any_anka

Both speak Mandarin as their main official language, sometimes referred to as Chinese Mandarin or just Chinese (which imo can be a bit confusing, because another wildly spoken language in China and within Chinese diaspora worldwide is Chinese Cantonese or just Cantonese).

Ofc there are local dialects, but overall, what you hear in dramas and in this one in particular is Mandarin.

The accent will sound a bit different than what people who e.g. watch costume cdramas are used to, but it's the same language, with minor differences in vocab and tones - kinda similar to British and American English.

I would definitely tune in to watch a thriller with these two as protagonists! Even not necessarily something from Sei's point of view. I think a work focusing on events portrayed from Fujisawa's POV, focusing on how his brain worked when he was conducting all his little manipulations...
"It Always Rains After the Sunshine" (I'm bad at naming things too :P)

Ok, I will actually kinda "defend" her now, despite not liking her character much.

I think her trying to date new guys while repeating the same pattern, without ever having an open conversation with them could stem from her herself hoping this time would be different. I think the girl was lying to herself and in some form of a delusion as well. I think one indicator of that was what she told Hagi before breaking up (I'm quoting from memory) "every time I rejected you, I'd tell myself I'd do it the next day, and then the next day" - it wasn't just telling him "tomorrow, honey" to get rid of his advances, I think she was convincing herself that she *can* do it, that she is willing to try harder, willing to change etc. Now, I am not trying to say that the way she behaved was fair to Hagi, but I tend to believe that she was keeping herself in a form of a delusion, too.

The only really dooming thing about Kaori for me is what she told her pregnant friend, as that points out to a complete disregard for Hagi's feelings. But even that, in a way, shows that she tried to sort of convince herself that a situation that was not "normal" (as she saw Hagi was *not* happy with their arrangement) into something totally fine and in a way, a regular thing. Once again, I think she was being delusional for the big part of their relationship, pretending in front of not only Hagi, but also herself that things are ok the way they are.

The girl is a master of running away, either it being her reaction to finding out Hagi cheated, her spending nights outside of their home rather frequently, or... convincing herself that she would have sex with Hagi next day. For a person with such mindset, it's not surprising she would also "run away" from an honest conversation or even admitting that her relationships have pattern, before entering a new one.

Now, is that a mitigating factor in all her behaviours? I guess the opinions would differ.

You summed up everything I think of Fujisawa! From the situation with the TV and Fuji's supposed "kindness" by buying it to his attempt to isolate Sei more with the idea of a move when he started feeling Sei is regaining his freedom.

The only thing I am not so sure and might have a different opinion about is that Fuji is interested in sex but not sex with Sei. I actually agree that Fuji used withholding sex as yet another way to control Sei (he basically shamed Sei for wanting it and Sei was definitely affected - I keep coming back to the scene when he kept very violently washing his hands after masturbating, as for me it was an indicator of that). But I just haven't decided if Fuji is asexual, or is he just straight or not sexually attracted to Sei, or is he attracted to Sei, but suffers from internalized homophobia or MAYBE if he doesn't wanna have sex, because that would be the moment when he is not fully in control.

But I pretty much agree with everything else you wrote about Fuji.

P.S. I'd also add that to me Sei/Fuji dynamic became the most interesting part of this drama. I no longer watch it as a BL, but more like a case study in psychology lol Of course I still cheer for Hagi and Sei to get together and I like both of their characters. I think they have great chemistry and are quite compatible for a long term relationship as well. However "When it rains, it pours" already transcended the usual BL or romance drama in my humble opinion ;)

The way I saw it, Sei acknowledged they had sex. Hagiwara called him a liar after seeing the bruises on his wrist, suggesting that Sei was covering for an assault (because he was putting up a front that all is well and he got what he wanted from Fuji).

The TV situation to me felt super manipulative. Sei had to adhere to tons of rules while living with Fujisawa (including, but not limited to, the lack of TV), but *now* when Fuji sees Sei slowly slipping away (having a semblance of social life again, chatting with other people, sometimes even smiling while doing so) he throws Sei "a bone" to show how good he is to him.

"He trained Sei as a pet. He shows his dominance in all fields. He looks down on Sei, sneers at his financial situation and work."

Yesss. I am happy you mention those, as to me they are way more indicative than that one situation with a pressed toe (albeit that was weird as well) that their relationship is toxic.

I haven't read the novel, but I did see some spoilers here and there. Your comment made me consider my own opinion about Fujisawa and question if I might've been influenced by what I read. And... I don't really think that's the case. The first spoiler I read (I don't know how reliable it was, considering everything that happened in the story ;)) actually stated that the novel was written in a way that the audience would feel sorry for all characters. So if anything, I actually expected some "redemption arc" for Fujisawa. I also considered being influenced by others commenting here, but I remember some people suggesting what Sei and Hagiwara did was not cheating and others claiming that Kaori is abusive, too. I never agreed with these two takes, either. Why I even mention all of it is simply to emphasize that my judgement of Fujisawa is mostly based on what I've seen in the drama, not the novel (or any external factors).

I saw some of your previous comments and I think your interpretation of his character is really kind, as in "wanna see good in every person" type of attitude and I honestly think that's commendable ;) I just find it difficult to show his character the same type of "grace" as you do 😋
I wrote quite extensively in a couple of other comments about Fuji's behaviour, so here I'll just say that to me he felt "off" since episode 1 or 2 already. And then, the moment when it transpired that he didn't relay the message from Sei's friends to him was a somewhat conclusive event for me. If we don't consider him abusive, then I would at least call him toxic. Up until episode 6 there was no violence involved, so I guess whatever he's done up till then wouldn't qualify as any legal transgression. Still, if I had a friend dating someone behaving the way he did even beforhand, I would caution them about such relationship (if I could contact them, that is).

That is... indeed a good point 😋
But if they stuck to reality, then the wouldn't have been able to do this whole extreme training plot ;)

Sure, psychopaths can be functional and highly successful members of society (which, now when I think about it Fujisawa kinda is, considering he is this famous designer 😋).

It's difficult to talk seriously abt psychopathy, as it's not even considered an official diagnosis. I guess for me - whenever I think "psychopath" - I imagine a person completely devoid of ability to feel empathy (you know, this sort of popular widespread image) and not a someone who's on anti social disorder spectrum. Which is why I referred to it as "extreme".
But you do have a point there, as people are complex beings :)

Oh, I didn't mean to suggest it was solely an American thing. I did - however - remember that while it was invented by some European guy, there was this dude in America who popularised it and made it more "accessible" with simplifying the procedure (and thus widespread). I wrote what I remembered and, I admit, I didn't do any double-checking in this regard before writing the above comment. So, sorry for that ;)

Yes, I'm aware it wasn't an only option but it was fairly popular and I guess with the very fact how absolutely barbaric this procedure is with nowadays' hindsight, such popularity was enough for me to consider it "en masse" (you know, as opposed to, it should never be done ;))
But once again, sorry for any over exaggeration on my part!

Actually, funeral homes have to be on call 24/7, similar to hospitals.

As for the second part of your comment, I honestly don't know how competitive the industry could get 😋

I mean... I don't know if he's necessarily a psychopath (that might be a bit too extreme of a "diagnosis"), but he definitely is a disturbed and manipulative individual. Definitely not healthy for Sei to be around.

Oh, you won't find me making excuses for Fujisawa. I felt weird about his character since the very beginning of the drama. Whenever him and Sei had a shared scene, there was this suffocating, oppressive atmosphere around.

Huh, same. The first thing I thought of when watching this was Eternal Butler 😋
It looks better than it, though, in my opinion at least. I dropped EB, but I am inclined to give this one a chance. I think Taiwan is pretty good at making those campy, comedy BLs (cases in point, HIStory 2: Crossing the Line or You Are Mine, which I know MDL crowd didn't like that much, but I loved), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed this will be another example of a successful one and not another EB.
The acting alone is better, so I'm willing to be lenient at least for the next one or two episodes ;)

I mean... Such things could even differ by countries, needless to say by eras. The modern treatment of mental illness (and thus, the relationship between the patient and the psychiatrist) is a concept of the recent hundred years if not younger. "Hysterical" women were still lobotomized in the 1950s America en masse. That's how much things have changed...
If we assume (as I saw some ppl point out) the drama is inspired by Wu Zetian rule, then it takes place arnd year 700 (I'm not that smart, I checked ;)). Of course the rules of... everything were different back then.

Besides, in order to have the official code of ethics, you'd probably need to have the psychiatry recognized as a legit profession. I might be mistaken, but didn't FL say sth about being the first ever doctor of the heart/mind in the early episodes? People look at her and think of what she's doing as witchcraft... 😋

BTW this is a world where torture is an official method of interrogating people. Lack of a "proper" relationship between a psychiatrist and her patient is not that surprising ;)

Yeah, I saw people mention the toe situation as a red flag. Personally, it escaped my attention while I was watching the drama, but I kept noticing a lot of those other subtle "techniques" Fujisawa used. If you separate them into individual occurrences, some of them were obviously alarming (like Fuji not relaying the msgs from Sei's friends), other more lowkey, like his passive aggressive behaviour here and there.
But generally, I'd say he was rather covert and "skilful" about it until that "explosion" in ep 6.

The actor's is doing a really good job, for sure.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the plot. Fujisawa's been abusive towards Sei for years and, as it is often the case, the abuse escalated. It's neither that weird, uncommon or surprising. Even more so, because it happened when Fujisawa felt he was losing his grip/control over Sei. As some other commentators mentioned before, it's all about control - and I agree. Fujisawa had his ways to assert his power over Sei, from isolating him from his friends, to deciding the arrangement of their shared house, judging his choices, e.g. to go to a work party or finally "dosing" his affection.
When he found out Sei had sex with Hagiwara, he felt threatened/insecure, so he proposed for them to move (isolating Sei from Hagiwara and other city temptations and possibilities for a hook-up, encouraging to quit his job etc. to further his control).

When that didn't work the way he intended, he confronted Sei but Sei wasn't particularly ashamed of what he did. I guess you could even say that he intentionally tried to upset Fujisawa by saying things like "we went at it like rabbits". Moreover, he even wanted to contact Hagiwara and "wanted to see him". A very symbolic element of that scene was Sei listening to the rain sound on his phone sent to him by Hagiwara. All of this was a clear indicator for Fujisawa that he was losing control established over the years and it - I can only assume - made him crazy with insecurity.

A way to establish that control back was to escalate his abuse. Why a sexual assault though? Well, I have some theories:
1) Sei had sex with Hagiwara, and in Fujisawa's eyes he was reclaiming what was "his" by having sex with Sei as well.
2) Because Sei had always wanted sex from him before, so in a desperation to make Sei dependant on him again, he decided to give him what he had wanted.
3) It was a form of punishment. As in "oh, so you wanted to have sex, huh? then you better enjoy it now!" kinda twisted logic.

Whether these are correct or not, I still think that the very fact that Fujisawa's - previously somewhat covert and subtle - abuse simply escalated. And the reason why it escalated so much in a span of one evening is because he felt he was loosing his power.

The amount of tv shows, movies and dramas I've watched in my life where cheating was one of the themes is countless. Yet that fact NEVER made me think cheating is ok. I think most of us is capable to tell fiction from reality...

Besides, it's not like this drama is promoted as some educational piece of fiction with a recommendation to draw life lessons from it. It's supposed to be an entertainment, a comedy show broadcasted on a commercial streaming site... which btw, I'm sure, features plenty of waaay more offensive material on it.

Comedies - since... always - were making fun of different aspects of life, not seldom including sensitive topics. There are comedies about gangsters and breaking the law, comedies about... I don't know, running a funeral house, comedies about losing weight, cross-dressing and so on and so forth. Why cheating, of all subjects, should be some untouchable topic?

Finally... the drama hasn't been out yet and so many people have already decided it's trash. Without knowing anything about the quality of the script, directing, storytelling, editing, acting...
In fact, we don't even know how the cheating will be portrayed and what will be the final message at the end of the drama.

Ok, I feel reassured to some extent when reading someone who interpreted that scene in Kotoha's place in a similar way. I also thought she stopped, but the whole bridge conversation afterwards confused me...

But then again, it was just super weird in general. I agree that there's some redeeming quality in Kotoha knowing she should apologize. Agreed one hundred percent on how Megumi handled that apology... it was quite terrible! Even if we ignore what's wrong and right and what would be the healthy reaction in reality, her dismissive attitude with "I was kinda into it" doesn't really fit the Megumi who was very clear about setting the boundaries straight in the first episode. Feels out of character to some extent. It's like she regressed...
Unless we're supposed to believe it's all due to being a fool in love 🙃

I actually still have mixed feelings about this episode... But at least it was definitely filmed very beautifully.

A hickey was not a rape evidence, it was an evidence of Sei getting intimate with someone.
The wrist marks *and* what Sei said beforehand (the remark about blind fury) + the fact that it all happened at a very specific moment (right after Hagiwara and Sei were caught) all put together suggested something more sinister happened.

I do kinda agree that it was simplified, though. But not to the unbearable extent. In my opinion at least.