I am big fan of Yang Zi, be it her “Go Go Squid” or “Ashes of Love” or “Flourished Peony” or “Lost You Forever” (Seasons 1 & 2) or “Immortal Samara” (1 & 2) or “Oath of Love” or my current watch “Best Choice Ever.” For details about Chinese Drama titled “Best Choice Ever” (2024) can be found here in the Dramalist website.
I would give this drama 4 out of 5 stars for acting, scripting and 4.5 for the story by Yi Shu. The drama is meticulously written and team of author, screenplay writer and visualisation of the entire drama was done with great care.
The actors in the drama have done a good job too. I might not go into the nuances of the actors’ roles. But the impact they left on my sensitivity is worth exploring. This is why I sometime feel that certain commonality around the world can be found if one observes them with some sympathy for the emotions held and felt.
Relationship and Its Complexities
How I wish I could read Chinese? But, since I cannot, I need to settle for Subtitled drama version, if not I would love to read the book, if available in English. If the world could come up with a common language where everyone understands each other, then as humans we have achieved something together.
The sentiments and emotions invested in the relationship between different characters truly speaks of similarity in family culture world over. I would not take a mighty stand and say the Eastern side of the world has figured out everything which Western side is often accused of being too lax in the familial bonds.
Both the west and east have a family culture and all our grandmothers and grandfathers soil the grandchild silly. It is the parent who become bad cops in the complexity of relationship, or one of the parents becomes responsible for the child’s behaviour and socially regulated acceptance.
Part of the Charm of Drama
Yang Zi and Xu Kai are convincing in their roles. I would all the main roles actors were convincing for me. Be it the mother-daughter/son, father-daughter/son, mother-prospective son-in-law, and the overbearing relatives creating pressures for the heroine and her family. Of course, at some point of our common life we would have experienced the scenario set by the script.
The characters are refreshingly variant and balanced to move the plot forward. We have all felt that our families were more like the other families we meet in social settings. But then, no one knows that the social masks the families wear to show a united front in public, have hidden tolerance to discrimination and disappointments.
But given that the family stand united in the face of common enemy the outsiders, while holding on to the family’s principles, I believe it is a tight rope to walk on for anyone. I am watching this drama YouTube Huace Croton TV English “Best Choice Ever.” I am a happy camper watching this drama while understanding the melodrama within the family.
Love Does Not Exist Alone
I love the fact that Yang Zi’s dramas or roles in movies are well-thought, maybe I am biased. The first drama that I saw in Viki.com was “Go Go Squid” since then, I have been her fan. I like dramas were the female leads have strong personality and sometimes carries the entire drama on their shoulder of reliable acting.
In this drama, the importance of family bond is emphasised. It also covers the pressures of being within a family while being independent comes at an emotional cost. The relationship between daughter and mother (played by the actor He Sai Fei) was done well with the right touch of anxiety and over-enthusiastic match fixing.
Hopes for the Mother Character
I wanted to see the trajectory of her mother finding her identity in her passion for cooking and maybe even find a way to create an online cooking channel gain recognition for her skills. I don’t know if that happens in the drama since I have only seen 29 episodes. I am eagerly looking out for the mother character to find herself beyond just her role in the family of being nurturer.
But that aspect of empowering the mother is so like my enthusiastically encourage my mother to stitch and create dress. I was her Kaja Paiyen when she stitched my pattu Pavadai with Chinese silk and I would often wear it and parade around her. I was always happy to be her model.
The endearing motherly affection that she dispense with even when she harms more than helps makes this role so rich with melodrama. The actor cashed in on the relationship and was totally convincing for me. I am sure many cultures still have nurturing mothers who only dream of their daughters being a princess in her own family post marriage.
Girls Life Is Not Just Marriage
The fact that all the mother’s initial attempts to get her daughter toe the line of societal requirement to be married with children becomes unsuccessful. Until she understands and learns that her daughter may be docile, but then, she was not a pushover. A strong message that a girl’s family can lift their head and expect to be treated as humans.
A family is made of both the spouses and to treat female of the species badly while advocating equality of treatment in future surely does not prove in action a just family. I believe that girls need not be married to such a partner by degrading or lowering their expectation standards.
I still have more episodes yet to watch, and I have a lot of hopes for many characters such as the brother and his girlfriend and her son, the author has explored much more than one social evil, but the central point is marriage as a necessary social evil. The approach to it by the girl of present-day generation.
I feel one needs to focus on both the aspect of marriage being a unifier of families, sometimes having a support group on either fraction would help in times of disagreements between couples. But the rate of divorce says that the fragility of marriage relationship and lack of commitment.
The Way I See Divorce
I was forced to get married by my mother and I subjugated myself to the point that there was no breathing space for me. Selfishness of my partner for more money, property, and refusing to help in having a healthy marriage was the last straw on the camel’s back of our over stressed marriage.
The miscommunication and silence in my marriage were two strong weak points that destroyed the partnership which I believed was for life. I am thankful that I did not bear a child in the relationship, a blessing in disguise for me. I cannot think of my child being abused by a toxic relationship.
I do believe in marriage and have seen many that worked because communication was on-going and supportive. A wall of silence would not solve any issue but grow misunderstanding much quicker. A lack of strong character in one partner could have also been reason why my partnership didn’t work out. At least there is peace at a very high emotional cost. That is why I liked to watch dramas that supports familial connection and encourages open communication among family members and in spouses. Our pride gets in the way of open-hearted communication and when a relationship turns sour and there seems to be no way to reach out each other; then, it is best to part as genial friends. My Two Paisas!
Source: MyDramaList.com | Actor Yang Zi or Andy Yang, Xu Kai, He Sai Fei
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