Before I begin my review of You Are My Destiny (你是我的命中注定), I have to say that I have not watched any of the previous adaptions which are also known as Fated To Love You. I’m aware that there is a Korean, Taiwanese, Japanese, and even a Thai version of this story. Hence, I can’t compare and tell you which one is the best to watch. But not having sat through any of the previous versions also meant that I could view it as a totally fresh story with no inkling of what to expect. So, what is my verdict for this romance C-drama after watching all the 36 episodes? Well, read on to find out!
My rating: 6.5/10
Episodes: 36
Type: Romance
Aired: June 2020
Images Credit: Tencent
The Cast Of You Are My Destiny
- Xing Zhao Lin as Wang Xi Yi
- Liang Jie as Chen Jia Xin
- Jinna Fu Jing as Anna
- Li Jiu Lin as Dylan
- Chang Long as Anson
- Wang Qian as Liu Si Qi
- Lin Feng Song as Wang Zheng Ren
- Leanne Liu Xue Hua as Chairwoman Wang Zhen Zhu
- Liu Lin as Lin Xi Shi
- Zhu Yu Xin as Wang Xiu Ling
- Wang De Shun as Zhong San Long
Main Characters
Wang Xi Yi
Xi Yi is the CEO of his family’s conglomerate. He is the only grandson from his father’s side of the family. Xi Yi is a capable businessman and is used to being rational and business-minded. He has a long-time girlfriend in Anna.
Chen Jia Xin
Jia Xin is timid and a pushover. She lacks confidence as a person and is often being taken advantage of at work and in her personal life. Jia Xin works as an administrative assistant at a law firm. She has a boyfriend named Gu Chi who is a jerk. Jia Xin is also a talented artist and loves tinkering with clay.
Anna
Anna is a ballet dancer and performs internationally. She is often in different cities due to her career. Her boyfriend is Xi Yi who has been very patient and accommodating when it comes to her dreams.
Dylan
Dylan is a private art broker and often buys art for Chairwoman Wang. He is kind at heart and a loyal friend to Jia Xin although he has feelings for her romantically. Dylan is also constantly searching for his long lost younger sister.
Anson
Anson is Xi Yi’s personal assistant at work but they also share a unique friendship. He is funny and brash at times. Helping Xi Yi to woo Jia Xin, Anson gets to know Si Qi.
Liu Si Qi
Si Qi is Jia Xin’s good friend and colleague. They are also flatmates. Si Qi is a lawyer and career-minded woman. She is independent and assertive but has not had a boyfriend since her last break-up in university.
Wang Zheng Ren
Zheng Ren is Xi Yi’s cousin. His maternal grandmother is Chairwoman Wang. Zheng Ren is given the chance to join the family business and work under Xi Yi. He is ambitious and impatient to show off his capabilities.
Chairwoman Wang Zhen Zhu
Chairwoman Wang is a typical grandmother who is pressuring her grandson, Xi Yi, to get married. She is a warm woman who is also shrewd in trying to tie Xi Yi and Jia Xin together.
Lin Xi Shi
Xi Shi is Jia Xin’s mother. She lives in Huaniao Island and runs a noodle stall. Xi Shi is strict with her daughter but loves her very much. They share a very close bond as mother and daughter. She can be very fierce and protective when it comes to Jia Xin.
Wang Xiu Ling
Xiu Ling is Chairwoman Wang’s daughter and mother to Zheng Ren. She is barred from the family business because of embezzlement previously. She is now a divorcee and has just moved back in with the family. Xiu Ling hopes Zheng Ren would outshine Xi Yi in the family business.
Master Zhong San Long
Master Zhong is an artist and renowned pottery maker who is based in Hungary. He is friends with Dylan and was in love with Chairwoman Wang when they were young.
Synopsis
Jia Xin treats her boyfriend, Gu Chi, to a cruise trip on an impulse to appease his anger over a minor issue. She even listens to him to book a VIP suite for the trip. Xi Yi wants to marry his girlfriend, Anna, who has been reluctant to settle down due to her dancing career. Xi Yi’s personal assistant, Anson, suggests that he brings Anna on a cruise so that he could propose and then get married straight away on board the ship. Jia Xin and Xi Yi’s suites are just opposite each other.
However, Anna disembarks just before the ship sails when she receives an urgent offer to be the main dancer for a prestigious ballet troupe. Xi Yi catches Gu Chi cheating on Jia Xin and informs her. He helps Jia Xin to handle the two-timing Gu Chi as she is a timid woman. As a result, they end up consoling each other for being left high and dry by their respective partner.
On top of that, Xi Yi forgets to cancel the proposal and marriage ceremony that has been arranged. To help him avoid the embarrassment of having been stood up, Jia Xin pretends to be his partner and goes through the ceremony. They are then fed with alcohol and end up sleeping with each other while drunk. Both of them regret their action and wish never to see each other again after disembarking. But their wish is not destined to be.
You Are My Destiny Ending (Spoilers Alert!)
You Are My Destiny has a happy ending. Xi Yi and Jia Xin got married in a proper manner this time and the last scene is of them kissing on board a cruise ship which is also where they first met. They get back together when they realized that they have been cheated by Anna with a fake divorce agreement. Anna had swapped the legal agreement that gives Jia Xin more benefits to a divorce agreement that robs her of her rights to her child. This indirectly caused Jia Xin to lose her baby in an accident and felt deeply hurt by Xi Yi. So, she decided to leave him.
3 years later, Jia Xin is now a confident woman and building her name as a clay artist in Hungary. They meet again. While Jia Xin still has feelings for Xi Yi, she is reluctant to accept him back due to the cruel divorce terms that she thought he had proposed. No matter how hard Xi Yi tries to woo her back, she is unwilling to give him a chance until Anna finally apologizes to her about the fake divorce agreement. Anna does so after Dylan breaks the news of the fake divorce papers to Xi Yi. That is how Jia Xin finally learns that Xi Yi didn’t plan to file for divorce back then.
Did Xi Yi Get Back Together With Anna?
After Jia Xin lost her baby, she signed the divorce papers and left the country with Dylan’s help. Xi Yi has no idea where Jia Xin has gone to and they didn’t see each other for 3 years. In the mean time, Anna tries to get back together with Xi Yi although he tells her that she is wasting her time with him. But Anna refuses to give up although she is also getting rejected by his family.
Eventually, Xi Yi tries to accept Anna back as a girlfriend but their relationship isn’t what it used to be. When Xi Yi meets Jia Xin again, he tells Anna that their relationship isn’t going to work out. It is Anna who finds it hard to let go until she has no choice when Dylan tells Xi Yi about the fake divorce agreement. Dylan is Anna’s elder brother and he wants her to stop committing mistakes with the exposure.
Dylan And Jia Xin
Jia Xin did try to have a relationship with Dylan after he pretends to be Mr. W on Xi Yi’s request. Mr. W is an online persona created by Xi Yi to chat with Jia Xin. When he requests that they meet so that he could reveal himself, he learns that Jia Xin doesn’t want to be reminded of the past. So, he asks Dylan to be Mr. W instead to meet Jia Xin.
Jia Xin and Dylan end up having a brief relationship although it is not much different in nature to the friendship that they used to have. In fact, she feels more awkward with him than before. Eventually, she tells him that they should just revert to being friends again as she feel more comfortable that way. Dylan also tells Jia Xin that he is not Mr. W. Jia Xin did find out later that Xi Yi is Mr. W through the diary in their baby’s nursery room when she goes back to see Chairwoman Wang.
Anson and Si Qi
Anson and Si Qi registered their marriage. They fall in love after being flatmates and pretending to be each other’s better half to trick friends and family. Si Qi had wanted a grand wedding which Anson is unable to afford. But Xi Yi volunteers to be their sponsor so that their wedding can be quickly arranged. This will then compel Jia Xin to return to Shanghai to attend her best friend’s wedding. However, Si Qi later changes her mind about an expensive wedding and they simply register their marriage as she realizes what is important is not a single day of grand celebration but a lifetime of happiness with the person that she has chosen to be with.
You Are My Destiny Review – It’s Cheating!
You Are My Destiny is the kind of drama whereby you need to ignore the morals behind the actions of the protagonists or create excuses for their behavior in order to enjoy the story. Basically, the main character cheated on his girlfriend by having a one night stand with another woman he met on a cruise. The woman who slept with him also knows that he has a girlfriend. Granted that the girlfriend stood him up and they were both drunk when they did it. If you can accept this excuse, then well and good. You might go on to enjoy the story. But if not, the story that unfolds could make you hate the guy even more.
In short, Xi Yi is not your typical romantic hero. His behavior in the first half of the drama would not endear him to many. In fact, some may even find him to be a jerk. He got Jia Xin pregnant, forced to marry her, and then kept quiet about the marriage and the fact that he is going to be a father from Anna for a few months. Again, the excuse is he is going to divorce Jia Xin anyway and that such news is better told face-to-face. But then, he also starts to fall for Jia Xin. At some point of the drama, it is as if Xi Yi doesn’t want to give up either woman!
Plot Development (Spoilers Alert!)
Personally, I’m not so judgmental about the morality of the main characters or the lack of it in the story. But as the plot develops and inches towards the last quarter of the drama, it begins to feel lacking in some ways. Xi Yi and Anna seem to be a couple again. But there is no explanation on what makes Xi Yi re-consider his relationship with Anna apart from her refusal to give up. Then, when he meets Jia Xin again, there is a sense of deja vu. He drops Anna in favor of Jia Xin whom he still loves. Xi Yi’s relationship with Anna is never fully explored as she is made to be the evil one for the main characters to appear good overall.
Jia Xin’s brief fling with Dylan is also weird in terms of plot development. It feels to me as if they have to stretch the drama a bit longer by throwing in a fling that doesn’t seem to have any romantic notions to it. You wouldn’t even know that they are dating if you don’t follow their conversations closely. Add in Xi Yi’s online persona, Mr. W, and Jia Xin’s emotions seem like a mess to me since she is falling for a stranger she is messaging with while still feeling attached to Xi Yi. Then, she starts dating Dylan who pretends to be Mr. W when all along she has never had any romantic love for him. All these are happening within the last few episodes.
Hence, I think they should have stuck to a simpler plot as the story moves towards its conclusion rather than making it more convoluted than it should. Adding in more things that fall flat doesn’t contribute anything to the storyline to me especially when it is approaching a happy ending.
My Verdict
If you are looking for a rom-com like Intense Love, You Are My Destiny doesn’t belong to that category. But neither is it so melodramatic like Here To Heart. There are some crying scenes but nothing that will weigh you down heavily. If you want fluff and sweetness as well as enjoy a more natural relationship progression, then you are better off watching Love Designer instead.
For this You Are My Destiny review, I’m prepared to give it only a 6.5/10 rating. You can watch it for the Xing Zhao Lin and Liang Jie pairing as this couple have grown very comfortable with each other after working together in the Eternal Love series. Hence, their on-screen interactions are definitely easy on the eyes and they emit a natural couple vibe, more so than Xing Zhao Lin’s pairing with Bai Lu in Lucky’s First Love to me. You can check out some of their scenes in YouTube for a sampling of their chemistry.
However, to enjoy You Are My Destiny, you really have to be able to get into the plot as I don’t think it will resonate easily with everybody. If you absolutely hate two-timing characters, my recommendation would be to drop it and watch something else! And if you are a Liang Jie fan, you can always check out Mr. Honesty which is a slightly better drama in terms of relationship development to me.
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I have watched both so far and am ready to watch the third one. They are all basically with the same plot. Regardless, I’ve enjoyed them and can’t wait to watch the last one.
In both version I’ve seen, the inexplicable turning point is when XiYi marries his newly pregnant wife shortly after the cruise. It defied logic because in that moment, he obviously didn’t want to marry her.. He’s a big shot CEO, yet seemed to cave to social pressure and marry her as if railroaded into it.. Angry from being pushed into it he treats Jaixin incredibly shabbily. What sets the Chinese version apart is she understands and goes along with it. So there isn’t as much of the sense he is an overbearing, over-the-top insensitive, jerk. Still it does not make what he does any better. The other thing that makes the Chinese versions stand apart is XiYi is a genuinely supportive person throughout,, except when he is in denial about giving up Anna. He struck me as a good guy, in denial and frustrated at being stuck in a bad situation.
never got the impression that YiXi got back together with Anna.. not even for a minute She just hung around him , and he never put a stop to it. Perhaps things would have resolved more quickly if he told her straight up that it wasn’t going to happen with her.. I tend to agree that the last 7 or 8 episodes seemed scatterbrained. She loves XiYi, but is excited to meet an on-line persona. I guess we’re supposed to buy it because they are both XiYi.
The thing that makes it not work for me is the. Is the understanding at the center of the last ten episodes. Before it, he tells her he wants to raise a family with her,, and you can feel his sincerity, but one incident that goes against everything else he did and said and she never questions it for a moment. She never wonders how he could tell her one thing in the morning and send her something that says something completely different in the afternoon. Moreover she leaves without demanding a single sentence of explanation. So for ten episodes, she keep insisting he lied, yet he never once says “What are you talking about? Lied about what?” For ten episodes, he insists he never mistreated her and she never once said “never mistreated me? What about X.” It felt like the writer was going through contortions not to have one of them question the other and blurt out a sentence that would have cleared everything up.
Moreover ten episodes is too long for nothing but angst. It just becomes too much. It borders on masochism to watch it. I suppose it’s the same with a lot of shows like Boys Over Flowers, or My Golden Life, but at some point it isn’t entertaining anymore.
“He struck me as a good guy, in denial and frustrated at being stuck in a bad situation.”…..i agree with that absolutely. It seemed in every decision he made, he was trying to do the right thing……. and often w/out anyone knowing. Many were critical of his initial infidelity, but the viewers seemed to almost exonerate her. She was fully aware that he was in a committed relationship. In their defense though, both Yixi and Jaixin were very sad ans for good reasons. Jaixin was as attractive as she had ever been in her life…..and i’m sure she felt that way walking down the staircase with so many men staring at her.. Combine that with the alcohol, Yixi’s sudden desire to protect her. and the festivities…….you have a definite formula for infidelity. Though it may not be excusable, it was understandable. In their defense they both were completely faithful to the other after the first encounter…….at least that was my impression. .Though i seriously wondered about Jaixan’s 3 yr jaunt with Dylan. I had a real problem with the “bullying” of Yixi by mom, the aunt and even grandma. on a couple of occasions. I thought that Jaixan would develop a backbone and be much stronger in Yixi’s defense. She defended him a couple of times, but they were weak. I was actually hoping for a major scene at the wedding (a little late though) where Jaixan turns around to the wedding party and says to everyone, “Just so you all know, no one will bully my husband again.”, It never happened……but it would have been satisfying to see. I could not understand the condemnation of Yixi after the abortion. The Dr was very clear; the abortion was necessary to save Jaixan’s life. The mom and aunt acted as if he forced the abortion on Jaixan for no reason. Why was every female mad at him? How could they not know that her life was at stake. Even grandma mentions that it will take time for them to forgive him for the abortion……WHAT?!! As you point out so much of this was easily resolved by a simple questions or statements. Yet no one seemed to know this; the writers “mental gymnastics.” You mentioned in your review that it became beyond frustrating. You point out that appears that the writer(s) As the series went on i began to like Jaixan less and less. This on-going “I desperately love him…….but i can’t be with him for stupid reasons” theme got old pretty quickly. As you wrote, a simple statement/question resolution would have worked.. I also had issues with grandma. Most seniors would know that setting afternoon outings with Dylan and Jaixan, designed to create jealousy in Yixi, could have been a bit scandalous for the family. and those outings could have backfired and developed feelings stronger than friendship between them. Several other things she did seemed to indicated a lack of concern for him. Especially if she wanted Jaixan & Ximi in her home. I don’t recall one time that she advocated for Jaixan to get back with yixi. Then of course there’s Grandma’s and abortion comment…..hard to believe. She was nothing like the grandmas i’ve known who would tear the arms off a grizzly bear in defense of their grandchild.
After all the journal notes about Ximi talking to mommy, I sincerely thought, that somehow Ximi would communicate with her.. I was thinking she gets seated before she boards the plane and hears the announcement that there’s a 2 hr delay before boarding. She dozes off and Ximi comes to her in a dream. He hadn’t been able to reach her before because her heart was closed. Reading the journal had opened her heart. All the important things are revealed. The most important reveal is that Ximi is waiting to be born again. But it has to be with “mommy” and “daddy”. Ximi tells mommy that daddy thinks that she’s now loves another man but Ximi is only fated to be born to Jaixan and Yixi. Ximi says that daddy has been very sad for a long time and now he think’s mommy’s gone for good……. Ximi says that daddy may be in danger (uh oh) possible suicide etc, etc. She finds him in the end and happily ever after. “Moreover ten episodes is too long for nothing but angst. It just becomes too much. It borders on masochism to watch it”- Can’t argue with that at all. Here they had broken it down into 26 episodes……at least 20 of suffering. I watched till they lost the child and stopped. I finally went back to it several days later. I skipped through until i got to the last episode. I sample that also to ensure there was a happy ending. The first indication of a “non-happy ending”, i was done with this series., but that’s just me. Anyway, this is a long winded way of telling you i like your review…..it was much more fair and accurate than the few others i read. Keep up the good work.
I found Jiaxin very irritating and her mother even more. I mean give the guy a break. She put him through the wringer towards the end. So much so I don’t think she deserved him. Yeah he gave her a bad time in the beginning but wouldn’t you if you were in his situation. Despite that, he still managed to fall in love with her and was loyal to her even after she left. I watched the Korean version and found that a lot better. Also, I cant understand how XiYi didn’t scream every time Anna hung around him especially when he didn’t want her to be there. Very frustrating. All in all, I wouldn’t recommend this version.
i agree
yeh, i pretty much agree with all you wrote. I was liking Jiaxin less and less as the story progressed. Even when things were difficult in the early stages, he was still trying to protect her. I was really irritated when her mom was bullying him several times in the movie. Jiaxin should have been telling mom the real story and defending him……she did a couple of times, but it was very weak. I was not happy with grandma. She seemed to have much less concern than she should have for Xiyi. All the manipulation by grandma to make Xiyi jealous by putting Jiaxin and Dylan together regularly seemed very foolish to me. Any mature adult would know that this would be a bit scandalous for the family and if Dylan and Jaixin started to develop feelings for each other, this would have hurt Xiyi and made grandma’s access to the baby very complicated. Even after the abortion grandma mentions how he may have to wait for them to forgive him about the abortion. How could grandma not know that he signed the papers for the abortion to save her Jaixin. life?……….how could none of these women know that.? Another real issue i had was the contract. Xiyi had been nothing but kind to her and protected her from the beginning. Why would he give her all the assurances and affection and then have Anna deliver a divorce contract taking away all her rights with the child; 1) no mother in her right mind would sign that 2) after all they’d been through, Why would she even think for a second that Xiyi would do something like that and then have Anna deliver it. I got really frustrated with this “don’t ask-don’t tell”. So many issues would have been resolved before they started, if they had trusted each other and simply talked about the issues. Got tired of watching this “failure to communicate” and the suffering it caused. As for Anna, i had much more sympathy for her…..as did Xiyi. It was easy to understand his very difficult struggle with caring for her, but still knowing they had to break up. She had given up her career to be with him…..but she did it too late. She caused much suffering, but she did it because she still loved. him. It’s hard to judge her harshly…..even though she indirectly caused the loss of Ximi. Unfortunately Xiyi and Jiaxin’s lack of communication was equally responsible. Xiyi kept saying in the journal “tell mommy”; i actually expected that to happen at some point as a major reveal…..that Ximi was still waiting to be born to them. I think that would have made a whole lot of viewers feel better. That would have been a bright spot in a myriad of suffering…..actually got tired of the unnecessary suffering. Final thought; many were critical Xiyi and Jiaxin for infidelity. In reality they were married…….a ship’s captain can legally marry couples at sea. The issue was the betrayal of Anna, but it was clear that many times he’d waited for her. He made the connection with Jaixin at dinner. Because of that connection he needed to protect her from the cheating boyfriend. Then he sent her to the beauty salon. Walking down the stairs it was evident that she had never felt so beautiful. Combine that with both of them feeling sad, the festivities and the alcohol…….formula for infidelity. Though what they did may have been wrong……it was definitely understandable
I struggled to finish watching it. I just couldn’t understand Chen Jia Xin. She pissed me off really bad. She never questioned anything. When Anna said all those things to her and then he comes and tells her that him and Anna are over and she tells him to think about it. Why didn’t she say what Anna had told her? When the “divorce” papers came why didn’t she question him about it? She hadn’t really interacted with Anna on a daily basis so why trust her to a fault? I got mad because when she was at the office and Anna was there he was going to tell Anna the truth about who she was the. She proceeded to say that she’s the “Nutritionist “ he just hired for her. The last 10 episodes were a drag. It’s beyond me why they had to extended it so much. She just up and left him without demanding and explanation. Even when her best friend was going to tell her about what she found out from the lawyer she told her to keep quiet and not to talk about it. Chen Jia Xin I found myself screaming at the tv several times specially on episode 35 and 36. I thought that when she found the journal she would decide to fix things with him but she was dumb and didn’t care about his feelings.On episode 36 she decided not to read the letter he gave her even though he told her that she would find out the truth, she just ignored him and walked away but Anna decided to send her a message and everything is good. She forgave Anna real quick but made his life living hell. I haven’t watched the other versions but this was not a good one. I don’t think it should have been 36 episodes.
I totally agree with you.
I’ve watched the Taiwanese version and read the Manhua. They are almost the same but this version stick much closely with the Manhua. The story is just so-so but it is fine to watch if you are bored and not really critical about the story plotting. It doesn’t even have a proper character development, specially with the character of Anna they just ruined a good person just to justify a good ending for the main leads.
I’ve watched three versions now and this one is by far the best. In the 2008 and 2014 versions, Xiyi is more of a comic relief type character. While the overall storyline is the same, this one does have some major differences. Those differences make a better story.
Jai Xin character is very insecure in the beginning with a large inferiority complex. This is why the Anna character, which in Jai Xian’s eyes was beautiful and confident, could make her believe anything.
In all three, Anna is a toxic character. She’s selfish, conniving, manipulative and a liar. Her need for Xiyi is beyond pathetic and what she does to try to get him to stay with her is just plain awful.
In comparison to the other two versions, this one has much more depth and character development. I would give it a 9/10 because it made changes to create a more contemporary view of the story.
I give it a 9 out of 10 from America. I loved the two main characters. I didn’t like the short pants (in many scenes) of the male actor. Also, didn’t understand how the female actress said there would always be a barrier between them and then, after Anna’s apology, comes running back to him. I never understood why he didn’t explain why he had to sign the papers @ the hospital (or at least they didn’t show that on screen). Loved the grandma! At first male actor was mean to her, but after her 3 years in Hungary, she (IMO) had the upper hand. Loved the ending! Please make more movies with these two!