AnthideAgiusMuscat

Storyline has just had a quantum leap! Pity so much screen time was wasted away on waffle but for the C film industry more episodes = more advert income, longer audience engagement, etc ......🙄

Long post ahead but I feel some things should be said:
This drama is proving a disappointment! If coupling up is for women to acquire a flesh & blood version of a cuddling doll who will also pamper to their innermost desires, cook, clean & boost their ego & career ambitions regardless than all that has happened in the last decades is to to flip the dominant male/weak female dynamic to female dominant/male subservient mode. The imbalance between the sexes was never right in human terms but flipping it over to the other side was never the solution. Harmony & happiness results from a balance of give & take. The effort to try to achieve this end proves lifelong.
This drama might hint at what could be achieved & how but the female characters are all intent on their inner fantasies, how to explain them away, how to find the perfect "male" as the finishing touch to their vision of a "perfect" life which they want to steer forward, at their pace. In the mind of female characters the function of the male (in this drama) is to enhance the life quality of the females but not to be their very much human partners as equally prone to "cunning" manipulations as they themselves are. This sounds all too familiar to millions of women but they are on the "losing side".
Now I understand why Miles W has announced his plan to move away from the RomCom genre as exemplified by this particular drama. Having to embody a well-meaning sane man who is supposedly "sweet" on a member of the opposite sex who despite the passage of time has however remained "childlike" in response to several life events despite having reached physical & supposedly phycological adulthood must be soul sapping! Enough is truly enough even for the most biddable person.
This is 2026, the era of AI and warfare using drones .... I can understand how such toxic dribble finds it way on screen in my liberal "West" where money is indeed god but how it gets past the watchful Chinese censors is mind blogging. It seems only the hint or sight of "lust" is the only real no no in their book. Everything else is allowed an airing with even toxic traits sometimes pushed as being positive!! My guess is in China chauvinism & its female counterpart are still much practiced as very useful social mechanisms, both from top down and also laterally.

Whoever wrote the original IP does not have a high opinion of women at all. All the female characters are at best well intentioned but misstep out of sheer presumption: they are all incapable of really putting themselves in anyone else's shoes. All of the them including the mother(s) consider their own personal objectives to be paramount regardless of who gets trampled or tripped up en route. As long as their ego remains "intact" all is well .... they do not even factor in the emotional pain their decisions & actions might inflict on their male counterparts. This a reversed form of chauvinism! So unpleasant & toxic.

I really cannot warm to the FL character. Too self centered both in the past & the present. Incredibly believes that even when the ML character when abroad (to study) somehow the decision was linked to her .... seeing neither expressed their feelings at the time .... this was rather presumptuous. It did not occur to her then & not even 10 years later that the life circumstances of others are not linear to her own or up to her to imagine or presume. Only when she is spoon fed the "facts" do her eyes open! Imagine that!!! What the ML character finds so lovable or to admire in this immature 28 yr old is hard to understand.

This FL character is too wide-eyed & girlish for a 28 year old. Really too clueless, too obviously a pampered well heeled "princess" of a
doting, overprotective mom & dad who are keen to find her a husband to whom they will pass on the "caring" baton.
Ruan Yu comes across as someone who has lived in a happy bubble immune to all life's troubles or missteps. Very much someone who till now has been rescued in ever adverse situation she has ever found herself in by someone else. Why the ML character is so devoted to her is really obscure! Does the woman even understand the concept of mutual support & understanding than defines the adult concept of "love"? There has been precious little sign of this sentiment in Ruan Yu till now; she has only dusted off her adolescent crush & is intent on closure for a missed milestone of her youth!
What is so romantic in all still is truly baffling

The emphasis throughout the episodes of POJ is on the phycological evolution of the various characters & not a strict depiction of the physical realities. This explains why the physical consequences of so many actions are "minimised" or even glossed over. It is a directional choice you either agree with or think of as "cowardly" & the sugaring of very bitter pills. Hence all the hype about "too handsome" generals being less than credible, etc.
IMO, POJ is a more than valid production as the moral & phycological lessons strike their target & linger in the mind ... no small achievement in this day of information overload.

Not at all surprised by Miles Wei's announcement. The man is talented & grounded and also well aware that he has now definitely outgrown the mould of the ex-hapless teenager who did not get together with his first love due a combination of shyness & contrary familial events but was given a second chance some ten years down the line to become one with his love.

Anyhow, for how much longer can this 35 year adult plausibly act as an inarticulate 18 or 20 year old and for multiple scenes, to boot?
Miles W is an actor not a magician and wisely will close an important phase of his career to move on to roles which have much more bite.
It's a win-win scenario: teenager fans will discover the rookie Miles W in his past works; their older siblings get to enjoy watching him putting his now honed acting chops to good use 😊

The script of POJ is an adaption so the remarks about character development not "evoluting" in certain directions are simply "uninformed" remarks.
IMO one either takes the drama at face value & clearly states a dislike for the various tropes used to craft the work or one gets access to the original IP & establishes whether the film version is a faithful transposition to screen or a bloated mess which destroyed an existing work which had already found a readership strong enough to warrant a film version.
No one is stupid in film industry & even less their financial backers .. neither time nor money is spent on obviously lame horses so some remarks only expose the narrow mind of the commenter & not the incompetence of the script writer(s), actors or anyone else remotely connected to POJ. And I believe this holds true for every drama not just POJ .....

Miles Wei was one of first Chinese actors that caught my interest when I started watching C dramas. MW's aura strongly reminded me of some of the film greats that I had watched when still barely a teenager (I'm now in my mid 60s!). The actors were mostly American or British. The characters they brought to the screen were elegant but at the same time self disparaging; sometimes silly or stubborn but at the core honest, genuine & a blessing to have on your side during a crisis. Just the way, any self respecting woman hopes her male "connections" will be & prove to be over time.
I have seen criticism online that Miles Wei repeats himself from rom com to rom com. My take is that he has "created" a recognisable icon ... no one expects James Bond to be anything other than James Bond now do they? Miles Wei's rom com onscreen avatar is likewise reassuring familiar ...... One thing however is sure, MW is now on top of his game & the visibility he enjoys today has been hard won.
Nothing is left but for us to sit back & enjoy watching this talented man go thru the motions. None are "novel" but they are nonetheless worth the time we spend in his "company".

This series was riddled with exaggerations which took all the bit & credibility out of the narrative.
The ML discovering that he had a undetected cardiopathy which unless he seriously changed his life style would shorten his life would have been plausible but that the ML within such a short time lapse goes from having no significant health problems to needing a heart transplant is definitely not!
Also the various ethical & psychological issues inherent to organ donation, both for the doner or the recipient were heavily "glossed over" in the case of the second "life" donation: of dying father to "dying" son. The concepts of a "living" will were imaginatively stretched to include a very particular "last" wish (legacy) which other family members were expected to respect regardless of any other considerations. I very much doubt that such an act is permissible for a myriad of reasons. What a messy end to a 50 episode series; the script writer could have done much much better.

I wrote in the Hallmark style not under the Hallmark banner!

I would say those who anticipated indulging in a soulful Kdrama are now really pissed off because this series is an off the shelf American "romcom" in the Hallmark style. International audiences will probably not be all that "turned off" & the American viewers likely much intrigued by the several handsome but unfamiliar male protagonists .... there are at least three ... a South Korean; a Japanese; at least one native Italian.

The Italian locations leave a strong positive impression even on those already familiar with the very well preserved & truly beautiful late medieval & renaissance Italian cities ... the series is indeed a good PR exercise for these places & various other touristic ventures: olive oil making, wine yard touring, weddings held in historical locations.

IMO the soundtrack is chaotic & unremarkable but it is not the insult to South Korean musicianship others have declared it to be. The jury is also out whether AI was utilised in this instance .... old fashioned editing certainly was but other production techniques ........

And on a final note: where is it written that each Kdrama has to also deliver an original OST that lingers in the mind, perhaps longer than the drama itself?

Context is key if the narrative is to be understood as intended. Police & legal systems differ from country to country. What is procedure or process in the USA is not so in South Korea. This is the least one should keep in mind. Regardless of all considerations, right or wrong prevailing, viewers of a drama are perforce audience to the creation penned by the script writer(s)!

The scriptwriter of BTB is an ambitious Lady who tried to convey that even those who seem to be self assured might be plagued by a hidden unmet & long standing "need".
The visceral need to be "acknowledged/appreciated for just being themselves (with no regard to neither their age & current social status nor a disparity of these attributes with the other).
The connection between the ML & FL falls into this very special category. Using the romance or sexual attraction lens to consider their relationship distorts what is deep & unique, downgrading it IMO to something banal, ordinary.

Possibly you believe ageism is confined to the world of employment but nothing is less true. It is a form of subjective discrimination which can pop up in almost any sort of human interaction. In reality who is "cute" heavily depends on who is looking at whom .... the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" was not coined by accident! Reading thru your posts, it is obvious you delight in sprouting abuse at those foolish enough to mistake your posts as sincere comment ... well rest assured that I for one will not take the bait & provide you with further opportunity to aim any more of it in my direction!

Be careful with insults; they tend to boomerang!

What is so annoying? Having a few home truths played out on screen in a discreet but realistic manner? Ageism is a destructive sentiment; no good comes of it.

Alba Batista is a Portuguese actress (today 28 yes old) who married Chris Evans (now 44 yes old) in 2023. The age gap obviously neither bothers or disgusts either of the two.

My post was not in direct response to yours. I simply posited my own thoughts & conclusions, such as they are.

Now that all the episodes have aired, it results that when interviewed the ML actor states that the romantic element between the ML & the FL was deliberately softened to make the flow of events & narrative more "palatable" for the main target audience (domestic, S Korean). In essence the scriptwriter, director & main actors auto censored the "original script" not to create too many waves domestically. The creative team obviously had no appetite for the risk involved in running counter to still deeply held social prejudices & notions with regards to marriage & sexual relationships between older men/younger women. Doing so was after all not the "main" thrust of the script!
The keen interest in & approval of the drama of the Netflix audiences was hoped for but its extent probably a surprise for those behind the project. In the end the overall tone may have "suited" the original home audience but fell short of fully meeting the "evolved" & more broad-minded expectations of the Netflix audience.