Reviews

Creating stronger social bonds for Changyu

It was nice to see the stronger bonds being formed between first Changyu and Grand Tutor, who formally become an adoptive daughter - father pair, and second the bond of close friendship between Changyu and the disguised Princess Qi Shu (the Physician). These two share a common struggle of loving men who they are separated from by social standing - though in opposite ways. Ultimately, these two relationships will probably become important as part of elevating Changyu's social status in the capital later on. These social connections are of course, just as important as her inevitable military merits. So those parts of this episode are quiet but more important than they might seem. Beyond that, the plot, as predicted, contrives to separate the FL & ML as they pursue separate agendas and Changyu continues to have doubts about the vast social standing gap between Xie Zheng.and herself. After dragging out the lie hiding Zheng's true identity for some, 26 episodes, I fear the show is now going to lean into keeping them separated by social standing for another long, long, annoying stretch before finally resolving things - probably with some reveal about her parent's true identities. On side stories, I love how Zhou Xun so heroically guarded and guided young Bao to safety (with a little assist from Ning Ning's whistle) and into the arms of 'Uncle Yan'. And the mental strength of Yu QianQian, given her circumstances, has to be mentioned. Her ability to hold it together and still play mind games with her psychotic captor Qin Min, is impressive.

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Another well produced, gorgeous episode, but ....

This episode was good for closing up a lot of the many different 'misunderstandings' floating through the plot including, of course, the biggest one in that Fan Changyu finally learns that her husband is the Marquis of Wu'an. This reveal is greeted with rightful upset by Changyu over having been deceived for so long but also more significant to her, the realization of the vastness of the social gap between them. So while it resolves the misunderstanding / lie /deception between them, it still leaves a tension pulling them apart. Aside from that, this episode also resolves identity confusion between Changyu and the Grand Tutor in a nice adoptive father-daughter scene. So all that sounds nice, but by the end of this, I'm kind of left with a bad taste in my mouth over just how much the script relies on dragging 'misunderstanding tropes' out. Even with the resolution of the above, it's clear the script is going to continue to lean into separate agendas that are not explained to each other to keep separating the leads. It's just starting to feel like a lot of the storytelling in this series could be compressed if not for the script simply dragging things out again and again in well-executed, but nevertheless contrived ways.

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The lady in red

I don’t care for MiYu’s and Ji’s habit of downing whatever proof in a glass when upset. That leaves them both mind muddled and causes doubts later. In HongKong, Tan knew by her draining the glass she was upset. He would not pass up his chance, but he was not completely surprised at the rejection either. MiYu is ashamed of herself because she knew her actions gave him hope and she regretted that choice. When she returned there was an invite from Marcos to a special gathering. Ji was also invited and MiYu made sure they did not arrive as a couple. Her timing was impeccable because right when he was saying her duties prevented her coming she is the lady in red regally walking down the staircase to meet them. Marcos gently bullies Ji to take her dancing and let her know how he feels, but Ji saw Tang’s txt asking to meet and he’s debating what to do with that. He rescues MiYu from an aggressive wannabe dance partner by posing as her partner and again when her sister’s snobby friend shows up calling her Mrs Nie by correcting her that MiYu was unescorted and came by personal invitation from the host himself. MiYu reintroduced herself with her maiden name so ms snob wouldn’t forget it in future. I liked her being shut up and put in her place but MiYu is again slamming down an entire glass. After an impromptu dance she excuses herself and leaves. Ji is rebuffed in his attempt to accompany her home and he assumes she is meeting up with Tang. And here is where he has his glass of liquid courage. After this, there is way too much screen time invested in a montage of prior episode scenes. The end result is a very steamy night where they finally give way to their passion. Diva Duan is caught by chef again in a vulnerable situation and she again decides to sympathize and make him feel better. In spite of the flirtatious challenge at the end, I’m still not feeling it. I really don’t see them as a couple, but I do see them as close friends in spite of his high maintenance spoiled boy ways. They just understand each other for reasons I cannot fathom. I did enjoy her response about depending on mood while she speeds off on motorcycle leaving him stranded. If they ever did become a couple, it would be like the War of Roses movie.😂 When she is not soft and lifting his spirits, they have far too much fun baiting each other. Ms influencer takes a nose dive when popular opinion wants to cancel her. The board wants to kick her out of her own company. Ji is called to the rescue and the press makes it all seem very intimate. Her reaction to his arrival puts him first in her mind and while he said he sorted where they stood, I would have much rather seen that conversation than all the past scenes they wasted time on. MiYu should not have cut him off when he tried to explain. Since she did, she should have stopped the conversation til she cooled off instead of continuing it with her assumptions of where their relationship stood. He has no reason to give about why no txt to let her know an emergency was happening and he would fill her in later. And after the publicity at the book signing, it was a very feeble excuse that he had no idea how much it would blow up in the media. Ms An has returned from maternity leave and instead of taking the office job they all expected her to take she opts to return to the lobby manager position. MiYu has requested a transfer with her job and Mr Tan has asked if he could pursue her right as the episode ends. My only complaint of this episode is that there was too much time wasted on scenes already watched when we were going to get slammed with third party efforts from both sides. First episode for me rolling my eyes at all the extra drama thrown in to completely negate their passionate scene. I still love her character, but I am not enjoying the forced romance and peripheral entanglements when they could just keep it career heavy with a sweet aside of romance with the promise of passion. I cannot even guess where their story is headed now but I am seated and waiting to see even tho I am not happy with the creative choices hauling them in different directions.

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miura haruma’s bangs got messied up hehehe

i am only just now noticing the left exit door in the class+room & it’s really beautifully designed with the red orbital & the ravens. it wsas really nice to have an episode dedicated to the rest of the students ，so many of them got a moment to shine ，ikt was just really pleasant. i wasn’t like in love with the execution though but i don’t think i can really point out where it fell short for me. i was really invested in the earlier dialogue where they dismissed their class+mates as being too child☆ish because i do like when things like that gets focus because that’s a mahor part of being a teenager i feel. i really enjoy what they’re doing with yamaguchi & like i said before nakama yukie is really doing great in the role during some of the best moments of her character wrting+wise. i also think it’s cute how the clan members also step up to provide important voices just like the supporting class+mates outside of our main cast.

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Countdown for missing person case

There is a childhood flashback for Ran at the beach and two bodies are being recovered. His mom runs up to identify and moves to 1997. There is a mine theft and they are pushing resolution for mind theft items. Ran boldly sticks up for his case and they are given 3 days to complete it. He is using this case to finish his time to get transferred. With his cpt he defends people over stolen items, but with Ran he is pushing the importance of the mine theft case. Ran counters that his parents were missing and ended up dead. The two bodies being recovered in beach scene turn out to be his parents so now not sure who lady was that ran to identify.them. They return to Muse and question the girl that wanted to talk about Xu Meng. Meng Meng’s last night working was being beaten by a business man named Song. Meng Meng was called to replace the original girl and got the brunt of the retaliation for briefcase. The guy kept saying he could make her disappear. What was worse than him beating her was the boss and other girls trying to drown out the noise of her screaming for help rather than helping her.😡 MengMeng had turned him down to be his mistress so he vented his anger on her and as owner of the building he controlled the rent for them to have a workplace. Song is scum. MengMeng was forced to blackmail Song to try to get money for her dad. Song got his bro in law to take care of her and he was the one willing to pay knife brother 40k to make the father and daughter disappear. They are supposed to be buried on the mountain and now Song wants the body as proof she is dead. They also keep flashing a bus with Song’s cement company ad on it. The bro in law makes a call and there is an argument about something he’s hidden in his safe. Officer He needs to find a place for his daughter during his work hours and told not to let her have snacks and cokes while there. The time shifts to 2015 and he is handing his daughter a coke. She is angry with her dad and wants him to butt out of the YuanLongli case. Saved by Ran at the door. He is now retired and Ran left so all their collected evidence landed up at He’s house. Ran is told He’s daughter now has the case and shows him his room. There is a whiteboard with all the key players outlined and a mess of an evidence room with Ran’s ledger up top. He reads a couple pages and it points to YuanLongli International Garden. The scene returns to 1997 with him visiting the local lady he likes. Ran returns the shoes and plant and leaves quickly because of the snoopy staffer in hallway. In the elevator he was all ready to spread the tea how she was a kept mistress and the old man that owned the place died falling down stairs. He sees her as a gold digger that stole an old man’s property. Ran finally sees the doors of the clinic. The hallway of rooms are divided with merchants on one side and Pattio dorms on the other. Ran takes the Pattia dorm side and finds MengMengs work nameplate. A young boy getting into stuff during summer holiday leads them to the seamstress’ room. She is right across from room 1703 where Mr Song keeps his mistress. She lets Ran know he is home and we see the bro in law taking cases of cigarettes out of his safe and throwing them into a travel bag. He is just getting ready to toss in the briefcase with documents when Ran shows up at the door. He hides them on top of a bookcase. There is cute interaction between He and daughter that is interrupted by Ran wanting him to come back. Ran wants to keep the bag as bait and tells officer He that the guy they want will come to them when episode ends.

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Chenghuan finally breaks free of her mother.

This episode deserves a 10 purely because of cheap gratuitous emotional satisfaction. It's more than a bit artificially contrived and it's definitely over dramatic, but this episode brings everything to a climactic final reckoning between Chenghuan and her overbearing mother, as the latter not only crosses the line again, but this time crosses it to the point of no return for Chenghuan. So the latter finally realizes that she has to cut herself loose, since her mother will not let her loose. To free herself, she gathers her strength and rises like a boss queen to take ownership of her life. The acting performances by both Yang Zi and He Shei Fei (her mother) in the climactic confrontation scene were fantastic. Yang Zi's steely determination, despite tears coming down her face, gave me chills to watch. This episode also sees Chenghuan (and her father, for that matter) declare with about as much clarity and finality as they can muster that they will no longer have anything to do with the Xin family. So this is a major character development moment for Chenghuan. And it is the threshold of growth that her Grandmother has been waiting for her to reach because she wants Chenghuan to ignore the meaning of her name and to begin to live for herself. To value herself.

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How could you?

This episode reminds me of Mr Queen. Hwa Jin behaving that way to the queen when she had no right to after she stood her identity as the one who saved the king. How could JOJ stoop so low? This is really disappointing. No matter what you go through in life, it doesn’t warrant you to behave that way to an innocent person. Sure queen dowager has been trying to pull her in her lowly schemes, but the Queen has the right to feel jealousy. Ok Jung has stolen the king from her many times and I hated that really. And I hate the fact that they are trying to make her a person that only did it for the king. If she truly loved him, she wouldn’t stoop so low. There is always a solution to a problem. And when is suk bin gonna make an entrance?

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Criminally underrated

I don't normally post reviews, but the scoring for his BL is so damn unfair that I just had to. This is one of the BLs that make me question my previous scores for other series. You can tell that every aspect of the series is very well thought and designed. From the opening titles and the custom made font, to the wonderful b-rolls. The production is way above your average BL drama, with a truly beautiful cinematography and an amazing, rich OST. The story is well written, sensitive, with very natural and realistic elements, such as interactions and everyday moments only a really good screenplay can provide. All the characters are fully developed and their relationships aren't the superficial, one sided, one note ones we usually see in BL. The acting is very good from all the cast and of course, last but certainly not least, the chemistry of the main couple is so damn adorable!SPOILERS-I would say one of the things I could exclude from the series is the stereotypical evil ex (it would have worked so much better if she was more of a grey zone character, flawed but still human).-I wish we had more resolutions and information about certain issues addressed, such as Jae Won's past and decisions about his career, but that leaves great room for a sequel 😅-I LOVED how the addressed and showcased depression and mental illness. It's not something we usually see in detail in BLs, and they handled it with empathy and honesty. It reminded me of "Skam" season 3.

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