Anne: Hello theater lovers! I hope everyone managed to find something interesting to watch over the past couple of weeks. I’ve spent the last week or so watching Thai BL dramas of 2022. It all started with my YouTube feed, as with almost anything that catches my attention, where one day a clip of Dangerous Romanceappeared. I don’t know why the English title is the way it is, because the drama itself was about high school/college students. It started out as a BL version of Meteor Garden, with the intimidation more reminiscent of the Taiwanese version. This led me to be immersed in a second This BL drama, Cute pie, which has a very cliché premise, an arranged marriage, between the two MLs. The drama conveys very positive messages. I really enjoyed both, even if I had some melodramatic passages in FF… 😋 At the end of this binge-watching, I now listen to the soundtracks in my car…
Ok…enough about my diversion into non-current dramas. One of the reasons I waited until today to post is because of the finale. Let’s go!
Double
I really like her outfit. While under house arrest, the real Duke Su lounges around in his pajamas (I know I would. I mean, I go out in pajama pants!) and his look in this scene (which lasted less than 2 minutes in a 40 episode drama) is my favorite of the whole drama. Moreover, it was also the first time that Xiao Heng called her by her real name, Xue Fang Fei. Ok, enough of going gaga over this character.
So…where did I stop last time? I believe I stopped when Xue Fang Fei saved his father and his father’s people and as a group they began to return to the capital to demand the case be reopened. Of course, along the way, the enemy group took advantage of the famine to chase away groups of people to prevent them from returning quickly or safely. Despite the dangers, Jiang Li’s mother’s clan came to save the day. They were able to have food delivered. This was quite delayed as his cousins avoided the obvious pitfalls.
With all these people by his side, Jiang Li’s true identity becomes more and more difficult to hide. So much so that the crazy royal princess tried to denounce her in court. With Xiao Heng’s help, Fang Fei was able to escape again. Although no one publicly admits that she is not Jiang Li, most people who know her not only suspect her, but roughly know her.
Jiang Ruo Yao, the 3rd miss, finally grows a backbone and no longer allows her mother to plan her life. When she decided to confirm Jiang Li’s story that Zhou Yan Bang was trying to rape her, she hit him in the head, putting him in a “vegetative” state. This was a side plot that continued Yan Bang’s stupid quest of trying to get Jiang Li to “marry” her.
The next surprise we discover is the story of Ji Shu Ran (Jiang Li’s mother-in-law). Her ex-boyfriend before she married Jiang Li’s father (how that marriage happened is ANOTHER subplot). This ex-boyfriend is now a famous exorcist, who believed that the “child” that Jiang Li “killed” in utero was his child. (I hope everyone understood this explanation.) Thus, he is incentivized to kill Jiang Li. Of course, this backfires, leading Jiang Lis’ father to discover the true cause of Jiang Li’s death. his first wife, the death of his eldest daughter and how Shu Ran practically poisoned his daughter, Ruo Yao, in order to stage the plot to kill Jiang Li. Poor Tong Er died as a result.
Today, among these crazy people, we must not forget Xue Fang Fei’s ex-husband, Shen Yu Rong, who, by confronting her with her true identity, tries to become a little too intimate. Ye Shi Jie comes to the rescue, but because of Shen Yu Rong’s position, she convinces him to let her be the one who knocked him unconscious (yes, our FL knocked another man unconscious because he was too manual). And it was because of this case that we found out that the Mad Princess had kept Xue Fang Fei’s younger brother alive this ENTIRE time (after he was allegedly killed by bandits on his way to the capital to help his sister). The princess used her brother to make her withdraw her Shen Yu Rong accusation again. And then this crazy princess decides to follow Shen Yu Rong’s plan to get Jiang Li to marry him so he can “keep” an eye on her. The best part was when Xiao Heng went to pick her up when she was released from prison for falsely accusing Shen Yu Rong of attempted sexual assault.
Xiao Heng held her hand so tightly that her fingers were numb. This was probably the first time ML demonstrated undeniable action that he had become a lovesick puppy. 💕
Shen Yu Rong’s wedding plan did not happen. In turn, our crazy princess allows herself to be tricked into marrying Li Jin. This is probably the BEST example of these two people getting what they deserved. It was very satisfying to watch a few episodes.
In the last 5 episodes, we finally meet Xiao Heng’s grandfather and understand the reason for the deep division between them. We also learn why Xiao Heng likes to watch shows and grows exotic flowers. Then we learn the story of the crazy princess and her older brother, the prince who was behind all these plots in an attempt to take the throne away from their younger brother. I understand that we want to give everyone a reason for what they do, but seriously, I don’t really want to feel bad for the bad guys. And the crazy princess… is probably the most tragic character in this whole drama. And Shen Yu Rong became the baddest, as we realize at the end that it was all an act (maybe except for his love for his ex-wife, but even then, it could simply be possession).
Regardless, the coup did not end the way the bad guys wanted. And our prospects eventually got married.
But was the battle/war that followed really ALL necessary? Did he really need to kill Wen Ji and Lu Ji, our hero’s comic sidekicks? I LOVE these two. The ending is happy, even if the writers REALLY tried to suggest otherwise. The extras are their lives after marriage, and the little scenes are cute.
It’s one of the things that bothers me, and it’s not something I usually notice, because cinematography isn’t something I pay attention to or even examine. But this one is so obvious that even someone like me, who would never have noticed it, noticed it. The whole theme running through the drama was about the “audience” and the “actors”. So as part of this theme, in order to bring the audience into the “room”, there are a LOT of front shots where the audience is “brought” into the scene. It was really distracting for me. Some shots were really pretty, but it just wasn’t my style.
So… in conclusion… I really enjoyed it. And it kept a very good pace throughout.
Follow your heart
I was super excited when this aired. Obviously because it stars Luo Yun Xi. I haven’t gotten very far as I have completed the above and am distracted by many YouTube videos. The first thing I think everyone should prepare for is to treat this drama like a fantasy. Let me explain. When I read the synopsis that Yan Nan Xing (the FL) changes his appearance, I thought we were talking about what normally happens, like face masks, as in Word of honor. But that is NOT what this drama here is about.
Did anyone else while watching this scene think this… “Hm… I guess it’s a Chinese historical Shrek.” ?
Yes, we’re not talking about changing “appearance” like just one’s face or anything like that. It’s a COMPLETE BODY CHANGE. This problem was apparently caused by someone poisoning her, turning her into a completely different person every month when her period started.
Why can NOBODY else hear this whistling sound? It seems a little strange, when the “other” people are RIGHT next to FL or her mother.
That probably wasn’t the most absurd… So… our LM, Jiang Xin Bai, who suffers from face blindness, apparently can’t tell it’s a man… and calls her “miss” (this is due to the face on which “he” wears a woman’s clothes and hairstyle).
I’d really like to ask the writers… why did they think “face blindness” meant they couldn’t tell a girl from a guy by looking at their faces? It’s not that they don’t “see” a face, I thought it was just that they didn’t remember it. So that they never remember that they “met” a specific person, not even their family. However, if they don’t look at the person, they can still identify them by voice.
So… be careful, if you watch this, make sure to throw all logic out the window and let the story take you for a ride.
And that suits me perfectly. (I mean my favorite genre is Xianxia, so I usually don’t need logic in my dramas 😄). I really can’t wait to see where this crazy plot goes.
And that’s it for this week. Let me know if anyone watched anything interesting!