I had no plans to watch My Deepest Dream (乌云遇皎月) initially as I had just completed another time travel drama about a week ago. But a reader recommended it. Hence, here I’m with My Deepest Dream review after bingeing on it for the past 3 to 4 days. This Chinese sci-fi drama has its strengths but the weaknesses are also obvious. It has a huge romance element imbued in the time travel journey. So, this should appeal to those who crave for a more adventurous love story. A more elaborate take on the drama is detailed below.
My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 30
Type: Fantasy Romance, Time Travel
Aired: October 2022
Images Credit: Douban Movie
The Cast Of My Deepest Dream
- Li Yi Tong as Tan Jiao
- Jin Han as Wu Yu
- Jenny Zeng Ni as Zhou Xiao Yu / Zhuang Yu
- Wang Zi Rui as Shen Shi Yan
- Lu Yu Xiao as Wu Miao
- Fan Jin Wei as Zhu Yu Tong / Duan Yun Ying
- Zhao Yuan Yuan as Zhu Ji Rui
- Flora Wu Jing Yi as Chen Ru Ying
- Rui Wei Hang as Chen Xing Jian
- Justin Zhao Yi Xin as Su Wan
Main Characters
Tan Jiao
Tan Jiao is a romance novelist. She is a friendly, warm, and likable young lady with a huge following for her writings. Tan Jiao is astute and quick-witted. She has a divorcee mother who runs a restaurant and a young half-brother.
Wu Yu
Wu Yu is a doctorate student who is observant and intelligent. He is also a calm and rational person. Professor Chen is his supervisor as well as a father figure to him. Wu Yu’s parents died early and he also has a younger sister whom he cares about deeply.
Supporting Characters
Zhou Xiao Yu / Zhuang Yu
Xiao Yu is Tan Jiao’s best friend. She is a science fiction writer and Zhuang Yu is her pen name. Xiao Yu is also a postgraduate student. She is an expressive and upfront woman who would fight back when slighted.
Shen Shi Yan
Shen Shi Yan is a police captain in the Criminal Investigation Department. He is an upright and a rational man who is trained to look at evidence to solve cases. Shen Shi Yan can be wooden in his interactions with women. He was also Tan Jiao’s blind date at one time, courtesy of her mother’s arrangement.
Wu Miao
Wu Miao is Wu Yu’s younger sister. She is a university student. Wu Miao is close to her brother but also finds him too restrictive of her freedom at times.
Zhu Yu Tong / Duan Yun Ying
Zhu Yu Tong is a university student and Wu Miao’s boyfriend. He is a shy and timid guy who totally adores Wu Miao.
Zhu Ji Rui
Ji Rui comes from a rich family and has 2 elder brothers and a nephew. She also has a boyfriend named Yan Yuan.
Chen Ru Ying
Ru Ying is Professor Chen’s daughter. Her family is a wealthy one and her mother, Mrs. Chen, is a CEO of a listed company. Ru Ying is a self-entitled spoiled brat and has feelings for Wu Yu whom she grew up with.
Su Wan
Su Wan is Mrs. Chen’s subordinate and CFO of her company. He is interested in Ru Ying and has Mrs. Chen’s trust to marry her daughter. Su Wan is ambitious and aggressive.
Synopsis
Tan Jiao is a romance novelist looking for inspiration for her next book. Hence, she joined a cruise and met Wu Yu who was a doctorate student. A year later, she met Wu Yu again who is now working as a mechanic near her house. While she remembers him, she also discovers that she can no longer recall the events that have happened in the past one year. It is like she has lost a year of her life.
Then, strange things begin to happen with threats to her safety and those whom had been on the same cruise. It is inexplicably linked to a series of murder of which the victim includes Wu Yu’s sister. As Tan Jiao and Wu Yu work together to unravel the mystery and find the serial killer, they find themselves being transported back and forth between different timelines. This allows them the opportunity to try to stop certain tragic events in the past and gather clues to unearth the killer so that Wu Yu’s sister can be saved. The couple also fall deeply in love with each other as they spend more time together.
My Deepest Dream Ending (Spoilers Alert!)
My Deepest Dream can be considered to have a happy ending although it is also open to interpretation. This is because Tan Jiao is seen putting the finishing touches to her novel at the end. So, everything that happened from the beginning can be seen as nothing more than Tan Jiao’s imagination which is laid out in her novel.
If we leave that bit out and just focus on the time travel story itself, Wu Yu proposed to Tan Jiao and married her on the island they were stuck on together with a few others in Episode 29. There was an opening that will allow them to exit the island to go back to reality the next day but the energy could only withstand 6 of them to pass through while there were 7 in the group. Wu Yu secretly planned to be the one to stay behind but Tan Jiao anticipated his sacrifice. Thus, she pushed him through the opening instead in Episode 30.
Once Wu Yu returned to the real world, he only has memory fragments of his time with Tan Jiao. A year has passed before he decided to visit the places that keep popping up in his mind. When he recalled everything, he went back to get Tan Jiao out of the island. They were then transported back to the day they were on the cruise with no recollection of each other and their time travel. They didn’t bump into each other again until later in her hometown. Both Tan Jiao and Wu Yu experienced a sense of familiarity when they laid eyes on each other again and introduced themselves for a happy ending.
When Did Wu Yu And Tan Jiao Start Dating?
Wu Yu and Tan Jiao were already drawn to each other from the beginning of the drama. He wooed and kissed her in Episode 8 and confessed his love in Episode 11. The couple consummated their relationship in Episode 25. Wu Yu proposed to Tan Jiao in Episode 26 and Episode 29 whereby they got married thereafter.
There were no love triangles confronting the couple. Although there was an annoying third-wheeler in Ru Ying, they were very sure of who they love and don’t. Hence, misunderstandings were always solved quickly. There was no breakup either as the couple were trusting and supportive of each other.
Who Killed Wu Miao?
Zhu Yu Tong killed Wu Miao. He is a psychopath who controlled the minds of Zhou Wei and Chen Xing Jian to do his evil deeds. Part of the story is revealed in Episode 25 when Zhou Wei was arrested. With the arrest, Tan Jiao and Wu Yu became suspicious about Zhou Wei’s changed personality. When the authorities found a radioactive material on Zhou Wei, it supported his claims of being controlled.
Zhu Yu Tong was captured in Episode 28. He used to be known as Duan Yun Ying and loved a girl named Ren Jie who was a cosplay model. It was a one-sided affair. When Ren Jie was cyber-bullied for indecent dressing, she committed suicide. Zhu Yu Tong was with her at that time but said the wrong things which caused Ren Jie to be more agitated. She fell off the building and died. To escape from his own guilt, he blamed the few women who were involved in the cyberbullying.
Zhu Yu Tong controlled Zhou Wei and Chen Xing Jian by using some radioactive material obtained from the island they were stranded on during the cruise. They were made to kill the women and harm Tan Jiao. Wu Miao was killed by Zhu Yu Tong because she found out what he did and wanted him to surrender to the police. She was supposed to attend Tan Jiao’s book signing event but the latter didn’t turn up. Hence, Wu Miao went to Zhu Yu Tong’s place earlier than scheduled and stumbled upon his crimes. He in turn blamed Tan Jiao for Wu Miao’s death and hated her for it.
Zhu Yu Tong died in Episode 29 after trying to barge into Tan Jiao but hit his head against the cave wall instead.
Memory Loss
The few people on the cruise could not recall much of what happened in the past year because they were stranded on an island when their boat capsized after an outing in Episode 16. The island doesn’t exist in reality but is a result of a celestial phenomenon that affected the gravitational field. Some parts of the island has radioactive materials and magnetic fields that alter time and space dimensions. Zhu Yu Tong discovered that these materials could be used to control others and took advantage of them to avenge the death of a girl he loved. He also had glimpses of the future which helped him to stay a step ahead of Tan Jiao and Wu Yu in the different timelines that they ended up in.
When a crack appeared to allow them to exit the island to go back to reality, they would have no recollection of their time there. Hence, once the cruise members were back in the real world, they cannot recognize each other anymore.
Second Couple
Xiao Yu and Shen Shi Yan will keep meeting and being drawn to each other in the different timelines. The circumstances that they meet are a little different each time and the pace that they get together is also quicker in the later timelines as they get bolder in expressing their feelings for each other. Except for Episode 20 whereby they didn’t have a happy ending, their relationship is a generally sweet and happy one in all the other timelines.
My Deepest Dream Review – A Tad Confusing
Personally, I find My Deepest Dream to be more about romance than mystery within a sci-fi setting. In a way, it is well-integrated. The romance is good as the couple fight their way to stop tragedies from occurring and look out for each other in the process. But the time travel part with all the hows and whys end up being a tad confusing. There are conversations among the characters to explain the science behind it but chances are you will be lost if you don’t rewind and pay attention to what was said. With Mobius strip and Klein bottle being brought up in some of the dialogues, I wonder how many of us will truly understand what is going on unless you are a mathematician or knowledgable in the field.
However, the time travel sequence itself is not that hard to follow as the protagonists move from one timeline to another. This is not a story whereby they travel to a different time dimension and stay there until their return. Instead, My Deepest Dream will see the main couple going back and forth between their time during the cruise and the different periods within the next one year. It is not confusing but you do need to follow the story closely to have a good grasp of the timelines so that the story makes sense. Otherwise, things will get pretty messed up especially if you start skipping scenes along the way.
Plot Is Okay But Predictable
Overall, the plot is fine although nothing new. It is common for time travel dramas to be about trying to change an outcome that has happened. Shining For One Thing is one example of that. My Deepest Dream is another as the protagonists work to stop murders that have occurred in a future timeline. Where it should be exciting is the mystery surrounding the murders and the thrill of capturing the villain.
Unfortunately, the drama ends up being predictable as the story progresses. There is no twist to the story and you can already guess who is the villain long before the conclusion. Hence, there is no climax when the villain is unmasked and captured. Perhaps the drama went on for too long than necessary that the clues start to pile up. Boring stretches also begin to appear midway through.
In my opinion, this would have been a much more thrilling drama if the fillers are trimmed out and some cases shortened. This is where it lags behind Reset which has a much more tightly focused story that keeps the adrenaline flowing.
Ending Needs Improvement (Spoilers Alert!)
The other notable weakness of My Deepest Dream is the ending. The last episode could certainly be better written. Censorship rules may have dictated the ending of Chinese fantasy dramas and you can expect how it ends if you have watched Mr. Bad and The Day Of Becoming You. But even if we ignore that scene, the whole ending just feels mediocre. The way the hero goes looking for his beloved to bring her back to the real world is overly simplistic. There is no proper explanation on how he could have done it.
Apart from the ending, the CGIs are also substandard and feels cheap. The cruise ship appears fake and the time travel graphics are amateurish. It just seems strange because this can’t be a low budget production. Anyway, it doesn’t feel like one overall except when you see the special effects and certain props.
Matured Romance
I think the romance is where My Deepest Dream will score points with the audience. The main couple has a very healthy and trusting relationship. They communicate and always have the other’s safety in mind. Misunderstandings are kept to a minimum in this drama and get resolved pretty fast. The production team didn’t skimp on the kisses and romantic scenes and there are quite a few throughout the drama.
This is where the leads’ chemistry also contributes to the romantic vibes and drama’s watchability. They look sweet and natural as a pair of lovers. Jin Han doesn’t have that typical handsome face but his rugged look fits this role well. Li Yi Tong is cute and sweet as Tan Jiao and matches perfectly with Jin Han’s rugged Wu Yu. I think she did better here with Jin Han than with Hu Yi Tian in Go Go Squid 2.
My Verdict – Intriguing Up To A Point
Overall, My Deepest Dream is an intriguing watch but only up to a point. Where it falters is the confusing science behind the time travel. If you don’t mind so much about that, then it should be worth the time. Perhaps serious sci-fi fans will find this lacking but those who are after the romance will see it differently. So, I guess it really depends on what you see as more important in a drama. Basically, the romance has a very prominent role here and the depth of the couple’s feelings for each other is what will pull your emotions along.
The other thing that I like about this drama is the friendship between the heroine and the second female lead. The friendship is a very warm and comforting one to watch. It never changes in all the different timelines and it is an important source of support for the heroine. The second couple is also a sweet one. At the very least, I don’t find them annoying which can’t be said for some other dramas whereby you don’t really care for the side couples at all.
For this My Deepest Dream review, I would rate it 7.5/10. To me, it loses out a little to Love In Time mainly because of the mediocre ending. It starts off on the right tone with good acting by the cast but it went on for too long that the excitement and thrill got diluted halfway through. However, the curiosity should still be there to entice you to watch till the end to see how the mystery unravels apart from the feel good factor from the romance.
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