ibisfeather

When I read your review I kept saying in my head, Yes..but no. Yes.. but no. I thought she was mothering him yes. I wasnt sure if I wanted her to turn the taxi around, yes.

In a show without murderers etc, believing in the characters so much that their right to choose is visceral is really great directing and acting, I think this was realistic, naturalistic acting. The plot was still a romance plot with some of the usual improbables.....it does manage to mix possible interpretations successfully...

I really hate self-sacrificial heroines in kdrama too, and I think they usually come along with beefcake camera shots, dramas entering on guys. I dont think as some do that ZLH was shortchanged in this story, but he wasnt improbable beefcake. I think we mostly see him struggling to maintain himeself in his own family's scenes. They ground him down so much that he could only just hang on.

Cherrry was the healthiest happiest person but I wouldnt like my daughter or any other girl to wait as cherry does. Her family though respect her feelings;, and struggle on their own with his awful family. I dont think that she would have been able still to function as well as she did, going to school, being with friends etc. without a really good upbringing.

I changed slowly in my opinion of this relationship during those indorm scenes with the older girls. I felt with them that I was looking at something unusual, to be respected, something really romantic. Their own choices, their own love lives were also respected, at least I think so.

In the end I think I went for the interpretation of this as a special love, that is portrayed openly enough that a girl could yearn for a princess boy to save, but still doubt that she would really be able or want to do the rescuing that cherry did.

In other words, a bit of a fairytale but a kind one. There were some details which made it healthier because of it being chinese. The families essentially support and respect the pair's choices even tho they express lots of worry and care about them. (even the weird mother gave cherry some respect face to face as she got older).

If you have seen 25/21, that bothered me too a lot, but it made me believe as it did this time around in the weirdly difficult and tragic position many young lovers were put in by the IMF crisis and the consequent bereakdown of community structures all thru the region.

Yes, she calls her girlfriend at 3am to talk abt it!

They both gave the performance of their careers so far, as I have already said. I dont know how to analyze why the reviewers say the story is boring or the acting is bad without being really rude, even for this space.

But I will try. It is pearl-clutching orientalism (and naive ignorance)to complain because one show in one style doesnt conform to another style that you enjoy.

Then to act as if you know anything at all about international cinema, especially pretending that asian drama must fit your preferences in romedy! Romedy in SK and China even have their different stylistics, and if you cant be bothered to find out about anything different further on in , thenintenion, style, genre...!

This is definitely not romedy. As I have said elsewhere it hits a unique (in my ignorance it could be much more generalized, but I think so) balance. The acting is naturalistic, the plot less so, just enough to still be fun.

The amount of realism used in modern asian dramas varies from country to country and within each genre. To be honest it tracks western practice pretty well. . Nobody has to be an expert. But everyone should be honest with themselves about the limits of their knowledge

If you want to judge by the standards of your own english-speaking country then you should know enough to be informed and respectful. Take a broader view. There is a process going on now where cinemas from various countries meet each other in the streaming medium. Its interesting and its fun.

But from the point of the big services puffing yourself up by pretending to be 'critical' is like a bunch of squeaking mice to them. The US and English speaking market is a saturated and bloody competition but thesuccess of big competitors' outreach to the non-English speaking market is where the winners will be decided. 2/3 of netflix subscribers live in countries where English is not spoken.


Ok, I only used the word ignorance once. Thats the best I can do.

yeah. These are totally insincere people who write this stuff. Or else they are AI's practicing their chops, All the catchwords: "filler", " chemistry" "ruined the novel"?

me too! me too!

Thanks for your thoughts. Its great how you intelligently respond to some of the weeping and wailing. I have to say that in the end after the drama is over I realize that I enjoyed the explosions and expuslions on these wacky comment pages too. Better here than in those super negative so-called 'reviews', right? Anyway, also I enjoy people like you for your thoughtfulness.

Trigger was a great watch.

Looks good.

I suspect they are fake too. antinetflixers? AI bots trying their wings out?

That ending with the american gangs/businessmen was a really difficult exercise in seeing americans from the outside like a bunch of shadowy nameless asians or europeans in an equivalent us or british production from a decade or three ago. My imaginative empethy hurts.

You know that this is shot in korea for korean audiences, right? SK is one of the countries with a big presence in subscriptions, although nobody bats brazil, which is number two afteer the US. So why are you talking about the us in anything more than a omparative way?

Yeah, there is something wrong with policing in SK. A combination of factors and hard to pull apart to makesense of it. Laxity on rape and assault is common in most asian societies. In SK they seem to take rehabilitation very seriously but iin a way which gives criminals too much leeway. That's my 2 cents.

EP20 !! 10cm! and Ha Hyungsang!

Just finished. Brilliant.

ok. I really wanted Moon Baek to be the buddy, but wondered why he kept turning up and hoped it wasnt true. But it was and it made a police procedural into something only kdrama could pull off, MB is a fantasy villain with real things to say.

yes. I dont know if you want to know who, it is a little bit of a surprise. I had thought maybe, then not, then the reveal...

7.6? really? all you haters make me sad
Great so far, 4th ep. Kim Young Kwang is, just is.

Here's another thought on the perceived imbalance betw FL and ML -- just looked at the princess royal and Zhang Linghe has a voice actor, a really powerful midrange voice. So maybe what bothers people is that ZLH is working here with his own voice? His is soft and warm.

Zhao Jin Mai is a powerful actress. Look at her resume, think about how she is different here than in snowstorm of love. She is radiant. This isnt just about screentime or the absolute fact that she is the protagonist. Its that little thing called charisma. And the director is really doing a good job of bringing that out.

ZLH is a really talented actor, really hard-working and truly goodlooking and its true that he isnt getting the love-idol treatment here from the camera. But guess what guys, the character he plays here is a little more laid back and you bet ZLH is totally into the portrayal, totally into doing a better job than anyone else could.

That nepotism remark really made me angry. All you have to do is look up her career, She has been working like a dog since she was 10. Any of you all here been doing that? I bet not.

Of course it does.