AshesandDust

Thankyouu! You are a gem 😊

I'm a little confused by the time line here. I think this might be the first plot hole in an otherwise excellent drama:
So in 2007, Chiang Hsiao Tung was r*ped, Li jen yao stabbed Ouyang ti and went to juvie. His sentence got extended thanks to Oyuang Ti's mom and he stayed there till 2014.
Meanwhile Chiang Hsiao Tung sliced up her face soon after she moved with her family to Taipei. She then suppressed all her memories and had to get plastic surgery. Created another personality for herself as a coping mechanism for the trauma she had. So when exactly did she set up the Christmas tree on the roof in those 7 years? I initially thought maybe she went there alone after 5 years just for this and THEN sliced up her face and created a whole new personality. But then i rewatched the scene and her mom can be heard saying that she has talked to the new school and the teachers meaning she did that soon after they got to taipei and not after 5 years like i originally thought. So did Chiang Hsiao Tung briefly come out after 5 years? Did she briefly return to herself just to fulfill that promise? I don't know. Then again im only on episode 4, maybe it'll be explained later?

Finished part 1, onto part 2! I am so devastated by what happened to both of them and i know there's only one possible end but this drama is such an important lesson to society: Do not turn a blind eye to the wrongs around you, do not force someone to seek out their own revenge. Do better, every crime that happens is our responsibility. Every criminal that is created is our responsibility. Every person who is denied justice is our responsibility. We must do better.

From the very start it's clear that the one ray of light in Li Jen yao's life is CHT. She is his sun, his every hope. I understand why he chose the path that he did. This isn't a story about vengeance. Its a story of how society failed these kids. And ultimately led to their self destruction.
Had Li Jen Yao's father not been such a scumbag and actually taken responsibility for his own actions, had his mother left her ab*sive husband when it was clear he was going to drag them down to hell, had Ouyang ti's parents not covered his every crime for the sake of public image and social standing, had any neighbour or bystander reported the ab*se Li Jen Yao faced or when CHT was SA'd, none of this would have happened.
The show does an excellent job of showing how many times there was an opportunity for someone, anyone to step in and alter the course of events. But no one did..the adults left these kids to their own devices. This is why despite wanting to take matters into your own hands, despite being frustrated with the justice system, you canNOT take matters into your own hands. Because where does it end? How many people do you kill before revenge is complete?
Ofcourse it's going to be extremely satisfying to see LJY take down those filthy humans one by one, but what was the price? He had to descend to a place where no one should go. And this story is precisely about that.
And im sure im right in my theory regarding Pin Yu. She's CHT. A personality of CHT. Probably there's more and the girl we see at the end is also CHT. Another one of her personalities. Chi Chi is probably the personality that remembers everything.
The only thing that bothers me is that, why did CHT have to go with Ouyang ti? Li jen yao had already told her the pic wasn't going to be a problem. So why did she have to try still? I feel like makers should have shown why she decided to go. That's the only part that bothers me.
Oof, onto part 2 now!

Just finished part 1. That was....heavy, heartbreaking, beautiful and destructive all at the same time. Further thoughts in the comment below:

Thankyou! your words really helped and it means a lot to me that you took the time to write your comment just to be supportive 😊
I don't understand either why a simple question is offending so many people but I've simply decided to not watch this show.

If you need other drama recs:
1)Train
2) the east palace
3) better days (chinese movie)
4) awaken
5) Blood Free
6) Moving
7) Revenant
8) If wishes could kill
9) Kairos
10) Law School
11) Money Game
12) Little Women
13) Tomorrow

I have my theories regarding Chen Pin Yu. The part where she talks to her friend "Chi Chi" on the phone and then a few min later she cant find her phone? And it's in her bagpack? Yeah i know where this is going....maybe because I've seen and read a lot of mystery/thrillers but i think my theory is going to be spot on.

Finally started this yesterday (after months of deliberation) On episode 3 and...I understand the praise. Especially for Tseng Jing Hua. Give this man all the awards. Such a beautiful love story and so heartbreaking. I know its going to absolutely wreck me, im prepared for it.

K..bye

Okay here we go:
1) i simply asked which episode or episodes have explicit content so that i may avoid those parts. That is my personal choice. If i lose bits of the plot because of that, that is not harming anyone. It is my CHOICE and the person commenting over you was constantly hounding me about something that had nothing to do with them. If I want to watch something on my own terms, that is my right. It is nobody's concern.
2) there is no such thing as "dark themed rom com". The term you are looking for is Black comedy. And simply adding the word "dark" does not mean explicit content is a necessity. Ive watched plenty of dark shows without explicit content.
3) i told the person commenting above you multiple times that I'll just wait for someone who can answer my questions and that they can move on. They actively chose to keep hounding me about being "afraid of nudity/naked chest". That is very much harassment. They were obsessed with trying to make me see things their way. What does it have to do with anyone HOW i choose to watch a drama? Does it hurt you in anyway? No it doesn't. So i don't understand why im being targeted for a simple innocent question. If you think it was so central to the plot, you can simply ignore my question? By your thinking then, trigger warnings shouldn't exist either right? Since those parts are central to the plot so if you tell people that there are such scenes in a trigger warning you are spoiling the plot?

Moving on, I've decided ultimately not to watch this drama since no one seems to be interested in answering the question i asked. Rather im getting needlessly targeted for having a personal choice.

You absolutely hit the nail on the head. I feel like this is a case of a drama that has the cast but doesn't utilise them. The makers leaned to heavily on the main actors thinking we would ignore the lackluster script. The pacing in the first 11 episodes was fine. They had an emotional impact too. But after that? It was a mess. And i agree that they should have shown chen yi to be atleast 6 years older because otherwise it did NOT make sense. They had at the most a 2 year age gap but it didnt feel like it. Plus i would have liked to see both leads' struggles during the time they were apart rather than just seeing what happened to chen yi. Miao Jing just appears as this confident, femme fatale figure after the leap and there's no build up to it. This was the number 1 reason why i could not connect to her character post leap. I didnt see her development so how could i?

Oh i forgot to mention twelve letters. I've seen that, it was one of the good ones! I do think kdramas like signal and kairos did a similar concept slightly better but otherwise i liked it. The rest I've tried and dropped. Except for Reset and I Am Nobody. These two dramas have been on my plan to watch list for ages and i think this is my sign to finally watch them

Ofcourse not 🤣🤣 we would be running...in the opposite direction 🏃‍♀️

Kang si woo did the hand thing!!!
You know, the one that mr.darcy does in the 2005 adaptation of Pride and prejudice ☺️

I like jang ki young too but in that particular drama, it just made sense for lee soo hyuk's character to be the lead. I dont know why the makers fumbled it so badly. They had the right set up, past lovers get reincarnated and meet again in present day and are drawn to each other. Even without the so called "love triangle" the plot had so many holes so it wasnt just that part that bothered me

I actually like anti-heroes 🤭 only in dramaworld though ofcourse. In real life, I'd get a restraining order 😅

Number of episode isn't a problem. The problem is the infantilisation of their FLs, the weird dubbing, the plots that are usually predictable and the censorship because of which we often get interesting scenarios, only to find out it was all a dream. I watched prisoner of beauty as well and while it was better than some, it still did not blow my mind away. Derailment was another one that suffered because of censorship. We could have had them exploring further and deeper but because of censorship 🤷‍♀️ i just think kdramas are better in terms of acting, plots and scripts. The thrillers are especially good. While cdrama thrillers are often disappointing.

Ive tried quite a few of the top recommended ones and ive always ended up either dropping or fast forwarding the episodes after a certain point. For example, the most recommended ones are usually pursuit of jade and the first frost. I found the kdrama My Dearest faaaaar more superior to both in every way, be it the acting, the script, the cinematography or the ending. So I've come to conclusion that cdramas are simply not my thing.

I think its because the actress is just so pretty, they knew they had to give her a quirky hair style to make her believable in this particular role