Reviews

Murky dealings and a murder attempt. High heels failing at the sand castle.

This episode is full business drama with crime elements and family struggle around Haoming and his ambition for power in the company. It was not totally easy to understand why the ruler of the Jinda empire Shen Jinsong (played by Xu Yajun, a movie and drama actor seasoned in drama acting since 1993) was so mistrustful of his son and alleged heir.Xu Yan's vague feelings that the sand castle of her marriage was crumbling started to become a reality. High heels failing to support became a repeated symbolic motif of the quashed hopes both for her and for her enemy Sun Siwei, while Fang Lei stripped off the mask of appearances although she could only get malevolent pleasure from the harm she did. Detailed synopsis below includes spoilers:----- A disgruntled member of the board first tried to make Haoming help him in his dire straits, but Haoming remained cold and unforgiving. Haoming was saved by his wife from a knifing from Wu Deliang (played by Ding Zhiyong, support actor who also was among cast list of 2022 "Who Rules The World" starred by Zhao Lusi and Yang Yang). Haoming next forced a bank card into Xu Yan's hand but lied about the business he rushed to next, which was in fact a meeting with Mr Fang (played by Guo Qiucheng), a powerful businessman and long time acquaintance whom he had promised to look out for and help Fang Lei, the legal advisor team member of Jinda group. He also carelessly ignored his wife's phone calls and his promise to be home for dinner, going instead to collect Haochen at school and spend the evening with the boy until he fell asleep. Xu Yan was struggling to balance her job as news anchor and host of the cooking show, but Sun Siwei was still in the media company and in her team as a subordinate, disrespectful to her and slothful about her job, bullying an assistant. At Jinda, Fang Lei was fishing for Haoming's attention. She brought a well made report to his office, only in view of playing the role of weak hypoglycemia sufferer to let herself be driven home by her boss. A few days later, Fang Lei joined Haoming at the golf (barely acknowledging Xu Yan), and readily accepted to join him for a business dinner with the Jiang people. Xu Yan declined the off hand invitation by Haoming and went instead to dine and have a talk with Qiao Lin. Her sister could not believe Haoming was cheating despite Xu Yan 's feeling that "a glass wall was separating her" from her husband lately. Meanwhile, Fang Lei was all over Haoming who had brought her home in a half drunk state. He ignored Xu Yan's phone call but answered his assistant Chen Li and once the news he was waiting for arrived as a document on his phone, let the mask fall off, turned icy cold and promised Fang Lei a bonus for her performance with his business partners, informing Fang Lei that he only had been "keeping her stable from outbursts". Waiting at the door, now revealed to be the private attorney of Haoming, was Han Weiping (played by Hei Ze, playing support roles in many dramas since 2019). Han had evidence recorded on his pen spy camera of Fang Lei's maneuvers to wreck Haoming's marriage and left Fang Lei thoroughly defeated and in tears...Back home, Haoming deflected his wife's attempt to confess, telling her that if she was going to say something that "might upset him" she'd better stay silent, next striding upstairs to go to bed, leaving Xu Yan standing like a convenient coat rack.When Xu Yan went to collect Haochen from school, Fang Lei confronted her and revealed she was the boy's biological aunt, and Haoming was in fact the boy's father, adding that Haoming had from the start only been looking for "a name to put on a marriage certificate" but never been in love with Xu Yan, only using her for his ambition. As Haochen rushed to Xu Yan, and Fang Lei looked at her with mock pity, Xu Yan suddenly felt teetering at the edge of an abyss, her high heels almost giving out supporting her weight at the realization of how much she had been misled.

Read More

Influence game on background of repressed or delusional relationships

The below detailed synopsis contains spoilers and an opinion about one supporting actor.Fang Lei and Xu Yan had different approaches to help Haoming connect with the Jiang of Yuanhang fund., Jiang Yun and Jiang Liang (played by "Adrian" Fan Shiqi, see note below the episode synopsis). Jiang Liang had met Fang Lei before and took her to a drinking party with three other returnees. Xu Yan arrived late, inappropriately dressed on purpose, to catch the attention of Jiang Yun and her thorough preparation paid off: she charmed the unapproachable Chairwoman. Fang Lei,weakened from alcohol, had mood swings and helpless jealousy while Haoming got annoyed but, for old times sake, took care of her and had her driven home by his assistant Chen Lin (played by Li Fancheng) . As she was leaving, Haoming picked up her bracelet and put it in his pocket. On their way back, Fang Lei said to the assistant that her heart "belonged solely to Haoming" before and in the future, hinting to a past history that Haoming, left alone, also recalled. Although the influence battle was not totally won, Haoming gave a precious necklace to his wife as reward for her help. He also had a silk robe sent to her and invited her to his agave shop to celebrate her birthday. But he got sidetracked by Fang Lei who had met Haochen (although she had been forbidden to meet him). She told Haoming that the boy looked like herself.While Xu Yan was waiting for hours, Haoming was rushing Fang Lei to hospital. When he finally got home and gave Xu Yan a peck on the lips for having waited patiently, he was still brooding on the deeply hidden memory in his mind of his lover Fang Yu, Fang Lei's sister, who had drowned, and of the body bag in which he had last seen her. Meanwhile, Dr Yu got an unwelcome visit from Lin Tao who shrilly accused him of interfering with his "his wife". Both Qiao Lin and Dr Yu thought he must be mad.------Side note : "Adrian" Fan Shiqi is a singer and actor who gained increasing popularity since 2013 before being subjected to a witch hunt linking him to the death of 7 years older "Alan" Yu Menglong on Sept.11, 2025. Alan was another popular and successful singer-actor with whom Adrian Fan was acquainted since the Super Boy competition in 2013 and who dined with him and a handful of friends on the eve of the tragic accident that triggered a full fledged conspiracy theory with wild rumors flying. Passionate fans flung conflicting rumors about, targeting variously both "unknown powerful people", and the friends and owner of the Beijing apartment from which YML had fallen after locking himself in one of the bedrooms. Through a swiftly orchestrated network campaign, the fans and people they called to rally to slogan, were convinced that the truth had been "hidden" and tried to blow it up into an anti China campaign, linking the death to Xinjiang since the Han actor was born in Ürumqi, (although he was not known as controversial or a known dissenter or even as a Moslem! despite clearly doctored videos put on tik tok after the actor's death). The mother of Yu Menglong called for calm, convinced by the findings of the swift inquiry which ruled the fall as accident caused by drunkenness. The authorities consistently gave information about the death and the using of it for sensational purpose and clickbait by "influencers", three of whom were arrested and admitted to fabricating lies and videos with false evidence, such as photoshopped pictures, AI speech imitation "recordings", strange items "found" such as "a USB" and "one or two Rolex watches".... But foreign agents, among which a group in Taiwan, kept fanning the flames, having found a "convenient martyr" to stir up opinion and if possible cause unrest. Irate fans of Yu Menglong and other people following rumors called for punishment of the people he dined with, together with "unknown powerful people". They did not recoil from naming Xi Jinping (!!!), naming and shaming the other actors, and even demanding the removal of Fan Shiqi from Love's Ambition cast list -despite only rumor supported their opinion- managing to bully his promotional pictures into being taken away and cause a boycott of a smaller Chengdu concert. Up till now, Fan Shiqi and other actors involved in the witch hunt have not been let down by their agency, suing and issuing statements denying specific rumors, and continue the filming projects and work they were involved with before the whipped up scandal, where things now have grown more murky than in vertical drama revenge plots! (from which attentive watchers could surely recognize elements, but newcomers or others with previous bias swallow the bait, hook, fish and line).The drama Love's Ambition continues its stellar career online, despite the backlash from the scandal lovers joining cyber bullying rings against the leads - although the drama was filmed one year ago and had no link with YML work. This while they simultaneously complain against (non existent) censoring YML images or removing dramas he played in from viewing platforms. But anyone can check that star dramas like 2015 "Go Princess Go!" (that one on YouTube because it was a minor drama not widely accessed before the 2023 released sequel "The Princess and the Werewolf", which did not feature Yu Menglong since it focused on the previous characters' descendant), 2017 "Eternal Love (Ten Miles of Peach Blossom)", 2019 "The Legend of White Snake", are still available online. If Netflix really streamlined the extensive cast listing and did not include his name in present description of "Eternal Love", that has nothing to do with China since Netflix is not a Chinese owned platform.

Read More

If the whole show was on this level, this would a 11 out of 10 stars show

This episode was so good, I had to come here and write about it. This show started very well. So different from other Thai BLs I have dropped. From the start, there was a focus on building the narrative, and the romance was only a fraction of the complex story being told there. But this sweet bliss didn't last long and between episodes 5 to 8, the characters were running around each other trying so hard to light a spark of romance on damp kindlings. Finally, an arduously long 8th episode forces our way through that predicament and we are mercifully done with the romantic buildup so we can get back to the plot. Episode 9 doesn't waste the chance it has been given to shine. From the very first shot, this episode is already different. Every scene is there with a purpose. The tragedy is laid out to us in detail; one event leads perfectly into the next like dominoes as in a butterfly effect, and the episode delivers one emotional gut punch after another. I really loved this episode. The acting of the main leads is not the best but the supporting cast, who got the chance to shine in this episode, were all amazing. The production is almost flawless and with a plot that is finally tight, precise, and significant, this episode delivers a level of excellence that would have made this show an absolute gem had it been maintained in all 9 episodes, so far.

Read More

still don't get why Seok Cheol needed…

still don't get why Seok Cheol needed to go confront O Sang Yeol, yeah they might have been buddy buddy at times & he might not have been a mean boss to him, but all said & done he was a thug, that couldn't be trusted & he proved it more then once. so going to ask him to give himself up & go to the police station together - really?!? moronic move if u ask me. & if Tae Hun hadn't come along, with his thugs Seok Cheol would've ended up in a body bag. but i guess he knew this fact & that is why he basically was saying 'good bye' to all his loved ones, in a low-key way. ************************************************************************him ending up in prison was an interesting twist that i didn't see but all in all i think it was a fitting end to this drama. i enjoyed this from stat to finish & still don't get what people were going on about. this was well acted & the plot was interesting. not perfect but good!

Read More