What a view | In Well-Intended Love, Netflix delivers an enjoyably cheesy Chinese romantic comedy
- Starring Xu Kaicheng and Simona Wang, the 20-episode first season treads a familiar, tear-jerking path
- Plus, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s book Good Omens makes it to the small screen
Chinese romantic comedy series Well-Intended Love, on Netflix, begins with an apparent death sentence … followed by a generous helping of embarrassment and a big dollop of humiliation. But all that’s just part of the fun as big-shot businessman Ling Yizhou (Xu Kaicheng) inadvertently runs into wannabe star actress Xia Lin (Simona Wang) – who’s about to be diagnosed with leukaemia.
It’s not quite a sliding-doors moment, more of a wrong-car-door moment, with Xia thinking Yizhou’s Maserati is her Uber ride (suspend that disbelief) and piling in. Predictably, our two future lovebirds despise each other at first, which always guarantees a decent level of soppiness when Cupid finally wings on over.
But even before the arrow of love finds its mark, the cheese-o-meter threatens to overheat: only one potential, unknown bone-marrow donor can save Xia … and the mystery man is, of course, Yizhou! He won’t help her, however, unless she plights her troth and marries him! Later we’ll discover that he has covert reasons for shacking up with someone he detested five minutes before, but, you know, true love, mysterious ways and all that.
This isn’t the most sophisticated teary-eyed romcom and the overacting almost pushes it into spoof mode, particularly later in the 20-part debut series when Yizhou becomes the object of manifold admirers. The plot twists can be as clunky as the show’s English title – but it’s a well-intended effort.