Perfect Partner Review

Perfect Partner (完美关系) wasn’t something that I had planned to watch. The trailer just showed up on my YouTube feeds and I just dived in without knowing in detail what it is all about. But I have to say that it is a nice surprise as I have expected it to be draggy when I realized that it is 50-episode long. However, I have already watched a few episodes by then, and was reluctant to stop. So, I continued on till the end and can now give you the Perfect Partner review of this business drama.

My rating: 7/10
Episodes: 50
Type: Business
Aired: February 2020
Images Credit: MGTV

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The Main Cast Of Perfect Partner

Huang Xuan as Wei Zhe

Wei Zhe is an award-winning independent public relations (PR) consultant. He is very good at what he does especially in salvaging a client’s reputation during a crisis. He is popular with the opposite sex but prides himself as a confirmed bachelor. While he appears as smart and confident, he suffers from anxiety disorder and intimacy phobia which he hides from everyone.

Tong Li Ya as Jiang Da Lin

Da Lin is a fresh graduate who has just returned from abroad to take up her father’s position as the President of DL, a leading PR agency. She is inexperienced and naive but kind at heart. She has a strong sense of justice and empathy which often put her in conflict with real life business practices.

Supporting Cast

Tian Yi Tong as Bonnie

Bonnie is a girl from a small town. She is a language teacher and Da Lin’s best friend. Coming from a poor family who favors sons over daughters, she went through much hardship during her student days to survive in Shanghai. Bonnie appears sophisticated and liberal.

Chen Shu as Stella

Stella is one of DL’s partners. She is ambitious and keen to take over from Da Lin’s father. Married with no kids, she has a poor relationship with her husband who earns considerably less than her.

Gao Lu as Shu Qing

Shu Qing is also a partner at DL. She is a single mother with a 2-year-old son. She has a secret on-and-off relationship with Shen Ying Jie, a competitor. Shu Qing has stubbornly refused to openly acknowledge their relationship nor reveal the identity of her son’s father.

Li Ze Feng as Shen Ying Jie

Ying Jie is an Account Director at Ming Shi, a competitor of DL. His boss is Yuan Su who is also a family friend. Ying Jie is deeply in love with Shu Qing although she is non-committal over their relationship.

Hong Jia Ning as Louise

Louise is Wei Zhe’s assistant. She is loyal and an efficient employee.

Henry Prince Mak as Lin Ken

Lin Ken is Wei Zhe’s mother’s stepson. He came to Shanghai from the US when his father married Wei Zhe’s mother. He is into photography and nature. Lin Ken fell in love with Bonnie when they first met and moved in as her neighbor to be close to her.

Wilson Wang Sen as Ye Dong Lie

Dong Lie is a graduate student with a talent in programming but comes from a poor family. He got to know Stella when his father was knocked down in a hit-and-run accident. Gradually, he falls in love with her despite their 12-year age gap.

Yu Heng as Tan Xin Kai

Xin Kai is a marketing manager at a dairy company. He is also Da Lin’s ex-college mate and went all out to woo her when they met again in Shanghai. Xin Kai is ambitious and willing to bend rules for his own self-interest.

Dong Ke Fei as Cui Ying Jun

Ying Jun is Stella’s husband and a mere sales manager at a hotel. His clients are referred by Stella and he has to depend on her for his sales performance. Although he seems like a good husband, it is an unequal marriage in terms of money and power.

Ma Liang as Xue Yi

Xue Yi is the Managing Director of a dairy company. He was sent from the US to lead the company as they attempt to expand their brand into more cities. He meets Bonnie when she tries to secure a meeting with him on DL’s behalf and starts to woo her.

Synopsis

Da Lin is a fresh graduate who is forced to return to Shanghai from Sydney when her father, Jiang Yuan Peng, is accused of embezzlement. Millions have been siphoned off from Peng Kun Fund of which Mr. Jiang is one of the directors. He disappears from the radar to secretly look for his partner to try to clear his name. Thus, his position as President of DL, a well-known PR agency, is left vacant. He also suspects there is a mole in DL who has caused him to be wrongly accused.

Mrs. Jiang arm-twists the other directors of DL to vote for Da Lin to assume the President’s post. Thrust into the position but without the necessary experience, she is bullied by the other partners. Enters Wei Zhe, a renowned independent PR consultant specializing in crisis management. She pleads with him to help her and they begin a mentor-mentee relationship. Da Lin then ropes him into DL as a partner and together they work to resolve various PR cases.

Perfect Partner Ending (Spoilers Alert!)

Perfect Partner has a happy ending with Wei Zhe and Da Lin planning to get married. No, you won’t get to witness a wedding scene though. The last scene is of them hugging after Wei Zhe reminds Da Lin that she has agreed to marry him earlier when he proposed. Da Lin also wants Wei Zhe to return to DL to assume the President’s post as per her father’s teasing suggestion while she becomes his assistant instead. Her parents are no longer interested to run the business but retire.

Who Is The Mole?

The mole is Shu Qing. She is the one who recorded the conversation between Mr. Jiang and his partner who embezzled the funds. The recording could prove Mr. Jiang’s innocence. She also took pictures of Peng Kun Fund’s confidential documents and gave everything to Yuan Su, the owner of Ming Shi. Yuan Su used them to report on Mr. Jiang to create havoc for DL which is his competitor.

Shu Qing’s intention to harm Mr. Jiang is due to her mistaken belief that he caused her husband to commit suicide more than 2 years ago. Her late husband was involved in a building project by a real estate company who used to be DL’s client. He kept reporting about substandard work but no one listened. He communicated with Mr. Jiang that he felt pressured and subsequently, committed suicide. When the building collapsed, Shu Qing’s husband became the scapegoat.

As a result, Shu Qing wanted revenge against Mr. Jiang and agreed to cooperate with Yuan Su. She was pregnant at that time and it was Yuan Su who arranged for her to go to the US to deliver her baby. Yuan Su’s plan is for her to go and work for DL after that and gather whatever information that she can to bring down Mr. Jiang. However, Shu Qing is unaware that she is being made use of by Yuan Su because the person who came up with the idea to blame her late husband is Yuan Su himself. Mr. Jiang has no idea what happened after the building collapsed as the real estate company decided to switch their business from DL to Ming Shi then.

Did Ying Jie Find Out About Shu Qing’s Past?

Yes, he did through Wei Zhe. Wei Zhe wanted Ying Jie’s help to convince Shu Qing to hand over the recording that could prove Mr. Jiang’s innocence. So, Ying Jie advised Shu Qing not to frame an innocent man as doing so would make her no different from the people who framed her late husband. Together, they went to see Mr. Jiang who explained what happened and produced her late husband’s last message to him. When Shu Qing finally found out that Mr. Jiang is not to be blamed for her husband’s death, she gave him the recording that could prove his innocence in the embezzlement case.

Nothing is mentioned about Ying Jie and Shu Qing’s relationship after their meeting with Mr. Jiang. But with her past out in the open, there is no longer a secret between them as that was the main obstacle in their relationship.

Lin Ken And Bonnie

Bonnie decided to break up with Lin Ken despite him being a nice guy and great boyfriend who doted on her as she began to fall for Xue Yi who has quietly wooed and protected her. Just as she broke up with Lin Ken and decided to go with Xue Yi, the latter informed her that he will be going back to the US as the dairy company he works for has decided to pull out of the Chinese market. In fact, he has a wife and young daughter waiting for him at home.

Feeling hurt, Bonnie left Shanghai as she felt that she doesn’t belong in that city. The heartbroken Lin Ken also told Wei Zhe that he plans to go back to the US although his heart remains in Shanghai.

Stella And Dong Lie

They broke up. It is Stella’s decision to break up as she felt that they couldn’t be in a relationship that is devoid of family and friends. Everyone in their social circle is against their relationship and to continue on would mean cutting off people from their lives. Their age gap and social standing are just too far apart to overcome and Stella is unwilling to see Dong Lie sacrificing friendships and family ties just to be with her.

In case you are also interested in an older woman and younger man romance drama, do check out Find Yourself.

What Happened To Tan Xin Kai?

In his eagerness to get an upper hand over Wei Zhe, Xin Kai resorted to illegal means to spread negative news on his former company and DL’s client with Yuan Su’s help. He is revengeful over Wei Zhe’s action to investigate him while he was dating Da Lin. Wei Zhe also outsmarted him in an earlier PR case that caused his reputation to be tarnished and unable to get a job.

To clear his name after being framed by Xin Kai, Wei Zhe quietly live streamed their meeting. Wei Zhe knew the details of Xin Kai’s wrongdoings but he didn’t have the hard evidence. But he pretended he has in the meeting by blurting out all the details. Wei Zhe trapped Xin Kai into admitting his guilt and cleared his name. Consequently, Xin Kai was investigated by the police which dragged Yuan Su along with it.

Perfect Partner Review – Not Too Bad For A Business Drama

The main part of the drama is really about Wei Zhe and Da Lin resolving various PR problems that cropped up from an extra marital affair of a well-known individual to coordinated attacks from competitors against their client. It offers viewers a good look at what goes on behind the PR business.

The pacing of the drama is just right with few boring moments despite it having 50 episodes in total. This is because the cases are generally interesting. Of course, the personal relationships of the main and supporting characters also help to spice things up a bit. You follow some of these relationships not so much because of the romance but they tie back to the business side of things. The initial relationship between Da Lin and Xin Kai is one example.

Acting

I think everyone played their roles well here. But no one particularly stands out for me although the drama gives me the feeling that the Wei Zhe character seems to have been tailor-made for Huang Xuan. I like his confident style with a tinge of arrogance at times. However, I wouldn’t say that his chemistry with Tong Li Ya is the off-the-charts kind. It is good enough for a business drama but I have seen better chemistry in other on-screen couples such as Zhang Han and Janine Chang in Here To Heart.

The Not So Good Things

Firstly, Tong Li Ya’s character can be a little annoying in the first half of the drama. Da Lin is idealistic and naive having led a sheltered life. She doesn’t always listen to Wei Zhe’s advice which causes problems for the company as well as to her personally. At times, you really want to scream at her stupidity. So, you do need to get past that to enjoy the whole drama. The good thing is her character develops as the drama progresses and Da Lin is more lovable in the second half of the story.

Secondly, while the PR cases are interesting, the resolution to each can seem a little too perfect that may not match reality. Some of the case endings also seem rushed with details being glossed over. Basically, what they have done is tie up all the cases into neat endings. I guess it has to work that way so that it will go down well with the viewers. It is a drama after all!

Finally, the fate of some characters are not given their due attention towards the end. For instance, more could have been flushed out about Bonnie and Stella. Personally, I think it is a waste of these characters when they start out so strongly but their ending is kind of relegated to being a mere footnote.

My Verdict

Given the above shortfalls, I have deducted some marks there to give this drama on overall 7/10 rating. For this Perfect Partner review, I would say that it is still a highly watchable drama. Watch it for the PR cases and Wei Zhe’s character which is rather unique being an outwardly confident PR consultant but hiding an anxiety disorder.

At the same time, I should also warn viewers that this isn’t a heavy-laden romance drama. There are sweet scenes but they are few and far in between. So, if you are looking for a rom-com like Go Go Squid! or Well Intended Love Season 2, Perfect Partner is not it. Being a business drama, neither would you find anything heartwarming about it. For that, you will have to go for dramas like Le Coup de Foudre. Just treat Perfect Partner like an investigative drama and you would have a rough idea of what to expect.

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