an old friend from college, she and Zhao Cheng Zhi reunite with Xu Xin Yi and Ding Ang. Yuan Lai and Xu Xin Yi had a fallout due to their feelings for Jin Ran, but the years apart have made them mature and they both return to being best friends.
And as the four friends come together, Jin Ran appears and it turns out that he is going to be the COO for Feitu, which effectively makes him Yuan Lai’s boss. His appearance brings tension to both Yuan Lai and Zhao Zheng Zhi, but Ding Ang and Xu Xin Yi welcome his return….
And that’s a wrap!
Cast/Characters
Yuan Lai (袁莱), Gulinazha
A manager at Feitu Travel Agency. She is beautiful, smart, and extremely talented. In college, she fell in love with Jin Ran and actively pursued him. However, after dating for a while, there was some misunderstanding between them, and she eventually broke up with him.
Jin Ran (靳燃), Shawn Dou Xiao
Yuan Lai’s ex-boyfriend who returns from Japan to win her heart. He is a talented businessman and overly ambitious. Once he sets his heart on something, he will stop at nothing to get it. But, despite his ambitious nature, he is willing to give everything up to be with Yuan Lai.
Zhao Cheng Zhi (赵承志), Jeremy Xu Zheng Xi
A lawyer who has been in love with Yuan Lai since they were in college. He was best friends with Ding Ang and Jin Ran, but he and Jin Ran had a falling out due to Yuan Lai. Even though he knows that Yuan Lai doesn’t have feelings for him, he continues to stay by her side as her best friend in hopes that he will win her over.
Xu Xin Yi (徐辛颐), Rain Wang Zi Yun
A manager at a filming company. She is from a poor family and has always felt inferior to her friends. She once had a crush on Jin Ran, which is why she and Yuan Lai stopped being friends. But they both reconciled and become close friends again. After her boyfriend cheats on her, she breaks up with him and realizes that Ding Ang has been in love with her for many years. But their social statuses make her hesitant to be with him.
Ding Ang (丁昂), Jin Zi Hao
Born from a rich family. He is the heir to his family’s company and a professional e-sports player. Even though he is from a socialite family, Ding Ang is very down-to-earth and has a kind heart. He never looks down on Xu Xin Yi and has always secretly loved her for many years. He is also always the middle person between Jin Ran and Zhao Cheng Zhi when the fight over Yuan Lai.
Shen Shuang Shuang (沈双双), Cecilia Song Yan Fei
Zhao Cheng Zhi’s intern who is young and feisty. She is always full of energy and never holds back when speaking out her thoughts. She develops a huge crush on Zhao Cheng Zhi and gets Yuan Lai to help her win him over.
Overall Impression
So, I’m up to episode 14 right now, and LOTS of things have happened already. But, I won’t try to spoil too much and just talk about what happened at the beginning, since it was a bit confusing for me.
So, the beginning stars with Jin Ran in Japan. He’s a successful businessman (I don’t know what he really does), but he immediately decides to return to Shanghai when he sees a picture of Yuan Lai and Zhao Cheng Zhi online and mistakenly believes that they’re getting married. At this point, we’re not really introduced to any of the back story. Like, if you didn’t know that they were college sweethearts and friends from college, it’d be super confusing as to what happens during this time. So, just know that, Jin Ran, Yuan Lai, Zhao Cheng Zhi, Xu Xin Yi, and Ding Ang have known each other since college. Anyway, so Jin Ran sets off for Shanghai to win Yuan Lai back. And this is the part that really irks me the wrong way! Like, he thinks that she’s getting married, right? So, technically, what he essentially wants to do is intervene in her wedding. And, I don’t know about you, but isn’t this a bit much??? I mean, how are you going to win her heart if you’re the one who crashing her wedding, right??? Obviously Yuan Lai and Zhao Cheng Zhi aren’t getting married (the pictures was for something else, Idk what it is), but he doesn’t know that yet. And when he finds out, he really starts actively pursuing her.
Anyway, so while Jin Ran is carrying out his “wedding crash” plan, Yuan Lai and the rest of the group are in Shanghai. And it seems like she and Zhao Cheng Zhi are the only two that keep in touch. Zhao Cheng Zhi is obviously still deeply in love with her and is pretty much her little servant who does all the little things for her. But Yuan Lai doesn’t love him, and she has all rights to not have feelings for him, but it doesn’t seem like she minds him being around and doing all her little biddings for her too. As for Ding Ang and Xu Xin Yi, they both are introduced later. Xu Xin Yi and Yuan Lai supposedly had conflict due to their feelings for Jin Ran, but that gets resolved pretty quickly and they become BFFs again. I thought this was pretty weird that something that tore them apart was easily forgiven in a few minutes. Like, you two stopped being BFFs for five years and the second you meet each other, all’s forgiven??? So, you mean to say that those five years of silence meant nothing??? Like, seriously, it literally means, they could’ve remained BFFs during those five years. But whatever…
Continuing on… When Jin Ran returns, it obviously puts a lot of tension on the group. They all just rekindled their friendship, and Jin Ran’s appearance makes it super awkward for them, especially for Yuan Lai and Zhao Cheng Zhi. Honestly, the only ones who are happy to see him are Xu Xin Yi and Ding Ang. And, of course, Jin Ran has his eyes out for Yuan Lai and does everything he can to get close to her, despite her trying to avoid him at all costs. The funny part is that she sees him at work because he’s her boss. But, unlike many immature female leads who try to avoid their bosses, Yuan Lai actually puts aside her feelings and acts professionally with him. Ultimately, this works in Jin Ran’s favor because it means that he gets to work closely with her. The two really have a lot to work out because there’s so much misunderstand between them. And it doesn’t help that there’s Zhao Cheng Zhi to make them even more confused.
Anyway, aside from Jin Ran and Yuan Lai’s relationship, the drama also focuses on the relationship of the other characters. For example, Xu Xin Yi and Ding Ang. I find it funny that they made Xu Xin Yi have a crush on Jin Ran, because Jin Ran actually admits that she was really in love with Ding Ang, but just never realized it (like, what???). But, anyway, Xu Xin Yi is actually introduced as a shy and quiet girl who seemed to be dating a perfect guy. And, even though she’s ready to be married, her boyfriend isn’t, and she doesn’t know why. It turns out that he’s been cheating on her with other women, which is when Ding Ang intervenes to beats the crap out of him for hurting her. After breaking up with him, Xu Xin Yi admits that she was with him because of her insecurity about her background. Out of the five of them, she is the only one from a poor background and is the only one who doesn’t officially own a house. She wanted to get married because she wanted to achieve her dream of owning a house and feeling successful. And while she’s admitting to this, Ding Ang assures her that she’s already a successful and talented person. She has a good job and she will eventually get her chance to buy a house soon. Honestly, I love how honest and caring Ding Ang is towards Xu Xin Yi. He really doesn’t carry any traits a rich boy because he’s very easygoing and a true nice guy. And he really is the kind of guy that Xu Xin Yi really needs because he gives her the strength to keep her head held high and feel good about herself.
As for Zhao Chang Zhi, I have mixed feelings for this guy. I get that he’s kind of the “leftover” friend because he doesn’t really have his own “partner” or love interest…yet! But I hate that he’s really pinning hard for Yuan Lai. I would’ve liked it more if he liked her, but never pursued her. But the drama makes him literally follow her around like a lovesick person. It’s not appealing to me and it makes us pity him a lot. I do hope that they make him get over quickly, especially since Jin Ran and Yuan Lai belong together. It looks like he’ll be paired up with his intern, Shen Shuang Shuang. And I hope they both have a cute romance. Shen Shuang Shuang is young, but she’s got a lot of energy and is cute.
Overall, I feel like there’s nothing really special about this drama. Honestly, it’s just like any other modern romance drama that focuses on old lovers reunited. There’s nothing unique or special that really pops out at you. But I do feel like this drama is well written and has very good characters. For example, I actually like Yuan Lai’s character. She’s the epitome of an independent career woman. She definitely has her own baggage, but she doesn’t really let that cloud her judgement and she works hard to achieve her goals. Regardless of its lack of uniqueness, I am quite enjoying it and liking the pace of the drama. I’m going to keep watching it and hope that it doesn’t go downhill later on.
Cnewsdevotee
