Skate Into Love

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5

Li Yu Bing (Steven Zhang) and Tang Xue (Wu Qian) are old school classmates. Tang Xue constantly bullies Li Yu Bing at school, and he cannot wait to get away from her. Years later, they meet each other at university. Li Yu Bing is an accomplished ice hockey player and Tang Xue aspires to be a professional speed skater. Li Yu Bing, wanting to take revenge for all the school bullying, takes the opportunity to torment Tang Xue by making her his assistant. Slowly, he realizes that she is hard-working, cheerful and inspiring, a far cry from the bully he thought that she was at school. As they learn more about the other, their feelings also change, and they're drawn to each other.

This is a FANTASTIC drama! It has one of the most accurate and realistic portrayals of how skaters train and compete, and how much hard work they put into everything that they do.

Wu Qian as an actress has surpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds. This is her best work so far. I was pretty impressed with Steven Zhang's mature and controlled performance. His expressions were spot on, and I particularly liked his smile, a bit cheeky, a bit restrained and very sweet. Wu Qian and Steven Zhang had pretty decent chemistry. The supporting actors who played the roles of their friends and competitors were also pretty good. Every single person in this drama has worked really really hard to play their part.

All the actors seem to have done extensive training to be accomplished speed skaters, figure skaters and ice hockey players. I'm sure that a lot of experienced skaters were also involved in filming this drama, but it doesn't take away the hard work that the actors themselves put into their training.

Deng Lun is my most favourite Chinese actor, and I was so pleasantly surprised to see him in his cameo role. The reference to his name Xu Feng from Ashes of Love was a nice twist. 🙂

The story was well-written and college life in China was well captured. I was particularly impressed with the infrastructure, support, training, exposure and opportunities that sportspersons in China are given. The screenplay was crisp and fast-paced, and the dialogues were witty. The direction and editing were also good. I liked the never-say-die, no-nonsense attitude of the FL. It was handled quite well, and was satisfying to watch. The ML was also not shown as a wuss who gave in to the FL as soon as he confessed to her. I loved the fact that both the FL and ML maintained their dignity and mutual respect for each other till the end.

I was hooked on from the first episode onwards, and I was not let down even once. It was an absolute pleasure to watch this drama!