My Fated Boy Review

I’m a few months late when it comes to My Fated Boy (我的邻居长不大) as this was aired back in July 2021. Many people seem to like this drama a lot as it moves away from cliches and the romance is sweet. I have my own views on this which is in My Fated Boy review below. This is an age gap romance in essence and coincidentally, the leads’ age difference is actually similar to the characters that they are playing. So, this is an interesting pairing which is not the typical couple you would find in Chinese dramas.

My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 29
Type: Romance
Aired: July 2021
Images Credit: Youku

The Cast Of My Fated Boy

• Li Xi Rui as Lin Yang
• He Yu as Lu Zheng An
• Zhou Xiao Chuan as Ma Le
• Zhao Yuan Yuan as Cao Ling
• Lu Xiao Lin as Yao Dan
• Tian Xi Wei as Li Tian
• Shang Bai as Xie Nan Ke
• Pei Jiang Tong as Hua Ye Ting
• Han Yue as Li Miao Miao
• Bao Tian Qi as Jia Lu Xin

Main Characters

Lin Yang

Lin Yang is the secretary to the Chairman and owner of an advertising agency. She is a 31-year-old career woman who is single, independent and capable. Lin Yang appears as strong and rational but there are times when she also wishes she has a shoulder to cry on.

Lu Zheng An

Zheng An is a 24-year-old minor celebrity. He is a talented singer and songwriter who has just returned from abroad. He is a cheerful and playful young man who is very persistent in love. Lin Yang is the love of his life despite their age difference.

Supporting Characters

Ma Le

Ma Le is the owner of a small recording company. He signs on Zheng An whom he needs to rely on to turn his company around. Ma Le is a business-minded guy but funny and harmless. He also has a crush on Cao Ling.

Cao Ling

Cao Ling is Lin Yang’s colleague as well as good friend from university. She is divorced with a young daughter. Nobody knows about her status except for Lin Yang. Cao Ling has a practical view on dating and marriage due to her own bitter experience.

Yao Dan

Yao Dan is Lin Yang’s good friend and colleague. She is the Finance Director at the advertising agency and married for 6 years with no plans to have kids. Yao Dan is supportive of Zheng An’s pursuit of Lin Yang with her greater optimism on love and romance.

Li Tian

Li Tian is Zheng An’s ex-university mate. She is deeply in love with him but it is a one-sided affair. Li Tian is an immature and a temperamental young woman. Her brother-in-law is Lin Yang’s employer.

Xie Nan Ke

Nan Ke is Zheng An’s elder cousin brother. He is a partner at a law firm and a workaholic. He is matured and reserved. Nan Ke also has feelings for Lin Yang which are unexpressed.

Hua Ye Ting & Li Miao Miao

Ye Ting and Miao Miao are a married couple. Ye Ting is the owner of an advertising agency and Lin Yang’s boss. He values her work and is a fair employer. Miao Miao is a housewife and Li Tian’s elder sister.

Jia Lu Xin

Jia Lu Xin is an influential celebrity agent who has an eye on Zheng An. She is a controlling woman who wants Zheng An for herself.

Synopsis

Lin Yang and Zheng An grew up together as they were neighbors. Their parents are the best of friends. Before falling pregnant years ago, their mothers had hoped that one of them would have a son and the other a daughter so that they could become in-laws. However, Lin Yang was born first while Zheng An’s mother had problems conceiving until much later. So, their parents no longer see the kids as suitable marriage partners since Lin Yang, as the girl, is 7 years older than Zheng An.

While Lin Yang treats Zheng An as a little brother, he sees her as the love of his life and his wifey. When Zheng An returns from abroad upon graduation, he pursues Lin Yang. He is now a man with a nice body and this stirs a different feeling in her. However, she isn’t comfortable with the change in the nature of their relationship. Lin Yang pushes him away because of their age difference as she feels the relationship will not lead anywhere especially when Zheng An’s career as an artiste is starting to take off.

My Fated Boy Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

My Fated Boy has a happy ending. Zheng An proposed to Lin Yang during the halftime break of his performance. Then, there is a 4-year time jump before the drama ends. Zheng An has given up being a superstar and became a producer behind the scenes. He and Lin Yang are happily married and they have a son. Cao Ling has bought over a restaurant that she and her friends used to frequent. She finally accepts Ma Le who has been wooing her for the last 4 years. The interaction between Cao Ling’s daughter and Lin Yang’s son also seems to suggest that history may repeat itself.

Yao Dan announces that she is pregnant during the dinner with her friends. Li Tian has gone abroad to further her studies and graduated. But she doesn’t want to return home yet and has found a foreigner boyfriend. She still keeps in touch with Nan Ke who is getting to know another woman. Miao Miao is now busy with her fashion design work while her husband has more time on his hands with Lin Yang assisting him in his business.

When Did Zheng An And Lin Yang Get Together?

Zheng An first kissed Lin Yang in Episode 11 on an impulse while he was learning how to apply lipstick for a promotional event. Lin Yang admitted to Cao Ling that she has fallen for Zheng An in Episode 12 but felt there was no point in pursuing a relationship that wouldn’t work out in the end. However, her feelings for him were too strong to resist. With Cao Ling’s encouragement, Lin Yang accepted Zheng An and kissed him at the end of Episode 14. They became a couple from Episode 15 onwards.

Zheng An and Lin Yang deepened their relationship and slept together in Episode 20. They had their most serious quarrel in Episode 25 when they disagreed over how to handle the exposure of their relationship but it was quickly resolved. They agreed to go public with their relationship since Zheng An was a rising star. Together with Li Tian’s marketing proposal to sell their heartwarming love story, they managed to turn things around. Finally, Zheng An proposed to Lin Yang in Episode 29 and she accepted.

Is There Any Breakup And Love Triangle?

No, there is no breakup for the main couple once they started dating. They did have quarrels but they have also promised never to let each other go.

As for love triangles, Li Tian was deeply in love with Zheng An at the start of the drama. But he made it clear that he was never interested in her and she understood the finality of it in Episode 10. Li Tian slowly learned to grow up and let go from then on. She even helped Zheng An to turn around the public opinion against him and Lin Yang in Episode 26. Li Tian also confidently declared to Zheng An that she didn’t love him anymore in Episode 27.

Nan Ke and Lin Yang had a dubious relationship while Zheng An was studying abroad. He met her to pass her a parcel from Zheng An and they started to have feelings for each other. But the feelings were not expressed. Nan Ke also wanted to develop his career and accepted an overseas posting. Lin Yang got tired of playing mind games with him and waiting for him to make his move. Hence, when Nan Ke returned home, Lin Yang didn’t want to pursue the relationship anymore. She rejected him when he finally confessed his love in Episode 13 as she didn’t have anymore feelings for him by then.

Therefore, Li Tian and Nan Ke are like kindred spirits as they have both been rejected by Zheng An and Lin Yang respectively. They are friendly to each other but their relationship is not further explored in the drama.

Did Their Parents Object To Their Relationship?

No, Zheng An’s and Lin Yang’s parents were never against their relationship. The couple was just afraid that their parents would object due to the wrong signals sent especially by Zheng An’s mother. In fact, Zheng An’s mother had always secretly hoped that Lin Yang could be her daughter-in-law but indicated otherwise as she thought it would be an impossibility. She only knew about it and was angry that they were hiding their relationship from her in Episode 24. But she was actually very happy and told Lin Yang so through a text in Episode 25.

My Fated Boy Review – Relatively Well Done

My Fated Boy is not your typical romance drama. It moves away from cold and domineering CEOs that are frequently featured in rom-coms such as Unforgettable Love and Once We Get Married to a young singer who is gaining popularity with his looks and talent. And the woman he is after is 7 years older than him with her own career. There is no drama on how his heart slowly melted for her or the silly games of whether he loves me or he loves me not. Don’t expect the usual accidental falls and kisses either. You will get none of those.

Instead, My Fated Boy starts with the guy already knowing who he loves and what he wants. So, you won’t get that part where the guy has to discover his feelings for the girl. Conversely, it is the girl who has to evaluate her feelings and priorities in life. There is even character growth for the love rival from being an annoying third party to a more matured and forgiving young woman. Hence, if you are sick of office romance and contract marriage dramas with toxic love triangles, this would be a refreshing change. However, this change may not necessarily resonate with everyone especially those who can’t tolerate a man-boy kind of male lead.

Cute And Young Male Character

Zheng An is 24 years old and has just graduated. He is young and full of energy. To some, he is cute and adorable with his constant grins. He exhibits warmth and radiates love for the girl. But at the same time, those same characteristics can also be interpreted as immature to others. Zheng An loves Lin Yang and makes sure everybody knows it with the way he pursues her. He will throw caution to the wind and to hell with the consequences as long as he can be together with her.

Thus, if you are a diehard romantic, you will see Zheng An’s antics as selfless and sweet which is what this drama tries to portray him to be. It succeeded to a certain extent because I was rooting for him too. But if you think a little deeper and find that love is also about being responsible to yourself and others around you, then it will erase some of the shine where Zheng An’s character is concerned and the immaturity will start to show.

Age Gap Romance Drama

In essence, My Fated Boy is a romance drama that explores the sensitivities of a older woman-younger man relationship. It is relatively well done when it comes to the story execution because it is told in a very engaging way. There is a sense of reality in the characters and story. The scriptwriters have made them out to be people with flaws rather than perfect individuals. For instance, the female lead is a badass career woman and not someone insanely kind and softhearted.

At the start of each episode, there will also be a short 5-minute clip that shows viewers Zheng An and Lin Yang’s growing up years when they were young kids. It depicts the things they did and experienced together which helps to build the idea in the viewers that the couple are destined for each other.

The drama also has a simple plot and good pacing. There is no urge to fast-forward as you watch with little boredom to drag down the drama. While the story is well-told, unfortunately, it is also kind of predictable. Being an age gap romance drama where the woman is much older than the man, you can already guess the issues that will crop up. Hence, you can expect the same old hesitance on the female lead’s part, the fear of exposing their relationship, and the worry over parental objection just like in Find Yourself.

Great Chemistry

I think the chemistry between Li Xi Rui and He Yu did help tremendously to make My Fated Boy more highly rated than usual for a age gap romance drama. After all, this theme is not everyone’s cup of tea and there is still hesitance over this kind of couples in many Asian societies. If it is the other way around whereby the guy is much older than the girl like in Dating In The Kitchen, then the acceptance level might be higher.

Nevertheless, it can’t be denied that the leads did a wonderful job portraying their characters. The chemistry is obvious and the way the male lead looks at the female lead speaks volumes about his love for her. He is truly head over heels in love with her and viewers will be able to feel it through his gazes, hugs, and longings. Li Xi Rui equaled He Yu’s acting as her boyfriend and brought life to her character as someone who also longed to be loved despite her independence as a matured career woman.

However, I don’t really get why He Yu gave Zheng An a perpetual grin and smugness on his face. He may seem cute that way and perhaps it helps to emphasize his youthfulness. But I just wonder if toning it down might be better to give the character more maturity rather than appearing like an infatuated boy all the time.

My Verdict – Deserves A Look

Nowadays, many people prefer to watch romance dramas that move away from toxic love rivals, parental objections, and even unnecessary misunderstandings and breakups. I guess these plot lines have been recycled over and over again that viewers are sick of them. Instead, stories that are more uplifting, warm, and fluffy tend to get the nod such as You Are My Glory and You Are My Happiness. My Fated Boy happens to fall into the latter category and therefore, it is not surprising that many viewers find it an enjoyable and a relatively stress-free Chinese drama.

Basically, if you don’t mind an older woman and a younger man romance, then this deserves your time. It has its special charm with its own brand of cuteness and sweetness coming from a hopelessly in love male lead. The female lead also has her vulnerabilities although she tries to appear strong. Therefore, some might find the younger man to be the more matured party since he knows what he wants from the very start compared to the woman who actually longs for love and an escape from the rut of work and a mundane life.

I guess whether you will actually end up loving this drama will depend very much on how you see the male lead because he is the central figure that glues everything together. If you see him as cute but also matured, then this drama will be very fluffy indeed. But if you think he is immature and takes for granted that the female lead should be his because they grew up together, then this drama will fall apart.

For this My Fated Boy review, I would give it a score of 7.5/10. It is a simple but engaging story. Watch it for the leads’ chemistry with one rather steamy scene in Episode 20. It is not a drama with a heavy wow factor but it has enough warmth and sweetness for a charming romantic story.