Final review/rating: My Dear Brothers (2021) - Cotton candy sweet Xianxia drama with a modern twist
This is 7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮ from Pandafan🐼
Overall rating: 7.5 Stars Plot: 7 Stars Acting/cast: 7 Stars Couple chemistry: 8 stars Music: 7 Stars Re-watch value: 7 Stars Enjoyment factor: 7.5 Stars |
My Dear Brothers (2021) is cotton candy sweet and after watching it, you will probably never think of cotton candy in quite the same way😆
A fluffy romcom that has some truly hilarious moments and a sprinkling of angst, it is a cute twist on the time-travel/inter-dimensional and xianxia genres. It will have you wishing for a big brother Hou Chi and Shi Dong of your own, or a little sister Shi Xia to protect and love. While the drama has its flaws, it's so darn cute that you will forgive the occasional cheesiness, plot flaws, or ridiculousness.
A very enjoyable 7.5 stars 💕
SPOILERS AHEADS
A cute plot and comedy aplenty
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| Soft squishy cheeks? This must be a little sister! |
The first episode a bit mediocre but give it another episode or two and the sheer cuteness of the whole thing will likely pull you in.
For a spoiler free synopsis, see mine 👉 here. But in depth and with spoilers: our modern day heroine Shi Xia is in search for her missing older brother Shi Dong when she is mysteriously teleported into a strange xianxia world. There, she meets the hero Hou Chi, a 200 year old immortal who has lived in seclusion all his life and whose only goal is to attain the cultivation needed to be the leader of all the sects in that world. Hou Chi adopts the reluctant Shi Xia as his little sister (meimei 妹妹) so that he can improve his cultivation by mastering the concept of guarding/protecting (“守護”) as her older brother (gege 哥哥).
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| Shi Dong and Shi Xia |
She just wants to go back home and find her older brother Shi Dong. But of course, he has also teleported and is now the demon lord (well, he's an imposter pretending to be the demon lord). A good sort of demon lord, who is more interested in running a bubble tea restaurant, inventing gadgets, and creating fairgrounds for his followers. And he remains a very over-protective older brother who doesn't take kindly to anyone who might be getting too close and personal with his little sister.
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| Caught between brother and "brother" |
Things get hilarious pretty quickly, as biological older brother Shi Dong and adopted older brother Hou Chi vie with each other to best protect Shi Xia.
Especially because the clueless Hou Chi's feelings for Shi Xia are anything but brotherly...
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| Spicy stinky tofu |
Much of the comedy comes from Hou Chi's naivety and pureness coupled with his growing attraction to his meimei Shi Xia, and Shi Dong's hilarious attempts to break them up. Shi Dong's ultimatum to Shi Xia, is that now that her true gege is back on the scene, she needs to get rid of her hou-ge/adopted brother ASAP (pun intentional as Hou Chi's surname "Hou" sounds like the Chinese word for "step" as in stepbrother).  |
| The great find-a-meimei comp |
At Shi Dong's instigation, poor Hou Chi finds himself eating spicy stinky tofu (much to the anguish of his digestive system as he has never eaten food before), holding a find-a-mei mei competition to help Shi Dong (inadvertently angering a jealous Shi Xia), and getting hopelessly confused about what it is to be a gege/big brother, a meifu/brother-in-law, and a boyfriend. Shi Dong runs rings around Hou Chi, but notwithstanding this,  |
| Kisses aka Cotton candy🍬 |
Hou Chi discovers "cotton candy" - described to him by Shi Xia as something soft and sweet to the taste, and after an accidental first kiss with Shi Xia, he connects the dots as only he can to equate kisses with cotton candy💕😆 A cute trio of leads + supporting characters
What really makes My Dear Brothers so enjoyable is the great chemistry and hilarious dynamics between Shi Dong, Shi Xia, and Hou Chi. They're funny, they're cute, and they're sweet. For me, the hilarious Shi Dong (played by Dai Yun Fan) steals the show. That said, Shi Xia (played by the oh-so-cute Wu Qian Ying) and Hou Chi (played by the earnest-and-equally-cute Zhao Ying Bao) are undoubtedly a cotton candy sweet pairing. Can't go wrong really, when our wooden hero is literally created from a tree and our heroine majored in horticulture😆
There are also a number of solid supporting characters, including Bi Hong (the conflicted shixiong of Hou Chi and Shi Xia), the hilarious Yi Yao Gua (who is Hou Chi's biggest fanboy😆), and Er Ha (one of Shi Dong's henchmen).
A self-aware script...
The drama also provides a lot of self aware nods to its audience (eg when Shi Dong expresses dismay on realising that he is not the main male lead character in this alternative universe script, but a side character in a tianchong/romcom; and both he and Shi Xia are put out that she must give Hou Chi a draught of forgetfulness water - "how can this corny script apply to me/you??")
The script provides a healthy dose of ridiculousness and hilarity to balance the earnestness of first love and the light sprinkling of angst that (briefly) separates our cotton candy lovebirds.
Happy Ending... ps) Don't forget to watch the extra episode
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| Shi Xia and Hou Chi tie the knot💕 |
It's a happy ending of course! There is a very sweet proposal scene at episode 32 in which our Shi Xia proposes to her Hou Chi, followed by a sweet wedding between our lovebirds at episode 33, in which an emotional and proud Shi Dong walks his little sister down the aisle. The wedding features some truly hilarious vows written by Shi Dong (which include both his sister and his new brother-in-law vowing to be filial to him as older brother) and cotton candy sweetness galore.
Episodes 34 and 35 ramp up the angst and pretty much all the villains and anti-heroes die or nobly sacrifice themselves to save the Xianxia world. Not much logic involved and the script gets lazy and rushed in the last two episodes.
It isn't really explained what happened or how it happened, but suffice to say that Shi Xia ends back in our world with Shi Dong (who has no memories of their adventures in the alternative Xianxia universe) and the last scene is of Shi Dong and Hou Chi happily reuniting at the fairground where she first teleported.
A big postscript, dear readers. Definitely watch the extra episode - it's about 30m long with our favourite trio. There are some very hilarious scenes with Hou Chi learning how to be modern and discovering that "cotton candy" (kisses) in his world tastes sweeter than the cotton candy in ours.
Final thoughts
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| Cotton candy sweet |
🐼: My Dear Brothers is as fluffy and sweet as cotton candy, with a sprinkle of angst, and a large dollop of hilarity.
35 episodes and the extra episode raced by with this fresh faced rookie cast, who bring cuteness and comic timing in equal measure. The soundtrack is also very enjoyable.
All in all an endearing drama - perfect for those who have a sweet tooth.
7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮
