Thoroughly Entertaining Show With Profound Themes of Love and Acceptance
Truly such a fun show. this is my second rewatch and I love it just as much as I did before. tian is such a loveable protagonist and his relationship with his brother yang and his mother li are so complex and layered. oddly enough, despite that, I was still kind of detached from tian emotionally as he didn't have much of a personal character arc. in fact, I thought his parents were more interesting as people than him in some cases while he, despite being really loveable and easy to root for, is kind of already perfect. the show kind of hits you over the head with how perfect he is, and he has no personal arc at all.
the romance is very sweet but it's really boring. I thought jiu was just okay as his love interest and surprisingly in such an entertaining show, their relationship just... fine.
yang and pin were so cute but like I didn't get too attached them as well. I think the problem is that the show presents such important issues like class differences, homophobia and feminism through an extremely modern lens. like, tian is very feminist and wants the women to make their own choices, yang is also the same, pin is a girlboss, jiu is gay and he has no struggles with himself at all. I understand maybe pim but in the historical context, it makes no sense for the characters to be so ahead of their time.
I thought one way of the historical framing with postmodern sentiments that was handled really well was with xiatung and her little spy. like it shows how women in such an era were able to maintain control and autonomy. similarly, li and chan, despite being such deplorable people are still sympathetic because their motivations are rooted in the cultural context of the time period. chan has spent her entire life being placed second to her rivals so of course it makes sense that she's intensely bitter and cruel. li has severe PTSD from witnessing Zhang's suicide and doesn't want her son to experience this so she makes things worse by trying to protect him.
in short, superb and entertaining drama, with everyone being complex except the main character but that's alright because he's a cutie.
the romance is very sweet but it's really boring. I thought jiu was just okay as his love interest and surprisingly in such an entertaining show, their relationship just... fine.
yang and pin were so cute but like I didn't get too attached them as well. I think the problem is that the show presents such important issues like class differences, homophobia and feminism through an extremely modern lens. like, tian is very feminist and wants the women to make their own choices, yang is also the same, pin is a girlboss, jiu is gay and he has no struggles with himself at all. I understand maybe pim but in the historical context, it makes no sense for the characters to be so ahead of their time.
I thought one way of the historical framing with postmodern sentiments that was handled really well was with xiatung and her little spy. like it shows how women in such an era were able to maintain control and autonomy. similarly, li and chan, despite being such deplorable people are still sympathetic because their motivations are rooted in the cultural context of the time period. chan has spent her entire life being placed second to her rivals so of course it makes sense that she's intensely bitter and cruel. li has severe PTSD from witnessing Zhang's suicide and doesn't want her son to experience this so she makes things worse by trying to protect him.
in short, superb and entertaining drama, with everyone being complex except the main character but that's alright because he's a cutie.
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