1
1
1
1
THE STORY IS SPICY, AND THE DELIVERY IS DAMN HOT!
This drama is LIT. But don't be fooled by the hype, this isn't a one size fits all crowd-pleaser. It's a love-it-or-hate-it.You will have a bad time with this drama if:
*You're uncomfortable with pseudo-incest dramas
*You can't stand FL's babydoll brand of coquettishness
*You go in with high expectations that this is going to be some kind of Lighter & Princess or Amidst A Snowstorm Of Love
You will have a good time with this if:
*You go into it knowing that you're watching basically a pimped out on steroids version of a short-length c-drama scorcher.
* Your standards are "I hope it's at least as good as Embrace In The Dark Night"
* You like it when your dramas play up the "dark ML/ light FL" dynamic
If this sounds like your scene, then this is what you will get:
DARK FIRE DONE RIGHT. This is the most clutch point you need to know about this drama.... it has a kinky side. If you can't handle taboo/dark/forbidden/morally gray stuff, you gonna dislike this show. ML and FL are not blood related. But he fed her her first bottle when she was a baby, they show a flashback scene of it. Mkay. And that's the basic foundational dynamic. He played an outsized role in raising her for the first half of her life. Now that the two of them are of-age, they are semi-cohabitating alone together, and their father is ambivalent about it. He probably wanted to see them get together from the time she was born. There's a scene where ML goes to her parent-day at school. It's like that.
Now add another layer: They take it to the next level with the innocent/badboy dynamics here. They dress her up in barettes and little girl dresses and corsets and frills with porcelain perfect skin and she does the babydoll thing. They put him in black hoodies, old ripped up metallica tees, leather, black raver pants, and he almost never cracks a smile or loses his cool.
Not only that, but seen through a green-flag lens, he's allowing his attraction to her to drag her down into a life full of risks and crime and danger, throw away her future education and career prospects, and tie her down without any real way of supporting her. And he's practically her brother.
If all of that bothers you, this is not your drama. For some of us, this dynamic is completely lit. And we don't get enough of our kind of romance stories. You green flaggers have so many dramas to choose from, we don't. Our romance stories always have to do so much extra to make it past censors and find a good script and get funding. Well this one's for us, not for you! We like it DARK!
Now that the green-flaggers have been scared off, let me just say to everyone still interested even after all that: Waaaahhhhhh they nailed it!!!
Yes, FL is doing babydoll. But the way she does it here is ***justified by the script***, and feels genuine compared to many other FL's who try to do babydoll and fail. Her EQ is high. She is often quiet, shy, or demure. But she is very clever, and often her silence is her shield. She uses it to stop and think things out carefully on her own before she acts. She also has a precocious, brave, independent side. She is unafraid in many situations: She unflinchingly navigates during car chases and she takes it upon herself to learn to drive racecars, she jumps in to melees and kicks bad guys' asses, she can stand alone in the center of a crowd of intimidating people in an unfamiliar situation and keep her cool no problem. Without asking anyone's permission, she enrolls herself in school, and she insists on getting her way when something is important to her. She is actually a strong personality. That's why she can *afford* to act so soft and sweet and innocent. She is NOT a doormat, and she is NOT infantile or helpless.
ML is stoic, protective, secretive, and is tortured by a constant low-grade guilt that comes from knowing that having a thing for the girl you fed bottles to as an infant is basically deviant. Yet that guilt is always wrestling in his mind with another part of him that is fierce and unapologetic in his desire for her. And he is a total shitkicker. He's always banged up, bruised up, covered in dirt, sweat or blood.
It goes so much harder and darker than Hidden Love, and with NO groomy aftertaste.
EXCELLENT FASHION. The hair. The clothes. The shoes. The makeup. The sets. The way they portray Thailand. The color palatte. The dialogue. The extras. The cars. The people involved in creating the aesthetics for this show really had their shit together. Coture + thrift store = HOT. There is always a contrast and a seamless melding between rich and poor, having everything and having nothing. It feels authentic. Everything has it's own beauty. Extras and side characters are treated right by stylists, and full justice is done for the script.
CARS! I love how the topic of the drama is not treated as just a pretext for romance and fight scenes. It's treated like it's an important part of the story. This makes cars sexy and interesting, and gets you so involved with the racing scenes in a way that reminds me of Days of Thunder, F&F, or Rush. And yet it is still a *romance*. It doesn't look like some male person's testosterone and car fanaticism muscled out the softer and more romantic side of the story. It's a completely seamless blend of both.
This drama kicks the sh*t out of Fast and Furious, Need for Speed, and Mia Culpa. It also kicks the sh*t out of almost every other badboy ML romance out there, and in this sense, just as far as 'ultimate badboy' characters go, ranks among some of the best with stories like SOPK, WDBTD, EITDN, LOTEOD, MLM, and TTEOTM.
Now there is just one true caveat: This is one of those dramas that peters out at the 2/3 mark and ends in a whimper and not a bang. Is there a time-skip, are there montage scenes, does it drag, does the chemistry fade, do ML and FL stop getting screentime together, are there misunderstandings, do the clothes start to look stupid, do they juuust miss eachother 15 times before they reunite... yes. All the things. So expect to spend the first 2/3 of the drama enthralled, and the last third yelling at the characters and just generally being bummed that it stopped being awesome. But honestly. WORTH IT for the first 2/3 alone, the tradeoff is that you just have to tolerate the last eps to finish it. And it's not thaaat bad, but it's not what we signed up for when we started is all.
Started off as a 10, one point off for not recognizing that the last section of the drama needed a total creative overhaul because they wanted to give me angst, but all I got was eyeroll and exasperated sigh.
9/10
Was this review helpful to you?
A sweet little bedtime fairy tale for red-flag lovers
To J-drama, or not to J-drama... that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of silly plot lines and questionable style choices, or to take arms against a sea of crappy cop-out endings and, by opposing, end them. To perish... to watch no more.Sigh
So okay, we all know that a j-drama is a j-drama is a j-drama, and only rarely does one reach escape velocity and break through into something with crossover international appeal. Is this one of them? Probably not. Yet I still think that if you are a red-flag lover, this is worth at least one watch and possibly a rewatch or two or three.
Why. Well, for starters, this whole drama is a vehicle - a very sexy vehicle - for an up and coming ML actor, Noa. Noa's professional bread-and-butter is singing, and he comes from an idol music background. Which is why it surprised me that his ML debut was such a solid performance. The role itself doesn't really have much range or complexity, it's a good beginner role. But he is very convincing in it. And very very HOT. Plus his stylist did him right, his hair, clothes, makeup all totally on point. Which is such a relief in a j-drama where normally the style note is noticeably off-key. Not this time. In fact, everyone looks fairly good and no serious couture faux-pas were committed. (Although just as a side note, I cannot WAIT for japan to get over it's fixation with those weird triangle-cut bangs on girls that are skimpy and limp and cut directly on the eye-line so that when they blink, their bangs rustle around. Gawd.)
And in fact did you know, that the OST song 'Say Yes' which is a total banger, was performed by none other than the ML himself. It's really good, and it matches the show perfectly.
Cinematography was very good. Of course it was, this is a j-drama. They are masters of cinematography. Was this a masterful work, no. But it was good. Clean, creative, gorgeous.
But what makes this really super-watchable, aside from the HOTTT ML, is the hint of yandere that runs through it. I wouldn't call this story a true yandere. But as the show progresses, you can see the red-flag behaviors coming up over and over again, and sweet bunny-rabbit FL can't see it coming that she's slowly becoming immersed in a red-flag relationship, but we can. Like ML after they've only known eachother a short while, just casually asking to see her phone (which she just gives him!) and installing a location tracker app on it so he can always see where she is. She's like "oh how convenient!"
And so as the show progresses you can feel the possessive ML claustrophobia creep in bit by bit. For people who hate this toxic crap, it's gonna make them uncomfortable. But if you like that dynamic, it's tasty.
Another strength of this show is the very good grasp of human psychology that the writer employs as they weave the plot and dialogue together. We get to see how all the elements come together of low self-esteem, parental upbringing, maladaptive coping mechanisms, the search for acceptance, rejection, stockholming, protectiveness.... that meld together to create believable characters doing believable things, couched in a fairy tale of improbable plot.
The pacing is fabulous. J-dramas often cut straight to the chase, and are very low on 'filler'. This is one of those. So much development is crammed into it that each 30 min ep feels like an hour. Yet your attention span is not challenged by things moving too fast to follow.
Overall this was a very lovely amuse-bouche that makes you want seconds. But just don't expect any *overt* yandere, and don't hold out any hope that the ending will be satisfactory or indeed even make any sense. And you might really like it. Just a delicious sense of claustrophobia that slowly rises and takes over as the ML's possessiveness/obsessiveness becomes more and more intense. Good lord, he is almost inhumanly FINE. Admittedly he needs more acting practice under his belt, but this role suited his strengths so well, and he did a great job. Can't wait to see what Noa does next with his acting career.
Wasn't the greatest thing I've ever watched, but passes the bar for "rewatchable", which for me is anything 8 or above, so...
8/10
Was this review helpful to you?
Idk if you're gonna like it honestly....
I think if you go into this seeing it as less of a drama, and more of an extended music video or the movie cut from a video game, you might like it better.It's the direction that's the most at fault for this... many scenes that in a normal drama would be filmed with a still camera shot, are instead filmed with a thatrically lit moving camera shot. Not just key parts of scenes, but little things like "the chauffer picks up the FL and takes her to the mansion" etc, are filmed dynamically and stylistically, and this creates the "music video" effect.
Everyone's makeup is just a liiiiitle too thick, everyone's clothing styles are just a liiiiiiitle too tryhard.
The acting is amateurish, especially on the part of the FL, who has weak acting and weak kiss game. She's holding her mouth closed like a nun sometimes during kiss scenes, and it looks like she's not into him at ALL. She just wants to act out the scenes, pick up her paycheck, and gtfoutta there. The ML is the only one who could keep up his end of the story. His acting was a little flat, but he got some riz and with more experience and a different director, he could probably improve quite a bit.
The story is ok, but it's hard to keep your attention on it because the director's sense of pacing is ALL OFF, and so it puts you to sleep when it shouldn't. The ending was interesting, although it's like 50% cool and 50% facepalm. With better acting and directing, maybe it could have been more like 90% cool. If this was how Sima Jao's story ended it would be sort of cute I suppose.
It does have a few redeeming qualities, but I was not a fan.
Was this review helpful to you?
Starts off fresh and strong, ends as a meh.
The good:*Underused plot ideas free of many of the common tropes and cliches
*Some good acting
*Very visually pretty
*BGM/ost is not intrusive
The bad:
*FL was the weak link - OK actress, but not a good match for the role ---> becomes annoying as show goes on
*Plot not fleshed out right - tension, balance, sense of realism, dialogue, emotions.... all are lacking in screenplay.
*All acting was good but not extraordinary. The ML is gaining acting experience and improving, but still not quite exemplary.
*Teases spice, but also very much lacks said spice. Meager kiss scenes.
It just is what it is, which is a 7. Take it or leave it depending on how bored you are.
I would recc this only to people interested in watching Ma Hao Dong's acting career progress, because he IS getting better, and I think this is some of his best acting to date. IMO he has something special, and his career holds a lot of promise.
Was this review helpful to you?
An incredible work of art....
This is one of the shortest series i've ever seen, and yet I feel like I could write a huge essay about it (I won't... but I could).Starting with the most obvious thing, that being the TERRIBLE dubbing/music: This drama is like a Michaelangelo painting covered in mud - that mud being the dubbing. It may at first look like shit. But if you wipe off the grime, what's underneath it is breathtaking. So my strenuous advice in order to fully appreciate this is
>>>Put on the sexiest, darkest, hottest music you know of.... AND MUTE THE SOUND ON THIS SHOW<<<<
I personally reccommend Type O Negative's 'Love You To Death' on repeat. But just whatever suits you, whatever you think would compliment this drama.
Once you've removed the offensive dubbing/music, what you will find is an absolutely gorgeous, sexy, raw romance story... perfectly cast, perfectly acted. The script is fucking genius. It reveals just enough emotion, and leaves just enough for your mind to fill in the blanks.
Theres zero bullshit filler here. Thats why its so short. Its focus is only the ML and FL. But its also powerful, it really grabs you and holds you. If you think its easy to create such powerful emotions with such a short script, you try it. Paring something down, stripping it to only its most basic elements, while retaining its evokative emotional power is an art form, thats why Steinbeck and Coetzee are considered literary geniuses.
The camerawork and the lighting is so perfectly suited to the story and the acting. Stylists did a great job. The actors brought ALL their energy and talent to this piece. I felt everything they were feeling, and when they cried I cried. When they were distraught, I was distraught. What they thought about is what I thought about. The final two episodes were so perfectly written, which is exceedingly difficult to do.
It was hot, realistic, emotional, and so so beautiful. And yes I said realistic.... ask me how I know ;P
This is exactly why I dig through old and lesser rated shows, to find hidden treasures just like this.
Amazing -- and the only reason I don't give it a 10 is because I dont know how many rewatches it can stand up to, and because the sound (all of it) is atrocious.
Trust me... muted, this drama magically transforms from a mess into a masterpiece.
Was this review helpful to you?
A solid in-between-shows watch.
This ML is a fucking phenomenal actor, and the actual basic plot is creative. However, they are being hamstrung by a mediocre director, mundane script writers, phoned-in makeup, and budget production.There's nothing that outright sucks about this one, I'll give it that. FL is fine and brings the slightest touch of comedy to her performance, and it works. She lets herself have some chemistry with the ML (Some, mind you, not really a lot though). The creative vision lacks a certain amount of cohesion.... is it fluff, is it comedy, is it action, is it drama.... it's not really sure. There is no distinct "look" to it. It leaves an afterimpression of averageness.
I think this is a good watch if you need just something light and mildly entertaining with a brisk pace. I also think this is an allright watch if you are just curious about Cheng Yu Feng's acting evolution. He has a few brief flashes of genius acting in this drama, but for the mostpart what you see is him dumbing himself down as an actor to fit the role that's beneath him.
There's a part where the FL asks him if his lazy personality is all fake. He looks at her and considers the question and then says "It's fake... and it's not fake." And in that 10 seconds of acting, you can see that brilliance he has, as his emotions silently shift from one to another so fast... it's like his emotions are "shiny", they flicker across his face and it's quite extraordinary. He does it again in the last episode when the FL gives him the big news that I'm not going to tell you so I don't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it if you decide to watch this one. And there's a few instances in the first half of the show where it is written into the script that his facade has to crack open for just a fraction of a moment and you see a glimmer of who he really is, and wowww it was sexy and cool. But again..... these moments are fleeting, the script and direction really don't give him any room to breathe as an actor.
It was decent.
Was this review helpful to you?
This is absolute apex cliche.
How can I describe this drama..... it's like somebody saying "I will make you authentic italian spaghetti," and then serving you plain boiled spaghetti noodles with a can of extremely cheap marinara uncerimoniously dumped on top of it.Things you will see:
>Distracting and fake-as-shit-looking milk moustaches. Yes, more than one.
>FL is aspiring artist, CEO ML gives her a job next to his office.
>Got dayum that 3ML lookin genetically recessive.
>Trying on outfits with the CEO ML sitting on a couch pooh-poohing all the outfits until..... he sees the STUNNER DRESS..... you know the one. The one that looks like a 20-dollar little mermaid knockoff princess dress. "Oh, I couldn't get my zipper zipped all the way up by myself...."
>The shoddy wire gazebo strung with christmas lights, which the FL was tricked into wandering into, when suddenly OUT OF NOWHERE the ML appears in a suit with a giant bouquet of flowers, gives her his confession and a piece of jewelry. Bet you didn't see that coming.
>Backlit errythang!
>The kind of kissing you'd see from two people if, say for instance, they were complete strangers thrown together by a shitty script and standing under a glaring light, surrounded by camera crews.
It goes on and on like this, you get the idea. It's dull, flat, insulting to your intelligence, unoriginal to such an extent that you could call it noteworthy. I would not watch this unless I was having a PTSD attack or someone had just died, and I just needed something "on".
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
As a red-flag lover, this drama was a bad time.
The secondary couple should have been the main couple, and the story should have been about them.They had stolen my heart and my attention to the point that when their storyline concluded, I gave up on the whole drama. It is a MAJOR design flaw in this production.
As usual, the production team who created this drama did a great job. The supporting casting is off the hook, the costumes are great, the styling is so amazing. The bgm/ost sounds recycled from SOKP and is a bit repetitive, but that's overlookable. What is not overlookable is the MOST interesting and captivating relationship dynamic in the story coming from two side characters who are then thoughtlessly discarded when they no longer serve the larger (and more boring) storyline.
Just aigoo...
7/10, because it's worth a one-time watch, but BARELY.
Was this review helpful to you?
This story deserves a remake. Story and acting are good. Production is not.
This story could have been really awesome. The ML could have been a really dark sexy badboy ML. But that's not how they went with it, and instead decided not to take the dark parts of the plot seriously at all.The makeup and styling are really really bad, in a weird awkward way. The lighting is awful. The BGM is ok but it's often out of step for what's happening.
Dialogue was corny, superficial, uninspired most of the time. Scene transitions are done really oddly in spots where it seems like the producer was just totally out to lunch, without any artistic vision at all for how the story should be unrolled or paced. Things are laid out in sort of a haphazard way that isn't very addictive.
The actors were great, but they're styled so badly, shot scenes under such harsh bright lighting, lines so cheesy and bad, music too loud and corny sentimental.... this is just not it. All I saw that I liked in this one, was the promise of an unfulfilled good storyline, and a moderately sexy ML/FL couple.
Was this review helpful to you?
This is a lot more than just some trashy smut-film.
This is one of only a handful of movies I've ever watched where the sex scenes aren't gratuitous. Each one conveys something different, and when you add them all up, you have a very beautiful message, in which the director is trying to convey how for some people in some situations, sex and love aren't a straight line. Sometimes people, through complex situations, get wired differently in that area of life.I see this movie as controversial because in a very distinct way, it romanticizes prostitution, and romanticizes dysfunctional sexuality. Yet the opposite side of that is that it humanizes sexual dysfunction, so that a person isn't defined by their kink, it's just another aspect of their personhood. Also in defense of the film, it is highly respectful of how it treats the topic of AIDS.
If you skip the dialogue and just watch for the smut factor, you miss the entire artistry of the movie. If you skip the smut and just watch for the dialogue, you also miss the artistry of the movie, because each sex scene has something to convey. In this sense, the movie is sort of genius. A very deliberate movie.
We have all seen shows that depict sex work as seedy, dirty, depressing, hopeless. This is the opposite side of that. I think it's relying on the concept that most of the viewers already have seen the sordid side of the sex industry and know what it entails, and this movie is almost like an apology to that. A serious attempt at an explanation for why people end up in the industry, why they stay, or why they support it.
I don't agree entirely with some of the viewpoints the film takes, but I respect that at least it wasn't at all just another piece of smut. There are very deep emotions running through this movie.
Was this review helpful to you?
Good smut + Lynchian darkness + raw depth + strange cheesiness = cult classic
This was like watching Wild At Heart, My Lethal Man, and The K2 blended together in a Vitamix and then smothered in sexy.I see a fair number of watchers taking this drama only at its face value, which is an in-your-face raciness combined with a wild plot more full of holes than swiss cheese. So it begs obvious comparison to My Lethal man, in that afterward youre like "I dont know what the hell I just watched but it was hot." And that is a fair comparison.
But I was also strongly reminded of David Lynch. (Thats the director that did Twin Peaks, the original Dune movie, Wild at Heart with Nicholas Cage, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive)
Like Lynch movies, there is a strange, dark, quiet, beautiful, unsettled, disoriented feeling to this drama, that makes you wonder how many mysteries the show holds. Are the plot holes accidental or deliberate? Its riding a fine line.
This odd balance between darkness/lightness... quiet/dramatic... depth/simplicity.... cheesy/sexy..... is what I think has the elements of an instant cult classic.... like Repo Man, Heathers, True Romance, Twilight, etc. Many cult classics have a strange and stylish, mysterious blend of hokey and twisted and profoundly deep that makes the story so rewatchable.
There are weirdly placed intrusions of cheesy frivolity sure. But there are also scenes of real emotional depth that some shows try so hard to bring to the screen and fail at. I teared up at many scenes despite myself, because the emotions were so raw and beautiful, and well placed.
And the wholllle thing is just covered with sexiness everywhere. Even the "villain" is strange-sexy and hot af. Reminds me of a young asian marilyn manson with no makeup and a haircut. His looks are captivating and his acting is excellent. The ML and FL are sexy af and hot like fire and good actors. There is real kissing in the kiss scenes. GOOD real kissing, that make me think the ML is in rl probably an excellent lover. And for any kiss scene affectionados out there ----> there is french kissing in this one.
The casting was so excellent, the costumes and styling will stand up to a test of time... in 10 or 20 years, it will look just as hot as it does now, it will age well.
A very unique style that I appreciated greatly. The dumbness of this drama is deceptive. Beneath the dumbness lies real artistic skill and vision, and the dichotomy between the crappy cheapness and the refined elegance was, imo, highly enjoyable and very genious.
Im a hard grader, I dont give out 9s lightly, but this drama was truly excellent and had a distinct style all its own.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
A short-length masterpiece.
❤OST and BGM are so so well done, styling costumes and settings are more than just achingly gorgeous--->they hold deliberate meaning. Cinematography is shot with a careful eye for beauty in details. Lighting was always on point. And quite frankly Im floored to see such high quality in such a short length drama.❤Acting was EXCELLENT. From everyone. All the actors and actresses gave 100% to their roles, and it really shows.
❤THE DIALOGUE was so so SO good, it is really whats at the heart of this drama, is an excellent script. Every now and then a chinese drama will come out that shows such an astonishingly masterful grasp of human nature and human psychology that it blows everybody else outta the water. This is one of those dramas. It tells its story with elegance and rawness and incredible depth.
I have to establish all that, because of what I'm about to tell you now: IT WAS FEKKIN HORRIBLE. Not the storytelling. Just the story.
Theres LOTS of works of art where the story is basically horrible. Voltaire's 'Candide'. Sophie's Choice. Schindler's List. There Will Be Blood. Romeo and Juliet. A Million Stars Falling From the Sky. And.... yeah this is one of those. Its fekkin messed up, offensive, and tragic. Its like having your feelings tenderized with a meat mallet, deep fried til burnt and then autopsied with a plastic spork.
If you have triggers, this will trigger them. Even eating disorder triggers. All the triggers are here. If you are sensitive... or previously traumatized.... if you are just looking for something fun or easy..... if you expect a drama to do all your moralizing and thinking for you.... you gonna have a BAD time. A REAL bad time.
Because not only is it horrible, it is unrelentingly horrible. Theres no comic relief ANYWHERE. Theres no cheesy acting, or bad makeup. Theres no goofy side characters. Theres no 2ML 2FL side story. No CGI to cringe at. No cute cats or adorable children. No dumb tropey stuff. Everything is beautiful, emotional, poignant, aching, sentimental, cruel, torrid.
The format of short-length drama, in this instance, is like a series of poems the director is giving us. Each one is beautiful, deliberate, painstakingly created. This was, quite simply, fine cinema. It elevates the short-length format into something really awesome that has real artistic merit.
This drama, at its core, is about love as it relates to sin, atonement, and forgiveness... ML has committed a grave sin against the FL he loves dearly. And the FL who loves him dearly also, is faced with a choice of whether to forgive him or not. The questions this drama asks are not for the faint of heart... because when this show is through with you, youre gonna feel kinda like you just stepped out of the spin cycle on a heavy duty washing machine.
You better have a fluffy drama and a pint of ice cream lined up for when you finish this, cuz u gonna need it.
I basically hate tragedies, but this one was stellar. Grips your attention and doesnt let go till you are bleeding from your eyes and begging for mercy.
9.5/10... Absolutely incredible.
Was this review helpful to you?
This FL is a romance killer, and she did it again.
You can be guaranteed that anything this FL is in will be lacking in chemistry and have badly executed kiss scenes, and same goes for this one.Story flows ok, with lots of draggy spots. Styling isnt great but ok. Plot is refreshingly unique. Direction was phoned-in and lacked creativity.
It was ok for just a bored-watch, but there is NO chemistry from leads. She's like a Dilraba, she thinks shes so pretty that excuses her from having to actually act in love with the ML shes cast against.
Was this review helpful to you?
A confused story with unconvincing emotional content.
The concept of an abused woman finding a man who loves her and wants to get her out of her situation seems very emotionally heavy, and yet within the first few episodes, it's clear that this drama doesn't know how to convey strong emotions. The FL is shown as defiant and unafraid in the face of her abuser's beatings. This is just unrealistic ino.Then she starts interacting with the ML, and not far into the story, he discovers her abuse as he helps fasten up her backless dress and sees some quite dramatic scarring on her back. That scene should convey some strong or complex emotions, but it doesn't.
The beginning episodes seek to establish just how bad FL has it with her abuser. Needless to say, that doesn't set up a very romantic mood for the audience. Yet interspersed between these scenes of abuse and violence against women, there are scenes where the ML and FL are flirting and becoming attracted to eachother. And the way these two elements of the plot combine is very unsettling, in the sense that the show has no awareness of itself, and no understanding of how abuse impacts people. I have seen several dramas that center around an abused woman finding love again with another man, and most of those shows treat the topic with sensitivity and at least *some* realism, but not this one. There is so little emotion surrounding the abuse and the new romance that it feels like it was written by someone with antisocial personality disorder -----> (To highlight that point.... there is a scene in the first part of the story where the ML takes FL for a ride in a sportscar. She starts having a panic attack, and tells ML that she has previous trauma from a car accident, and she needs him to slow down the car. His response is to tell her she should face her fears head on, and then he continues to drive hella fast, presumably to desensitize her to her past trauma. And surprise surprise, his "therapy" works! And after only ONE car ride, she is now totally over her fear of high speed car travel!!! Maybe it's just me, but I feel like only a sociopath could write a scene like that and not see anything wrong with it.)
Add to this the fact that there is a very choppy and disorganized flow to the storyline, with some very abrupt scene changes, and you start to wonder "uhhh... am I missing something?" No. You're not missing anything, the story itself is just very confused.
This is supposed to be a business / romance story. But what you come to find is it's really a business-intrigue, and the romance is a complete afterthought that only exists to serve the business plot. Somehow, there is ZERO spice here, incredible since both the ML and FL are capable of bringing spice to their roles in other productions.
Styling is OK, but not exactly what I would consider "on point". Music is totally atrocious... it overpowers scenes and creates even more confusion than there already is just with the crappy script alone. All in all this was a confused and terrible mess, and not in a good way like My Lethal Man.... but in an extremely boring and insensitive way.
I cannot think of any situation where I would recc this to someone for any reason. The actors who participated in this all deserve so much better than to have to try to work miracles out of a stupendously bad script like this, and I wish them all the best on their next projects.
Was this review helpful to you?
Worth at least a one-time watch, well put-together.
Green flag lovers and fluff lovers will rejoyce on this one.I am only green-flag tolerant at best, and too much cotton candy makes me sick. There has to be something more to a drama than just oxytocin fluff or I don't vibe with it.
Well this drama has more to it. Yes, there is copious amounts of fluff, but beneath that there is some substance. The acting was really above-average, and these two actors are both capable of delivering really great scenes with a wide range of emotions. And that was fun to watch.
The OST/BGM were sort of all over the place, and yet it had it's genius moments and vibed pretty well with the drama most of the time. The styling was not the best but not the worst. The interiors/exteriors used for the scenes are really cozy and style-forward.
The script is the downfall, and sure it's extremely trope-y, but I don't mind that. I don't down-rate for just that alone. What I thought was really the downfall of the script, is that it hits moments where it's so subtle and so elevated, the psychology is on-point, and then it just loses its momentum. There are many almost-breakout moments in this story.... with more care given to this script, these actors could have pulled out A performances, and the bones of the script would have had real meat on them.
Also, the actors had good friends-chemistry, a very comfortable vibe about them... but not a lot of sizzle. The kiss scenes were well done though, so that kind of compensated.
As it is, it's a mixed bag of goods and bads. But just on the meta-level, this is a step up from most short length dramas. Definitely check this out just for the acting alone. Both the ML and the FL just need the barest of polishing and someone to give them a good breakout role, and they'd be able to pull of high-caliber roles in A-list dramas.
Was this review helpful to you?
