It has been a while since I last watched an Asian drama. I have been watching mostly Korean dramas so during one weekend without much to do, I decided to randomly pick a series from iQIYi. I decided on the Chinese drama called The Day of Becoming You.
The rom-com series stars Liang Jie and Steven Zhang and is about a celebrity and a reporter who for some strange, star-related reason, exchange bodies by accident. It is a fairly new series: it started last June and ended only recently. For all rom-com lovers out there who love a good balance of kilig and laughter, this is a good show to watch.
Having been used to Korean dramas for a while now, it was a bit weird to listen to the actors speaking in Mandarin. It made me reminisce about the times when I used to watch Taiwanese dramas, which feels like a lifetime ago. I think this is my first time seeing a Chinese drama, and luckily for me, I had picked a good one.
There are so many hilarious things that happened when the two characters were in different bodies. It was funny in a way that was not slapstick or over the top. I know of a local movie that also had a similar body switch theme between a guy and a girl and I felt it was dealt with exaggerated stereotypes of what a man and woman should be. You won’t see that happen in this series. It was more of an interpretation of how real people would react if they were trapped in another person’s body.
Steven Zhang was impressive in his dual roles as the conflicted celebrity and a woman trapped in a man’s body. While Liang Jie was also good in her portrayal of Yu Sheng Sheng the reporter and Steven’s character Jiang Yi trapped in a female body, it was Steven’s portrayal that I believe carried this movie. He was hilariously accurate as a woman in a man’s body but he was also swoon-worthy during his leading man moments. I have seen some behind-the-scenes footage of the show and saw that he was really making the effort to observe Liang Je so that he could mimic her mannerisms whenever he played Yu Sheng Sheng.
Like any drama, The Day of Becoming You has its share of supporting characters with their own stories. Usually, I am not interested in the supporting roles and their stories but this time around I enjoyed learning about Jiang Yi’s bandmates/ fellow idols as well as the connected story between one of them and Yu Sheng Sheng’s best friend. I actually wished there were more of these supporting characters as I got to know them but I understand that they only had a specific number of episodes so there was not enough time to dwell on them a bit further.
Apart from the comic moments and the romance, there were several noteworthy background stories that I enjoyed. I loved seeing where these two characters were coming from that led to why they were the kind of people that they were. There were some tearjerker moments, but I appreciated that it wasn’t overly dramatic. I was watching hoping that it would make me happy, and that was something that it definitely did with its light-hearted flow.
BUT, like most Asian dramas, this show did not end as well as I would have liked. I have not yet been able to watch an Asian drama that made me clap at the end yet. The common reaction has been “Oh, so that’s how it ends. OK.” This show falls in that category too. It’s not that bad, but it’s not that good either. That twist at the end caught me off-guard. I felt it was totally unnecessary and took away from the story. I don't know if I will ever get an ending that makes me say wow about it all.
Ending aside, this drama is one of the more entertaining dramas I have seen in a while. I actually binge-watched this and finished it in three days. It was that good. If they had a great ending then it would have been PERFECT!
The Day of Becoming You is exclusive on iQIYi. You don’t need to subscribe as long as you’re willing to watch the ads. Go over there and watch it!
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