The Magical Women (2023)

Some Magic Where You Didn't Expect It

While I went into this drama thinking we would see a lot of magic, it wasn't from the women.

Su Fei was married for 13 years to Yan Wei and they had a 10-year-old daughter, Youran. Perfect picture of the perfect family or so it appeared. Su Fei was beginning to see cracks in her marriage when she found a sports bra in her husband's backpack to which he covered quite quickly with saying it was a "promotional item." She of course was not even believing that but took it with a grain of salt. As time went by it only got worse with his many "missteps and lies" until she confronted him and ask him was there anything he wanted to tell her. Anything that he felt that she should know. Each time he denied there was anything. All the while he was seeing his girl on the side Ding Man Man.

Everything came to a head, during their wedding anniversary, Su Fei told Yan Wei to invite all of his colleagues. He was excited and praising his wife, even giving a little speech but when he reached to kiss her, she pulled away. Little did Yan Wei know that Su Fei had her own surprise. She took the remote of the TV and gave her speech and hit play and it showed Yan Wei and Ding Man Man kissing. She then told everyone she was divorcing him, and she was no longer his wife. Yan Wei was furious and pulled the TV off the wall. Humiliation big time!

Su Fei got her divorce and Youran lived with her but saw Yan Wei on the days the courts granted for him to see her. Su Fei was on her on path now. She had her cry and all the emotions one has after such an event. But she really had no time to wallow in her feelings because she now had to be a mother. She no longer had a husband who did the cooking in the morning/evenings and saw their daughter off to school. This was now her responsibility which she had to learn to be a mother, father and also the person who oversaw those within her company. But no one has a nanny that they can make sure you can stay at the office all day/night and look after your child like she did. Who has money like that in the real blue-collar world?

Enter An Ning, single mother of the cutest boy ever, An Kang. An Ning was a woman who had been let down by Pang Nin who was the father of An Kang. Little did she know that he was married when she got with him. You know how promises are made, well that was Pang Nin. The day she was going to him with her marriage papers she was six months pregnant, and she saw him with the woman that was his wife. She decided to leave and moved back to her hometown where she ran into a childhood friend at the train station who she eventually married due to being pregnant with An Kang. Well, that marriage was dissolved and An Ning was on the move to get away from the ex-husband that would not go away and always wanted money. She met Su Fei when she was leaving her building and almost hit An Kang. She offered to help her, but she declined because she recognized Yan Wei.

An Ning was a woman that had so many secrets, trusted no one and kept her defenses up all the time. She finally began to show signs of chinks in her armor after meeting Su Fei's brother, Su Lou (kindergarten teacher to An Kang). An Ning rejected his declaration of love and her telling him why was the harshest let down I have ever heard. So, mean, she used no filter when she told him why he should just give up on her. She really grated on my nerves as to how she was so up and down and trying to be this bad ass, wonder woman to save everyone but she couldn't tell them anything about herself. Annoyed!

Youran, the daughter of Su Fei and Yan Wei was spoiled and used to getting her way. She was too grown for her age. She had several clashes with her mother, Su Fei because she felt as though if she forgave her father, they could get back together again as a family. But the realization came when she heard her father being abusive to his new bride Ding Man Man. She eventually met with her father and ask him to be an honest person moving forward. But this little girl all of 10 years old would have not said the things that she said to Su Fei if she were my child. She just basically told her mother off, and she was so soothing to her that you wanted to tell Su Fei to snap out of it and discipline her. Unbelievable.

Finally, Ding Man Man who was so arrogant due to how her father raised her giving her everything. She at first just wanted to have fun with Yan Wei but that soon turned to love until she was just out of control. She finally got Yan Wei after his divorce, had her father agree to the marriage and sold her gallery to pay off his debt. I wish I would have sold my gallery for a man that had this debt before he married me. Then the icing on the cake, when Ding Man Man invited Su Fei to her wedding with her ex-husband, as if she really cared! But all was not roses for Ding Man Man after she married Yan Wei. She found out that he had created a company which listed her and her father as owning which got her father fired from his company. She confronted him and he beat her up big time. Yan Wei was just crazy. She finally left him and turned him into the police for all that he did.

So, after watching these "magical women" I thought to myself, where is the magic? How were they magical? The situations that they covered is nothing new. There was nothing magical to getting out of these situations that they encountered. We as women deal with being mistreated or abused by men either physically or mentally. Now, the two men that healed the hearts of Su Fei and An Ning were Yang Kai and Su Lou both understood what each of these women had gone through. I feel the magic came from these men not the women. They showed their magic by listening, making them laugh, cry, helping with personal issues, standing by their sides when they felt they had no one and showing that they were not like the men that they had dealt with in the past.

If you are looking for magic in this drama, it was by these two men and the journey they had in showing these two women that you can open up your hearts to love again, that was the magic to me.

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Wasn’t magical, but strong females.

This is pretty decent in that the main women, Su Fei (FL) and An Ming (SFL) did not wallow in tears of ‘why me, poor me’ after hubbys infidelity. In fact, they stood their ground, never wavered to stand high on their decision to leave the past.
I’m weary of weak, submissive, self sacrifice, wavering decision written women characters. The main two here shows how to stand on their own. That’s what I like most.

The story is nothing new. Two female leads bonded by chance over one knew the other’s hubby was being naughty. This formed a unique friendship. In the business world they battle wits to outdo, and manipulate. How? You’ll have to find out. I guarantee there is no tropes though as these females know how to walk and won’t be falling. Story paces well. All the side characters, from cute children to annoying ones served their parts to add flavor to the story. Stirred together, it’s pretty good entertainment.

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