Final Review - Dr Cutie (2020)

Final review/rating - Dr Cutie(2020): Fluffy fun with a Heroine who outshines the Hero

This is 5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼

Overall rating:         5 Stars Plot:                       5 Stars Acting/cast:            6 Stars Couple chemistry:   5 stars Music:                    7 Stars Re-watch value:      4 Stars Enjoyment factor:   6 Stars

Dr Cutie is a fluffy, fun romcom with a satisfying happily ever after.  It's not overly ambitious in terms of plot and the "will he find out she's actually a girl" trope gets drawn out for far too long, but Sun Qian is absolutely delightful as the titular Dr Cutie. She outshines her male co-star, Huang Hun Jie, whose acting is unfortunately not as good as his male lead looks.  

SPOILERS AHEAD

The titular Dr Cutie - Tian Qi

Sun Qian as Tian Qi

The real reason to watch Dr Cutie is Tian Qi - she is such an adorable character! Bubbly and warm (but also money grubbing, cowardly and opportunistic), she is a female lead that you can't help rooting for. It's no wonder that the two male leads fall for her - the audience does as well 💛

Sun Qian really brings the cuteness as the titular Dr Cutie and her comedic timing is spot on. Although the plot doesn't really give her much scope to demonstrate her range, she still shines.  Her acting is so much better than that of her male co-star, Huang Hun Jie, it's no exaggeration to say she carried the drama. 

General Ji Heng 

Huang Hun Jie as General Ji Heng

Huang Hun Jie's General Ji Heng has leading man good looks, but his acting leaves a lot to be desired.  

The character is one of the stock characters from Chinese historical dramas (ie the cold aloof general) but there are ways of portraying that cliché stock character with nuance. (Zheng Ye Cheng's General Xue Yao in The Sleepless Princess (2020) - see my final review for that drama here - is a case in point).   

Unfortunately Huang Hun Jie's General Ji Heng doesn't seem to be able to emote beyond furrowing his brows to (badly) express everything - pain, annoyance, anger, jealousy, confusion... And it's always the same way of scrunching his brow.  Gentle reader beware that despite the eye candy factor that Huang Hun Jie undoubtedly brings to the drama, his brow furrowing will have you rolling your eyes.   

Also, and to be fair this is not the actor's fault, the script writer makes General Ji Heng really unpleasant in the first 10 or so episodes when he basically bullies Tian Qi for seemingly no good reason. That, coupled with the bad acting from Huang Hun Jie meant that (at least for me) the couple chemistry does not convince, especially since General Ji Heng doesn't even figure out that Tian Qi is female until episodes 21 which is really way too late for a 28 episode drama.  And then from episode 22 onwards, General Ji Heng is a completely different lovey dovey character, complete with a shower of rose petals as he twirls down to confess his feelings.  It's a bit too much.  To enjoy, you have to suspend disbelief and just go with the flow while trying to ignore the brow furrowing.    

The gentle Ji Zheng        

Zha Jie as Ji Zheng

I rather liked Zha Jie's portrayal of the second male lead, Ji Zheng.  

His acting is, for one, much better than that of Huang Hun Jie and his character is more likeable - ever the gentleman, perhaps with the one exception of when he lies to Tian Qi about being her childhood friend, whereas in keeping with Chinese historical drama clichés, it's actually the main lead, General Ji Heng who was the childhood playmate (and therefore in drama land logic, her destined one and only).  

The drama keeps things fairly light though, so you don't feel too bad when Ji Zheng nobly bows out and then leaves the city to continue his travels.  

Final thoughts

Happily ever after 💕

🐼: Dr Cutie is cute enough and has a lovely female lead.  It's a good, fluffy romcom to binge watch if you want frothy lightness and minimal angst, and if you aren't overly concerned by uneven pacing and/or poor acting from a gorgeous male lead.  

5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮