Hook Bait (2025)

Revenge of a canary : the sadistic romance.

Story : A woman who is owned and abused like a caged canary by a conglomerate heir, is trying to break free. She gets entangled with his brother.

I first thought this drama would be sadomasochistic when I first read the summary. And I ended up being very surprised because since the very first scenes on episode 1, the audience understands that the heroine doesn't like at all being kept is a cage and mistreated by a rich heir. She wants to break free. So this is more about a sadistic rich guy trying to subdue a resilient woman than a BDSM relationship between 2 consenting adults. So if violence is a trigger for you. Be careful with this drama.

That being said, it was a great joy to watch the leads (Zizi Xu and especially Wang Zu Yi who was coming back after a hiatus). The acting was as a result very good. The story was interesting, however I wanted to see more elaborated schemes but this is just me. The traps were good to be honest.

I liked the show. At some point it was excruciating to wait for 1 episode released each day. Ah It was really testing my patience.
At the end I was happy with the main couple as well as the ending.

Pros :
- Brilliant and smart businessman ML.
- Resilient and smart Businesswoman FL.
- Aesthetics and visuals.
- The good morals and the story about the empowerment of the FL.
- Good acting especially ML, but also FL.
- FL is unwavering and always fights. This is great to see that she is always on her way to freedom.
- No transgressive taboo situation.

Cons :
- No side stories. A pity because some characters could have been developed.
- Violent warning.
- Sadistic SML .
- One-dimensional villains.
- Some clichés and tropes.

Overall :
A nice watch despite the angst at the very beginning because of the bad treatment FL is subjected to.
I felt good at the end of this drama, so if you can stand some BDSM and mistreatment scenes leading to the empowerment of the wronged FL. Thus good morals which makes you feel good at the end. This drama is for you.

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A confused story with unconvincing emotional content.

The concept of an abused woman finding a man who loves her and wants to get her out of her situation seems very emotionally heavy, and yet within the first few episodes, it's clear that this drama doesn't know how to convey strong emotions. The FL is shown as defiant and unafraid in the face of her abuser's beatings. This is just unrealistic. In situations with abusers like this, if you don't act afraid, you are potentially putting your life in danger.

Then she starts interacting with the ML, and not far into the story, he discovers her abuse as he helps fasten up her backless dress and sees some quite dramatic scarring on her back. That scene should convey some strong or complex emotions, but it doesn't.

The beginning episodes seek to establish just how bad FL has it with her abuser. Needless to say, that doesn't set up a very romantic mood for the audience. Yet interspersed between these scenes of abuse and violence against women, there are scenes where the ML and FL are flirting and becoming attracted to eachother. And the way these two elements of the plot combine is very unsettling, in the sense that the show has no awareness of itself, and no understanding of how abuse impacts people. I have seen several dramas that center around an abused woman finding love again with another man, and most of those shows treat the topic with sensitivity and at least *some* realism, but not this one. There is so little emotion surrounding the abuse and the new romance that it feels like it was written by someone with antisocial personality disorder -----> (To highlight that point.... there is a scene in the first part of the story where the ML takes FL for a ride in a sportscar. She starts having a panic attack, and tells ML that she has previous trauma from a car accident, and she needs him to slow down the car. His response is to tell her she should face her fears head on, and then he continues to drive hella fast, presumably to desensitize her to her past trauma. And surprise surprise, his "therapy" works! And after only ONE car ride, she is now totally over her fear of high speed car travel!!! Maybe it's just me, but I feel like only a sociopath could write a scene like that and not see anything wrong with it.)

Add to this the fact that there is a very choppy and disorganized flow to the storyline, with some very abrupt scene changes, and you start to wonder "uhhh... am I missing something?" No. You're not missing anything, the story itself is just very confused.

This is supposed to be a business / romance story. But what you come to find is it's really a business-intrigue, and the romance is a complete afterthought that only exists to serve the business plot. Somehow, there is ZERO spice here, incredible since both the ML and FL are capable of bringing spice to their roles in other productions.

Styling is OK, but not exactly what I would consider "on point". Music is totally atrocious... it overpowers scenes and creates even more confusion than there already is just with the crappy script alone. All in all this was a confused and terrible mess, and not in a good way like My Lethal Man.... but in an extremely boring and insensitive way.

I cannot think of any situation where I would recc this to someone for any reason. The actors who participated in this all deserve so much better than to have to try to work miracles out of a stupendously bad script like this, and I wish them all the best on their next projects.

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