Love O2O: Movie v. TV Series

Love O2O (微微一笑很倾城; or Wēi Wēi Yī Xiào Hěn Qīng Chéng), is a 2016 Chinese drama series consisting of 30 episodes based on a novel written by Gu Man. The same year, a movie based on the story was also released under the same name. 

My sister and I watched the drama series first, and then the movie to compare. Although there are some differences in the two, the general plot is the same: 

"Bei Weiwei is a smart and beautiful university student majoring in the computer department.  She aspires to be an online game developer, and goes by the user ID of Luwei Weiwei in the online role-playing game A Chinese Ghost Story. (The fictional game in the universe uses content provided by a popular MMORPG game in China). It is a popular phenomenon for players in the game to partake in in-game "marriages" so that they can go on quests together, and although many of these relationships translate to real life, Wei Wei has only entered one for the sake of the game. Additionally, most people reveal their real-life identities to other players, whereas Wei Wei prefers to remain anonymous. After being dumped by her online husband Zhenshui Wuxiang, she is approached by the number one player in the game, Yixiao Naihe. Naihe suggests that they get in-game married so they can participate in a competition. What Wei Wei doesn't know is Naihe is really Xiao Nai, a senior and top athlete at her university who is the smartest and most sought-after guy at school." 

Honestly, when the drama trailer first came up on Netflix I wasn't interested--it was only after I heard about the MMORPG scenes that I decided to watch it. Most of the dramas we've seen have been rom-coms, so the video game angle seemed unique and different. Additionally, I was hopeful that the series would have a smart, independent female lead with skills & talents beyond just being beautiful. 

Apparently, there is a huge debate about which adaptation is superior, with most preferring the drama. As someone who hasn't read the book, I cannot grade either on their accuracy to the original work. I can't say for sure whether one was 100% better than the other, especially as we are comparing a 30-episode series to an hour and a half film, but I do have some strong opinions. Let's go category by category, shall we? Winners will be highlighted in purple. 

***Spoilers for the movie and series Love O2O and probably the book as well***

NOTE: I'm not going to talk about which storyline was better because comparing a movie with a TV series seems kind of unfair. 

FEMALE LEAD: Angelababy (movie) v. Zheng Shuang (series) 

Okay, so I apparently have the opposite opinion of the majority on this, but I preferred Angelababy's characterization of Wei Wei by a MILE. I hear the movie version of the character is considered more confident/brash than she was originally written, whereas the TV version has an introspective and insecure personality that follows that of the character in book. Any adaptation of a written work is going to face tough scrutiny, so maybe if I had read the book first, I would agree with the more popular opinion. All of that aside, I think the movie's female lead is a WAY more relatable and well-rounded character than the TV version. 

To me, Movie!WeiWei was warm, awkward, and personable, whereas TV!Wei Wei felt cold, practical, and almost haughty. Both adaptations had scenes focusing on Wei Wei's friendship with her dorm-mates, and I think these displayed the difference in personality beautifully: in the movie, these scenes are full of laughter and inside jokes that emulates the friendship of young women. Movie!Wei Wei is still considered the "department belle" thanks to her beauty and brains, but with her friends she is just as goofy and, dare I say, human. 

In the TV series, Wei Wei is regulated to the eye-rolling big sister/mother hen, shaking her head at her ditzy best friend's antics. There are times where the tone of the scene come close to the camaraderie of the movie, but these are overshadowed by the recurring reminder that in this friend group, Wei Wei is the smartest, the prettiest, the most popular--this eventually culminates in a jealousy-related plotline that is not present in the film and that I will speak more on later. 

Listen, I love me a wallflower. I will defend Fanny Price all day every day. But most wallflowers start as shy or defeated, and then grow into people who may still be shy or defeated, but are more confident or secure in that part of themselves. 

From my perspective, TV!WeiWei's journey goes backwards. She started off the series as more confident and bold, but as the series went on, she became more insecure. At first, I found her interesting and likable--it was fun to watch her winning video game matches, playfully teasing her roommates, tutoring a young neighbor, and answering questions in class. Zheng Shuang played the character with a certain maturity that gave Wei Wei a sense of independence and quiet confidence, and I do appreciate that choice. 

But as TV!Wei Wei's real-life relationship with Xiao Nai developed, she began to lose her spark, and her scenes started being either about her falling deeper for Xiao Nai or facing obstacles to their relationship...from which Xiao Nai is responsible for rescuing her, of course. Xiao Nai still got to have scenes dedicated to his own goals and interests, and the main conflict surrounded the success of his programming company. All of Wei Wei's plotlines about work, friendships, family, and even her graduation centered on how it affected their relationship. By the final few episodes, her personality seemed heavily diluted. It was almost like her romance with Xiao Nai consumed her life instead of enriching it, and by the end she wasn't "Wei Wei", she was "Xiao Nai's wife." 

All this to say, this wouldn't have bothered me quite so much if it had been a 2 hour romance movie--BUT WE HAD THIRTY EPISODES, EACH ABOUT 40 MINUTES LONG. That's 20 hours worth of plot. You're telling me you get roughly 18 more hours of plot than the movie, + you dedicate a lot of it to the male lead's pursuits, but you can't give your female lead a plotline that doesn't relate to her love life???

The characterization of TV!WeiWei is not always consistent. She is introduced as someone who doesn't care about romantic relationships and purposefully avoids them so as to focus on her own goals. (That didn't last long.) She is also introduced as extremely competitive and, in the video game universe, aggressive and take-charge. However, during the course of the series she is constantly told to her face that she's not good enough for Nai He, and she just takes it or worse, acts like they're right! There is only one scene where she stands up for herself by challenging the detractors to a MMPORG battle--and even then, that doesn't do anything to quell the bullying and rumors. What's extra strange is that the TV series adds several flat, pointless characters whose only purpose appears to be bullying Wei Wei, without using these as opportunities for her to fight back...even though she is presented as the kind of person who does. Instead, they use these scenes to paint Xiao Nai as Wei Wei's defender. This is at odds with dialogue that claims he believes she can handle her own problems & that she doesn't want him to interfere. There's never a conflict between the two over this, so by all accounts the series truly believes that Wei Wei is who they say she is and acts accordingly. I just didn't buy it. 

Basically, the most glaring difference to me between the two performances is that Movie!WeiWei feels human. I like her casual, slightly tomboyish way of dressing compared to the TV series' prim and expensive wardrobe. I like her relatable awkward moments, such as when she's fixing her hair for her first date in a car window only to realize her professor is sitting in the driver's seat. (I've seen some people say this scene "adds nothing to the film" and should have been cut, but I disagree.) I like her masterful take-down of Zhen Shao Xiang in front of the whole class, and preferred it to the private one-on-one talk she has with him in the TV adaptation. I like how Movie!Wei Wei acts around her friends & family, and with Xiao Nai. I find her warm, accessible, and believable from the beginning of the adaptation to the end. I can't say the same for the TV version. 

MALE LEAD: Jing Boran (movie) v. Yang Yang (series)

The fans are going to come for me, but hear me out!!! There is no denying that Yang Yang is gorgeous, okay? I didn't say that, and I will never say that--the man looks as if he was carved out of marble by angels. But this isn't just about beauty, okay??? Being handsome can't win you everything (although it certainly got Xiao Nai places in the series, now didn't it?). Jing Boran is himself a handsome fella, although people have different tastes so I will accept it if some don't agree. 

Honestly, both actors gave well-acted, consistent performances. The main reason for my choosing Jing Boran's portrayal over Yang Yang's is similar to my reasoning about the female leads: I found Movie!Xiao Nai to be more human than TV!Xiao Nai. 

Allegedly, TV!Xiao Nai is closer to the book version. Unfortunately, this doesn't endear me to the book at all, since I found the TV version too calculating and distant to be endearing. His straightforward comments to his roommates were funny in the beginning, but I soon found his lack of emotional intelligence annoying. TV!WeiWei's personality regression bothered me, but TV!Xiao Nai's one-sided personality bothered me more. 

TV!Xiao Nai felt like the writers drew up a stereotype of the perfect man: rich, handsome, good at sports, smart, a natural businessman, romantic, and exclusively dedicated to his partner. He has a great line halfway through the series where he admits to Wei Wei that because he's never dated before, he doesn't have a roadmap for how to act, and asks her to be patient with him as they navigate their roles in the relationship. This should lead to character development and a relationship journey that works...but nope. Despite his inexperience, TV!Xiao Nai is never seen as anything less than perfect in Wei Wei's eyes, and consequently, he is never fully realized beyond her fantasy. The best part of falling in love with a person (be it in real life or onscreen) is discovering all of their quirks and secrets and surprises as you get to know them better. TV!Wei Wei never learns anything new or interesting about Xiao Nai, and neither do we--on the day they get married, he is exactly the unattainable fantasy boyfriend that he was before they ever met, and there's something disappointing about that. 

In the movie, we get several scenes where Xiao Nai is allowed to be upset, sad, and frustrated. He is given opportunities to "fail", allowing us to root for him and his later success to feel earned. It also gives Movie!WeiWei the opportunity to support him, creating a sense of balance and mutual care in the relationship. Unlike in the TV series, Movie!Xiao Nai has parents who ignore him, giving the character a loneliness that explains his social awkwardness and deep obsession with his work. TV!Xiao Nai is offered none of this--for all thirty episodes, he is shown to be a master at everything (except cooking, but this is mentioned in a throwaway comment rather than shown--we never even see the guy burn something) whose doting parents let him do whatever he wants. For a good 20 episodes, I kept telling my sister that I just wanted to see the guy cry, but he never shed a tear. 

For me, a stronger choice would have been making TV!Xiao Nai fail miserably/undergo a life-changing event that interrupts his life of constant perfection (like having the car accident make an actual life impact, idk). Then, we could have explored what it is like to have someone by his side (i.e Wei Wei and his friends) who cares about him as a person, not as a flawless fantasy. Or, they could have explored the intense pressure and anxiety that comes with being afraid to fail in order to raise the stakes and give more depth his character and relationships. 

I also have to address Xiao Nai's creepy moments in the TV series that weren't included in the film. I hear they weren't in the book either, but I'm not sure. In both adaptations, Xiao Nai sees Wei Wei playing the video game in an internet cafe and knows her true identity before he asks her to in-game marry him. While the movie gives Xiao Nai a badly-needed monologue confessing this, the TV series ups the ante by having  him secretly follow Wei Wei around campus. And by "following",  I'm talking hiding behind bookshelves in the library and waiting for hours until she leaves. 

It doesn't get better after they start dating. TV!Xiao Nai encourages Wei Wei to lie to her parents so she can come back from break early (after like THREE DAYS), even though her family hasn't seen her all semester. He gives her an internship at his company, which would be great EXCEPT not only does he have her assist the only misogynist in the office (who demeans and ignores her), he also assigns her important tasks such as getting coffee/lunch and buying mattresses for the employees to sleep on so they can work overtime. She's literally a programmer + top of her class...but he didn't hire her for her skills, he hired her because she's his girlfriend and he wants her near him at all times. Perhaps worst of all, he reacts to a fight between Wei Wei and her best friend Er Xi by saying that it's fine because "he will be her everything." Very emotionally intelligent of you, bro. 

None of these events occurred in the film except for the first one, and it's not handled the same way--Wei Wei comes back early, but she does so with Xiao Nai's roommates in tow after finding out he has been left all alone on campus on New Year's, and she doesn't lie to her parents about it. All this plus a side character's comment that Xiao Nai has a "Machiavellian side" makes this one an easy choice for me. 

SIDE CHARACTERS: Movie v. TV Series 

It makes sense that a 30-episode series would do more to expand the side characters than a 2 hour movie, so I don't think this comes as a surprise. 

• In the book, there is a relationship between two men: Hao Mei (one of Xiao Nai's roommates/employees) ends up falling in love with KO, a hacker that also comes to work for Xiao Nai. Apparently showing LGBTQ relationships onscreen is illegal in China, so the movie cuts this romance, save for a subtle hint in the epilogue. In contrast, the TV series goes as far as they can without outright saying "boyfriends",  giving a significant amount of screentime to the development of the relationship (despite not being able to call it as such) and filming TV!Hao Mei & TV!KO's moments the same way as the lead couple. It was a welcome surprise and a bold move, and I give them major props. 
• My favorite part of the TV series was the supporting cast, mainly Wei Wei's three dorm mates and Xiao Nai's three roommates/employees + KO. The series did an excellent job creating a believable relationship between each respective group and their lead, and they brought much-needed comedic relief to every episode. I would said the boys were given slightly more distinct personalities and plot-relevant moments than the girls, but the girls were still fun to watch. Watching Wei Wei interact with them helped endear her to me. My favorite of the boys was the "big bro" Yu Banshan, who often misuses idioms and has an INCREDIBLE crying scene after he and Xiao Nai get into a car accident. My favorite of the girls was Zhao Erxi, Wei Wei's best friend and dorm mate who is bright and funny, but also ditzy and immature. Her relentless cheer and mishaps added warmth and humor, and kept the pacing of the series moving. As expected by the difference in time length, the movie includes these characters but doesn't give them their own plotlines or the depth seen in the series. This would be fine except I really liked them and wanted more, haha. 
• In the TV series, Wei Wei has an ex-husband from the game (Zhenshui Wuxiang) and a classmate who falls in love with her (Cao Guang). Cao Guang joins the game after she rejects him in a plot to trick her into falling for him so he can humiliate her, only to accidentally mistake Erxi's avatar for hers. In the film, these characters are one person: Wei Wei's ex-in-game- husband Zhen Shao Xiang is the classmate who falls in love with her and reacts badly after she rejects him. Interestingly enough, the actor who plays Zhen Shao Xiang in the movie also plays Cao Guang in the series. While I liked the actor playing the ex-husband in the TV series better in that role, I preferred the movie's route of having the two characters be the same person (as in the book). No shade to the actor--he was incredible, especially during the film's fight scenes in the video game universe. I just don't like Cao Guang as a person--he made dumb choices that caused a lot of unnecessary trouble. (The series did do Erxi dirty by making her end up with Cao Guang even though he was a massive jerk, but I chose not to take off too many points for this.) I expected the TV!ex-husband to have more of a point to Wei Wei's storyline, but they regulated him to being a half-baked adversary for Xiao Nai that never seemed like enough of a problem. He’s not too important in the movie either, so I guess it's more of a wasted opportunity than a 'better or worse' thing. The series does shoehorn in a couple of extra villains when it may have served them better to just attribute their bad behavior to  Zhenshui Wuxiang, but honestly if we were to take out every unnecessary character in the series we would have to cut the roster in half, so it's not worth nit-picking. 
• TV!Erxi's main subplot revolves around her jealousy of Wei Wei--she only gets a coveted internship because the company thinks she is Wei Wei's avatar in the MMPORG game, and her in-game boyfriend reveals he only romanced her because he thought she was Wei Wei as well. Wei Wei & Erxi eventually get into a fight about this, but instead of utilizing this plot to flesh out Wei Wei's friendships or even just make her a more humble character, the series uses it to validate why Wei Wei needs to move out of their shared apartment and live with Xiao Nai instead. I felt bad for Erxi because while it's not Wei Wei's fault, it would suck to be in an online relationship with a dude and then have him say that despite enjoying your online conversations and spending (virtual) time with you, it's over because he thought you were your hot friend the whole time (not even because you were pretending to be, but because he mixed up the gamer handles). Unfortunately, the subplot was clearly more about how her feelings impacted Wei Wei than what she was actually going through, which I felt was a missed opportunity. It's also disappointing because there are hints early on that Xiao Nai's friends also struggle with insecurity and inadequacy because of how perfect and successful he is. It bothered me that Xiao Nai was so perfect, but had they used that to fuel a conflict surrounding his friends' jealousy, they could have created a parallel issue for him and Wei Wei (or their friends) to bond over. 
• As previously mentioned, the TV series introduces several catty mean girls not present in the film, whose express purpose was to bully Wei Wei. Honestly I thought they overdid it--none of the girls had depth or were different enough to make it worth having more than two. That said, the movie gives the mean girls names but doesn't utilize them in a way that makes them necessary to the main conflict, so the series gets a point for having them actually cause trouble. 

THE ROMANCE: Movie v. TV Series

So I whined a lot about this in my breakdowns about the leads, but I still have more to say. 

Listen, the movie isn't some groundbreaking work of art. But it's a solid romance, and it doesn't try to be anything else than that. There's a great moment in the beginning where Wei Wei, searching for an excuse to reject Zhen Shao Xiang's love confession, blurts out that she's too invested in the campus hottie Xiao Nai to consider anyone else...while he standing right behind her. Instead of making fun of her or acting weirded out, he simply says "Thank you" with a small smile. Cheesy? Sure. Charming? Absolutely. 

What's more, Movie!Wei Wei & Xiao Nai seem to genuinely like spending time together, whereas in the TV series their moments are rife with awkwardness that I couldn't excuse as romantic tension. I much preferred the scene from the movie where Xiao Nai excitedly shows Wei Wei around his "office" & they play a two-player arcade-style game while laughing to the scene in TV series where they read quietly in his office, occasionally stealing glances like two strangers in a doctor's waiting room. 

The biggest problem with the TV!couple is that they have chemistry as players in the MMPORG game (before they officially date in person), but after their real-life relationship starts, the tension doesn't receive the same upgrade, growing stale instead. The lack of domestic comfort between them is the most obvious in their kiss scenes, which--believe me, I wish I didn't have to mention, but I cannot let it go. Their first kiss is quite possibly the worst I've ever seen onscreen, mostly because Wei Wei looks terrified and like she would rather be anywhere else. Her eyes are open the whole time, she freezes, and feels like it lasts an hour, all of which make it incredibly uncomfortable to watch. From what I've read, the director wanted to drive home the fact that Wei Wei has never dated and is shocked by the notion that someone like Xiao Nai would find her attractive, but honestly it looks like she's afraid of him. Also, the fact that it didn't have to look that bad but they staged it that way on PURPOSE makes it so much worse. Things get slightly better as the episodes progress (i.e she learns to close her eyes), but wow. That first one haunts me to this day. 

What's more, TV!Wei Wei never tires of being shocked that someone like Xiao Nai would be interested in her, to the point of gasping with her hand over her mouth when he approaches her at a school basketball game in front of everyone. (This was my sister’s least favorite part because it's so cringey.) Her hero worship of him lasts from the beginning of the series to the end, most notably expressed by her calling him "da shen" (which means master or leader) instead of his actual name. IN FREAKING PUBLIC. This honorific makes sense when the two of them are in the MMPORG universe, as he is the number one player so she ranks below him, but translating it to an in-person relationship is just weird. 

Movie!Wei Wei treats Xiao Nai like her boyfriend instead of her master, and at the end of the series, they appear to be professional equals as well as romantic equals, earning success as a team. 

RANDOM OTHER THOUGHTS:

• I liked the CGI used for the video game sequences in both and thought the costuming and scenery were beautiful in different ways. Fight choreography for the Xiao Nai v. Zhen Shao Xiang battle in the movie was better than in the TV!version, but the battle against the old crone in the TV series was my favorite MMPORG sequence overall, so TIE. 
• Cao Guang's cat in the TV!series did not look okay. Still very worried about him. 
• The wedding outfit scene in the TV!series finale was absolutely stunning and it's a shame we only got to see it with the couple with the weaker chemistry, because I think the Movie!Couple would have done a fantastic job. 
• In what world would anyone's parents be like "Okay, well do what you want" after telling their son not to "take advantage" of his girlfriend and his response is "We'll see"??????
• Wanted to see more of Xiao Ling (Wei Wei's roommate) and her boyfriend's relationship in the TV series--they seemed really cute and funny.