The Flaming Heart

Potentially Sweet

I found this drama a bit on the dredging side and a bit on the “what the heck?” side.

First: the transition between many of the episodes was nonexistent. At the end of one ep you’d be left hanging and then it was completely forgotten about in the first half of the eps. Then they were added for the last half.

Second: Bad camera work in spots - there was a scene where there was a close-up of feet running on a dirt road in the mountain during the earthquake. When the feet got closer to the viewer on the screen, you could see the ground bouncing like they were running on a piece of plastic. That was a huge fault. the second problem in this area was the lack of sound control in many of the scenes you can hear background noise that is completely unrelated to the drama. For example, when the new chief was introduced to the crew at the firehouse, you could clearly hear, military, marching or some sort of police training or fireman training in the background it was very vocal and very loud.

a third thing I noticed was some bad CGI replacement of when one of Dayin was climbing the cliff to rescue the boy after the earthquake, when you could see his feet moving on the side of the mountain, but he was not moving at all up the mountain. It was like he was crawling on glass.

While you never know what parts of the episodes get cut during censoring, there was not really a whole lot of editing to replace that smoothly. The story seemed to jump a bit and events happened that caused things that you saw, but you had no idea how they occurred in the first place.

On the Upside:

Overall, the acting was not bad considering the material they had to work with. There were many scenes of shy faces from the female lead and angsty faces from the male lead (but let’s face it Gong Jun is not hard to look at so that was not too distracting 😍).

A lot of the character development in all of the character rolls was either left out or censored out, so it was hard to adjust, watching the sudden change in many of the characters. There was also problems with concluding issues that they brought up with some of the characters, but never addressed. Again, those could have been left on the cutting room floor.

well many people have complained about the druglord being busted in the ending of the drama, it was something that needed to be done to clear the past from the male and female leads. In order for their relationship to actually function properly the mail lead really needed to let go of what had happened to his father and his guilt associated with that. Even though he was not responsible. He still held onto the pain from that event, and it kept him back in being able to fully commit to the female eat.

He also needed to get past the issue with the villain/toxic drug manufacturer who had harassed and bullied him in school. The events that took place with that person left a lasting impression on a kind and gentle person‘s heart, and he needed to deal with the trauma and the pain that was associated with it in order to again be able to be happily married with his new girlfriend.

as for the female lead, I had not seen her before, and found her acting quite good. The only issue I had with her character was that she was almost a split personality, where she would be extremely strong and determined one moment and then the next completely helpless and leaning on anybody and everybody to fix her fragility. That is not anything against the actress herself, it was just a flaw of the character. She did what she could with the role and made it her own.

Another good part of the drama was the endearing and trusting relationship between the brothers of the station house and the medical staff. It was good to see that their cooperation during the earthquake helped all of them to mature in some ways and others to gain more experience and understand that not every job that is out there is something that they should take lightly or assume to be something heroic when it actually can be quite laborious and very tiring.

the villain played his part very well. He was easy to spot from the very beginning, and he was very oily his personality, oozed crook and deceiver.

I appreciated that the family members were not hysterical or bossy or overbearing for the most part and no one snuck into anyone’s apartment and dug through their belongings to find personal things that they as parents thought they needed to know about their adult child’s life. it was nice to see a drama, where most of the parents were supportive and communicated well with their children.

as for the main characters in the drama, the male and female leads both did a good job for train two people who fell hopelessly in love at the beginning of their meeting and got together too quickly, and they had to navigate through adjusting to having someone in their life outside of themselves. It was good to see that their communication for the most part was open, and that they were willing to work with each other to get through the problems and overcome them for their future.

well I may sound very critical of the drama. These are things that annoyed me, but they did not detract from the fact that this was a very sweet drama that explored relationships on many levels and the consequences of not dealing with things that have traumatized you or victimized you or caused pain in your life when you encounter someone else. Be that male or female friend or in a relationship it’s important to learn how to look past your own prejudice and filters on how you view people and see them for who they are and not for who you think they are.

I would definitely watch this drama again at some point, but it won’t become one of my favorite comfort dramas - strictly for the fact that the story transitions just jumped all over the place and that it seemed like a lot of things were cut out.

I would suggest if you were on the fence to go ahead and watch the drama draw your own conclusion about the storyline and the characters and just let yourself enjoy the sweetness and silliness that comes with life and the interactions of other people.

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This is a nice drama to watch while waiting for a great one to come. The emergency stories are nicely done and the plot was nice but it could have been better by leaving the psychopath story out of the drama, it is completely unnecessary! Although the male lead did a really good job, the female lead lacks emotional expression on her eyes, making the romantic scenes a little awkward. She was good on showing grief for her mentor, though. The relationship among the firefighters and the medical personnel was really enjoyable and, if one doesn’t focus on the romance, the drama is entertaining.

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Not bad but not good.

I 100% only watched this drama because of gong Jun’s acting, but I’ll try to be objective about my subjective opinions. (Does that even make sense?)

This drama is about a firefighter and a medical student/doctor (I think).

The story:

- The story is centered around the main couple’s love story whilst it was advertised as a profession centered story. At the start, you see the productions efforts to make the character’s professions the centre of the story but this fades away as the story progresses.

The way the main couple get together at the start barely makes sense as there was no realistic reason for them to be attracted to each other but they do get together relatively fast and the relationship is healthy and sweet. however I’d say the chemistry veered closer to a close friends dynamic sometimes. Due to this there was no unneeded conflict or drama in their relationship. (Which is good and bad).

The writing of this drama relied a lot on coincidences to tie the characters together. So much so that it became too predictable or just ridiculous. Additionally, it was very cheesy, with long dramatic speeches about a characters passion and duty for their job. It was unrealistic and hard to take seriously.


Acting:

- I think it’s pretty obvious that The male lead (Gong Jun) is the strongest actor, despite how biased I am. He also plays the role of an ideal man: he’s nice, respectful, moral etc.

- Although as a whole the acting wasn’t massively impressive. Amongst the cast there was a mix of weak and ‘good enough’ acting.

Music:

- the intro song was good, and the music as a whole wasn’t that memorable, so it wasn’t significantly bad or good.


Rewatch value:

- there aren’t enough scenes I enjoyed to rewatch the entire show, but I could definitely just rewatch the couple I did enjoy.


Warning:

- A lot of the supposedly cute romantic moments can feel quite forced and artificial.

- The representation of how a hospital functions is flawed and kind of annoying. A lot of the time, the doctors and nurses are just sat doing nothing in an office (also what nurse has an office).

- Yan Lan’s (the fl) specific job description was unclear. I had no idea where her she was a surgeon or student, but of course she knew more than everyone above her (because she’s the fl).

- I do not like the sets. To be specific the interior of the fire station. It is literally just completely plain white corridors, not a single detail. I hope they don’t actually look like that because it looked blinding.

As a whole this drama for me sits in a very neutral zone. I don’t hate it, nor do I love it.

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Not Spectacular, Not Horrible

The ML is a cold & level-headed vice-captain of the Fire Rescue Team. The FL is a “sunshine” doctor in the Emergency Department. Their first meeting went awry, leaving them with misconceptions of one another.

When they’re put on a joint task force, will the bond they form amidst an earthquake relief mission survive the coming infectious disease outbreak?

The Leads are super cute together & have really good chemistry. Their story progression definitely drew me in & held my attention. I liked seeing their professions complement each other. Watching them work alongside one another amidst the natural disaster is really beautiful - the way they trust & protect one another… 🫠💕

I’ll tell you straight up, though, that I am not a fan of breakups. Like just…whyyyyy put us all through that?! 🤨 That said, thankfully it came & passed early in this drama so we get to see them happily together for the majority of the show - score! And when a situation arises that could cause them to permanently split, they handle it maturely & easily, which I’m grateful to the writer’s for. 👍🏻

Also, in the vein of being upfront & honest, the SML (role, not actor!) lessened my enjoyment of this a bit ‘cause he just annoyed me that much with his refusal to accept he wouldn’t get the girl. He does redeem himself in the end, though, so yippee for that!

Overall I enjoyed this. The plot/pacing was good & the teamwork/friendships of both Leads’ coworkers was really nice to watch. The secondary love stories of their colleagues were entertaining as well.

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-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-


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The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.5💋
- Together : ep.5 👩🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻
- BreakUp: ep.6 💔
- BackTogether : ep.9 ❤️‍🩹

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Could have been so much better

Unfortunately, the sloppy/rushed script kind of ruined this for me.
The acting is in my opinion what kind of saves this, and is why I didn't abandon it. So if you like the cast and this genre, and think you can overlook a bit of a rushed script, then go for it.

This show has similarities to some other Cdramas, like Bright Eyes in the dark, You are my hero, Operation Special Warfare, and more. This veers more and more away from their daily work, maybe to try differentiate itself, but this is where I find the script to become really sloppy, and more unrealistic/extreme towards the end.
- It feels like a lot is left out / the story progresses very abruptly sometimes. It's OK if the story jumps forward, but I wish there was clearer indication of it. Sometimes it feels like they have cut scenes and not adjusted the following script properly.
- Several details annoy me a bit, for example when another rescue worker comes and says a person is trapped, and then they have to search for the person – wouldn't the original rescue workers know the location? And very obvious staged sets sometimes (stones blocking the road on a straight line on top of a line of some sort, and no one apparently thought about carrying supplies over the rocks?), there are never people in the so-called hospital, and so on.

My main impression is that this production was a bit rushed. Mostly because of smaller issues - some mentioned above, but also instances where dialogue suddenly sounds like it is spoken inside a box, too obvious use of green screen, and some more.

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Fell flat

They tried to make the both medical and firefighter action scenes seem exciting or dangerous using dialogue, instead of using appropriate stage props, cgi, or direction to the actors. For example firefighters had a fight over a cat stuck 7 feet up in a tree, where one firefighter refused to climb up the 5 or 6 steps to untangle it's leash, cause "cats have 9 lives, I only have one!" A 6 feet fall onto grass isn't going to kill anyone. Lifting a piece of rubble off a guy's legs when a mild aftershock was coming caused another argument about risking multiple firefighters' lives to save his legs, although there was minimal rubble around and they only had to lift something and pull him out.
Most of the actors played their roles decently, so can't really blame them. The romance was obviously meant to carry the drama, but sadly the FL was lacking in conveying emotion and progression of all romances was oddly disjointed due to poor script and bad editing. Not even sure why the couples like each other, they just suddenly became couples with a few minutes of interaction scattered throughout the initial episodes. It seems like they tried to cram in everything they could, so there is not much time spent on how things all develop. Those that didn't get along are suddenly friends(ML and other firefighters. ML and SML, FL and female Dr love rival) or lovers (the rookie and the squad leader, nurse and firefighter), so it's hard for viewers to connect with the romances or brotherhood emotionally. Overall bad editing, writing, and poor directing choices make it a difficult, somewhat boring watch, even for someone like me that is purely looking for entertainment and willing to overlook flaws in logic, plot, cgi, etc.
Gong Jun just couldn't save it no matter how charming he was.

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Not Even Gong Jun Can Save This

I was skeptical about this show, to begin with, but I tried to watch it anyway for Gong Jun. Even so, it fell lower than my low expectations of it. There is no chemistry between the leads, the scenes are absolutely unrealistic, and all the female characters are spoiled, immature, and incredibly annoying.

The FL makes terrible decisions and just expects things to work out for her. She is absolutely undeserving to be a doctor. She is childish, wants things done her way, and doesn't respect anyone else's preferences or advice. The ML told her about his phobia, and as a doctor, instead of understanding it, she laughs at it and then subjects him to his phobia without his consent and thinks it's funny.

The SFL is a rookie firefighter, and even ignoring the fact that she is a tiny and physically weak female (I'm not being biased, that is how she's portrayed in the show), she still somehow passed the physically strenuous Firefighting exams. But as a rookie on the team, she disregards authority or chain of commands, talks back to her squad leader constantly, and even barks out orders to her senior colleagues. She is disrespectful and incompetent.

I was already tired of this show at episode 2 but pushed through to support Gong Jun's work, but I couldn't manage to get past Episode 5. Sorry Gong Jun, I hope you pick better scripts next time.

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Detailed well acted, scripted and directed show

Excellent show, extremely realistic illustration of the lives, equipments and routines followed by firefighters and well balanced romance.
The show is very detailed w.r.t all fire fighting scenes, basic knowledge and aids. It's very informative even to us as general public from other countries.
I absolutely love the show and mainly Gong Jun portrayal of Huo Yan is very endearing.
The dialogue delivery, the music, i love the OST is all extremely suitable for the show without overdoing anything.
The story line is crisp, well paced without any unnecessary drag.

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So-so

Everything is so-so in this drama or worth... I was watching to find something similar to You are my heroe... Error
The worst: editing
The best: opening song

I don't know what is the point of all the story... Is it a patriotic drama? Are they trying to depict an idealistic picture of firefighters and doctors? If it's the case, it's a mess... Particularly in the medical aspect... I won't let my life in the hands of the FL or her colleagues.

The romantic aspect doesn't higher up my feeling about this whole show.

Deception, I like this kind of drama but everything around the theme of rescue, is a mess.

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What you made me do

After having read multiple comments and reviews, Ithink we can all agree that we have been waiting for this drama for Gong Jun.
He has made a tremendous amount of progress in his acting, but unfortunately there is no chemistry with the FL.
It's less weird than in Flavour it's yours, i would even say that it's as good as in The Love Equations,but the plot and editing were just so bad i could not continue after half a dozen episodes.
We're all familiar with those action and romance dramas, we have had My Dear Guardian this year after all and You are my hero not that long ago. However, The Flaming Heart could have brought something new...something better than nonsense.
I often had to watch some parts of the episodes because i did not follow what was happening. For example, ML is at a coffee and he walks away from the FL who recognizes him..and next episode another day has started. No conversation whatsoever . It's only one of the numerous examples of what is wrong with the cuts and while it's a running joke in Advance Bravely, the drama has an excuse since it's a BL.
I'm annoyed at the shaky camera, and my poor eyes were suffering so much i almost got sick .
Finally, the plot.
What plot ?
No plot.
Their romance makes no sense,the FL is annoying because she spends her time doing 'medical stuff' even a 5 year old would do better,and when she's not killing people,she is making fun of the ML. There's one thing i hate,it's how she reacted when she learned about his phobia. She spends her time depending on others to do stuff and then do something really reckless like leaving her group and searching for honey pot or something. SHE DID NOT EVEN GET THE HONEY AFTER ALL THE TROUBLE SHE PUT EVERYONE THROUGH . WHAT A JOKE.
The other doctor ends up on a date with her crush for absolutely no reason, the female firefighter is as clumsy as a drunk toad...
I have not been able to relate or even appreciate the female characters. At all.
Even Gong Jun's hair,smile,voice,moles,eyes,uniform and body could not make up for the hell those first episodes put me through.

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I love Gongjun and his acting but the script really frustate me, truy.

I'm already in ep 6, but for some reason I think the script keeps going downhill, the problem is not with the actors, I think so far their acting is good and there are no problems.

imho so many bad scenes from the start, especially in the rescue process because this drama mainly focuses on firefighters and based on real stories so I had high expectations.

In the tunnel scene I thought it would be a big opening scene for the drama, my imagination thought that the tunnel would explode or something big like that, I started to wonder when the firefighters entered the tunnel without gas masks, did not rush to put out the fire, and did not rush to move the victim out of the tunnel, but it turned out that the scene was just hype to save a pregnant woman and there was no other rescue scene.

In the building scene, where FL is thrown and trapped inside..why? Why did they put the medical too close to the fire site?? Oh my god that's so dangerous. And when the girl got caught in the fire, I don't think the fire was big enough at the time, but they didn't rush in to save her as soon as they could, and just ordered her to close the windows on each floor and tell her to go upstairs to wait for rescuers. I don't understand if this is true or not as I don't know much about firefighters, but this sight definitely bothered me. In the scene following the medical firefighter training, I was also speechless. FL went alone to look for victims, didn't wait for the rescue team to come first, luckily nothing happened to him. And the absurd debate with their leader whether to operate on the victim on the spot or save him first (helloww, he will die if he is not operated on on the spot, and it's just a simple operation process so why are they arguing and wasting time)

still 6 episodes and there are so many flaws in the script not to mention talking about love stories that hmmmm... hufft. But I'll stay (with some fast forwarding) because I love dramas about firefighters and I love gongjun I hoping this drama will getting better in the next episodes..
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UPDATE
I've dropped this drama since eps 8, but decided to jump to eps 22-24 for watching the final arc
and the result, I gotten more speechless with this drama. When Huo Yan went to save Yan Lan his head hit so many times by enemy...by a group of people in road, also by his main enemy. His head...hitten with a chair (until the chair shatters into pieces), hit with an iron pipe! and then he fell from the second floor .
okay I can still accept that he's still alive after everything but what doesn't make sense to me is...after coming out of the operating room there are only little scratc and a littlepatch in his forehead that look FAKE!just that, not even a bandage around his head, hey where are thse previous wounds?did his head made from rock? I know it's a drama but can't you make a little more sense?

What make me dissapointed more is this actually a potential drama, thry have great actor too but sadly it not executed well.

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De javu????

I am NOT an expect in scrutinizing dramas but I have watched many drama (kdrama,jdrama, cdrama), so i will just give my 'cent on this drama..

I really just can't help NOT writing anything, been usinf MDL fro drama synopsis, and sometimes reading reviews.. and I just Cant....

I am currently watching ep.9 of this drama and cant stop comparing.. rathwe comparing, my mind always say, "I think I know/sen this plot"..
Since 1st ep, I have seen similarities of this drama in Angel Eyes (kdrama), most specially DOTS, then keep comparing and questioning myself if it is aired along with My Dear Guardian and You are My Hero --- which I have confirmed that YMH aired in Mar-Apr, MDG aired in Jun-Jul then FH aired in Jul 2021.

I knowww its a competition of angencies and network and I know DOTS have a BIG influence on the drama, but really??? *sigh*

All in all, I am disappointed since I can also see potential on the drama, as well as the actors BUT ( I am honestly questioning WHY HER AS THE MAIN LEAD???)

Anyways, I will still give the drama a chance and finish it (mosylt with skips and all) since also I will personally haunt myself when i do not finish drama I have started.

*I hope someone will read my 1st ever review!
** to you, please do tell me your reaction on my review ;)

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