A romance drama that takes “my world is gray without you” seriously.
I’m re-watching this, so I figured I should finally do a post on this little gem. An Yuexi is once more a ray of sunshine in You Color My World 路从今夜白, a cute romance with an unique premise and pretty colors. You can watch it English-subbed on YouTube here.
The female lead is literally the only color in the male lead’s eyes. Gu Yebai (Chen Ruoyun) is an artist who’s lost the ability to see color due to trauma until he met fellow student Lu Youran (An Yuexi). For some later explained reason, when she colors his paintings, he can briefly see color again. He soon hires her as a model and asks her to mix paint for him. As their relationship progresses, everything she does affects how he sees the world. When she is nice to him, his whole world is filled with vibrant colors. When he feels like she doesn’t like him, his world is gray again.
I’m a sucker for this type of cheesy fated love tropes, and this setup is more romantic and slightly more original than the fifty dramas where the male lead can’t touch anyone but the female lead. Plus, the visuals are actually well-executed for the color-changing scenes. The series itself, however, is sold mostly on the basis of An Yuexi and Chen Ruoxuan’s chemistry.
While not as delightful as in Let’s Shake It, An Yuexi is adorable here and the perfect incarnation of her character, a happy-go-lucky ray of sunshine who is neither annoying nor incompetent. Chen Ruoyun had very little to work with, but gave his character what emotions he could, and sold it well enough. Her cuteness combined with Chen Ruoxuan’s restrained awkwardness works well for the romantic moments. I ship them.
The plot itself mostly follows their relationship, but is interjected with family relation problems (all three leads have mother-figure-issues), competition at school, and the trials of entering the workforce. In order to stretch the series, they also added a weird internship third act that is completely unnecessary and doesn’t fit with the tone of the series. I think you can easily stop when the leads get together around episode 20.
*spoiler*
My other main complaint is how much of an Oedipus complex the drama gave the male lead. Childhood sweethearts is a romantic trope, but to me, it’s a lot more romantic if the leads love each other for who they are rather than because of some vague childhood memory. In this instance, it’s extra weird because one reason her color usage lets him see color is because she shares it withher mom, who served as a mother figure to him.
*end spoiler*
If you’re looking for a cute school romance to fill your time, this could be worth a try. Also recommended if you like either leads in general.
I liked it too!!! I thought the fact that he could see colours around her was due to her mum at first. But then they later revealed that these two were childhood friends and he knew her during that pure and untainted part of his childhood. That kinda set my mind at ease. :P I loved An Yue Xi too!! This is also what pushed me to watch Granting You a Dreamlike Life / Letting You Float Like a Dream by her and Zhu Yi Long. :P
I watched this some time ago, but, too bad, the english subs only reached the middle of the drama. It’s not bad, well at least until the part that I watched. The leads are pretty cute and sweet.