the most awkward thing to see in this drama is the foundation on that old man face … did they did it purposefully? to show his pervert nature? coz otherwise no makeup would do such bad bad makeup otherwise…it feels like a white makeup for some dance performance…
The series is set in 1975, the last full year before the Cultural Revolution effectively ended with Mao’s death in 1976. It makes sense that the novelist chose this moment: Mao was still alive, but the political center of gravity was shifting, and the country was moving toward a decisive turning point. Deng Xiaoping’s rehabilitation and return to top posts came soon after, in 1977, setting the stage for the reform era that would define “today’s China.”
That turbulent decade passed, and it undeniably shaped modern China, for better or worse, and I’m not trying to pass judgment on it. What I do value is stories that show what everyday life could look like under those pressures. I also avoid loading the period with adjectives, because many people either don’t talk about it at all, or when they do, they stick closely to personal memories and avoid broader commentary.
What the series does, quietly but clearly, is nod to some of the mechanisms that were used to purge and control people during those ten years: enforced ideological “self-criticism,” suspicion toward independent thought, books and private preferences becoming political liabilities, pressure to align with the “correct” line, and the idea that personal opinions should be suppressed. It also hints at how education and exams could be disrupted, and how power could concentrate in small groups at the local level, creating a climate where ordinary life becomes inseparable from political risk.
I remember in EP#1 how the person told FMY that "his parents has been sent for re-study" that was so ambiguous and dangerous and shivering at the same time, that people to this day believe in all of that.
Anyway, I will just treat it as a love story and not try to go deep in the era as the story is asking for different spectacle rather political, but is it really, as I can see how they are institutionalized with words and actions fed to them from the people that controls them for them.
I just wonder how it passed the censorship as of the elements they wouldn't want us to see, but I think in later episodes or story they brushed it off with right decisions comes with difficult times type explanation.
it would be perfect for me if Duang shows tough side in second half and Qin making move then , it has to be balanced after the intense and relentless chase of Duang and Qin is still stone cold…if he is still lingering over his ex or whatever Duang should show cold shoulder just to make story more exciting but that’s unlikely I think….one who loves more get hurt the most …
glad I am not the only one noticed either he went for diet on this role which he absolutely didn’t needed but his ace suddenly looks old due to rapid weight loss it happens when you loose weight quickly the gae suddenly lost it glow as fat and god fat also goes away
the synopsis on MDL is the opposite to whats happened in the first episode…it is very cliche but I am all here for LSK although she is leading actress and A lister but she is long overdue for a huge role … I really hope she gets a bigger role, I mean she can’t get any bigger than Lead which she already is in every series but I am grand production and huge hype…
cliche through and through, each scene, each dialogue and each setting feels like taken from all the drama a typical element of K drama with B class version of somewhat famous actors
I think it’s directors fault as the way Duang comes off as childish in some scenes but he behaves normally with…
he is doing that purposefully, many times Qin told him to drop that tone, and voice, and he says no, as he is chasing him....I don't know what people are watching, he is purposely acting cute to chase him...
can people stophating on fl??Bruhh ever fucking actor and i say every has got plastic surgery but i only see hate…
their own ugliness and the fact they they want to do the plastic surgeries like everywhere including the part where sun don't shine, but they don't have money to do it, so they vent their anger on her.
TeeTee exceeded my expectations. He’s one hell of an actor. His cheesy, aegyo-style “cute” acting is so accurate and so controlled that it lands with zero cringe. Normally, when a character is acting cute or chasing someone in Thai BL, I brace myself for that cheap, exaggerated vibe. There have only been a handful of times I’ve been genuinely surprised, and TeeTee’s performance as Duang is easily one of the best.
Maybe it’s because in their first appearance as a debut CP he played things quieter, more reserved, more serious. But here, with a lead role and a chill, jolly character, he completely transforms. And that’s what impressed me the most. People always say tragic roles are the hardest to pull off, but comedy is tougher. It lives and dies on delivery. You can write the lightest, funniest lines, but if the actor doesn’t have timing, control, and sincerity, nothing lands and the audience feels the effort. TeeTee makes it look effortless. He doesn’t push the cuteness, he sells it, and that’s why it’s actually funny instead of embarrassing.
I remember praising Fourth in My School President as it was their first major role, and Fourt exceeded my expectation, and look he is one the biggest star in Thailand now within a span of just 5 years.
I honestly don’t get the hate toward Duang. Yes, he’s annoying to some people, but that’s literally his personality. When he likes someone, he goes after them openly and with full energy. You don’t have to personally enjoy that kind of flirting, but being loud, persistent, and expressive isn’t some moral failure. Most relationships don’t start because one person sat quietly and waited. Someone has to take the first step, again and again, especially when the other person gives you nothing to work with.
And Qin’s “cold” attitude is exactly why Duang comes off as extra. Qin has that reserved, almost cold-hearted surface, but I don’t buy that it’s the full truth. He’s not clueless, and his reactions are not the reactions of someone who feels nothing. There are small tells in how he watches Duang, how he tolerates him, how he doesn’t shut the door completely. If Qin truly wanted him gone, he would make it unmistakably clear.
I also think there’s something deeper going on. Qin seems to have known Duang before, or at least recognizes him, while Duang doesn’t remember. That changes the dynamic. It makes Qin’s distance feel less like rejection and more like guardedness, like he’s holding back for reasons we haven’t fully seen yet. To me, it reads like Qin likes him, just quietly, and he’s choosing to stay controlled instead of giving it away.
So call Duang dramatic, call him over-the-top, call him annoying if you want. But the way he loves is direct and fearless. He doesn’t play games, he doesn’t pretend, he shows up. And in a story where the other person is emotionally locked down, that kind of warmth is not a problem, it’s the point.
Because chinese people seems not buying the modern look and fashion show model. Somehow the younger gen like the…
I think you’re mixing up “showing suffering” with “not being propaganda.” They’re not opposites.
Propaganda is about control of narrative: what’s allowed to be questioned, who can be held responsible, and what conclusions the audience is guided toward. A drama can show rationing and misery and still be tightly bounded in what it can say about why things happened, who caused them, and what systemic critique is permitted. That’s exactly why those stories get made: they acknowledge pain while keeping the final meaning politically safe.
You can show rationing, suffering, and ugly social behavior, and still steer the takeaway toward a safe message: resilience, unity, “good people endured,” and progress as inevitable.
That’s not an insult to viewers or to the production, it’s just how state-approved historical storytelling works in many places.
And yes, this applies elsewhere too. Plenty of countries produce patriotic, nostalgia-heavy media that “shows the hard times” while still protecting the larger narrative. My point wasn’t “China bad, others pure.” It’s that when criticism has hard limits, “telling the truth” tends to mean “telling a curated truth.”
So I’m not denying what the drama depicts. I’m saying depiction ≠ freedom of critique.
Because chinese people seems not buying the modern look and fashion show model. Somehow the younger gen like the…
that is propaganda, it might be true as all kind of stories exist regardless of how hard times were, but they can't show anything but happiness from that era, otherwise it will never get to see the light of day.
The series had one of the best filmed backstories I’ve ever seen in Thai media. The present-day storyline was fairly average, but once the flashback arc kicked in after Episode 5, everything changed for me. Barcode’s performance, along with the rest of the cast, elevated the whole show. The way the plot pieces clicked into place, and the cruelty done to their friend was revealed, was written with real precision and flowed seamlessly. That level of structural payoff is rare in Thai dramas, which often lean into soap-opera pacing and style, but here it was genuinely well-made. Every scene that followed felt earned and logically connected.
4 
1 
2 
1 
1 
That turbulent decade passed, and it undeniably shaped modern China, for better or worse, and I’m not trying to pass judgment on it. What I do value is stories that show what everyday life could look like under those pressures. I also avoid loading the period with adjectives, because many people either don’t talk about it at all, or when they do, they stick closely to personal memories and avoid broader commentary.
What the series does, quietly but clearly, is nod to some of the mechanisms that were used to purge and control people during those ten years: enforced ideological “self-criticism,” suspicion toward independent thought, books and private preferences becoming political liabilities, pressure to align with the “correct” line, and the idea that personal opinions should be suppressed. It also hints at how education and exams could be disrupted, and how power could concentrate in small groups at the local level, creating a climate where ordinary life becomes inseparable from political risk.
I remember in EP#1 how the person told FMY that "his parents has been sent for re-study" that was so ambiguous and dangerous and shivering at the same time, that people to this day believe in all of that.
Anyway, I will just treat it as a love story and not try to go deep in the era as the story is asking for different spectacle rather political, but is it really, as I can see how they are institutionalized with words and actions fed to them from the people that controls them for them.
I just wonder how it passed the censorship as of the elements they wouldn't want us to see, but I think in later episodes or story they brushed it off with right decisions comes with difficult times type explanation.
Maybe it’s because in their first appearance as a debut CP he played things quieter, more reserved, more serious. But here, with a lead role and a chill, jolly character, he completely transforms. And that’s what impressed me the most. People always say tragic roles are the hardest to pull off, but comedy is tougher. It lives and dies on delivery. You can write the lightest, funniest lines, but if the actor doesn’t have timing, control, and sincerity, nothing lands and the audience feels the effort. TeeTee makes it look effortless. He doesn’t push the cuteness, he sells it, and that’s why it’s actually funny instead of embarrassing.
I remember praising Fourth in My School President as it was their first major role, and Fourt exceeded my expectation, and look he is one the biggest star in Thailand now within a span of just 5 years.
I honestly don’t get the hate toward Duang. Yes, he’s annoying to some people, but that’s literally his personality. When he likes someone, he goes after them openly and with full energy. You don’t have to personally enjoy that kind of flirting, but being loud, persistent, and expressive isn’t some moral failure. Most relationships don’t start because one person sat quietly and waited. Someone has to take the first step, again and again, especially when the other person gives you nothing to work with.
And Qin’s “cold” attitude is exactly why Duang comes off as extra. Qin has that reserved, almost cold-hearted surface, but I don’t buy that it’s the full truth. He’s not clueless, and his reactions are not the reactions of someone who feels nothing. There are small tells in how he watches Duang, how he tolerates him, how he doesn’t shut the door completely. If Qin truly wanted him gone, he would make it unmistakably clear.
I also think there’s something deeper going on. Qin seems to have known Duang before, or at least recognizes him, while Duang doesn’t remember. That changes the dynamic. It makes Qin’s distance feel less like rejection and more like guardedness, like he’s holding back for reasons we haven’t fully seen yet. To me, it reads like Qin likes him, just quietly, and he’s choosing to stay controlled instead of giving it away.
So call Duang dramatic, call him over-the-top, call him annoying if you want. But the way he loves is direct and fearless. He doesn’t play games, he doesn’t pretend, he shows up. And in a story where the other person is emotionally locked down, that kind of warmth is not a problem, it’s the point.
Propaganda is about control of narrative: what’s allowed to be questioned, who can be held responsible, and what conclusions the audience is guided toward. A drama can show rationing and misery and still be tightly bounded in what it can say about why things happened, who caused them, and what systemic critique is permitted. That’s exactly why those stories get made: they acknowledge pain while keeping the final meaning politically safe.
You can show rationing, suffering, and ugly social behavior, and still steer the takeaway toward a safe message: resilience, unity, “good people endured,” and progress as inevitable.
That’s not an insult to viewers or to the production, it’s just how state-approved historical storytelling works in many places.
And yes, this applies elsewhere too. Plenty of countries produce patriotic, nostalgia-heavy media that “shows the hard times” while still protecting the larger narrative. My point wasn’t “China bad, others pure.” It’s that when criticism has hard limits, “telling the truth” tends to mean “telling a curated truth.”
So I’m not denying what the drama depicts. I’m saying depiction ≠ freedom of critique.