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Innocent taiwanese drama review
Completed
Innocent
0 people found this review helpful
by labcat
Nov 20, 2021
4 of 4 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.5
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 7.5
Rewatch Value 8.0
This review may contain spoilers

One of the more unusual BLs coming from Taiwan this year

This mini series is unmistakably a BL series because of how apparently straight men can fall in love with other men and how there can be additional BL side couples as long as there are enough young male characters in the story for their existence. Yet, the story is more unusual than many recent BL series as it focuses on the relationship between a man with dissociative personality disorder and his once-straight neighbor.

The dissociative personality disorder part isn't meant to be taken seriously although there is a short spin-off, "(Not That) Innocent", directed by a different director, that further explores the issue of whether one can be in love with two different personalities but only one person. What we do have here is a story with a lot of sweetness. Yu Shi is a grown-up man who behaves very much like a child--his personality is stuck at the time he was a boy and assaulted by a man. A second personality, Noah, has been created as a sort of protection--I think Noah is the main personality who ensures that the person can function normally day to day as an adult before the neighbor takes him home. The two personalities seem aware of each other's existence and do not fight for dominance: it's probably not scientifically realistic, but it's ok.

I like how Noah is at first much stronger and more assertive personality than Yu Shi, but we can see him becoming more similar to Yu Shi without entirely losing his grown-up sensibilities. This signals a sort of personality integration, which can help to resolve the issue of which one Wu Zheng (the neighbor) really loves.

I think the series could have opted for all-out fluff because that's ultimately what it is. The frequent switches in timelines due to flashbacks seem a tad pretentious and the story could have been told with more fewer flashbacks and in a more linear fashion. This would make it less confusing and allow the audience to immerse more in the BL fluff.
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