The Fox's Summer (C Drama review)

- The Fox's Summer (Fox Fall in Love) 44 episodes total / around 45 mins each. Li Yan Shu (Tan Song Yun) is an independent free spirited woman who plays by her own rules even if that means lying to get what she wants. She is considered a fox by some. She has recently returned to Beijing to work as a designer. Gu Cheng Ze (Jiang Chao) is the president of a large department store and adopted grandson of the Gu family who owns and operates the department store. Gu Cheng Ze is extremely OCD and can tell when people are liars, to a point where he has allergic reactions. He is considered the rabbit because of how clean and clever he is. Gu Jinyu (Daniel Zhang) is the rightful heir to the department store corporation but is lazy and spoiled. Cheng Ze and him have a brotherly and loving relationship. Jinyu changes his ways once he learns Lin Yan Shu (his old high school sweetheart) is one of the designers at the department store and begins to pursue her. Through various twist of events Gu Cheng Ze and Li Yan Shu's lives intertwine and they fall in love.

Due to lack of proper subbing it took me awhile to finish the series, around five months. Overall, I enjoyed the drama but it had very strong Mainland China vibes, from the clothing to mannerism. The biggest selling point of the drama was Tan Song Yun. Her personality and acting was contagious and entertaining. She came off very cute and fun loving and never annoying or dull. On the other hand, some of Jiang Chao's acting in the first half was so stiff and robotic it was painful to watch. He improved greatly the second half when he was more casual and relaxed. The interaction between the two leads during the drama were so heartbreaking, they really cared and loved each other but had family issues they had to overcome to get there. I hugely enjoyed watching them together. Sadly then there was the two second leads, who were just awful in the first half of the series because they had such childish and flat storylines. Luckily the writing changed cause the second half they were much more tolerable and I actually really grew to like the Gu Jinyu character. By far the worst characters were Li Yan Shu's mother and Jiang Chao's adopted grandmother, they were petty and shrewd and just plain narrow minded. I didn't get their line of thinking or lack there of. There was additional storylines with the male sectary, which was a real bore and the next door neighbor who was a delight!! The OST was cute but the opening one for the drama reminded me a lot of a Mentos commercial, it was so much like a jingle.