Love Under The Full Moon Review

Love Under The Full Moon (满月之下请相爱) is my second Zheng Ye Cheng drama in less than a month after Stealth Walker. I think his partnership with Ju Jing Yi will naturally attract eyeballs. Many are still drawn to her and Zhang Zhe Han as a couple in the Legend Of Yun Xi and The Blooms At Ruyi Pavilion but it is certainly time to move on especially after what has happened to his career. Can she reproduce the same chemistry with her new on-screen partner here to make this drama exciting? Check out my Love Under The Full Moon review below.

My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 24
Type: Romance
Aired: August 2021
Images Credit: iQIYI

The Cast Of Love Under The Full Moon

• Ju Jing Yi as Lei Chu Xia
• Zheng Ye Cheng as Xu Xiao Dong
• Yalkun Merxat as Wei Xuan He
• Zheng Fan Xing as Jin Xiao Rui
• Shen Yao as Qin Yue
• Yu Bo Ning as Zhao Yao Yang
• Zhang Ye Shi as Mr. Lei
• Wang Hong Mei as Mrs. Lei
• Wang Ting as Shen Wei Wei
• Zhu Yong Teng as Professor Chen Mo
• Amy Sun Yi Ning as Yuan Yuan
• Zhang Xiao Yang as Wang Yi Xin
• Wang Dong as Xu Wei Yi

Main Characters

Lei Chu Xia

Chu Xia is a 22-year-old university student who disappeared in 2011 due to a gravitational wave. She reappears 10 years later with a memory loss. Chu Xia is a pretty and mischievous young lady.

Xu Xiao Dong

Xiao Dong is a secret online game developer who goes by the pseudonym Winter. He is a smart man who is into programming and artificial intelligence. Xiao Dong is also investigating his father’s death which he believes is related to some tech entrepreneurs.

Supporting Characters

Wei Xuan He

Xuan He is the owner of Cyber Tech which is preparing for listing. He is also Chu Xia’s ex-boyfriend who attempted to kill her 10 years earlier. Xuan He is plagued by nightmares of the incident and is trying to move on from the past. His current girlfriend is Qin Yue.

Jin Xiao Rui

Xiao Rui is Xiao Dong’s best friend. He knows all of Xiao Dong’s secrets and fusses over him. His love interest is Yuan Yuan.

Qin Yue

Qin Yue is Xuan He’s girlfriend and a live streamer. She and Xiao Dong are also good friends.

Zhao Yao Yang

Zhao is the owner of Yao Yang Tech who Xiao Dong suspects could be involved in his father’s death.

Mr. & Mrs. Lei

Mr. and Mrs. Lei are Chu Xia’s parents. They refuse to believe that their daughter is dead and have been hoping for her return. Mrs. Lei is also a heart patient with a pacemaker installed.

Shen Wei Wei

Wei Wei is Xiao Dong’s youngest aunt and an insurance agent. She doesn’t know Xiao Dong is an underground game developer and thinks he is a loafer. Wei Wei’s love interest is Chen Mo.

Professor Chen Mo

Professor Chen is an astrophysics researcher at the university. He has a keen interest in the super moon phenomena and researching its effects.

Yuan Yuan

Yuan Yuan is Chu Xia’s best friend. She has not forgotten Chu Xia and has been looking for her.

Wang Yi Xin

Yi Xin is Chen Mo’s student and research assistant. He is obsessed about investigating Chu Xia to find a breakthrough in time travel research.

Xu Wei Yi

Wei Yi is Xiao Dong’s late father. He was a very talented programmer and program inventor.

Synopsis

Chu Xia was stalked and dropped off a cliff by her boyfriend on the night of the super moon in 2011. She didn’t die when she fell but simply disappeared due to a gravitational wave caused by the super moon.

10 years later, Chu Xia drops from the sky and into Xiao Dong’s arms during another super moon night. His outdated phone is the transfer point. Chu Xia has no recollection of the past and who she is. But she now has a strong but unstable magnetic field in her. She is automatically pulled back to Xiao Dong once she goes beyond a certain distance. As a result, both of them are forced to live with one another..

Xiao Dong has no other choice but to seek a solution to Chu Xia’s predicament so that they can be free of each other. As they spend more and more time together, they begin to fall in love. At the same time, Xiao Dong is investigating his father’s death which is related to some tech companies with ties to Chu Xia’s ex-boyfriend.

Love Under The Full Moon Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

I would interpret the ending for Love Under The Full Moon as being bittersweet. In the last scene, Chu Xia meets Xiao Dong again 10 years later after her return to her original time dimension. Professor Chen had advised her that she has 2 choices when she has to return back to 2011 because of the disappearance of the gravitational wave. Chu Xia can choose to make the same choices and meet Xiao Dong again but that will bind her to a time loop. That means she will be facing the same situation as she keeps looping between 2011 and 2021.

Chu Xia didn’t have the heart to see Xiao Dong being forced to experience his father’s death and her disappearance over and over again. Hence, she elected the second choice of changing the circumstances in 2011 which led to a different outcome or an alternate universe. Chu Xia managed to persuade Xuan He not to use the stolen patent. Thus, Xiao Dong’s father didn’t die which also means she didn’t get to meet Xiao Dong until 10 years later during Yuan Yuan and Xiao Rui’s wedding.

While Chu Xia can remember their past, Xiao Dong has no idea who she is although he is drawn to her and has a sense of familiarity. So, it is a happy ending in this universe that is shown to the viewers in the last scene. However, we are not told what happened to Xiao Dong in the other universe which Chu Xia has left. When she disappeared from that world, Xiao Dong was heartbroken and logically will still be yearning for her 10 years later. Therefore, it would be a bitter ending for Xiao Dong in the other universe.

Who Stole Xiao Dong’s Father’s Program?

The person who stole Xiao Don’g father’s creation is Xuan He with cooperation from Gu Xiao Qi who was the father’s secretary. Xiao Qi was also Chu Xia’s good friend and flat mate. However, she was in love with Xuan He and was willing to do anything for him. She stole the source code and handed it to Xuan He. Xiao Qi died in an accident a few years later.

With his creation stolen, Xiao Dong’s father was accused of plagiarism instead. He died of a heart attack due to the stress. Xuan He used the stolen source code to help Piggy Tech to be listed. He made a lot of money out of it and used it for his own company, Cyber Tech. Xuan He killed Chu Xia because she found out about it and wanted to expose him with the documents that she had obtained.

What Happened To Xuan He?

In the end, Xuan He publicly admitted that he stole Xiao Dong’s father’s source code and cleared the latter’s name of plagiarism. He also apologized for bugs in his company’s health app which has caused some users to be hospitalized including his own father and was prepared to face all legal consequences.

Xuan He repented when his father gave him his support. He has always felt unloved as his father was extremely strict with him since young and only cared about the family’s reputation. Hence, Xuan Xe has always wanted his father’s recognition. He couldn’t fail and ended up going down the wrong path in order to find success in his business.

Qin Yue stood by him despite the wrongs that he had done. Chu Xia also forgave him when he repented.

When Did Chu Xia And Xiao Dong Get Together?

Xiao Ding confessed his feelings to Chu Xia in Episode 14 but got rejected. She thought she was the one who stole his father’s program because Xuan He took advantage of her memory loss and twisted the story to lay the blame on her.

When Chu Xia was more certain that she is innocent, she confessed her feelings to Xiao Dong in Episode 17. They got separated when she was transported back to 2011 and reunited as a couple in Episode 19.

Xiao Dong proposed to Chu Xia in Episode 23. But she ceased to exist in that universe when the gravitational wave which sustained her disappeared leaving Xiao Dong heartbroken. Chu Xia was transported back to 2011 and met Xiao Dong again 10 years later in an alternate time and space in the last episode.

When Did Chu Xia Regain Her Memory?

Chu Xia did not regain her memory all of a sudden. Instead, she learned what happened bit by bit each time she got transported back to 2011 in Episode 13 and 17 and then returning to seek confirmation.

Did Chu Xia Know Who Is Winter?

Chu Xia suspected Xiao Dong is Winter in Episode 22 because there were just too many coincidences. He told her the truth in Episode 23 once his father’s name was cleared. He also made his Winter identity public.

Love Under The Full Moon Review – A Potpourri Of Weaknesses

Somehow, Love Under The Full Moon fails to capture my interest. They have a good plot to work with but a combination of weaknesses made it uninspiring. Sometimes, a romance drama can have a simple plot and yet, be extraordinarily sweet like You Are My Glory. But if you want to combine romance with a more complex plot, both aspects need to be effectively executed for it to be a gem. Otherwise, the whole drama will be a letdown if you try to do too much but end up being peppered with weaknesses.

Good Plot But Incomplete Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Basically, Love Under The Full Moon is a time-travel romance drama. The time-travel aspect is adequately explained. At the very least, I didn’t find it hard to digest. The plot is pretty interesting as it starts with a murder. So, I expected it to be a serious, matured romance drama but then it starts to have some comedic elements that don’t seem consistent to the overall theme.

The story flows along at an even pace and viewers will be told what happened to Chu Xia in the past as the drama unfolds. But when we reach the ending, it becomes incomplete as it appears as if the screenwriters only want to give us a happily-ever-after to wrap things up. The way the story progresses, there should be 2 timelines or worlds where we have these characters. Viewers are only shown what happened to one of them 10 years later. The other world is ignored as if it doesn’t exist anymore.

Therefore, I see it as a bittersweet but also incomplete ending. It definitely could have been better done or explained rather than rushing to give viewers a happy ending that sees the leads meeting again a decade later in one of the worlds.

Not A Smart Female Character

If you like watching intelligent female characters, Love Under The Full Moon doesn’t have it. Chu Xia is too naive and trusting to the point of being unrealistic. To me, the character is not too well-written. She allows the villain to accompany her and lead her on when Xiao Dong and Yuan Yuan have already warned her about him. While you can justify it with her desire to regain her memory, she also ends up forgiving the villain and being friends again towards the end of the drama. I don’t know why the screen writers have to include that because it just feels strange. After all, the villain has tried to kill her not once, but twice!

Apart from that, Chu Xia’s styling also feels unrealistic. She is always prettily dolled up which doesn’t suit her character as someone from an ordinary background. It also doesn’t match the theme of the story. If the producers are trying to style it as a rom-com, it isn’t working for me because the main part of the plot has a serious undertone. So, there is this feeling of a mismatch and the drama ends up being neither here nor there to me.

Chemistry Could Be Better

Ju Jing Yi and Zheng Ye Cheng don’t have what it takes to make a sizzling couple. I don’t feel much chemistry going on between the 2 of them. They give me a friendly rather than lovers’ vibe. Perhaps it is because we have seen them with much better chemistry with their other partners that we can’t help but set the same high standard for them.

There are not many kisses in the drama. So, don’t expect anything steamy like in Mysterious Love or Love Scenery. But you don’t need a lot of skinship for chemistry to flourish as can be seen in Crush and You Are My Hero. Both Ju Jing Yi and Zheng Ye Cheng played their roles well but their interactions just seem to be missing the natural spark of a pair of lovers. Thus, I just don’t find much sweetness visible in this couple.

My Verdict – Skippable

My own view is that Love Under The Full Moon isn’t anything great. It is neither a masterpiece nor the worst of the lot. It belongs to the category of watch and forget which basically means you can skip it if you have others on your watch list. The one good thing going for it is the more interesting plot compared to normal romance dramas like Moonlight and Sweet Teeth. There is some excitement as the female lead tries to unravel her past.

It is just unfortunate that weaknesses are littered throughout the drama that mars the enjoyment. There is no one big drawback that screams at you but a combination of small weaknesses that add up. So, you can still keep watching once you start. It is also not hard to plough on because the plot will keep the story going and you will be curious to know the ending. This is what made me finish the whole 24 episodes.

Perhaps this drama will be more to your liking if you are a strong Ju Jing Yi fan. She is as pretty as always in the drama which is one of the reasons why people like watching her. For this Love Under The Full Moon review, I will give it a score of 6.5/10. The weaknesses make it hard for me to see this as something that is really worth watching. But if you like a time-travel theme and don’t mind having an annoying villain with a trusting female lead in a romance drama, then you might like it better than me.