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Disappointing Cringefest with Zero Sensitivity and Respect for Sentient Beings
Waited for this to finish uploading before tucking into it. Like Doctor Cha, it was uberly disappointing. Unlike Doctor Cha, it wasn't even good enough for me to consider adding to my "treadmill list", which are a list of shows ok enough to watch only while I'm on the treadmill but not really to capture my utmost attention and emotional investment.Main reasons were:-
1) For Asian shows that deal with animals, the first thing I'd prefer is "No Animals were Harmed" precautions. If the 'Secret Royal Inspector and Joy' series were able to achieve this—and their story did not revolve around animals— why couldn't 'Behind Your Touch'? Especially since animals are such a pivotal theme to BYT.
2) The plot was so cringey and paper thin nonsense. Woman keeps going around holding onto a moving being's butt to "read" them is not quality writing. I've read better stories from 9 year olds.
3) The male and female behaviours were WTF. Having a man Judo-flip a woman onto a bitumen road floor isn't cool. The same kind of uncool with getting flipped off a treadmill in 'King the Land'. Neither was remotely quality slapstick comedy. Plus the "romance" between the policeman and her aunt was cringefest to the max.
4) The characterisation of the protagonist was unrealistic. Vet Sci is a hardcore course in any country to get into yet the FL is an emotionally underdeveloped idiot who doesn't have seem to have any instincts or confidence around handling animals.
But, ultimately, the main reason I decided to drop this disaster was the treatment of gender violence. Having the FL find out that her ex coursemate might have abducted a woman whom he is abusing is one thing. To have it glossed over and ignored by fluffing the rest of the minutes up with comedic routines was incredibly tone deaf. If writers are going to show gender violence have some backbone to treat it with the care and sensitivity it deserves. The portrayal of it as just a plot device to fill in the time, without any context or follow-up, seemed an extremely lazy and cheap writing serving only to titillate for views. Pathetic. Are we supposed to laugh at the carrying-ons of the ML and co at the farmyard and completely ignore the horrid images of the poor abused woman whom have been seared into our memories? Go f#ck yourselves, male Sth Korean studio execs.
Have some respect for crime victims. Have some respect for animals. And, especially, have some respect for discerning viewers.
Don't waste your time on this BS. Unrealistic portrayal of a vet. Stupid approach to animal whispering and brain dead characters all around. Only stars were the animals but since there's no way to know if they'd been treated well at all during the filming of these series it's especially not worth supporting a show that could have been unnecessarily harmful to animals.
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A try-hard that misses
Dropped it after 1st ep.What I liked about it:
—of all the kdramas I've watched thus far, this is one of the few that has the languages downpat. I was impressed with Sa Rang's Mandarin and English, and Gu Won's English was good too. This added truth to the reality the show tries to portray with the different countries at play.
Things that turned me off:
— obvious Euro-centrism with "we are so rich that we are overlords to white ppl in their own lands". Did they need to juxtapose their wealth against westerners to make their point? Rather smacks of insecurity and overcompensation. Was a very cringeworthy scene, to say the least
— parallel of Gu Won receiving a bouquet on his graduation and Sa Rang receiving it from her beau, as though her greatest culmination was the attentions of a man whilst his, the attainment of higher education. Real warped idea of female empowerment that clues me in on the values of this show.
— despite the above, the thing that made me decide to discontinue with this show was watching Sa Rang try to get Gu Won's attention by speeding him off the treadmill. Not quite sure what the writers had in mind but in which planet is this harmful behaviour, that can potentially kill someone, actually acceptable? Just watching the show continue on after that and Gu Won stand up and brush it off was watching a gaslighting exercise in its own right. This behaviour is not acceptable and normal and garnered me zero sympathies for the female protag from that moment on and because I have zero emotional investment in any of the characters I won't be watching the rest of this series.
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Formulaic with weird paedophilic groomy vibes
When I saw the synopsis for this I knew it was going to be a teen drama replete with unrealistic behaviours and a female ingenue character that bordered on vacuous. I still gave it a go because I found out the lead was none other than Zhao Lu Si from 'Who Rules the World'. However, even having her as the protagonist couldn't keep me on.Firstly, I have no idea why CDramas, or Chinese productions in general, always edit the characters' voices. Women always end up sounding like a chipmunk. Is that sexy? It's certainly not mature. Definitely not natural. Zhao Lu Si's lovely timbre in 'Who Rules the World' is reduced to a squirrel's that sounds like they have a perpetual cold in 'Hidden Love'.
Secondly, there is no life to Sang Zhi at all except when she decides to say or do something manipulative; if she puts half the energy she has in those moments into her studies, it might seem interesting. As it was, a childish, spoilt younger sister protag who has a crush on an older brother's friend and doesn't focus on her own education, dreams and ambitions was too formulaic and mundane a teen drama. Is Jia Xu the only friend Sang Yan has? Is he the only guy she's ever met and known all her teenage life? Will he be the only one there is? Surely, realistically not. And using an actress that's younger than the fourteen Sang Zhi was meant to be, when she first meets Jia Xu, didn't help with the whole groomy vibes too.
Dropped it after first episode as couldn't gel with the characters and didn't care enough to see their journey. Hidden Love did not utilise all of Zhao Lu Si's talents, not even a tenth of it. Disappointing. Only nice things to note were the food!
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