This review may contain spoilers
(TW: incest, grooming, gaslighting)
It goes so deep in what it exposes. And it does it so well. The manipulator manages to be both charming and insidious. He seems so sincere. His emotions are genuine. We find ourselves wanting to believe in him. Even though we understand right away what's going on, the series makes absolutely no secret of it, and yet… we doubt for a moment.
The real issue is this : anyone can be manipulated. We think we're too smart for that, or that it only happens to other people, but the reality is that we already accept a lot of unacceptable things by convincing ourselves they're no big deal. We're easily gaslighted, and also quick to judge the victims...
The fact that this guy, Dr Luo, is a psychiatrist seems spot on to me. The thought and behaviour police. The worst scum I've come up against from childhood to adulthood ; they turn what we tell them against us and pathologise us, not to help us but to serve the capital and the State.
This man meddles in the life of this single mother without being invited. And what's brilliantly written here is how he's not the central character ; after all, the story is primarily about a system. He's just there, this snake slithering in on the coattails of his well-educated status, playing out his little drama in the lives of Yan Ling and her son.
Besides, those pickup artist courses are painful to sit through. And embarrassing. The way they reduce women to a single stereotype, a target to identified. Their dehumanizing logic is spine-chilling. "Broke her self-esteem"… The same tactics as managers,really. I don't want to live in that kind of world.
Yan Ling's mother, what a horrible person… Never a kind word for her daughter. Verbal and physical abuse. She idolizes her deceased husband and fully participates in upholding the patriarchal system that allows pedocriminality, incest and grooming. (All of which are interconnected) The series clearly shows how victims are ignored and how they have nothing to gain by speaking out, everything to lose.
Should we blame marginalized people who choose to step on others to keep their (precarious) place in this system ? I'm tempted to say yes, but there's no right answer. So it's good that the series shows both female and male examples : everyone participates in this system. The mother's redemption… why not ? It comes from the person most directly involved, so let's say it works. In any case, the series is smart enough not to limit itself to portraying men as bad and women as good by nature, because that kind of oversimplification would erase a great deal of power dynamics and reality. It takes an entire family to silence a victim of incest.
The way Yan Ling is manipulated just when she's at her lowest and most miserable is just sickening. It makes you furious to watch it happen, feeling powerless to do anything. And the parallel with the other women Luo Liang has destroyed before adds even more rage, if that were even possible. The "hot-and-cold" treatment, the love bombing, all these horrors work. As horrible as it is : it works. As long as we don't change the foundations of this society, it will continue. The predator isolates you, creates a comfortable cocoon that becomes a suffocating cage, then a source of comfort, then hell all over again ; you can't get out of there without losing absolutely everything, including a part of yourself. Confronting the perpetrator will inevitably lead to a tragedy. He says "If you want to leave, you can, at any time" knowing full well that it’s not possible. Power over others is all that interests this kind of person.
I don't like the term "narcissistic pervert". (which isn't used in the series) Firstly, because it comes from psychoanalysis, so it's off to a bad start. (Paul Racamier created the term in 1986. "Pervers narcissique" in french) Secondly, because it individualises the problem. These are traits inherent to the hetero-patriarchy that allow men to behave in this way, rather than an individual problem or a wholly personal choice. Though it is that too, a personnal choice... But that does not allow us to grasp the tangible reality of emotional and practical manipulation thanks to the whole system that supports it !
With someone like that, who says one thing and then another depending on what suits them and always has an answer for everything, there's no point trying to make them admit their lies. You need to cut all contact with them immediately ! They'll destroy you. And you won't be able to change them.
"Watching the women who love and trust you crumble in front of you, thinking you're clever and smart. You're wrong. You being able to hurt us doesn't mean you're smart. It's because you have no bottom line. You have no heart. [...] You're just a clown who bullies the weak and fears the strong."
Anyway. It's nice not to see the cops too often. But the way they uncover clues and their personalities make them likeable. (acab nonetheless) The investigation winds its way through its dark twists and turns, with a few surprises in store as it unfolds. In the end, it's not the right people who drive the story forward, and that's precisely what lends it a sense of realism. With the production quality on a usual C-drama level, it's all the more impactful because it's so well made and performed. The occasionally non-linear narrative helps us better understand the logic at play, rather than leaving us lost as is so often the case.
The series morbid atmosphere fits its theme perfectly. That scene with the bathtub frozen in blood…
It goes so deep in what it exposes. And it does it so well. The manipulator manages to be both charming and insidious. He seems so sincere. His emotions are genuine. We find ourselves wanting to believe in him. Even though we understand right away what's going on, the series makes absolutely no secret of it, and yet… we doubt for a moment.
The real issue is this : anyone can be manipulated. We think we're too smart for that, or that it only happens to other people, but the reality is that we already accept a lot of unacceptable things by convincing ourselves they're no big deal. We're easily gaslighted, and also quick to judge the victims...
The fact that this guy, Dr Luo, is a psychiatrist seems spot on to me. The thought and behaviour police. The worst scum I've come up against from childhood to adulthood ; they turn what we tell them against us and pathologise us, not to help us but to serve the capital and the State.
This man meddles in the life of this single mother without being invited. And what's brilliantly written here is how he's not the central character ; after all, the story is primarily about a system. He's just there, this snake slithering in on the coattails of his well-educated status, playing out his little drama in the lives of Yan Ling and her son.
Besides, those pickup artist courses are painful to sit through. And embarrassing. The way they reduce women to a single stereotype, a target to identified. Their dehumanizing logic is spine-chilling. "Broke her self-esteem"… The same tactics as managers,really. I don't want to live in that kind of world.
Yan Ling's mother, what a horrible person… Never a kind word for her daughter. Verbal and physical abuse. She idolizes her deceased husband and fully participates in upholding the patriarchal system that allows pedocriminality, incest and grooming. (All of which are interconnected) The series clearly shows how victims are ignored and how they have nothing to gain by speaking out, everything to lose.
Should we blame marginalized people who choose to step on others to keep their (precarious) place in this system ? I'm tempted to say yes, but there's no right answer. So it's good that the series shows both female and male examples : everyone participates in this system. The mother's redemption… why not ? It comes from the person most directly involved, so let's say it works. In any case, the series is smart enough not to limit itself to portraying men as bad and women as good by nature, because that kind of oversimplification would erase a great deal of power dynamics and reality. It takes an entire family to silence a victim of incest.
The way Yan Ling is manipulated just when she's at her lowest and most miserable is just sickening. It makes you furious to watch it happen, feeling powerless to do anything. And the parallel with the other women Luo Liang has destroyed before adds even more rage, if that were even possible. The "hot-and-cold" treatment, the love bombing, all these horrors work. As horrible as it is : it works. As long as we don't change the foundations of this society, it will continue. The predator isolates you, creates a comfortable cocoon that becomes a suffocating cage, then a source of comfort, then hell all over again ; you can't get out of there without losing absolutely everything, including a part of yourself. Confronting the perpetrator will inevitably lead to a tragedy. He says "If you want to leave, you can, at any time" knowing full well that it’s not possible. Power over others is all that interests this kind of person.
I don't like the term "narcissistic pervert". (which isn't used in the series) Firstly, because it comes from psychoanalysis, so it's off to a bad start. (Paul Racamier created the term in 1986. "Pervers narcissique" in french) Secondly, because it individualises the problem. These are traits inherent to the hetero-patriarchy that allow men to behave in this way, rather than an individual problem or a wholly personal choice. Though it is that too, a personnal choice... But that does not allow us to grasp the tangible reality of emotional and practical manipulation thanks to the whole system that supports it !
With someone like that, who says one thing and then another depending on what suits them and always has an answer for everything, there's no point trying to make them admit their lies. You need to cut all contact with them immediately ! They'll destroy you. And you won't be able to change them.
"Watching the women who love and trust you crumble in front of you, thinking you're clever and smart. You're wrong. You being able to hurt us doesn't mean you're smart. It's because you have no bottom line. You have no heart. [...] You're just a clown who bullies the weak and fears the strong."
Anyway. It's nice not to see the cops too often. But the way they uncover clues and their personalities make them likeable. (acab nonetheless) The investigation winds its way through its dark twists and turns, with a few surprises in store as it unfolds. In the end, it's not the right people who drive the story forward, and that's precisely what lends it a sense of realism. With the production quality on a usual C-drama level, it's all the more impactful because it's so well made and performed. The occasionally non-linear narrative helps us better understand the logic at play, rather than leaving us lost as is so often the case.
The series morbid atmosphere fits its theme perfectly. That scene with the bathtub frozen in blood…
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