Last updated on September 24th, 2023 at 12:53 am
This post may contain affiliate links meaning I might earn a small commission if you click on the link to make a purchase but it doesn’t cost you anything. Thanks for your support!
The Oath of Love is a highly anticipated Chinese drama because it features two top stars – Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan.
Both celebrities are more known for their historical drama roles so they generated buzz when they partnered up for a modern drama.
Let’s get started on The Oath of Love drama review, shall we?
The Oath of Love Synopsis
The Oath of Love is a love story between Lin Zhi Xiao, a university student who plays the cello. Her world comes to a stop when she finds out her father has cancer. Through her dad, she meets Dr. Gu Wei, her father’s doctor. They slowly fall in love and enter into a relationship despite the 10-year age gap.
Lead Couple Age Gap
The female lead is actress Yang Zi and she plays Lin Zhi Xiao, a 21 year old. In reality, Yang Zi was about 27 or 28 years old when she filmed this show but she does have a young-looking face so it works.
In the drama, the male lead Gu Wei is supposed to be around 10 years older than her but in real life, he’s only one year older than our female lead.
I try not to carry so much weight on how old the character is versus how old the actor is because I’m used to watching characters in their twenties playing teens anyway. As long as the actor looks somewhat youthful, it gets a pass from me.
Romance Between the Two Leads
Their romance, for the most part, feels quite natural. It’s sweet in a realistic way. Well, generally anyway. It IS a drama, after all. You can’t expect every single thing to be realistic.
Since Gu Wei is a doctor in his 30s and she’s in her early 20s, they are at different stages in life and have their own problems.
He has a sense of responsibility and may often be misunderstood because he’s not the best at communicating his feelings.
Gu Wei is more mature, unsurprisingly, and not the most romantic guy in the beginning but he does become better at this dating thing.
Lin Zhi Xiao is young, bubbly, and new to relationships. It shows in certain scenes and they’re usually pretty funny.
Obviously, there’s going to be a lot of public hype when you pair a popular actor with a popular actress. I was looking forward to their fireworks in the drama but their love line wasn’t that exciting.
In YouTube snippets and trailers, I kept seeing comments about how cute Yang Zi and Xiao Zhan were together but they just felt like another actor couple in any drama.
Sensing chemistry between the leads is subjective because I have seen reviews on the Chinese drama, Love and Redemption that the two leads barely have any chemistry.
I was shocked because they have the most chemistry in a drama I’ve seen in a very long time. In fact, I think they have 夫妻相, which means they look like husband and wife.
Favourite Scene (*spoiler alert*)
Gu Wei and Lin Zhi Xiao went out on a group date. She wanted to show a more womanly side, so she wore high heels on a trip where they had to walk a lot. All she got was sore feet.
Then, it was lunchtime and the two other couples were sharing noodles. He didn’t get the memo and got something else. He leaned in and she got all excited and shy just for him to pull out her eyelid tape. Her reaction and the whole scene were HILARIOUS.
The Oath of Love – Family Relationships
The Oath of Love puts a lot of focus on family relationships as well. A big plotline is the relationship between Lin Zhi Xiao and her father.
There’s a sense of formality there because she refers him to Teacher Lin instead of Dad. By the way she calls him, you can already tell they do not have the warmest father-daughter relationship.
Their family dynamic seems like a typical Chinese one.
Her dad is not good at expressing love and affection while her mom is the softer, warmer one. Lin Zhi Xiao and her dad butt heads a lot and it’s her mom that smooths things over.
The father-daughter relationship is far from smooth sailing but at the end of the day, you can tell they all love each other very much.
The Oath of Love does an extremely good job of drawing you into the family storyline as well.
The relationship Lin Zhi Xiao has with her parents is probably my favourite part of the series, which I’m surprised about. In most Chinese dramas, what captures my attention is the romance between the two leads.
Her parents in the show gave a real family feel. The dad, in particular, was fantastic because I wholeheartedly believe he was the character. That’s when you know you picked the right actors for the job.
Other Supporting Characters
Other than Lin Zhi Xiao’s dad, none of the other supporting characters or cast stood out to me. They each had their developing storyline but I found myself quite bored during many scenes.
The Oath of Love OST
It’s common for actors and actresses to sing a soundtrack in the drama. I’m usually all about OST and there’s at least one song I’m obsessed with but unfortunately, none of the songs in this series stuck with me.
What Was Surprising About the Oath of Love?
The earlier episodes hint that cancer was going to be one of the themes in the series.
Cancer can be a taboo subject so I didn’t expect how heavy of a role it played in the Oath of Love.
Seeing certain scenes affected me deeply. Just like many people, I have people around me who have been affected by this disease.
Watching those scenes on the screen in front of me brought my mind back to those unhappy memories.
I found myself tearing up a lot during those moments.
Also, the touching relationship between Lin Zhi Xiao and her parents made me reflect on the relationship I had with my parents. That was completely unexpected.
Yang Zi as an Actress
Yang Zi is a Chinese actress most people are familiar with.
She’s extremely famous in China and if you’re a fan of Chinese dramas, you’ve probably heard of her. Some of her notable works include Ashes of Love, Go Go Squid, Noble Aspirations (although it’s Zhao Li Ying that’s the female lead), and Ode to Joy.
She did alright as Lin Zhi Xiao.
Yang Zi seems to be attracted to the naïve roles.
She played a similar role in Ashes of Love (at least in the beginning), Go Go Squid, and even in The Destiny of White Snake.
She’s one of the actresses born in the 90s that has the strongest potential. She got her name out there but I would like to see other sides of her (by the way, she has pretty good crying scenes).
I will continue to support her in her future projects but sincerely hope she takes on other types of challenging roles. Preferably a historical drama because that’s her forte.
If she doesn’t diversify her acting roles, she will soon age out of this ‘cute, young girl’ phase soon.
What will happen then?
Xiao Zhan as an Actor
On the other hand, we have our male lead, Xiao Zhan, who plays Gu Wei. Xiao Zhan is probably most known for his drama The Untamed and Duoluo Continent.
I’m going to be straight up with you. This is the first full Xiao Zhan drama I’ve watched.
I knew of him but didn’t know what to expect.
In the past, I’ve watched dramas where the main male lead is almost expressionless throughout the drama.
Xiao Zhan isn’t like that. It’s more impressive considering he didn’t attend one of the top acting schools This seems to be the way for actors to get their foot in the door to the entertainment industry.
After watching a variety of Chinese shows, I have much higher expectations for male leads. He’s not bad necessarily but nor did he wow me with his acting skills.
It could be because of his character Gu Wei. There wasn’t anything special about him.
Final Thoughts – The Oath of Love
The Oath of Love didn’t drag on, which, props to the team. Sometimes, dramas can feel like the plotline can be way too long but 32 episodes were good.
It is a show that has a good mix of humour and heartbreak.
The Oath of Love might make you go on a bit of an emotional roller coaster (the last few episodes were especially touching) but it wasn’t a drama that I was dying to keep watching.
It almost pains me to write this because I did have higher expectations for this drama but I have to say that it was only alright.
For some other dramas, I felt like I was literally DYING for the next episode to come out, which is why I usually wait for a drama to end to watch.
But hey, sometimes you’re impatient and those episodes that already aired are just calling your name. Ya know?
You’ll like this drama if you are fans of either actors or like contemporary love stories.
But as someone who spends a lot of time watching Chinese dramas, The Oath of Love is not the most addicting series to watch but rather one to check out when you’re trying to pass the time.
Now to You – The Oath of Love
LIKE THIS POST?
SAVE FOR LATER
Xoxo,
Nicole