Scroll to the bottom for the Ending Thoughts!
Chinese Drama: Only Side By Side With You (南方有乔木)
Broadcast Date: 3/25/2018
Airs: 2 Episode/day
Total Episodes: 42
Leads: William Chan and Bai Baihe
Character Intro:
Shi Yue (William Chen)
A mysterious bar owner who recognizes the value of our heroine’s company when no one else seems to. Once a member of an elite special force (Blue Sky) with a bright future ahead of him, Shi Yue loses everything when he is falsely accused of stealing a top secret document. Despite being a successful businessman now, our hero carries the scar of his past…especially when he accidentally comes across the top secret document that he was accused of stealing in our heroine’s house.
Nan Qiao (Bai Baihe)
With a passion and dream that one day the drones she designed will bring some good to this world, Nan Qiao’s already struggling company (Ji Ke) hits another big crisis when our heroine’s cheating ex-boyfriend suddenly pulls out all his investments in Ji Ke. Knowing full well that the mysterious bar owner she met under several very dubious circumstances could only be bad news, Nan Qiao nonetheless sees no option but to accept Shi Yue’s offer of investment once it becomes painfully obvious that no one else would or could take a leap of faith on her company.
Ninja’s First Impression:
Before I say anything else, let me just vent that I really don’t care for the voice actor they chose to dub William Chan’s character. William Chan fits almost perfectly to my imagination of what Shi Yue would look like but the moment his character starts speaking I just can’t help it but wince. This particular voice actor’s voice is a bit high pitched and soft…a voice that I would usually associate with a more effeminate character- the complete opposite of what Shi Yue’s character is. I keep hoping I would get used to the voice…or the show would miraculously decide to switch voice actor midway, but I am not having luck on either. By the way, I really loved the voice actor they used for Willaim Chan in Love Lost In Time (which is also the same guy who did The Mystic Nine). It would’ve been nice if they could’ve got the same voice actor for this show as well.
Ok, back to the show itself. Other than the whole voice dubbing thing, I am enjoying Only Side By Side With You a lot. As I mentioned in the Friday Drama Roundup, I have already read the book (which is great) so I was both VERY excited for the drama but also afraid it would end up being a disappointment. I am happy to report that while I am a bit nervous about some changes the show has made to the story, overall I think the drama adaptation has done a great job.
Let’s go what I like first. First, I am liking the slower pacing between the two leads’ romance. The romantic development in the novel was just a bit too fast for my taste, so I think the slower build up in the drama will be more realistic and believable. Second, the chemistry between our leads is great. If my memory serves me right, the show has added a few sizzling scenes that I don’t remember being in the novel…and that of course is always much appreciated by me.
As for my concerns, I really only have one. The show has chosen to give the secondary male and female lead a lot more storyline than they had in the novel so I am hoping that won’t make the story draggy. The secondary female lead is An Ning, an underworld boss who had a romantic past with our hero and seemingly still has a lot of control over him. In the novel, the An Ning character is someone who was a shameful memory our hero had to confront. His once bright future destroyed and his father in desperate need of medical care, our hero had no choice but to sell himself to An Ning as her boy toy. Amongst all her toys, An Ning takes a special interest in Shi Yue even after he manages to break off completely from her and achieve success on his own. Quite displeased when she realizes her special toy has found true love, An Ning tries to make Shi Yue come back to her but of course that didn’t work. In the novel, there was no romance at all between An Ning and Shi Yue so An Ning’s character really didn’t show up that much. She was more like the big boss our two leads had to slay before they could have their happy ending.
Now that the show has chosen to make An Ning and Shi Yue’s relationship into a romantic one that was formed back when they were both struggling, I am hoping the scriptwriter won’t go overboard with the jealous ex-girlfriend storyline. I am cautiously optimistic that the changes the show has made will only improve the story since I will admit that the secondary characters’ development wasn’t the author’s strongest suit.
Ending Thoughts (Contains Spoilers…Obviously)
Sigh…this show would’ve been great if it was half as long. I did finally get used to the William Chen’s dubbed voice but then the show got extremely draggy. Every episode started with a LONG review of the previous episode, followed by random reminiscing of the past by BOTH of leads (heavens, I think in one episode, the reminiscing was even about what happened in that very episode), add a few product plugs, then finally a few more scenes of random conversation by the side characters.
I realize the novel itself was short so it was challenging to have enough materials to stretch it out into 40 episodes but the scriptwriter actually did a decent job developing some fairly promising secondary storylines so it was infuriating that instead of wrapping up those storylines properly the show just chose to fill the time with boring stuff. I was really getting interested in Chang Jianxiong’s romance with the heroine’s plucky best friend but then the show just hastily glazed over their ending.
I think the drag was made more painful because the scriptwriters DID do a great job in expending the original story. I was okay with An Ning as the memorable ex but the part I truly loved was the fun bromance between the two male leads. (In the novel Chang Jianxiong did eventually step up to admit his own mistake but that was at the very end, so no fun bromance at all.)
Overall, I enjoyed the story but it was regrettable I could only enjoy it with a finger on the fast forward button.
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Yes! My thought exactly on his dubbing. Wish they got someone else. It reminds me of the dubbing they did for Wallace Chung in General and I. Horribly miscasted with the voice.
May I know why do they need to dub william chan voice?
I always thought that it is the actor’s voice.
William Chan is from Hong Kong which means he speaks Cantonese and not Mandarin Chinese. Well, that’s not entirely true. I think William Chan’s Mandarin is decent, but he just speaks it with a Cantonese accent. FYI, China itself has a lot of different dialect and accents so sometimes shows would choose to dub even for those who speak Mandarin fluently.
btw, William Chan sings the OST (he also sang Love Lost In Time’s OST as well) so you can hear his real voice there.
Where did you read the novel? I was wondering how An Ning will let go of Shi Yue since she’s so controlling him right now?
If you read Chinese then just copy and paste 南方有乔木小说 in google which should give you quite a few links. If you are asking for English translation of the novel then I don’t believe anyone has picked this one up yet.
An Ning (pretty much everyone else as well) has a really small part in the novel. She really was just there to give the hero background story and act as a small obstacle for our leads. Unlike the drama where An Ning’s character has a tender past with her hero and makes you feel kinda bad for her, the An Ning in the novel is simply a very disagreeable character. The novel really is not very long at all, so the pacing is very fast and not much development on the secondary characters.