My Precious Review

It is not often that Z. Tao appears in a drama. Thus, when I saw that he is the main lead in My Precious (甜蜜的你), I decided to give it a go. It is not that I’m a fan of his. It is just refreshing to have a change of faces rather than looking at the same actors all the time. After watching all the 40 episodes, I find that the pacing is pretty slow for this one. although the dog will delight you. Below is my review of My Precious with both its good and bad points.

My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 40
Type: Romance
Aired: October 2023
Images Credit: Douban Movie

The Cast Of My Precious

• Z. Tao as Shen Mi
• Rain Wang He Run as Tian Tian
• Liu Yi Chang as Shen Chen
• Ni Hong Jie as Tian Pei Lan
• Shi An as Chen Yi Fan / Dr. Chen
• Zhang Mian Chen as Tian Yu Xian
• Tan Yan Yan as Wen Jing
• Li Jiu Lin as Gu Ming Ze
• Shen Yao as Han Meng Yao
• Li Hong Tao as Han Guan Jun
• Zhao Long Hao as Shen Hong Yuan
• Kou Zhen Hai as Shen Rong Xian

Main Characters

Shen Mi

Shen Mi is the Executive Vice President of Lv Chuan Group which is a pet supplies company founded by his grandfather. He is a business-minded person with foresight and a sharp mind. However, he can also be helpful and kind in the right situations. Shen Mi has a congenital heart defect which requires daily medication.

Tian Tian

Tian Tian is a vet at her father’s veterinary hospital called Tian Lin. She is a kind and softhearted young woman but can be a little naive. Tian Tian has lost the courage and confidence to perform surgeries after she failed to save her own pet dog.

Supporting Characters

Shen Chen

Shen Chen is Shen Mi’s younger cousin brother. He hates to be tied down to a job and refuses to work at Lv Chuan Group. Shen Chen prefers an idle life and likes to fool around. He is a friendly, youngish, and fun guy to be with.

Tian Pei Lan

Tian Pei Lan is Tian Tian’s paternal aunt who is still single. She works at Tian Lin as a receptionist. She has a wealth of information about the neighborhood residents through gossips with the hospital’s clients.

Chen Yi Fan / Dr. Chen

Dr. Chen is an animal surgeon at Tian Lin. He is an experienced vet who has been working at Tian Lin for a long time.

Tian Yu Xian

Tian Yu Xian is Tian Tian’s younger brother. He is a pet groomer at Tian Lin but has a lazy working attitude. He likes playing online games even while at work.

Wen Jing

Wen Jing is a nurse at Tian Lin. She is a good worker but timid and fearful when bullied.

Gu Ming Ze

Gu Meng Ze is a renowned researcher in drugs for animals. He is also Tian Tian’s senior at university. Gu Ming Ze has just returned from abroad to head Lv Chuan Group’s R&D Department.

Han Meng Nan

Meng Nan works in the Legal Department of Lv Chuan Group. She and Shen Mi have known each other since their childhood days. She is in love with him but it is a one-sided love. Her father is also working for Lv Chuan Group and reports to Shen Mi’s grandfather.

Han Guan Jun

Han Guan Jun is Meng Nan’s father. He is also Shen Mi’s grandfather’s personal secretary. He knows all of Shen Mi’s secrets and is on his side.

Shen Hong Yuan

Shen Hong Yuan is Shen Chen’s father and Shen Mi’s paternal uncle. He is a devious man who keeps plotting against Shen Mi to gain control of Lv Chuan Group.

Shen Rong Xian

Shen Rong Xiao is Shen Mi and Shen Chen’s grandfather. He is a nice man who is getting advanced in age but still has a sharp mind.

Synopsis

Tian Tian is a vet who is working in her father’s animal hospital called Tian Lin. However, her father suffered a stroke just after renovating and expanding the hospital. Hence, Tian Lin is on the verge of bankruptcy as a shareholder demands for his money back.

At the same time, Shen Mi is facing a challenge from his uncle for control of his grandfather’s pet supplies company, Lv Chuan Group. So, his grandfather wants him to prove himself worthy of being the President of the company by giving him the task of cooperating with a animal hospital to pave the way for the group’s veterinary drug business within a year.

Shen Mi has an eye on Tian Lin due to its dire financials. This means he could inject funds into it and gain a controlling say on how the hospital should be run to ensure its success. However, Shen Mi and Tian Tian are not on good terms as he had mistakenly thought that she had stolen his dog earlier. But they are still forced to be partners as each needs the other for business purposes. As they bicker over their different business philosophies and values, they also start to see each other’s good qualities and work together to improve the hospital’s performance while finding love along the way.

My Precious Ending & Recap (Spoilers Alert!)

My Precious has a happy ending. Meng Nan has moved to Thailand to be with Gu Ming Ze and sends a wedding invitation to Shen Mi and Tian Tian. After Shen Hong Yuan’s mistakes and repentance, he would not have the shareholders’ support to lead Lv Chuan Group. So, Shen Rong Xian wants Shen Mi and Shen Chen to run the company together and treat each other as brothers. He accepts Shen Mi as his grandson despite the fact that they have no blood relations. Shen Mi ends up as the CEO while Shen Chen is made the Chairman of the group.

The drama ends with Shen Mi’s and Tian Tian’s families having a New Year dinner together. Shen Mi uses the opportunity to propose to Tian Tian in front of their family members and she accepts.

When Did The Leads Get Together?

Tian Tian moves in to live with Shen Mi in Episode 20 after being pressured to do so by his grandfather. Since she has been pretending to be his personal doctor, Shen Mi’s grandfather uses this excuse to try to pair them up. He insists that Tian Tian stays together with his grandson so that she could monitor his heart condition. In Episode 27, Tian Tian and Shen Mi pretends to be a married couple to coax a runaway teen to return home. Their “relationship” and her “pregnancy” reach her parents’ ears and they want to meet Shen Mi.

Shen Chen is also there to compete for Tian Tian’s affections. This forces Shen Mi to declare that he and Tian Tian are already together to justify their co-habitation arrangement. Privately, they both pretend that they are doing so due to Shen Mi’s grandfather’s request although deep down, they already have developed feelings for each other. Moreover, Shen Mi is hesitant to start a relationship with Tian Tian due to his secret of having assumed his late best friend’s identity.

The couple finally got together at the end of Episode 30 after Shen Mi’s grandfather advises him to follow his heart to have peace of mind. He confesses his love for her and tells her that he wants to be with her forever.

Is There Any Breakup?

Shen Mi breaks up with Tian Tian in Episode 37. This is because Meng Nan threatens him into marrying her after she found out about his real identity. So, Shen Mi is forced to accede to her request in order to keep his identity as Gao Zhuo a secret. So, he tells Tian Tian that he has never loved her but is only using her to return to Lv Chuan Group as the CEO.

They reconcile in Episode 38 after Meng Nan declared that she isn’t willing to marry Shen Mi during the wedding ceremony but is simply fulfilling her childhood obsession to have the wedding with the boy she once loved. Shen Mi asks Tian Tian to give him another chance after the wedding ceremony is cut short.

Is There Any Love Triangle?

Shen Chen also has a crush on Tian Tian. He joins Tian Lin to try to get close to her in Episode 9. He confesses with a fireworks display but gets her name wrong. Anyway, Tian Tian doesn’t think he is serious at all. She rejects him when he asks her to be his girlfriend in Episode 10. He brushes it off but continues to try to pursue her and has an understanding with Shen Mi that they will compete fairly for her affections. In Episode 11, Tian Tian tells Shen Mi that Shen Chen is too young and immature for her as she prefers more matured men.

However, Shen Chen continues to pursue Tian Tian with her brother’s help. He often drops by her place to cook for the family and becomes friendly with her parents. However, she has no feelings for him and balks at kissing him when they are playing a fake couple to spread awareness of the harm of dyeing pets’ furs in Episode 30. Shen Chen gives up after Tian Tian and Shen Mi start dating. He also quits working for Tian Lin in Episode 33.

Meng Nan’s Obsession

Meng Nan has been in love with Shen Mi for a long time as they grew up together. But she is disappointed when Shen Mi starts to show interest in Tian Tian. Shen Mi tells Meng Nan that there is no possibility between them in Episode 21 and reiterates the same in Episode 30. He says that he only sees her as a younger sister and not to take seriously his love confession when they were kids.

After she found out about he is not the real Shen Mi, she insists on marrying him in Episode 36 or she would expose his identity. She became suspicious that he is not who he claims to be when he couldn’t recall his own ukulele he had used to play her a song in the past. So, she did a DNA test which confirms that he is not related to his grandfather in Episode 35.

Their wedding day is in Episode 38 but both are unwilling to accept their vows as husband and wife during the ceremony. It is simply Meng Nan’s wish to fulfill her childhood obsession to have the wedding before putting the past behind her to seek her own happiness. She reveals to the guests that she no longer loves Shen Mi because the boy she knew is no longer the same after so many years. Both Meng Nan and Shen Mi remain as friends.

Shen Mi’s Past

Shen Mi reveals his past to Tian Tian in Episode 13 and 14. He brings Tian Tian to his best friend’s grave while they are in Thailand for a convention. When Shen Mi was 6 years old, he followed his parents to Thailand because his father had to settle a problem that had cropped up in the company’s drug processing plant there. But his father died all of a sudden presumably due to an accident at the factory.

Shen Mi ran out of the hospital after seeing his father’s body at the morgue. He can’t remember exactly why he ran away but ended up getting lost and met Gao Zhuo who was a poor boy without a mother. They became best friends. Although they were poor, they had a happy time growing up together for the next 8 years.

However, Gao Zhuo drowned during a sea outing when he jumped in to save Shen Mi who had fallen into the water. Shen Mi blames himself for his friend’s death as it was him who suggested the trip. He was found and returned to his family after Gao Zhuo’s death. In actual fact, this is a lie because the one who died was the real Shen Mi and Gao Zhuo had simply taken over his friend’s identity on Han Guan Jun’s insistence. This is a secret between the both of them and is revealed to the viewers in Episode 21.

In Episode 36, Han Guan Jun explains to Meng Nan that he did so because Shen Rong Xian was not in good health then. Thus, he didn’t have the heart to tell him that his grandson had died when Shen Mi was expected to be found. Moreover, Shen Rong Xian has already lost a son and the setback of losing a grandson as well would be too great for him to bear.

What Happened To Shen Mi’s Uncle?

Shen Hong Yuan exposes Shen Mi’s identity in Episode 39 after becoming suspicious that he isn’t allergic to eel as he is supposed to. Shen Mi admits that he is Gao Zhuo and voluntarily leaves Lv Chuan Group. However, Shen Rong Xian has willed all the shares in the company to Shen Mi’s mother after falling ill. So, Shen Hong Yuan secretly releases information about inner turmoil in the company to the media to pressure Shen Mi’s mother to appoint him as CEO during a shareholders meeting.

However, Shen Mi appears and exposes his uncle’s ploy. He brings Tian Tian along to let her know his real identity and motivation. He continued being the fake Shen Mi for so long because he wants to investigate his best friend’s father’s death. It was his friend’s wish before he died. The real Shen Mi had ran out of the hospital and got lost after seeing his father’s body because he thought his uncle was the murderer.

While Shen Hong Yi’s death was really due to an accident, he was in Thailand to clean up the mess caused by Shen Hong Yuan’s negligence. Shen Hong Yuan had wanted to cover up his mistake. He has also misunderstood his brother’s intention and thought that the latter had wanted to report him to their father.

All along, Shen Hong Yuan has felt that his father is strict towards him and bias towards his brother. Shen Rong Xian blames himself for being too strict with Shen Hong Yuan that the latter became crooked instead when he just wanted to nurture him to run the company. Shen Hong Yuan regrets having misunderstood his late brother’s and father’s good intention and seeks his father’s forgiveness.

Second Couple

Gu Ming Ze is interested in Meng Nan but knows that she has deep feelings for Shen Mi. She reveals her heartbreak to Gu Ming Ze after drinking in Episode 14 and he comforts her. In Episode 22, Meng Nan seeks Gu Ming Ze’s company after being rejected by Shen Mi. She kisses him while drunk but wants him to pretend that nothing has happened the next day. She also makes it clear that they are only colleagues.

In Episode 26, Gu Ming Ze plans to resign from Lv Chuan Group to move to Thailand. He asks Meng Nan to follow him but gets rejected again. He tells her that he loves her in Episode 34 but she is still not ready to be with him. When Gu Ming Ze hears that Meng Nan will be marrying Shen Mi in Episode 37, he leaves for Thailand. Meng Nan goes to look for him in Episode 39 after she has fulfilled her obsession of having a wedding with Shen Mi. She puts the past behind her and starts life anew with Gu Ming Ze.

My Precious Review – Slow-Paced Drama

One thing that made me stay interested in My Precious is the male lead’s dog, Carlo. He is a cute and fluffy dog that I don’t mind having him in all the scenes. There are also other dogs and cats that get featured for the different cases which is a bonus for viewers who love these animals. Basically, the drama’s subplots consist of several cases involving animals that came to the female protagonist’s attention such as pitiful strays and a dog belonging to a poor scavenger. This is how the drama could be lengthened to 40 episodes apart from the leads’ business relationship and subsequent romance.

Personally, I find this drama to be a little slow-paced especially at the beginning. You can watch this while playing with your phone or reading a book and you could still follow what is going on in the story. The cases involving the animals don’t really move the story forward. Unless these cases deeply resonate with you, the story will seem to be taking its own sweet time to develop into something more exciting both on the power tussle between the male lead and his uncle and the romance between the leads. Personally, I find the cases to be uninteresting which is why this is such a drag to watch.

A Naive Female Protagonist

The female protagonist, Tian Tian, actually reminds me of One Boat, One World whereby I dropped it because I couldn’t stand the girl’s stupidity. While Tian Tian is not as bad and I could still tolerate her, just bear in mind that she is not a smart and strong character unlike those female leads in Flight To You and She And Her Perfect Husband.

Tian Tian is naive and trusting. She has zero business sense and doesn’t know how to manage one. She employs people without background checks. Furthermore, she wants to save strays but hasn’t work out how to maintain them with the hospital’s lack of funds. Then, she breaks into someone’s premises and wants to steal evidence of the owner doping his cats when the male lead already tried to warn her earlier not to pass the strays she caught to the man. Breaking in is already illegal and she is a doctor!

So, it is simply frustrating watching her in the first half of the drama and her refusal to listen to the male lead’s advice. But her dumbness is mitigated by her positive qualities. Tian Tian is kind, generous, and softhearted. In fact, she is overly so. For me, her character has been written to be too naive and immature. A smarter and wittier character would have been good because she just seems too dumb for a vet as it is!

Annoying Third Parties

There are times when I find that the second female lead in My Precious to be delusional. While she is not exactly a toxic third wheeler, her obsession with the male lead defies logic. She can’t seem to accept that the male lead just doesn’t have any romantic feelings for her. What she wants is for them to go back to the love they had for each other when they were kids! They liked each other a lot when they were 6 years old and the boy had vowed to marry her one day. Then he disappeared for 8 years. By the time he returned, she felt that he had changed but couldn’t let go of the past.

It just feels weird to me that a grown woman expects a man to honor and love her because he said so when he was 6 years old. So, she can be annoying at times because her obsession doesn’t make much sense. The same goes for the second male lead who is also trying to pursue the female lead. He doesn’t give up easily but because he couldn’t get anywhere with his effort, he resorts to sabotage instead to prevent the male lead from getting the girl.

Therefore, it isn’t much fun watching these characters circling around the leads for three-quarters of the drama. To me, it takes too long before the scriptwriter finally makes them give up and the annoyance just increases with time.

Acting & Chemistry

I don’t think Z. Tao managed to immerse himself into the role as Shen Mi. While he looks like an idol, he isn’t supposed to be one in the drama. Personally, his hairstyle already doesn’t suit the character who is supposed to be a senior executive of a large company. His facial expression is also not up to the mark in the more emotional scenes with blank stares in others at times.

Wang He Run is a bit better with the acting but the 2 of them just don’t have enough chemistry between them. It is too bland for a romance drama that it becomes boring to watch. I think Z. Tao has better chemistry with Song Zu Er in Legally Romance than with Wang He Run in this drama. There is no spark at all even for the kissing scenes. Their mouths are just touching but not moving. Perhaps they should have just left out the kisses completely if they are not going to do it properly. As it is, they look amateurish.

My Verdict – Not Missing Much If You Skip

If there is one word to sum up My Precious, I think that word should be boring. This could have been a much shorter and more focused drama. Instead, it has been dragged out with boring cases that wouldn’t have concerned a vet in real life such as catching strays and entertaining a woman with dementia. I can’t comment on the surgical scenes involving the animals as I have no expertise in the area. But suffice to say those scenes do not look convincing to me although I understand the difficulties of filming with animals.

Basically, My Precious is a straightforward story with a simple twist. There is an ongoing power struggle between the male lead and his uncle for control of the family business. Again, this could have been exploited to give the drama more depth and excitement but it is left to linger without much direction. All we get is some underhanded tactics employed by the uncle to derail the male lead’s effort. And the ending is a let down after all that scheming. It leaves me with the feeling that this is one drama that I shouldn’t have started when I have completed the last episode.

For this My Precious review, I would give it a score of 6.5/10. Watch it for the cute, furry white dog rather than the story. The romance is lackluster, the third parties are annoying, and the business subplot lacks depth. I wouldn’t recommend it but if you like animals and vet stories, perhaps you might find it more interesting. Otherwise, just look for something else to watch.

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