Nothing but Thirty

 Episodes: 43

Synopsis: This drama follows the perspectives of three 30-year-old women and tells the story of urban women who encounter multiple pressures at the age of 30. 

Review: 
This is such a realistic yet comforting watch. All three women in this drama experience life very uniquely, with different priorities, life and career goals, and personalities. However, their friendship is built on a common understanding - womanhood. I felt very comforted watching these characters fight and struggle for the things they desire and for the life they want to build for themselves. It reminds me that part of life's journey is constantly pushing oneself to be stronger and better - and yet, somehow, it may not be enough. 

To really express my thoughts on this drama, I will go through each of the three characters and their experiences - highlighting what their stories represented to me. 

Gu Jia: Gu Jia is a stay-at-home mom and uses her analytical thinking and strong relationship-building skills to help support her family and her husband's business. Despite being stay-at-home, her life is far from relaxing. She is either working to build connections to get her son into prestigious schools or she is at her husband's company to help manage any concerns that come up. Her labor is often invisible as her husband takes the credit as the CEO & all her hard work toward maintaining perfection in her family life and in their family business ultimately did not bear fruit. Her husband has an affair and she has to find herself again - cleaning up his mess, dealing with his mishandling of their firework company, and finding her own voice instead of lending it to another. Her strength, resilience, and self-awareness were so refreshing to see, and watching her pursue her own dream of operating a tea business provided me the motivation that women do need to have a world that belongs to them no matter how small. 

Wang Man Ni: Man Ni took a risk in her early twenties by leaving her small town to try to make it in the big city of Shanghai. She strives for perfection in both her career and her love life yet struggles to maintain both as the story progresses. She essentially goes through a mid-life crisis as she wonders what it was all for and as she fights to overcome her depression/burn-out from struggling for so long in the city. Man Ni is the representation of ambition - and she's the character that sacrifices the most for her place in the city & for her dreams. She works tirelessly in luxury sales, often unable to use the bathroom for hours and constantly working around the clock to earn commission from VIP clients. She wants romance with someone who is ambitious and well-established to help ease the day-to-day struggles of the lonely city life she experiences. 
      However, things don't go her way. Instead of a charming prince, she finds herself dating a man who doesn't believe in marriage, has multiple serious relationships ongoing at the same time, and who questions why she wants more when he's given her so many materialistic things/money. Instead of progressing in her career, she faces backstabbing, romance rivals coming to disrupt her day-to-day job, and her ultimate burnout with the job/city. One of my favorite lines from her was when she said goodbye to her workplace of many years - she said this was the place where she invested with her youth, passion, and time & that it was a difficult goodbye in itself. I saw myself in that scene - as someone who really invests in her career with little to no reward at times, the job is in a way a storage of memories of one's youth, time, and energy. And yet to the business, you are just a fleeting individual - easily replaced.
     Wang Man Ni's journey to rediscover herself and to find her ambition/drive again at the end was an inspiring story. I love that she could've taken the easy way out in a lot of scenarios - going back to her hometown and marrying someone there, marrying her college sweetheart, etc - but she didn't. And it was a really satisfying storyline to follow. 

Zhong Xiao Qin: Zhong Xiao Qin is not a perfectionist like Gu Jia and is not as ambitious as Man Ni. However, her goal of living a happy, simple life with a decent job and a caring husband is just as important. Xiao Qin starts off being content with the ordinary, typically going with the flow despite her career and love life not being super extraordinary. Her husband has been distant and the two lack communication in how to ensure the relationship is successful & what their goals in life are. Eventually, when Zhong Xiao Qin finds that their difference in perspective truly impacted what she valued, she decided to put herself first and separate from her husband. This is pivotal for a character who still wants a relatively calm and quiet life - she learns to be independent, learns what she wants in life, and experiences new things that add layers of understanding to her previous relationship. To see her grow and to bring that growth back into her previous relationship & to see him reflect and change/grow on his own and come back a better husband to Xiao Qin was lovely. This was a great, wholesome love storyline amidst the many romance failures throughout the drama. 

I really enjoyed this drama and felt so comforted and validated that the struggles of being a woman in the modern woman are exhibited in so many different facets in this drama.