lalaloop
This review may contain spoilers
Terrible Script, 19 & 24 is a Terrible Age Gap for Romance!
Sit back because it's a lot; coming from a fan who looked forward to Hidden Love since the start of this yr.
People accuse Hidden Love of the Big P word, here I'll be accusing it of terrible, ignorant writing, and plain illogical plot progression. It's terribly written and lacks self-awareness. A 5 year age gap is nothing between consenting adults—the problem is that Hidden Love develops this relationship when SZ, (a rich, immature, sheltered brat) is 19 years old (MAYBE SHE'S 20—same thing) and the ML is 24, but acts older.
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, because how can I be the only person to find it strange how there's really only 1 episode of DJX having conflicting emotions over his change in love for his meimei...and then the next ep is him confirming it, then the next ep we move immediately to him flirting and beginning to pursue her. Pursue a 19 year old....
❌ Here's what they should have done differently:
1. ❌ DJX accepts his feelings too quickly—alarmingly quick. Yikes.
~2/3 episodes. First, him thinking about her more, then acknowledging his feelings, then WHAM! he's pursuing her now???
I would have hoped for there to be longer hesitation and for there to be a point where he pulls away—It's weird because he has known her since she was 14 and he was 19. It doesn't help that the actress casted for 14 year old SZ literally looks like an 8 year child, not a pre-teen. (actress is 12, which doesn't help either).
Shouldn't he find that so conflicting and feel some amount of disgust or have a knee jerk reaction to reject these feelings? Shouldn't he at least sit down with a trusted friend and share his conflicted feelings? Withdraw from SZ? Analyze his memories with SZ and wonder where he went wrong, maybe where these feelings started changing? Analyze if what he feels is really romantic love, or just appreication for a close friend/family member that have been amplified because he's lonely?
2. ?Sang Zhi has not grown. She is NOT a grown up.
I thought the time skip would take us to a Sang Zhi that was more mature and wordly in her mid 20s. Maybe take us to a Sang Zhi in her final year of school (age 22), the same age DJX would have been when she was in high school. No. Instead, SZ is 19, and only 2 years have passed since she entered her senior year of high school. It's a black box of 2 years until we see SZ again, and although she tries to pull away she has very weak resolve towards distancing herself from him. Why? BECAUSE SHE'S ONLY 19!
She keeps constantly repeating that she's grown up now, but none of her 'grown up' life is shown, such as actually focusing on her career, working a part time job, interacting with her professors, taking up positions of responsibility at school. She majors in Digital Media? I have not heard this word since it was first mentioned in the time skip episode. SZ is a sheltered, pampered kid who functionally has not changed since she was 17. Her character simply revolves around her meetings with DJX.
3. ?There should have been a longer gap in between when they got together.
(why does it have to be her freshman yr of uni? Why not the same year when she was graduating uni, as it would have been for DJX when SZ was in highschool) I've said this many times but 19, even 20 is still TOO YOUNG. She has not dated anyone else. She's still a sheltered rich kid. What does she know?
4. ☀️ DJX should have had more wealth of characters around him.
A healthy adult, not suffering from trauma and not having many close friends who they open up to, would not form such an emotional reliance on their 19 year old meimei. Compared to SZ, DJX is much less developed, except for his backstory with his father. Does he have no friends in Yihe? He doesn't really get deep and personal with anyone besides SZ, not even Sang Yan, his jie at work, or his friend who's getting married. Let's not forget the psychotic Jiang Xing or whatever her name is, to act as a foil and make SZ look better. He should consult someone about his changing feelings the same way SZ spoke to her roommates.
5. ? DJX is that DENSE!? How could he not realize SZ's feelings?
You're telling me this highly intelligent, (both EQ and IQ) guy, at age 19, 22, and then 24, did not realize or have an inkling that SZ might like him? The story deliberately never lets him find out when she is in HS or as a child, because then the right thing to do would be for him to flat out draw a boundary, reject her, and distance himself.
Instead, DJX is always 'teasing' in an I'd like to believe innocent way, but isn't taken that way because the audience knows SZ likes him, and that he 'doesn't know'. Such terrible writing, in the year 2023? Do you want to show a proper depiction of a healthy relationship, or do you want to just romanticize these....weird grooming-esque interactions, because the person in power (DJX) NEVER gets the opprtunity to draw a boundary and tell SZ to stop being delusional and obsessive.
5. ?❓DJX is only 24. He doesn't FEEL 24.
I get that originally he would have been 27, which would have made more sense with what he does day-to-day, but I find it hard to believe that every 24 year old is this mature and flirty and with a job and a car and a chief engineer at a top gaming company. I can suspend my disbelief that he's really smart, and was forced to grow up early. But some script changes should have been made for us to believe that DJX really is younger in the drama version VS. novel, because what it then really starts to look like is that they just changed his age to be younger so netizens would get off their back about their 7yr age gap.
Honestly? I had high hopes going in! I've been waiting for this drama all year. I loved Chen Zhe Yuan in Secrets in the Lattice, and also can always count on Zhao Lu Si do deliver a great performance.
But the progression from their relationship from brother-sister, to lovers, is concerning.
There were some netizens condemning this show and comparing it to pedophillia, and I can see why. I don't think this show **is** that, but they've done a piss poor job at having 0% evidence of that. When you're making a story with this kind of premise, you need to handle it very carefully and make very deliberate decisions, and Hidden Love didn't do it carefullly enough, and made POOR deliberate decisions.
The novel material may very well have had grooming and pedophilia, I haven't read it and don't plan to. But why wasn't this fixed for an adaptation, with such a good cast? Better yet, fixed for an adaptation that will be aired internationally, that many young children will see? I'll reiterate, a 5 year age gap is nothing. It's PROBLEMATIC and hORRIBLE, however, when it's between a 19 year old, immature and childish girl, and a traumatized, emotionally vulnerable 24 year old man. I'm 19. I would never date a 24, much less 27 year old. And SZ is 19, and acts 12. Aiyaaa.
ANYWAYS, TL;DR, could have been a great story, with especially great actors after this drought from Cdrama land the past few months, but even my desperation will not allow me to keep watching this (at least not right now). A story with potential, with GREAT ACTORS and OST and PRODUCTION, that had a very poorly thought out,ignorant, misleading, and harmful script.
Could have all been solved by keeping things innocent until SZ is older and mature.
People accuse Hidden Love of the Big P word, here I'll be accusing it of terrible, ignorant writing, and plain illogical plot progression. It's terribly written and lacks self-awareness. A 5 year age gap is nothing between consenting adults—the problem is that Hidden Love develops this relationship when SZ, (a rich, immature, sheltered brat) is 19 years old (MAYBE SHE'S 20—same thing) and the ML is 24, but acts older.
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone, because how can I be the only person to find it strange how there's really only 1 episode of DJX having conflicting emotions over his change in love for his meimei...and then the next ep is him confirming it, then the next ep we move immediately to him flirting and beginning to pursue her. Pursue a 19 year old....
❌ Here's what they should have done differently:
1. ❌ DJX accepts his feelings too quickly—alarmingly quick. Yikes.
~2/3 episodes. First, him thinking about her more, then acknowledging his feelings, then WHAM! he's pursuing her now???
I would have hoped for there to be longer hesitation and for there to be a point where he pulls away—It's weird because he has known her since she was 14 and he was 19. It doesn't help that the actress casted for 14 year old SZ literally looks like an 8 year child, not a pre-teen. (actress is 12, which doesn't help either).
Shouldn't he find that so conflicting and feel some amount of disgust or have a knee jerk reaction to reject these feelings? Shouldn't he at least sit down with a trusted friend and share his conflicted feelings? Withdraw from SZ? Analyze his memories with SZ and wonder where he went wrong, maybe where these feelings started changing? Analyze if what he feels is really romantic love, or just appreication for a close friend/family member that have been amplified because he's lonely?
2. ?Sang Zhi has not grown. She is NOT a grown up.
I thought the time skip would take us to a Sang Zhi that was more mature and wordly in her mid 20s. Maybe take us to a Sang Zhi in her final year of school (age 22), the same age DJX would have been when she was in high school. No. Instead, SZ is 19, and only 2 years have passed since she entered her senior year of high school. It's a black box of 2 years until we see SZ again, and although she tries to pull away she has very weak resolve towards distancing herself from him. Why? BECAUSE SHE'S ONLY 19!
She keeps constantly repeating that she's grown up now, but none of her 'grown up' life is shown, such as actually focusing on her career, working a part time job, interacting with her professors, taking up positions of responsibility at school. She majors in Digital Media? I have not heard this word since it was first mentioned in the time skip episode. SZ is a sheltered, pampered kid who functionally has not changed since she was 17. Her character simply revolves around her meetings with DJX.
3. ?There should have been a longer gap in between when they got together.
(why does it have to be her freshman yr of uni? Why not the same year when she was graduating uni, as it would have been for DJX when SZ was in highschool) I've said this many times but 19, even 20 is still TOO YOUNG. She has not dated anyone else. She's still a sheltered rich kid. What does she know?
4. ☀️ DJX should have had more wealth of characters around him.
A healthy adult, not suffering from trauma and not having many close friends who they open up to, would not form such an emotional reliance on their 19 year old meimei. Compared to SZ, DJX is much less developed, except for his backstory with his father. Does he have no friends in Yihe? He doesn't really get deep and personal with anyone besides SZ, not even Sang Yan, his jie at work, or his friend who's getting married. Let's not forget the psychotic Jiang Xing or whatever her name is, to act as a foil and make SZ look better. He should consult someone about his changing feelings the same way SZ spoke to her roommates.
5. ? DJX is that DENSE!? How could he not realize SZ's feelings?
You're telling me this highly intelligent, (both EQ and IQ) guy, at age 19, 22, and then 24, did not realize or have an inkling that SZ might like him? The story deliberately never lets him find out when she is in HS or as a child, because then the right thing to do would be for him to flat out draw a boundary, reject her, and distance himself.
Instead, DJX is always 'teasing' in an I'd like to believe innocent way, but isn't taken that way because the audience knows SZ likes him, and that he 'doesn't know'. Such terrible writing, in the year 2023? Do you want to show a proper depiction of a healthy relationship, or do you want to just romanticize these....weird grooming-esque interactions, because the person in power (DJX) NEVER gets the opprtunity to draw a boundary and tell SZ to stop being delusional and obsessive.
5. ?❓DJX is only 24. He doesn't FEEL 24.
I get that originally he would have been 27, which would have made more sense with what he does day-to-day, but I find it hard to believe that every 24 year old is this mature and flirty and with a job and a car and a chief engineer at a top gaming company. I can suspend my disbelief that he's really smart, and was forced to grow up early. But some script changes should have been made for us to believe that DJX really is younger in the drama version VS. novel, because what it then really starts to look like is that they just changed his age to be younger so netizens would get off their back about their 7yr age gap.
Honestly? I had high hopes going in! I've been waiting for this drama all year. I loved Chen Zhe Yuan in Secrets in the Lattice, and also can always count on Zhao Lu Si do deliver a great performance.
But the progression from their relationship from brother-sister, to lovers, is concerning.
There were some netizens condemning this show and comparing it to pedophillia, and I can see why. I don't think this show **is** that, but they've done a piss poor job at having 0% evidence of that. When you're making a story with this kind of premise, you need to handle it very carefully and make very deliberate decisions, and Hidden Love didn't do it carefullly enough, and made POOR deliberate decisions.
The novel material may very well have had grooming and pedophilia, I haven't read it and don't plan to. But why wasn't this fixed for an adaptation, with such a good cast? Better yet, fixed for an adaptation that will be aired internationally, that many young children will see? I'll reiterate, a 5 year age gap is nothing. It's PROBLEMATIC and hORRIBLE, however, when it's between a 19 year old, immature and childish girl, and a traumatized, emotionally vulnerable 24 year old man. I'm 19. I would never date a 24, much less 27 year old. And SZ is 19, and acts 12. Aiyaaa.
ANYWAYS, TL;DR, could have been a great story, with especially great actors after this drought from Cdrama land the past few months, but even my desperation will not allow me to keep watching this (at least not right now). A story with potential, with GREAT ACTORS and OST and PRODUCTION, that had a very poorly thought out,ignorant, misleading, and harmful script.
Could have all been solved by keeping things innocent until SZ is older and mature.
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