roevese

Our imperfect love stories

I went into this show with little to no expectations, only hoping that it wouldn’t be too melodramatic. It wasn’t. It had heart, and everything felt real.

Let me first start off by praising Gun. He was truly the shining star of the show. His character, Third, required quite the range considering his lengthy character arc - hopelessly in love to jaded anti romantic to hesitant lover. And he managed to pull off every single one very well. His cries only became more genuine as the story became more serious, and his cold gaze and harsh words pierced through the screen. You could feel it when he fell in and fell out of love.

The main storyline starts off borderline comedic, and though it dwindles, the funny scenes do still exist to give the show some much needed relief. Unrealistic elements exist, but they progress the story further. The metaphors with the movies are well placed as well - the show plays off its theme quite nicely.

The characters all feel real and have their individual lives and love stories. And this is where my title comes from: these love stories are imperfect. They are on-and-off, misunderstood, confused and complicated. And that’s the beauty of self discovery. These characters make mistakes and grow.

My one gripe with this show is that the two friends’ love lines could have been handled much better (looking at Bone and the last minute tacked on gf), but even though they are limited by the main story, their screentime is not a waste.

tl;dr great acting from gun, the show is heart fluttering, messy but realistic, rare gem of a journey of self-discovery

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somehow homophobic despite everything

i am begging for literally any plotline aside from sexual assault. from start to finish.

chinese shows treat straight and gay romances and sex vastly differently: in hetero relationships, sex is the endpoint and just another expression of love. two people are in love, so they take it to the next level. in gay relationships, love is the culmination of desire. they are never shown the same courtesy of falling in love first. on top of not being divorced from sex, romance is not real or achievable. it’s merely physical. although it was funny in a frightening way, acknowledging it doesn’t absolve you of the mistake.

(idc how well such sex-focused portrayals may reflect gay men irl, when your country does NOT respect or even allow lgbt people to exist, these will remain homophobic. i will only believe in their sincerity when we get a respectful depiction of a lesbian couple.)

and even if at the end, zhun gains a backbone and starts standing up for himself, it’s all for naught. it briefly got me cheering when zhun slapped xin for taking advantage of him (which is also rape!) when he was drunk. the relationship was so believable there, how someone you love could also harm you, that it does not strictly have to be a stranger. wish they ended the show there instead of pretending it was all done with love. fuck you.

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