This review may contain spoilers
Triggers for drinking, date-rape drug use, SA, violence, cheating, & stupidity
I apologize in advance if this review is a little all over the place. I took a lot of notes, and it got to the point where keeping them organized was a lost cause.
First off, I love that this was set in the 90s. A little before and after I was born, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip. The set design & prop crew did a fantastic job with everything.
Honestly, my only real complaints about the show were: some scenes being replayed at different angles & it just didn't look good seeing the actor do the same action again and again and again. I have a few unanswered questions that I feel are important (I'll get to this at the end), & the unwillingness to communicate. This wasn't just miscommunication; they just didn't do it. I'm also 50/50 on whether I liked the narration or not.
Normally, I would have cheating as one of the things I hated most, because it's one of my biggest triggers, but honestly, in this case it was valid. I'm not saying that because I didn't like Bei Lu Xin either; on the contrary, once she stopped being a drunk, I actually liked her a lot. I liked that she was bold, blunt, & I was 100% in her corner when she started telling off Lu Xiao Fan's family. I've never been so happy when she called Fan's family trash and shameless to their faces. No, the cheating was valid because Lu Xiao Fan was basically sold to the Bei family & there was no love there. It was also going on on both sides. Was it right? Hell no. But I didn't think less of either character for it. This is a massive first for me.
Specking of Lu Xiao Fan~ I really liked him as well. He kind of stays a doormat throughout the series, but he's one of those hard brisily ones that hurt your feet if you stand on them barefoot. He's overly polite and mild-mannered, has a hard time going against anyone or specking up for himself, & has little self-esteem. All that being said, we learn at the end that he plays the long con and will hit you where it hurts when you are least expecting it. The scary thing was that it wasn't even really done out of hate. I don't think this boy is capable of hate.
I can understand Lu Xiao Fan's actions as well when you think about everything that Bei Lu Qing was doing and planning for them to be together, but not explaining any of it, so all Lu Xiao Fan saw was Bei Lu Qing pushing him aside for someone "better" than him. Who wouldn't be hurt and have a plan of attack & a financial plan that has literally been years in the making? A lot of my unanswered questions actually got answered in the last episode, such as why Lu Xiao Fan was throwing random magazines away? Why is he collecting cardboard boxes & trash? Why is he in this random alley? Why was this random stock trader guy smirking? I LOVED seeing all of these little puzzle pieces being shown throughout the series come together to help complete a picture that was hidden within the bigger picture we were focused on. I never would have guessed Lu Xiao Fan had been planning all of that.
This show focuses heavily on family dynamics. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And in this specific case, the very ugly.
The family was its own headache. I swear they only had a few functioning brain cells between them all. Before I get too into this, I just want to say that I grew up on a farm. I still farm to this day; being a farmer means that you have to save where you can if you can, and you are going to take more losses than gains. Especially if you live and work out of a small town and sell locally. This is all to say that I have a good idea of how poor these people probably are, so I'm not judging them for being poor and wanting a better life. I'm judging them on the fact that they are money-hungry assholes, with only the mother being halfway decent. The little sister is a self-entitled brat that I'm glad we aren't subjected to for very long. The mother, as I said, is halfway decent, but she still sold her son and used him to get further in life. What made her decent is that she gave Lu Xiao Fan some money before he left, refused to take his money in the end, & took his side when her oldest son Ping and husband were trying to take advantage of Lu Xiao Fan. The husband really was just money-hungry and felt he was owed by the Bei family.
Ping gets his own paragraph because he's a special asshole. The stupid kind that never learns & leeches off others instead of doing the work himself. Lu Xiao Fan goes to Bei Lu Qing to get Ping a job, then another job; he then loses that job & his fiancée after getting a girl pregnant after a drunk one-night stand, so Fan has to ask for another job for him when all he's trying to do is get away from the Bei family. Then this asshole badgers his brother for money so he can enter the stock market & when he doesn't get it, he sells client information & takes money from everyone in his village. He loses in the stock market & leaves said village bankrupt. He does all of this and doesn't feel bad about any of it, only that he didn't make money. When Bei Lu Qing offers money for the Lu family to cut ties with Fan, he's only more than happy to sell his brother again. Ping is the perfect example of a waste of oxygen. He is one never-ending problem.
The family is also rude and ill-mannered, which has nothing to do with them being poor & everything to do with them believing they are owed the good things they are getting & everything bad that happens is someone else's fault. They have zero accountablity & that continues as far as I'm aware until Fan cuts all ties with them. They are money-hungry and an embarrassment. How did Fan turn out so sweet? I was so happy when he cut ties with them.
Lin Zi Yang is the last character I want to talk about. I didn't really expect him to have as big a role as he did. I didn't even bother to learn his name until episode 3. He turned out to be one of the characters I liked the most because, no matter how scheming, he was a loyal friend. I also found his reaction to Lu Xiao Fan pulling a meat cleaver on himself very funny. He backpedaled so fast lmao. Lu Xiao Fan is going to make him go prematurely gray.
I guess now I should get to the unanswered questions. If you know the answers, please feel free to share!
Why marry Lu Xiao Fan of all people? At one point, they make it sound like he was chosen, so who chose him? Why? I was hoping it would have been Bei Lu Qing, so we'd get a little more backstory on why he's obsessed with Fan. What did Lu Xiao Fan do with the money his mother gave him? What happened with Bei Lu Qing's mother? Why, in that one scene that we had to watch TWICE, did Lu Xiao Fan pull his pants down? What happened after? (Maybe don't answer that one?) What happened to the girl Ping got pregnant? Did she keep the baby? Was there even a baby to begin with? Did Li Wen Xi lose out on a lot of money in the end? How did Bri Lu Qing and his friends recover financially? On this, it would have been nice to see the search process for Lu Xiao Fan. What happened to the Lu family once they returned home to their now bankrupt village? What was in the box Lu Xiao Fan hid under the bed? Why was Lu Xiao Fan still wiring money to the bully/trader dude (I'm sorry, I forgot his name)? Did the trader dude tell Bei Lu Qing where Lu Xiao Fan was? If not, how did they find out? I know from the wire transfer, but how did they know about it/ come across it? They shouldn't have even known the two had contact with each other, right?
I feel like I have a lot more questions, but I just can't think of them right now. Honestly, if they had just answered the questions of how they found Lu Xiao Fan, what was in the box, & why Lu Xiao Fan was chosen in the first place, I might have given this series an 8. It was really good. The chemistry wasn't all there, & the kisses were just alright, but the story, production value, & pacing were really good.
First off, I love that this was set in the 90s. A little before and after I was born, so it was a bit of a nostalgia trip. The set design & prop crew did a fantastic job with everything.
Honestly, my only real complaints about the show were: some scenes being replayed at different angles & it just didn't look good seeing the actor do the same action again and again and again. I have a few unanswered questions that I feel are important (I'll get to this at the end), & the unwillingness to communicate. This wasn't just miscommunication; they just didn't do it. I'm also 50/50 on whether I liked the narration or not.
Normally, I would have cheating as one of the things I hated most, because it's one of my biggest triggers, but honestly, in this case it was valid. I'm not saying that because I didn't like Bei Lu Xin either; on the contrary, once she stopped being a drunk, I actually liked her a lot. I liked that she was bold, blunt, & I was 100% in her corner when she started telling off Lu Xiao Fan's family. I've never been so happy when she called Fan's family trash and shameless to their faces. No, the cheating was valid because Lu Xiao Fan was basically sold to the Bei family & there was no love there. It was also going on on both sides. Was it right? Hell no. But I didn't think less of either character for it. This is a massive first for me.
Specking of Lu Xiao Fan~ I really liked him as well. He kind of stays a doormat throughout the series, but he's one of those hard brisily ones that hurt your feet if you stand on them barefoot. He's overly polite and mild-mannered, has a hard time going against anyone or specking up for himself, & has little self-esteem. All that being said, we learn at the end that he plays the long con and will hit you where it hurts when you are least expecting it. The scary thing was that it wasn't even really done out of hate. I don't think this boy is capable of hate.
I can understand Lu Xiao Fan's actions as well when you think about everything that Bei Lu Qing was doing and planning for them to be together, but not explaining any of it, so all Lu Xiao Fan saw was Bei Lu Qing pushing him aside for someone "better" than him. Who wouldn't be hurt and have a plan of attack & a financial plan that has literally been years in the making? A lot of my unanswered questions actually got answered in the last episode, such as why Lu Xiao Fan was throwing random magazines away? Why is he collecting cardboard boxes & trash? Why is he in this random alley? Why was this random stock trader guy smirking? I LOVED seeing all of these little puzzle pieces being shown throughout the series come together to help complete a picture that was hidden within the bigger picture we were focused on. I never would have guessed Lu Xiao Fan had been planning all of that.
This show focuses heavily on family dynamics. The good, the bad, and the ugly. And in this specific case, the very ugly.
The family was its own headache. I swear they only had a few functioning brain cells between them all. Before I get too into this, I just want to say that I grew up on a farm. I still farm to this day; being a farmer means that you have to save where you can if you can, and you are going to take more losses than gains. Especially if you live and work out of a small town and sell locally. This is all to say that I have a good idea of how poor these people probably are, so I'm not judging them for being poor and wanting a better life. I'm judging them on the fact that they are money-hungry assholes, with only the mother being halfway decent. The little sister is a self-entitled brat that I'm glad we aren't subjected to for very long. The mother, as I said, is halfway decent, but she still sold her son and used him to get further in life. What made her decent is that she gave Lu Xiao Fan some money before he left, refused to take his money in the end, & took his side when her oldest son Ping and husband were trying to take advantage of Lu Xiao Fan. The husband really was just money-hungry and felt he was owed by the Bei family.
Ping gets his own paragraph because he's a special asshole. The stupid kind that never learns & leeches off others instead of doing the work himself. Lu Xiao Fan goes to Bei Lu Qing to get Ping a job, then another job; he then loses that job & his fiancée after getting a girl pregnant after a drunk one-night stand, so Fan has to ask for another job for him when all he's trying to do is get away from the Bei family. Then this asshole badgers his brother for money so he can enter the stock market & when he doesn't get it, he sells client information & takes money from everyone in his village. He loses in the stock market & leaves said village bankrupt. He does all of this and doesn't feel bad about any of it, only that he didn't make money. When Bei Lu Qing offers money for the Lu family to cut ties with Fan, he's only more than happy to sell his brother again. Ping is the perfect example of a waste of oxygen. He is one never-ending problem.
The family is also rude and ill-mannered, which has nothing to do with them being poor & everything to do with them believing they are owed the good things they are getting & everything bad that happens is someone else's fault. They have zero accountablity & that continues as far as I'm aware until Fan cuts all ties with them. They are money-hungry and an embarrassment. How did Fan turn out so sweet? I was so happy when he cut ties with them.
Lin Zi Yang is the last character I want to talk about. I didn't really expect him to have as big a role as he did. I didn't even bother to learn his name until episode 3. He turned out to be one of the characters I liked the most because, no matter how scheming, he was a loyal friend. I also found his reaction to Lu Xiao Fan pulling a meat cleaver on himself very funny. He backpedaled so fast lmao. Lu Xiao Fan is going to make him go prematurely gray.
I guess now I should get to the unanswered questions. If you know the answers, please feel free to share!
Why marry Lu Xiao Fan of all people? At one point, they make it sound like he was chosen, so who chose him? Why? I was hoping it would have been Bei Lu Qing, so we'd get a little more backstory on why he's obsessed with Fan. What did Lu Xiao Fan do with the money his mother gave him? What happened with Bei Lu Qing's mother? Why, in that one scene that we had to watch TWICE, did Lu Xiao Fan pull his pants down? What happened after? (Maybe don't answer that one?) What happened to the girl Ping got pregnant? Did she keep the baby? Was there even a baby to begin with? Did Li Wen Xi lose out on a lot of money in the end? How did Bri Lu Qing and his friends recover financially? On this, it would have been nice to see the search process for Lu Xiao Fan. What happened to the Lu family once they returned home to their now bankrupt village? What was in the box Lu Xiao Fan hid under the bed? Why was Lu Xiao Fan still wiring money to the bully/trader dude (I'm sorry, I forgot his name)? Did the trader dude tell Bei Lu Qing where Lu Xiao Fan was? If not, how did they find out? I know from the wire transfer, but how did they know about it/ come across it? They shouldn't have even known the two had contact with each other, right?
I feel like I have a lot more questions, but I just can't think of them right now. Honestly, if they had just answered the questions of how they found Lu Xiao Fan, what was in the box, & why Lu Xiao Fan was chosen in the first place, I might have given this series an 8. It was really good. The chemistry wasn't all there, & the kisses were just alright, but the story, production value, & pacing were really good.
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