Perfect And Casual Review

Perfect And Casual (完美先生和差不多小姐) is another one of those romance dramas featuring a cold and aloof guy falling in love with a warm-hearted girl. You would think this kind of story line is really overused by now but somehow, they are still being produced. I guess there is still a huge market for them as these stories are easy to digest for those who enjoy stress-free dramas or like indulging in romantic fantasies. What would be my verdict for this drama then after just having watched Love Is Sweet a couple of days ago? Follow my Perfect And Casual review below to find out more.

My rating: 7.5/10
Episodes: 24
Type: Romance
Aired: September 2020
Images Credit: MGTV

The Cast Of Perfect And Casual

• Miles Wei Zhe Ming as Zhang Si Nian
• Xu Ruo Han as Yun Shu
• Zhao Luo Ran as Gao Zhi Yi
• Sheng Gang Shuai as Lin Nuo
• Marguax Ma Yu Ting as Yun Lan
• Dai Yun Fan as Lu Yu
• Law Cui ke Fa as Grandpa Zhang
• Qi Han as Meng Ran
• Joy Sheng Lang Xi as Lin Chu Chu

Main Characters

Zhang Si Nian

Si Nian is a university professor and Statistics lecturer. He is also a mathematical researcher. Si Nian is smart, rich, and handsome. But he is also a very rational man who demands precision and likes everything to be orderly. He thinks everything can be analyzed using scientific data. Hence, Si Nian is clueless when it comes to romance and appears as a cold guy. His parents died when he was a kid.

Yun Shu

Yun Shu is a final year Statistics student at university. She is a very average girl but full of warmth and cheerfulness. Because of her warm heart and kindness, Yun Shu is also a very trusting person. Her hobby is drawing and she is a manga fan. She has an elder sister who is working abroad while her parents have passed away.

Supporting Characters

Gao Zhi Yi

Zhi Yi is a university student and Yun Shu’s best friend. She is also Yun Shu’s go-to person for love advice. Zhi Yi and Lin Nuo used to date but they are now good friends after breaking up 3 years earlier. She can be impulsive and willful.

Lin Nuo

Lin Nuo is Yun Shu and Zhi Yi’s good friend. He is also Zhi Yi’s ex-boyfriend but still tends to give in to her demands and gets jealous of her new suitors. Lin Nuo works as a hospital nurse.

Yun Lan

Yun Lan is Yun Shu’s elder sister and has just returned from abroad. She is fierce with a temper but protective of her sister. Yun Lan is a lawyer. She had a one-night stand with Lu Yu after a drinking bout while abroad.

Lu Yu

Lu Yu is a popular actor and Si Nian’s childhood friend. He often offers love advice to Si Nian. His love interest is Yun Lan and he openly pursues her.

Grandpa Zhang

Grandpa Zhang is Si Nian’s grandfather. He brought Si Nian up after the death of the latter’s parents. Grandpa Zhang is a rich man and used to be an academician. He is stricken with cancer but has a cheerful and positive demeanor.

Meng Ran

Meng Ran is a lawyer with his own law firm. He is also Si Nian’s ex-classmate and rival in school.

Lin Chu Chu

Chu Chu is a researcher from abroad and shares the same discipline as Si Nian. They used to be classmates and in the same research team. They also share the same goals and she has been secretly in love with Si Nian for years. Chu Chu is also friends with Meng Ran.

Synopsis

Si Nian is a brilliant university professor and mathematician with a lot of female admirers due to his good looks. But he is also a very rational and cold guy who has no experience in love and romance. Si Nian has just returned from overseas to look after his sick grandfather.

Yun Shu is a university student and bumps into Si Nian in a cafeteria. They didn’t have a good impression of each other and to make things worse, Si Nian turns out to be her Statistics lecturer. He fails her for being less than a minute late for an exam which delays her graduation. Her misfortune piles up when she gets cheated by her cousin in a property purchase and the apartment actually belongs to Si Nian.

Si Nian’s grandfather is battling cancer and wants to see his grandson happily settle down with a family. To motivate his grandfather prior to a major surgery, Si Nian is desperately looking for someone to pretend to be his girlfriend. Yun Shu happens to be there and ends up being introduced to his grandfather. She doesn’t have the heart to disappoint the old man and plays along until she mistakenly agrees to a marriage.

Perfect And Casual Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Perfect And Casual has a happy ending with Si Nian and Yun Shu ending up as a real married couple. They are seen at the seaside in the last scene as they share a kiss. Si Nian as Mr. Perfect tells Yun Shu who is Ms. Casual that his life would not be perfect without her. They have moved into Grandpa Zhang’s villa to take care of him. Grandpa Zhang chooses not to go abroad for his cancer treatment but prefers to spend his remaining days happily at home with Si Nian and Yun Shu. He knows about their contract marriage all along but keeps quiet about it. You can check out my Perfect And Casual episode summary for a full drama recap.

When Did Si Nian And Yun Shu Become A Real Couple?

Si Nian confesses to Yun Shu in Episode 17. While Yun Shu has fallen for him pretty early on, Si Nian needs time to understand his feelings as he is someone who is too rational and lacks experience in love and romance.

In Episode 23, Si Nian asks Yun Shu to become the real Mrs. Zhang. It has been almost a year and it is the end of their contract marriage. Yun Shu agrees and they finally consummate their relationship as husband and wife.

Did Grandpa Zhang Die?

No, he didn’t. The doctor thinks Grandpa Zhang only has 2 more months to live in Episode 22. But he refuses to go for overseas treatment as he thinks it is not necessary to prolong his life and suffer pain in a foreign hospital bed. Hence, in the last episode, he is seen happy with Si Nian and Yun Shu beside him in his villa.

Did Zhi Yi And Lin Nuo Reconcile?

Zhi Yi has always taken Lin Nuo for granted as she thinks he will always be there for her. But when Lin Nuo decides to break up, it makes her realize that he is the one that she loves. Lin Nuo ends up going to Africa to work and tells Zhi Yi that the timing wasn’t right for them to be in a relationship and they should remain good friends.

In the last episode, Zhi Yi sees a poster looking for volunteers to serve in Africa. She contacts Lin Nuo and informs him that she will be looking for him there.

Yun Lan And Lu Yu’s Relationship

Yun Lan and Lu Yu split up for a while due to misunderstandings. When Lu Yu finds out that he is wrong about Yun Lan and wants a reconciliation, she is hesitant. Yun Lan always has feeling that they are unsuitable for each other as they belong to different worlds. But she ends up pregnant with Lu Yu’s child. When Lu Yu finds out, he proposes to Yun Lan. She didn’t agree straight away but gives him a 3-month probation period. Yun Lan just lacks confidence that she will be a good wife and mother. But Yu Lu is certain that she will be one.

What Happens To Chu Chu?

Chu Chu will leave the country with the completion of her research project. She confessed her feelings to Si Nian but gets rejected. Si Nian is firm that he loves Yun Shu although they have very different personalities and seem incompatible to others. Si Nian only treats Chu Chu as a good friend. They may share the same goals and life sentiments but they are also too alike in terms of personality to become romantic partners.

Perfect And Casual Review – Nice Surprise!

When I started watching Perfect And Casual, I expected it to be a very average romance drama that will be full of cliches. It is true to a certain extent as the contract marriage theme is certainly getting old. Just before this, we have Midsummer Is Full Of Love which shares the same theme and there is no shortage of this kind of stories over time. On top of that, the cold and emotionless guy falling for a warm girl is also nothing new. From costume dramas like Legend Of Yun Xi to modern college romances such as The Love Equations, viewers certainly have a plethora of choices.

So, what sets Perfect And Casual apart from the others? Well, I have to say it has a few things going for it and they are:

Acting And Chemistry Between The Leads

I think the casting director really did have good foresight to pair Miles Wei with Xu Ruo Han together. The acting is on point for the leads and they carried the show all the way through. Miles Wei is convincing as a rational university professor with little emotion. His character doesn’t give him a lot of room to be expressive but he portrays a softness in his interactions with the female lead to be able to melt viewers with his sincerity and tenderness.

Xu Ruo Han is still a young actress and I guess she is just acting her age as Yun Shu. But she manages to give the character a very warm and trusting nature as required. Her innocent looks help but more importantly, her mannerisms fit the role of a love-struck young woman very well. It is very easy for viewers to relate to her.

Put these 2 leads together and the chemistry is obvious. Perhaps the contrasting personalities of the characters are well-exploited that viewers can feel the magic of opposites attract just like in Dating In The Kitchen. As the leads are effective in their roles, their interactions as a couple then becomes natural and enjoyable to watch.

Good Pacing

It is good that the producers kept Perfect And Casual short at 24 episodes and not drag it out unnecessarily which is typical of many mainland dramas. Overall, I didn’t find obvious boring stretches for the main couple’s story. The couple stayed together out of necessity and their love develops gradually and logically without any exaggerated drama.

Some viewers might not care for the side couples but they don’t take up a lot of the screen time. They are bearable to me and did not drag the drama down as a whole.

Stress-Free Drama

Perfect And Casual is a very sweet drama that is relatively stress-free. What this means is there is no disapproving parent to break the couple apart or scheming third parties that cause big troubles like the plot in You Are My Destiny. In fact, it is Si Nian’s grandfather who is anxious to get them together and he simply adores Yun Shu as his granddaughter-in-law.

Although there are third parties and jealousies involve, they are pretty mild because the leads are very sure about who they love. At most, they are annoying and cause some misunderstandings but those are resolved in a quick and mature manner. The story is straightforward and in fact, predictable but free of angst for the most part.

You will also get quite a number of kisses which are concentrated in the last quarter of the drama after the guy’s confession. The couple starts off with simple kisses on the lips but they get more intense as their feelings deepen. You will be able to see the progression in their relationship which just makes it more satisfying for a viewer.

My Verdict – Watch!

If you like romance dramas with a cold male lead, chances are you will enjoy Perfect And Casual. It is very different from, say, Love Is Sweet which has a very suave male character who already knows who he loves very early on in the drama. In Perfect And Casual, the feelings need to develop gradually and then explored due to the guy’s cold personality. It is a journey of indifference to jealousy to love for the guy and it is the way the girl responds and draws him out that makes this drama sweet to watch.

However, a word of warning is that there is nothing new about the plot as mentioned above. So, if you want fresh stories that move away from cliches and recycled themes, you will have to drop this one. Everything about the plot is predictable and you might not enjoy it if you are looking for more depths and a serious character growth in the drama. It is more for those who are into sweetness and fluff and want their fill of an ideal romance.

Personally, I would say it is worth a watch. I think a 7.5/10 rating for this Perfect And Casual review is reasonable based on the great acting and chemistry which raised the watchability of the drama overall. The female character is also very relatable due to her girl-next-door personality and the way her warmth changes the cold guy leaves the drama with a sugary aftertaste despite the overused plot.