L13

It's like Love Like the Galaxy with actually likeable leads. I couldn't stand the FL in LLTG and thought she and the ML had zero romantic tension, but I'm enjoying Blossoms in Adversity a lot more.

I know the whole point of the struggling women subplot is that Zhi's female relatives are not used to taking care of themselves and don't know how the world works, so they will make mistakes at first until they gain some useful skills and confidence in their own abilities, but they are so fucking dumb, my God. She would own half of China by now if her own moronic family didn't sabotage her constantly.

An overall refreshing romcom that started off with a bang, started going downhill around episode 8 and delivered a mediocre final act. The problem is that it had too many melodramatic heart-to-heart scenes and they were mostly overwritten and underacted. Fewer cheesy lines that no real person could get through without cringing would have improved the overall quality of the product, to say nothing of all the filler in the last two episodes.

Still, the drama left me with a warm feeling of satisfaction, even if I had to fast-forward through some parts. I liked the main characters, the supporting cast and the comedic tone. I stomached the excessive melodrama, the cliches and the half-assed dark family backstory. That's a solid 7/10 by the standards of the genre.

(The choice to make it 12 episodes long absolutely saved the show, because I've watched too many 16-episode dramas that followed a similar trajectory and became totally unwatchable in the final fourth.)

Are we going to get real subtitles for this show, because the ones they have so far are unreadable.

This movie was too stupid even for me.

That's not how the law works! A fake marriage contract written on a piece of paper that no legal professional has ever seen, let alone signed, has no legal force! Stop talking nonsense!

Fake marriage contracts are not real contracts, the two of them are mot actually married yet, and even if they were really married and their contract had legal force, keeping someone married to you by force is extremely unethical no matter whether they cheated on you or not.

I’m not reading all that, sorry, but just to respond to your first few sentences, I think people are criticising Dohan for refusing to let Ajeong go and trying to guilt-trip her into marrying him when she likes someone else and not for refusing to come out. There are options available to him other than trapping his friend into an unwanted marriage and coming out.

ABP didn’t grip me personally, while WI is keeping me glued to the screen. The plot is more intricate, the leads have more entertaining dynamics and the secondary characters are more like real people. The protagonists are not stereotypes either. Just my opinion, though; I know a lot of people loved ABP.

Well, they left Dohan in the salon, so I guess he'll have to take care of that.

Yeah, at this point this is the one thing that doesn't make sense to me. Sure, his grandfather may cut him off financially if he just leaves without permission. Whatever! I'm sure he can get an apartment in New York in his name and buy a nice sports car or two using his family's fortune before shit hits the fan, or maybe he already owns assets like that. If he sells off everything in his name, including shares and what not, he'll probably have at least a few million dollars plus a university degree, which is enough to start a new life even without his grandfather's support. So if he finds his family that oppressive and unpleasant to be around, he can just leave... and he doesn't need a wife for that.

A woman of lower social status (a former courtesan in ADoS and a divorcee here) meets an honourable official and sparks fly, but they are too different in status and outlook to forge a romantic connection. However, they meet again in a different city after the woman moves there and starts her own business (a teahouse in ADoS and a flower shop here) with other female friends who are struggling to find a place in society. And ultimately our heroine and our hero fall in love and overcome their class differences to get together.

At least that's what I gather from the plot summary above.

This sounds a lot like A Dream of Splendor, which I'm thrilled with because ADoS was great.

I think she's already coming around to the possibility he's not the culprit in eps 6-7. I don't know what reason she'll have to keep her identity a secret after she accepts that, but it seems she must, otherwise a lot of the dramatic tension in the story will dissipate.

Yeah, but I never really thought of them as real best friends. They hadn't spoken in 5 years prior to the first episode and Ajeong was pretending to be successful in front of him to keep up appearances, so clearly there was distance between them. They used to be very close in school, which gives you "best friend emeritus" status for life unless you've had a falling out, but I always thought her actual adult best friends were the two actresses she always hangs out with.

What "chemistry" are you talking about? Chemistry is a two-way street and Jihan doesn't even see her as a woman at this point.

I just don't understand how this show can have haters. It's giving me EVERYTHING.

Are we sure this will be only 6 episodes? I feel like with all this hype it has to be longer than that.

The part where she said their "concept" was going to be "madly in love" 10 minutes before that?!?!?! lmao

1. She agreed to be his wife, not just to act like it, and 2. did you miss the whole point of their agreement, which was to convince grandpa and the general public that they’re in love, which doesn’t really work if all of Ajeong’s colleagues and Jihan’s social circle see Ajeong going into a hotel room with Jihan at the same time she’s supposed to be submitting her marriage registration form with Dohan in a different city?

If you agree to act like a woman in love for your friend’s sake, you should do that instead of discrediting your fake relationship in public and ghosting your friend for his brother without telling him. That is indeed so obvious and simple that even people of very basic intelligence should understand it.