Romance on the Farm (2023) - Final Review
Final review/rating: Romance on the Farm (2023) - Not much romance but there is family melodrama aplenty
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 |
However, Romance on the Farm (2023) is not what I expected. Although the name, trailer, and marketing gave off a fluffy romcom vibe, romcom this definitely is not. The Chinese drama title 田耕紀 "Farming Chronicles" is more apt. If you watch this one, be prepared for what can often be a melodrama that makes your blood boil because Man'er's extended family are a toxic bunch and their machinations would not be out of place in a palace drama. I also think the drama would have made more sense without the VR gaming premise.
However, despite the family melodramatics and some rather obvious logic flaws linked to the gaming premise, the drama (and Zeng Shun Xi and Tian Xie Wei) kept me watching till the rather sweet play-on-words ending.
SPOILERS AHEADS
For a spoiler free synopsis, see mine 👉 here.
Premise and plot - PSA: this is not a romcom
The premise is basically that Lian Man'er (played by Tian Xie Wei) is a modern day Uni student who agrees to be a tester for a farming VR game set in ancient rural China. We only get the bare bones background of her real life, which include divorced and uncaring parents and a need for cash. In the game, she finds herself on the Lian family farm, as Lian Man'er, with a ready made family: a loving Mum and Dad, cute little brother, and not-so-great extended family (more on that later). To successfully win the game, Man'er needs to earn 1000 golden taels.
When Eldest Uncle arranges Man'er to be married off to be a dead man's bride for profit, she would have been burnt alive but for Shen Nuo riding to the rescue. Similarly, when Grandpa and Grandma outrageously propose that their third son (Man'er's Dad) give his as yet unborn son to his eldest brother, that results in Eldest Aunty and Hua'er conspiring with foolish Aunty Xiu'er to cause Man'er's Mum to miscarry - there is no do over😔
🐼: Romance on the Farm (2023) is more melodrama than romcom - the toxic extended family antics are not for the faint of heart. But although the drama was not the fluffy romcom I expected, I nevertheless enjoyed watching it.
Shortly after entering the game, she meets Shen Nuo (played by Zeng Shun Xi), a character that the game won't let her ignore. Shen Nuo clearly is not who he seems and needs a reason to stay undercover in Man'er's rural village. Man'er agrees to let Shen Nuo pose as a distant relative and ropes him into helping her in various farming and business ventures. Romance blossoms, but making 1000 taels is no easy task, between unexpected events and Man'er's problematic extended family. Shen Nuo also has a secret mission of his own to achieve...
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| Big eyed cuties: Zeng Shun Xi as Shen Nuo; Tian Xie Wei as Man'er |
You would be forgiven for thinking that Romance on the Farm (2023) is a romcom if you judge by the drama title and trailer alone. However, a useful heads up is that this actually isn't a romcom. There is a sweet slow burn romance between the leads, and Zeng Shun Xi and Tian Xie Wei make for an endearing couple, but there really isn't sufficient romance in this 26 episode drama to characterise it as a romance. There are also moments of comic relief (my favourite being Man'er making use of Shen Nuo's handsome face to be the draw in an impromptu letter-writing business😆) but again, comedy does not predominate.
Instead, this drama has melodrama aplenty. And I mean melodrama of the 'dog blood', infuriating to watch variety that will definitely evoke an emotive response from most viewers. This is because Man'er has some of the most irredeemable extended family in C-drama land and the majority of the drama focuses on their toxic dynamics and antics. Honestly, watching them is bad for your blood pressure, albeit entertaining.
From the thieving Grandma and complicit Grandpa (both of whom constantly and unjustly play favourites) and their spoilt and petty daughter Xiu'er, to the Eldest Uncle and his wife and their snake of a daughter Hua'er whose poisonous, self-serving, and shameless natures are given full rein, to lazy Second Uncle and his wife, who are equally greedy and shameless...
A case for changing the gaming premise?
Perhaps it would be less stressful to watch if you constantly remind yourself that these unsavoury characters are all NPCs in a VR game. That is, after all, the starting premise. Problem is, for much of the drama, it is easy to forget that this is all just a game because there are precious few indications that you are meant to treat it all as a game. Man'er certainly does not, barring a few passing references to missing her smart phone and potential NPCs, and neither does Shen Nuo - he is deadly serious on his undercover mission.
I think the scriptwriter went with the VR gaming premise to circumvent censorship on transmigration, and then forgot to follow through with making the drama's logic work through the lens of the game. In my view, the drama would have been better if they had ditched the VR gaming premise and just opted for a historical setting. It would make a lot more sense and get rid of some of the obvious logic flaws.
Because as it is, despite the game premise, the awful things that Man'er's extended family do have grim, real consequences in the drama that cannot and should not be dismissed as mere play.
As for the other truly unconscionable crap that various family members pull (eg the Grandparents counseling Man'er's Dad to divorce Man'er's Mum so they can skimp on her medical costs; Second Uncle and Aunty trying to sell their daughter; Hua'er using poison to sabotage Man'er's restaurant; and Eldest Uncle fooling his own sister into becoming the concubine of a gross old man)... It is emotionally exhausting to watch even though it sucks you in from an entertainment perspective (sort of like how palace harem infighting dramas draw you in). But it sure doesn't feel like a game and isn't presented as a game. And if it was an actual game and I was playing it, I would have rage quit. Man'er's emotional engagement and persistence with her assigned mission made little sense to me, though I have to say that Tian Xie Wei really knocked it out of the park with her emotional scenes.
I was also uneasy about the great whitewashing of the family at the
end. Only Eldest Uncle suffers any long-term repercussions for his misdeeds, and I was not entirely convinced that the others had any real remorse or repentance. So having everyone play happy families at a big family reunion feast struck me as too pat, even if the game premise is accepted. After all, the NPCs don't know it is a game and the very real repeated and egregious breaches of trust would have left deep fractures within the family, cracks that cannot be papered over without genuine reform, accountability, and a heck of a lot of therapy.
If the message of the drama is that the good, bad, and ugly of family is an antidote to loneliness as Man'er concludes, then the least the developer/ scriptwriter can do is make that more palatable by not making the extended family virtually irredeemable. Loneliness would arguably be preferable to being stuck with that lot, family or not.
Heartwarming relationships
That's not to say that the drama's game world didn't also have wonderful characters, ones that you can love unreservedly, and heartwarming and healing relationships.
Balancing all the villainy, Man'er (thankfully) has a really loving Mum and Dad, whose only fault is that they are kind to the point of being pushovers, and a cute little brother Xiao Qi ("little seven") who adores her. That goes a long way in explaining why she is so emotionally invested in the game - her nuclear family here are so much better than her reality.
Man'er also has a dependable ally in her cousin Ye'er and the unconditional love and friendship of gentle physician Wang You Hong (played by Xing Ze), who is always there for her even when he knows his love is unrequited. There's also Chang Feng/13 (played by Chang Long), Shen Nuo's 2IC, who is a great friend to have in a tight corner and a cute love interest for Ye'er.
Between this endearing bunch, the sweetness of romance, and the adrenalin rush of success in their business ventures together selling garlic peanuts, distilling Bai Lan Di wine (a nod to modern brandy), and running a successful restaurant supplied by hot-spring grown veges, and thwarting the ultimate baddy, it's little wonder that Man'er, Shen Nuo, and the viewers find warmth in this all too immersive journey.
Happy ending(s) and a play on words
The last episode resolves the remaining issue of Shen Nuo's identity beyond the game (he is not a NPC, but rather the designer of the game) and provides a well deserved HEA for our cute big eyed CP.
Due to the confusing way the final episode was edited, and piecing it together with the short extra episode, I think the drama actually gives us two alternative happy endings:
- The first is that Man'er was preparing to leave the game, to put the final 20c into the chest that would have completed her mission to get 1000 taels, but Shen Nuo returns, and they reunite in the fields. The last 20c never makes it into the chest, and Man'er and Shen Nuo continue to be together forever in the game.
The second is that when Man'er and Shen Nuo reunite in the fields, she is abruptly taken out of the game and transported to reality even though her mission is not officially completed. But she spots Shen Nuo's flax horse weaving at the reception desk as she is leaving and has a flashback to her reunion with Shen Nuo... In the short extra episode, she then sees a picture of Shen Yi 沈逸 (ie Shen Nuo 沈諾's true name) and realises that he is not an NPC, but the designer of the game. Someone wearing Shen Yi's name badge calls out her name, and she turns, happy tears in her eyes...💕
Non Chinese speakers may have missed this, but a rather sweet play on words means that Man'er does complete her quest to get 1000 taels/gold (一千金).
Bearing in mind each iteration of the ML's names (Shen Yi 沈逸 and Shen Nuo 沈諾), and the Chinese idioms, 一諾千金 ("a promise 諾 is worth 1000 gold 千金") and 一勞永逸 ("completing a task once and for all"), in gaining the ML's heart, Man'er has therefore truly completed her task 😍
Final thoughts
In my view the VR gaming premise was unnecessary and fraught with logic holes. Despite this, the drama largely worked, because I was emotionally invested in the characters and their outcome and forgot about the gaming premise.
Big eyed cuties Zeng Shun Xi and Tian Xie Wei were also an adorable CP - I wish the drama had given us more fluffy romance, and I'm glad they got a HEA, whether in the game or in real life. I also hope they get paired up again for a romcom in the future!💕
7.5/10 stars ✮✮✮✮✮✮✮
