[C-DRAMA] Best Time – 最美的时光

Title: 最美的时光 / Zui Mei De Shi Guang
English title: Best time
Also known as: Secrets hidden by time (被时光掩埋的秘密) / Most Beautiful Time
Genre: Modern metropolitan drama, romance

Episodes: 40 + 2 Specials
Broadcast network: Hunan TV

Synopsis from Wiki:

A ‘leftover lady’ (refers to unmarried women over the age of 30) nicknamed White-Boned Demon Su Man, meets Song Yi, a talented man for whom she has had a crush on for years. To get closer to Song Yi, Su Man gives up her own promising future just to work with him. Despite her efforts, Lu Li Cheng, a man with whom she has had several conflicts, becomes her superior. Su Man treats him like a thorn in her side, yet he develops feelings for Su Man due to their interactions. Just when Su Man and Song Yi’s relationship gets on the right track, unforeseen events occur as Su Man and Song Yi’s past romances slowly surface. Su Man, Song Yi and Lu Li Cheng’s relationships are tested in every way.

Wallace Chung as Lu Li Cheng

A country man who has worked hard to achieve his success. Known as one of the best in the world of investors, Li Cheng comes to know Su Man when she starts working at the company he is a manager of.

Although he doesn’t get along with Su Man at first, slowly his feelings change from annoyance to love. He does everything in his power to ensure her happiness without overstepping his boundaries.

Janine Chang as Su Man

Su Man is an obsessed woman when it comes to her No.1 basketball player, Song Yi. With the help of her good friend, she enters the same company as her crush. When things seem to be on track for their love to flourish, she is sent away on a project, from which she returns to a much different Song Yi.

She suffers anguish and hurt at the hands of her unknowing good friend and has to live with the betrayal of the love of her life. Or so she thinks…

Jia Nai Liang as Song Yi

Song Yi comes from a privileged family and is Li Chen’s rival in love and work. He is very naive when it comes to love which eventually leads to the end of his relationship with Su Man.

He inadvertently causes her a world of pain but can’t seem to let her go because he’s still in love with her.

Han Xi Ting as Xu Lian Shuang

Liang Shuang is Su Man’s best friend. She is the only daughter of a land developer who refuses to use her father’s connections as a way to develop her own working status.

She never realises the hand she plays in breaking apart Su Man’s relationship until it is too late, if ever at all.

Here’s some sisterly love between the two:

Review:

This drama is probably one of the few, if not the only one, where I spent most of it wanting to rip my hair out or throw my computer away but I just couldn’t because of Wallace. The story itself is so ridiculously heartbreaking that you have to wonder if the leading lady is a masochist.

Why would you throw away a guy who has stayed by your side through thick and thin and willing to risk his career for you, for a guy who throws you away when a new beauty appears…

This is the scene I hate the most out of the drama, she’s so pitiful that you just want to scream:

Wallace’s portrayal of Li Chen is absolutely breathtaking. Many will probably contradict me on this but his subtle nuances and shifts in emotion are probably the only visible signs of his developing affection for Su Man, and I love it.

This isn’t your typical drama where there’s an all out war for the love of the female lead. Rather, it’s a case of not really knowing who the male lead is until a crucial point in the story. Although the amount of air time each guy gets probably gives it away, but it’s a fair toss-up before the deciding moment.

I would only advise watching this drama if you have a truckload of patience and time.

Note that the final episode is followed by two specials. It’s a bit like a choose your story drama. Special 1 has a happy ending with Su Man and Song Yi, Special 2 is Su Man and Li Chen.

Try out this drama and let me know what you think.

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