Love and Hatry (2023)

MESSED UP UNDERDOG STORY

I watched this ONLY because I love Ma Xiaoyu so much, but I REALLY disliked the story. He played a despicable and unlikeable character so WELL, and I hated it 😉. He was a stupid, incredibly mean, JERK. 😢💔. I love underdog stories, where the lead causes their enemies to eat EPIC crow. That DID happen, but it was drowned out by massively long-winded dialogue. The first half of the script was dedicated to just ONE scene, where they beat around the bush, arguing about the FL's real identity ...forEVER. It started out cool but became SO tedious. The second "reveal" scene was wonderful, more in depth and yet shorter. I loved actress Fang Lei's teary eyes as she explained to her ex-husband (Ma Xiaoyu) what she'd been through and hinted who she was. The competition scene toward the end was terrible scripting. The ending was a bummer but justified because the ML definitely didn't deserve the FL after how he treated her, ...although it still felt sad.

⚠️ SPOILER ⚠️
Preface: Nothing justifies how verbally cruel the ML was to the FL, even though she deceived him, and even IF she wasn't his long-lost love, and definitely not for the shallow reason of her supposed ugliness.

So, on a BIG side note, I can't help but be devil's advocate... There is a HUGE aspect to this story that frustrates me. The leads were childhood sweethearts but hadn't seen each other SINCE childhood, so its understandable the ML can't remember the FL's adult appearance. The FL became the renowned and BEAUTIFUL author, Mu Ye, hid her identity (via an alias and fake facial scarring) and then HIRED her evil half-sister to be her "beautiful" stand-in, knowing her sister had repeatedly tried to kill her. When the FL went searching for her childhood love (ML), she felt extremely betrayed when she saw him pandering to the evil sister SHE hired to BE her. Her feelings were hurt that he didn't intuitively know the sister wasn't her (Mu Ye). The ML was THEN forced to marry the "scarred" FL (not knowing she was Mu Ye his childhood love), and so he held a monumental grudge against her. For 3 years the FL hid her identity from him (using the scarring and an alias) and never stood up for herself against his anger and verbal abuse. During those 3 years, the FL says the ML had the chance to recognize her and love her but there's never any acknowledgement that she had completely snowed and deceived him. She set him up. It doesn't justify his verbal cruelty, but the FL spent 3 years manipulating her husband (ML) by playing the passive-aggressive victim. From the start, she created and fostered a deceptive environment ALL around him, and even getting others to participate in the charade. The more I think about it, the more screwed up this whole storyline is.

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I will watch all of Ma Xiao Yu's dramas!

I actually like this drama. It was awkward to watch how Ma Xaio Yu played a role of a lunatic- domineering man. A man who thought he didn't love the woman. Well, as a teacher, I made a survey and asked men about this. And I was right! that a man will not soon find out if he loves the woman or not. You know, like us, women, we on impulse, we knew exactly if we like a guy... anyway, I think all of Chinese dramas have messed-up plot. I haven't seen or watched one with a perfect plot. But like I always say, I will watch whatever the dramas are because of Ma Xiao Yu! You know, we are all there to see his acting ability. His authority in the movie. He's superb! He stands out among the other chinese actors. He outshines them. Meaning, although the dramas that mostly given to him weren't as good as it has to be, still people watched it because it's Ma Xiao Yu! What more if the plot is nice and better? Ma Xiao Yu wouldn't let his guard down, I am sure, he would be so thrilled and stirred in doing his role portrayal! Anyway, this drama is good somehow and Ma Xaio Yu here is VERY HANDSOME!

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