I watched Falling Into Your Smile a long time ago, so when I sat down to write this review my brain basically went:
Couple cute. Xu Kai hot. Gaming happened. I liked it.
Very useful. ๐
So I had to refresh my memory, and honestly, the more I remembered about this drama, the more I understood why I gave it such a high rating.
This was actually my first esports drama, which was dangerous because I do not care about watching people play video games competitively. I play games myself. I don't necessarily need to watch fictional people intensely clicking keyboards while somebody screams commentary about it.
And somehow...
I watched it.
Not only did I watch it, I actually cared whether ZGDX won.
What kind of sorcery was this?
๐ฎ The Esports Plot Was... Actually Watchable?!
I think the smartest thing Falling Into Your Smile did was make the gaming part about more than just the games.
Yes, there are tournaments, strategies, rival teams, training, rankings, livestreams, obsessive fans and enough gaming terminology to remind me that these people have actual careers.
But the drama also shows all the nonsense surrounding professional esportsโthe pressure from fans, online scandals, injuries, family expectations, team politics and how one stupid thing posted online can suddenly become everyone's business.
So even when I had absolutely no idea what somebody was doing on the screen, I understood:
Oh. Something important just happened. Everyone is yelling. We are apparently in danger.
Good enough for me. ๐
And because Tong Yao is entering this heavily male-dominated professional gaming world as the team's female mid-laner, there is actually a reason to care about her career beyond simply giving the romance somewhere to happen.
She has something to prove.
โค๏ธ Lu Sicheng + Tong Yao
This is obviously the main reason I loved the drama.
Their dynamic is so much fun.
Lu Sicheng spends half the drama acting like Tong Yao is the most irritating person he has ever encountered while simultaneously noticing absolutely everything she does.
Sir.
You are fooling nobody.
Their relationship has the exact kind of progression I like: teasing, bickering, jealousy, tiny acts of care, increasingly suspicious physical proximity, and eventually Lu Sicheng basically realizing:
Fine. I like this tiny menace.
Once he decides he wants her, he's actually pretty direct about it too.
He confesses around Episode 20 and they become a couple in Episode 21, so thankfully we don't spend 30 episodes waiting for somebody to finally admit they have feelings.
And once these two start dating?
Oh, Lu Sicheng is gone.
He is protective, possessive without turning completely insane, openly affectionate, jealous, teasing and increasingly terrible at pretending he has any dignity left.
Exactly as nature intended. ๐
๐ Cohabitation Was One of the Best Decisions This Drama Made
I LOVE the team-house setup.
Put the male lead and female lead under the same roof.
Add several nosy teammates.
Remove privacy.
Excellent.
This is how television should work.
Because Tong Yao lives at the ZGDX base with everyone else, Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao are constantly around each other. They eat together, train together, argue together, travel together and have approximately fourteen people nearby at all times waiting to notice something suspicious.
It gives their relationship so many little everyday moments that would not exist if they only met for dates once every three episodes.
And once the team starts realizing something is going on?
Even better.
There is nothing I enjoy more than side characters becoming unwilling witnesses to the main couple's nonsense.
๐ ZGDX Deserves Its Own Review
I also genuinely loved the supporting characters.
This doesn't feel like one of those dramas where everyone outside the main couple exists purely to deliver exposition and then disappear into a wall.
ZGDX actually feels like a team.
They annoy each other.
They make fun of each other.
They fight.
They defend each other.
They interfere in each other's business.
Basically, they behave like people who spend entirely too much time living and working together.
Fatty especially deserves compensation for the amount of Lu Sicheng/Tong Yao romance he is forced to witness. ๐
The team scenes are probably one of the biggest reasons the esports portions worked for me. Even when the actual match wasn't particularly interesting to me, I still cared about the people playing it.
That makes a huge difference.
๐ The Romance Actually Pays Off
Another reason this drama works for me:
THEY ACTUALLY DATE.
What a concept.
They don't confess in Episode 30, kiss in Episode 31 and then roll the credits while I'm sitting there wondering why I just spent fifteen hours watching two people avoid having a relationship.
Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao become a couple around Episode 21 and we actually get to WATCH them be a couple.
There are kisses.
There is hand-holding.
There is sneaking around the team house.
There are dates.
There is jealousy.
There is flirting.
There are teammates accidentally discovering things they definitely did not need to see.
There are public kisses.
Lu Sicheng even gets increasingly shameless about the entire situation.
Bless him.
๐จ And No Actual Breakup!
This part needed refreshing because I genuinely couldn't remember whether the drama pulled some breakup nonsense near the end.
It does not.
๐๐๐
There is a rough patch around Episodes 26โ27 after Tong Yao gets hurt and Lu Sicheng becomes withdrawn because he blames himself for failing to protect her.
He goes quiet for a few days, Tong Yao gets upset, and she eventually asks whether they should just break up.
And Lu Sicheng is basically:
Absolutely not. What nonsense are you talking about?
Good man.
He explains what was actually bothering him, they communicate, they reconcile and the relationship continues.
So I wouldn't count this as a breakup at all.
It's more like:
Man emotionally malfunctions for several days โ girlfriend cries โ communication finally occurs โ crisis canceled.
Could he have simply spoken to her earlier?
Yes.
Would that have saved everyone emotional distress?
Also yes.
But compared with some C-dramas that will separate a couple for six episodes because somebody overheard half a sentence behind a decorative screen, I will happily take this.
๐ต THE SOUNDTRACK
One thing I remembered very clearly even years later:
the music.
That says something because I watch an unreasonable amount of Chinese dramas, and a lot of their soundtracks eventually merge into one giant emotional ballad in my brain.
This one didn't.
The soundtrack has personality.
There are different songs connected to the teams, competition scenes and romance, and Xu Kai and Cheng Xiao even sing โSoulmate (็ฌฌไธ้ปๅฅ)โ together.
The music fits that bright, youthful, competitive atmosphere really well.
This is one of those OSTs where hearing a song again can immediately pull me back into the drama.
And that is exactly what I mean when I call a soundtrack memorable.
๐ The Ending
The drama ends exactly how an esports romance should end:
winning and kissing.
ZGDX makes it through the national finals and earns its place at the World Championship, with Tong Yao playing a major role in the final victory.
And after they win?
Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao kiss onstage.
Correct behavior.
Then we get Ai Jia and Chen Jinyang's wedding, Tong Yao catches the bouquet, and Lu Sicheng appears looking suspiciously groom-like.
The drama doesn't give us some giant ten-minute wedding sequence for the main couple, unfortunately, but there is absolutely no ambiguity about Lu Sicheng and Tong Yao.
They're together.
They're happy.
They're still disgusting everyone around them with their romance.
As they should.
