Love 020 Review

I keep telling myself that I should stop watching another romance drama and move on to something else. But recommendations are continuously popping up on my YouTube feeds after watching a few lately and Love 020 (微微一笑很倾城) is one of them. So, I ended up giving this drama a try because it did seem a bit different from the usual at first glance. Did I regret spending my time watching it? Well, you can check out my Love 020 review below if you want more details. But the short answer is no, there are no regrets.

Type: Romance
Episodes: 30
Release Date: August 2016
Images Credit: IJQ TV

The Cast Of Love 020

• Zheng Shuang as Bei Wei Wei
• Yang Yang as Xiao Nai
• Rachel Mao Xiao Tong as Zhao Er Xi
• Bai Yu as Cao Guang
• Mary Ma Chun Rui as Meng Yi Ran
• Niu Jun Feng as Yu Ban Shan
• Cui Hang as Qiu Yong Hou
• Zheng Ye Cheng as Hao Mei
• Vin Zhang Bin Bin as KO
• Ryan Zhang He as Zhen Shao Xiang

Main Characters

Bei Wei Wei

Wei Wei is a 2nd-year computer science student at Qing University in Beijing. She is considered a beauty in that faculty. She also ended up as the second most beautiful girl on campus in an online student poll when her roommate sent in her photo for voting. However, Wei Wei is actually a very low profile student who shuns the limelight. She is kind, gentle, and smart in her studies.

During her free time, she will play an online computer game called A Chinese Ghost Story under the server that is mainly used by Beijing residents. Her username is Luwei Weiwei and in the game, she is married to someone with the username Zhenshui Wuxiang to complete certain quests.

Xiao Nai

Xiao Nai is a 4th-year computer science student in the same university as Wei Wei. He is very intelligent, talented in sports, and good-looking. Many girls, including Wei Wei, regard him as a dream boyfriend and he gets a lot of attention wherever he goes. However, Xiao Nai has little interest in the girls that pursue him. He brushes them off and is a guy of few words.

With his intellect, he started a technology company, Zhi Yi, to develop online games for sale. He also actively plays A Chinese Ghost Story and is the top player in the Beijing server.

Zhao Er Xi

Er Xi is Wei Wei’s roommate and best friend. She is also a computer science student. She only started playing online games when she was selected to be an intern at the technological company, Zhen Yi. During the internship interview, Er Xi mentioned Wei Wei’s username in A Chinese Ghost Story to convince the interviewers of her interest in online games.

Cao Guang

Cao Guang is a foreign studies student. He can be a little direct and he will say what is on his mind. After an initial misunderstanding about Wei Wei, he realizes that she is a kind-hearted person and starts to fall for her. However, his advances were rejected by Wei Wei.

Meng Yi Ran

Yi Ran is a rich girl but shallow. She loves Xiao Nai and tried her best to capture his heart. She became jealous of Wei Wei when Xiao Nai started to pay attention to the latter. Yi Ran also decided to work at Zhen Yi when she found out the Xiao Nai might be collaborating with them for a project. The owner of Zhen Yi is her uncle.

Yu Ban Shan, Qiu Yong Hou & Hao Mei

The 3 of them together with Xiao Nai are good friends. They shared the same dorm room and have a strong sense of brotherhood. All of them are players of A Chinese Ghost Story. They also developed a game together and worked as a team at Xiao Nai’s company after graduation.

KO

KO is a chef at Qing University’s canteen. He also worked at a nearby eatery that is frequented by Xiao Nai and his friends. Beneath his public persona as a chef, he is also a renowned hacker and ended up working for Xiao Nai. KO also has a special relationship with Hao Mei.

Zhen Shao Xiang

Shao Xiang comes from a rich family. He works for his father at Zhen Yi but has never shown great interest in managing the business. He plays A Chinese Ghost Story under the username Zhenshui Wuxiang and is Wei Wei’s virtual husband in the initial stages.

Synopsis

The drama starts with the online game, A Chinese Ghost Story. To complete certain quests, players need to find a partner and get married. After pairing up for 6 months, Shao Xiang decided to divorce Wei Wei in the game and marry another player whom he thought is more beautiful. Due to the chat function and other features, players can send in their photos and communicate with each other and hence, gossips flourished. As Wei Wei has never bothered to post her photo in the game, speculations were rife that she could be ugly or a man playing as a woman.

After the virtual divorce, Xiao Nai spotted Wei Wei playing the game at an internet cafe. That was how he found out the identity of the person behind the Luwei Weiwei username. He admired her skills and decided to offer to be her new virtual husband through an online request. Xiao Nai protected her from the hurtful online gossips and over time, they built up a special relationship as they play the game together.

After getting involved in an accident one night, Xiao Nai missed their appointed game date to complete a quest. Naturally, Wei Wei felt very disappointed as Xiao Nai seemed to have left without a word. After recovering, Xiao Nai decided that it is time for them to meet up in person. Until then, Wei Wei was still clueless as to who her virtual husband is all this while. Finding out that he is Xiao Nai was indeed a sweet surprise. But will their relationship be smooth-sailing with other interested people (Yi Ran and Cao Guang) lurking in the background?

Love 020 Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Love 020 has a happy ending. It has to be given its light-hearted feel to the whole drama. Xiao Nai and Wei Wei end up getting married when she graduated after more than 2 years of dating. Nothing could break Xiao Nai’s trust in Wei Wei even after being shown a video of Cao Guang’s drunken rant about being cheated by her. Yi Ran’s friend recorded the video when she happened to see Cao Guang ranting to his friend. Yi Ran then showed the video to Xiao Nai with the hope that he will break up with Wei Wei. However, the plan didn’t work and Xiao Nai even hacked into Yi Ran’s friend’s phone to delete the video.

Er Xi & Cao Guang

Er Xi and Cao Guang ended up as a couple. Initially, Cao Guang was interested in Wei Wei and knowing that she plays A Chinese Ghost Story, he got a friend to find out her username. However, the friend gave him the wrong information. The username he got belongs to Er Xi. So, all the while he was playing and chatting with Er Xi but mistakenly thought it was Wei Wei. With all the flirting that was going on while they were online, Cao Guang felt cheated when Wei Wei and Xiao Nai became a couple.

Hence, he got into a drunken rant and was filmed by Yi Ran’s friend. In the meantime, Er Xi started to fall for her game partner, not knowing that it was Cao Guang. When she found out, she was devastated. Cao Guang also started to feel guilty when he realized his mistake after a conversation with Wei Wei. He kept apologizing to Er Xi and they ended up together towards the end of the drama.

Yi Ran & Shao Xiang

Yi Ran decided to go overseas to further her studies. She finally realized that the people around her were never sincere with their advice when it comes to Xiao Nai and she had made a mistake in her effort to pursue him.

As for Shao Xiang, he regretted breaking up with Wei Wei in the game when he found out who she actually is. Of course, Wei Wei couldn’t be bothered about him. But it did spur Shao Xiang to be more serious in game design and development to compete with Xiao Nai for a project. He lost to Xiao Nai in the end and he also found out his father’s unethical moves in the bid for the project. So, he left the family’s company to venture out on his own.

Love 020 Review – Should You Watch?

Compared to Here To Heart, Love 020 has a totally different feel. There is no angst or roller-coaster of emotions watching it from start to finish. It is a feel-good drama that is easy to digest. So, if you like stories with more ups and downs, then this is not for you. But if you like smooth-sailing love stories that are sweet and innocent, Love 020 won’t disappoint.

The drama has a young vibe with online games being the backdrop to the love story. I was curious about how the producers would incorporate the game-playing into each episode. I think they did it reasonably well by having the actors and actresses take on their online game characters during game-playing scenes. So, there will be a switch between the real and game world at times to show the interactions between the characters and the actual people behind them. The conversations in the chatbox during online play are thus acted out to give viewers a more substantive feel to Wei Wei and Xiao Nai’s developing relationship. It might get a little boring at times but I think they didn’t overdo it either to make the whole drama feels dragged out. In any case, you can skip those scenes and still wouldn’t lose the plot along the way.

The chemistry between Yang Yang and Zheng Shuang also helps to make the drama pleasurable to watch. They look good together and complement each other very well. Compared to other romance dramas that tend to have the usual “I love you” expressions, there is none in Love 020. Instead, the love between Wei Wei and Xiao Nai is expressed through actions and viewers can feel it through the screen. I think it is a refreshing change because “I love you” scenes can become overused.

Final Verdict

For a final verdict of this Love 020 review, I would say it is worth giving it a try. It is not as immature as Put My Head On My Shoulder which is another campus romance drama despite the same shyness being seen in the female lead character. In Love 020, the shyness and awkwardness are handled in a more matured manner which takes away the annoyance to me. Perhaps the only unrealistic aspect of this drama is that Xiao Nai and his relationship with Wei Wei is too perfect to be true!

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