Patient and earnestly written, Unrequited Love engrosses with its ardent young love storytelling.
Banking on a reliable and familiar theme, Hu Yitian and Hu Bingqing star in this one-sided love themed series. Albeit its typical premise, Unrequited Love unassumingly reels attention by capitalizing on a bittersweet reality. That is, anyone has that one special love kept dearly through the course of life.
abbyinhallyuland watches Unrequited Love on WeTV
Episode Recaps: 01 – 10 | 11 & 12 | 13 & 14 | 15 & 16 | 17 – 20 | 21 – 24 | Review |
Unrequited Love Episodes 1 to 10 Key Moments
“Luo Zhi loves Sheng Huai Nan, but nobody knows about it.”
For 15 years, Luo Zhi (Hu Bingqing) harbored a one-sided love to Sheng Huainan (Hu Yitian) because of a memory from when they were young. While some small encounters force them to interact, he remains oblivious of her existence as she yearns for the time he will notice her.
When he transferred to her school, fate seems to be favoring her. Just as their names being both top students appear so close on bulletin board notice, she also had a chance to chat with him casually, even shared her favorite movie, Only Yesterday.
But Huainan remains distant to Luo Zhi. Entering the same university, she still silently like him from afar as he is officially known to be dating Ye Zhanyan (Liu Jia).
“But I, being poor, have only my dreams. I have spread my feet under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”
Settling to their university life, Luo Zhi and Huainan had a few direct and indirect encounters. Interestingly, they also have the same habit like writing secret notes at a furtive hangout place in the campus.
Finally, Luo Zhi musters strength that led to the start of their official mutual interaction. That is when she saved him from a persistent confession of a girl who is liked by his best friend Zhang Mingrui (Zhang Yijie).
Luo Zhi’s love luck seems to be falling on the right places as she finds Huainan attending the same class, and even sitting behind her. Slowly, they find common topics to discuss, and makes library the sweetest place to be in their university.
“I was tossed to the blue sky. I feel like I was really flying.”
Chatting about literature and mundane topics, the two have established firmer connection. It further heightened when they saw each other at a theme park. Huainan had to join his dorm mates whose girlfriends are obviously into him. Luckily, he saw Luo Zhi with her tutees and asked to be with their company to get off his third-wheeling.
However, Zhanyan knew how to dispel the growing curiosity of Huainan to Luo Zhi. She advertently sent him a message implying everything was premeditatedly planned by Luo Zhi. It washed off the pleasant memories and interactions he just shared with her. From warm to civil acquaintance, Luo Zhi was baffled of the sudden change.
Mingrui told his best friend that his ex-girlfriend is keen to start over again with him. Not wasting her time, Zhanyan provided more details to convince Huainan of Luo Zhi’s ulterior motive.
“Romance is something that has no future.”
While Huainan still uses his rational mind in his situation with Luo Zhi, he got busy participating in a debate contest. Unable to understand the sudden shift of Huainan’s mood, Luo Zhi sank deeper after receiving a message from him impliedly looking down on how she spent time with the children with money in return. That came when she asked him if he would want to tutor the children who truly liked him after the instant theme park date they had.
The interrupted connection is taking a toll on Luo Zhi’s emotions just as Huainan feels perturbed but he can pinpoint the cause. Discovering her furtive note at the library without her knowing, he finally realized something.
“You love someone but you can’t be with him. Only you yourself know that.”
Surprising Luo Zhi at their class, he sat beside her and even shielded her from the seeping sun rays. It brings back a memory of Luo Zhi when she watched a video with him together but ended up holding his dozing head.
Passing a note for a movie recommendation, Luo Zhi responded the same film she mentioned years back when they had a short conversation in high school. Huainan finally saw through Zhanyan’s lies and that the real girl he spoke with was Luo Zhi.
“She became a thought that is forever in my heart.”
Just when Luo Zhi thought Huainan finally recognized her, he unfortunately can’t remember further which dampened her mood. She does not know that in reality Huainan longs to meet that girl again even after so many years that passed.
Girl magnet Huainan lands on trouble and even had a disagreement with Mingrui. The latter used his profile to like the post of the girl he likes misleading her of thinking Huainan has a thing for her.
Getting even closer, Huainan has shared his secret place in the campus not knowing that it is also Luo Zhi’s secret haven. Just like Luo Zhi who hid a love confession note in that rest place, Huainan also jotted a question which she answered, but dared not to reveal it.
Exchanging cute pop quiz through voice message, the two subconsciously flirted in their adorable geeky ways. From sharing candid photos they took secretly to challenging their opposite reasoning skills as liberal arts and biology students; Luo Zhi crossed the .6 centimeter when she became Huainan’s bike passenger.
Unrequited Love Episodes 1 to 10 Musings
Admittedly, I’m really drawn to “first love” stories. You can never go wrong with that theme because of the familiarity and its structure to be innately sweet always.
Luo Zhi’s unrequited love bethinks any viewer’s own love recollection. Her candid thoughts and frustrating moments related to her one-sided love with Huainan is especially relatable literally to fans of Hu Yitian. So it’s kinda cute and especially felt, that I can’t help but root for Luo Zhi’s love journey fulfilment in her very own imaginary world.
Kidding aside, Hu Bingqing has been showing nuanced portrayal of her secret romance to a level that you want to get annoyed for her indecisiveness, yet you also understand her careful treading. She has fully established her personality that her viewpoint is easy to grasp. Specifically, her perspective on why she does not want to brave the odds of her unrequited love.
Her insecurity is genuine, and with her line of reasoning it would really hold her back. I was really hoping that she would go against her character to reveal her shared childhood memory that would seal their romance.
But then, she didn’t. And I think it’s a great choice since they seem to heading to a direction of sharing new memories together.
Focus on the Main Love Pairing
Unrequited Love threads on a character driven narrative that is designed to wager on romance and heart-fluttering moments. Seeing fillers and even characters that I don’t know what purpose will serve is so far the drawback for me. But since we got past the introduction, and our love pairing is set to embark on their love adventure, the sporadic throw of messy characters and scenes is easy to overlook.
The story has a high level of addictive hook, and its endearing romance story is perfect for your weekend binge-watch schedule. With a vast area to fortify its narrative, we can expect more complications, that would help the character development to not wallow in its predetermined theme.
Obviously, we want side stories that make sense and fuse well to the series. Also, we may get tired to cheer up, if the unreciprocated love move to a circling path or deadlock.
Beautifully Written Lines
For a drama with transparent trajectory, the delivery of poignant moments and imaginary world stopping scenes rely on how stunning the screenplay was penned. Something that makes the storytelling standout and deviate from the predictable yarning. Something apparent in Unrequited Love.
That’s another charming point that I enjoyed on the first doses of the series. For me, no matter how typical the base story is, if the screenplay and portrayal go beyond the extra mile, it pushes the series to an extraordinary state.
Hopefully, this drama will keep up that vibe because the minor hitches might outshine the consoling and feel-good tones.
Scattered Parade of Unrequited Love
The amount of presented one-sided love stories truly intends to stay true to the drama’s title. Except for Huainan, I think everyone suffers on unrequited love syndrome. So, don’t be surprised to be swamped with “crazy love” scenes. It does not linger thus far, and hopefully it will be lessened.
Among these side love stories, Bailu’s sacrificing and unreturned romance just a heads up, might challenge our mental fortitude in understanding her love predicament. Consider you’re forewarned, because if Harry Potter howlers have their own minds, they will go to her to give her a healthy amount of scolding.
Of course, the cunning Zhanyan who took advantage of Luo Zhi’s memory can’t be disregarded. She is trouble incarnate. Hopefully, our heroine would be up for the challenge.
Unrequited Love is streamed on Mango TV. Global fans can watch it on We TV.
Photos: WeTV | Unrequited Love weibo
[wpedon id=”3227″ align=”center”]
