Pretty Li Hui Zhen (Chinese Drama)

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Episodes: 46

Remake of: She Was Pretty

Main Cast:

Dilraba Dilmurat as Li Hui Zhen

Peter Sheng as Bai Hao Yu

Sierra Li as Xia Qiao

Zhang Vin as Lin Yi Mu

Synopsis:

Li Hui Zhen used to be gorgeous, but years of declining family fortune added much pain to her life, and her looks slowly drifted away. Her friend Bai Hao Yu, on the other hand, was once an ordinary looking guy and grew up to be suave, successful, and immensely likable. So when she comes across him years later and witnesses their reversal of fortune, Li Hui Zhen is too embarrassed to even meet him and instead asks her stylish friend and roommate Xia Qiao to assume her identity. 

However, that amazing plan also has a problem in that Bai Hao Yu is actually Li Hui Zhen’s boss, and she now has to pretend to be someone else while working for him. Slowly, even without knowing her true identity, Bai Hao Yu becomes attracted to Li Hui Zhen. Li Hui Zhen's supervisor Lin Yi Mu also starts to take an interest in his new intern. Can Li Hui Zhen break away from the insecurity that came from once being pretty and open up to the man she truly cares about, or will she forever live in fear because she thinks she once was pretty?

My Thoughts:

I just recently watched this drama and also binge-watch it all the way to episode 30. I gotta say this is pretty much a cliche love story of a reverse-reality of the leads. Like a pretty young pre-teen into a not so pretty adult and vice-versa. It is usually the cliche stuffs that get me watching because I want to see how a team can make something cliche into a unique item of its own. By the way, this is a remake of a Korean drama, She was Pretty which I once was interested to watch but rejected due to my disinterest in the actors and actresses and besides too much Korean in my hands already. This drama, I accepted due to it being a different language and the actors and actresses are an unknown to me. I would love to see how an unknown portray a character in a story that is cliche. Hehe...

So, about the story and plot, it was smooth, like normal, there were some things that I did not expect and some I did. Some I sincerely hoped not to happen and some I hope it would. Hahaha.... Well, in the beginning chapters, I was just too disappointed with the female lead who was too kind for her own good and too un-energetic and not proactive. I get so mad at times that the male lead who was thought to be quite bad in the eyes of other characters but was actually saying the right things like how the female lead likes to make excuses instead of trying to fix her faults, justifying that she was not wrong instead of improving herself. Well, moving on, I just endured all that and kept watching. Slowly, other characters made the female lead wanting to improve and from then on, I begin to immerse myself in the story and the characters.

There were many things in the story that common sense-wise is not right so I just get uncomfortable watching it sometimes, like a best friend not doing the right thing for the best friend that is like family. A person who does not want to change herself after being nitpicked by the employer. But, I guess it was fine to watch that all because of the cute humour and the mental relief you get between each chapter.

The one thing that got me really motivated to watch this drama to the end was the episode where the female lead will finally, as predicted in the laws of cliche, get her makeover. I got really excited to watch that episode but when I watch it, I get really down because I find myself actually liking her former look now after so many episodes watching her like that. On another level, she got pretty so all's well that ends well.

This is a serious Chinese drama to watch because unlike cliche Korean dramas who can get so dramatic and over sometimes, this drama is more slow-paced(maybe because it is long) and more in-depth to the characters. I feel less suspenseful and feel kinda calm watching it. Like no stress watching it or what thinking of what twist can come in the drama's way. Not too much drama, just pure story-focused. Go ahead and watch this drama! You'll sure to love the characters so much and then hate them and love them all over again. Hahahaha....