batatatamusic

Thank you, likewise. Have a lovely day!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this comment. It is very insightful, very well structured, and raises a number of points that I genuinely agree with.

As for the characters, I also share your analysis. I too feel that, in the adaptation, they significantly softened and romanticized the male character, while still leaving Flora with many of the issues and struggles she had in the novel.

However, there are certain elements that worked very well in the novel but, in my opinion, no longer work in quite the same way in the drama. Because in the drama, the male lead is still portrayed as someone attentive and caring, who quite quickly wants to acknowledge and openly embrace their relationship, who has no intention of hiding it, and who genuinely wants to move their relationship forward — and this happens relatively early in the story.

From that point on, some of Flora’s reactions and certain lines of hers felt much less consistent with what the drama itself was showing us about him. I found the same problem to some extent with their separation, and with several other situations later on.

This is precisely where I feel the adaptation loses something: they changed the dynamic of the male character without always adapting Flora’s behavior and reactions accordingly. Some of her struggles therefore remain the same as in the novel, while the relational context surrounding her has been profoundly changed.

And that disconnect is probably what sometimes made me feel that certain scenes, or some of Flora’s decisions, no longer felt as natural or convincing in the drama as they did in the novel.

Is Zhitao’s evolution sufficiently accompanied by an emotional evolution in the way she relates to Luan Nian? My answer would be no.

Or does the series mainly ask us to follow her ascent, while showing us his suffering and transformation?

If that’s the case, then I’m not really fond of the idea of romance being portrayed in that way.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. Your experiences are really interesting, and I truly appreciate you sharing them.

I also find that the series presents something quite mature and, in many ways, fairly realistic in terms of its subject matter!!
However, as I mentioned in my text, my one regret is that, for most of the story — if not throughout the entire story — I didn’t really feel much compromise or emotional self-questioning from the heroine.

In the novel, this actually feels quite logical. But with the changes made in the adaptation and the way the story has been directed, I personally feel that the heroine is missing a certain emotional tenderness. The idea behind her character it becomes a little too centred around the *me”. ( is subtle ;))

And that is where I find myself conflicted. Because despite the boy’s very obvious flaws, he has made so, so, so much effort to change — his behaviour, his way of thinking, the way he communicates, and so on.

From the perspective of portraying a free, determined and independent woman, that can be very satisfying and empowering. But emotionally, it leaves me feeling slightly cold towards the character.

I’m curious to know what you think about that.

And in that sense, speaking of Boran, his other 2023 romance project, with a ML/FL caracters , was much more coherent, even though the project didn’t have the same sensual appeal, dynamic, or international feel...

Just imagine the exact same scenario, with one "small" difference: what if the guy were actually married already… ;)
Suddenly, her words would make much more sense, and so would many of the complexities and contradictions in their relationship. I’m not going to elaborate any further, but honestly, the series lends itself surprisingly well to that interpretation if you simply imagine that one detail...

That line may have worked in the novel, but here it simply doesn’t make sense. I think it’s a consequence of poor narrative construction rather than something we’re supposed to analyse more deeply. So I wouldn’t look for another explanation — unless, of course, there’s some kind of revelation later on :))
but BORAN hi s a great actor !! :)))))

I also think this is why her description of the relationship as “shameful” deserves some context. I don’t think the relationship itself was necessarily shameful; rather, it seems to have become something she experienced that way because of the distance she chose to maintain. She repeatedly prioritized work, career, and friends, kept a rational distance from him, and excluded him from certain parts of her life. That doesn’t make his mistakes disappear — he certainly made his share of them, as anyone would — but I think both sides of the dynamic matter. If you consistently keep someone at arm’s length and make the relationship secondary, it can eventually start to feel like something that has to be hidden or cannot fully exist. So I find it difficult to place the entire weight of that feeling on him or on the relationship itself.

What I find particularly interesting when reading the comments here and there is seeing just how much higher the expectations in relationships seem to have become. In a way, I think that is rather healthy: it reflects a generation increasingly willing to question what it is prepared to accept, what it refuses to tolerate, and what it believes it deserves.
But at the same time, it also reflects an era in which the “self” occupies a central place. Our expectations have become more clearly defined, sometimes higher, and our threshold of tolerance seems to have shifted as well. I am not judging this in any way; I am simply observing an evolution.

Series, particularly those aimed predominantly at a female audience, do nothing more than reflect — and perhaps sometimes amplify — the aspirations of their time: the idea that a relationship should be.
But there is something deeply subjective about all of this: no one is necessarily wrong, and no one is necessarily right. A relationship is not built solely around universal rules of “right” and “wrong,” but around the degree of tolerance each person is willing to extend, both to the other person and to themselves. The real question is therefore: how far am I willing to accept something within a relationship, and at what point does that same thing become unacceptable to me? And that threshold is never the same from one person to another. What is a red flag for one person may be nothing more than a minor detail to another; what seems perfectly healthy to someone may feel like an absolute boundary to someone else. And sometimes, what is a green flag for one person may be a violet flag for another — something that cannot easily be classified because it depends entirely on their history, their wounds, their needs, and their own understanding of love. Ultimately, perhaps maturity in a relationship does not consist in creating a universal list of what should be accepted or condemned, but in knowing our own boundaries well enough to understand which ones we can move, which ones we can negotiate, and which ones we never want to cross again. Because loving someone is not only about knowing what we expect from the other person; it is also about knowing what we ourselves are capable of giving, understanding, forgiving… and, above all, what we consciously choose not to accept.

So, usually I don’t make the effort to switch off my brain just to watch a series all the way to the end. But this time, I’m willing to make an exception !!!!!— just for Boran!! , and, of course, for the Sun Qian/Boran couple.

They just don’t let us draw our own conclusions based on what we actually see. No — every three seconds, they need to have a mother or a friend remind us, just in case we’ve started leaning the other way, that apparently he has an awful personality. :))

I honestly don’t think they’ve ever seen what a truly horrible, insufferable personality looks like. The guy changed around episodes 6-7..?

Personally, I think he’s been very gentle with her for quite some time now, and very patient as well. It’s everyone around them (only for us ;) It’s the same basic narrative structure, except with the cliché that ML is handsome.
who keeps putting it into our heads that he’s horrible… his mother, father, colleagues, friends, sister…

Sure, he can sometimes be quite direct or blunt in the way he speaks, but his actions and the way he treats her are actually very gentle.

Yes, of course, that’s exactly what it corresponds to. But in reality, her reasoning in that voice-over doesn’t match what has actually been shown on screen so far. I’ve already explained the reasons in detail further down.

I’m actually happy to see that there are so many people — and not just me — who have noticed and pointed out the very same problems I’ve been talking about.

I’ve said this probably a hundred times already: when you change a character for commercial reasons, you have to rethink everything around that character accordingly. You can’t fundamentally alter one part of the story while leaving everything else exactly as it was, because at some point, the pieces simply stop fitting together.

Of course, at the point we’ve reached, perhaps the ending will completely change everything, and maybe we’ll understand later why they made these choices.????

But what I mean is that I don’t really care about comparing this version to the novel anymore. At this point, this is supposed to be a work of its own. It’s like being served a dish without knowing the original recipe, simply to discover a new creation.

And unfortunately, I feel like this particular creation has failed.

It’s a bit like someone serving you a dish and, when you say, “Something is wrong with this,” they answer: “But you have to imagine that a Michelin-starred chef made it — that it’s delicious, with all these wonderful textures, something crispy here, something perfectly seasoned there…”

Well… if you have to imagine all of that because it simply isn’t there on the plate, and then ... maybe.. " you should just go and read the recipe. At least then you’ll have an idea of what the dish was supposed to taste like"

The main problem is the heroine’s voice-over narrationsssss, because what she says doesn’t correspond at all to what we actually see on screen.

And that’s what I’m wondering: is this intentionally done so that, in the end, we realize that she was wrong in her conclusions? Or do the writers genuinely want us to accept her assumptions, which she basically pulls out of thin air?

For example: “For the first time, I see him being this gentle.” Um… no, girl. We’ve already seen that on screen....

thks !!I completely agree with point 1, and partially with point 2, more in the sense that he lacks confidence in himself. But I don’t think he would actually want her to be with someone else, because he’s naturally very possessive.

agree !! thks

Luck… well, he really is lucky to have met a girl like Flora

Please don’t argue based on the novel. I mean based on what we actually see on screen.

And of course, Boran is such a phenomenal actor! And this couple… they work SO well together!