LayarHijau – The Chinese drama A Beautiful Lie, starring Oliver Chen Xingxu and Zhang Yuxi, has just aired its final episode. Viewers both in China and internationally have expressed anger and disappointment over the series’ ending.
The following contains spoilers.
In the drama’s conclusion, Qin Fei (played by Zhang Yuxi) and psychologist Ge Wu (played by Li Mo Zhi) devise a plan to help Xing Zhizhi (played by Oliver Chen) recover from the hallucinations he suffers. They fabricate a story suggesting that Jia (played by Xiao Bo Chen) is still alive in Suman. Xing Zhizhi travels to that area to search for Jia based on false clues created by Qin Fei. Unexpectedly, this plan becomes disastrous: in the final two episodes, Xing Zhizhi is kidnapped by a group of robbers, and no news of his whereabouts is heard again.
In the end, Qin Fei suffers from the same mental illness as Xing Zhizhi. By the drama’s finale, viewers are left without any certainty regarding the fate of the doctor and can only assume she may have died.
This ending has sparked anger and disappointment among viewers both in China and abroad. In a post on the drama’s official Weibo account promoting the finale, users flooded the comments section with protests.
Some viewers accused the production team of being deceptive because the ending was completely unexpected. Certain fans demanded that the team apologize to Oliver Chen for the way his character was portrayed in the drama.
“The producers of A Beautiful Lie do not respect the medical profession, treat cancer as a joke, belittle patients with mental disorders, convey wrong values, and only aim to turn the male lead into a vulgar romantic tool. A drama with such incorrect values should be pulled from shelves and an apology issued to patients with mental disorders,” commented one user.
Other viewers believed that the ending wasted the chemistry, acting, and performances of Oliver Chen and Zhang Yuxi. A Weibo user also suggested that the production removed many scenes of the male lead and poorly developed the female lead’s character. The story, which started sweetly, suddenly concluded in a confusing way, and this was considered a betrayal by fans.
International audiences also voiced their disappointment. On MyDramaList, some users rated the series between 2.5 and 4 out of 10 for its storyline.
Several viewers praised the early story and chemistry between the leads, even if parts of it felt slow. However, the ending was seen as completely ruining everything.
“I endured some boring moments throughout this drama just to see a good ending, but I ended up getting a bad one. Truly disappointing,” one user commented.
Some viewers blamed the poor ending on one of the drama’s scriptwriters. “I thought the novel had a happy ending. At first, I didn’t understand why they made it like this, but after checking one of the screenwriters… I think he was just obsessed with sad endings,” wrote a user.
It was also reported that some of the A Beautiful Lie scriptwriters also worked on Love is Panacea, starring Luo Yunxi and Zhang Ruonan. That drama also ended tragically with Zhang Ruonan’s character dying from an illness. The difference is that from the beginning, viewers knew her character had a fatal disease, unlike A Beautiful Lie, which maintained a light and romantic tone until near the finale.
Other viewers pointed out that the two supporting couples in the drama ended up happy, while the main couple’s story ended tragically. This was considered unfair and disheartening.
One user highlighted the approach the characters took toward the male lead’s mental illness. “Who tries to use such a rotten, lying method to treat a mental illness? Are they crazy? I’m watching episode 35, and it’s ridiculous. In my opinion, they never respected the man’s condition or hoped he would improve with their constant interference. There is no instant cure for something like this,” they wrote.
