themarchioness

XQ's mom should take lessons from Jiang Yu on how to be an effective matchmaker.

But, wait, oh right, you'd have to first actually care about the people you were trying to matchmake to be an effective matchmaker!

In any event, all I know is that when SY and XQ get married, they're the ones who are going to have to give Jiang Yu a nice, fat red envelope! Haha.

One today (Friday, 7/14), one Saturday, and none on Sunday.

The first part of the drama followed the book more closely, but even then, there were changes made and that's no different from what is happening where we currently are at in the drama. All the changes that have been made though have been for (likely) censorship reasons, to flesh our certain aspects/characters from the book, and to give life to still others. I have read "Waiting For You in the City" many times; it's a book I really enjoy. And I'm really enjoying the drama now, too. I don't mind the changes; in fact, I appreciate them. Understandably, people's mileage is going to differ about that -- some are going to mind the changes more than others. You don't like them and that's fine, but like @tsukikoo00 said, making changes from the book doesn't necessarily mean "disrespect."

I've also read/watched "Road Home," and while I haven't read the book that "Hidden Love" is based on, I did watch that drama as well, and what I would say about both is that their stories are much simpler to tell. "Road Home," especially, has always read more like a sketch/outline of a novel to me -- I don't mean that as a criticism, as I really love that book too. If anything, it's a compliment in that it means I want more from the author. I actually had hopes that the drama might build on that, but it didn't. There were a few changes made there, including some fleshing out of certain things and for censorship reasons, but on the whole, you're right - the drama stayed fairly faithful to the book and in that regard, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I got a little bored. It was that predictable.

I don't feel that way with FoMH. There's predictability and there's not -- although I can be certain of what will happen, i don't know how the drama will get us there. That holds my interest. Additionally, as indicated, it's a much more complex book. The characters are more complex. In a book medium, it's easier for an author to tell us what a character is thinking/feeling because they have only to share those thoughts with us. A scriptwriter can't do that - either they have to have characters speak their thoughts out loud in a drama (which isn't always practical since most people don't walk around muttering to themselves) or they have to find some other way through the storytelling to convey those thoughts. I think this drama is doing that. Similarly, in the book, there would be transition moments where the author could directly state things like, "Several months passed after that," before showing us the next "scene" between the main characters. Time skips of that nature in a drama are harder to do, which is why we've had this period of "filler" scenes as some people like to describe them. Personally, I've really enjoyed this time of getting to see the leads in their respective work spaces, and getting to know them better as individuals. I don't mind these changes; indeed, I quite like them, and I think the drama has otherwise done a good job of keeping to the spirit of the book.

A drama can make changes without disrespecting its original source. Of course there are some dramas that so completely butcher the source that it's based on that yes, I agree with you, that can only be described as disrespect. On the flip side, I've also watched a few dramas where I've walked away thinking either it's better than the book it's based on or it helped me to have a better appreciation of the book because the adaptation was just that good. In this case, I'm finding that there is a space for both the book and the drama in my heart, because they are both that enjoyable. I'm sorry that's not the case for you.

If I remember correctly the influencer was introduced as a friend. But still. Your family member is taken to the hospital and your first concern is for the broken down door and so you call your media friend? It’s like they never considered it might have been legit. Which is extra amazing when you consider the lifestyle that man was living… really, their first question should’ve been, “Great. Which one of his exotic animals was the one to finally do him in?”

Hopefully the drama will follow the book in this regard. She doesn't do anything else to him in the book and as has been previously mentioned, in the very end, it will be the Meng Family who needs evidence from his cousin to clear MYC's name, so... fingers crossed.

Ep 20. The end of the scene between XQ's mother and SY. After he walks away from the table, the mom says out loud to absolutely no one, "Pity."

How should we interpret that one comment?

It made me nervous... I interpreted it as something along the lines of a sarcastic, "Pity, now I'll have to do something about you." But really, it's an open-ended comment and I'm sure others walked away with different interpretations, so I'm curious as to what they might be. One friend thought it might have been along the lines of, "Pity, you're not from a different background," but I think that would be too generous of a comment from the likes of her.

That's why I had the alpaca push the bookcase over! I also did not want the alpaca to be trapped with her. In fact, once she's trapped and starving to death, the alpaca can stand over her and periodically spit on her. Haha!

[And yeah, I had a lot of questions about how the alpaca being in that apartment worked... but then those questions were soon eclipsed by the reactions from that man's family....]

Have the alpaca push the bookcase over her so she’s trapped in that tiny, chaotic apartment and starves to death - the bonus is the indignity of such a death when word gets out!

The first part appears to be JY doing what XQ had asked of him - to help her explain what she’d meant at the dinner. So he tells SY that he misunderstood her and that she was feeling bad for him when she said what she did.

The second part was hard for me to hear because of the background music but seemed to be JY asking if SY wasn’t missing XQ after not having seen her in a while.

The third part is SY deliberately calling XQ but then telling her that he misdialed and meant to call JY, and she’s like yeah… because our names are so close. He asks if she had to react so quickly and she answers she has high EQ.

If we're feeling frustrated imagine how frustrated the leads must be feeling -- and I actually think that's what makes what we are seeing right now realistic. They're caught in an amorphous relationship. They have feelings. They have doubts. They want to move forward. They have insecurities. They think about what they could gain. They think about what they could lose. They're bouncing around as they figure out their relationship, and we're being bounced around with them, but it's a necessary process and so just as they struggle so must we. But when the leads get there, it will be sweet and all of us - including the leads themselves - will appreciate better their relationship because of everything it took for them to get there.

If you look at the schedules for other dramas, including from other web platforms, it's actually quite common for there to be less episodes on the weekend. Just as there are other dramas who do air on the weekend. So I don't think it's that they haven't considered it. I'm sure they did and this is what they decided to come up with.

As mentioned above, in the book, she was assigned the role of the person who gets locked up and left after everyone is rescued. So on the day of the drill that's pretty much what happens. While everyone else is reacting she's just hanging out in the storage room doing this and that. She hears noise all around her but she remembers she's supposed to be the one is left behind so she doesn't say anything. She assumes it's not her turn yet. But after she waits a long while, she starts to think this isn't right, and just as she's about to get up, SY opens the door and finds her. He asks what she's doing but she's rather indignant at this point, pointing out that had this been a real fire, she'd have been a corpse by now. He responds by pointing out she never screamed our asked for help, lol. And she has nothing to say to that! That's when she finds out she had a scenario to follow, but the firemen were never given the scenario.

I doubt the room they were staying in was that far from the bathroom. She could've survived a 2-minute detour to gather her things. Haha! We know why they wrote it that way and that's okay. We will turn a blind eye to logic and accept it for what it is. ;-)

The arc that brings about change is finally here! I love how she tells the blind date - Yeah, all our qualifications match up, but we don't match as people. Because I already have a boyfriend. Woooo!

It wasn't the only time logic was thrown down the fire pole in Ep 20. Another moment was when she had to change her clothes after she got wet. I watched that scene and thought - are you telling me there was absolutely no opportunity for her to return to her room first? That she had no other clothes available? That she had to go straight to the bathroom, and he had to give her one of his outfits to wear, and that she had to open the door half naked?

I'm pretty sure the answer to all of the above is no, but I'LL TAKE IT! Anything to bring the leads together, LOL.

Episode 20. Stand-off between SY and XQ's mother. I don't know how other sites translated the conversation, but on Viki, it had SY saying at one point, "If I really decide to fight, I won't let you get away unscathed," but a more literal translation would've been:

If I really wanted to fight/meet force with force, pulling off a layer of your skin wouldn't be a problem.

I kinda dig that imagery which is why I wanted to share it... it's just so perfect given what a Snake that mother is.

Which... I love that ultimately, she was the one who found it, but seriously? He searched everywhere and those guys clean their station, trucks, and equipment within an inch of their lives, and neither he nor any of the other firemen found it, but all she had to do was leap out of the firetruck, turn, and her eye spotted it immediately?? I'll accept it but only because I have to, not because it's logical! LOL

🤣🤣🤣 You can’t see me but I’m patting my mouth and saying pe, pe, pe, pe! As they do in the dramas when someone says a potentially jinx-ish comment!

Everything seems too nice of an ending for that one. I’d like to extinguish her from our lives pronto, but a quick demise also seems like a gift.

I could go with your scenario except I feel like she should be forced to watch everyone living their best lives without her. Make her face reality. Don’t let her hide - even in a shantytown.

I certainly hope you’re right!!!! Fingers crossed. Redemption seems so far afield for this one, and yet…

Jiang Yu should be awarded a merit medal or a banner, heck give him both, for that scene!! I mean he took his life into his own hands to give us that moment, haha!